“Let love be unfeigned” (Rom. 12:9 JND).
This is the first of the apostle’s general admonitions in this chapter, and may be considered the foundation and summary of all the others. He who shines in this grace will abound in every good work. As we consider a love that is free from all dissimulation (or pretending) and guile, what a wondrous sight it is in a world of hollow pretense! But where is it to be found in practical exercise? God only is its source, “for love is of God” (1 John 4:7). It is Himself; God is love, not merely loving, but love. And should not His children be the expression of His nature, His moral character? “Every one who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who loves not knows not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:7,8). Faith goes on to say, “We have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he who dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him” (4:16). Here is the true character of communion and the power of walking in love.
In this portion in 1 John we have divine love manifested in the conversion of the sinner, the communion of the saint, and his complete conformity to Christ for ever. Love meets him as a lost sinner, makes him like Christ, fits him for communion with God while here, and perfects him for the coming day of judgment so that he has nothing to fear. He sees his way clear into the glory beyond the tribunal of Christ, where love alone remains, for heaven is its home.
Surely, then, the exhortation of the apostle is a most reasonable one:“Let love be unfeigned.” What else could a Christian be but pure-hearted in his love? He dwells at the fountain of eternal love, feeds upon it, delights in it, and ought to be its full and fair reflection. What could excuse him for allowing a feigned or pretending love to take the place of Christian affection? A love so high in its source, so divine in its nature, so pure in its character, should be guarded by us with all holy jealousy. It is surely of greatest importance that every Christian should be true before God in the expression and the assertion of his love toward others, whether within or outside the Church. To mislead, or gain an advantage over others by a fair but false profession of love has a character of iniquity that is very distinctive. The corruption of that which is so pure in its source is an evil that we should constantly and diligently watch against.
Was there need for such an exhortation in the apostle’s day, and is there need in ours? Alas, what is it that Christians so fail in as the truthful expression in words of the inmost state of the heart? So few speak or write exactly what they are. Only One, when asked, “Who art thou?” could answer, “Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning” (John 8:25). He could appeal to His words and say, “I am what I speak.” There never was in His words the appearance of what He was not; He was absolutely, and in every particular, what He said (John 8:25). But of none, save the blessed Jesus, could this be said. So deceitful is the human heart, and so false is the world, that nothing but the Holy Spirit, revealing Christ to our souls through the Word, and enabling us to walk in the light as God is in the light, keeps us even as believers from departing from the truth, from slipping into misrepresentation, from saying what we are not, and what we mean not.
Let us then remember that the apostle declares that the only genuine love is that which is sincere and free from all guile. Jesus is the truth, and so should His disciples also be.
Self-judgment is especially called for here. Naturally we are unreal. But every one can best judge for himself whether he entertains any feeling in his heart contrary to the outward manifestation of affection. It is quite true that habit may mislead without any intention to deceive, such as the common amenities of life, the inscriptions, the contents, and the signatures of our letters. Still, we must have respect to truth in the heart even when so much form prevails. May the Lord ever keep us free from selfishness and pretension for His own name’s sake!
(From Meditations on Christian Devotedness.)