Love one another (653)

  Quotations from the writings of Ellen G. White with the phrase . . .

                 L O V E    o n e    a n o t h e r                (  4  RELATED  PHRASES )                     

           The  phrase  'Love one another'  appears  653  times in the published writings of EGW                 page NOT on Original site                      Related phrase:    Love for one another  ( 175 )   - -   love for others  (  )   - -   love another ( below )  - -  brotherly love  (  )

   In this last meeting with His disciples, the great desire which Christ expressed for them was that they might love one another as He had loved them. Again and again He spoke of this. “These things I command you,” He said repeatedly, “that ye love one another.” His very first injunction when alone with them in the upper chamber was, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” To the disciples this commandment was new; for they had not loved one another as Christ had loved them. He saw that new ideas and impulses must control them; that new principles must be practiced by them; through His life and death they were to receive a new conception of love. The command to love one another had a new meaning in the light of His self-sacrifice. The whole work of grace is one continual service of love, of self-denying, self-sacrificing effort. During every hour of Christ’s sojourn upon the earth, the love of God was flowing from Him in irrepressible streams. All who are imbued with His Spirit will love as He loved. The very principle that actuated Christ will actuate them in all their dealing one with another.  { DA 677.2} 

 

 
  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart” [and] “thy neighbour as thyself.” This is God’s command. Jesus has given an additional requirement, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” We are not merely to love our neighbor as ourselves; we are to love one another as Christ has loved us. “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you,” He declared “Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” { DG 90.1} 

 

  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently. 1 Peter 1:22. { EW 27.1} 
  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another. John 13:34, 35. { EW 27.2} 
 
  One of the strongest evidences of true conversion is love to God and man. Those who accept Jesus as their Redeemer have a deep, sincere love for others of like precious faith. Thus it was with the believers at Thessalonica. “As touching brotherly love,” the apostle wrote, “ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.” { AA 262.3} 

 

  John, realizing that brotherly love was waning in the church, urged upon believers the constant need of this love. His letters to the church are full of this thought. “Beloved, let us love one another,” he writes; “for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” { AA 548.2} 

 

  As Brother Howland told this story, his face shone with the glory of the Lord. Just as he had finished, the fisherman and his family came in, and we had an excellent meeting. Suppose that some of us should follow the course pursued by Brother Howland. If when our brethren surmise evil, we would go to them, saying, “Forgive me if I have done anything to harm you,” we might break the spell of Satan and set our brethren free from their temptations. Do not let anything interpose between you and your brethren. If there is anything that you can do by sacrifice to clear away the rubbish of suspicion, do it. God wants us to love one another as brethren. He wants us to be pitiful and courteous. He wants us to educate ourselves to believe that our brethren love us, and to believe that Christ loves us. Love begets love. { CCh 290.1} 
 
  I was instructed to say to those in the ----- Conference who had been so strenuous upon the subject of health reform, urging their ideas and views upon others, that God had not given them their message. I told them that if they would soften and subdue their inherited and cultivated tendencies, in which there is a large amount of stubbornness, they would see that they need to be converted. “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.... God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” ... { CD 210.4} 

 

  There is need that institutions be established in different places, that men and women may be set at work to do their best in the fear of God. No one should lose sight of his mission and work. Everyone should aim to carry forward to a successful issue the work placed in his hands. All our institutions should keep this in mind and strive for success; but at the same time let them remember that their success will increase in proportion as they exercise disinterested liberality, sharing their abundance with institutions that are struggling for a foothold. Our prosperous institutions should help those institutions that God has said should live and prosper, but which are still struggling for an existence. There is among us a very limited amount of real, unselfish love. The Lord says: “Everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:7, 8, 12. It is not pleasing to God to see man looking only upon his own things, closing his eyes to the interests of others. { CH 309.1} 
 
  John lived to be very aged. He witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem, and the ruin of the stately temple, — a symbol of the final ruin of the world. To his latest days John closely followed his Lord. The burden of his testimony to the churches was, “Beloved, let us love one another;” “he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:7, 16. { DA 816.4} 

 

  Here is the ground upon which we should exercise compassion toward our fellow sinners. “If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” 1 John 4:11. “Freely ye have received,” Christ says, “freely give.” Matthew 10:8. { COL 245.1} 

 

  The apostle John realized that brotherly love was waning in the church, and he dwelt particularly upon this point. Up to the day of his death he urged upon believers the constant exercise of love for one another. His letters to the churches are filled with this thought. “Beloved, let us love one another,” he writes; for love is of God.... God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.... Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” 1 John 4:7-11. { CCh 44.2} 
 
  All this is but a fulfillment of the principle of the law,— the principle that is illustrated in the story of the good Samaritan, and made manifest in the life of Jesus. His character reveals the true significance of the law, and shows what is meant by loving our neighbor as ourselves. And when the children of God manifest mercy, kindness, and love toward all men, they also are witnessing to the character of the statutes of heaven. They are bearing testimony to the fact that “the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7. And whoever fails to manifest this love is breaking the law which he professes to revere. For the spirit we manifest toward our brethren declares what is our spirit toward God. The love of God in the heart is the only spring of love toward our neighbor. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” Beloved, “if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:20, 12. { DA 505.1} 

 

  “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren,“ Peter continued, “see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” The word of God— the truth —is the channel through which the Lord manifests His Spirit and power. Obedience to the word produces fruit of the required quality — “unfeigned love of the brethren.” This love is heaven-born and leads to high motives and unselfish actions. { AA 519.3} 

 

  I pray that the Lord will change the hearts of those who, unless they receive more grace, will enter into temptation. I pray that He will soften and subdue every heart. We need to live in close fellowship with God, that we may love one another as Christ has loved us. It is by this that the world is to know that we are His disciples.—Testimonies for the Church 9:218, 219 (1909). { CH 534.4} 
 
Unity of Utterance — Those who speak to the people through our periodicals should preserve unity among themselves. Nothing that savors of dissension should be found in our publications. Satan is always seeking to cause dissension, for well he knows that by this means he can most effectually counteract the work of God. We should not give place to his devices. Christ’s prayer of His disciples was, “That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” John 17:21. All true laborers for God will work in harmony with this prayer. In their efforts to advance the work, all will manifest that oneness of sentiment and practice which reveals that they are God’s witnesses, that they love one another. To a world that is broken up by discord and strife, their love and unity will testify to their connection with heaven. It is the convincing evidence of the divine character of their mission.—Testimonies for the Church 7:156, 157 (1902). { CW 74.1} 

 

  The principles and the very words of the Saviour’s teaching, in their divine beauty, dwelt in the memory of the beloved disciple. To his latest days the burden of John’s testimony to the churches was, “This is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 1 John 3:11, 16. { DA 551.1} 
 
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  The believers were ever to cherish the love that filled the hearts of the apostles after the descent of the Holy Spirit. They were to go forward in willing obedience to the new commandment: “As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34. So closely were they to be united to Christ that they would be enabled to fulfill His requirements. The power of a Saviour who could justify them by His righteousness was to be magnified. { CCh 43.4} 

 

      L O V E    o n e    a n o t h e r    a s    i    h a v e    l o v e d    y o u  

            phrase appears when EGW quotes  John 13: 34  appears  xx  times 

    Christ had bidden the first disciples love one another as He had loved them. Thus they were to bear testimony to the world that Christ was formed within, the hope of glory. “A new commandment I give unto you,” He had said, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34. At the time when these words were spoken, the disciples could not understand them; but after they had witnessed the sufferings of Christ, after His crucifixion and resurrection, and ascension to heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had rested on them at Pentecost, they had a clearer conception of the love of God and of the nature of that love which they must have for one another. Then John could say to his fellow disciples: { AA 547.1} 

 

   “A new commandment I give unto you,” Christ said, “That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 13:34.  What a wonderful statement; but, oh, how poorly practiced! In the church of God today brotherly love is sadly lacking. Many who profess to love the Saviour do not love one another. Unbelievers are watching to see if the faith of professed Christians is exerting a sanctifying influence upon their lives; and they are quick to discern the defects in character, the inconsistencies in action.  Let Christians not make it possible for the enemy to point to them and say, Behold how these people, standing under the banner of Christ, hate one another. Christians are all members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father, with the same blessed hope of immortality. Very close and tender should be the tie that binds them together. { AA 550.1} 

 

  We should ever look upon the youth as the purchase of the blood of Christ. As such they have demands upon our love, our patience, and our sympathy. If we would follow Jesus, we cannot restrict our interest and affection to ourselves and our own families; we cannot give our time and attention to temporal matters, and forget the eternal interests of those around us. I have been shown that it is the result of our selfishness that there are not one hundred young men, where now there is one, engaged in earnest labor for the salvation of their fellow-men. “Love one another as I have loved you,” is the command of Jesus. Look at his self-denial; behold what manner of love he has bestowed upon us; and then seek to imitate the Pattern.—“Testimony” No. 31, first published in 1882. { CE 43.2 } 
 
  One of Christ’s last commands to His disciples was “Love one another as I have loved you.” John 13:34. Do we obey this command, or are we indulging sharp, unchristlike traits of character? If we have in any way grieved or wounded others, it is our duty to confess our fault and seek for reconciliation. This is an essential preparation that we may come before God in faith, to ask His blessing. { COL 144.2}   Read entire Chapter 12

 

  The Samaritan had fulfilled the command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,” thus showing that he was more righteous than those by whom he was denounced. Risking his own life, he had treated the wounded man as his brother. This Samaritan represents Christ. Our Saviour manifested for us a love that the love of man can never equal. When we were bruised and dying, He had pity upon us. He did not pass us by on the other side, and leave us, helpless and hopeless, to perish. He did not remain in His holy, happy home, where He was beloved by all the heavenly host. He beheld our sore need, He undertook our case, and identified His interests with those of humanity. He died to save His enemies. He prayed for His murderers. Pointing to His own example, He says to His followers, “These things I command you, that ye love one another”; “as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 15:17; 13:34. { COL 381.1}  Read entire Chapter 27

 

  Divine love makes its most touching appeals when it calls upon us to manifest the same tender compassion that Christ manifested. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. In all our afflictions He is afflicted. He loves men and women as the purchase of His own blood, and He says to us, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”—  Review and Herald, September 13, 1906. { CS 23.2} 
 
  He who died to redeem man from death loves with a divine love; and He says to His followers: “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Christ showed His love for the fallen race by His actions. { DG 15.1} 

 

  In the story of the good Samaritan, Jesus gave a picture of Himself and His mission. Man had been deceived, bruised, robbed, and ruined by Satan, and left to perish; but the Saviour had compassion on our helpless condition. He left His glory, to come to our rescue. He found us ready to die, and He undertook our case. He healed our wounds. He covered us with His robe of righteousness. He opened to us a refuge of safety, and made complete provision for us at His own charges. He died to redeem us. Pointing to His own example, He says to His followers, “These things I command you, that ye love one another.”  “As I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” John 15:17; 13:34. { DA 503.6} 
 
  Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, “Love one another, as I have loved you” ( John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts. { DA 641.3} 

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