Love one another

There is an infinite difference and disproportion between God and man; yet He came over all that two love man. What difficulty should I have, then, to place my affection on my equal at worst, and often better? There cannot be any proportionable distance between the highest and lowest, between the richest and poorest, between the most wise and the most ignorant, between the most gracious and most ungodly, as there is between the infinite God and a finite angel. Should, then, the mutual infirmities and failings of Christians be an insuperable and impassible gulf, as between heaven and hell, that none can pass over by a bridge of love to either? If God so loved us, should not we love one another (1 John 4:11)? And besides, when I consider that God has not only loved me but my brethren, who were worthy of hatred, with an everlasting love, and passed over all that was in them, and has 'spread his skirt over their nakedness, and made it a time of love', which was a time of loathing; how can I withhold my affection where God has bestowed His? Are they not infinitely more unworthy of His than mine? Since infinite wrongs have not changed His, shall poor, petty, and light offenses, hinder mine? That my love concenter with God's on the same persons, is it not enough?

(pp. 30-31 in Christian Love, by Hugh Binning)