Andrew Fuller Friday: On What Christian Love Is

“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”—John 13:34, 35.

The counsels of a dying friend have peculiar weight; those especially which arise from love, and a regard to our well-being. Such was this. It was the counsel of the greatest and best Friend we have; and the advice is calculated, more than any thing else, for our good. And what better than this can I advance on the present occasion? To enter into all the particular duties of a people to a minister and to one another would be far too wide a field. If therefore I dwell on the principle, I hope it will suffice, and prove beneficial. If you ask, What are our duties to our minister? I answer, Love him. If you ask, What are our duties to each other? I answer, Love one another. Learn this lesson well, and every thing else will follow. We shall endeavour to ascertain wherein consists the nature of Christian love, and why it is called a new commandment—to consider its importance in Christian society—and to state a few means and motives to cherish it.

I. Let us endeavour to ascertain the nature of Christian love, and why it is called a new commandment.—We may remark,

1. It is not mere good neighbourhood, or civility between man and man. We may meet as neighbours, and practise the little civilities dictated by a sense of propriety, and regard each other indifferently; and yet be strangers to love.

2. It is not mere friendship.—This belongs to us as men. Heathens are capable of this. But there is no religion in it. It is not Christian love.

3. It is not mere respect on account of religion.—I never remember being without that. That was found in Saul to David, and at times in Pharaoh to Moses, and in Balaam to Israel. But there was no religion in it—no love.

4. It is not mere party attachment.—A good man will, of course, unite himself with that denomination of Christians whose sentiments he believes to be nearest the truth; but he will not limit his affection to a party, but love all who love Jesus Christ. A man may be a zealous partisan, and the party whose cause he espouses may be nearest the truth, but he, nevertheless, may be destitute of love.

5. It is not that excessive and mistaken attachment which shall lead us to idolize and flatter a minister, or to exempt each other from the exercise of faithful discipline. This, in fact, is hatred. “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.”

6. It is not mere benevolence itself.—There may be that without Christianity.

Then what is Christian love?

It is complacency in the Divine image.—It is a union of heart, like that of Ruth to her mother-in-law. Christian love is love for Christ’s sake.

This last remark, I suppose, furnishes a clue for its being called “a new commandment.” The old commandment required benevolence, or love to our neighbour; but this is complacency in Christ’s image, or the love of Christians as such. And being introductory to the New Testament or gospel dispensation, under which the church should be composed of believers only, it is suited to it. Personal religion is now to be the bond of union. This was never so expressly required before. This is more than love to our neighbour, or benevolence; this is brotherly love, or complacency in each other as brethren in Christ, Rom. 12:10; Heb. 13:1. This is genuine charity, 1 Cor. 13.

Fuller, A. G. (1988). “Nature and Importance of Christian Love,” Sermon LXXVIII. The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: Memoirs, Sermons, Etc. (J. Belcher, Ed.; Vol. 1, pp. 522–523). Sprinkle Publications.

By |August 1st, 2024|Categories: Andrew Fuller Friday, Blog|

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