Beloved radio friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and worthy name of our blessed sake to the Lord Jesus, rejoicing in heart that we have the privilege and the priceless opportunity, we count it, to bring to your attention the word of God. We particularly are discussing and studying the family of God and particularly at the present time the responsibilities of his children. to be like the one to whom they belong. I address my words very carefully and directly to the children of God, every fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, everyone who has been made a child of God through faith which is in Christ Jesus. As members of this family, you and I are responsible to seek to be like the Father. We have noted two particular characteristics that should feature us as the children of God. The first one, we do not practice or make a practice of sinning. The second one, we practice right living, righteousness. We would now consider a third feature, which is of great importance. By John the Apostle we find these words in the first epistle of John chapter three. We begin reading, if we may, from verse ten. In this is the children of God our manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God. Neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that he heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain, who is of that wicked one and slew his brother. And wherefore flew he him, because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous? Marble not, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Now here is a third, but a most beautiful as well as a wonderful feature. in regard to proving that we are the children of God. We love our brethren. May I read again? The opening of verse fourteen. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. Love is God's essential nature. We find in this same epistle of John The declaration that love is one of the attributes, the moral qualities of God. God is love. And His love should characterize us and will have, our hearts will have as their object, all the objects of the heart of God. And John declares one manifestation that we are the children of God is this, we love our brethren. May I give a personal testimony, if I may be pardoned in doing so, but I recall before I became a Christian, there was not the desire within my heart to keep company with Christians. Though I may have been in the manner in the eyes of many, a moral, a plight boy, There was never a desire to be with God's children. The fellowship of Christians I had no interest in. My interests were in outside things pertaining, undoubtedly, to many things in life around us, but not pertaining to the things of God. But never will I forget that in my unsaved experience, I thought Sunday was the dreariest and the longest day in the week. But strange, when I found Christ as my Saviour, and it was on a Sunday night, I thought Sunday would never come around, for there was a desire throughout the whole week, I wanted to be with my fellow Christians, where I had found the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour. Now what was it? But the evidence, the manifestation that I was a child of God, having passed from death unto life, and I wanted to be with my fellow believers, who had also found, as I had, life in the Lord Jesus Christ and become the children of God. So when we look at the responsibility to be like our Father, we have to love Now listen to this very carefully. We have to love all the children of God, wherever they may be found, whatever may be their associations or their conditions. There must not be any limitation of the circle of love. I should love just as many children of God as my father loves. For my father's love takes in the whole family. And likewise, must we. Now, beloved, let me state it again. This is an acid test I know. We must love the children of God. Now, may I be very, very careful and clear to make evident the manner in which we will and should express our love to the children of God. Now, may I make a distinction between loving God's children and being pleased with them. Do you know you may have children of your own, but you're never pleased when they're disobedient, are you? But that doesn't cease. I trust it never causes your love to cease. And in spite of the fact God the Father has disobedient children, he still loves them. He does not love their disobedience, but he loves his child. And we too must love all the children of God, though we may find some that are disobedient. But let me read from first John chapter five. And I want you to know this very carefully in verse two. These words, by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. Please know very carefully. though not one child of God should ever be accepted from our love as Christians, yet our love, that divine love that is in the new life, coming in with Christ, that love which is in the Spirit, can only be properly expressed in the path of obedience. Let me read these words of John five again, verse two, verse John. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. Now nothing will ever justify our ceasing to love our fellow Christians. But the love that we show to them can only be exhibited properly in the channel of obedience to the Word of God. May I express this truth in another manner? My fellow Christian, the best way for me to prove that I love you is to show by my conduct I love my Father and obey His Word. The best manner that any child of God can show to his fellow believers in the family of God is a her-loved is by the example before them that the Father comes first in their affection and devotion. If a saint may be walking or living in disobedience, I should not associate myself with that Christian, with that child of God in his disobedience. Look, do you think it is a proper way? To go in the same path of disobedience with a fellow Christian, because he's my fellow believer, never. If I truthfully love my fellow Christian, I will not walk in the path of disobedience he may be walking in. For if I were to do so, I would be falsifying entirely the whole principle of divine love. that is laid down for guidance and instruction in the Word of God to prove that I love my brethren. Let me repeat it. I believe with earnestness that this is an important lesson for us to realize. In spite of the failures and the paths of disobedience that many Christians may be in, It is possible, and not only possible, it is demanded of the children of God. We love one another. But in love to my fellow believers, I will not, should not, must not follow any path of disobedience with them, and yet tell them plainly, I love them. Now the manner in which the Father expresses his love to you and to me should be remembered. The Father doesn't enjoy associating us with evil. If we are going to enjoy the Father's love, we're not to associate with evil. If we are going to enjoy the Father's love, we're not to center our love upon the world. We are to love those who love him and keep his word and manifest that love. And surely we can recognize what it means. But I want you to know this one thing before we close. In first John chapter three and verse sixteen I want you to note the standard of this love. It's tremendous. Listen to it. Hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid down his life for us. Now note the next word. We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. My fellow believer, I want you to note the standard of my love that I should show to you and you should show to me. And nothing short of this is the measure of our responsibility to our fellow believers. That we should be willing to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. Oh, my radio friend, my fellow Christian, listening to my voice, May we not search our hearts. Are we like our Father, who laid down the life of his son for us because he loved us dearly? Are we willing to lay down our lives for our fellow believers? Recently a catastrophe in the city, or rather in the country of Uganda, Africa, many native believers laid down their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ and their fellow Christians. Are you and I willing to do the same? Father, make this truth pertinent, real, and effective. In Jesus' name, amen.