May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for
everyone else, just as ours does for you. (1 Thessalonians 3:12 NIV)
Love for those of our own company may not be so difficult. But the Word
adds "and toward all men." That goes deeper. I have of late felt more deeply and
strongly than ever before the force of very familiar words – "Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up" (1 Cor. 8:1), and
other words such as "maketh the increase of the body
unto the building up of itself in love" (Eph. 4:16).
If we are going to be affected by that which is present
in other people, all those features in Christians and in
Christian work and activity which are repugnant to us, we
are going to close up and withdraw in heart and nothing
is going to be done in the way of mutual helpfulness and
edification. Again and again the very practical question
arises – because of this or that which we meet in another
can anything be done, is anything possible? And very
often, in the acute consciousness of so much that appears
on the surface, we have revolted against it; and then,
going to the Lord about it and facing it out with Him, we
have been enabled to go on, and something has happened
and the Lord has wrought, and we have been surprised, and
rebuked for our original offendedness. We have to look
through all that to the heart, and be reminded every time
that the Lord looks on the heart. We are looking on all
this which is largely the result of ignorance, lack of
proper teaching and so on, and this can offend us. But
the Lord looks on the heart; He sees if there is
something deep down under all these preponderances, if
there is a real heart love for Himself, and He knows if
this is really the endeavor to express that love.
There
may be misapprehension, there may be ignorance, there may
be other causes, but this which offends us is, on the
part of those concerned, their way of showing their love
for the Lord, and we must not be turned aside – we must
get close to them and find what possibilities there are
for the Lord. He is going on, He is not giving up; He is
making all He possibly can of the least bit of heart love
for Himself and for all men. The challenge of this is
very practical and very searching for us.