March 4^th, 1987                                       "Loving One Another"                                            Bro. Joshua Daniel

I John 4:12

"No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." "If we love one another"—I see that there are many limitations to our love, or rather, there are many limits which we impose on our love. Someone composed a song about building walls between one another, walls in the family, walls everywhere. This is nothing new. We have ancient walls, walls which nobody attempted to remove. I am talking about class/caste. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and His love is perfected in us. How is that seen? By our loving one another. I do not expect anybody to be talking about high families and low families in a Christian Fellowship. High in what? High in love, high in holiness? These are the only things that can be reckoned "high". Some people have superficial criteria like money, education and intelligence. No. Let us ask, "Do I love everybody? Is there a full flood of love from my heart? Have I got a Christian heart?" I was talking to a young man recently. He said, "God is giving me a great love for leprosy patients. I want to serve the Lord amongst them." When I heard that, my estimation of that young man leaped.

I John 4:16, "And we have known and believed that love that God hath to us." It is amazing how many people in our place and in other countries are love-hungry. They feel, there is no one to love them. When so many people do not have love, not even in their homes, if a Christian cannot impart love, what kind of Christian is he? The mark of a Christian is disinterested love. That is Christ’s love. He loved us when we were unlovable, when we were ugly, when we were repulsive and when we were enemies. 16^th verse, "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us." What a comfort it is to know God loves me. The whole world may hate me. But God loves me. I am poor, I am ugly, I am deformed. But God loves me. What a comfort. The Saviour loves me. this is not unproved love. I have a proof that in his cross. It is not a professional, conditional love. I love you though you are a sinner. Marvellous! You and I are called to reflect that love. It is a terrible thing, if we fail in love. "God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God dwelleth in him."

A man who cannot trust his wife, a woman who cannot trust her husband, I think that person is reflecting the devil. If you have to do certain things secretly, if you have to whisper certain words, then there is something wrong. If you are not able to love everybody, you do not have real freedom. You are going back to the old bondage, which is sin. In sin, there is great bondage. You are afraid that you may be detected. But in love, there is no fear. That is one of the reasons, I do not fear anybody. I have no wrong emotions towards anybody. I have nothing but love. Whatever anybody may say, it is immaterial. I know God has filled my heart with love. So I cannot think evil of anybody. Friends, if you do not have this experience, you cannot say, you are dwelling in God. May be, you have some casual contact with God, some little experience. But you are not dwelling in God. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God. If you are not dwelling in God, where are you living? Today, where are you living? You were in the hospital, you were in the college, you were somewhere else. But wherever you were, can you say I was living in God, I was living in love today? There is no use of a lot of head-knowledge. Too much of head-knowledge produces pharisees—absolute, heartless, loveless pharisees! When you walk in love, you naturally walk in the truth.

2 John:4, "I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth…" 3 John 3 & 4, "For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." They brought tidings that those people walked in the truth, in the truth of Jesus Christ. So to the aged brother John, this apostle, what a joy! What a joy! "My children! My children! My children! Those to whom I ministered, those children in the family, they walk in the truth. We are subjected to a lot of secular pressure today. What kind of dress to put on? What kind of clothes to put on? What kind of hair-cut to have? What kind of collars are the best style? We are subject to secular pressures. Instead of God-consciousness, we are just conscious of what we are wearing and how we are appearing—not how we are but how we appear. Only how you are, matters. "How am I, doctor? How long am I going to live?" That is all! It is only when you are in the midst of superficial people and friends you are very conscious about how you appear. How much you are worried about your appearance is a kind of index of what you really are. Am I walking in the truth? Am I pleasing God? Are you dwelling in love? What a terrible thing it would be, to talk about Jesus Christ and still live in bondage? "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth."