Tillotson: a new commandment

Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Meditation:
    If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
    —1 John 4:20-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Are we not all members of the same Body and partakers of the same Spirit and heirs of the same blessed hope of eternal life?
    ... Why do we not, as becomes brethren, dwell together in unity? but are so apt to quarrel and break out into heats, to crumble into sects and parties, to divide and separate from one another upon every trifling occasion.
    Give me leave... in the name of our dear Lord ... to recommend to you this new commandment of his, that ye love one another. Which is almost a new commandment still, and hardly the worse for wearing; so seldom is it put on, and so little hath it been practised among Christians.
    ... John Tillotson (1630-1694), Works of Dr. John Tillotson, v. II, London: J. F. Dove, for R. Priestley, 1820, Sermon XX, p. 247-248 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we long for You to bring about the love among the fellowship that You commanded. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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