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Love, the Ruling Principle of Action, August 8
Let us not love in word ...; but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18
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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 constraining power,
which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation, 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. 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.—
The Acts of the Apostles, 550-552
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