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The phrase of the revised version has the larger meaning. "We love" includes "We love Him," and it is evident from the rest of the passage that we have here a distinct though not an exclusive reference to the love of God. How can we love Him then, the Invisible, the Infinite, and Omnipotent? Might we not as well try to love illimitable space or embrace the elastic and viewless air? And yet a great multitude which no man can number declare with St. John that they do love God. Yes, and moreover you will find that the love of God will stand all the tests which can be applied to any love known among men. Things widely different in their nature are often much alike in their appearance. Artificial flowers are very like real ones; gilt is very like gold; and paste is made to look like gems. Wise men, therefore, apply tests which only the real articles can stand. They find the real flower by its scent; test gold by acids, and the file tells them at once which is the gem and which is the worthless imitation. What, then, are the marks of true love?

I. TRUE LOVE IS UNSELFISH. False love rushes onwards to its own low ends. It is meanly selfish, and when resisted, cruel as the grave. But true love gives up and goes without. 'Tis finely prodigal, royally extravagant, and divinely liberal. Well, men's love for God has this mark upon it; it teaches men to deny self — to give up and go without. Oh, what sacrifices men have made for God! The sacrifice of God's love for men is indeed, and ever must be, the great fact of all history. But the next great fact is the sacrifice of men's love for God. God's love in Christ gave its "all" to men, and the love of God in Christian hearts gives "all" to God today. It is a constraining power in men's lives.

II. TRUE LOVE HAS PLEASURE IN FELLOWSHIP WITH ITS OBJECT. As the needle turns to the pole, so love, if true, seeks communion with its object and is only there at rest. Sir Henry Taylor, in his autobiography, says that when the affection of a certain couple of friends for each other was spoken of in Wordsworth's hearing, the poet asked, "Are they, so far as circumstances permit, continually together: for that is the test?" Yes; fellowship is the measure of love. "It is good for me to draw near to God," said one psalmist; and sacred history proves that such is the conviction of all saints. Every halting place along the patriarch's line of march became at once a place of worship. These men and their God were continually together. They delighted in God; and all who love Him still live with Him. They go to prayer and worship, not as the "whining schoolboy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school," but rather as children run from their tasks to play.

III. TRUE LOVE IS ENNOBLING IN ITS INFLUENCE. Passion degrades, and lust dehumanises man; but love makes all men better and nobler. Sir Richard Steele said of Lady Hastings that "to love her was a liberal education." But all true love educates. You cannot tend in love a wounded bird, or pity a hungry dog without thereby being taught something of the lore of angels. A mother cannot love her helpless babe without thereby being lifted nearer God. Love, like mercy, is twice blessed, "it blesseth him that gives and him that takes." Well, men's love to God does this. It cleanses speech of all impurities and gruffness. It refines manners and educates the taste. It expands sentiment and deepens sympathy. It makes the clown gentle and the coward brave.

IV. TRUE LOVE IS FAITHFUL UNTO THE END.

"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

Oh, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering barque,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken."It is no fickle fancy, no passing mood, no fair-weather affection.

(J. M. Gibbon.)

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KJV: We love him, because he first loved us.

WEB: We love him, because he first loved us.