When the young people go to the campuses to preach the gospel, they need not only a proper daily living but also a universal love. A universal love is a love for everyone except Satan. In the whole universe, there is only one person that we should not love—Satan. We should be those who love the Lord, love all our brothers in the Lord, and love all men.
Firstly, we have to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37). Many of us think that the unbelievers hate everyone who loves God. This is not correct. Outwardly, they may not agree with us. They may even say that our beliefs are a form of superstition, but deep within many of them appreciate our love toward the Lord. Those who love the Lord are often held in high regard by others. Nothing can uplift our life standard as high as our love toward the Lord. The more we love the Lord, the more we will spontaneously be on the highest level of human standards. However, idolatry, which includes the enjoyment and love for sinful things, brings people into fornication and lowers their standard of morality (Rev. 2:14, 20).
If you just love the Lord Jesus a little, your standard will be uplifted. Just thinking about loving Him will uplift our standard. The love of God brings in the highest standard of morality. When Joseph was confronted by the evil wife of Potiphar, he said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9c). Joseph loved God and God was always with him. Joseph’s love for God kept him in the highest standard of morality. When you love God, you are today’s Joseph. The love of God is high. It is the main factor in living a higher life on a higher plain. We must love the Lord with all our heart, our mind, and our strength. The word strength refers to our physical strength. We have to love God with our whole being.
Secondly, the Bible tells us that we should love the brothers (1 John 3:11, 14). The Lord Jesus said, “All men shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). The love among Christian brothers is a strong testimony to the unbelievers because there is very little real love among human beings in society. The love in human society is often a deceiving love, but the love among the saints is real, genuine, convincing, and attractive. For this reason, we need to have a divine communal life for the gospel preaching. A communal life does not mean that we all live together under one roof. The proper communal life is a life of love toward all the saints. We must have such a life of love. We need to invite people to our homes to let them see our communal life of love. This will convince our relatives and friends, and may convince many of them to turn to the Lord.
(Preaching the Gospel on the College Campuses, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)