Scripture: "Jesus, having loved His own which were in the world, loved them unto the end."—JOHN xiii. I.
These are the opening words of that holy, confidential talk of Christ with His disciples, as out of the depths of eternity He discoursed with them in the last hours before He went to Gethsemane (John xiii. to xvii.). They are the revelation and full display of that divine love which was manifested in His death on the Cross.
He begins with the new commandment: "That ye love one another as I have loved you" (John xiii. 34). A little later follows: "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. ... He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him . . . and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (xiv. 15, 21, 23). The new life, the heavenly life in Christ Jesus, is to be the unfolding of God's love in Christ. Then, farther on: "As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love. . . . This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John xv. 9-13); "That the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me. . . . I have declared unto them Thy name . . . that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John xvii. 23, 26).
Can words make it plainer that God's love to Christ is given to pass into us and to become our life, that the love wherewith the Father loved the Son is to be in us? If the Lord Jesus is to manifest Himself to us, it can only be to the loving heart. If we are to claim His daily presence with us, it can only be as a relationship of infinite tender love between Him and us, love rooted in the faith of God's love to Christ coming into our hearts, and showing itself in obedience to His commandments and in love to one another.
We see how in the early Church the first love was forsaken after a time, and confidence was put in all the activities of service (Rev. ii. 2-4).
It is only in the atmosphere of a holy, living love that the abiding presence of the loving Christ can be known, and the depth of the Divine Love expressed in Christ's promise, "Lo, I am with you alway," will be realised.
