1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. It is a very strong and eloquent term, "to dwell in love" — a home of love. And the promise of that home of love is more wonderful still — that God shall be our home. And then more stupendous beyond it — and we shall be God's home. What is it to "dwell in love"? The first thing, it is quite clear, is that it must not be a mere negative state. It is not only that there be no dislikes, no variance. Love is a positive thing, showing itself in positive feelings, positive words, positive acts, without which a person cannot be said to "dwell in love." Another eminent first principle is that the love which is here spoken of must include the love of souls. And, again, all love is one love, just as all light is one light. It is not love in God's sense unless it be a reflection of God's love to us. You must begin by being sure that there is no exception. We are not called to love all equally — our Lord Himself made distinctions in His love — but there should be no one who does not feel you friendly. The next thing to which the very language of the text leads us on is home. Our home should be a home of love. You must carry a word, a thought, a look of gentleness and cheerfulness and tenderness wherever you go. This may bring love into every room. All will feel it, consciously or unconsciously. It will create its own atmosphere. The Christ in you may make everything lovely. But there are other circumstances of life which every man has to occupy. There is the Church, and in the Church a communion — a blessed communion of hearts, visible and invisible; and to "dwell in love" is to go up and down continually conversant with that union of saints. And the world — the world about us — is a world which sadly needs our love. And you are called, and your privilege is to go about in the world an element of comfort. Therefore has God kindled a heavenly fire in your breast, that He may warm the world you live in! (J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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