Sovereign Grace Church

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death

(1 JOHN 3:14)

They are loved by one another. John says, “If [any] man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 JOHN 4:20). That text, “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren,” (1 JOHN 3:14) is, I think, much abused by some. They suppose it to consist of a universal love to all mankind; whereas, that has nothing to do with it. [Rather], it is a child of God loving God’s image in His children, that is intended. You may love your wife, husband, children, or parents, and it is your duty to do so; but, if you do not see the image of God in them, you cannot love them with the same love as you do the greatest stranger, whom you believe to be a child of God. You love your relations with a natural love, and it is your duty to provide for them before others; but the love of the brethren is very different. Don’t you sometimes feel taken up in love to David, or Job, or some other saint who is gone to glory, as though you were with them? And sometimes, when strife is stirred up among brethren, and especially when Satan can persuade you that such a one is not a child of God who you thought was, then you think you may lay on pretty savagely; but what cuts of conscience you begin to feel when you begin to think again that it is a child of God, and how harshly you have spoken of him!

^{An excerpt from “Notes Of A Sermon” by William Gadsby, new our bookshelf this month}