You can hardly read any publication, regardless of its nature, without somebody lamenting over the scarcity of love in our days: how in the old days, in the apostles’ time, everything was good, but now everything is terribly wrong.

Of course there is only one reason for such talk: simply that people don’t have the slightest inkling about what love really is. Who among the children of men loved God first so that in the power of this love He could send His own Son? Isn’t the nature of God’s love such that He sent His Son into the world to suffer and die while we were yet sinners? Genuine love never demands anything; it only gives. But a person who is full of self-love bemoans other people’s lack of interest in him, both verbally and in writing. The shoemaker ought to be repairing boots for free; the tailor should be mending clothes at no cost; the editor should be handing out his publication free of charge. In short, everything and everyone is obliged to honor him; they should constantly take care of him, show him respect, admire and worship him. If this does not happen, then self-love cries out, “There is no love in our days!”

God, who is the very essence of love, lets His sun rise over the evil and the good; He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. He never demands; He only gives. Since we are to become perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, it is high time to stop continually placing requirements and demands on others, but rather seek to give. True love is occupied night and day with giving and never demands anything in return.

People can harden themselves in natural situations, and that can also happen with spiritual things. I don’t think there are any creatures more useless than those spoiled and self-centered people who live like parasites, demanding and demanding, without ever being satisfied.

What we need today are men and women who can draw from a fountain of love that springs up from their own bosom, people who can bear reproach, mockery, and being spit upon, and who are willing to say with Paul, “Being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.” 1 Cor. 4:13. Only very few such pearls grow to maturity during the course of each century.

Since I was baptized with the Holy Spirit in 1900, I have not had a single day without battle; receiving and giving blows has been my daily food. “Hasn’t anyone shown you love then?” you ask. My answer to that is that I am happy just to be alive, much less demand anything. Many edges have to be knocked off us before the Master’s hand has finished its work. “All well and good when it’s the Master’s hand,” you say; if it only came from Him, it would be a different matter, but we are subject to all kinds of attacks from people. There is only one answer to this: The Scriptures, which cannot be nullified, say that such people are also ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to those who will inherit blessedness, and that things work together for good to those who fear and love God.

Stop being in love with yourself, and stop trying to force others to also love you according to the flesh. If you consider yourself to be someone special—a cut above everyone else, a person who deserves to be served by others—just know this: all flesh is grass. Maybe it’s time for a reminder: love is in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Not only that, but from now on we know no one according to the flesh, not even ourselves; because when we were in the flesh (Rom. 7:5), we were in a wretched condition; but now we who died to what we were held by have been delivered from the law, so that we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

In the October 17 edition of Missionæren, Br. Ludvig Ellingsen wrote that he would like to see some people express their views on how a Christian should approach the temperance movement—in the hope that in some way or other the temperance movement could be promoted, etc.

In this regard, it is a joy for me to be able to say that what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. The temperance movement is a cause that addresses outward behaviors, and its purpose is to improve a person according to the flesh. By contrast, the cause of Christ is to destroy the flesh. If our love for Christ is truly sincere, we will very soon discover that all of our abilities, all of our time, and all of our strength must be totally given to Him, and Him alone. You don’t use a professor to teach a class of small children who are just learning their ABC’s. Neither should you ask an active follower of Christ to take up the cause of temperance. Let the person who is in the flesh and who has gotten the understanding that drinking is wrong deal with the temperance issue. In fact, it is fully possible for a person to advocate temperance and yet be the slave of almost every kind of sin. If we have broken one commandment, we are guilty of breaking them all. In other words, despite all kinds of temperance, you are still a drunkard. But fornicators, adulterers, and drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And our fellowship is only with those who walk in the light and who are heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

For my own part, I have discovered that we must come out from among them and not touch what is unclean. When a person can thrive among such people and even climb the ladder so that they become someone important among them, that shows that they have an extremely limited understanding of what it means to be an aroma of death leading to death for those who are perishing. Perhaps it is also true, for the same reason, that those who are being saved taste so very little of the aroma of life from those who want to be important members of temperance organizations, political groups, and other kinds of movements and organizations. What fellowship does a believer have with an unbeliever? What fellowship has Christ with Belial? “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you . . . says the Lord Almighty.” If anyone wants to be temperate, let them be temperate unto God, and God will get the honor; but if you want to be temperate for the sake of the temperance organization, then they will receive the honor from it, and then they will be able to glory in your flesh.

Your brother, sharing in the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering,