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(in conjunction with 1 Corinthians 16:22): — Our Lord is remonstrating with the Jews for their desire to slay Him. By taking His life they would be taking their own (ver. 40). This was attempted under the pretence of love to God. Our Lord here exposes its hollowness. The other verse is a prediction of the inevitable consequence of impenitence. In 1 Corinthians 12:3 Paul tells us that the Jews called Jesus Anathema, i.e., a person devoted to destruction. How He turns their doctrine upon them! "It is not Jesus who shall be destroyed, but those who do not love Him."

I. THE MIND DELIGHTS IN SOME SPECIFIC AND ABSORBING PURSUITS, and the range of its search will widen, and its standard rise in proportion to the purity, reverence, and the devoutness of the desire.

II. THIS TENDENCY FINDS ITS REWARD IN THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE HIGHEST GOOD. Finite intelligence can rest only in its infinite source.

III. THE PATHWAY TO SUCH AN ISSUE IS OPENED IN THE GOSPEL.

1. With unobtrusive step. There is no vulgar ceremonial, no wild or harsh Eureka.

2. With surprising grace.

3. With convincing luminousness. Christ is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

4. With unembarrassed access. Willinghood is the only condition. "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come."

IV. THE REVELATION WHICH THE GOSPEL MAKES IS THE GREAT MORAL TRIBUNAL AND TEST.

1. It tries our estimate of law. He who underrates the gospel lowers the standard of the law. A low estimate of moral law means a low estimate of God.

2. It tests our reverence for God. The mind which shrinks from the obligations of the gospel is deficient in its veneration for the Supreme.

3. It tests our susceptibility to transcendent worth. Without a sense of our utter worthlessness there can be no appreciation of Christ. Any sense of personal righteousness detracts from our estimate of His. Just as a man dwindles in His own esteem Christ rises and expands. Christ came not to dower the rich and cleanse the pure, but to enrich the poor and wash the filthy.

V. TO SET THIS GOSPEL AT NAUGHT IS TO BE LEFT WITHOUT EXCUSE.

1. Unless we can find a substitute; but all substitutes hitherto have been like the cup of Tantalus. Read the "Transactions of the British Association" beside a sick bed, or take them as a light to the feet, and where is your consolation?

2. Unless we can silence clouds of witnesses. Could a lie have filled the martyr with new faith?

3. Unless we can do all this without misgiving.

4. But to yield to this gospel is to pass within the range of everlasting love.

(A. Mursell.)

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KJV: But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.

WEB: But I know you, that you don't have God's love in yourselves.