“Christian Resolutions_2020, Part VII”
Tonight's Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnDKD1NMH4
Tonight's Youtube Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhcvIrz1FaA
We are continuing in our Series, “Christian Resolutions_2020, and our review and examination of Love, the first Fruit of the Spirit. Tonight, as we open, we will stop and take a closer look at the definition of agape` Love, as presented by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, referred to by many as “the Love Chapter.”
I have a small pile of Daily Devotionals that I have accumulated over many years. I read each one in rotation between each petition of the Lord's Prayer as I pray. In one of them, the author wrote of reading 1 Corinthians 13, replacing the word “charity” with the pronoun “I” in an effort to lay a personal foundation of how a Christian should act and react, as they seek to reflect Jesus, in all their interpersonal dealings with people, friend and foe alike.
Beginning at verse 4, and, again using the God's Word translation, the reading would sound like this: “I am patient. I am kind. I am not jealous. I don't sing my own praises. I am not arrogant. I am not rude. I don't think about myself. I am not irritable. I don't keep track of wrongs. I am not happy when injustice is done. I am happy with the Truth. I never stop being patient. I never stop believing. I never stop hoping. I never give up.” What an incredible way to set the tone for one's behavior during the day.
All of this reminds me of a woman I worked with who announced to us at the break table one night that she was going to quit smoking. I have heard how hard it is for people to quit smoking, so after about a month or so, I went to her and asked how she was doing where quitting smoking was concerned. And, thankfully she was doing well. She admitted to me that the urge still came back from to time, but was on the decrease.
She explained to me that each time she felt like lighting up a cigarette, she would simply tell herself: “I don't smoke.” And she pointed out that she did not say to herself, 'I quit smoking,' because you can quit something but then let it come back in.” She said, “I tell myself, 'I don't smoke.' Temptation has no comeback to that statement, and cannot get a foot in the door.” That was almost 40 years ago, but I never forgot her unique approach and determination.
Some may object to to what they may regard as dishonesty in saying, “I am {present tense} patient,” when they know in reality that they opposite is true. They may be more willing to say, “I want to be patient,” or “With God's help I will be patient.” But consider this: Each of the definitions Paul used in 1 Corinthians 13 are perfect descriptions of Jesus Christ Whom we are to reflect. Jesus said in John 9:5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” But He told His disciples (and us) in His Sermon on the Mount, “Ye are {present tense} the light of the world.”
Did not the Apostle Paul also describe the recipients of his epistles with present-tense descriptions that we might be more hesitant that he was to apply to ourselves. Even in 1 Corinthians,which I believe is, arguably, an epistle that includes more hand-wrenching criticism and correction than any of his other epistles, notice how he addresses the members of the Church at Corinth in the present tense: “That in every thing ye are {present tense} enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge (1 Corinthians 1:5); ye are {present tense} God's husbandry, ye are {present tense} God's building” (1 Corinthians 3:9); “ye are the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:16); “And ye are Christ's” (1 Corinthians 3:23); “Now ye are full, now ye are rich” 1 Corinthians 4:8); “ye are wise in Christ... ye are strong; ye are honourable” (1 Corinthians 4:10); ye are washed... ye are sanctified... ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). I think you get the idea that all of these are present tense descriptions!
We can follow the author's personal example in that Devotional, and speak those words, “I am patient,” and so on, because it is True of Jesus Whose Spirit and Mind is living in us. And, in the same way that my friend Pat conquered her addiction to nicotine by saying, “I don't smoke,” we can remind ourselves by substituting charity (agape`) with the pronoun “I” based on how God sees us.
Is thee Scriptural defense of this? Consider: Paul refers in Romans to God calling Abraham “the father of many nations,” when Sarah was still barren, and Isaac had not yet been born. We read, “as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Romans 4:17).
The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says of this: “The nature and greatness of that faith of Abraham which we are to copy is here strikingly described. What he was required to believe being above nature, his faith had to fasten upon God’s power to surmount physical incapacity, and call into being what did not then exist. But God having made the promise, Abraham believed Him in spite of those obstacles.”
The Father has applied the righteousness of His Son to our account, so as the called and sanctified and justified and Spirit-filled light of the world, I believe that there is no more “dishonesty,” in our saying of ourselves “I am patient,” “I am kind,” and “I endure all things,” etc. than it was for Abraham, who was childless, to say, “I am the father of many nations.” In both cases, God “calls into existence the things that do not exist.”
After this list of “definitions,” Paul goes on to write in verse 11, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Let us, as Paul did with the help of God, put away those childish things that keep us from becoming and being all that God would have us be. Is that not within our reach? Do the words in Romans 8:37, “We are {present tense} more than conquerors through him that loved us” apply to us, or not?
As we read these definitions, let us keep in mind something that we easily read over as we view the terms used as adjectives. They are not adjectives, they are verbs! If we say “I am patient,” it is not because we read and believe and agree with God's Word, but because of what we do, how we act and how we react and how we apply it to our lives. James tells us, “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). So let's go back now and look at Paul's list of behaviors more than descriptions as written about in the Sermon Bible:
“1 Corinthians 12:31-13:1: St. Paul has been treating of spiritual gifts as they then existed in the Church—of tongues, of prophecy, and the like. They were things to be courted and attained if it might be so. Still, there was one thing better; one way of living and proceeding, which was far in excess of all these; a way of living and preaching which could do without gifts, but they could not do without it. And by enlarging on the latter negative fact he opens his description. He will show them this more excellent way, by asserting first how worthless every gift, every attainment, is without it, and in its absence.
I. 1 Corinthians 13:1 supposes the existence of the very highest supernatural gifts without largeness of love in the spirit and character. I take this verse to represent for us the endowment, as we understand it, with pre-eminent external gifts—gifts of accomplishment and acquirement to be shown and exercised before men. For of that kind was the gift of tongues. Let me not be understood as for a moment casting a slur on any of the elements of a liberal education, or as recognising the false and narrow view, which would measure that which is really useful to a man by so much only as is worn and torn in the great outward struggle of life.
II. Is there not something very wrong in our land and our Church in this matter? We are not seeking after, we are not valuing, we are not encouraging, we are not even tolerating, the practice of large-hearted, universal, all-enduring Christian love. Hard thoughts are our common thoughts; bitter words our current words. Let us dare, knowing what we do, in a bitter and gainsaying generation, to maintain that love is first and midst and last in the Christian’s practice.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 104.
1 Corinthians 13:3: The statement of the text appears at first sight even to surpass in paradox those which precede it. For to one superficially considering the matter it seems almost impossible that a Christian man should bestow all his goods to feed the poor, and even give his body to be burned in self-sacrifice for country or friends, or the cause of Christ, and be destitute of the Christian grace of love. Yet, notwithstanding this paradoxical appearance, our text will clear up as we advance.
I. "If I bestow all my goods to feed the poor." The Apostle gives us this extreme example to cover by it all others, and to show that much less will they profit under the same defect. Let us take a few of them and trace the character described. Outward liberality may arise from various reasons. (1) A man may be liberal from the mere bent of his natural disposition. He may give to satisfy his wish and ease his desire of giving; true Christian charity gives in self-denial, often withholding where nature prompts to give, often giving where nature would fain withhold.
(2) It is obvious that a man may bestow all his goods to feed the poor out of motives of mere display. (3) There may be a conscientious, a God-fearing bestowal, yet exercised in a hard rigid spirit of duty and legal obligation, without kindliness of heart or manner; just as we may deposit the seed, and the plant may appear, but may after all be nipped by unkindly skies and winds.
II. "If I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing." The idea evidently is, of great sacrifices made, hardships undergone, privations and sufferings submitted to. It varies from the former one in this: that there the goods were sacrificed, here the person. All toil, all self-denial, all sacrifice, without love, profiteth nothing. Well, indeed, might it be written, that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," when it is so difficult for a man to deny himself without at the same time indulging himself, when that Divine grace which should be at the root of all self-sacrifice can be personated by its very opposite, and the counterfeit pass current with a man’s self and with the Church of God!
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 133.
1 Corinthians 13:4-5: I. "Love envieth not." Envy is the shadow of jealousy, apes its form and mimics its movements, but is constructed out of more airy material and clothed in darker garb. The jealous man grudges another advantages which he claims for his own; the envious man, advantages which he never dreams of as his own. Jealousy would do harm for self’s sake; envy, for mere harm’s sake. So the jealousy is the more selfish and human; envy, the more abandoned and diabolical. Christian love envieth not.
II. "Love vaunteth not itself." This quality is expressed in the original by a rare and remarkable word, the exact meaning of which it is somewhat difficult to assign. "Displayeth not itself" would be nearer the point. He who would love must be self-renouncing. All true love is a self-sacrifice where love is general; self-seeking cannot be general also. But with those who love display, self-seeking is general and unfailing. Self is ever before them as an object to be served, and to be surrounded by a halo of the good opinions of others. Love neither claims honour to self where others interfere, nor is solicitous for that honour in general.
III. Love is not puffed up, not only does not exhibit self, but has not any high thoughts of self at all. If we would possess this first Christian grace, we must study and strive and pray that the all-powerful force of God’s spirit may dwell and rule in our hearts, and obliterate that vanity and self-regard from which we are never safe under the influence of merely this world’s benevolence.
IV. "Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own." Christian love is on all occasions mindful of apparently slight proprieties of tone and manner and behaviour. There is no self-display, there is no self-merit, there is no unseemly behaviour, just because there is no self-seeking in the character.
H. Alford, Sermons, vol. vii., p. 130.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7: "Love Suffereth Long, and is Kind.". I. We have here brought before us the two sides, the passive and the active sides, of a loving disposition. "Love suffereth long." It is perhaps remarkable that this feature should be presented to us first of all, as if suffering, enduring some trial, were a matter of course. It reads us a lesson as to the kind of world in which we Christians have to live.
The true Christian knows, and will know, no limit to his endurance. It is not his good fortune that he can put up with this or that much of provocation, but it is his principle to do it. He practises and prays over it, and he goes and does it. Some of the noblest victories which the Church has seen of habitual forbearance and unfailing longsuffering have been hard victories, gained over a rebellious and unkindly disposition;
battles for right, and won by men, with whom they were indeed battles, with whom, not only their own propensities, but friends around them, and the world in which they were dwelling, placed barriers almost insuperable against their exercise of this first of Christian graces. One Christian who thus reflects his Master’s image calm and unbroken will win more souls to Christ than ten of those who hate the sinner by discountenancing the sin.
II. "Love is kind." The word by which this is expressed is a somewhat remarkable one. It signifies, in its simple and first meaning, "practises rendering of service," "practises kindness," and that sort of kindness which is good and profitable and cheering and consoling. So that this kindness of which it is said, "Love suffereth long, and is kind," is no mere blandness of manner, nor soothing tone of voice, though these naturally enter in as part of such kindness; but it is a willingness to be serviceable and to help others, an easiness of access, an easiness of being entreated, and genial, open, sunny presence, not repelling, not precluding application for help. All have it in their power to suffer long and to show substantial kindness.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 150.
1 Corinthians 13:5: Individual Faithfulness. I. No sincere worker for God is long left with nothing to do; for God’s ways and works are very manifold. Martha is working one way while she is providing for her Lord, Mary at another while she listens humbly at His feet. One serves his Lord in one way with his mighty thunderings; while another in another way with his soft pictures. The man with one talent may more laudably and more faithfully serve God than he with five.
II. This faithfulness is incumbent on every one of us. Think not that to do our duty in life, to give back to God something better than the crumbling dust of corrupting bodies and the leprosy of dwarfed and dwindling souls, needs, on our part, any magnificent theatre, any superhuman endeavour, any unobtainable eminences. That is not it: it needs only to travel round the quiet walk with God, to which every one of us is pledged by baptism.
Externals will not save us; neither fast nor feast, nor service, nor general respectability, nor religious scrupulosity, nor to bow the head like a bulrush, nor to say "Lord, Lord"; nor will anything avail us but that life of obedience which is the true test of the forgiven penitent.
III. Beyond all doubt it is carelessness as to individual duties which makes the world what it is. It is the neglect which comes of the personal sinfulness and the personal insincerity of millions. To hearts once purified from self and touched by the grace of God nothing is dearer than to help earth’s immense and trampled multitudes by saving souls for whom Christ died. We have but one life given us, but one second, that is, in God’s eternity, but it becomes majestic as part of one great living whole, and every true life is only a true life at all in as far as it is the continuation of the one great life of love, of which the one object was to seek and to save the lost.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxi., p. 113.
1 Corinthians 13:5-7: I. Love is not easily provoked. This characteristic follows upon "seeketh not her own," and very naturally self-regard is the great secret of easy provocation. It may be hidden self-regard, lurking in the by-ways of the character; the generous and self-denying man is often easily provoked, but it is just because self-love has been driven, it may be, from the citadel, yet is still in possession of the outworks.
We are, in this wreck of our nature, such strange inconsistent compounds, that self may be subdued in one province of our being, while it is reigning with full sway in another—nay, may seem to be deposed and bound, while at the same time and place it is dictating its laws and all but supreme. The very nature of the case compels us to say that wherever there is the habit of sudden provocation there self is as yet unsubdued, and the love which was Christ’s is not yet completely established in the character.
II. Love thinketh no evil, or better, imputeth not the evil—viz., the evil intended in the slight or insult at which it refuses to be provoked. This slowness to provocation, like the other qualities of which we have treated, is no mere accident of disposition, no mere insulated excellence; it arises from, and is the natural sequence on, a whole chain of causes, all sprung from the highest fact, the existence and ruling in the heart of that pure self-renouncing love, of which it is one of the signs.
III. Love rejoiceth not over iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth. Her sympathies are with the truth, and by the truth is meant that whole class of words and deeds which is opposed to the former thing in which she rejoiceth not—viz., iniquity: in other words, all those things elsewhere mentioned by the Apostle, as being true, honest, and lovely, and of good report. The concluding clauses of this description of the attributes of Christian love surpass, by generalising, the rest. "Love endureth all things." This surpasses all the rest, and worthily concludes the goodly catalogue of Love’s excellences.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. vii., p. 179.
1 Corinthians 13:6: The Rejoicing of Charity. As St. Paul depicts the features and behaviour of his Divine charity, are there not many whose feeling would be, that while beautiful and sublime enough, it could hardly have much to do with joy? She suffereth long, is slow to assert herself, or insist upon her rights, seeketh not her own, refuseth under grievance to be easily provoked, beareth all things, endureth all things.
And then in the midst of the Apostle’s description of what love does, and how she comports herself, comes the word "rejoiceth." Yes, unloving men may not understand it, unloving men may not credit it, but love is far from being a joyless thing. Great joy-waves visit and sweep it, great joy-swellings rise within it, that are all its own, and which no man knoweth save he in whose breast it rules; while in the very heart of its painfullest yearnings and solicitudes, and its hardest sacrifices, a secret bliss lies smiling, like green verdure beneath the snow.”
S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood, p. 126.
To this, Matthew Henry adds, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: The apostle gives us in these verses some of the properties and effects of charity, both to describe and commend it, that we may know whether we have this grace and that if we have not we may fall in love with what is so exceedingly amiable, and not rest till we have obtained it. It is an excellent grace, and has a world of good properties belonging to it. As,
I. It is long suffering - It can endure evil, injury, and provocation, without being filled with resentment, indignation, or revenge. It makes the mind firm, gives it power over the angry passions, and furnishes it with a persevering patience, that shall rather wait and wish for the reformation of a brother than fly out in resentment of his conduct. It will put up with many slights and neglects from the person it loves, and wait long to see the kindly effects of such patience on him.
II. It is kind - It is benign, bountiful; it is courteous and obliging. The law of kindness is in her lips; her heart is large, and her hand open. She is ready to show favours and to do good. She seeks to be useful; and not only seizes on opportunities of doing good, but searches for them. This is her general character. She is patient under injuries, and apt and inclined to do all the good offices in her power. And under these two generals all the particulars of the character may be reduced.
III. Charity suppresses envy: It envieth not; it is not grieved at the good of others; neither at their gifts nor at their good qualities, their honours not their estates. If we love our neighbour we shall be so far from envying his welfare, or being displeased with it, that we shall share in it and rejoice at it. His bliss and sanctification will be an addition to ours, instead of impairing or lessening it. This is the proper effect of kindness and benevolence: envy is the effect of ill-will. The prosperity of those to whom we wish well can never grieve us; and the mind which is bent on doing good to all can never with ill to any.
IV. Charity subdues pride and vain-glory; It vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, is not bloated with self-conceit, does not swell upon its acquisitions, nor arrogate to itself that honour, or power, or respect, which does not belong to it. It is not insolent, apt to despise others, or trample on them, or treat them with contempt and scorn. Those who are animated with a principle of true brotherly love will in honour prefer one another, Romans 12:10. They will do nothing out of a spirit of contention or vain-glory, but in lowliness of mind will esteem others better than themselves, Philippians 2:3.
True love will give us an esteem of our brethren, and raise our value for them; and this will limit our esteem of ourselves, and prevent the tumours of self-conceit and arrogance. These ill qualities can never grow out of tender affection for the brethren, nor a diffusive benevolence. The word rendered in our translation vaunteth itself bears other significations; nor is the proper meaning, as I can find, settled; but in every sense and meaning true charity stands in opposition to it. The Syriac renders it, - does not raise tumults and disturbances. Charity calms the angry passions, instead of raising them. Others render it, -
It does not act insidiously with any, seek to ensnare them, nor tease them with needless importunities and addresses. It is not froward, nor stubborn and untractable, nor apt to be cross and contradictory. Some understand it of dissembling and flattery, when a fair face is put on, and fine words are said, without any regard to truth, or intention of good. Charity abhors such falsehood and flattery. Nothing is commonly more pernicious, nor more apt to cross the purposes of true love and good will.
V. Charity is careful not to pass the bounds of decency; - it behaveth not unseemly; it does nothing indecorous, nothing that in the common account of men is base or vile. It does nothing out of place or time; but behaves towards all men as becomes their rank and ours, with reverence and respect to superiors, with kindness and condescension to inferiors, with courtesy and good-will towards all men. It is not for breaking order, confounding ranks bringing all men on a level; but for keeping up the distinction God has made between men, and acting decently in its own station, and minding its own business, without taking upon it to mend, or censure, or despise, the conduct of others. Charity will do nothing that misbecomes it.
VI. Charity is an utter enemy to selfishness: Seeketh not its own, does not inordinately desire nor seek its own praise, or honour, or profit, or pleasure. Indeed self-love, in some degree, is natural to all men, enters into their very constitution. And a reasonable love of self is by our Saviour made the measure of our love to others, that charity which is here described, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The apostle does not mean that charity destroys all regard to self; he does not mean that the charitable man should never challenge what is his own, but utterly neglect himself and all his interests.
Charity must then root up that principle which is wrought into our nature. But charity never seeks its own to the hurt of others, or with the neglect of others. It often neglects its own for the sake of others; prefers their welfare, and satisfaction, and advantage, to its own; and it ever prefers the wealth of the public, of the community, whether civil or ecclesiastical, to its private advantage. It would not advance, nor aggrandize, nor enrich, nor gratify itself, at the cost and damage of the public.
VII. It tempers and restrains the passions. It is not exasperated. It corrects a sharpness of temper, sweetens and softens the mind, so that it does not suddenly conceive, nor long continue, a vehement passion. Where the fire of love is kept in, the flames of wrath will not easily kindle, nor long keep burning. Charity will never be angry without a cause, and will endeavour to confine the passions within proper limits, that they may not exceed the measure that is just, either in degree or duration. Anger cannot rest in the bosom where love reigns. It is hard to be angry with those we love, but very easy to drop our resentments and be reconciled.
VIII. Charity thinks no evil. It cherishes no malice, nor gives way to revenge: so some understand it. It is not soon, nor long, angry; it is never mischievous, nor inclined to revenge; it does not suspect evil of others, - it does not reason out evil, charge guilt upon them by inference and innuendo, when nothing of this sort appears open. True love is not apt to be jealous and suspicious; it will hide faults that appear, and draw a veil over them, instead of hunting and raking out those that lie covered and concealed: it will never indulge suspicion without proofs, but will rather incline to darken and disbelieve evidence against the person it affects.
It will hardly give into an ill opinion of another, and it will do it with regret and reluctance when the evidence cannot be resisted; hence it will never be forward to suspect ill, and reason itself into a bad opinion upon mere appearances, nor give way to suspicion without any. It will not make the worst construction of things, but put the best face that it can on circumstances that have no good appearance.
IX. The matter of its joy and pleasure is here suggested: 1. Negatively: It rejoiceth not in iniquity. It takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurt to any. It thinks not evil of any, without very clear proof. It wishes ill to none, much less will it hurt or wrong any, and least of all make this matter of its delight, rejoice in doing harm and mischief. Nor will it rejoice at the faults and failings of others, and triumph over them, either out of pride or ill-will, because it will set off its own excellences or gratify its spite.
The sins of others are rather the grief of a charitable spirit than its sport or delight; they will touch it to the quick, and stir all its compassion, but give it no entertainment. It is the very height of malice to take pleasure in the misery of a fellow-creature. And is not falling into sin the greatest calamity that can befall one? How inconsistent is it with Christian charity, to rejoice at such fall!
2. Affirmatively: It rejoiceth in the truth, is glad of the success of the gospel, commonly called the truth, by way of emphasis, in the New Testament; and rejoices to see men moulded into an evangelical temper by it, and made good. It takes no pleasure in their sins, but is highly delighted to see them do well, to approve themselves men of probity and integrity. It gives it much satisfaction to see truth and justice prevail among men, innocency cleared, and mutual faith and trust established, and to see piety and true religion flourish.
X. It beareth all things, it endureth all things. Some read the first, covers all things. So the original also signifies. Charity will cover a multitude of sins. It will draw a veil over them, as far as it can consistently with duty. It is not for blazing nor publishing the faults of a brother, till duty manifestly demands it. Necessity only can extort this from the charitable mind. Though such a man be free to tell his brother his faults in private, he is very unwilling to expose him by making them public.
Thus we do by our own faults, and thus charity would teach us to do by the faults of others; not publish them to their shame and reproach, but cover them from public notice as long as we can, and be faithful to God and to others. Or, it beareth all things, - will pass by and put up with injuries, without indulging anger or cherishing revenge, will be patient upon provocation, and long patient, - holds firm, though it be much shocked, and borne hard upon; sustains all manner of injury and ill usage, and bears up under it, such as curses, slanders, prison, exile, bonds, torments, and death itself, for the sake of the injurious, and of others; and perseveres in this firmness. Note, What a fortitude and firmness fervent love will give the mind! What cannot a lover endure for the beloved and for his sake! How many slights and injuries will he put up with! How many hazards will he run and how many difficulties encounter!
XI. Charity believes and hopes well of others: Believeth all things; hopeth all things. Indeed charity does by no means destroy prudence, and, out of mere simplicity and silliness, believe every word. Wisdom may dwell with love, and charity be cautious. But it is apt to believe well of all, to entertain a good opinion of them when there is no appearance to the contrary; nay, to believe well when there may be some dark appearances, if the evidence of ill be not clear.
All charity is full of candour, apt to make the best of every thing, and put on it the best face and appearance? it will judge well, and believe well, as far as it can with any reason, and will rather stretch its faith beyond appearances for the support of a kind opinion; but it will go into a bad one with the upmost reluctance, and fence against it as much as it fairly and honestly can. And when, in spite of inclination, it cannot believe well of others, it will yet hope well, and continue to hope as long as there is any ground for it.
How well-natured and amiable a thing is Christian charity? How lovely a mind is that which is tinctured throughout with such benevolence, and has it diffused over its whole frame! Happy the man who has this heavenly fire glowing in his heart, flowing out of his mouth, and diffusing its warmth over all with whom he has to do!
How lovely a thing would Christianity appear to the world, if those who profess it were more actuated and animated by this divine principle, and paid a due regard to a command on which its blessed author laid a chief stress! A new commandment give I to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another, John 13:34. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, John 13:35. Blessed Jesus! how few of thy professed disciples are to be distinguished and marked out by this characteristic!”
This has been our review and examination of the behaviors encompassed in Paul's description of what charity is, and how charity is manifested in our lives. We will continue in this Series next week. I hope as many of you that are hearing these words live, or hearing them on Youtube, or reading them in the Forum, will join me for the next installment.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, Christian Resolutions_2020, Part VII”
This Discssion was presented “live” on February 19th, 2020.
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