Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself

Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Christ shared many beautiful truths. Some were easy to grasp and others were as hard sayings that confounded the learned, the religious and even the disciples. The words spoken to the lawyer in reply to his question, which is the greatest command, was an unquestionable summation of the whole of the law and the whole duty of man. The ten precepts, the very foundation of God’s government had been revealed to the lawyer in their true spiritual nature – The principle of love, the very transcript of the character of God, for as it is written “…God is love” – 1 John 4:8

Now when it comes to understanding the practical application of the later of that command we often don’t think it a hard saying, for the most of us we believe its meaning is very clear. To love thy neighbour as thy self, otherwise deemed the Golden Rule, is the notion of reciprocity. Most frequently It is explained as: “treat others the way you wish to be treated” or in the words of Christ himself upon the mount of Blessing “and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” – Luke 6:31.

This notion interestingly is found not only in Christianity but in some form or another it is taught in every major religious code in the world today and I also found it interesting to know it formed part of Ancient Babylonian code of law. Love thy neighbour as thyself. I have never before taken thought as to whether this golden rule of morality could be improved; it seems to capture the thought of every Christian activity and motive and in fact is does.

The standard of the golden rule is the true standard of Christianity; anything short of it is a deception. {MH 165.1}

But when I consider that this teaching is at the heart of every religion in the world I wonder what makes what Christ said any different to what anyone else has taught before him or after him? If this notion is essentially Christianity lived out, then shouldn’t anyone under any other religious instruction following this moral law essentially saved? But then I thought about its practical application and what indeed did Christ mean? What sets a part his teaching to all others? To treat others the way you wish to be treated on its face value in practicality meant that I would show kindness to others because I would want to be treated kindly. It meant that I would give my affections to my wife in order that affections would be secured for me. It meant I would forgive others in order that I would be forgiven of them, I would give, hoping to be given and love, desiring to be loved. This notion could in no way be the ‘loving my neighbour as myself’ that Christ spoke of because it is a purely self centred notion. How could I possibly use my wants, my desires, my understanding as a moral compass for how to treat others? Especially not knowing “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” – Jeremiah 17:9

How then is it possible to understand rightly how to relate to my fellow man? What is the standard of Christianity that sets it apart?

Well perhaps we should first understand how I love myself. Anyone that knows me well knows I have in past battled with severe depression and anyone who has been in depression themselves knows that it is an experience that is very far from loving yourself, let alone anyone else.

Grief, anxiety, discontent, remorse, guilt, distrust, all tend to break down the life forces and to invite decay and death – {CH 344,1}

Feelings far from love aren’t they. I certainly don’t wish this experience upon anyone but I am so grateful that the Lord brought me out of it and in doing so helped me to understand what it means to love myself. As contradictory as that may sound, especially to a Christian who is called to overcome self, God has enabled us to have a healthy degree of self respect. God desires and requires us to obtain this but its beginning is in a pit.

The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes – {BEcho December 1, 1892 Par. 5}

It has been my experience, and very much I can say a contributor to my past depression that the longer I have walked this Christian walk, the worst off I feel about myself. I have come to the high standard and like everyone before me I have ‘come short of the glory of God’ – Romans 3:23 and then Satan comes and makes this painful reality ever more painful. Not only does he put my faults ever before me opening the way for Grief, anxiety, remorse and guilt but he works to undermine my resolve to be a true Christian. He cannot grasp me from my understanding of the truth so he sees another avenue in which to attack me, in like manner to how he attacked Christ.

The One whom he could not entice to sin he would cause to suffer – {DA 224.1}

Satan knows he cannot make us doubt the truth. The arguments of our enemies are powerless and effect nothing against the truth. Satan knows that his only way now is to try to separate very near friends and thereby weaken the children of God. United you’ll stand. Divided you’ll fall. – {17MR 343.1}

I begin to look at the faults of my brethren, I lose confidence in their guidance, I question their motives and intents, I nitpick at certain annoyances; and all the while I lose more and more of my own self respect because my respect for others is lost. Here opens the way for discontent and distrust.

Isn’t it easy to be depressed at this point? Isn’t it easy to question whether you are in fact a Christian? It’s hard to comprehend or even describe this experience but it is far from being anything that resembles loving thyself nor thy neighbour, no it loathing thyself. And how do I feel?

And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. – Deuteronomy 28:66-67

The life forces break down and there is the open invitation to decay and death. An invitation of my own making, oh how I lament my life, can’t it be over, can’t you just come Jesus, if I’m filthy so be it, I’m just tired. Can you relate? Although outwardly I am still striving to keep up the standard, to push on and tell myself just get through this day, inside is utter turmoil. Then this is put into even more painful contrast when I read things like this:

Although Christians will experience trials and difficulties, they should be the happiest people on the earth; – {ST November 4, 1889 Par.1}

So you want me to be happy? So I realise more and more how wretched I am and I am to be happy? I’m struggling to even believe that I am accepted of God let alone happy. Are you feeling this way? I have struggled too with this very thought – that despite my years the Gospel message just hasn’t touched me, it just isn’t for me. I see it working beautiful changes in lives all around me but it just wasn’t meant for me.

So depressed I feel as though although I’m sitting in church my thoughts are far away, I no longer can share beautiful testimonies because it feels as though the Spirit isn’t able to move me, the messages don’t affect me as they used to or if they do it is only momentary before I feel a dark cloud hovering over and frustrated I begin to ask, where are you God?

Why don’t you respond more when you meet together in your meetings? Why don’t you have the quickening influence of the Spirit of God when the love of Jesus and His salvation are presented to you? It is because you do not see that Christ is first and last and best, and the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the very Author and Finisher of our faith. You don’t realize this, and therefore you remain in your sins. Why is this? It is because Satan is here wrestling and battling for the souls of men. He casts his hellish shadow right athwart our pathway, and all that you can see is the enemy and his power. Look away from his power to the One that is mighty to save to the utmost. Why doesn’t your faith plow through the shadow to where Christ is? He has led captivity captive and given gifts unto men. He will teach you that Satan claims every soul that does not join with Him as his property. – {FW 73.2-3}

I kept looking at myself; I kept on thinking if I could just change me, I could reform my life better. But when I meditated upon the love of God in His Word, although seeing myself as more wretched getting back to the basics, remembering we are called to “…Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” – John 1:29

I beheld Him in His mercy and His love. Now that was something to cause happiness.

Brethren and sisters, it is by beholding that we become changed. By dwelling upon the love of God and our Saviour, by contemplating the perfection of the divine character and claiming the righteousness of Christ as ours by faith, we are to be transformed into the same image. Then let us not gather together all the unpleasant pictures—the iniquities and corruptions and disappointments, the evidences of Satan’s power—to hang in the halls of our memory, to talk over and mourn over until our souls are filled with discouragement. A discouraged soul is a body of darkness, not only failing himself to receive the light of God, but shutting it away from others. Satan loves to see the effect of the pictures of his triumphs, making human beings faithless and disheartened. [89] – {CCh 80.1}

We so often look away from the simplicity of Christ and His teachings; we so often get caught up with the affairs of this life, with our trials, with meeting the standard, with what our brethren are doing or not doing that we forget what the Gospel is all about. We forgot who has trodden the path before us, we forget who has borne our sins and who when looking upon His pierced hands can say I have grafted you upon my palms, thy walls are continually before me. Behold the Lamb of God, Behold his simplicity, his beauty, his matchless charms, his mercy, his meekness and when you do this, when you turn away from yourself then can you begin to appreciate the atonement He has made.

The more thorough and rich your experience in the knowledge of Jesus, the more humble will be your views of self. The lower you lie at the foot of the cross, the clearer and more exalted will be your conceptions of your Redeemer. – {RH October 16, 1888 Par. 3}

Sure there isn’t anything in us to love or to glory about but what is our glory?

Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. – Jeremiah 9:23-24

Don’t glory in your wisdom, in strength and ability or riches, don’t glory in your own attempts to reform your life and live up to the high standard without Christ but glory in that you know the Lord and more specifically you know His loving kindness. How did I learn to love myself? Not by seeing anything inherently good in myself because this doesn’t exist but in seeing my worth to God. Do you desire that healthy self-respect I spoke of?

I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. – Isaiah 13:12.

The value of a soul, who can estimate? Would you know its worth, go to Gethsemane, and there watch with Christ through those hours of anguish, when He sweat as it were great drops of blood. Look upon the Saviour uplifted on the cross. Hear that despairing cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). Look upon the wounded head, the pierced side, the marred feet. Remember that Christ risked all. For our redemption, heaven itself was imperiled. At the foot of the cross, remembering that for one sinner Christ would have laid down His life, you may estimate the value of a soul. – {AG 175.2}

It is the faith that works by love that is witnessed by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. It is the love that He has had for my soul. Christ has died for me. He has purchased me at an infinite cost, and He has atoned for everything that is offensive to Him. I must be a laborer with Him. I must take His yoke upon myself. I must wear the yoke of Christ. I must lift His burdens. I must teach others how to be lifted from the sinful state that I was in and to grasp by living faith the righteousness that is in Christ Jesus. That is the only way that the sinner can be saved. – {FW 72.2}

Respect breeds respect and there is no doubt that God has respect for us, and a great appreciation of us and sees the heights of our potential if we choose to be take upon His yoke. It is written, Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: – Psalm 138:6

Does he respect us, appreciate us and see our potential because he desires us to think the same of him? No, he doesn’t need our respect, our appreciation or our belief in His abilities. His love is selfless, he respects us that we may have a reason for self respect, he appreciates us so we can appreciate that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ – Psalm 139:14. He enables our potential so that although we feel we are ‘altogether born in sins’ – John 9:34 ‘…to them gave he power to become the children of God’ – John 1:12

Let’s get even more personal:

Your life is too precious a thing to be treated as of little worth. Calvary testifies to you of the value of your soul. – {CSA (A Call to Stand Apart) 50.2}

The Lord has given me a message for you, and not for you only, but also for other faithful souls who are troubled by doubts and fears regarding their acceptance by the Lord Jesus Christ. His word to you is, “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine” (Isaiah 43:1). You desire to please the Lord, and you can do this by believing His promises. He is waiting to take you into a harbor of gracious experience, and He bids you, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). You have had a time of unrest; but Jesus says to you, “Come unto Me, … and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). – {2MCP 640.1}

Perfection through our own good works we can never attain. The soul who sees Jesus by faith, repudiates his own righteousness. He sees himself as incomplete, his repentance insufficient, his strongest faith but feebleness, his most costly sacrifice as meager, and he sinks in humility at the foot of the cross. But a voice speaks to him from the oracles of God’s Word. In amazement he hears the message, “Ye are complete in Him.” Now all is at rest in his soul. No longer must he strive to find some worthiness in himself, some meritorious deed by which to gain the favor of God. – {FW 107.4}

What matchless love! God has loved me so much so that despite my continual failings, the seeds of discord I have harboured, I can find respect for myself; I can appreciate the value of my or any soul according to His estimation. What does it matter how I feel about myself or what Satan says when I see clearly what God feels, thinks and says about me? How then can I stay away from such a love, how then can I loathe myself when I have been created in His image? I cannot and I dare not. How much more respect will I have for his word, the very words that give me life and reason. The longer I meditate upon this love, the more it like a consuming fire engulfs me! It is the most incredible experience to be had. The utter realisation of how much he loves you and in turn as this is enlarged in your mind what results from it?

His affection for God increases, he hungers after righteousness and longs to be more like his Master. By beholding Christ, he is changed from glory to glory, from character to character, and becomes more and more like Jesus. He is imbued with love for Christ and filled with a deep, unresting love for perishing souls, and Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” – {TM (Testimonies to Ministers) 220.2}

Have you tasted of this precious experience? Does it not create in you a desire to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” To magnify his name upon the Earth as did the Psalmist who felt his need?

Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified. But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God. – Psalm 40:16-17

The heart that has once tasted the love of Christ, cries out continually for a deeper draft, and as you impart you will receive in richer and more abundant measure. Every revelation of God to the soul increases the capacity to know and to love. The continual cry of the heart is, “More of Thee,” and ever the Spirit’s answer is, “Much more”…. To Jesus, who emptied Himself for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every follower of Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling. – {AG 213.3}

So then ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ can you see how this is done now? Treat others the way you wish to be treated? No, treat others the way you have been treated, the way you are being treated by God. Actually Christ says it much better:

A new command I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. – John 13:34

There is no way to love thyself without the “as I have loved you”, they are synonymous and this is no new command we have been given at all but a new way of understanding that which was from the beginning. Christ lived it out to give us the example, to throw off the Babylonish understanding and implant the Divine.

In all our dealing with our fellow men, whether they be believers or unbelievers, we are to treat them as Christ would treat them were He in our place. – {OFC 232.3}

Love is after all a plant of heavenly origin, we cannot look to ourselves, the dust of this earth as the ground to root the moral compass, love is rooted in heaven.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. – 1 John 4:9-11

If God dwells in you and me then love is perfected in us and if that love is within us then and only then can we love others. To put it quite simply:

We can impart only that which we first receive. – {1888 1056.2}

When God has His rightful place on the throne of the heart, the right place will be given to our neighbour. We shall love him as ourselves. And only as we love God supremely is it possible to love our neighbour impartially. – {DA 607.2}

How then will this love to our neighbour be manifest?

If we wish to do good to souls, our success with these souls will be in proportion to their belief in our belief in, and appreciation of, them. Respect shown to the struggling human soul is the sure means through Christ Jesus of the restoration of the self-respect the man has lost. Our advancing ideas of what he may become are a help we cannot ourselves fully appreciate.—Fundamentals of Christian Education, 280, 281 (1893). – {DG 141.2}

The very same respect, appreciation and belief in my potential that God has shown to me – I show to others. This cannot be self-fabricated if we wish to reach others – No that very same loving mercy that pulsed through the heart of God for us must as we contemplate it pulse through us for the restoration of our fellow man.

He who gave His life to redeem man sees in every human being a value that exceeds finite computation. By the mystery and glory of the cross we are to discern His estimate of the value of the soul. When we do this, we shall feel that human beings, however degraded, have cost too much to be treated with coldness or contempt. We shall realize the importance of working for our fellow men, that they may be exalted to the throne of God. – {MH 162.3}

Yet he had respect unto the lowly, the more wretched we appear in our own eyes to more highly we esteem others. Christ came in the form of a servant to redeem me – That same love that esteemed others better then himself when I meditate upon it should cause me to see the value of every soul that Christ has died for.

The fallen must be led to feel that it is not too late for them to be men. Christ honored man with His confidence and thus placed him on his honor. Even those who had fallen the lowest He treated with respect. It was a continual pain to Christ to be brought into contact with enmity, depravity, and impurity; but never did He utter one expression to show that His sensibilities were shocked or His refined tastes offended. Whatever the evil habits, the strong prejudices, or the overbearing passions of human beings, He met them all with pitying tenderness. As we partake of His Spirit, we shall regard all men as brethren, with similar temptations and trials, often falling and struggling to rise again, battling with discouragements and difficulties, craving sympathy and help. Then we shall meet them in such a way as not to discourage or repel them, but to awaken hope in their hearts. – {MH 165.1}

The same Christ who abode with sinners and publicans, who reached the most defiled that he could seek and save that which was lost. The same Christ who stands at my hearts door and knocks with the uttermost pity – When I am touched by how gentle he has been, how patient and unobtrusive – How can I treat others in any other way?

We become too easily discouraged over the souls who do not at once respond to our efforts. Never should we cease to labor for a soul while there is one gleam of hope. Precious souls cost our self-sacrificing Redeemer too dear a price to be lightly given up to the tempter’s power. We need to put ourselves in the place of the tempted ones. Consider the power of heredity, the influence of evil associations and surroundings, the power of wrong habits. Can we wonder that under such influences many become degraded? Can we wonder that they should be slow to respond to efforts for their uplifting? Often, when won to the gospel, those who appeared coarse and unpromising will be among its most loyal adherents and advocates… Such need tender words, kind consideration, tangible help. They need that kind of counsel which will not extinguish the faint gleam of courage in the soul. Let the workers who come in contact with them consider this. – {MH 168.3-5}

He placed himself in our temptations, in all points tempted that He could understand the power of our heredity tendencies and our circumstances in order to be a faithful High Priest. If he did this to understand our needs, our weakness how much so should we for others be more understanding? He never caused needless pain, he never rebuked human weakness and all he said in rebuke was said with mournful tears of pity. How do you speak to one another? Is it meat in due season? What will our word be if Christ is indwelling?

When the joy of the Lord is in the soul, you will not be able to repress it; you will want to tell others of the treasure you have found; you will speak of Jesus and His matchless charms. – {HP 123.3}

Seize every opportunity to contribute to the happiness of those around you, sharing with them your affection. Words of kindness, looks of sympathy, expression of appreciation, would to many a struggling, lonely one be as a cup of cold water to a thirsty soul. A word of cheer, an act of kindness, would go far to lighten the burdens that are resting heavily upon weary shoulders. It is in unselfish ministry that true happiness is found. – {ML (My Life Today) 165.3}

I never tire speaking about the love of God and what is has done for me and for others and what I know it is capable of doing. In every discourse, every sermon I love to enlarge upon it. And I am sure there are many love hardened people who may think why another sermon about love haven’t we heard it all before? This is how I felt before. That word loves seems used to conjure up for me almost Pentecostal sentiments, I viewed it as though when someone spoke a little too often of it they were engaging in ‘goody goody religion’ love, love, love and nothing more. Love does not take the place of obedience of course but love is the only true means to enable it. Sure we may have heard this all before but the question is do we need to hear it again?

Love is the basis of godliness. No man has love to God, no matter what his profession may be, unless he has unselfish love for his brother. As we love God because he first loved us, we shall love all for whom Christ died. – {RH January 8, 1895 Par. 9}

We can love our neighbor as ourselves only as we love God supremely. The love of God will bear fruit in love to our neighbors. Many think that it is impossible to love our neighbor as ourselves, but it is the only genuine fruit of Christianity. Love to others is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ; it is walking and working with the invisible world in view. – {WM 49.2}

“Love one another, as I have loved you.” John 15:12. When we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven, for we have heaven in our hearts. – {HLv (From Heaven with Love) 432.2}

To love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves is genuine sanctification. – {FLB (Faith I Live By) 120.6}

There is every need to speak about the love of God and equally every need to have it as our constant contemplation.

Do you desire to love God supremely and your fellow-men as Jesus loved them?—Keep your heart in meditation upon the spotless character of Christ. – {ST February 5, 1894 Par. 1}

If we constantly cherish the love of Christ, we shall have the love that cannot be repressed. We shall love the atmosphere of light and love and truth and righteousness…. The love of God must be planted in the heart in this life, and it will enable us to have happiness, and joy, and peace, because the kingdom of heaven will be set up in our hearts. Heaven is to begin on earth…– {ST February 5, 1894 Par. 2}

Are you not affected by hearing of the love of God? Has it become like broken record in your experience? Why? Perhaps there are many ways to answer this but I can only relate my own experience, you see I was deep in depression and doubt; I did not at all have self-respect. I was hard on myself and I judged others even harder. How did I view God? Merciful? No, Exacting? Yes. But as I have related this experience began in a pit of my making and I thank God that it hasn’t ended there.

Every one of us must fall on the Rock and be broken. Will there be one who will retain his stubbornness? Will there be one who will cling to his self-righteousness? Will there be one who will not catch sight of the preciousness of Christ? Is there a heart here that will not be subdued by the love of Jesus? Will any retain one particle of self-esteem? We need to come still closer to God.

Why is it that our hearts have been so insensible to the love of God? Why have we had so hard a judgment of our heavenly Father? From the light that God has given me, I know that Satan has misrepresented our God in every possible way. He has cast his hellish shadow athwart our pathway, that we might not discern our God as a God of mercy, compassion, and truth. This is why the iron has entered into our souls. – {FW 60.2-3}

A soul imbued with iron rods is a hard thing to break but the love of God can break it.

For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder… He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men? – Psalms 107:16, 20, 21

Isn’t that a present truth worth sharing?

The soul that is imbued with the love of Jesus will never lose interest for perishing souls. Such a person loves to contemplate Jesus, and by beholding Him, will become changed into His likeness. Christ is formed within, the hope of glory. His confidence increases that he is loved of God, and his love deepens and widens, as he has the assurance that he is abiding in Christ and Christ in him. – {PH050 (Pamphlet 50 – Messages to Young People) 8.3}

That is not at all a self-righteous statement to make, here is a surrendered soul hanging for life on the promises of God. We cannot constantly contemplate Christ unless he is the treasure of our heart. As the soul has tasted it longs for a deeper understanding of His love. A soul that longs to serve his Master in the power He has been given of him; the power of love.

Love is power. Intellectual and moral strength are involved in this principle, and cannot be separated from it. The power of wealth has a tendency to corrupt and destroy; the power of force is strong to do hurt; but the excellence and value of pure love consist in its efficiency to do good, and to do nothing else than good. Whatsoever is done out of pure love, be it ever so little or contemptible in the sight of men, is wholly fruitful; for God regards more with how much love one worketh, than the amount he doeth. Love is of God. The unconverted heart cannot originate nor produce this plant of heavenly origin, which lives and flourishes only where Christ reigns. Love cannot live without action, and every act increases, strengthens, and extends it. Love will gain the victory when argument and authority are powerless. Love works not for profit nor reward; yet God has ordained that great gain shall be the certain result of every labor of love. It is diffusive in its nature, and quiet in its operation, yet strong, mighty, to overcome great evils. It is melting and transforming in its influence, and will take hold of the lives of the sinful and affect their hearts when every other means has proved unsuccessful. Wherever the power of intellect, of authority, or of force is employed, and love is not manifestly present, the affections and will of those whom we seek to reach assume a defensive, repelling position, and their strength of resistance is increased. Jesus was the Prince of Peace. He came into the world to bring resistance and authority into subjection to himself. Wisdom and strength he could command, but the means he employed with which to overcome evil were the wisdom and strength of love….Pure love is simple in its operations, and is distinct from any other principle of action. The love of influence, and the desire for the esteem of others may produce a well-ordered life, and, frequently, a blameless conversation. Self-respect may lead us to avoid the appearance of evil. A selfish heart may perform generous actions, acknowledge the present truth, and express humility and affection in an outward manner, yet the motives may be deceptive and impure; the actions that flow from such a heart may be destitute of the savor of life and the fruits of true holiness, being destitute of the principles of pure love. Love should be cherished and cultivated; for its influence is divine.—Testimonies for the Church 2:135. – {GW92 311-312}

In the words of the apostle may the Lord ‘direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ’ – 2 Thessalonians 3:5