Love as Root, Stem, and Fruit of Christ's Kingdom

Christ's command to love one another (John 15:17) reveals the architecture of the Christian system itself. Love flows from three sources: the love of the Father as its hidden root, the love of Christ as its first manifestation, and the love of believers for each other as its full outpouring. Love forms the essential characteristic of the new kingdom—its power and conquests owe entirely to the contagion of love. This is why our Lord left no other law to those who had become members of His body through faith.

The spokes of a carriage-wheel illustrate this mystery: as they approach their centre, they approach each other. So when men are brought to Jesus Christ, the centre of life and hope, they are drawn toward one another in brotherly relationship, journeying together to their heavenly home.

Christian love is piety with its petals fully spread. When a rose-bud forms in soft soil under a genial sky, abundance of life within forces it to burst forth in blossomed brightness and fragrance. Religion that claims to love Elohim while never evincing love to its brother is not piety but mildewed theology—dogma with a worm at its heart. Such withered faith cannot expand; it rots from within and dies. True discipleship demands love made visible, made active, made incarnate in how we treat one another.