GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 28

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

JESUS, YOU……… HELP ME LEAP OVER A WALL………………..PS 18:29

JESUS, YOU………….WILL REJOICE OVER ME TO DO ME GOOD…..JER. 32:41a

JESUS, YOU…………..ARE THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT…. 2 Cor. 1:3

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Day 2 of the chapter, “And in Love to Fellow Believers” in Abide in Christ by Andrew Murray.

THE WORD FOR TODAY

John 11:36

“Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”

Now, just as Christ was to show forth God’s love, believers are to show forth to the world the love of Christ.  They are to prove to men that Christ loves them and, in loving, fills them with a love that is not of earth.  By living and by loving just as He did, they are to be perpetual witnesses to the love that gave itself to die.  He loved so that even the Jews cried out, as at Bethany, “Behold how He loved …” (John 11:36).  Christians are to live so that men are compelled to say, “See how these Christians love one another.” In their daily dealings with each other, Christians are made a display to God and to angels and to men; and in the Christlikeness of their love to each other, they are to prove what manner of spirit they are made of.  Amid all diversity of character or of creed, of language or of station,  they are to prove that love has made them members of one body and of each other, and has taught them each to forget and sacrifice self for the sake of the other.   Their life of love is the chief evidence of Christianity, the proof to the world that God sent Christ and that He has shed abroad in them the same love with which He loved Christ.  Of all the evidences of Christianity, this is the mightiest and most convincing.

This love of Christ’s disciples to each other occupies a central position regarding their love to God and to all men.  Of their love to God, whom they cannot see, it is the test.  The love to one unseen may so easily be a mere sentiment, or even an imagination; in the interactions with God’s children, love to God is really called into exercise and shows itself in deeds that the Father accepts as done to Himself.  So alone can it be proved to be true.  The love to the believers is the flower and fruit of the root, unseen in the heart, of love to God.

This fruit again becomes the seed of love to all men; in dealing with each other, believers are trained and strengthened to love their fellowmen who are yet out of Christ, not simply with the liking that rests on points of agreement, but with the holy love that takes hold of the unworthiest and bears with the most disagreeable for Jesus’ sake.  It is love to each other as disciples that I ever put in the foreground as the link between love to God alone and to men in general.

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