Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. (8) He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (9) In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (10) Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (11) Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (12) No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. (13) Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. (14) And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. (15) Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. (16) 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. (17) Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (18) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (19) We love him, because he first loved us. (20) If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (21) And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
I include all these under one reading, that in a Poor Man's Commentary I may not trespass. The two great points here dwelt upon are, first, the love of God to his people. And, secondly, our love to him, and to each other, the members of Christ's body the Church, as flowing from it God's love the cause. Our love the effect. A word or two I would beg to offer upon each.
And, first. God's love to the Church in Christ. In which is included the love of the whole Persons of the Godhead. Put as the source is in God, and wholly resulting from himself; it is impossible to trace it but in the effects. What the Apostle here saith, of our ignorance of God, is very highly in proof. No man hath seen God at any time. And how then shall he describe the source of God's love? Indeed, it is never attempted to be shewn, but by effects. In this was manifested the love of God. In what? He gave his only begotten Son. Herein is love. Not that we loved him; but that he loved us. So that the first thing laid down for our contemplation, is the love of God. God is love. And, from all eternity, he hath been giving out demonstrations of that love, in the streams and effects of it Christ is the first edition of that love: and all the subsequent works are with him, and in him, and through him, and by him. Our Adam - fall gave occasion for the greater display of that love. But Christ and his Church were one in the womb of God's love, before the Adam - fall, or even the foundation of the earth was laid.
There are two verses in scripture, one in the Old Testament, and the other in the New, which, if read together, will shew more of this love of God in its antiquity and eternity, and in all its bearings through time and eternity, than all the wisdom of men in all ages of the world can come up to in description, if they were to unite together, to furnish volumes for this purpose. The first is Jeremiah 31:3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, Saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee: or as the margin renders it therefore have I extended loving kindness unto thee. Here, we have God himself declaring, that his love to the Church hath been from everlasting; that is as God himself. For his love, as is himself, is everlasting. No space could have been before either; for in that case it could not be said to have been from everlasting. So that God himself, and his love to the Church, are expressed by the same words, from everlasting. The second verse is in Ephesians 2:7. That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. Here we have declared, the ultimate object of that love; and which proves, that as it began from everlasting, so it hath ran through, and still continues to run through, the whole time-state of the church, to everlasting; like rivers, arising out of the ocean, and running back into it again, everlastingly connected, and forever flowing. By uniting these glorious scriptures in one view, they for a complete circle, to shew, that God's love to the Church in Christ from everlasting, hath been one and the same; and his first design, and last execution, is to shew forth that love, or, as it is here called, the exceeding riches of his grace, in that glory resulting from that love, into which the Church is to be brought, and continue in everlastingly. Well might the Apostle say: Herein is love! for all other, in comparison, is nothing!
Secondly. Our love to God in Christ, and to the Church on Christ's account. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that all that we can call love or affection in us, either to God or his people, are but the mere effects from him, and his love to us as the cause. We love him, (saith the Apostle in this very scripture), because he first loved us. Yea, it is not simply because he loved us, that we love him; for this alone would never have made our stoney hearts susceptible of love; but the Lord accomplished it by his quickening grace, shedding abroad that love in our hearts, in taking away the heart of stone, and giving us a heart of flesh; Ezekiel 36:26. It is by His warming our frozen affections, subduing, and absolutely conquering our natural enmity against him, and winning us over with the cords of love, and the bands of a man, that we are brought over to love him who hath first loved us; or we should have remained enemies, to God, by wicked works, to all eternity. Reader! pause over the wonderful mercy and grace, yea, the exceeding riches of his grace; and mark in the whole, in the Father's everlasting purpose, counsel, will, and pleasure, the Son's love, in betrothing and redeeming mercy; and the Holy Ghost's regenerating, renewing favor; how infinitely great must be the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that love of God, which passeth knowledge!