John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
I read an article last year from the last Pastor Dr. J. Vernon McGee on the subject of love. Dr. McGee believed in being fundamental in the faith. He believed in the inerrancy of the Word of God, in the verbal plenary inspiration of the Holy scriptures, in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the expiation of sins, that He died a substitutionary, vicarious death for the sins of the world. He believed Jesus Christ was raised bodily and ascended back to heaven and that he is coming personally one day soon to take His church out of the world. But, Pastor McGee wants to say this, and wants to say very carefully: Believing those things does not convince the unsaved world outside of forgiveness, redemption or salvation by grace through faith. The world is dying for just a little love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”
The 1828 Webster’s dictionary states, in short, we love whatever gives us pleasure and delight, whether animal or intellectual; and if our hearts are right, we love God above all things, as the sum of all excellence and all the attributes which can communicate happiness to intelligent beings. In other words, the Christian loves God with the love of complacency in his attributes, the love of benevolence towards the interest of his kingdom, and the love of gratitude for favors received.
I heard about a court case where multiple Christian Law organizations representing a defendant argued against each other on non-salvation issue in front of the jury and the presiding Judge told the Attorneys that they needed to get their biblical facts and opinions on the same page prior to trial. McGee states that we do not win the lost by being Christian cannibals. The Apostle Paul warned us in Galatians 5:15 that “if you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” This is the type of thing that is turning the “unsaved” people of the world away from the church today. This is the reason that they do not hear the gospel. Do we realize that the most important commandment for a Christian is not to witness or serve, but to love other Believers, the brethren in the faith of the universal church ... the body of Christ.
Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.”
Tertullian, full name Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, c. 155 – 240 AD, was a prolific early Christian apologist and author, who wrote that the Roman government was disturbed about the early Christian church. So, Roman spies went into the Christian gathering and came back with a report something like this: “these Christians are very strange people. They speak of One by the name of Jesus, who is absent, but whom they seem to be expecting at any time. And, my, how they love Him and how they love one another.” If spies came to your or my Christian church from an atheistic government to see whether Christianity is genuine, what would the verdict be? Would there be enough evidence to convict us? Would they go back to report how Christians love each other? People want a little love. Something to think about?
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