The Perfume of Love
1 Peter 1:22. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently.
The holy scripture makes the love of the brethren the surest note of a man that shall go to heaven (1 John 3:14); and I find Christ and his apostles beating much upon this string of love, as if this made the sweetest music and harmony in religion. The consideration whereof has put me upon this subject.
All the graces have their beauty; but there are some that do more adorn and set off a Christian in the eye of the world — like some of the stars that shine brighter — as humility and charity. These two graces, like precious diamonds, cast a sparkling luster upon religion. I have designed to speak of the last of these at this time: see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Love is a grace always needful, therefore never out of season, though too much out of use.
My text, like the river of Eden, parts itself into four heads.
Here is a commission or charge: see that you love.
The extent of this love: one another.
The manner of this love: with a pure heart.
The degree of this love: fervently.
Love purely — that is opposed to hypocrisy; love must be with the heart; it must not be a compliment, which is like a painted fire. Dissembled love is worse than hatred.
Love fervently — that is opposed to neutrality; love must flame forth; it must not be as the smoking flax but as a burning lamp. So much the Hebrew word for love imports — an ardent and zealous affection; no waters must quench it.
Doctrine: Christians must love one another cordially and fervently (Colossians 3:14): above all these things put on charity (1 Peter 4:8): above all things have fervent charity among yourselves. As if the apostle had said: whatever you neglect, do not neglect this grace. Jerome reports that when Saint John was old, he was carried up into the pulpit, and there he repeated these words: little children, love one another; and then came down from the pulpit. Oh that this grace of love were engraved in letters of gold upon our hearts by the finger of the Holy Ghost!
Here the question will be asked: what is love?
Love is a sweet and gracious affection whereby we wish the good of another and promote his welfare as our own. Love is a sacred fire kindled in the heart by the Spirit, like that fire which came from heaven (2 Chronicles 7:1). I shall endeavor to preserve this fire in Christians' hearts, as the fire the Vestal Virgins kept in Rome, that it may not go out.
There are several arguments to enforce love upon us.
We must love by virtue of command (John 13:34): a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Love is both a new commandment and an old. It is an old commandment, because it is a law written in the heart of man by the pen of nature, as with the point of a diamond; and it is old because it is written in the ancient statutes and records (Leviticus 19:18): you shall love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord. And yet it is a new commandment.
Because newly purged from Pharisaical glosses; before it was love your neighbor, but now it is love your enemy (Matthew 5:44); here is a new comment upon an old law.
Love is said to be a new commandment because of a new edition; it came out of the new mint of the gospel and was pressed by a new example (John 13:34): as I have loved you. So it is not arbitrary but a duty — it is a new commandment and an old.
The second argument enforcing love is the excellency of this grace; it is a lovely grace. All the other graces seem to be eclipsed unless love shines and sparkles forth in them; faith itself has no beauty unless it works by love. The tears of repentance are not pure unless they flow from the spring of love. Love is the jewel Christ's bride wears; it is the diamond in the ring of the graces. This is the grace that seasons all our actions and makes them savory; love is like musk among linen which perfumes it. So love makes all our religious services a sweet odor to God (Ephesians 5:2). Prayer is compared to incense (Psalm 141:2); now incense if it be laid on the altar and have no fire put to it does not smell so sweet; the incense of prayer does not cast such a fragrant smell unless kindled with this fire of love. Love is the badge and cognizance of a true saint (John 13:35): by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Bernard calls love the sweet dew that distills from a Christian and refreshes all whom it drops upon. Love is the golden clasp that knits hearts; it is the cement that solders Christians together. It is the bond of perfectness (Colossians 3:14); if this bond be broken, all falls to pieces. Love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10); all the duties of the first and second table — piety toward God and equity toward our neighbor — are comprehended in this: you shall love.
O how sweetly does the apostle Paul descant and paraphrase upon this grace! How does he extoll it! He plays as well the orator as the divine; how does he delineate this grace of love, how does he pencil and draw it out to the life in all its beauty and spiritual embroidery!
That he may extoll this grace:
First, he does it exclusively — he shows that the most glorious things are nothing without it. If charity is absent, the rest avails nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1): though I speak with the tongues of men — if a man could speak in so many languages as Mithridates, of whom it is said he understood 22 sundry tongues; if he had the golden mouth of Chrysostom; if he could do with his oratory as the poets feign Orpheus did with his harp, move the very rocks and stones — yet without love it were nothing.
Nay, says the apostle, though I speak with the tongues of angels and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Were it not a brave thing to have the eloquence of angels? Yet this without love were but the tinkering of the cymbal. To love as Christians is better than to speak as angels.
And though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge (verse 2): if a man's head were a library of all learning, if he could know all that is knowable, if he could, with Solomon, discourse from the cedar in Lebanon even to the hyssop — and have not charity, all is nothing. Knowledge without love makes a man no better than a devil.
And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains — were it not admirable to have the faith of miracles? To unhinge mountains, to cast out devils, to take up serpents and drink poison and it should not hurt us (Matthew 16:16)? Yet if I have no charity I am nothing; I am of no account with God. The miracles of faith without the mystery of love profit nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor (verse 3): suppose I give away all my estate in alms, yet without love it avails me nothing. It is like a lamp without oil.
And though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it is nothing — the fire of martyrdom avails not without the fire of charity.
Let a man come to church, pray, receive sacraments, yet if his heart burns in malice, it is but going to hell in a more saint-like manner. O how precious a jewel, says Augustine, is love — how rare a grace — that if this be wanting, all other things, though never so glorious, are in vain.
The apostle sets forth this grace of love positively, by deciphering its nature and excellency.
Charity is kind (verse 4): love is a munificent, bountiful grace — it is full of good works; it drops as the honeycomb.
Charity is not puffed up; though it be bountiful, it is not proud; love is a humble grace — like the violet, which though it perfumes the air, yet hangs down its head. Love lays aside the trumpet and covers itself with a veil; love conceals its own worth and says as Paul (2 Corinthians 12:11): though I be nothing.
Charity seeks not her own (verse 5); the apostle complains (Philippians 2:21): all men seek their own, but love seeks not her own. This is a diffusive grace and wholly spends itself for the good of others. It is reported of Pompey that when there was a great dearth in Rome, Pompey having provided great store of corn abroad and shipped it, the mariners being backward in hoisting sail by reason of a tempest, Pompey himself sets forward in the storm, using these words: better a few of us perish than that Rome should not be relieved — here was public spirit! Love seeks not her own; it makes a private Christian a common good. Love is a grace that dwells not at home — it goes abroad, it makes frequent visits, it looks into the condition of others and relieves them. Love has one eye blind, to wink at the infirmities of others, and another eye open to spy their wants.
Charity is not easily provoked; it is not in a paroxysm; it burns not in anger. It is meek and calm, never taking fire unless to warm others with its benign beams of mercy; it gives honey but does not easily sting.
The apostle sets forth the excellency of this grace of love comparatively, by laying it in the balance with other graces (verse 13): and now abide faith, hope, charity — these three; but the greatest of these is charity. He compares love with faith and hope, and then sets the crown upon love. Indeed, in some sense faith is greater than charity.
In the order of causality, faith is the cause of charity; therefore it is more noble. For as Augustine says, though the root of the tree be not seen, yet all the beauty of the branches proceeds from the root; so all the beauty that sparkles in love proceeds from the root of faith.
Faith is more excellent than charity in the matter of benefit; faith is a more beneficial grace to us — by faith we are engrafted into Christ and partake of the fatness of the olive. Faith fetches in all the strength and riches of Christ into the soul; faith puts upon the soul the embroidered robe of Christ's righteousness in which it shines brighter than the angels. But in another sense love is greater than faith.
In respect of visibility, because love is a more visible grace than faith; faith lies hid in the heart (Romans 10:9). Love is more conspicuous and shines forth more in the life. Love discovers the soundness of faith, as the even beating of the pulse shows the healthful temper of the body. Faith bows the knee to Christ and worships him; love opens its treasures and presents unto Christ gifts — gold and frankincense.
Love is greater than faith in respect of duration (1 Corinthians 13:8): charity never fails. We shall lay down our body of flesh and see God face to face; faith and hope shall be no more, but love shall remain. While we live here we have need of faith — this is our Jacob's staff to walk with (2 Corinthians 5): we walk by faith. But we shall set this staff shortly at heaven's door, and love only shall enter within the veil. So you have seen the sparkling of this diamond; thus does the apostle, no less elegantly than divinely, set forth the beauty and orient luster of this grace.
The third argument pressing Christians to love is that this is the ornament of the gospel — it sets a crown of honor upon religion and renders it lovely in the eyes of the world. It was an honor to religion in Tertullian's time when the heathens could say: see how the Christians love one another! Psalm 133:1: behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity — it is like the precious ointment upon the head that runs down to the skirts of the garments. O what a blessed sight it is to see Christians linked together with the silver link of charity! The church is Christ's temple; the saints are living stones (1 Peter 2:5); how beautiful is this temple when the stones of it are cemented together with love! It was said of the first temple there was no noise of hammer in it; oh that there might be no noise of strife and division in God's church. What is religion but religation — a binding and knitting together of hearts? We are knit to God by faith, and to one another by love.
The fourth argument is the necessity of love; love is a debt, and debts must be paid (Romans 13:8): owe nothing to any man but love. The debt of love differs from other debts.
When a debt is paid, we receive an acquittance and are to pay it no more; but this debt of love must be always in the paying. In heaven we must be paying this debt — love to God and to the saints; there is no discharge from this debt.
Other debts may be dispensed with; we forgive a debt sometimes, as that creditor did in the parable (Matthew 18:27): the lord of that servant was moved with compassion and forgave him the debt. But this debt of love is by no means to be dispensed with — it must be paid. If we do not pay this debt, God will come upon us with an arrest and throw us into hell prison.
In civil debts between man and man, the more they pay, the less they have; but in this debt of love it is quite contrary — the more we pay, the more we have. The more grace from God, the more love from others; love, like the widow's oil, increases by pouring out. By paying other debts we grow poor; by paying this debt we grow richer.
Love makes us like God; God is love (1 John 4:16) — a golden sentence. Augustine says the apostle does more commend love in this one word — God is love — than Paul does in his whole chapter. As the nature of the sun is light, so God's nature is love; the three persons in the Trinity are all love.
God the Father is love (John 3:16): God so loved the world — that God should part with Christ out of his bosom, the Son of his love, and lay this jewel as it were to pawn for our salvation — oh unparalleled love! Never was such love shown to the angels.
God the Son is love; how did Christ love his spouse when he died for her! His sides dropped blood; his heart dropped love; such a vein of love was opened in him that our sins could not stanch it. Love was the wing on which Christ flew into the virgin's womb; Christ incarnate — here was love covered over with flesh; and Christ on the cross — here was a book of love laid open before us to read in.
God the Holy Ghost is love; his appearing in the likeness of a dove showed his nature. The dove, says Pliny, is an amicable creature — it is without gall. What are all the motions of the Spirit but tenders of love? What is the zeal of the Spirit but the print of love? Why does this blessed Spirit, as a suitor, come wooing to sinners, but that they may know he is in love? Thus all the persons in the Trinity are love; and the more we shine in the grace of love, the more we resemble the God of love.
The sixth argument enforcing love is from the sweet relations we stand in one to another; we are fellow-citizens (Ephesians 2:19); we all expect one heaven; we shall shortly live together, and shall we not love together? We are soldiers of the same band (2 Timothy 2:3); ours must be the fight of faith, not the fight of contention; our strife must be who shall love most. We are branches of the same vine — shall we not be united? We are stones of the same building — shall we not be cemented with love? Nay, we are brethren (Acts 7:26): sirs, you are brethren; why do you wrong one to another?
Use 1. I might here take up a lamentation and steep my words in tears to consider the decay — I had almost said the funerals — of this grace among Christians. The fire of brotherly love is almost ready to go out; instead of the fire of love, the wildfire of passion. I have read of one Vitalis who hazarded his life to succor his distressed friend; but such men are dead in this age. The text says: see that you love one another; but our times have made a bad comment upon this text — how do Christians reproach, censure, and malign one another! The text says love fervently, but they hate fervently. Instead of the bond of love, behold the apple of strife; we live in the frigid zone — the love of many waxes cold. Many live as if they had been born upon the mountains of Bether, the mountains of division, and baptized in the waters of Meribah, the waters of strife. Do the wicked unite? Nay, do the devils unite? There was in one man a legion — shall there be more harmony among devils than among Christians? Oh Christians, turn your hot words into salt tears! how do the enemies of religion insult to see not only Christ's coat but his body rent.
Consider the ill consequence where love is wanting; the absence of this grace brings forth divisions, and they are dangerous.
Divisions bring an opprobrium and scandal upon religion; they make the ways of God evil spoken of, as if religion were the fomenter of envy and sedition. Julian in his invectives against the Christians said that they lived together as tigers, rending and tearing one another; and shall we by our animosities and contentions make good Julian's words? This will make others afraid to embrace the Christian faith. There is a story in Epiphanius of Meletius and Peter Bishop of Alexandria — both confessors of the orthodox religion, both condemned to suffer. Being together in prison, upon a small difference they fell into so great a schism that they drew a partition between each other and would not hold communion in the same worship of Christ, for which notwithstanding they both suffered. This division grew scandalous and did more hurt than their persecution did good.
Divisions advance Satan's kingdom; the devil has no hope but in our discords. Chrysostom observes of the city of Corinth that when many zealous converts were brought in, Satan knew no better way to dam up the current of religion than by throwing in a bone of contention and dividing them into parties — one was for Paul and another for Apollos, but few for Christ.
Use 2. Be exhorted to cordial and fervent love; see that you love one another. Oh that this sweet spice might send forth its fragrant smell among Christians! Oh that the Lord would rain down some of these silver showers of love upon the hearts of Christians, which are for the most part like the mountains of Gilboa which have none of this heavenly dew upon them. They say of the stones of the temple they were so closely cemented as if there had been but one stone; it were to be wished that the hearts of Christians were so sweetly cemented in love as if there were but one heart.
Let me commend this grace of amity and love to Christians under a double notion.
As you are members of a body politic; the whole nation is a political body, and it should be with the body politic as it is with the natural body. All the members of the body have a sweet sympathy and work for the good of the whole, that there be no schism in the body (1 Corinthians 12:25). So it should be in the body politic.
You are members of the church of God; you bear Christ's name, you wear his livery; therefore you must be soldered together in affection. It is a sad omen and presage when the joints of the same body shall be loosed and the knees smite one against another.
If yet men will live at variance, nourishing a viper in their bosoms, I shall offer two things to their serious consideration.
An uncharitable person is an unregenerate person (Titus 3:3): we were sometimes disobedient, serving divers lusts, living in malice and envy — as if he had said: before grace came, we were filled and ready to burst with this poison of malice. The apostle describing a natural condition calls it the gall of bitterness (Acts 8). He that lives in bitter strife is in the gall of bitterness; a malicious person is of no kin to God, for God is love. He knows nothing of the gospel savingly, for it is a gospel of peace; we read of the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3) and the bond of iniquity (Acts 8:23). Him whom the gospel has not bound in the bond of peace, Satan has bound in the bond of iniquity.
Uncharitableness is a leaven that sours the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:8).
It sours your good qualities; Naaman was an honorable man, a mighty man in valor — but he was a leper (2 Kings 5:1); that 'but' was like a dead fly in the ointment — it spoiled all the rest. So it may be said: such a man is a man of parts, of great moral endowments — he is just, affable, temperate; but he is a leper, he will not be in charity. He pays every one their own, but there is one debt he will not pay though he rot in hell for it — the debt of love; this is a brand of infamy upon him.
Uncharitableness sours your good duties; you pray and come to church, but refuse to be tied in a knot of amity. What profit is there of all your seeming devotion? We are bid to lift up pure hands without wrath (1 Timothy 2:8); the uncharitable person does not lift up pure hands in prayer but leprous hands, bloody hands (1 John 3:16): whosoever hates his brother is a murderer. Prayer, says Chrysostom, may be compared to a fine garland; the hands that make a garland need to be clean; so the heart that makes a prayer needs to be clean. Wrath and anger do sully a Christian's prayers — and will the holy God touch them? The uncharitable man poisons his own prayers; will the Lord accept a poisoned sacrifice?
Oh that all this might at last persuade to cordial and fervent love; let us turn all our censuring into praying. Let us pray to God that he would quench the fire of contention and increase the fire of fraternal love among us. Let us pray that the Lord would heal our schisms, repair our breaches, that he would make us like the cherubim with our faces looking one upon another. Let us pray that God will make good that promise that we shall serve him with one consent — or as in the Hebrew, with one shoulder. And that this may be the golden motto written upon England: one heart and one way.
It exhorts us that as we would be amicable to all, so especially that we would love those who are of the household of Faith, viz. the Saints and people of God. We must love as God loves; he loves them most who are like him; he loves piety, though it be espoused to poverty: so must our love run out especially to those who have the image and superscription of God upon them. Joseph loved all his brethren, but Benjamin most; the people of God must have a Benjamin's portion in our love. The Saints are called Jewels (Malachi 3:17) which we must love and prize; they are called the apple of God's eye (Zechariah) to show how tender they should be in our eye. The Saints are partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4), not by an incorporation into the Divine Essence, but by a conformity to the Divine likeness: these we must love amore complacentiae, with a love of complacency and delight. These are near allied to Christ by faith, they are of the blood Royal of heaven; these must be higher in our thoughts, and deeper in our affections than others; Jerome loved Christ dwelling in Augustine.
When I say the Saints must have the largest share in our love, I mean not all that call themselves Saints (such as under a mask of holiness commit sin — hypocritical Saints), but such as the Scripture calls Saints, such as excel in virtue (Psalm 16), such as walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8), such as have aliquid Christi (as Bucer saith) something of Christ in them; these Saints must we place our entire love upon. Indeed there is that in them which may excite and draw forth love; they have the beauty of inherent holiness, and they have an interest in the unspotted holiness of Christ, which may be a sufficient loadstone to draw love to them.
But what shall we say to those who, instead of loving the people of God because they are Saints, hate them ea ratione, because they are Saints? As Tertullian says, confessio nominis — the very confession of the Name of a Christian was enough to bring them into an odium, and was laid against them as a matter of crime. It was said of Aristides that he was banished out of Athens, quia justus, because he was just. Sanctity is the thing that is reproached and hated in the world; wicked men Panther-like would tear the picture of God drawn in the New man. Let one have all kind of accomplishments — Learning, Morality, Piety; though men will love him for his Learning and Morality, they will hate him for his Piety. Holiness is become the crime; the Serpent is known by his hissing, they are the seed of the Old Serpent that hiss at Religion. Let me speak my mind freely: there is generally among men a secret antipathy against the power of godliness; they are for some shows of devotion, they keep up a form; but such as have a spirit of zeal and sanctity shining in them, their hearts rise against. Let me tell you, there is not a greater sign of a rotten and devilish heart, than to hate a man for that very thing for which God loves him — namely his holiness. It is an high affront to abuse the King's Statue: what vengeance (think we) shall they be counted worthy of, who malign and do what in them lies to tear in pieces the image of the living God. Oh take heed of this; the hating the grace of the Spirit comes near to the despiting of the Spirit of grace. To conclude, let us beg the spirit of amity and unity, that we may love one another, especially that we may be endeared in our affections to them who are of the family of God, and whose names are enrolled in the book of life.
1 Peter 1:22 — "Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart."
Scripture identifies love for other believers as the clearest sign of a person who is bound for heaven (1 John 3:14). And I find Christ and His apostles constantly returning to this theme of love — as if love were the sweetest music and harmony in all of religion. That is what has brought me to this subject.
Every grace has its beauty. But some graces adorn and display a Christian before the watching world more than others — like stars that shine more brightly — and among these, humility and love stand out. These two graces, like precious diamonds, cast a sparkling radiance on the Christian faith. I want to speak of the second of these now: "fervently love one another from the heart." Love is a grace always needed and therefore never out of season — though it is far too often out of practice.
This text, like the river of Eden, divides into four branches.
A command: "love one another."
The scope of love: "one another."
The character of love: "from the heart."
The intensity of love: "fervently."
Love purely — this is the opposite of hypocrisy. Love must come from the heart. It must not be a mere compliment, which is like a painted fire. Pretended love is worse than open hatred.
Love fervently — this is the opposite of lukewarmness. Love must burst into flame. It must not be like smoldering flax but like a burning lamp. The Hebrew word for love carries this meaning — an ardent, passionate affection. Nothing must be allowed to quench it.
Doctrine: Christians must love one another sincerely and intensely (Colossians 3:14): "Beyond all these things put on love" (1 Peter 4:8): "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another." As if the apostle had said: whatever else you neglect, do not neglect this grace. Jerome reports that when the apostle John was very old and too weak to walk, he would be carried into the pulpit. There he would repeat one sentence — "Little children, love one another" — and then be carried out. How we need this grace of love to be engraved in letters of gold on our hearts by the finger of the Holy Spirit!
The question arises: what is love?
Love is a sweet and gracious affection by which we desire and promote the good of another as our own. Love is a sacred fire kindled in the heart by the Holy Spirit — like the fire that came down from heaven (2 Chronicles 7:1). I will strive to keep this fire burning in Christians' hearts — like the sacred fire the Vestal Virgins maintained in Rome — so that it never goes out.
There are several reasons that press this duty of love upon us.
We must love because God commands it (John 13:34): "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." Love is both a new commandment and an old one. It is old because it is a law written in the human heart by nature itself — as if inscribed with a diamond pen. It is also old because it appears in the ancient statutes of Scripture (Leviticus 19:18): "You shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord." And yet it is a new commandment.
It is new because it has been cleansed of the distortions the Pharisees put on it. The old version said: love your neighbor. Now it says: love your enemy (Matthew 5:44). Here is a new interpretation of an old law.
Love is called a new commandment also because it comes in a new form — freshly minted by the gospel, reinforced by a new example (John 13:34): "As I have loved you." So love is not optional. It is a duty — both an old commandment and a new one.
The second reason pressing us to love is the excellence of this grace. It is a beautiful grace. All other graces seem dim unless love shines through them. Even faith has no beauty unless it works through love. The tears of repentance are not truly pure unless they flow from the spring of love. Love is the jewel Christ's bride wears. It is the diamond in the ring of the graces. Love is the grace that seasons all our actions and makes them rich. Love is like musk placed among linen — it perfumes everything. So love makes all our acts of worship a sweet fragrance to God (Ephesians 5:2). Prayer is compared to incense (Psalm 141:2). Incense laid on the altar but not set alight does not smell as sweet. The incense of prayer does not give off its full fragrance unless it is kindled by this fire of love. Love is the badge that marks a true saint (John 13:35): "By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Bernard calls love the sweet dew that distills from a Christian and refreshes everyone it falls upon. Love is the golden clasp that binds hearts together. It is the cement that joins Christians to each other. It is "the perfect bond of unity" (Colossians 3:14). If this bond breaks, everything falls apart. Love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:10). All the duties of the first and second tables of the law — reverence toward God and justice toward our neighbors — are summed up in this: you shall love.
How beautifully and richly the apostle Paul expounds and praises this grace of love! He writes with the skill of an orator as much as a theologian — painting love in all its spiritual beauty and glory!
Paul exalts this grace in three ways.
First, by contrast — he shows that the most glorious gifts mean nothing without love. Without love, everything else falls short (1 Corinthians 13:1): "Though I speak with the tongues of men" — even if a man could speak as many languages as Mithridates, who reportedly knew twenty-two different tongues; even if he had the golden eloquence of Chrysostom; even if he could do with his oratory what the poets say Orpheus did with his harp — moving rocks and stones — yet without love it would count for nothing.
More than that, says the apostle: "Though I speak with the tongues of angels and do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Would it not be a magnificent thing to have the eloquence of angels? Yet without love, it would be nothing more than clanging noise. To love as Christians love is better than to speak as angels speak.
"And though I have all knowledge" (verse 2): if a person's mind were a library containing all human learning; if he could know everything that can be known; if he could discourse with Solomon's range — from the cedar of Lebanon down to the hyssop — and have no love, all of it amounts to nothing. Knowledge without love makes a person no better than a devil.
"And though I have all faith, so as to remove mountains" — would it not be remarkable to have miracle-working faith? To move mountains, to cast out demons, to handle serpents and drink poison and not be harmed (Matthew 16:18)? Yet without love I am nothing — I count for nothing before God. The wonders of faith without the mystery of love profit nothing.
"And though I give all my possessions to feed the poor" (verse 3): even if I gave away my entire estate in charity, without love it profits me nothing. It is like a lamp without oil.
"And though I give my body to be burned" and have not love, it is nothing — the fire of martyrdom is worthless without the fire of love.
A person may come to church, pray, and receive the sacraments — but if his heart burns with malice, he is simply going to hell in a more religious-looking way. How precious a jewel is love, says Augustine — how rare a grace — that without it, all other things, however glorious they appear, are in vain.
The apostle also describes this grace of love positively, by laying out its character and excellence.
Love is kind (verse 4). Love is a generous, giving grace — full of good works. It drops like a honeycomb.
Love is not arrogant. Though it is generous, it is not proud. Love is a humble grace — like the violet, which perfumes the air yet bows its head. Love sets aside the trumpet and covers itself with a veil. Love conceals its own worth and says with Paul (2 Corinthians 12:11): "Though I am nothing."
Love does not seek its own (verse 5). The apostle complains (Philippians 2:21): "For they all seek after their own interests." But love seeks not its own. Love is an outward-flowing grace — it spends itself entirely for the good of others. It is reported of Pompey that when there was a severe food shortage in Rome, he had gathered large supplies of grain abroad and loaded them onto ships. When the sailors were reluctant to set sail because of a storm, Pompey himself stepped forward into the storm, saying: it is better that a few of us perish than that Rome go without relief. That was genuine public spirit. Love seeks not its own. It turns a private Christian into a common good. Love is a grace that does not stay at home — it goes out, makes regular visits, looks into the needs of others and helps meet them. Love has one eye closed, to overlook the weaknesses of others, and another eye open, to spot their needs.
Love is not easily provoked. It does not fly into fits of anger. It does not burn with rage. Love is gentle and quiet. It only catches fire in order to warm others with its merciful warmth. It gives honey but does not easily sting.
The apostle also praises love by comparison — placing it alongside faith and hope and then crowning love above them both (verse 13): "But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love." He weighs love against faith and hope, then sets the crown on love. In one sense, it is true that faith is greater than love.
In the order of cause and effect, faith produces love — and in that sense, faith is the nobler. As Augustine says: though the root of a tree is hidden from sight, all the beauty of the branches comes from that root. In the same way, all the beauty that shines in love comes from the root of faith.
Faith is also greater than love in terms of what it does for us directly. Faith is the more directly beneficial grace — through faith we are grafted into Christ and receive the richness of the vine. Faith draws all the strength and riches of Christ into the soul. Faith clothes the soul in the embroidered robe of Christ's righteousness, in which it shines more brilliantly than the angels. But in another sense, love is greater than faith.
Love is more visible. It is a more outwardly evident grace than faith. Faith is hidden in the heart (Romans 10:9). Love is more obvious — it shines forth in daily life. Love reveals the soundness of faith the way a steady pulse reveals the health of the body. Faith bows the knee to Christ and worships Him. Love opens its treasury and presents Christ with gifts — gold and frankincense.
Love is also greater than faith in that it lasts longer (1 Corinthians 13:8): "Love never fails." We will one day lay aside our bodies of flesh and see God face to face. Faith and hope will be no more — but love will remain. While we live here, we need faith — it is our staff for the journey (2 Corinthians 5:7): "We walk by faith." But we will set that staff down at heaven's door, and only love will enter within the veil. So you have seen the brilliance of this diamond. With both elegance and divine insight, the apostle has set out the beauty and radiance of this grace.
The third reason pressing Christians to love is that love adorns the gospel — it places a crown of honor on the Christian faith and makes it beautiful in the eyes of the world. It was an honor to religion in Tertullian's day when even the pagans could say: see how the Christians love one another! Psalm 133:1: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes." What a beautiful sight it is to see Christians bound together by the silver cord of love! The church is Christ's temple. The saints are living stones (1 Peter 2:5). How magnificent is this temple when its stones are cemented together with love! It was said of the first temple that no sound of hammer was heard within it. How we need the same — no sound of strife or division within God's church. What is religion but a binding and joining of hearts together? We are bound to God through faith, and to one another through love.
The fourth reason is the necessity of love. Love is a debt — and debts must be paid (Romans 13:8): "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another." The debt of love differs from all other debts.
When we pay an ordinary debt, we receive a receipt and owe nothing more. But this debt of love must be paid continuously — it is never fully discharged. Even in heaven we must keep paying this debt — love to God and love to the saints. There is no release from it.
Other debts can be forgiven. Sometimes a creditor cancels a debt, as in the parable (Matthew 18:27): "The lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt." But the debt of love cannot be cancelled — it must be paid. If we fail to pay this debt, God will come against us and cast us into the prison of hell.
In ordinary financial debts, the more we pay the less we have. But this debt of love works in the opposite way — the more we pay, the more we have. The more grace God gives, the more love flows toward others. Love, like the widow's oil, increases the more it is poured out. Other debts make us poorer as we pay them. This debt makes us richer.
Love makes us like God. God is love (1 John 4:16) — a golden sentence. Augustine says the apostle commends love more in those three words — God is love — than Paul does in his entire chapter on love. Just as the nature of the sun is light, God's nature is love. All three persons of the Trinity are love.
God the Father is love (John 3:16): "God so loved the world." That God would give up Christ from His own bosom — the Son of His love — and lay this jewel as a ransom for our salvation — what unparalleled love! No such love has ever been shown to the angels.
God the Son is love. How Christ loved His bride when He died for her! His side poured out blood; His heart poured out love. Such a vein of love was opened in Him that all our sins could not stop its flow. Love was the wing that carried Christ into the virgin's womb. Christ incarnate — here was love wrapped in flesh. Christ on the cross — here was a book of love laid open before us to read.
God the Holy Spirit is love. His appearing in the form of a dove revealed His nature. The dove, says Pliny, is a gentle creature — it has no gall. What are all the Spirit's movements but offers of love? What is the Spirit's zeal but the stamp of love? Why does this blessed Spirit come like a suitor, pursuing sinners — if not to show that He is in love with them? All three persons of the Trinity are love. And the more we shine in the grace of love, the more we resemble the God of love.
The sixth reason pressing Christians to love is the sweet relationships we share with one another. We are fellow citizens (Ephesians 2:19). We all look forward to the same heaven. We will soon live together — should we not love together now? We are soldiers of the same army (2 Timothy 2:3). Our fight must be the fight of faith, not the fight of quarreling. The only competition among us should be who loves the most. We are branches of the same vine — should we not be united? We are stones of the same building — should we not be cemented with love? More than that, we are brothers (Acts 7:26): "Men, you are brothers — why do you wrong each other?"
Application 1. I could take up a lamentation here — and steep my words in tears — over the decline, I almost want to say the funeral, of brotherly love among Christians. The fire of brotherly love is nearly extinguished. In its place burns the wildfire of passion and strife. I have read of a man named Vitalis who risked his own life to rescue a friend in distress. But such people seem gone from this age. The text says: see that you love one another — but our times have made a poor commentary on it. How Christians reproach, condemn, and slander one another! The text says love fervently — but many hate fervently. Instead of the bond of love, we see the apple of strife. We live in the frozen zone — the love of many has grown cold. Many seem to have been born on the mountains of Bether — the mountains of division — and baptized in the waters of Meribah — the waters of strife. Even the wicked unite! Even demons joined together — a whole legion was in one man. Will there be more unity among devils than among Christians? Christians, turn your hot words into humble tears! How the enemies of religion mock when they see not only Christ's coat but His very body torn apart.
Consider the damage done when love is absent. The lack of this grace produces division — and division is dangerous.
Division brings disgrace and scandal on religion. It causes the ways of God to be spoken of as evil — as if religion were the source of bitterness and strife. Julian, in his attacks on Christians, said they lived together like tigers — tearing and savaging each other. Shall we by our quarrels and conflicts prove Julian's words right? This will drive others away from the Christian faith. Epiphanius records the story of Meletius and Peter, Bishop of Alexandria — both confessors of orthodox Christianity, both condemned to suffer. While imprisoned together, a minor dispute drove them into such a bitter schism that they divided their cell with a partition and refused to worship Christ together — even though they were both suffering for His name. This division became a scandal and did more damage to the cause of Christ than their martyrdom did good.
Division advances Satan's kingdom. The devil's only hope lies in our divisions. Chrysostom observes about the church at Corinth: when many zealous new believers had been gathered in, Satan saw no better strategy to block the flow of the gospel than to throw in a bone of contention and split them into factions — one declaring for Paul, another for Apollos, and few truly for Christ.
Application 2. Let Christians be called to genuine and fervent love. See that you love one another. How we need this sweet spice to send out its fragrance among Christians! How we need the Lord to rain down these silver showers of love on Christian hearts — which are for the most part like the mountains of Gilboa, on which no heavenly dew falls. It is said of the stones of Solomon's temple that they were so tightly fitted together they appeared to be one single stone. How we could wish that the hearts of Christians were so sweetly joined in love that they were as one heart.
Let me commend this grace of friendship and love to Christians from two angles.
First, as members of a community. The whole nation is a political body, and it should function like a natural body. All the members of a body work in harmony together, each contributing to the good of the whole — so that there is no division within the body (1 Corinthians 12:25). So it should be in the body of society.
You are members of the body of Christ's church. You bear His name and wear His livery. Therefore you must be joined together in genuine affection. It is a dark and troubling sign when the joints of the same body come loose and the knees knock against each other.
If people will still insist on living in conflict, nurturing a viper at their own chest, I offer two serious considerations.
An unloving person is an unregenerate person (Titus 3:3): "For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy." As if the apostle was saying: before grace arrived, we were full to bursting with this poison of malice. The apostle, describing the natural unconverted state, calls it "the gall of bitterness" (Acts 8:23). The person who lives in bitter strife is still in the gall of bitterness. A malicious person has no family resemblance to God — for God is love. He knows nothing of the gospel at a saving level, for it is a gospel of peace. There is a "bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3) and a "bond of iniquity" (Acts 8:23). The person the gospel has not bound in the bond of peace, Satan has bound in the bond of iniquity.
Lovelessness is a leaven that sours the whole lump (1 Corinthians 5:8).
It sours your good qualities. Naaman was an honorable man and a mighty warrior — but he was a leper (2 Kings 5:1). That word "but" was like a dead fly in an ointment — it ruined everything else. In the same way, we might say of such a person: he is a man of ability and strong moral character — just, pleasant, self-controlled. But he is a spiritual leper. He will not love. He pays every other debt he owes — but this one debt he refuses to pay, even if he rots in hell for it. The debt of love. This is a mark of disgrace on him.
Lovelessness also sours your religious duties. You pray and attend church, but you refuse to be tied in the bond of friendship with others. What is all your outward devotion worth? We are told to lift up holy hands without wrath or dissension (1 Timothy 2:8). But the loveless person does not lift up holy hands in prayer — he lifts up diseased hands, bloody hands (1 John 3:15): "Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer." Prayer, says Chrysostom, may be compared to a beautiful wreath of flowers. The hands that make a wreath must be clean. So the heart that offers a prayer must be clean. Anger and bitterness contaminate a Christian's prayers — will the holy God touch them? The unloving person poisons his own prayers. Will the Lord accept a poisoned offering?
Oh that all of this might at last persuade us to genuine and fervent love! Let us turn all our criticizing into praying. Let us pray that God would put out the fire of strife and kindle the fire of brotherly love among us. Let us pray that the Lord would heal our divisions, mend our fractures, and make us like the cherubim — facing one another. Let us pray that God would fulfill His promise that we will serve Him with one consent — or as the Hebrew has it, with one shoulder. And let this be the golden motto written over England: one heart and one way.
Let us be urged, as we seek to show love to all people, to give a special love to those who belong to the household of faith — the saints and people of God. We must love as God loves. He loves most those who are most like Him. He loves godliness even when it comes joined to poverty. So our love should flow most freely toward those who bear God's image and His mark upon them. Joseph loved all his brothers, but he loved Benjamin most. God's people must have Benjamin's portion in our love. The saints are called jewels (Malachi 3:17) — we must value and prize them. They are called the apple of God's eye (Zechariah 2:8) — to show how tenderly they should be regarded by us. The saints are "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) — not by being absorbed into the divine essence, but by being conformed to God's likeness. These we must love with a love of deep delight and affection. They are close relatives of Christ by faith — they carry the royal blood of heaven. They must stand higher in our thoughts and deeper in our affections than others. Jerome loved Christ as he saw Him dwelling in Augustine.
When I say the saints must have the largest share of our love, I do not mean everyone who calls himself a saint — including those who use religion as a mask while committing sin. I mean those the Scripture identifies as saints: those who excel in virtue (Psalm 16:3), those who walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8), those who have — as Bucer puts it — something of Christ in them. These are the ones we must pour our deepest love upon. There is something in true saints that naturally stirs love. They carry the beauty of genuine holiness within them, and they share in the spotless holiness of Christ — which is more than enough to draw our hearts toward them.
But what shall we say about those who, far from loving God's people because they are saints, hate them for that very reason — because they are saints? As Tertullian says, the mere confession of the name of Christ was enough to make a person hated and to be used against him as a charge. Aristides was said to have been banished from Athens simply because he was just. Holiness is the thing the world reproaches and hates. Wicked men, like panthers, want to tear apart the image of God that is drawn in the new man. A person may have every kind of excellence — learning, moral character, godliness. People will admire him for his learning and his character, but they will hate him for his godliness. Holiness has become the crime. The serpent is known by its hissing — those who hiss at true religion are of the seed of the ancient serpent. Let me speak plainly: there is a general secret hostility in the hearts of unregenerate people toward genuine godliness. They will tolerate religious appearances and keep up a religious form. But those who display a genuine spirit of zeal and holiness stir up their opposition. I say this plainly: there is no clearer sign of a rotten and devilish heart than to hate a person for the very thing for which God loves him — namely his holiness. It is a serious offense to deface a king's statue. What punishment, do you think, will be counted fitting for those who mock and try to destroy the image of the living God? Beware of this. To hate the grace of the Spirit in others comes very close to despising the Spirit of grace Himself. To conclude — let us ask God for a spirit of unity and friendship, that we may love one another, and especially that we may hold in deep affection those who belong to the family of God and whose names are written in the book of life.
