Jesus Bhakti in Hindu Communities
Try: "R.C. Das", Banaras, Bhakt

The Philosophy of Love

(Prem Tattva Darshan)

By Professor Dhanjibhai Fakirbhai, B.Sc., B.D.

With Foreword by:

The Rev. Dr. Robert M. Clark, M.A., B.D., Th.D.
Late Secretary, Board of Theological Education,
National Christian Council

First Published 1966

I.S.P.C.K
Post Box 1585
Kashmere Gate
Delhi-6

Printed at the C.M.S. Press, Kottayam, Kerala

Preface

This book was first written and published in Gujarati under the title of Prem Tattva Darshan. I rendered it into English as a very close translation of the Gujarati. The Editorial Secretary of I.S.P.C.K. showed willingness to publish it in English. The Rev. Dr. R.M. Clark took much interest in it even while it was still in Gujarati, and though not yet in manuscript form in English, and published a review article in the Indian Journal of Theology for 1963, p. 139. At my request he has written a very instructive Foreword to this English Edition for which I am highly obliged to him.

My thanks are specially due to the Rev. R.H.S. Boyd, B.A., B.D., of the Gujarat United School of Theology, for taking great trouble to rewrite the whole in appropriate English to make it suitable for readers in English, and for the efforts he made to get it published.

The scriptural texts are taken from the New English Bible (New Testament). Permission to print these extracts has been granted by the holders of the copyright (Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press). This permission is hereby acknowledged with gratitude.

I am obliged to all well-wishers and friends for their encouragement and suggestions, and particularly to the I.S.P.C.K. for publishing the English edition. I hope that the English edition will reach a wide circle of readers, and that it will also encourage the translation of the book into other languages.

DHANJIBHAL FAKIRBHAT
17, Panchvati Housing Society,
Ellis Bridge, Ahmedabad-6,
Gujarat, India.
15th March 1965

Foreword

Sometimes a small book may carry a profound message. That is true of the present book It is a book, moreover, which deals with matters that are of the most immediate importance to each of us. It touches on our deepest needs and our most urgent questions-the meaning of the world in which we live; the meaning of our own life, our bondage and our longing for freedom; our relation to society, of which we are a part and in which it is our duty to serve. Above all it is a book which speaks to us of God. It tells us not merely how we may think about God, but how we may know God by being united with Him in all our being.

This is not a book to read in a hurry. Each truth is stated in a bare minimum of words, and each word is used with precise accuracy. The reader should proceed slowly, pondering carefully each sentence, noting the exact meaning of each word, and keeping in mind what has preceded. He should look up the passages in the Appendix as they are referred to, meditate on them and then turn back and note the light which they throw on the main development of thought. If the reader does this, he will be rewarded with deep insights and a wide perspective of truth.

It is a book for every man, yet in a special way it is a book particularly for India. It deals with questions which the sages of India have asked for thousands of years. It speaks the language which thoughtful men in India have used in their deepest meditations. But it does not merely repeat what has been said before. The reader will find here a new message, a message related to the most profound thoughts of the past, yet one which is specially pertinent to our own time. It is a message which opens the door to a new perspective and at the same time to more comprehensive unity of all truth.

Comprehensive unity is the theme which runs through the book from beginning to end. It shows us the unity of God, man and society through the reconciling, uniting action of God’s love, of God who Himself is Love. It shows the unity of work, worship and knowledge in the supreme Yoga of Love, a unity grounded in God, who Himself acts, who Himself is Love and Truth. It shows us finally the Unity of God in all His manifestations. God creating in Love; God saving and uniting with Himself by Suffering Love; God as Indwelling Love, filling, vivifying, directing the whole life of man. This total Unity is not something which we may only contemplate from far off. It is a present reality into which here, and now we may be drawn, if with faith and love we turn towards God, who is Himself the Fullness of Being and the Fullness of Love.

God is not far from any one of us. May He graciously show His presence to the reader as he meditates on the message of this book.

— Eve of Epiphany, 1965 - ROBERT M. CLARK

Saccidananda and Love

Man’s greatest quest is the Search for Truth; and knowledge of the Truth is the greatest thing he can achieve. To seek the Truth fully is to seek God, and in knowing God one attains to fullness of knowledge.

After pondering deeply on the nature of God, philosophers have said that God is Sat, Cit and Ananda.1 That is, He is Existence; He is Intelligence; and He is Bliss. He is self-existent and eternal; He is conscious, aware and intelligent; and He abounds in joy.2

But beyond all this we can say something further about God, and that is that He is Love - filled with Love, and Himself the very form of Love. This does not mean simply that God shows Love, or that He is merely like a loving father. It means rather that God’s very essence or being is Love; His nature is Love, He Himself is Love.3

The Greatest of These Is Love

This conception is most important if we wish to penetrate to the inner nature of God, and to understand His very being. When we attempt to see God in the very depth of his being, our intellect and understanding fail to plumb the abyss, and so wisdom calls God unknowable, or with the word “Neti” gives up the attempt.4 And yet the most ordinary people, and even animals, know what Love is. And through Love they can catch a glimpse of God and can experience Him.

Love is not an inanimate, lifeless thing; it is living and conscious and aware. Because man possesses awareness, consciousness and self-consciousness he can, through love, become conscious of God.5

God is full of joy, and joy is the revealer of Love, and so through Love we can experience that joy which is the very being of God.6

Love and Creation

As we ponder God’s Love, the mystery of creation also becomes clear. Creation is real; it is neither through ignorance (ajnana, avidya), nor through delusion (maya). Rather it has come into being in, through and because of God’s Love. Creation is the work of a loving Father; it is His offspring, His family. Everything was created in Love. If Creation is lila, sport or play, then it is the play of Love.7

No external, independently existing elements enter into creation, but the origin and development of creation took place out of the very nature of God, which is Love. Creation is simply the spontaneous expansion of God’s Love. Creation is the revelation of Absolute Love, of the Absolute (Param Prema, Parabrahma). And so the created universe itself is good, not evil; far from being impure, it is pure and holy.8

The Father’s Love

Love is present and Love can be experienced in almost every aspect of creation. Love pervades the whole created universe, and this all-pervading Love is the symbol and token of God’s omnipresence.9

The relationship between God and man is not simply that of Creator and created, of the Maker and that which is made. The relationship between them is Love, the Love of a Father for his son. It is not simply that God is our Father, and we are His creatures, His progeny; rather we are the sons of his Love. In creation, we can see the Fatherhood of God, and God is our own loving Father.10

So the relationship between God and man is that of Love, and because of that relationship, the bond or link of unity between them is the bond of Love.

Sin and Love

Through the perversion of man’s will, through his evil habits and sinful actions, this bond of Love is broken, and so evil comes into existence. This evil consists in a moral and spiritual fall or alienation, in which there arises estrangement from and opposition to God in our will, feelings, thought and action. In this way we are separated from the God who loves us, and a moral and spiritual gulf is opened. When such contradiction or opposition arises in our relationship with God, and separation or rupture occurs, that separation is sin, that is, man’s fall. Indeed, the worst possible evil, the worst possible sin, is the destruction of the bond of Love.11 And Salvation (mukti) means simply being saved from such sin, falseness and separation. To be united once again with God in the bonds of Love-that is moksha.12

The Cycle of Love

God is my Father, and I am a child of that Father. Other men and women are also His children, and so I am their brother. God is our Father, and we are all His children. In this way all men are my brothers. We are a brotherhood, bound together by Love.13 And, therefore, we have certain duties and obligations, both individual and collective, or social.

God loves me and cares for me, and so my first duty is to love Him with my whole personality. And there are certain rules or principles which govern my relations with God, with other men, and with the lower creation, and which affect the way in which I act towards them.14

God loves me, and I love Him. So too, God loves other people, and they in turn ought to love Him. In order to complete this cycle of Love it is essential that I should love my fellow-men, and that they should love me.15

In this way there comes into existence a complete cycle of Love, the cycle of the mutual give-and-take of Love which includes God, myself and my neighbour. This cycle must be truly complete. Unless there is fully-reciprocated Love throughout, the Love-cycle is broken. And in this law of Love every kind of moral duty and obligation finds its fulfilment and perfection.16

Karma and Love

Whenever any action or deed is performed, the result of that action is linked to the action itself. Action is inseparably linked with reaction, and each deed with its effect.17

God, the individual, and one’s fellowmen are all united together, joined together in the bond of Love. So it is that each action and its result does not affect only the individual. When a man performs a certain action it is not he alone who suffers its consequences and effects; all those who are associated with him, all who have any contact with him, feel the result of his action. As they are all united in one circle they all have to partake in the fruit of his action. The results of a father’s good or evil actions fall on his children. A father has to share in the results of his son’s good or evil actions. The effects of the industry or the laziness of both a teacher and his pupil are felt by both of them. In the same way each individual and the whole community are inextricably united in the results of their actions; and because they are thus bound together and united, they share a common responsibility. Through the action of a single evil-minded individual, a whole family, a whole village, or a Whole country sometimes has to suffer, and in the same way, a whole people can be benefited by the self-sacrifice of a single patriot. In other words, the law of karma, of action and result, does not apply only to individuals but is effective also in community, and in social relationships, and demonstrates the solidarity of mankind.18

As Creator, as Father, God is inseparably united with us. He is one with us in the bond of Love, and therefore, whatever we do affects God Himself. Similarly, we experience the results of whatever God does for us. In action and in the consequences of action we are inseparably linked with God, and are fellow-workers with Him.

After creating the universe, or setting it in motion, God has not enthroned Himself in far-away idleness. The same Love by which He created the universe keeps Him still firmly in the midst of creation, and the Love which acted in creation is still everywhere active in the universe. God does not sit far away, watching man’s deeds and their results in lofty neutrality, nor is his work simply that of distributing rewards or punishments for man’s actions. Rather, God is actively concerned with man’s deeds and their results. He helps us in our time of need, He lifts our burdens, and is ever active for our salvation.19

It is because there is Love in God that there is Love in man also. It is because of Love that men help one another, share in one another’s joys and sorrows, lighten each other’s burdens, learn to endure suffering and to offer themselves in self-sacrifice. And surely God is no less loving, no less gracious than man!20

God Is Love

God is a Loving Father, and so He sympathises in and feels for the joys and sorrows of his children. It is no mere matter of sentiment to say that God is very Love. It is not simply an emotional statement or a philosophical proposition: rather it is a practical, historic, concrete fact. It is not simply a subject for meditation, but a fact to be experienced.

God does not remain in untouched and unconcerned isolation from creation and the world of men; rather for the sake of man He works the work of Love. This divine work is of special use and effectiveness in relation to the work of man.

First, God comes down among men in such a way that He can take part in the world of men; He descends; He becomes incarnate as an Avatara in the form of man. This is the Incarnation of Love, the very embodiment of Love in the world of man.21

When God came in the form of man it was for no trifling purpose, but to bring man Salvation (mukti) from the results of his karma. God did all that was needed to release man from the fetters of karma, and to restore him, to reunite him with Himself in the bonds of Love (premayoga). As this Incarnation was Himself Love, He lived a life of Love, of selflessness, of devotion to service and of self-sacrifice. It is essential that we should know about that Life and meditate on it.22

Suffering Love

Let us take another matter. There is a law of God’s creation that, whether in the natural or the spiritual sphere, fruition comes only through suffering, pain and self-sacrifice. When a corn of wheat or a seed is sown in the ground it decays and dies, and only if it so dies can it come to life again and yield increase; only then can it bring forth new life. New life can spring only from renunciation, sacrifice and death. For the salvation of any individual it is necessary that Someone should suffer and die.23

The Love of God is revealed in divine self-sacrifice for the salvation of man. In order to make atonement (prayaschitta) for the evil results of man’s deeds (karma), and in. order to counteract the effect of those deeds, this Incarnation of God endures agonies of body, mind and spirit.24

The fruits and consequences of man’s sinful deeds cannot be cancelled without the performance of atonement and sacrifice. Forgiveness which does not involve suffering is meaningless and worthless. Man cannot obtain pardon for his sins unless the Divine Incarnation suffers for those sins. And that is the work which the Divine Incarnation carries out through his sacrifice of Himself. Here is the great work of God’s Love. Every individual who is united with God can obtain the benefit and the fruit of this mighty act. By coming in the form of man and being fully united with man, and for man’s sake carrying through this wonderful and fruitful work of atonement (prayaschitta), God saves man from the fruits of his own misdeeds (karma).25

God, who is complete and perfect, was under no kind of obligation to us. Yet because of the blameless, spotless, holy and service-filled life which He led and the sacrifice of Himself which He offered, we are made full partakers in the result of His work, and so He destroys the consequences or fruits of our sins and misdeeds. We are made sharers and partakers in His work of love, His efficacious act. The result of the loving work of our Lord becomes our own.

The Response to Love

Man on his side must be ready to appropriate the fruit of the self-sacrifice of the Incarnate God. In response to God’s act done for us and for our good, man has a love inspired obligation to accept that finished work in love and in faith. Man must come to share in the effectiveness of the atoning act (prayaschitta), the loving work of the Incarnate God. Now man must not rely upon his own acts of merit, or upon the effort to achieve salvation (mukti) as the fruit of his own good works. Rather he must rely by faith on the complete efficacy of the way of salvation, which God has provided through offering up Himself in Love.26

Salvation is not man’s determination to escape from the punishment due to his misdeeds, or from hell and retribution. By sin, we have been separated from God, and the relationship of Love has been broken: salvation is the restoring of this broken relationship, and the re-establishment of the bond of Love. It is returning to God, being once more united with him, and being reconciled to Him. Salvation has in it nothing of selfishness. There is no Love in selfishness, and in Love there is no place for selfishness. Salvation is not our own accomplishment (siddhi). No act (karma), no spiritual exertion (sadhana) is able by itself to obtain it.27

We have rebelled against God’s loving care for us; we have been disobedient and wicked and have wounded God’s Love. For all this we repent. We are filled with shame and remorse for the suffering which God-Incarnate was made to undergo on our behalf. Because of all this, man must turn towards God in repentance and shame! Salvation has two sides. On one side we see the sacrifice, the work of atonement and the grace which God has shown in his Love and in his pity, while on the other side are the repentance, the submission, the utter dependence on and surrender to God, and the faith which man shows in his loving response to Love.

It is in this way that salvation is secured and the union between God and man is restored.28 And salvation is to be secured now, in this life. We can be saved, become truly free (jivanmukta) in this life - now!29

Love Incarnate

Through Love, God comes down in human form. Living with men, moving among men, He brings to men release from sin, and then leads them upwards to the heights of Godhood. In this way the wheel of God’s work of Love comes full circle. The Incarnate One comes down to men as the full and final sacrifice of God’s Love, and offers up His Life. And He, it is who now, restored to life through His rising from the dead, is alive and dwells in the heart of the man of faith.30 The Lord who became Incarnate and so dwelt in a single body, now dwells in the heart and in the body of every individual who by faith receives Him. He has begun to live, now not simply in one form or one individual, but in many. And in so doing He has become the spiritual renewal and resurrection of man.31

To such a man, God reveals Himself in two ways. First, in order that God may reveal Himself to man in a way that man can both understand and personally experience, He makes Himself known in human form. That is the first way which God in his Love uses to reveal Himself. And yet that revelation and that Revealer comes to man from outside himself. And there is a second mode of revelation, in which God manifests Himself through the inner dwelling of the Lord in the heart and mind and life of the believer.

Jesus lived on this earth for thirty-three years, but his total work is not yet finished. Though his visible, incarnate life is completed, the Lord continues to live and work in the world. He lives in His servants who have found salvation, and in them and through them, He is carrying on and completing those works of Love which it is His will to do. Through dedicated individuals the Lord goes on forever widening the bounds of His realm of Love.32 And in this way also the acts of loving service of the believer reach their fullest development.

Love and the New Birth

The idea of reincarnation is widely held in India-the idea that the soul comes to birth many times in order that it may experience the fruit of its actions (karma). Yet in such births the soul, though it continually changes its body, remains itself, unchanged and unconverted. But the thing which above all needs to be changed is the heart, or soul. This is the real new birth. The heart must be transformed, must experience an inner conversion. What is necessary beyond all else is not that bodies should be changed, but that the soul should be transformed or converted, that the soul should be born again. Such a birth is not physical, is not of the earth earthy, but is God-given and spiritual, and comes from above.33 This divine birth is experienced through the inner advent of the Spirit of God: it is experienced When God Himself takes up His abode within us.

This is not a matter of a mere transaction between God and man; it is not a question of achieving equilibrium between the scales of sin and virtue. It is rather renunciation and the utter sacrifice of self. It is the work of Love, and brings about a complete transformation. The self, the ego, disappears, and God lives in its place. But all this cannot happen without true Love. From henceforth it is no longer ‘I’, but rather it is God’s Spirit who lives in me and works in me. Christ lives in me. All is of Love, for this is the Way of Love.34 The Spirit of God lives within us, and it is only He who makes us do good works and brings to light in us the fruits of good character and of service. All these qualities come, not from us as men, but from the indwelling Spirit of God.

The Three Yogas and the Yoga of Love

Love is manifested in actions, in acts which are true and unselfish, and which are performed through devotion to God and in accordance with His Will; and Love always finds its outlet in true service. This is the Way of Action through Love (Karma-yoga).35 Further it is only because of Love for God that man can live in true faith, in full dependence, in complete self-abandonment and devotion to God, and in loving worship of Him. The emotions, the feelings, the longings of the heart all find their place in Love. And so it is that the way of Love is also the Way of Devotion (Bhakti-yoga).36 Again, if we love someone, it follows that we must truly know him and understand him. This recognition of the one we love, this friendship, this relationship of love, is indeed knowledge. It is no mere intellectual, philosophical or theoretical knowledge about the person, but is rather intimate personal knowledge and friendship. God comes to us and reveals His Love to us. We have a personal knowledge of Him as a Loving Father. And this is the true Way of Knowledge (Jnana-yoga).37

So it is that the complete yoga of Action, Devotion and Knowledge (karma, bhakti and jnana) is attained through the Way of Love (Prema-yoga). To love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our understanding, with all our powers, with all our soul - with our whole personality - that is the Way of Love.

This way of union with God in Love is nothing other than Salvation (moksha). The alienation from God, the hostility and the separation are overcome, and we find salvation. We become one with God. A bond of union is forged which binds us inseparably to Him.

Love in Trinity

God is one. Yet the man of faith approaches God, experiences and knows Him, in three chief ways, which in fact correspond to what God has revealed of Himself. First, through his power of understanding enlightened by divine inspiration, the man of faith sees and recognises God in creation, in nature and in history, and so is able to understand. God’s goodness, his greatness, his divinity, his Love and justice. And so it is that man calls upon God as Creator, as God the Father.38

Secondly, he sees God as one who has become incarnate and so coming close to man, coming in the form of man, has taught us the lesson of service, and offered Himself for us in sacrifice. So man comes to know God in human form, and through Love and faith is drawn towards Him.39 Thirdly, after man is united with God through Love and faith, that same Lord is seen to come and dwell within the heart. The believer has an inner experience of God, who is felt and experienced as working in the depths of our life. Man then knows Him and understands Him as God the Holy Spirit.40

All this we experience and appropriate at first hand. These three ways of God’s self-manifestation are not separate from one another, but interpenetrate each other in complete unity. It is a three-in-oneness, a Unity, a Trinity. God’s nature is known and recognised as being eternally Triune.41

Love in Action

After we have experienced Love-union with God, the life we are to live must not be a worldly one, or one lived only according to human ideas and principles. In social, economic and political affairs we are not to live by worldly ideals. Rather we must live by the Law of Love, in the way shown us by the God who is Love Incarnate. This is no earthly kingdom, but the Kingdom of Love. It is the Commonwealth of God’s power over this world, and in it God’s will and God’s glory are seen in their fullness here on earth as they are in heaven.42

In politics, national and international affairs, supreme power belongs to Christ, and to God’s will and God’s plan, and this purpose of God is to be put into effect by the individual, by society, and by the whole world.43

All social relationships are relationships between children whose Father is God, and so they must be relationships of mutual love, co-operation and help.44 In the economic sphere also all men should act with sympathy and concern for each other, as divinely appointed stewards who are responsible to God. We must live as members of God’s family,45 and in this way must fulfil the ideal of the Kingdom of God. For the sake of this Kingdom, some people must bear greater burdens and make greater sacrifices. “Nevertheless, it is not I, but Christ who lives in me;” and “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” If that is our outlook and our conviction, then the great ideal of the Kingdom of Love will indeed be fulfilled.

Appendix

The following are the corresponding explanatory or illuminating verses from the New Testament (The New English Bible) on the principles that have been given in the former part. The verses, chapters and books of the texts are indicated.

  1. You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free (John 8:32). This is eternal life: to know thee who alone art truly God (John 17:3). God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). To be servants of the living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Who is and who was and who is to come, the sovereign Lord of all (Revelation 1:8). I am the first and the last, and I am the living one (Revelation 1:17,18). Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever (Hebrews 13:8).↩︎

  2. (He) has given us understanding to know him who is real; indeed we are in him who is real (1 John 5:20). All that may be known of God by men lies plain before their eyes; indeed God himself has disclosed it to them (Romans 1:19). Indeed he is not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move, in him we exist (Acts 17:28). God who in eternal felicity alone holds sway (1 Timothy 6:15).↩︎

  3. Love is from God. Everyone who loves … knows God, but the unloving know nothing of God. For God is love (1 John 4:7,8,16). The God of love will be with you (2 Corinthians 13:11). Love will never come to an end … There are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of them all is love (1 Corinthians 13:8,13). May you be strong to grasp what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge. So may you attain to fullness of being, the fullness of God himself (Ephesians 3:18,19).↩︎

  4. (God is) dwelling in unapproachable light. No man has ever seen or ever can see him (1 Timothy 6:16). The world failed to find him by its wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:21). For the wisdom of this world is folly in God’s sight … The Lord knows that the arguments of the wise are futile (1 Corinthians 3:19,20).↩︎

  5. Thus we have come to know … the love which God has for us. God is love; he who dwells in love is dwelling in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). Love is from God. Everyone who loves … knows God, but the unloving know nothing of God. For God is love (1 John 4:7,8). Anyone who loves the world is a stranger to the Father’s love (1 John 2:15). Though God has never been seen by any man, God himself dwells in us if we love one another (1 John 4:12). There is no room for fear in love; perfect love banishes fear (4:18). The love I speak of is not our love for God, but the love he showed to us … We love because he loved us first (1 John 4:10,19).↩︎

  6. ‘Well done, my good and trusty servant … Come and share your master’s delight’ (Matthew 25:22). My joy may be in you, and your joy complete (John 15:11). All joy be yours (Philippians 4:4). You will be joyful, and no one shall rob you of your joy … Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be complete (John 16:22,24). You are transported with a joy too great for words (1 Peter 1:8).↩︎

  7. Thou didst create all things; by thy will they were created, and have their being (Revelation 4:11). He is the effulgence of God’s splendour and the stamp of God’s very being, through whom he created all orders of existence (Hebrews 1:3,2). Through him all things came to be; no single thing was created without him. All that came to be was alive with his life, and that life was the light of men (John 1:3,4). He is himself the universal giver of life and breath and all else … Indeed he is not far from each one of us … ‘We are also his offspring’ (Acts 17:25,27,28). The Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name (Ephesians 3:15).↩︎

  8. Nothing is impure in itself (Romans 14:14). To the pure all things are pure; but nothing is pure to the tainted minds of disbelievers, tainted alike in reason and conscience (Titus 1:15). God is untouched by evil and does not himself tempt anyone. Temptation arises when a man is enticed and lured away by his own lust (James 1:13,14). With the Father of the lights of heaven there is no variation, no play of passing shadows (James 1:17). All that panders to the appetites, or entices the eyes, all the glamour of its life, springs not from the Father but from the godless world (1 John 2:16). Aim at … a holy life, for without that no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).↩︎

  9. Is there a man among you who will offer his son a stone when he asks for bread? (Matthew 7:9). Is there a single one of you who does not loose his ox or his donkey from the manger and take it out to water on the Sabbath? (Luke 13:15). The sheep hear the voice of the shepherd … they know his voice. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:3,4,11). Perhaps for a good man one might actually brave death (Romans 5:7). There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).↩︎

  10. No, do not ask anxiously, ‘What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What shall we wear?’ … Because your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Your Father knows what your needs are before you ask him (Matthew 6:31,32,8). It is not your heavenly Father’s will that one of these little ones should be lost (Matthew 18:14). If you then, bad as you are, know how to give your children what is good for them, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those that ask him! (Matthew 7:11). I will be a father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters, (says the Lord) (2 Corinthians 6:18). How great is the love that the Father has shown to us! We were called God’s children (1 John 3:1).↩︎

  11. No one who does not do right is God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love his brother (1 John 3:10). Because they have not seen fit to acknowledge God, he has given them up to their own depraved reason. This leads them to break all rules of conduct (Romans 1:28). The outlook of the lower nature is enmity with God; it is not subject to the law of God; indeed it cannot be; those who live on such a level cannot possibly please God (Romans 8:7,8). Estranged from God, you were his enemies in heart and mind, and your deeds were evil (Colossians 1:21). A man is the slave of whatever has mastered him (2 Peter 2:19). Everyone who commits sin is a slave (John 8:34). You are slaves of the master whom you obey (Romans 6:16).↩︎

  12. Freed from the commands of sin, and bound to the service of God (Romans 6:22). We for our part have crossed over from death to life; this we know, because we love our brothers (1 John 3:14).↩︎

  13. Love your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:39). Always treat others as you would like them to treat you (Matthew 7:12).↩︎

  14. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind (Luke 10:27). The love of Christ leaves us no choice (2 Corinthians 5:14). If you love me you will obey my commands (John 14:15). You are all brothers (Matthew 23:8).↩︎

  15. To love the parent means to love his child (1 John 5:1). And indeed this command comes to us from Christ himself: that he who loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:21). If God thus loved us, dear friends, we in turn are bound to love one another (1 John 4:11). (The Lord said) I give you a new commandment: Love one another; as I have loved you, so you are to love one another (John 13:34). If he does not love the brother whom he has seen, it cannot be that he loves God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20).↩︎

  16. Love cannot wrong a neighbour; therefore the whole law is summed up in love (Romans 13:10). He who loves his neighbour has satisfied every claim of the law (Romans 13:8). God himself dwells in us if we love one another; his love is brought to perfection within us (1 John 4:12).↩︎

  17. God is not to be fooled: a man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7). Can grapes be picked from briars or figs from thistles? … When a tree does not yield good fruit it is cut down and burnt (Matthew 7:16,19). Sparse sowing, sparse reaping; sow bountifully, and you will reap bountifully (2 Corinthians 9:6). God’s judgment is rightly passed upon all who commit such crimes as these (Romans 2:2). God will pay every man for what he has done … For God has no favourites (Romans 2:6,11).↩︎

  18. No one of us lives, and equally no one of us dies, for himself alone (Romans 14:7). All of us are the parts of one body (Ephesians 4:25). If one organ suffers, they all suffer together. If one flourishes, they all rejoice together (1 Corinthians 12:26).↩︎

  19. We are God’s fellow-workers (1 Corinthians 3:9). It was not to judge the world (that he came), but that through him the world might be saved (John 3:17). He does not shrink from calling men his brothers (Hebrews 2:12). (He says) Come to me, all whose work is hard, whose load is heavy, and I will give you relief (Matthew 11:28).↩︎

  20. If one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the missing one until he has found it? (Luke 15:4). There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep … I lay down my life for the sheep (John 10:11,14).↩︎

  21. He (the Word) was in the world … the world owed its being to him … The Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us (John 1:10,14). The divine nature was his from the first … but (he) made himself nothing, assuming the nature of a slave. Bearing the human likeness, revealed in human shape, he humbled himself (Philippians 2:6-8). The children of a family share the same flesh and blood; and so he too shared ours. And therefore he had to be made like these brothers of his in every way (Hebrews 2:14,17). God is love; and his love was disclosed to us in this (1 John 4:9).↩︎

  22. I did not come to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28). I came to invite sinners (Matthew 9:13). Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). The Son of Man has come to seek and save what is lost (Luke 19:10). He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (Acts 10:38).↩︎

  23. The seed you sow does not come to life unless it has first died (1 Corinthians 15:36). A grain of wheat remains a solitary grain unless it falls into the ground and dies; but if it dies, it bears a rich harvest (John 12:24). There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). I shall draw all men to myself when I am lifted up from the earth (i.e. on the Cross) (John 12:32).↩︎

  24. The love he showed to us (in coming) as the remedy for the defilement of our sins (1 John 4:10). He sacrificed himself to win freedom for all mankind (1 Timothy 2:6). Christ was innocent of sin, and yet for our sake God made him one with the sinfulness of men (2 Corinthians 5:21). He loved me and sacrificed himself for me (Galatians 2:20). It is by this that we know what love is: that Christ laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16). Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and that is God’s own proof of his love towards us (Romans 5:8). He it is who sacrificed himself for us, to set us free from all wickedness, and to rescue us out of this present age of wickedness (Titus 2:14, Galatians 1:4). He is himself the remedy for the defilement of our sins … the sins of all the world (1 John 2:2).↩︎

  25. Christ died for our sins once and for all. He the just suffered for the unjust (1 Peter 3:18). (Coming) in a form like that of our own sinful nature, and as a sacrifice for sin, he has passed judgment against sin within that very nature (Romans 8:3). All are justified by God’s free grace alone, through his act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus. For God designed him to be the means of expiating sin by his sacrificial death, effective through faith. God meant by this to demonstrate his justice … showing that he is both himself just and justifies any man who puts his faith in Jesus (Romans 3:24-26).↩︎

  26. When the kindness and generosity of God our Saviour dawned upon the world, then, not for any good deeds of our own, but because he was merciful, he saved us (Titus 3:4,5). If without any work to his credit he (a man) simply puts his faith in him who acquits the guilty, then his faith indeed is counted as righteousness (Romans 4:5). For it is by his grace you are saved, through trusting him; it is not your own doing. It is God’s gift, not a reward for work done (Ephesians 2:8,9). Thus, we have come to know and believe the love which God has for us (1 John 4:16).↩︎

  27. Through him God chose to reconcile the whole universe to himself (Colossians 1:20). We also exult in God through our Lord Jesus, through whom we have now been granted reconciliation (Romans 5:11). There is no room for fear in love; perfect love banishes fear. For fear brings with it the pains of judgment (1 John 4:18). We love because he loved us first (1 John 4:19). We may come to share in the very being of God (2 Peter 1:4).↩︎

  28. Repent … for the forgiveness of your sins (Acts 2:38). Humble yourselves before God and he will lift you high (James 4:10). Everyone who has faith in him may … eternal life (John 3:16).↩︎

  29. The hour of favour has now come; now … has the day of deliverance dawned (2 Corinthians 6:2).↩︎

  30. God, rich in mercy, for the great love he bore us, brought us to life with Christ even when we were dead in our sins; it is by his grace you are saved. And in union with Christ Jesus he raised us up and enthroned us with him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:4-6).↩︎

  31. He who loves me … I will love him and disclose myself to him … and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him (John 14:21,23). I will not leave you bereft; I am coming back to you (John 14:18). Here is the proof that we dwell in him, and he dwells in us: he has imparted his Spirit to us (1 John 4:13).↩︎

  32. Because I live, you too will live (John 14:19). He who has faith in me will do what I am doing; and he will do greater things still (John 14:12). In his good pleasure God … chose to reveal his son to me and through me (Galatians 1:15,16). I have strength for anything through him who gives me power (Philippians 4:13). He who dwells in me, as I dwell in him, bears much fruit; for apart from me, you can do nothing (John 15:5). Your bodies are limbs and organs of Christ (1 Corinthians 6:15). How vast the resources of his power open to us who trust in him (Ephesians 1:19).↩︎

  33. If a man sows seed in the field of his lower nature, he will reap from it a harvest of corruption, but if he sows in the field of the Spirit, the Spirit will bring him a harvest of eternal life (Galatians 6:8). Flesh can give birth only to flesh; it is spirit that gives birth to spirit … You must be born over again (John 3:6,7). You have been born anew, not of mortal parentage but of immortal (1 Peter 1:23). To those who have yielded him their allegiance, he gave the right to become children of God, not born of any human stock, or by the fleshly desire of a human father, but the offspring of God himself (John 1:12,13). A child of God does not commit sin, because the divine seed remains in him; he cannot be a sinner, because he is God’s child (1 John 3:9).↩︎

  34. The life I now live is not my life, but the life which Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20).↩︎

  35. Love must not be a matter of words or talk; it must be genuine, and show itself in action (1 John 3:18). Love is patient; love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love keeps no score of wrongs; does not gloat over other men’s sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance. Love will never come to an end (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). God’s love has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy Spirit he has given us (Romans 5:5).↩︎

  36. You shall do homage to the Lord your God and worship him alone (Matthew 4:10). Persevere in prayer (Colossians 4:2). My present bodily life is lived by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20).↩︎

  37. Everyone who loves … knows God, but the unloving know nothing of God (1 John 4:7,8). He who loves me … I will love him and disclose myself to him (John 14:21). I know my own sheep and my sheep know me (John 10:14). This is eternal life: to know thee who alone art truly God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent (John 17:3).↩︎

  38. The God who created the world and everything in it, and who is Lord of heaven and earth … is himself the universal giver of life and breath and all else … though indeed he is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:24,25,27). He has not left you without some clue to his nature, in the kindness he shows: he sends you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons, and gives you food and good cheer in plenty (Acts 14:17).↩︎

  39. He shall be called Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God is with us’ (Matthew 1:23). The eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us (1 John 1:2).↩︎

  40. God is love; he who dwells in love is dwelling in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16). When we keep his commands we dwell in him, and he dwells in us. And this is how we make sure that he dwells within us: we know it from the Spirit he has given us (1 John 3:24). To prove that you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son (Galatians 4:6). The Spirit of truth … You know him because he dwells with you and is in you (John 14:17).↩︎

  41. My Father and I are one (John 10:30). You will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you … My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him (John 14:20,23). The Holy Spirit (that is) the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:6,7). (The Lord Jesus said) The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name (John 14:26). (The Lord Jesus saw the heavens torn open and) the Spirit … descending upon him. And a voice spoke from heaven: Thou art my Son (Mark 1:10,11).↩︎

  42. The kingdom God has promised to those who love him (James 2:5). Our Father in heaven … Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). You cannot tell by observation when the kingdom of God comes. There will be no saying, “Look, here it is!” or, “there it is!”, for in fact the kingdom of God is among you (Luke 17:20,21). The kingdom of God is … justice, peace and joy inspired by the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).↩︎

  43. Jesus said (I am) King … My kingdom does not belong to this world (John 18:37,36). Here am I among you like a servant (Luke 22:27). Whoever wants to be great must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the willing slave of all (Mark 10:43,44). You must love your enemies and do good (Luke 6:35). How blest are the peacemakers … How blest are those of gentle spirit (Matthew 5:9,5).↩︎

  44. Be forbearing with one another and charitable (Ephesians 4:2). There is no question here of Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, freeman, slave (Colossians 3:11).↩︎

  45. If a man has enough to live on, and yet when he sees his brother in need shuts up his heart against him, how can it be said that the divine love dwells in him? (1 John 3:17). Whatever gift each of you may have received, use it in service to one another, like good stewards (1 Peter 4:10).↩︎