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On the one hand we are taught here a universal principle of religious obedience; and on the other hand we are taught here what the ways are for procuring and cherishing it. "Keep yourselves in the love of God." Do so; and undoubtedly you will have no similarity of character with those men who, "having not the Spirit, are sensualists," and in being so are "separatists" from the communion of true Christians. But how shall you be enabled to obey this injunction? By "building yourselves up on your most holy faith" — by praying in the Holy Ghost — and "by looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus unto eternal life." To have love to God, and to have this Divine affection in vigorous exercise, is to give security for the renunciation of all sin, and for the choice and accomplishment of all duty. It forms the very principle of action, which is applicable in every situation, and during all time. Can the devout affections be really the object of my careful cultivation, without at the same time being accompanied by the desire and the endeavour after universal holiness? Can I revere the majesty of God without the fear of offending against the dignity of His authority? Can I esteem the unrivalled beauty of His moral excellences without the anxious wish to resemble Him and to enjoy His approbation? The view of what is the native tendency of this Divine affection is indubitable. To give diligence that we may remain in the exercise of this holy affection is to give diligence that we may weaken, and finally dislodge, every opposing affection. If once there was produced in us an entire surrender of will and power, of fear and hope, to His most blessed direction — this would amount to the being actuated by the Divine "Spirit"; and so the "sensuality" that would "separate" us from the regard and obedience of Divine truth be entirely vanquished. But how shall we "keep ourselves" in the exercise of this purest and most efficient principle? The means of doing so are here enumerated:

1. In the first place, would we "keep ourselves in the love of God"? — let us "build ourselves up on our most holy faith"; that is in the grace of faith, and in its objects, the doctrines and promises of the gospel. The height of it indeed we shall never be able, through eternity itself, to form a perfect conception of. Let us heap together all those bright views, and glorious promises, which like so many sums in our shining treasure, should be added, for the purpose of giving us an idea of the riches of the Divine mercy. Let us become more deeply acquainted with, and more intensely interested in, the doctrines and the prospects of "our most holy faith," and undoubtedly we shall be using one of the powerful, even as it is the appointed, means to "keep ourselves in the love of God."

2. Would we succeed in these endeavours at laying our minds open to the truth, and to the efficacy of "our most holy faith" would we overcome the aversions, and surmount the difficulties, that stand in the way of all our apprehensions, and that oppose the exercise of all our sensibilities, on its high spiritual objects; would we see the designs of Christianity, and feel them, and continue under their influence; let us follow the next admonition, and "pray in the Holy Ghost." The Divine Spirit dictated the Scriptures; and therefore, when we pray for things agreeably to the tenor of the revealed will of God, we are said, in one sense, to pray under this influence. Now supposing that on Scripture principles, in firm though humble dependence on the grace of God, and with constancy, fervour, and spirituality, we are enabled to cherish the affections of Christian piety; do we not see that we are thereby employing the direct means of improving ourselves, both in acquaintance with the objects of faith, and in the exercise of the grace of faith?

3. In the third place, however, the devout affections we have continually to lament, are with us so cold, even at the warmest, and so wavering, even at the utmost steadiness to which we can bring them; and in all the exercises of our minds, whether in the belief or in the practice of religious truth, we have attained to so little that we can look back on with unmingled satisfaction, that we should have no encouragement, either in devotion or active duty, were our hopes of "eternal life" made to rest on the perfection of our own righteousness. Hence our only relief in remembering the unworthy past, and our only encouragement in endeavouring after something better for the time to come, depend on the privilege granted to us of "looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ." Sure, ample, blessed source of consolation and of hope! To this we flee, that the multitude of our sins may be blotted out, and thrown into perpetual forgetfulness. To this we repair, that the defects inherent even in our best duties, may be forgiven. Not to anticipate, with vividness, that future "life," in which devotion shall be elevated into the sublimest purities of spiritual worship, and where faith shall have every promise and prospect realised — how the mind would faint under its frequent insensibilities and manifold lapses! But the assurance that the difficulties are all hereafter to be overcome — that the "mercy of Christ" which pardons, will gratuitously bestow the "eternal life" which it has purchased; this is what incites to persevere, and what will lead effectually in the course of devotion and practical faith.

(W. Muir, D. D.)

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KJV: But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

WEB: But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.