Charity and Its Fruits

Charity: The Sum of All Virtue

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Cor 13:1-3)

In these words we observe, first, that the apostle singles out something of special importance, something he regards as uniquely essential in the life of a Christian, and calls it CHARITY. This charity, we find, is emphasized throughout the New Testament by Christ and His apostles more consistently and more urgently than any other virtue.

But the word "charity," as used in the New Testament, carries a far broader meaning than it does in everyday conversation. When people use the word "charity" in ordinary speech, they typically mean a tendency to think well of others and interpret their words and actions generously; sometimes the word simply refers to giving money or goods to the poor. Yet these are only particular branches, or fruits, of that great virtue the New Testament insists on so consistently. The word properly means love, or that disposition by which one person holds another dear; and the original Greek (ἀγάπη), translated here as "charity," would more accurately be rendered "love," since that is its true English equivalent. In the New Testament, then, "charity" means precisely the same thing as Christian love. While it most often refers to love toward other people, it sometimes encompasses love toward God as well. This is clearly how the apostle uses it in this letter, as he explains in chapter 8: "Knowledge puffs up, but charity builds up" (1 Cor 8:1). The comparison here is between knowledge and charity, with charity given the higher place because knowledge inflates pride while charity builds others up. The following two verses then explain more specifically how knowledge tends to produce pride and why charity builds up, so that what is called charity in the first verse is called loving God in the third, since both verses are plainly speaking of the same thing. There is no doubt that the apostle means the same thing by "charity" in this thirteenth chapter as he does in the eighth, since he is comparing the same two things in both places: knowledge and charity. "Though I have all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing" (1 Cor 13:2); and again, "charity never fails, but knowledge will vanish away" (1 Cor 13:8). By charity, then, we should understand Christian love in its fullest sense, whether it is directed toward God or toward our fellow human beings.

And here, charity is presented in a distinctly emphatic way as the great and essential thing. This becomes clearer when we consider, Secondly, what things are described as worthless without it: namely, the most excellent things that natural men can ever possess, both the most excellent privileges and the most excellent performances. First, the most excellent privileges: speaking in tongues, the gift of prophecy, understanding all mysteries, faith to move mountains, and so on. Second, the most excellent performances: giving everything one owns to feed the poor, and surrendering one’s body to be burned, and so on. No natural man has ever possessed or accomplished anything greater than these, and they represent precisely the kind of things in which people are most tempted to place their trust. And yet the apostle declares that if we have all of them and do not have charity, we are nothing. The doctrine being taught, then, is this: THAT ALL THE VIRTUE THAT IS SAVING, AND THAT DISTINGUISHES TRUE CHRISTIANS FROM OTHERS, IS SUMMED UP IN CHRISTIAN LOVE. This follows clearly from the text, because so many other things are listed that natural men may possess, and the things listed are of the highest kind they could possibly have, in both privilege and performance, and yet it is said that none of them count for anything without charity. If any of them were saving in themselves, they would count for something without it.

By listing so many things of such high order and then declaring that all of them profit nothing without charity, the apostle gives us every reason to conclude that nothing whatsoever counts for anything without it. Whatever a man may have, whatever he may do, it means nothing without charity. This surely implies that charity is the great thing, that everything lacking charity in some way contained or implied within it is empty, and that charity is the life and soul of all religion, without which everything that bears the name of virtue is hollow and vain.

In addressing this doctrine, I want to begin by examining the nature of this divine love, and then demonstrate the truth of the doctrine concerning it. And I. I want to speak about the nature of a truly Christian love. Here I would observe, 1. That all true Christian love is one and the same in its principle. It may take many forms and have many objects, and may be directed either toward God or toward other people, but it is the same principle in the heart that underlies every expression of a truly Christian love, whatever its object may be. The holy love in a Christian’s heart is fundamentally different from the love found in other people. In others, love toward different objects may arise from different principles and motives, with different intentions; but a truly Christian love is different from this. It is unified in its principle, regardless of the object toward which it is directed. It flows from the same source or fountain in the heart, even though it may run out through different channels and in different directions, and it is therefore fitting that it all falls under the single name of charity, as in the text. That this Christian love is one, whatever the objects toward which it may flow, is evident from the following considerations:

First, all Christian love flows from the same Spirit working in the heart. Both love for God and love for other people arise from the same Spirit breathing life into the soul. The Spirit of God is a Spirit of love, and when He enters the soul, love enters with Him. God is love, and whoever has God dwelling in him through His Spirit will have love dwelling in him as well. The very nature of the Holy Spirit is love, and it is by communicating Himself, in His own nature, to the saints that their hearts are filled with divine charity. This is why we find that the saints are partakers of the divine nature, and why Christian love is called the "love of the Spirit" (Rom 15:30) and "love in the Spirit" (Col 1:8). Even the deep affections of love and mercy seem to point to the same reality as the fellowship of the Spirit (Phil 2:1). It is this same Spirit who pours love for God into our hearts (Rom 5:5), and it is through His indwelling that the soul remains in love toward both God and other people (1 John 3:23-24; 4:12-13). Second, Christian love, both toward God and toward others, is produced in the heart by the same work of the Spirit. There are not two separate works of the Spirit, one to instill love for God and another to instill love for people. In producing one, He produces the other as well. In the work of conversion, the Holy Spirit renews the heart by giving it a divine character (Eph 4:23), and it is that one divine character, worked into the heart, that flows outward in love both to God and to others. Third, when God and other people are loved with a truly Christian love, they are both loved from the same motives. When God is loved rightly, He is loved for His excellence and the beauty of His nature, especially the holiness of His nature, and it is from that same motive that the saints are loved: for the sake of holiness. Everything that is loved with a truly holy love is loved out of the same regard for God. Love for God is the foundation of gracious love for others, and people are loved either because they resemble God in some way, sharing His nature and spiritual image, or because of the relationship they stand in to Him as His children or creatures, as those who are blessed by Him, or to whom His mercy is offered, or in some other way that traces back to regard for Him. I should note that while Christian love is one in its principle, it is distinguished and described in different ways according to its objects and the kinds of expression it takes, including its varying degrees, and so on. I now move on to the second point.

II. To demonstrate the truth of the doctrine that all saving virtue, the kind that distinguishes true Christians, is summed up in Christian love. And 1. We can argue this from what reason itself teaches us about the nature of love. When we consider that nature carefully, two things become clear:

First, that love will dispose us toward all proper acts of respect for both God and man. This is clear, because genuine respect for either God or man is rooted in love. If a person sincerely loves God, that love will naturally move him to show God every form of respect that is due Him; and people need no greater motivation to honor one another than love itself. Love for God will move a person to honor Him, to worship and adore Him, and to wholeheartedly acknowledge His greatness, His glory, and His sovereign dominion. In the same way, love will move us toward every act of obedience to God; for the servant who loves his master, and the citizen who loves his ruler, will naturally incline toward proper submission and obedience. Love will dispose the Christian to relate to God as a child relates to a father: in times of difficulty, turning to Him for help and placing all his trust in Him, just as it is natural for us, in moments of need or suffering, to seek out someone we love for comfort and aid. Love will also lead us to take God at His word and to place our confidence in Him, since we are not inclined to doubt the honesty of those we hold in genuine affection. It will move us to praise God for the mercies we receive from Him, just as we feel gratitude for any kindness shown to us by those we love among our fellow human beings. Love, furthermore, will incline our hearts toward submission to God’s will, because we are far more willing to see the wishes of those we love carried out than the wishes of others. We naturally want those we love to be pleased, and we want to be agreeable to them; and true love for God will incline the heart to recognize His right to govern, and to acknowledge that He is worthy of that authority, and so will draw us toward willing submission. Love for God will also move us to walk humbly before Him, because the person who truly loves God will be ready to acknowledge the vast distance between God and himself. Such a person finds it fitting to exalt God, to lift Him high above all things, and to bow low in His presence. A true Christian delights in seeing God exalted even at the cost of his own diminishment, because he loves Him. He is glad to confess that God is worthy of all honor, and it is with genuine joy that he casts himself in the dust before the Most High, drawn there by his sincere love for Him.

A proper understanding of love’s nature reveals that it naturally inclines us toward every duty we owe our neighbors. When we genuinely love our neighbors, that love will move us toward justice in all our dealings with them, because real love and friendship always dispose us to give others what they deserve and never to wrong them: "Love works no ill to his neighbor" (Rom 13:10). That same love will also incline us toward honesty, working against every form of lying, fraud, and deception. We simply aren’t disposed to cheat or betray those we love, because such treatment is how we treat enemies, and love destroys enmity. This is precisely why the apostle appeals to the unity that should exist among Christians as a reason for truthfulness between people (Eph 4:25). Love will also incline us to walk humbly among others, because genuine love naturally produces high regard for those around us and leads us to think of them as better than ourselves. It moves us to honor one another, since we naturally think well of those we love and want to lift them up, fulfilling the commands to "honor all men" (1 Pet 2:17) and to "let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves" (Phil 2:3). Love will incline us toward contentment in the place God has set us, free from coveting what our neighbors have or envying them for any good they enjoy. It will shape our manner toward others into one of meekness and gentleness, moving us away from passion, harshness, and hot-tempered reactions and toward moderation, calm, and kindness. It will hold in check every trace of bitterness, because love contains no bitterness at all; it is a gentle and sweet disposition of the soul. And it will prevent quarrels and conflict, inclining us instead toward peace and a readiness to forgive those who have wronged us, just as Proverbs says: "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins" (Prov 10:12).

Love disposes people toward every act of mercy when their neighbors are suffering or in distress, since we naturally feel compassion for those we care about. It moves people to give to the poor, to carry one another’s burdens, and to weep with those who weep, just as readily as to celebrate with those who rejoice. It inclines people toward the duties they owe one another within their various roles and relationships. It disposes a community toward all the obligations they owe their rulers, giving them the honor and deference that is rightly theirs. And it disposes rulers to govern the people entrusted to them with justice, seriousness, and faithfulness, seeking the genuine good of those they lead rather than pursuing their own private interests. It moves a congregation toward all proper duty to their ministers: listening to their counsel and instruction, submitting to their guidance within the house of God, supporting them, sympathizing with them, and praying for them as those who keep watch over their souls. And it moves ministers to seek the good of their people’s souls with faithfulness and tireless devotion, watching over them as those who will one day give account. Love shapes the way people of different stations treat one another: it moves children to honor their parents, and servants to obey their masters not merely when someone is watching, but with genuine sincerity of heart. And it moves masters to treat their servants with kindness and goodness.

In this way, love disposes people toward every duty, both toward God and toward other human beings. And if it truly inclines us toward all duties in this manner, it follows that love is the root, the source, and, in a real sense, the sum of every virtue. It is a principle that, once planted in the heart, is sufficient on its own to produce every form of right conduct. Every proper disposition toward God and toward others is gathered up in love and flows from it, just as fruit comes from the tree, or a stream from its fountain.

Second, reason teaches that whatever actions or apparent virtues exist without love are hollow and hypocritical. If there is no love in what people do, then there is no genuine respect for God or others in their conduct, and without that, there can be no sincerity. Religion is nothing without a proper regard for God. The very concept of religion, as humanity has always understood it, is that it represents the creature’s exercise and expression of respect toward the Creator. But if there is no true respect or love, then everything called religion is merely an outward performance with no real substance; it is hollow and empty. Consider a man whose faith contains no genuine regard for God: reason tells us that such faith must be worthless, because without love for God, there can be no true respect for Him. From this it becomes clear that love is always present in a true and living faith, and that it is faith’s proper life and soul. Without love, faith is as lifeless as a body without its soul, and it is love that most clearly distinguishes a living faith from every counterfeit. Without love for God, there can be no genuine honor given to Him. A person is never wholehearted in the honor he appears to show someone he doesn’t love, which means that all the apparent honor or worship ever offered without love is simply hypocrisy. Reason teaches the same about obedience performed without love: if there is no love, nothing done can be spontaneous or free; everything is forced. Without love, there can be no heartfelt submission to God’s will, and there can be no real, genuine trust and confidence in Him. The person who does not love God will not trust Him. Such a person will never, with true peace of soul, cast himself into the hands of God or into the arms of His mercy.

And so, whatever good behavior a person may show toward their neighbors, reason tells us it is all worthless and empty if there is no genuine regard for those neighbors in the heart, if the outward conduct is not driven by inward love. Taking these two things together, then: that love is the kind of thing that naturally produces all virtues and inclines us toward every duty to God and to other people, and that without it there can be no sincere virtue and no duty properly carried out at all. From this, the truth of the doctrine follows clearly: all true and distinctively Christian virtue and grace can be summed up in love.

2. The Scriptures teach us that love is the sum of everything contained in God’s law and of all the duties His word requires. This is what the Scriptures teach about the law in general, and about each of its two tables in particular.

First, the Scriptures teach this of the law and word of God in general. In Scripture, the word "law" carries several meanings. Sometimes it refers to the entire written word of God, as in "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?" (John 10:34). Sometimes it refers specifically to the five books of Moses, as in Acts 24:14, where it is distinguished from "the prophets." And sometimes it refers to the Ten Commandments, understood as the complete summary of universal and permanent human obligation. But whether we take "the law" to mean only the Ten Commandments or the entire written word of God, Scripture consistently teaches that love is the sum of everything it requires. When the law refers to the Ten Commandments, Rom 13:8 states, "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law," and after several commandments are listed, verse 10 adds that "love" (which moves us to obey them all) "is the fulfilling of the law." Now, unless love were the sum of what the law requires, the law could not be wholly fulfilled through love, since a law is only fulfilled by obeying the whole of what it contains and commands. The same apostle declares again in 1 Tim 1:5, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," and so on. And if we take the law in its broadest sense, as the entire written word of God, Scripture still teaches that love is the sum of all it requires. In Matt 22:40, Christ teaches that all the law and the prophets, that is, the entire written word of God then in existence, hang on the two commands to love God with all the heart and to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Second, the Scriptures teach the same thing about each table of the law individually. The command "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart" is declared by Christ in Matt 22:38 to be the sum of the first table of the law, the first great commandment; and in the following verse, loving one’s neighbor as oneself is declared to be the sum of the second table. This is confirmed in Rom 13:9, where the specific precepts of the second table are listed, followed by the statement: "And if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Similarly, Gal 5:14 states, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The same point appears in Jas 2:8: "If ye fulfil the royal law, according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well." Love, then, is clearly the sum of all the virtue and duty God requires of us, and it must therefore be the most essential thing, the core of all the virtue that is real and distinctive in genuine Christianity. Whatever stands as the sum of all duty must also stand as the sum of all true virtue.

3. The truth of the doctrine, as shown by the Scriptures, appears in the apostle’s teaching (Gal 5:6) that "faith works by love." A truly Christian faith is one that produces good works, and all the good works it produces flow from love. Two things relevant to our purpose are clear from this.

First, that genuine love is an essential ingredient in true and living faith, and is in fact what is most vital and distinctive about it. Love plays no part in a merely speculative faith, but it is the life and soul of a practical faith. A truly practical or saving faith combines light and heat, or rather light and love, while a merely speculative faith is light without heat; and because it lacks spiritual warmth and divine love, it is empty and worthless. A speculative faith consists only in the assent of the understanding, but a saving faith also involves the consent of the heart. Faith that goes no further than intellectual assent is no better than the faith of demons, who believe as far as belief can exist without love, believing even as they tremble. Now, the true spiritual consent of the heart cannot be separated from the love of the heart. Whoever’s heart consents to Christ as Savior genuinely loves Him as such. For the heart to sincerely consent to the way of salvation through Christ cannot be distinguished from loving that way of salvation and resting in it. True saving faith involves an act of choice, by which the soul chooses Christ as its Savior and portion and accepts and embraces Him as such. But as noted earlier, a choice that selects God and Christ in this way is an act of love: the love of a soul embracing Him as its dearest friend and portion. Faith is a duty God requires of everyone. We are commanded to believe, and unbelief is a sin God forbids. Faith is a duty required in the first table of the law, and in the first commandment of that table. It follows, then, that faith is included in the great commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart," and so it follows that love is the most essential element in true faith. That love is the very life and spirit of genuine faith is especially clear when we compare the apostle’s statement that "faith works by love" (Gal 5:6) with the closing verse of James 2, which declares that "as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." The active, working nature of anything is what gives it life; what leads us to call something alive is precisely that we observe an active nature in it. In a person, this active and working nature is the spirit within. And just as the body without that spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead as well. If we want to know what the active, working element in true faith actually is, the apostle tells us in Gal 5:6: "Faith works by love." Love, then, is the active and working spirit within all true faith. It is faith’s very soul, without which faith is dead, as the apostle also says in another form in the text itself, declaring that faith without love is nothing, even if it reaches the degree that can move mountains. And when he says in the seventh verse of that context that love "believes all things and hopes all things," he is most likely referring to the great virtues of believing and hoping in the truth and grace of God, virtues he compares to love elsewhere in the chapter, and particularly in the final verse: "Now abides faith, hope, love." In that seventh verse, he gives love priority over faith and hope precisely because love includes them; he says that "love believes all things and hopes all things." This appears to be his meaning, rather than the more popular reading that love simply thinks the best of our neighbors. That a justifying faith, as one of Christianity’s most distinctive marks, is included within the great commandment to love God is also made very plain by what Christ says to the Jews (John 5:40-43).

Second, the apostle’s declaration that "faith works by love" makes something else equally clear: all the Christian exercises of the heart, and all the works of the Christian life, flow from love. The New Testament teaches us abundantly that all Christian holiness begins with faith in Jesus Christ. All Christian obedience is, in Scripture, called the obedience of faith, as in Rom 16:26, where the gospel is said to be "made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." The obedience Paul refers to there is undoubtedly the same obedience he describes in the preceding chapter’s eighteenth verse, where he speaks of making "the Gentiles obedient by word and deed." In Gal 2:20, he tells us, "the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God"; and we are told repeatedly that Christians, insofar as they are truly Christians, "live by faith." This is another way of saying that all gracious and holy exercises, all the virtues of the spiritual life, are produced by faith. But how does faith produce these things? In this passage in Galatians, Paul states explicitly that faith works whatever it does work by love. From this, the truth of the doctrine follows directly: everything that is saving and distinctive in Christianity is rooted in love and, at its core, can be summed up by love.

In applying this subject, we can use it for self-examination, instruction, and encouragement. And, 1. In light of this, let us examine ourselves and ask whether we have the spirit it calls for. Love for God gives rise to love for others, as the apostle writes: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him" (1 John 5:1). Do we have this love for all who are God’s children? This love also leads those who possess it to rejoice in God, to worship Him, and to magnify His name. Heaven is filled with people like this: "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest" (Rev 15:2-4).

Do we truly delight in God, rejoice in His worship, and take pleasure in magnifying His holy name? This love also leads those who possess it to sincerely desire and earnestly work to do good to their fellow human beings: "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him" (1 John 3:16-19). Is this spirit, the spirit that lived in Jesus Christ, the spirit that reigns in our hearts and shows itself in our daily lives?

This subject may also be useful 2. In the way of instruction. And first, this doctrine shows us what the right Christian spirit looks like. When the disciples, on their way to Jerusalem, asked Christ to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans who refused to receive Him, He rebuked them, saying, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of" (Luke 9:55). This doesn’t mean they were unaware of their own hearts in a general sense, but rather that they hadn’t truly grasped what kind of spirit was fitting for people who claimed to follow Him, and what kind of spirit was consistent with the new order He had come to establish. It may well have been true, and almost certainly was, that in many respects they didn’t fully know their own hearts. But what Christ was pointing to here wasn’t a lack of self-knowledge in general; it was the particular spirit they had shown in asking Him to call down fire. That request revealed not so much that they were ignorant of their own dispositions, but that they didn’t seem to understand what kind of spirit and character belonged to the Christian way of life He was establishing, and to the Christian example they were called to set. They revealed their misunderstanding of the true nature of Christ’s kingdom: that it was to be a kingdom of love and peace. They apparently didn’t realize that a vengeful spirit was entirely out of place for His disciples, and it was precisely for this reason that He rebuked them.

There are many people today who deserve serious correction on this point: despite spending so long in the school of Christ and under the teaching of the gospel, they still fundamentally misunderstand what a truly Christian spirit looks like and what kind of spirit is fitting for followers of Christ and the age in which they live. But if we pay close attention to the text and its teaching, we will learn what this spirit actually is: in its very essence and character, it is the spirit of divine and Christian love. This can rightly be called, above all others, the Christian spirit, because the New Testament emphasizes it more than any other aspect of our duty or moral condition. When Christ taught people how to live and gave His counsel and commands to His disciples and others, He devoted a great deal of His words to the precepts of love. Because everything that came from His mouth was so saturated with this sweet, divine virtue, He commends it to us in the most unmistakable way. After His ascension, the apostles were filled with the same spirit, and their letters are full of calls to love, peace, gentleness, goodness, compassion, and kindness. They directed believers to express their love to God and to Christ, as well as to their fellow human beings, and especially to all who follow Him. This spirit of love is the one toward which the gospel offers greater motivation than toward anything else. The work of redemption that the gospel reveals provides, above all else, the most compelling reasons to love, because that work was the most glorious and extraordinary display of love the world has ever seen or heard of. Love is the central theme the gospel returns to when it speaks of God and of Christ. It brings to light the love that has existed eternally between the Father and the Son, and it shows how that love has been expressed in countless ways: how Christ is God’s beloved Son, in whom He is always well pleased; how He loved Him so deeply that He raised Him to the throne of the mediatorial kingdom, appointed Him to be the judge of the world, and ordained that all humanity would stand before Him in judgment. The gospel also reveals the love that Christ has for the Father, and the remarkable fruits of that love, seen especially in the great things He accomplished and the great suffering He endured in obedience to the Father’s will, and for the honor of His justice, His law, and His authority as the supreme moral governor. There we learn how the Father and the Son are united in love, so that we might be drawn, in the same spirit, into unity with them and with one another, in keeping with Christ’s prayer: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me" (John 17:21-23). The gospel also declares that God’s love is eternal, reminding us that He loved those redeemed by Christ before the foundation of the world, that He gave them to the Son, and that the Son loved them as His own. It further reveals the extraordinary love of both the Father and the Son for the saints now in glory, showing that Christ not only loved them while they were in the world but loved them to the very end. And all of this love was poured out on us while we were wanderers, outcasts, worthless, guilty, and even enemies. This is a love unlike anything ever known or imagined elsewhere: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13); "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die... But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us;... when we were enemies" (Rom 5:7-10).

In the gospel revelation, God and Christ appear clothed in love, seated as it were on a throne of mercy and grace, a seat of love surrounded by the warm radiance of love itself. Love is the light and glory encircling the throne on which God sits. This seems to be precisely what the apostle John, that loving and beloved disciple, witnessed in his vision of God on the isle of Patmos: "And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald" (Rev 4:3), meaning the rainbow encircled the very throne on which God was seated. God appeared to John, enthroned in majesty, encompassed by a circle of extraordinarily sweet and pleasant light, like the beautiful colors of the rainbow, like an emerald, which is a precious stone of remarkably lovely and vivid color. This imagery represents the truth that the light and glory surrounding God in the gospel is, above all else, the glory of His love and covenant grace, for the rainbow was given to Noah as a sign of both. It is clear, then, that the spirit the gospel revelation most powerfully calls us toward is a spirit of love, and that this spirit of love is, in the most essential and elevated sense, the Christian spirit: the true spirit of the gospel.

Second, if everything that is truly saving and distinctive in a genuine Christian is summed up in love, then this truth offers a test for those who profess Christianity: are their spiritual experiences real, or not? If they are real, then love is their core and substance. When people receive the true light of heaven into their souls, that light does not come without warmth. Divine knowledge and divine love always travel together. A spiritual vision of divine things will always stir love in the soul, drawing the heart outward toward every fitting object. True insight into God’s character moves us to love Him as the highest good; it binds the heart in love to Christ; it inclines the soul to pour itself out in love toward God’s people and toward all of humanity. This is precisely what happens when someone genuinely discovers the excellence and sufficiency of Christ. When they come to a true belief in the gospel, that belief is inseparable from love. They love the One they have come to believe is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

When the truth of the gospel’s glorious doctrines and promises becomes clear to someone, those doctrines and promises act like cords that take hold of the heart and draw it outward in love toward God and Christ. When people experience genuine trust and reliance on Christ, they lean on Him with love, and so they do it with delight and a deep, quiet rest of soul. The bride in the Song of Songs sat under Christ’s shadow with great delight and rested peacefully under his protection, because she loved him (Song 2:2). When people experience true comfort and spiritual joy, their joy is the joy of faith and love. They are not rejoicing in themselves; God is their exceeding joy.

Third, this truth reveals how beautiful a truly Christian spirit is. A spirit of love is a beautiful spirit. It is the spirit of Jesus Christ; it is the spirit of heaven.

Fourth, This doctrine reveals the pleasantness of a Christian life. A life of love is a pleasant life. Both reason and Scripture teach us that "happy is the man who finds wisdom," and that "her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace" (Prov 3:13, 17).

Fifth, From this we can understand why contention does so much damage to religion. Scripture tells us plainly that it has this tendency: "Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work" (Jas 3:16). And experience confirms it. When contention enters a community, it seems to block every good thing. If religion had been flourishing before, contention quickly chills and deadens it, while everything harmful begins to thrive. In light of our doctrine, the reason for this is clear: contention strikes directly against the very heart of what is essential and distinctive in true Christianity, which is a spirit of love and peace. No wonder, then, that Christianity cannot flourish during times of strife and contention among its own people. No wonder that religion and contention simply cannot coexist.

Sixth, this means that Christians must keep a vigilant watch against envy, malice, and every form of bitterness toward their neighbors. These things are the direct opposite of what Christianity is at its core. Christians who don’t want their daily conduct to flatly contradict their stated beliefs must take this seriously. They should suppress the first stirrings of ill-will, bitterness, and envy; guard carefully against the situations that breed such a spirit; fight with everything they have against any disposition that tends in that direction; and avoid, as much as possible, every temptation that might lead there. A Christian should at all times maintain a strong defense against anything that tends to overthrow, corrupt, or quietly erode a spirit of love. Whatever hinders love for other people will also hinder love for God, because, as noted earlier, the principle underlying genuine Christian love is a single, unified thing. If love is the sum of Christianity, then surely the things that destroy love are deeply unbecoming in a Christian. An envious Christian, a malicious Christian, a cold and hard-hearted Christian: these are the greatest absurdities and contradictions imaginable. It’s like speaking of dark brightness, or a false truth.

Seventh, it’s no wonder that Christianity so strongly requires us to love our enemies, even the worst of them (as in Matt 5:44), for love is the very character and spirit of a Christian; it is the sum of Christianity. And when we consider what powerful incentives the Gospel gives us to love our enemies, by revealing the love of God and Christ toward those who were their enemies, we can hardly be surprised that we are called to love our enemies, to bless them, to do good to them, and to pray for them, "that we may be the children of our Father which is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."

3. Our subject calls us to pursue a spirit of love, to grow in it, and to let that growth overflow into concrete acts of love. If love is so central to Christianity, so essential and defining, and indeed the very heart of all Christian virtue, then those who call themselves Christians should live in love and pour themselves into works of love, because no works are more fitting. If you claim to be a Christian, where are your works of love? Have you been generous with them? Are you generous with them now? If this holy principle truly lives and reigns in you, won’t it show up in your daily life through acts of love? Think carefully: what deeds of love have you actually done? Do you love God? What have you done for Him, for His glory, for the growth of His kingdom in the world? How much have you denied yourself to advance the Redeemer’s cause among people? Do you love your fellow human beings? What have you done for them? Reflect on where you have fallen short in these areas, and consider how fitting it would be for you, as a Christian, to abound more richly in deeds of love going forward. Don’t excuse yourself by saying you have no opportunities to do anything for God’s glory, for the Redeemer’s kingdom, or for the spiritual good of your neighbors. If your heart is truly full of love, it will find a way out. You will find, or create, enough avenues to express that love in action. When a spring is full of water, it sends out streams. Remember that just as love is the central principle in the heart of a genuine Christian, the labor of love is the central business of the Christian life. Let every Christian take these things to heart; and may the Lord give you understanding in all things, make you aware of what kind of spirit you should have, and move you toward the excellent, winsome, and generous life that such a spirit produces, so that you may not love only "in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth."