'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. 12, 13.
The union between Christ and His disciples has been tenderly set forth
in the parable of the Vine and the branches. We now turn to the union
between the disciples, which is the consequence of their common union
to the Lord. The branches are parts of one whole, and necessarily bear
a relation to each other. We may modify for our present purpose the
analogous statement of the Apostle in reference to the Lord's Supper,
and as He says, 'We being many, are one body, for we are all partakers
of that one bread,' so we may say--The branches, being many, are one
Vine, for they are all partakers of that one Vine. Of this union
amongst the branches, which results from their common inherence in the
Vine, the natural expression and manifestation is the mutual love,
which Christ here gives as _the_ commandment, and commends to us all by
His own solemn example.
There are four things suggested to me by the words of our text--the
Obligation, the Sufficiency, the Pattern, and the Motive, of Christian
love.