It is the characteristic of man's work, that, no matter how perfect it may appear, a minute inspection brings out in accuracies. The exact opposite is true of all God's works. Compare, for instance, man's machinery with God's. Man makes a pump to draw water, and noise and labor must be used to operate it, to say nothing of its getting out of order. God's evaporation has worked silently and perfectly from the beginning. Take man's art. His picture may be beautiful at a distance; but approach it, use a magnifying-glass, and it only reveals coarseness and imperfection :not so with God's paintings, on the flower, in the rainbow, etc. The more minutely they are examined, the more their beauties appear, and new beauties are discovered. The rose is beautiful to all; but let the botanist pull it apart, put it .under the glass, and the very pollen-dust conveys its lesson to him of One who is perfect in wisdom and skill. But we are told, " Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name ;" so that the worshiper in the nineteenth psalm has his gaze turned from the heavens to the Word of Jehovah. If, therefore, we find that God's world invites minute analysis and microscopic examination, we find too that His Word invites no less to the same. " Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away." If we can tear the flower apart and find each part perfect, so we can take His Word, and if seeking to find beauties in its parts-its very words, we will not be disappointed. In these " word studies," it is purposed to thus in a measure dissect and examine the constituent parts of the epistle. It may seem like mechanical work, but if it shows us divine accuracy reaching down beneath the surface, our confidence will be increased, our conviction deepened that "the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." (Ps. 12:6.) 1:Agapao-to love, Agape-love, Agapetos-beloved. The strongest term for love. Phileo is the love of & friend. See Jno. 21:15-17, where our Lord asks Peter the threefold question, " Lovest thou Me ?" The first two times He uses the strong term agapao, and is answered by Peter with the weaker one–phileo, when He adopts the weaker too and meets with the same reply from Peter. Agapao is used in Jno. 3:16 for God's love to the world, Jno. 17:26 for the Father's love for the Son, i Jno. 4:19 for our love to God, and i Jno. 4:7 for our love to one another.

Phileo is used in Jno. 5:20 of the Father's love to the Son, indicating friendship, no secrets, as in Jno. 15:15- "I have called you friends" (philous).

Eph. 1:6-"Accepted in the Beloved." (Egapemeno, participle of agapao.) This gives the sphere and character of the grace shown :it is the beloved Son, as in Jno. 17:26.

Chap. 2:4-" His great love (agape) wherewith He loved (agapao) us." This gives us the source of the love- God, illustrating i Jno. 4:10:nothing in us but sin.

Chap. 3:19-"The love (agape) of Christ which passeth knowledge ; " shown in chap. 5:2-" Christ loved (agapao) us, and gave Himself for us, a sacrifice." Here the work done for us Godward is spoken of as well pleasing and acceptable to God, while in chap. 5:25, 26, etc., the work done in us at the first and with us at the last is given; and ver. 29 gives the care here during our stay- all spring from the love of Christ; well may we say "it passeth knowledge." So we have His love shown in a fourfold way, leading Him to a work (i) acceptable to God (God glorified, His righteousness manifested), (2) sanctifies us by the Word, (3) presents us glorious to-Himself, (4) nourishes and cherishes us. Whichever way we look-at the cross up to the glory or around on our path, we see the love of Christ to us :to fathom it would be to exhaust the fullness of God.

Chap. 1:4 gives us the purpose of God toward us-that we should be blameless before Him in love. The effect of His love will be finally to manifest us in perfect love. But this love is manifested here too, even at the beginning of the Christian life, as in chap. 1:15, their love (agape) toward the saints is spoken of. In chap. 3:18, they are to be rooted and grounded in love (agape) so as to understand Christ's love. This does not mean that we exercise love before we understand Christ's love, but that we grasp and enjoy and return that love in order to know more of it. Chap. 4:2 shows us the practical working of love in the body-the way to keep the unity of the Spirit; thus the body grows, as in chap. 4:15, 16. Also chap. 5:2, where Christ's love is set as the model for ours-and the parting benediction leaves love with them, even those who already love our Lord Jesus (6:23, 24). So in the practical relation of husband to wife it is love, to illustrate Christ's love to the Church. Thus by this word we have set before us love in its source (God), channel (Christ), character (work of Christ), present effects (toward one another and God), and eternal results (holiness with Christ before God in love). "Walk in love."