CHAPTER 12
The Chariot Has Brakes

"One of the most important things in the Christian life," I was once told, "is to keep balanced." And nowhere is this more important than in the handling of the theme of love.

Charles G. Finney wrote at length about the attributes of love. He observed that love is voluntary, compassionate, merciful, truthful, meek, longsuffering, stable and kind. But he also noted that love is impartial, just and even severe.

"They greatly err," Finney said, "who suppose that benevolence is all softness under all circumstances. Severity is not cruelty but is love manifesting strictness, rigor, and purity when occasion demands. Love is universal good-will, or willing the highest good of being in general. When therefore anyone or any number so conduct themselves as to interfere with and endanger the public good, severity is just as natural and as necessary to benevolence as kindness and forbearance under other circumstances." 1

In our discussion of love for God and man we must make clear that love is more than the trite mouthing of the newest evangelical cliche. "I love you."

Agape love for God and men springs from the will. It is inseparable from the will. Since there are various kinds of love. it is possible for agape (divine) love to finally be reduced to phileo (friendly) love or even eros (sensual) love. Conceivably those who meet God in revival love could finally succumb to its distortion, immorality.

True love is inseparable from the will. And in fact, emotion will invariably follow the will. But it should not lead it.

A familiar story illustrates this well. A man was walking down a wilderness path very much occupied with his own thoughts. Suddenly he looked up to discover a large bear looming over him. He did what any sensible man would do. He ran like crazy. Once in his cabin with the door slammed shut. he slumped into a chair. Paralyzed with fear.

Now what if emotion had been first? But it was not. First there was the exercise of the will. He ran. It was only later that the emotion flooded in.

Again. love is inseparable from deeds. We have established in these pages. we hope effectively, that love is something to be seen, heard and expressed. It is certainly something you do. And say.

But love is more than speech. "Let us stop saying we love people." Kenneth Taylor parahrases; "let us really love them and show it by our actions" (I John 3:16. Living Bible). Deeds, then, demonstrate love.

God's agape love is also irrevocably linked with true Christian faith. "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God" (I John 4:7).

On the negative side, John put it this way, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him" (I John 3:15). "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).

Nor can God's love be separated from the fulness of the Holy Spirit. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) is a plain scriptural command. And the fruit of the Spirit is love. Any experience, no matter how biblical it may seem to be, which does not shed abroad the love of God in our hearts cannot ever be construed to be the fulness of the Holy Spirit.

"God so loved... that he gave" (John 3:16), reflects another vital principle. God's love is a giving love. Mark Lee calls it the "no motive" love. A love which demands nothing in return. And any love which does not give, both materially and spiritually, must not in any circumstances be called God's love.

God's love, we have already suggested, is not "namby pamby." Rather it has a spine of steel. To be loving does not at all require that a man be naive and silly-soft.

Often I have had personal difficulty here - mistaking softheartedness for true love. Love can be and must sometimes be stern. Chastening, for example, is an expression of love. "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth" (Hebrews 12:6).

"Finally, and most importantly, love is inseparable from obedience. "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments" (I John 5:2,3).

A love for God which will not allow us to humble ourselves, deny self, and continually acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ must be a spurious love.

The writings of St. Paul beautifully reflect the balance we wish to portray. "Make love your aim, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts" (I Corinthians 14:1). "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment" (Philippians 1:9).

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1. Charles G. Finney, Attributes of Love, Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship, Inc., 1963, p. 93.

Cahpter 13