_THE PERFECTING OF LOVE_
"_Herein is our love made perfect._"
--1 JOHN iv. 11-21.
How? By dwelling in God and God in us. Love is not a manufacture; it is a
fruit. It is not born of certain works; it springs out of certain
relations. It does not come from doing something; it comes from living
with Somebody. "Abide in Me." That is how love is born, for "love is of
God, and God is love."
How many people are striving who are not abiding. They live in a
manufactory, they do not live in a home. They are trying to make something
instead of to know Somebody. "This is life, to know Thee." When I am
related to the Lord Jesus, when I dwell with Him, love is as surely born
as beauty and fragrance are born when my garden and the spring-time dwell
together. If we would only wisely cultivate the fellowship of Jesus,
everything else would follow in its train--all that gracious succession of
beautiful things which are called "the fruits of the Spirit."
And "herein is our love made perfect." It is always growing richer,
because it is always drawing riches from the inexhaustible love of God.
How could it be otherwise? Endless resource must mean endless growth. "Our
life is hid with Christ in God," and hence our love will "grow in all
wisdom and discernment."