“Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled”
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life and death they were to receive a new conception of love. The
command to love one another had a new meaning in the light of His
self-sacrifice. The whole work of grace is one continual service of
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love, of self-denying, self-sacrificing effort. During every hour of
Christ’s sojourn upon the earth, the love of God was flowing from Him
in irrepressible streams. All who are imbued with His Spirit will love
as He loved. The very principle that actuated Christ will actuate them
in all their dealing one with another.
This love is the evidence of their discipleship. “By this shall all
men know that ye are My disciples,” said Jesus, “if ye have love one to
another.” When men are bound together, not by force or self-interest,
but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every
human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the
image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life
has been implanted. It shows that there is power in the divine nature to
withstand the supernatural agencies of evil, and that the grace of God
subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart.
This love, manifested in the church, will surely stir the wrath of
Satan. Christ did not mark out for His disciples an easy path. “If the
world hate you,” He said, “ye know that it hated Me before it hated you.
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The
servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they
will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep
yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name’s
sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.” The gospel is to be
carried forward by aggressive warfare, in the midst of opposition, peril,
loss, and suffering. But those who do this work are only following in
their Master’s steps.
As the world’s Redeemer, Christ was constantly confronted with
apparent failure. He, the messenger of mercy to our world, seemed to
do little of the work He longed to do in uplifting and saving. Satanic
influences were constantly working to oppose His way. But He would
not be discouraged. Through the prophecy of Isaiah He declares, “I
have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nought, and in vain:
yet surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My work with My God....
Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of