Love of the Brethren — Ernest C. Reisinger

Gospel Charity and the Call to Love One Another

I'd like you to turn to the little epistle of John, and uh, I don't know, I'm not going to preach too much about this subject, I'll just share a whole lot of thoughts with you and trust that proceeds from these thoughts has been a very tremendous study for me, something I hadn't, I suppose I hadn't done before, and that is give concentrated effort and thought and prayer to the subject of gospel charity, gospel love.

So I'd like you to turn to the little epistle of John, chapter 3, and I want to begin reading at verse 11 and read all the way to the end of chapter 4. But before we look to the, to God's book, let's bow our heads in our hearts, and again, let's pray that the God of the book will come by his Spirit and assist us to speak and to hear, because if the only voice you hear is the preachers this week, you've missed it.

You want to listen for that voice that says something down in here, you young people. You listen for that, feel those motions and those movements inside. Listen well. Let's pray. O gracious God and our Heavenly Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in his merit, coming at his invitation, we come to thee.

We come, O Lord, because we're still sinful. Though we seek to be saints each day, O Lord, we must come as sinners each day. And as your people we come, but we thank you you've made him sin for us, who knew no sin.

We come tonight, our Father, confessing our ignorance still, but we thank you that you've made him our prophet-teacher, and so teach us by thy Word and Spirit. We come tonight confessing, O Lord, our impotence.

We are so impotent, with all we know we're so impotent in implementing and practicing what we know. But we thank you that you've given thy Spirit to empower us, and so we pray this week as we meet, that we would be conscious of thy presence, thy self-presence, to meet the needs of our hearts and our lives.

Love as Evidence of Passing from Death to Life

Hear our cry, and meet with us for Christ's sake. We ask it in his name. Amen. For this is the message that he heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as King who was of the wicked one, and slew his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

Marvel not, my brother, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. One of the texts of eternal life. We know we've passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.

Some of you wouldn't mark very high on that text. He that loveth his brother, loveth not his brother, abideth in death. Whoso hateth his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer hath eternal life, abiding in him.

Hereby perceive we the love of God. This is how we perceive it, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in truth. And hereby we know we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our hearts condemn us, greater is God than our hearts.

God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him.

And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus is Christ, is come in the flesh, is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God.

And this is that Spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard it, should come, and even now already is in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

They are of the world, therefore spake they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God, and he that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know, hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of error.

The Love of God and the Love of the Brethren

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifest the love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we are also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, whoso confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God.

God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, some of you need to hear this in your attitude toward one another.

If you say you love God, if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him.

A commandment, note, that he who loveth God loveth his brother also. Sometimes I've thought about why we in our circle, particularly many evangelical circles outside our own, why we preach so little on brotherly love, love, period, in a general way.

And I believe there are some reasons that have some validity to them, why we back off. I've looked over my sermon notes for a long time, and I've never spoken on this subject per se. It comes in other subjects as it's related to other subjects.

But to devote yourself and give yourself to this subject alone, I look at you and have been trying to preach for a long time, and this is the first time that I've dealt with it just this way. Or in fact, this is the most exhaustive study that I've made of the subject myself.

Why Preachers Avoid the Subject of Love

And I say, well, why have we kind of stayed away from it? Well, I think there are several reasons. First of all, it's a broad and large subject for a couple messages. And I felt when I was looking at this, I felt like that young fellow who went to the bishop, and he hadn't preached, and he says, Bishop, what should I preach about?

He says, well, preach about God, and about 20 minutes. So this is a pretty large subject. And maybe because it's so large, we stay away from it. Then I think, and I think this is the biggest reason, because of the terrible abuse that preachers, that we, when we were converted, if you talked about love to me, I'd have been upset.

Because all that's what I heard from those lovey-dovey preachers. Love, love, love, love, love, love, and they loved everything, including the devil. I'm sure that they would have preached the sermon on the love of God to the money changers.

But Jesus didn't do that. He cast them out. And with eyes of fire and a scourge in his hand, he drove them out of the temple. He didn't preach a sermon on the love of God. And I'm talking about those people who preach love of God, love of God, every time, everywhere, everything.

And because of that terrible abuse, some of us have backed away from that subject quite a bit. I'm not, Jesus didn't even preach a sermon on that occasion. He just threw them out. He took action. Of course, some of these lovey-dovey boys would have a dialogue or set up a counseling center with the sodomites.

But God didn't do that. He sent fire and brimstone. I suppose someone would have told the evil and wicked days, wicked men and women and ungodly men in Noah's day, I suppose they would have told them, God loves you, and put a sign on their car, God loves your smile.

But for 120 years, Moses preached and warned and wooed about the judgment of Almighty God. And I suppose that same lovey-dovey crowd would have nailed to the church at Wittenberg's door, 1 Corinthians 13.

But Martin Luther didn't do that. He nailed 95 theses because there were some other things that were vital. And if he hadn't done that, we may still be in the superstition and rubble and ritual of Rome.

So I think one of the reasons we shy away from it, another reason is because of the awful abuse and the failing to mention other parts of the Bible. And sometimes we've felt constrained and we must press those buttons that aren't pressed.

And then I think another reason why we don't talk more about brotherly love, God's love, the love of Christ. I think it's because of our own experience. We're so far short of what we see. When we open, when I read those passages to you tonight, I see a standard that's higher than I know.

But if you see, if we were consistent, we wouldn't preach Christ at all. Because when we're preaching Christ, we're preaching a standard higher than we know. But I do feel that sometimes that we feel we have so little of it.

Experientially, we sometimes shy away from those things that we've not experienced as much. And then I think another reason we shy away from it maybe is because of the word itself. It's just a little word.

It's like the word law. It's a little word, but it's used so many different ways in the Bible. You know, the law of God, sometimes it refers to the whole Bible, sometimes to the Pentateuch, sometimes to the moral law, sometimes to the ceremonial law.

And in one message to divide all that, you have to, sometimes it's difficult. Just the word itself, to come at it. And the same way with the word love. It's used so many ways. There's so many kinds of love.

There's God's benevolent love to all men. He sends the sunshine on the rain. And then there is his complacent love, that love that gives him joy, that love that delights him in his sheep, that special love, that saving love that no one knows but his people.

And sometimes the confusion of that, we just stay away from the subject. Well, there are many difficulties, but let me tell you something, preachers. There's one thing that's not difficult, to find a text to talk about brotherly love.

It's not very difficult to find a text. You know, I took out my contortant, and I went down, I counted how many times the word was used. And I didn't read the New Testament to find out how many. So this is approximate, but I'll guarantee it's within two or three.

I take my contortants, and I go down the column, and count the columns, and I count the columns, and then I multiply, and count them up. And I counted this word in the New Testament, love, love, loveth charity, which is both translated from the same Greek word, agape, 276 times.

There's one, only one other major word that exceeds the word that I'm talking about, and that's the word faith, which appears some 343 times. And the only close runner-up is the word believe, and that is about 264 times.

Don't misunderstand me, I don't think these statistics prove anything. I think it's true. But I do think that when we, I think the significance of something with so much, it's significant in the emphasis, and it's significant not only in the emphasis, but in the priority of things that we ought to preach on, and things that we ought to teach.

And if that's true, it should have much emphasis, and it should have much priority. In John's gospel alone, of those 276 times, John, who's known as the Apostle of Love, and probably this is one of the reasons, John uses the word over 100 times in the gospel and in his epistle, which is more than a third of it as compared to Matthew, who maybe 12 times, as I remember, was about 12 times in Matthew.

But John, in his gospel and his epistle, used it over a hundred times, around 106 times, as I remember. In a little epistle, this was amazing to me, in the little epistle of 1 John, which is only five short chapters, he uses the word 47 times.

47 times. But I want to tell you the most amazing thing that I found, and I never knew this before, and I talked to one of my favorite preachers this afternoon, and asked him about it, and he said, I never knew that.

And I made a discovery after all these years, I'm still learning, believe it or not. I hope. Let me tell you what I discovered. I discovered there was one book in the New Testament that didn't have the word love in.

And fact is, when I was using my concordance, I couldn't find a word in that book, and I thought, surely this is wrong. I got down another concordance. You know, I have crude, so that's for the crude, and young for the young, and strong for the strong, you know that.

So I have all of them. And I got all these concordance out, and the word wasn't there. And I was so excited, and I called my wife in to study. And I said, honey, if I were to ask you what book in the New Testament you would turn to for an example of apostolic preaching, for evangelism, for missions, I said, what book would you turn to for an example of missions, evangelism, apostolic preaching?

And she said, Acts. How many of you think she was right? Let me see your hands. Boy, you're scared. Well, I think she was right. Where else do you get Peter's sermons, and Paul's sermons, and how many sermons do you have in Acts?

But let me tell you something. I almost spent the whole night on this subject, because that starts the wheels rolling. In the book of Acts, the word love does not appear. Now you think that through a little bit about evangelism, and I'm not going to say any more about it, because I have some other things to say.

Evangelism, Divine Wrath, and Saving Love in Christ

But I'll tell you, I'm not going to put that sign on my car, smile, God loves you, because I was examined by a church board last week for about four hours, and they wanted to know about what I thought of certain methods of evangelism.

I said, I'm against them. Oh, I guess I said I can't embrace them. It's a little more diplomatic. And then I told them why. I said, I can't run up to sinners and say, God loves you. I said, or I can't say, smile, God loves you.

And he said, why? I said, because my Bible tells me the wrath of God hangs over your head. My Bible tells me God is angry with the wicked every day. And I said, what I tell sinners is, sinner, the saving love that God has for you is in Christ, all come to Christ.

And that's what I told those men. You see, you tell these people they're living in open rebellion. Oh yes, there's a sense in which you could say it. It's not what I'm talking about tonight. Well, I don't want to get on that.

I'll get off my nose and I'll start preaching to you about something else. And that's not part of my plan. But that happened to me this week. And you see, the saving love that God has for men is in Christ.

That's why we plead with them and beg them to come to Christ, call upon him, cast yourself on his mercy, fall before him. Otherwise, he says, well, God loves me. I just keep on doing it. I'm having fun.

God loves me. Keep on doing it. Don't you see what I mean? Well, what is this gospel love, this brotherly love? Let me tell you some things it is tonight. First of all, it is never separate from his law.

Gospel Love Is Never Separated from God’s Law

And I'll come back to that in a minute. And that's one thing, it'll be keep it from becoming sentimentalism. And it'll be one thing to keep it from that which I spoke against in the beginning. God's love is never separated from his law.

The law is love's eyes. And without the law, love is blind. Now the law cannot produce love, but it directs it. And the Bible says, love is the fulfilling of the law. So one thing about it, and I'm going to just go swiftly to tell you something, you work these out on your own.

It's never, Bible love, God's kind of love is never separate from his law. And another thing about it, love, brotherly love, this gospel charity, if you will, is the best judge of your Christianity. Jesus is the one who said, by this shall all men know that you're my disciples.

And in the apostolic days, it was a common proverb, see how they loved one another. Today you would think, see how they devour one another. So I say first, it's not separate from his law. It's the best judge of your Christianity.

And we learn from the New Testament that it's the first fruit of the Spirit. It's an inseparable fruit of the Spirit. And we have that in this same little epistle, John chapter 4, that I read to you tonight, verse 20.

If a man say, I love God and hate his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? It's an indispensable fruit of the Spirit. And then love is a sure evidence of a saving work.

We read it in verses like that I read in your presence. We know we've passed from death to the life because we love the brother. We love him because he first loved us. It's an evidence of a saving work in our heart.

And then another thing about it, gospel love is the root of all Christian duties. As we look at 1st Corinthians, we see we can preach and be zero if we don't have love. We can have all understanding and understand the deep things in the mystery, without love we're zero.

We can have all the gifts and without love we're zero. We can be generous, it teaches us, but without love we're zero. We can sacrifice, but without love we're zero. And then there's something interesting.

You know, I don't know any other case, and I stand corrected, but John Owen said it too. I don't know of any other gospel duty that's above other gospel duties except love. And in Colossians chapter 3, verse 14, he names many things before the 14th verse in Colossians.

He names such things as having forbearance, forgiving one another, don't have quarrels with others, and so on. But when he gets to verse 14, he said, above all things, above all these that he mentioned, such as meekness, humbleness, kindness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, forgiving one another, above all these, above these put charity.

And Peter does the same thing in 1st Peter chapter 4a. He says, above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, because the love life and the Christ life are synonymous. Incidentally, on that verse, John Owen has a great sermon.

He was combining two congregations when a great old preacher by the name of Joseph Carlisle died, Carl, Joseph Carl, died, who was also one of the Westminster divines. He also has a tremendous commentary on Job, probably the best commentary on Job.

But when he died, he had a small congregation. But they were very wealthy people, very prominent people, some lords and so on in his congregation. And that congregation was joined with Owen's congregation.

And the first sermon he preached, because of this vast difference, many rich and many poor and some other things, the first sermon he preached, and I almost used it to preach it to you tonight, was on this text, Colossians chapter 3, verse 14.

And it's a tremendous sermon on what I'm trying to talk to you about tonight, so you preachers that have that, it's in volume 9. It's a good, it's a very good sermon. Well, let me tell you something else about it.

Not only is it above other gospel duties, it is a gospel duty, but it seems as though the Apostle puts it above other gospel duties. There's something else about it that you need to know. It's supernatural.

It's not drummed up, and that's, that separates it from sentimentalism. It's supernatural. If you have an ounce of it, you got it from above. It never grew on Adam's vine. It's supernatural. The Holy Ghost teaches.

That's what Paul said to the Thessalonians. He says, on teaching brotherly love, you need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And if you haven't been taught that, you just haven't been taught of God, because that's what it says.

It's the path in which believers are exhorted to walk. The Bible says, walk in love. Walk in love. Well, there's something else about it. Love is how we're meant to imitate our Heavenly Father. It's how we're meant to imitate Christ.

Love is heaven, as Al was talking about heaven tonight. It's a world of love. It's a kingdom of love. Whatever else heaven is, it's a kingdom of light, it's a kingdom of love, and it's a kingdom of life.

That's opposite to the devil. His is a kingdom of darkness, of death, and of hate. Love is subject, or was the subject, of apostolic prayer. Would you turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17 to 19?

I say, and it ought to be a subject of our prayers. That's another thing I thought about this week, last week. I thought about how little I hear about this in prayers, in our public and private prayers.

And here's the great apostle, who we don't usually think of as somebody who's gushy and sentimental. He was always in some kind of a fight. But listen at him. In Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17 to 19, I won't read it all.

In verse 14, he says, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the things he bows his knees about, as he starts to express that, in verse 17, he said that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that he being rooted and grounded in love.

And go ahead and read the rest of it. Verse 19, and to know the love of Christ. So it was a subject of apostolic prayers, and it should be a subject of our prayers. You know, I was telling somebody, since I've been studying this, and I reflected back when I was first converted.

And I must have seen that from the Bible, because it was part of my prayers all the time, to love sinners. It was, it was one of the chief subjects of my prayers. To have, because I recognized I didn't have an ounce of it.

But it seems as though that aspect got thinner and thinner. And then I remember when I first started to preach, I used to read 1st Corinthians every time before I'd preach. Because I got that idea, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have no charity, I'm nothing, a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.

And I said, Lord, I don't want to be a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Give me some of that which I don't have. I trust that this study will increase that in my own life. Well, love has some relatives.

Love, Law, Truth, and Christian Duty

And fact is, they're inseparable relatives. And I want to talk to you a little bit about them. Talk to you a little bit about those relatives that love has. And the first one is the law of God. It's an awful thing to make an antithesis of love and law.

They are so vitally linked together, and sometimes you watch these television shows. I watch the news in the morning and hardly ever anything else all day long or all night. But I do watch the news in the morning.

Well, I was watching the news a couple mornings way back, and they advertise what's going to come next. That's where they catch you. You just waste a little more time. But this caught me, because they were going to have male prostitutes on there.

And I thought, that's interesting. I never saw one that I knew of. And I just wonder how brave and bold they are. How awful it is to be willing to put that on there. So I thought, I'll just watch what that is.

Well, it's not the show I want to talk to you about, because after this fellow was done, he had an audience. And there was obviously some people in there who were religious, possibly Christians. And they were, he was trying to find out the reaction to all this.

And he had a lot of people objecting, thank God. But when they gave their reasons, there was always, there's never a, and I thought surely a couple of them were Christians. But never a reference to God's law, God's sixth absolute standard.

No reference. And of course, the other side was, well, love, love, love, love. But it was love without law. Now I want to give you some verses tonight, to show you that these, these things, love and law, are inseparably joined.

And if you want to salvage it from becoming sentimentalism, sentimental guts, it's a curse to the church. And the church is full of it. If you want to salvage from that, you must never separate it from its law.

When the lawyer asked Jesus in Matthew 22, Master, what is the great commandment in the law? And he said, the first and great commandment is, thou shalt love the Lord thy God. And he goes on to say, the second is likened unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor.

And he joined the commandments in love together, not separate. Jesus said, and I quote, and please keep these things together. Even in our preaching, in our thinking, and in our approach to the problems of society, we must never separate it.

Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandment. And he put love and the commandments together. And this little epistle that we're looking at, and I say he was the apostle of love, 47 times in the first epistle, look at it in 1 John 5, 3, and you see that he has it together, never separate.

For this is the love of God. There you have love. That you keep his commandments, there you have the commandments, and they're together. And just look at the second epistle of John, verse 6. And this is love, that we walk after his commandments.

And if you forget everything I say tonight, remember that one of the inseparable relatives of Bible love, of gospel love, gospel charity, is it's never separated from God's law. Furthermore, it's never separated from the truth of God, any of the truth of God.

Look at it in this John's third epistle. And I'm reading from the apostle of love on purpose. And he is rightly called this, if the number of times that he uses the word is significant. But look at it in the first four verses of his, of this little epistle, to see how it's not only joined to the law, but it's inseparable from truth, all truth.

The third epistle of John, the elder, unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prosper. For I, for I rejoiced greatly when the, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in me, even as thou walkest in the truth.

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Now he started out at the beginning, whom I love in the truth. And you see the truth and love are together. You see it in Ephesians chapter four, verses fourteen, where we're meant to speak the truth in love.

And there you have truth and love joined together. And the preacher who said, and I don't know who it was, said, rather let error live than let love die. He's making an antithesis that shouldn't exist.

Rather let error live than let love die. No, they're together and they're inseparably joined together. And you see it all through that little epistle. Well, love is, Bible love, gospel love, is not only inseparably joined to God's law, it's not only inseparably joined to his truth, but it's also related to gospel duties.

I referred to 1 Corinthians chapter 13 a moment ago, and if you read that chapter, you'll see that though I preach or prophesy and don't have love, it's linked to gospel. Though I give, though I sacrifice, though I have faith, and I miss this, I've missed it, said the great apostle.

And in Hebrews, he says, he speaks of your work and labor of love. It's related to gospel duties. In the tenth chapter, verse 24, he says, we are exhorted to provoke one another to love and good works.

Love and duty are inseparably joined together. And then of course, and this is very important to us who believe in evangelism, it's vitally related, it's inseparably related to evangelism. And fact is, I believe that only true preaching and only true witnessing, only true evangelistic work, the purest of it, must stem from that love.

That's why Jesus said, that's why Paul said rather, we're to speak the truth in love. And the gospel is a message that we communicate. But he said, speak the truth in love. And we have Jesus saying by this, shall all men know that ye are my disciples.

And that's what we want people to know, that we're his disciples. Well, it's not only related to evangelism, but it's also related to the harmony, I think in the hymn, and the fruitfulness of a local church.

We're one family, one body. We have one Father, one Redeemer. I suggest to you preachers to have John Owen to read his, if you have him on Hebrews, to read John Owen's on Hebrews chapter 13, verse 1, where it says, let brotherly love continue, and you'll get much fuel for your fire.

Let brotherly love continue. In that same sermon that I referred to a while ago, I took one quote in that sermon, I think, and that's all, and this is it. John Owen said, a church full of love is a church well built.

I had rather see a church filled with love a thousand times than filled with the best and highest and most glorious gifts. And I said, Lord, we don't have an ounce of it. Increase our love. But love is connected with something else.

Brotherly Love as Assurance of Salvation

And I mentioned it in passing as I read, but I want you to turn tonight, those of you, please turn to these passages. Love is connected to the assurance that we belong to God. And that's one thing you ought to want to make sure of this week.

If you're here this week and you're not sure you belong to God, one of the ten, I didn't say the only ten, but one of the ten. And that's why I say love is inseparably related to the assurance of our salvation.

Would you turn in this little epistle to several passages. First one I've already referred to, let me do it again, because it's vitally, inseparably joined and linked and related to the assurance of our salvation.

We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. We don't love the brethren in order to be saved, but this is the way we know we've passed from death unto life. Look at it again in this same epistle, chapter 4, verse 6 to 8.

We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth us. And he that is not of God, heareth us not. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God.

And everyone that is born, everyone that loves us, is born of God and knoweth God. You have it in the 8th verse. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love. Look at it again in this same chapter, the 12th verse.

No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us. How do I know that God dwells in me? Well, one of the ways, if you love one another, God dwelleth in you, and his love is perfected in us.

Then see it again in the 16th verse of that same chapter. And we have known, and we have known, and believe the love of God, that believe love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God.

And God in him, that's how I know that God dwells in me. One of the ways you can know that God dwells in you, and you dwell in God, you dwell in God, is by this love. You have it in the 21st, 21st verse of the same chapter.

And then in chapter 5, verse 2, by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. And so you have it there. Well, since gospel love is related to his law, it's related to all the truth of the Bible, it's related to gospel duties, it's related to faith, and I didn't touch that one because I don't have time, but it's so related to faith.