October 22

"He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen." 1 John 4:20

We might perhaps add to the Apostle John's words. "If we cannot love our brothers whom we see, how can we love the brothers whom we cannot see?" Paul wrote to the Corinthians about love, because love unites. In Corinth there was envy and strife; so Paul told them that love envies not, seeks not her own, thinks no evil of others; in other words, love does not divide and separate. All this was an exhortation to the believers in Corinth to love one another at close quarters.

Many of us are good at brotherly love so long as the brethren concerned are faraway and unseen. It is loving those whom we see everyday that really tests our love for God. The Corinthians were to love their brothers in Corinth first of all. Later, perhaps, they might go to Ephesus and love the members of Christ there. Only later still would they ascend into heaven to see the Body of Christ in its wholeness. This is the right order and the most difficult, for it tests our sincerity.