SERVICE THE CONSTRAINT OF LOVE.
Is it not that just as separation to God issues in blessing, so does blessing from God constrain to service, and especially to the highest form of service, that which is most God-like, that of Giving? God so loved the world that He gave; Christ so loved the Church that He gave; the Holy Spirit so loves the Church that He gives; and redeemed ones, created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, when led by the Spirit, first give themselves unto God, and then delight in such other free-will offerings as the Lord may enable them to present. This we believe is the reason why the chapter is found here, and is the true connection between its subject-matter and that of the preceding one.
But why is it so long, so repetitious, and so tedious? The Bible is a wonderful book; it not only gives the history of the past, and guidance for the present, but in prophecy we have the history of ages yet to come—the course of events until the grand climax when God shall be all in all. Why, in a book so marvellous in its comprehensiveness, is so much space given to this record?