Love’s Wise Gentle Correction

by Joseph Perrello
Published August 27, 2005

“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God.
Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might find life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven” (1st Epistle of John 4:7-11; Good News Bible, Today’s English Version, American Bible Society, New York).

“But the wisdom from above is pure first of all; it is also peaceful, gentle, and friendly; it is full of compassion and produces a harvest of good deeds; it is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. And goodness is the harvest that is produced from the seeds the peacemakers plant in peace”
(James 3: 17-18; Good News Bible, Today’s English Version, American Bible Society, New York).

Reciprocal emotion as practiced by the world often is passed off as love. A by-in-large conditional emotion, it is a “love” that depends on being returned - “I love you, because you love me.” Not so with the love nature of God; His love imposes no conditions and is not a response to our love for Him. The love of God is an unconditional act of His infinite will. He wills to love us with no reservations. “God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 KJV).

Though such unconditional love may be difficult for humanity to comprehend, it nevertheless remains that God did, does now, and ever shall love us perfectly from His will, undeserving though we are. Our response to this marvelous truth only can be manifested by receiving God’s love gift to the world. “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior. Whoever believes in the Son is not judged:
but whoever does not believe has already been judged, because he has not believed in God’s only Son” (John 3:16-18; Good News Bible, Today’s English Version).

In permitting the Lord to deal with our sins according to His redemptive love, and by allowing the Holy Spirit to correct our numerous faults with His gentle corrective love, we must also demonstrate our response by a similar forgiving, gentle, wise love in dealing with fellow-believers who may go astray. A harsh censoriousness is not the Scriptural formula in such situations. “My brothers, if someone is caught in any kind of wrong-doing, those of you who are spiritual should set him right: but you must do it in a gentle way. And keep an eye on yourselves, so that you will not be tempted, too” (Galatians 6:1; Good News Bible, Today’s English Version).

It is precisely this caliber of love imposed upon us by our Lord Jesus that is the very Nature of the Holy Spirit. His corrections, although firm, are longsuffering, gentle and meek, for this is an attribute of His character as defined in the Scriptures. “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering [Literally: ongoing endurance], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23; New King James Bible).

As believers, we should take these admonitions to heart; only by doing so can we be conformed to the image of our lord Jesus Christ.

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