Faithful Witness
363
beginning, that we should love one another.” “He that loveth not his
brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby
perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
It is not the opposition of the world that most endangers the church
of Christ. It is the evil cherished in the hearts of believers that works
their most grievous disaster and most surely retards the progress of
God’s cause. There is no surer way of weakening spirituality than by
cherishing envy, suspicion, faultfinding, and evil surmising. On the
other hand, the strongest witness that God has sent His Son into the
world is the existence of harmony and union among men of varied
dispositions who form His church. This witness it is the privilege
of the followers of Christ to bear. But in order to do this, they must
place themselves under Christ’s command. Their characters must be
conformed to His character and their wills to His will.
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“A new commandment I give unto you,” Christ said, “That ye love
one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”
John
13:34
. What a wonderful statement; but, oh, how poorly practiced!
In the church of God today brotherly love is sadly lacking. Many
who profess to love the Saviour do not love one another. Unbelievers
are watching to see if the faith of professed Christians is exerting a
sanctifying influence upon their lives; and they are quick to discern the
defects in character, the inconsistencies in action. Let Christians not
make it possible for the enemy to point to them and say, Behold how
these people, standing under the banner of Christ, hate one another.
Christians are all members of one family, all children of the same
heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality. Very
close and tender should be the tie that binds them together.
Divine love makes its most touching appeals to the heart when
it calls upon us to manifest the same tender compassion that Christ
manifested. That man only who has unselfish love for his brother has
true love for God. The true Christian will not willingly permit the soul
in peril and need to go unwarned, uncared for. He will not hold himself
aloof from the erring, leaving them to plunge farther into unhappiness
and discouragement or to fall on Satan’s battleground.
Those who have never experienced the tender, winning love of
Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in the heart is a