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John’s Love and Loyalty, September 10
Examples of Sanctified Lives
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God
in him.
1 John 4:16
The confiding love and unselfish devotion manifested in the life and
character of John present lessons of untold value to the Christian church.
Some may present him as possessing this love independent of divine
grace; but John had, by nature, serious defects of character: he was proud
and ambitious and quick to resent slight and injury....
John desired to become like Jesus, and under the transforming in-
fluence of the love of Christ, he became meek and lowly of heart. Self
was hid in Jesus. He was closely united to the Living Vine, and thus
became a partaker of the divine nature. Such will ever be the result of
communion with Christ. This is true sanctification.
There may be marked defects in the character of an individual, yet
when he becomes a true disciple of Jesus, the power of divine grace
makes him a new creature. Christ’s love transforms, sanctifies him. But
when persons profess to be Christians, and their religion does not make
them better men and better women in all the relations of life—living
representatives of Christ in disposition and character—they are none of
His.
John enjoyed the blessing of true sanctification. But mark, the apostle
does not claim to be sinless; he is seeking perfection by walking in the
light of God’s countenance. He testifies that the man who professes to
know God, and yet breaks the divine law, gives the lie to his profession....
While we are to love the souls for whom Christ died, and labor for their
salvation, we should not make a compromise with sin. We are not to
unite with the rebellious, and call this charity. God requires His people
in this age of the world to stand, as did John in his time, unflinchingly
for the right, in opposition to soul-destroying errors.
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