“He that loves not his brother abides in death” (1 John 3:14).
Ask the question of most people, What is the opposite of love? the very general answer would be hate. It is true that this is so, but it is not the whole answer. There is however a right hate accompanying right love.
Our Lord exemplified this. We read of Him prophetically, “Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity” (Ps. 15:7). This scripture is quoted, and applied to the Lord in Hebrews 1:9. To love righteousness is to hate its opposite, iniquity. The more intense the love of righteousness, the more intense the hatred of iniquity.
We said just now that the answer that hate is the opposite of love is true, but not the whole answer. Weigh this well: self-love, self-centredness, is likewise the opposite of love. Love thinks of others, self-love centres on oneself, and thereby chokes and dams the flow of love to others.
This raises a very serious question. Love to be love, divine love, must be practical. Love does not consist in what you say, but in what you do. So we read, “Whoso has this world’s goods, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17).
There is one very remarkable passage of Scripture, “He that loves his brother abides in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him” (1 John 2:10). It is possible to profess to be in the light, to be very clear as to divine principles, to reel off Scripture with facility and correctness, and yet not to abide in the light. Do you love your brother? Is that your characteristic?
If the Apostle John states it in his way so does the Apostle Paul in his. He says in that wonderful chapter devoted to the outline of divine love, and what a full and comprehensive outline it is, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). If love is not the spring in ministry, it is valueless and worthless.
Not by what I say, nor by what spiritual gifts I may possess, nor by material gifts I bestow, even to the length of giving my body to be burned, but by divine love am I measured. If I have not love, divine love, I am nothing and am not profited.
A naturally kind-hearted man may give freely, but what we are considering just now is divine love. This is not natural to man. Believers are said to be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), and that nature is love, “God is love” (1 John 4:16). We may say it with reverence, God cannot help loving. Fire cannot help burning. Light cannot help illuminating. The divine nature cannot help loving.
We are made “partakers of the divine nature.” That does not mean that we are elevated to Godhead. That is very evident. But it is wonderful that in the divine nature we have moral qualities, which are the reflex of God’s own nature.
We may well measure ourselves by this test. Do we hate our brother? Are we really walking in the light? Not if we are filled with self-love and are self-centred. Even in moving in and out of what society we may enjoy, we certainly do not get very far with those who are self-centred. We may be self-centred in ordinary life, much concerned about having to pay a little extra for goods, and taking no thought for a brother, who is starving. Or it may be occupied with my ministry, and taking no interest in the ministry of others.
After all, the cure for this is to keep ourselves in the love of God. Then our hearts are enlarged. We are bound to respond to such an occupation … “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God” (1 John 4:7).
The fact is we are like the basket in the ocean. If it is in the ocean, it is bound to be full of the ocean. So if we are in the boundless ocean of God’s love, in the light of the revelation of Him in Christ there is sound to be a filling of our hearts with divine love, an absence of self-centredness, a going out in practical life to exhibit that divine life which is ours by the infinite grace of our God.