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The Acts of the Apostles
constraining power, which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation,
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in the tender, pitiful spirit, in the uplifting of the lives of those with
whom they associate. Christian workers who succeed in their efforts
must know Christ; and in order to know Him, they must know His
love. In heaven their fitness as workers is measured by their ability to
love as Christ loved and to work as He worked.
“Let us not love in word,” the apostle writes, “but in deed and in
truth.” The completeness of Christian character is attained when the
impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within. It is
the atmosphere of this love surrounding the soul of the believer that
makes him a savor of life unto life and enables God to bless his work.
Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another—this is
the best gift that our heavenly Father can bestow. This love is not an
impulse, but a divine principle, a permanent power. The unconsecrated
heart cannot originate or produce it. Only in the heart where Jesus
reigns is it found. “We love Him, because He first loved us.” In the
heart renewed by divine grace, love is the ruling principle of action.
It modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions,
and ennobles the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens
the life and sheds a refining influence on all around.
John strove to lead the believers to understand the exalted privileges
that would come to them through the exercise of the spirit of love. This
redeeming power, filling the heart, would control every other motive
and raise its possessors above the corrupting influences of the world.
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And as this love was allowed full sway and became the motive power
in the life, their trust and confidence in God and His dealing with them
would be complete. They could then come to Him in full confidence
of faith, knowing that they would receive from Him everything needful
for their present and eternal good. “Herein is our love made perfect,”
he wrote, “that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because
as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect
love casteth out fear.” “And this is the confidence that we have in Him,
that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if
we know that He hear us, ... we know that we have the petitions that
we desired of Him.”
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” “If we confess our