Jude 1:21; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 4:30-5:2
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): How affectionately the Church is called upon to follow God; and the way, in which they are to follow Him—not as children only, but as dear children.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): We should set up God’s love, not as a pattern only to us, but as an incentive to inflame us; and therefore he adds these words, ‘as dear children.’ The words are in the original ὡς τέκνα ἀγαπητά.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Having called on us to imitate God, he now calls on us to imitate Christ, who is our true model. We ought to embrace each other with that love with which Christ has embraced us, for what we perceive in Christ is our true guide.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): What a path to walk in! “Walk in love.” What a well-paved way it is! What a blessed Person for us to follow in that divinely royal road! It would have been hard for us to tread this way of love, if it had not been that His blessed feet marked out the track for us. We are to love as Christ also hath loved us and the question which will often solve difficulties is this, “What would Jesus Christ do in my case? What He would have done, that we may do: “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.” And if we want to know how far that love may be carried, we need not be afraid of going too far in self-denial; we may even make a sacrifice of ourselves for love of God and men, for here is our model: “As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.”
JOHN CALVIN: This was a remarkable proof of the highest love. Forgetful, as it were, of Himself, Christ spared not His own life, that He might redeem us from death. If we desire to be partakers of this benefit, we must cultivate similar affections toward our neighbours. Not that any of us has reached such high perfection, but all must aim and strive according to the measure of their ability…He, by not sparing His own life, testified how much He loved us…Christ presents to us, in a summary view, the way and manner of fulfilling this precept, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” Matthew 22:39.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): True brotherly love is a reflection of God’s love for us, and He loves His people not for their native attractiveness, but for Christ’s sake; and therefore does He love them in spite of their ugliness and vileness. God is “longsuffering to us-ward,” 2 Peter 3:9, bearing with our crookedness, pardoning our iniquities, healing our diseases, and His word to us is, “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children, and walk in love.” We are to love the saints for what we can see of Christ in them; yes, love them, and for that reason—in spite of all their ignorance, perverseness, ill-temper, obstinacy, fretfulness. It is the image of God in them not their wealth, amiability, social position—which is the magnet that attracts a renewed heart toward them.
C. H. SPURGEON: Because iniquity abounds even in the professing Church, the love of many is growing cold today. What a sermon one might preach upon this!
A. W. PINK: Remember, dear brother, God suffers our love for one another to be tried and tested—as He does our faith—or there would be no need for this exhortation “forbearing one another in love,” Ephesians 4:2. The most spiritual Christian on earth is full of infirmities, and the best way of enduring them is to frequently and honestly remind yourself that you also are full of faults and failings.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): If ye are converted, and become as little children, then for God’s sake take care of doing what children often do; they are too apt to quarrel one with another. O love one another; “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him,” 1 John 4:16. Ye are all children of the same Father, ye are all going to the same place; why should ye differ? The world has enough against us, the devil has enough against us, without our quarreling with each other; O walk in love. If I could preach no more, if I was not able to hold out to the end of my sermon, I would say as John did, when he was grown old and could not preach, “Little children, love one another.” If ye are God’s children, then love one another.
JOHN ANGELL JAMES (1785-1869): “The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance,” These virtues almost exclusively refer to our fellow-creatures; yet they are the fruits of the Spirit—The man who cherishes in his bosom the spirit of love to his fellow-creatures, from a deep sense of God’s love to him in Christ, and who is enabled to make some tolerable proficiency in learning of Jesus, who is “meek end lowly in heart,” has more of the living power of the Holy Spirit in his soul, than he who is dissolved in tears, or rapt in ecstasy under the burning, melting words and tones of some eloquent preacher. Never can it be repeated too often, or expressed too emphatically, that “to walk in the Spirit,” is to walk in love.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Let every act of life be dictated by love to God and man.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): This is all-important. To pretend to great zeal for the truth of the one body while failing to manifest the love of the Spirit is to put the emphasis in the wrong place. Doctrinal correctness will never atone for lack of brotherly love. It is far more to God who is Himself love, in His very nature, that His people walk in love one toward another, than that they contend valiantly for set forms of truth, however scriptural.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): And to “walk” in love, is not merely to talk of it, but to exercise it; and to do all that is done for God, and Christ, and the saints, from a principle of love.
JOHN CALVIN: Whatever is devoid of love is of no account in the sight of God.
