So brethren and sisters, what will condemn us if it isn’t our beliefs, thoughts and actions? What is it? It is the things that we didn’t do, the things we should have done but forgot to do, or we purposely omitted doing them because of the hardness of our hearts. Withholding our love from one another—that is the thing, brothers and sisters, that shall condemn us—not having our hearts filled with love for one another. We see the woman taken in adultery and we pass judgment upon her. Instead, we should be filled with love and think, “There but for the grace of God am I.” When we should have love in our hearts and we do not have it, nothing else will avail us.
If we don’t have love for one another, it is proof, Brethren and sisters, that we never knew Christ in our lifetime, that we are not near enough to be inspired by Him, to be moved by the magnetic impulses that come from His nature. If that is the case, no amount of reading, knowledge, or studying will avail us in that day. He will say, “I never knew you” and it will be our own fault. It is the cups of cold water that we must pass to one another; it is showing practical love to one another and doing it in the name of the Lord. A brother comes among us who is short of food and we wish him well. This Pharisaical tendency takes place in our midst. “Sit thou here” or “Sit thou there.” We have it in our meetings. A brother comes in our midst and if he is a popular brother, a good speaker, we make a fuss over him, but if a brother comes who is a nobody, who is a meek and humble servant of the Lord, we ignore him and neglect him. We pass judgment in that way. That is not how Jesus taught. Practical love means no discrimination, no forming of little cliques and societies, but a united love for everyone without distinction. It is no good saying to a brother, “be fed” or “be clothed” and doing nothing about it. Practical love means putting our hands into our pockets and taking the money that we have earned under difficult conditions and giving it to him if needed. It is not an easy thing to do, is it? But it has to be done. If we really love the things which Jesus taught and we believe that everything we have is given to us on trust, we shall not really mind. We shall look at it this way. If I have $100 and my brother comes along and needs one hundred dollars and I give it to him, God will give me another hundred dollars tomorrow or maybe even double it. “Cast thy bread upon the waters and it shall return unto thee one hundred fold.” Everything we have is given to us by God and this is the way we show our love to one another, not shutting up our homes and saying “This is mine—keep out” or telling a brother who comes to borrow that we haven’t got it or haven’t got it to lend to him. I am not suggesting, of course, that we should give everything away or that a brother should be encouraged to be slothful. We must be reasonable.
Now I would like to draw my points to a conclusion with thoughts that are often used at the Breaking of Bread Service, when it says, “Let a man examine himself.” We are often busy examining one another and when we hear a good exhortation we often say, “That is good for Brother so and so or sister so and so, it’s too bad they were not here.” We never think in terms of “This is good for me.”
You and I need it, never mind the others. We have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. I cannot work yours out. I can only help you along the way. We should think, “This is a good exhortation for me.” Think of it in that way and go back to your ecclesia and put the spirit of love more and more into your daily life. When you pass judgment or criticize someone, bring it out with love. Would Jesus have said this ? Would the Apostle Paul have said or done this ? Am I being a practical Christian or am I just a talking Christian? These are the things we must ask ourselves and if this lesson of love gets down into our hearts then we can look forward to the coming of Jesus, not with apathy, indifference and fear, but with joy and eagerness and anticipation of the time when the Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in His beams and all the imperfections and weaknesses of human nature shall be forever removed in the glorious body he shall give to every one of us, if we have faithfully learned to love Him.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One