CIRCULAR LETTER - YE LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Tom Adams
Dear Brethren and Friends,
Here is another Circular Letter penned by Elder Samuel Trott. It is a wonderful reminder of the importance of LOVE. Especially the love that brethren have one to another! It is the MAIN thing that the world takes notice of because it is completely contrary to the world and EVERYTHING it stands for! (John 13:35)
Is that love always "gum drops and lollipops?" Unfortunately no! We are still living in this depraved flesh and rotting carcass called "Adam". We will have disagreements and sometimes those disagreements result in going separate ways like Paul and Barnabas did over John Mark. (Acts 15:36-41) But notice that Paul called on John Mark later in his life and looked to him as a brother in Christ! (I Timothy 4:11) Everything has a purpose!
Sometimes it results in confrontations:
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. (Galatians 2:11 [KJV])
Some would claim that Paul was not being loving to Peter by rebuking him to his face. No! he was doing it out of his love for him! Paul saw an error that Peter had fallen into and confronted him regarding it. If he didn't love Peter he wouldn't have cared whether he was in error or not, but just let him go his way!
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. (Proverbs 27:6 [KJV])
While I believe the first part of this verse is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ and His wounds He received on account of His children's sins. I also believe there is a separate faction to this verse and one example of it points back to what Paul did to Peter. Paul was being faithful to his friend and brother in Christ in rebuking him of his error. And notice in Paul's rebuke he pointed to Scripture and refuted the error with Scripture and not just stating that it was wrong what Peter was doing.
A Sinner in Hope,
Tom
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YE LOVE ONE ANOTHER
CIRCULAR LETTER: The Messengers composing the meeting of the Baltimore Baptist Association, send their warmest christian love, in the Lord Jesus, to the brethren composing the churches of this Association.
Beloved in the Lord: – According to our usual custom we send you this, our epistle of love, to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, I Peter 3:2. John 13:34: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.”
Brethren, the circumstances under which we sojourn in this vale of sorrow, imperiously demand of us that we strictly observe this command of our dear Lord, since a close observance of it secures two grand desirable ends, viz.: honouring our Master, and promoting the mutual peace and joy of the fraternal brotherhood. Was there ever a time when this delightful christian grace was more needed than the present? When we look abroad what meets our view? A display of warm christian love? Alas, No! An unsuspicious, abiding confidence? No! A meek and lowly disposition to esteem others better than ourselves? No! Do we see carried out the lovely spirit recommended by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:1-5, and by I John 3:18, 19. Beloved, are we not all guilty of too much neglecting these excellent rules? If so, permit us, first, to present some considerations to excite to the pleasing duty of cherishing this principle; 2d, the benefits that invariably flow from it.
1st. John 4:11: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” God’s love is displayed in his choice of us in Christ. Here we are brought into a sacred union to him and each other. Also in his quickening us when dead in trespasses and sins. Again, in revealing to us Christ as the Lord our Righteousness, our peace, our hope of glory. Also in leading us to trust on this foundation laid in Zion, and in sweetly constraining our wandering feet to walk in the paths of obedience, thus bringing us to his banqueting house where his banner over us is love. The reception of these mutual blessings freely bestowed upon us as the objects of his love, surely should influence us to love him supremely, and each other fervently. This bond of union to him, and to one another, renders our joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, our interests and ends, one common lot. Why should not persons thus united, love one another?
In John 13:35, we have a motive presented to us by our dear Redeemer himself, “By this shall all men know ye are my disciples, if ye love one another.” What a lovely sight was it when it was said, “Behold how these brethren love one another!” and when men took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus, and learned of him! Also when they continued in the apostles’ doctrine, and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers! Then out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, did God shine. If the display of this noble principle, commands the admiration of men, does it not give an evidence of the power of divine grace, when it leads men to love one another which is directly opposite to nature?
Again has Jesus said, John 17:16, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world: therefore because they are not of the world, the world hates them.” Moreover, if it be that all who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, then surely our common sufferings should lead us to cherish a generous love, hereby bearing each other’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. This, brethren, was the happy condition of the church of God in her apostolic purity! Would to the Lord more of this governed all who have named the name of Christ.
2d. We propose speaking of the benefits of love. We take for granted that whatever God commands is beneficial to his creatures. To love one another is to secure effectually the mutual happiness of the whole. When love is in exercise among the disciples of Christ, there is no room for envious suspicions and unhallowed feelings. It is when iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold. It seems, the royal singer in Israel could not sufficiently extol the exercise of this christian principle. Hear him, in Psalm 133, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore!” Can we find such a lovely picture in the history of the church of God? Yes. Look at her in Acts 2:1: “And when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all of one accord in one place;” and, in addition, when three thousand were added to them, (verse 42) even then they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers. In acts 4:32, we find them yet continuing in this happy state; and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed, was his own, but they had all things in common. Here was the effect of love! it expanded the heart with christian benevolence. Beloved, let us always beware of the constant designs of satan, and of our own carnal hearts. Therefore let us watch and pray. How grievous was it to the disciples of Jesus, when the sons of Zebedee wished some special favors conferred on them! And how sorrowful was our divine Redeemer, when the sordid desires of the apostles, who should be greatest, was manifest! What grief, too it caused the generous soul of Paul, when it was declared unto him by them of the house of Chloe, that contentions existed in the church of Corinth. We mention these cases to contrast the evil with the good.
How often is it the case with Jesus’ disciples, who are poor doubting creatures, that fears arise of their spiritual birth! The Holy Spirit hath provided an antidote for this: John says: “We know we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren.” “He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death.” I John 3:14. He reminds his brethren of the same with which we commence this, that, this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that is, from Jesus, that we should love one another.
I Corinthians 1:10: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same things, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Ephesians 4:1-3: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.”
Dear brethren, let us examine our hearts. Do we possess this love fully? Alas, we must all say, My leanness! my leanness! Well then, if we feel this, let us come humbly to the throne of grace; for God will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do for them what they are unable to do for themselves.
May grace, mercy and peace, from God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, rest upon you.
S. TROTT, Moderator,
Wm. Cheswell, Clerk.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Vol 14, Number 13; July 1, 1846.