II. That love occupies the most exalted place in the Christian character.—“Above all these things.” Not simply in addition to, but over and above all these, put on charity, as the outer garment that covers and binds together all the rest. Other graces are local and limited in their use; love is all-expansive and universal. A philosopher, in a vein of pungent satire, has dilated on the philosophy of clothes; and experience testifies how mightily the world is influenced and instructed by outward appearances. As the dress frequently indicates the rank and importance of the wearer, so the garment of love, worn without ostentation or pride, is the badge by which the Christian is known in the world (John xiii. 35). Love is the presiding queen over all Christian graces, inspiring and harmonising their exercises, and developing them into a living and beauteous unity of character. The apostle fixes the exalted rank of love in 1 Cor. xiii. 13.
III. That love is the pledge of permanency in the Christian character.—“Which is the bond of perfectness.” As a girdle, or cincture, bound together with firmness and symmetry the loose flowing robes generally worn by the ancients, so love is the power that unites and holds together all those graces and virtues which together make up perfection. Love is the preservative force in the Christian character. Without it knowledge would lose its enterprise, mercy and kindness become languid, humility faint, and longsuffering indifferent. Love binds all excellencies together in a bond which time cannot injure, the enemy unloose, or death destroy. No church, or community of individuals, can exist long without the sustaining power of love. It is not a similarity in taste, intellectual pursuits, in knowledge, or in creed, that can permanently unite human hearts, but the all-potent sympathy of Christian love. Charity never faileth.
IV. That the perfection of the Christian character is seen in the practical manifestation of love.—“Put on charity.”
1. Love is indispensable.—It is possible to possess many beautiful traits of character—much that is humane and amiable—without being a complete Christian: to be very near perfection, and yet lack one thing. Without love all other graces are inconsistent, heartless, wayward, selfish. They are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Charity is indispensable to give life, force, meaning, truth, permanence to the whole. It supplies the imperfections and defects of other graces and virtues.
2. Love is susceptible of individual cultivation.—It may be “put on.” We may have more if we strive after it and faithfully use what is already possessed. It is a pressing, practical duty which all Christians are bound to attend to. And yet there is no grace which is more constantly suppressed. What a power the Church would become, and how marvellously would the character of the world be changed if love had a freer scope and was universally exercised. The pretentious coverings of sectarianism and bigotry would vanish, and the whole Church of the redeemed be girt with the ample robe of a seamless unity. To win the love of others we must put it on ourselves.
Lessons.—1. The mere profession of Christianity is empty and valueless. 2. Every grace of the Christian character must be diligently exercised. 3. Above and through all other graces love must operate.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 15.
The Rule of Divine Peace.
War in any form is unfriendly to the growth of piety. The soul is tossed on the waves of disquietude, and courage—the principal virtue called into exercise—is apt to acquire an unnatural and unhealthy development at the expense of all other graces. The whole structure of the Christian character is dislocated and thrown off its balance. Peace restores the soul to its true equipoise, fixes every power in its just relation to each other and to the whole, and encourages the harmonious cultivation of that love which is the bond of perfectness. Lord Bacon has said: “It is heaven upon earth to have a man’s mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.” In this verse we are taught that the one supreme umpire in the heart, by which all differences are to be settled, is the peace of God—the destined end of the Christian calling, in which is realised the unity belonging to members of one body; and that this blessing is to be sought in a spirit of thankfulness. Observe:—
I. That peace is a Divine blessing.—“The peace of God.” Some of the oldest manuscripts have read, “The peace of Christ”—a reading adopted by the ablest biblical critics. The verbal difference, however, is of no moment. The truth is the same: it is equally the peace of God and the peace of Christ—a Divine tranquillity filling the soul with a calm that no mere worldly power can give or take away, and that the ocean-surges of trouble can never diminish or disturb. Christ hath made peace through the blood of His cross and left it as a sacred legacy to all His disciples through all time. In its essence it is the peace that Christ Himself enjoys—a sublime calmness similar to that which pervades the Divine bosom. It is not like the long, painful, oppressive stillness that is the precursor of a storm, but a profound, pervasive, heavenly quiet that soothes while it invigorates the soul. It proceeds from God through Christ and is maintained and nourished in the heart as a positive, gracious reality and priceless blessing.