The Divine Attribute (No. 5)

By Vernon W. Hurst

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     The reader will find it necessary to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the magnitude God has made it possible for love to assume in the human life, in order to concede to it the overpowering role we have attributed to it in this series of studies. It has been described as a voluntary attitude which can respond to a command. It is not an involuntary emotion--something into which we fall because we cannot help ourselves--but a conscious attitude which we adopt by deliberate choice. It could have been commanded only in the framework of such a system of enlightenment as is represented in God's revelation of himself. To command love without a connection to the inspirational source from which it originates would be to command the impossible. A few passages will clarify this.

     "It is by this we know what love is: that Christ laid down his life for us" (1 John 4:11).

     "We love because he loved us first. But if a man says, 'I love God,' while hating his brother, he is a liar. If he does not love the brother whom he has seen, it cannot he that he loves God whom he has not seen. And indeed this command comes from Christ himself: that he who loves God must also love his brother" (1 John 4:19-21).

     Careful examination of the facts involved will reveal that the love which concerns us here, is of divine origin. It originated with God. In us, it is a response to divine direction based upon divine example. To challenge your thinking, let me state very plainly the premises I expect to prove in these studies.

     Love may he perfected in us right in this very life. Unlike most divine attributes, which must await complete fulfillment until we see him, fulfillment in love may be ours in this life. Love is the area where God has made it possible for us to meet him on his own level, and for us to approach others on his level. You may say that I am assuming quite a load in assigning myself the task of proving this. I am aware of this. I accept the challenge only because of a very deep conviction that hope for Christianity's survival in the Atomic Age depends upon this principle being understood. Please do not judge me blasphemous until you have heard me out.

     I want to launch this phase of our study from a passage which is frequently quoted, and just about as frequently misapplied. Like most passages which plumb the depths of love, it is from the pen of the apostle John.

     "But if we walk in the light as he

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himself is in the light, then we share together a common life, and we are being cleansed from every sin by the blood of Jesus his Son" (1 John 1:7).

     This verse is quite universally understood to mean the keeping of God's will in general. Can this possibly be the meaning? Please notice the extent to which we must "walk in the light" in order to share his life and experience the cleansing power of the blood of his Son--he himself is in the light! Now, if the "light" refers to God's will generally, can you hope to conform to God's will generally as Jesus did? You will bear in mind that he kept the Father's will to a perfect and sinless degree. I ask again if you can hope to conform to God's will to that extent. Unless you answer in the affirmative, then you have no hope of qualifying for the cleansing power of Christ's blood. Do you not see that this cannot possibly be what John is talking about? Let us quote the whole paragraph from which the statement was taken and see if the context will define the "light" of which John is speaking. To promote a clear understanding of the apparent difficulty, I am going to italicize the words which define each other in the passage.

     "Here is the message we heard from him and pass on to you: that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we claim to be sharing his life while we walk in the dark, our words and our lives are a lie; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, then we share together a common life, and we are being cleansed from every sin by the blood of Jesus his Son" (1 John 1:5-7).

     Does it not seem that the passage defines the light as, in some way, being God? John says the apostles had received and passed on the message that God is light. He then points out that walking in that light qualifies one for the cleansing power of Jesus. However, we still face the necessity of learning the significance of the light in the passage. God is light in so many different ways. Light is figuratively used of many different things. How are we to understand this particular usage? Let us seek counsel of John, who is the best authority on that of which he speaks. I shall call attention to another passage in which it seems John is speaking on the same subject and using the same words to express himself. Once again I shall italicize certain words for sake of clarity.

     "A man may say, 'I am in the light'; but if he hates his brother, he is dwelling in the dark. Only that man who loves his brother dwells in light. But one who hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in the dark and has no idea where he is going, because the darkness has made him blind" (1 John 2:9-11).

     Does it not seem reasonable in the light of these texts which we have examined that walking in the light is synonymous with walking in love? John says a claim to be in the light while practicing hatred is a lie. Does this not clearly demonstrate that the practice of love would validate our claim to be in the light? John states unequivocally that "only that man who loves his brother dwells in the light." I feel that, with these facts made certain, we may safely conclude that walking in the light, as John used the phrase, is exactly equal to walking in love. In other words, light is used figuratively of love.

     This is so vital to Christianity in our time that there must be left no room for doubt. Every vestige of reluctance must be removed. God's people must be completely free to partake of the "divine attribute"--to permit it to become an integral part of their nature--until it will literally be true that God dwells among men. Let us return to a previously mentioned passage for a closer look.

     "Here is the test by which we can make sure that we are in him; whoever claims to be dwelling in him, binds himself to live as Christ himself lived. Dear friends, I give you no new command. It is the old command which you always had before you; the command is the message which you heard from the beginning. And yet again it is a new command that I am giving you--new in the sense that darkness is passing and the real light already shines. Christ has made this true,

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and it is true in your own experience (1 John 2:6-8).

     I have emphasized certain portions of this passage. I want to examine them with you with considerable care. I believe you will find a door open into the future through which Christianity, as a whole, has never passed. Having passed through this portal, God's people will find themselves living with God to a degree of reality that has not been true since Christ walked among men, and the world around them will never be the same.

     I believe this! I believe the answer to the problems of the ages lies at our fingertips. I believe the rocks and shoals can be carefully and clearly marked and avoided. I believe that past failures can be turned into future successes. I believe we live in age of decision. It can be an age which will swing wide the portals of a golden tomorrow--if we make the right choice. On the other hand, our children and grandchildren can live in a day when history will record them as saying, "We hanged our harps upon the willows and wept, when we remembered what might have been." Which will it be?