Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples. (John 13:35 NLT)
Love – not the presence of a lot
of understanding and teaching and truth, and not the absence of all sorts of
things – is the governing matter with the Lord. It is not that He Himself in His
heart accepts the wrong things, but He sees through them, He sees differently
from ourselves.... You can see there is no hope of
building up unless there is love – and love for all men. You and I ought to be
greatly concerned with this matter of building up. Oh, God only knows how much
of spiritual increase and building is needed! It is a paralyzing situation that
faces us if we look at our own limitations. I am sure nothing is going to be
done unless we have a very large heart to look over and in and through and
beyond, refusing to be held by the thing that is glaring at us, striking us and
hurting us, and reaching through to that which is true in the heart.
It is love that builds. Moreover, it makes differences in those who
exercise it, it brings them into rest. Truth alone may bring a strained look
into the face and eyes. Love ought to bring into the countenance some suggestion
of quiet strength and restful confidence....
Well, let us sit down in the
armchair of His love and be at rest, and then get to work. You cannot work
unless you have a background rest, and rest does not spring firstly from truth.
It comes from love, God's love. Whatever else He gives us and adds to us, may
the Lord make us a people who are characterized supremely by
this love for one another and for all men.