John 17:23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them… I. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH WE MAY UNDERSTAND THIS TO BE POSSIBLE. 1. God cannot love but with all the love He has. He can never be less than God — that is, perfect. He can do nothing which even He could improve upon. Then, when He loves, it is in the fullest measure in which even God can love. "Now Jesus loved Martha," &c., that sounds as if He loved them more than others, so does "the disciple whom Jesus loved," but not necessarily so, because they were more responsive to that love. The difference is not in God, but in us — in our reception of His love. 2. Those who believe in Christ, are loved in Him. In connection with the rest of the prayer it is not so hard to believe the text. If there be this oneness between Him and them, how can it be otherwise. 3. The sacrifice of Christ manifests such a love. For how must the Father feel to those for whom He gave His Son? II. THE CHARACTER OF THE DIVINE LOVE WHICH THIS IMPLIES. 1. It is love checked by no barrier. Once it was checked, it could not utter itself because of sin. You have seen a swollen stream heave, impatient of restraint, against the flood-gates which keep it back. It was so once with God's love to men. But the barrier is removed, "Christ hath put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," and now that love leaps forth free to all. But it finds another check, hearts are closed to its reception, it surges round them seeking to enter, but for the most part in vain; it cannot have its way with men because they will not let it. But not so all. Some have "known and believed the love that God has to them," they have opened their hearts to it and it can do for them what it would; these are they who believe on Christ, see their sin put away in Him, and in Him their acceptance by the Father; to them that love goes forth as to Him. 2. It is a love of closest intimacy. There is a love which is little more than kindly feeling, there is that which is mainly a delight in what perhaps we cannot approach, there is the love of friendship with its exchange of confidence and mutual happiness, but there is also the love of some one who comes so near to us that he is our second self. That most nearly represents the Father's love to the Son, "the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father." We are apt to be content with much less, cherishing but a reverence to God which keeps us at a distance, and not blending with it a confidence as great which compels us to "draw near." God forbid that we lose the reverence, but that we lose the confidence God forbid too! Yet that is our portion, since Christ says the Father has loved us as He loved Him. 3. It is an everlasting love. For the Father's love to the Son will never cease, and through earth's sins and sorrows and conflicts, through all the changes we dread, through the mystery of death, in the glory of heaven and throughout its endless future, unweariedly the Father will love us still. III. THE EFFECT OF THIS LOVE OF GOD ON HIS PEOPLE, or rather, the effect of knowing it. 1. It satisfies when every other love fails. And that is always. 2. It is the quickening power of holiness. For the way into holiness is to be loved into it by God. (C. New.) Parallel Verses KJV: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. |
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