XIV.   ATTRIBUTES OF LOVE. 

     I showed that the sum and spirit of the law is properly expressed in one word - love.  I also showed that this love is unselfish willful love or good willing; that this love consists in choosing the highest good of God and the good of our neighbor for its own importance.  We make this choice in a spirit of complete consecration to the good of God and our neighbor as our ultimate end.  Although the whole law is fulfilled in one word love, there are many things implied by the word love.  Therefore, it is indispensable to a right understanding of this subject that we look into the characteristics or attributes of this love.  Before we begin, let us keep in mind the following truths:  All men have souls, which we can divide into thee parts.
     1.      Mind.  We all have minds, which is our faculty of knowledge. 
     2.     Emotion.  We also possess sensibility and sensitivity, or in other words emotions or feelings. 
     3.      Will.  We also have a will, which is the power to choose or refuse our moral obligation. 
     These faculties of our soul are so united to each other that our mind or our emotions may control our will, or our will may control our mind or our emotions.  That is, our will is free to choose according to the demands of our intellect, or according to the desires and impulses of our emotions, or both.  Our will can directly control the attention of our mind, and thus our will can control what we perceive and think.  Our will can indirectly control our emotions, by controlling the thoughts that entertain our mind.  We also know that the voluntary muscles of our body are directly controlled by our will, and that the law that requires our attention, our feelings, and the actions of our body to obey our will, that law is a physical law, or the law of cause and effect.  The decisions of our will directly control our attention and our outward actions, while the decisions of our will indirectly controls our feelings.  Our will can either command or obey.  It can allow itself to be enslaved by our emotional impulses, or it can assert its sovereignty and control them.  Our mind and our emotions do not control our will, so our will can always resist our mind and emotions.  However, although our mind or our emotions cannot control our will through the law of cause and effect, our will does have the aid of the law of cause and effect to control our mind and our emotions. 
     We know that we have an obligation to obey the law rather than obeying our emotional impulses; that in order to act virtuously, we must act rationally or intelligently, and not give ourselves up to the blind impulses of our feelings.  Now, since the love required by the moral law consists in choosing, willing, and intending; and since choosing, willing, and intending, directly controls our mind and our outward actions, and indirectly controls our feelings; it follows that certain states of our mind and emotions, and also certain outward actions, must be manifested when the love, that the law of God requires, exists.  We must mold and modify our thoughts, opinions, judgments, feelings, and even our outward actions by the state of our heart or will. 
     In the world today, the word love is often used to express either an action, an attitude of our will, a state of our emotions, or all of these.  This is true of all the words that describe Christian graces or virtues.  These words all describe the various forms of virtue that Christians are aware of, and which appears in their life and temper.  I will constantly remind you of this truth as we continue in our investigations, for we will find examples of it along the way. 
     Before I discuss the attributes of love it is important to say that all the moral attributes of God and of all holy beings are only attributes of love.  Love, or better yet, benevolence is a term that comprehensively expresses them all.  God is love.  This love expresses God’s moral character.  This love is benevolence.  Benevolence is good willing.  Benevolence results from choosing the highest good of God and the universe as your end, goal, or purpose in life.  But, even though what I said is accurate, we are likely to receive very strange ideas of what really is implied in this unselfish willful love that manifests itself in the things that we do.  This unselfish willful love, or benevolence, is the fulfilling of the whole law.  It is the sum of all true religion.  We can express our whole duty to God and our neighbor in this one word, love.  Even though all this is true, what I’ve just said is so comprehensive that it needs a lot of explanation.  Because so many things are implied in love or benevolence, this love needs to be viewed under various aspects and in various relationships, and its nature considered in each relationship that love is called upon to manifest itself.  This true love is choosing an ultimate end.  But if we think that this is all that is implied in true unselfish love, we are wrong.  Unless we inquire into the nature of the goal that this unselfish love chooses, and the means that it seeks to accomplish that goal, we will understand little of how important this unselfish love really is.  This unselfish love has many attributes or characteristics.  These attributes must all harmonize because of the goal it has selected and because of its efforts to accomplish that goal.  True love is not a blind choice.  It is the most intelligent choice.  It is choosing the best possible goal in life in obedience to the demand of our reason and the demand of God, and implies choosing the best possible means to secure this goal.  We choose both the goal and the means to achieve this goal in obedience to the law of God and reason.  Now an attribute is a permanent quality of something.  The attributes of love are those permanent qualities, which belong to its very nature.  This universal love is choosing the highest good of God and our neighbor. This love seeks this goal by means that are suited to our nature as moral agents.  As a result, wisdom, justice, mercy, truth, holiness, and many other attributes are essential elements, or attributes, of this true love.  To understand what this true unselfish love is, we must look into its attributes. 
     Not everything that we call love has the nature of true love.  Nor is all that we call love, truly love.  There are many kinds of love.  We call natural affection love.  Our preference for certain foods we call love.  As a result, we say we love fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, etc.  Benevolence is also called love, and it is the kind of love that the law of God requires.  But, there is more than one state of mind that we call benevolence.  A constitutional benevolence is often mistaken for the benevolence that constitutes virtue.  This so‑called benevolence is in truth only an imposing form of selfishness; nevertheless, everyone calls it benevolence.  Many of its manifestations look just like true benevolence.  Therefore, we should be careful, when we give religious instructions, to clearly distinguish a virtuous love from a constitutional love.  Remember that a virtuous love is the obedience of our will to the law of reason and of God.  It is willing good as an end for its own sake and not to gratify self. 
     Selfishness occurs whenever our will obeys the desires of our soul.  Selfishness is a spirit of self‑gratification.  Our will seeks to gratify our desires and our tendencies for the pleasure of gratifica­tion.  Self‑gratification is sought as a goal, and, in fact, is the supreme goal in the lives of millions.  Multitudes prefer selfish gratification over the claims of God and the good of others.  A constitutional love is yielding to a feeling of compassion.  It is only an effort to gratify a selfish desire.  It is nothing more than selfishness disguised as compassion. 
     It is impossible to get a just idea of what constitutes obedience to God’s Divine law and what is implied in it without considering the various attributes of love.  But, before I begin defining these attributes, let me say that the moral attributes of God as revealed in His works, providence, and word, throw a lot of light on the subject before us.  Also, the many laws and commands of the Bible and the different manifestations of love that are revealed in its pages, will help us a lot as we study this important subject.  Since the Bible clearly tells us that love comprehends the whole character of God and that love is all that the law requires of us, that the goal of the commandment is charity or love, we can be assured that every form of true virtue is only a form of love.  In other words, that every state of mind required by the Bible and recognized as virtue is an attribute of love.  Every virtue is only love viewed under certain aspects or in certain relation­ships.  Each virtue is only one characteristic of love.  God’s moral attributes are only attributes of love.  These attributes are the essential qualities that belong to the very nature of true unselfish love which are manifested whenever this love is brought into certain circumstances.  Love is just, merciful, kind, etc.  That’s the true nature of love, that in the appropriate circumstances these qualities, together with many other qualities, will manifest themselves in our outward behavior.  This is and must be true of every holy being. 
     These attributes are:

A     Voluntary.  This love comes from the will.  When someone uses the word love, we usually think about an emotional state.  We think about the love that exists in the form of a mere feeling or an emotion.  We usually use the word love to express an emotion of fondness or attachment, rather than a voluntary state of mind or something that our will chooses.  Our will chooses to love.  Love based on emotions or feelings is involuntary.  The love that is emotional, that manifests itself while our mind is passive, has no moral character all by itself.  But the law of God requires a voluntary love or goodwill.  This love consists in a choice or an intention.  It is choosing the highest good of God and His universe as our ultimate goal in life.  Of course, one of its characteristics must be that is it voluntary.  The word benevolence expresses this idea.  If this love consists in a voluntary choice, this love comes from our will, and it must control our thoughts and emotions as well as our outward actions.  This love, then, not only consists in a state of consecration to God and the universe, but also implies deep emotions of love to God and man.  Although this love is a phenomenon of our will, it implies the existence of all those feelings of love and affection to God and man that results from willfully consecrating our heart and life to their highest good.  It also includes all those physical actions that flow from a will that is consecrated to this goal.  We do not have that true love, or that voluntary consecration to God and the universe that the law requires, if feelings don’t rise up within us, or if there is no outward manifestation of that love in our life.  These feelings and outward manifestations must naturally flow from this love.  Feelings or emotions of love and a correct outward life may exist without this voluntary love; but true voluntary love cannot exist without these emotions, because we naturally produce them when we voluntarily choose to love.  These emotions will vary in their strength, as one’s constitution and circumstances vary, but they must exist in some sensible degree whenever our heart is filled with love. 

B     Free.  Freedom is an attribute of this love.  This love must be free.  Our mind is free and spontane­ous whenever we exercise it.  It makes this choice even when it has the power to choose self‑gratification as an end.  Every moral agent is aware of this.  It is a free, and therefore a responsible choice.

C    Intelligent.  That is, we make choosing this ultimate goal intelligently.  We not only know what we choose and why we choose, but we also know that we choose according to the dictates of our intellect and the law of God.  We know that the end is worthy to be chosen, and that for this reason our mind demands that we should love God and our neighbor with all our heart; and also that we choose to love because of it’s own importance.  Voluntariness, freedom, and intelligence are the natural attributes of this love.  That is, these attributes are inherent in love, they are not chosen or developed.  Love is voluntary, free, and intelligent.  Now we will look at some the moral attributes of love.

D    Virtue is an attribute of love.  Virtue is a word that expresses the moral character of this love.  Love is morally right.  Moral rightness is moral perfection, righteousness, or uprightness.  Virtue designates loves relationship to moral law and expresses its conformity to moral law.  In exercising this love, we know whether it is right, whether it conforms to our moral obligation or not.  In other words, we are aware of being virtuous, of being like God, of loving what we should love, and of our consecration to the right end.  Because this choice is in harmony with the demands of our intellect, we are aware that our conscience approves of this choice.  Our conscience must approve this love. 
     Again: Because our conscience approves of this love, there must be a feeling of happiness or satisfaction within us.  We feel complacent or delighted with the love that is in our heart.  Our conscience always approves of this love, and therefore, our soul becomes satisfied.  These feelings are often very strong and joyful, and our soul, when we exercise this love that is in our heart, sometimes rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory.  This state of mind does not always respond with the same joy.  A lot depends on how our mind views the state of our emo­tions, and on the manifestation of God’s approval in our soul.  But, where the approval of our conscience and as a result a peaceful emotional state does not exist, this love does not exist either.  They are connected with love by a law of cause and effect, and we must be aware of these emotions whenever this love exists.  Therefore, a conscious peace of mind and conscious joy in God must exist where true love to God exists.

E     Disinterestedness is another attribute of this love.  When I say disinterestedness, I do not mean that our mind takes no interest in the object we love, for our mind takes a supreme interest in them.  However, disinterestedness expresses the idea that our mind chooses its end for its own sake, and not because the good belongs to self.  This love is disinterested in the sense that the highest good of God and the universe is chosen, not because of its relationship to self, but for its own infinite importance.  This attribute distinguishes true godly love from selfish love.  Selfish love makes the relationship of good to self the condition of choosing it.  The good of God and of the universe, if a selfish person chooses it at all, is only chosen as a means or a condition of promoting the highest good of self.  But true love does not make good to self its goal, but it makes good to God and everything that exists in general its goal. 
     Since disinterestedness is an attribute of this love, it does not seek its own good but it seeks the good of others.  “Charity (love) seeks not her own” (1 Cor. 13:5)  True love grasps in its comprehensive embrace the good of others in general, and thus, this love secures a corresponding outward life as well as an inward feeling.  Our mind will think of many ways and means to promote love for God and our neighbor.  Our emotions will be alive to the good of everything around us.  Our souls will rejoice in the good of others as much as in our own good, and will grieve at the misery of others as much as it grieves in our own misery.  We “will rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:5)  There will be no envy at the prosperity of others, but instead there will be joy as real and as exquisite as the joy we have in our own prosper­ity.  Love enjoys everybody’s good things, while selfishness is too envious of the good things of others to even enjoy its own.  There is a Divine economy in love.  Each soul that is filled with love not only enjoys his own good things, but also enjoys the good things of everyone else as far as he knows what these good things are.  He drinks at the river of God’s pleasure.  He not only rejoices in doing good and helping others but also in seeing them enjoy the good things in life.  He joys in God’s joy, and in the joy of the angels and of the saints.  He rejoices in the good things of all of God’s creation.  He is happy in beholding the pleasure of the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish in the sea.  He sympathizes with all the joy and all the suffering known to him; but his sympathy with the sufferings of others is not a painful one.  It is a real luxury to sympathize with the woes of others.  He would not be without this sympathy.  He is in such harmony with his sense of what is right and proper, that, mingled with his painful emotions, there is that sweet feeling of approval in his conscience; so that a loving sympathy with the woes of others is not inconsistent with his happiness, and with perfect love.  God has this sympathy.  He often manifests it.  There is, indeed, a mysterious and an exquisite luxury in sharing the sorrows of others.  God, angels, and all holy beings know what it is.  If this facet of love is missing, so is love itself.  Envy at the prosperity, the influence, or the good of others; the absence of joy in seeing others enjoy the good things in life, and a lack of sympathy with the sufferings of others prove conclusively that this love does not exist.  There is an expansiveness, an ampleness of embrace, and a universality in this love that automatically manifests itself whenever God’s interests and His people prosper.  There is a divine disinterestedness in this love that automatically manifests itself and in the abundant outpourings of sympathetic feeling, both joyful and sorrowful, when suitable occasions present themselves before the mind.

F     Impartiality is another attribute of this love: This does not mean that we are indifferent to the character of someone who is happy or miserable; or that we would be just as happy to see the wicked just as eternally and perfectly blessed as the righteous are.  But impartiality means that we look at the importance of one’s good.  It does not matter to whom the good belongs.  Love is no respecter of persons.  The good of others is its goal, and it seeks to promote every interest according to its relative importance. 
     Selfish love is partial.  Selfish love seeks to promote its self‑interests first, and then those interests that will maintain that relationship to self that indirectly promotes self-gratification.  Selfish love has its favorites, its prejudices, and can become quite unreasonable and ridiculous.  Color, family, friends, nation, and many other things like that, modify selfish love.  But true love knows neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, white nor black, male nor female, but treats all humans as human, and, by virtue of their common manhood calls every man a brother and seeks the interests of all and of each.  Impartiality will manifest itself in our outward life and in our temper and spirit.  This love can have no fellowship with those absurd and ridiculous prejudices that are so prevalent among nominal Christians.  Love recognizes no privileged classes on the one hand, nor disadvantaged classes on the other.  It secures, in one’s soul, a complete hatred for those discriminations that the world so often manifests and boasts about, and which are found exclusively in a selfish state of the will.  The fact that a human being is a human being, and not that he belongs to our church, or has our complexion, or lives in our town, state, or nation, but that he is a creature of God, that he is capable of virtue and happiness; these are the considerations that impartial love seizes upon.  It is the importance of his interests, and not just those interests connected with his self, that the loving heart regards. 
     But again, it is important to remember that the economy of love demands that where two interests are considered to have equal importance, in order to secure the greatest amount of good each one should focus his efforts where they can do the most good.  For example: all of us have certain relationships.  We can accomplish more good by seeking to promote the interest and happiness of certain people rather than others; our family, our relatives, our companions, our immediate neighbors, and those to whom we maintain close relationships which gives us access to them, and influence over them.  It is reasonable and impartial, to focus our efforts more directly on them.  Therefore, even though true love regards every interest according to its relative importance, it reasonably focuses its efforts in the direction where there is the best chance of accom­plishing the most good.  This, I say, is not partiality, but impartiality; for it is not the particular people to whom good can be done but the amount of good that can be accomplished that directs our loving efforts.  It is not because my family is my own, nor because their good is more important all by itself than the good of my neighbors’ families, but because my relationship with my family affords me more and better opportunities to do good for them and to minister to them.  I must promote their good first.  That is why the apostle says: “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever”.  (1 Tim. 5:8) 
     Strictly speaking, love values every known good according to its own relative importance; but love practically treats every interest according to what has the best chance of securing the highest amount of good.  This is a truth of great practical importance.  Our daily experience and observation develops this truth.  We witness this truth in God’s conduct and in Christ’s conduct, and in the apostle’s and martyr’s conduct.  The Bible everywhere assumes this truth, and this truth is manifested everywhere through­out the history of works of love.  Please understand, then, that impartiality, as an attribute of love, does not imply that its effort to do good will not be modified by relationships and circumstances.  But, on the contrary, this attribute implies that our efforts to secure the greatest amount of good to God and the universe, will be modified by those relationships and circumstances that provide the best opportunities to do good. 
     The impartiality of love always causes it to emphasize God’s interests, because His good is of infinite importance, and of course, God’s love must be supreme.  This love, since it is impartial, considers God’s interests and good as of infinitely greater importance than the sum of all the other interests.  Love regards our neighbor’s interests as our own, simply because they are, in God’s eyes, just as important as our own.  Therefore, love is always supreme towards God and equal towards man.

G    Universality is another attribute of this love.  Universality means all-encompassing.  It is the application of something that it is independent of circumstances, surroundings, or locality.  Love chooses the highest good of others in general.  It excludes no one from consideration; but on the contrary, love embraces everybody. 
     Now I don’t mean that love practically seeks to promote the good of every individual.  It would if it could.  But it seeks the highest practical amount of good.  We estimate the interest of every individual according to his importance, no matter what the circumstances or the character of each person may be.  However, their character and relationship must modify our works of love.  A wicked character, and governmental relations and considerations, may forbid love to seek the good of some.  In fact, some situations may demand that positive misery should be inflicted on some, as a warning to others to warn them of their destructive ways.  Universality, as an attribute of love, means that we truly exercise good will towards all men no matter what their character and relationships are.  Universality means that, when the more important good of the greater number does not forbid it, the happiness of all and of each will be pursued with a degree of stress equal to their relative importance, and the prospect of securing each interest.  We will embrace enemies as well as friends, strangers and foreigners as well as relatives and immediate neighbors.  It is the state of mind required by Christ when he said, “I say unto you.  Love your enemies, pray for those who hate you, and do good to those who despitefully use and persecute you” (Matt. 5:44)  This attribute of love is gloriously conspicuous in God’s character.  His love towards sinners alone is the reason why they are out of hell today.  God’s desire to secure the highest good of the greatest number is illustrated by the display of His glorious justice in the punishment of the wicked.  His universal care for all ranks and conditions throughout all creation is manifested in His works and providence and it beautifully illustrates the truth that “His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalms 145:9) 
     It is easy to see that true love must be universal.  Of course, this love must seek the good of all and of each as far as the good of each is consistent with the greatest good overall.  Love not only wills and seeks the good of all moral beings, but also the good of every living thing, from the lowest life form to the highest order of beings.  Love will, of course, produce emotions that are sensitive to all happiness and to all pain.  Love is pained at the agony of an insect, and rejoices in its joy.  God does this and all holy beings do this.  Where this sympathy with the joys and sorrows of God’s creatures is missing, you will not find love.  Notice, good is love’s goal; and where the proper means promotes this, the feelings are gratified.

H    Efficiency is another attribute or characteristic of love.  This love is a choice.  It is an intention.  Now we know that this choice is our deepest source of action.  If I honestly intend something, I must do something to accomplish whatever I intend, provided that I believe that it is possible to do so.  Once I have determined my purpose in life, this choice will energize me from within to secure this goal.  When love is the supreme choice of my heart, it is impossible that I will not do things to secure this love.  Love will manifest itself in efforts to secure its goal as soon as I consider it wise to do so.  If my will has yielded to my mind in choosing a goal, I will certainly pursue that goal.  Our choices are the causes of all our outward activity.  We all have chosen a goal, either our own gratification, or the highest good of others; and all the hustle and bustle of this world’s teeming population is nothing more than all the things everyone is doing as they try to accomplish their goals. 
     Efficiency, therefore, is an attribute of love.  Efficiency energizes in God, in angels, in saints on earth and in heaven.  It was this attribute of love, that led God to give His only begotten Son, and that led the Son to give Himself, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16) 
     If love is efficient in producing physical actions, and efficient in producing inward feelings, it is efficient to wake us up, and set a world of thought in action to devise ways and means for accomplishing its goal.  Love wields all the infinite natural attributes of God.  Love is the mainspring that moves all heaven.  Love is the mighty power that heaves mass and rocks the world like a smothered volcano.  Look to the heavens above.  Love hung them out.  Love keeps those mighty planets in their orbits.  Good will seeking to realize its goal put forth its mighty creative power.  That same power, for the same reason, still energizes today, and will continue to energize, always seeking to accomplish its goal, as long as God is love.  And Oh!  What a glorious thought, that infinite love is wielding, and will forever wield, infinite natural attributes to promote good!  No mind but an infinite mind can begin to conceive of the amount of good that Jehovah will secure.  Oh what a blessed, glorious thought!  This must be true, as surely as God and the universe exists.  This is no vain imagination; it is one of the most certain, as well as the most glorious truths in the universe.  Mountains of granite are but vapor in comparison with love.  But the truly benevolent on earth and in heaven will sympathize with God.  The power that energizes in Him energizes in them.  One principle animates and moves them all, and that principle is love.  Let our souls cry out, “Amen, go on, God‑speed the work; let this mighty power heave and wield over all mankind, until all the ills of earth are put away, and until all that can be made holy are clothed in the garments of everlasting gladness.” 
     Since love, from its very nature, is active and efficient in putting forth efforts to secure its goal, and since its goal is the highest good of others, it follows that all who are truly religious will, and must, from the very nature of true religion, be active in trying to promote the good of others.  While effort is possible for a Christian, it is as natural to him as his breath.  He has within him the very mainspring of activity, a heart set on promoting the highest good of the universe.  As long as he has life and he is active, he must and will direct his love towards this goal.  Please, never forget this.  An idle, inactive, inefficient Christian does not exist.  True religion is an essentially active principle, and as long as it exists, it must exercise and manifest itself.  It is not merely a good desire, but it is good willing.  Men may have desires, and hope and live with these desires without making any effort to realize those desires.  They may desire without action.  But if their will is active, their life must be active.  If the love of God and their neighbor is their goal in life, this choice must manifest itself.  Just as the sinner must manifest his selfish choice, the saint must manifest his love.

I        Complacency in holiness or in moral excellence is another attribute of love.  Complacency is a feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction.  This consists in love contemplated in its relationship to holy beings.  People also use this term when they talk about an intellectual and an emotional state of the soul.  We naturally approve of moral worth or moral excellence. 
     Even when sinners observe someone manifesting right character they feel like they must respect and approve of that character.  They often see this as evidence that they are also good.  But this is just as common in hell as it is on earth.  The worst sinners on earth or in hell, by their own nature, must pay intellectual homage to moral excellence.  When a moral agent seriously thinks about moral excellence, he will strongly approve of it.  The natural result will be a corresponding feeling of complacency or emotional delight.  But because this natural approval is involuntary, it has no moral character. 
     Complacency, as a phenomenon of the will, consists in willing the highest actual happiness of holy beings in particular, as a good all by itself, and on condition of their moral excellence. 
     This attribute of love is the cause of a complacent emotion.  It’s true, that feelings of complacency can exist when a willful complacency does not exist.  But feelings of complacency must exist, when a willful complacency exists.  A willful complacency implies a complacent conscience, or the approval of our mind.  When the mind and the will are both complacent, complacent emotions must naturally follow. 
     Christians commonly call this complacent feeling love for God.  In fact, the Bible even calls this complacent feeling love for God and for the saints.  It is a vivid and pleasant emotional state, and we are very aware of it.  Today we call this emotional phenomenon love; and we speak of it as constituting religion.  Many believe that this feeling of delight in, and fondness for God, is the love required by the moral law.  But they are aware that this love is not voluntary.  They judge their religious state not by the goal that they are living for, that is, by their ultimate choice or intention, but by their emotions.  If they find themselves filled with emotions of love for God, they think that they are living in a state that is well‑pleasing to God.  But if their feelings or emotions of love are not active, they then feel like they to have little or no religion.  The extent that religion is regarded as an emotional phenomenon that consists in mere feelings is remarkable.  It is so common that when professing Christians speak about their religion, they usually speak about their feelings or the state of their emotions, instead of speaking about their conscious willful consecration to God and the good of others. 
     It is also common for professing Christians to speak about their views of Christ and truth in a way that shows that they consider their thoughts as being part of their religion.  It is very important that correct views should prevail among Christians on this important subject.  Virtue or religion must be a phenomenon of the will.  The most common light presented in the scriptures, and the most common attribute of love revealed to us is complacency of will in God.  The scriptures often assign the goodness of God as a reason for loving Him, and Christians are aware of His goodness in their love for Him.  They will good to Him, and give all praise and glory to Him because He deserves it.  They are aware of this.  Now, in their love for God they do not see His goodness as the fundamental reason for willing good to Him.  Although His goodness is what most strongly impresses their minds at the time, yet it must be that they naturally assume the importance of His good, or they would no sooner will good than evil to Him.  In willing His good, they must assume its importance to Him as the fundamental reason for willing it; and His goodness as a condition; but they are very aware that a regard for His goodness influences them in willing His good.  Should you ask the Christian why he loves God or why he exercises good will to Him, he would probably reply that it is because God is good.  But, suppose he should then be asked why he wills good rather than evil to God; he would say, because good is important to God.  Or, if he returned the same answer as before, that is, because God is good; he would give this answer only because he would think it is impossible for any one not to assume and to know that good is willed instead of evil because of its own importance.  The fact is, the importance of the good of God is always assumed by our mind as a first truth.  When we think about our virtue, we automatically assume this first truth, and our mind only thinks about the condition, which is the virtue in willing good to Him. 
     Before I dismiss this subject, I must go back again to the subject of complacent love as an emotional phenomenon, and as an intellectual phenomenon.  If I am not mistaken, many are dangerously deluded on this subject.  Our mind naturally approves of God’s character whenever we think about it.  Our mind is so related to our emotions, that, when we see God’s excellence in a strong light, or when we see the excellence of God’s law, what we see naturally affects our emotions.  As a result, emotions of complacency and delight in the law and in the character of God may and often do glow and burn within us, even though our heart or will is unaffected.  Our will remains selfish while our mind and emotions are strongly impressed with seeing God’s excellence.  This state of our mind and emotions is often mistaken for true religion.  We have clear illustrations of this in the Bible and similar situations of it in everyday life.  “Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.  They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God” (Isaiah 58:2)  “Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them” (Ezek. 33:32) 
     Nothing is more important than to understand that true religion will always be a phenomenon of our will.  True religion always produces outward actions and inward feelings; and, because of the relationship between our mind and our emotions, we can experience almost any and every kind of feeling, no matter what the state of our will is.  Unless we are aware that we are consecrated to God and the good of others; unless we are aware of living for this goal, everything we do is useless, no matter what our views and feelings might be.   Also, it is well worth remembering that, although these views and feelings may exist while our heart is wrong, they will certainly exist when our heart is right; that there may be feeling, even deep feeling when our heart is selfish, and yet, there must be deep emotions and strenuous actions when our heart is right.  Remember, that the complacency that comes from our will, is always a striking characteristic of true love for God; that our mind is affected and consciously influenced in willing the actual and infinite blessedness of God by a regard for His goodness.  The goodness of God is not the fundamental reason for our goodwill, but it is only a condition of our obligation to will His happiness in particular.  Complacency assigns to itself, and to others His goodness as the reason for willing His good, rather than the importance of good; simply because the importance of good is so universally and necessarily assumed that we don’t even think about it.