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These words come after an exhortation to the practice of the Christian virtues of mercy, etc.. In addition to these we are to put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Not perfect bond, but that which renders perfect. Love is that which unites all the others into a complete whole. Another interpretation is to this effect. As in ver. 14, Paul has said in the Church and in Christ "there is neither Greek nor Jew," etc., he says here that love is the unifying principle which binds together all the otherwise discordant members of the Church.

I. LOVE IS USED of —

1. Benevolence to man.

2. God's love to us.

3. Our love to God.

4. Brotherly love among Christians.

5. Love in general as a Christian grace without specification of object. Its characteristics are noted in 1 Corinthians 13.

II. OF THIS LOVE IT IS TAUGHT —

1. That without this all our passions, professions, hopes, are vain and worthless. No amount of orthodoxy, power, natural or supernatural, devotion, almsgiving, Church membership, assiduity in religious duties, is of any avail.

2. That this love is the fruit of faith. It cannot exist without it, and faith without it is dead.

3. It is the bond of perfectness.

(1)  It unites all the Christian virtues.

(2)  It unites all the members Of Christ's body.

4. It is the image of God. It makes us like Christ.

5. It is the beauty and blessedness of heaven. Perfection of the religion of the Bible.

(1)  Not ritualism, benevolence, orthodoxy, but

(2)  Faith which works by love.

(C. Hodge, D. D.)

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KJV: And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

WEB: Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.