The most wonderful message that has ever fallen on human ears is that of the great love of God to sinful man in giving His only begot ten Son. The story is unfolded by the Apostle John, and then, as moved by the Spirit of God, he ex claims, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). In these few words we at once see that when the great message of the gospel is believed and pardon received, man's love is won for God.
As believers we can with gladness join heartily with the apostle in saying, "We have known and believed the love that God has to us" and we have no doubt whatever about it, but most of us would like to be conscious of greater fervour on our part, when we say, "We love Him." Indeed a verse of a well-known hymn aptly describes what we feel:—
"Lord, it is my chief complaint,
That my love is weak and faint;
Yet I love Thee and adore,
Oh! for grace to love Thee more."
If then we confess with some shame to the poor response we make to the love of God, let us be sufficiently sincere and earnest to seek the causes of what is, sad to say, all too prevalent among Christians in these days, resulting in lack of power and usefulness in witness for the Lord, and lack of love to one another, instead of being like the Thessalonians, who were "taught of God to love one another . . . more and more" (1 Thess. 4:9-10).
It is plain that the source of love is not in us, but in God Himself, and we love God only in the measure that we have taken in His love to us. For we read, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitia tion for our sins." There is also the word, "Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth" (James 1:18). This makes it abundantly clear that, but for God's sovereign love and grace towards us, we would have remained "dead in trespasses and sins." Oh, the wonder of the love of God! This is the way love to God begins, but why is love with us not more fervent?
For answer, let us listen to the words of the Lord in His conversa tion with the Pharisee, who had invited Him to his house as recorded in Luke 7, but who received Him without showing the courtesies ordin arily shown to a welcome guest. As they sat to eat together, a woman of the city came in, and, overcome with feelings of gratitude and love, wept at the Saviour's feet, broke an alabaster box of very precious oint ment, and anointed His feet.
Presently, turning to His host, Jesus told him of "a certain creditor who had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And He said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged."
Here our Lord and Master shows that it is in the measure we realize the greatness of the debt that we have been forgiven, that our hearts will be filled with gratitude and we shall love Him. But, then, so many of us have so small a sense of sin and its consequences, as unfitting us for the holy presence of God. It is cer tainly a matter for real heart-searching. For it is very plain that unless we have a lively sense of the greatness of the debt which we have been forgiven, our love will lack fervency.
The call to repentance is not heard as it ought to be in these days, or indeed as it was preached in the days that are past, and the words spoken through Jeremiah may well describe all too many of the preachers of the present day, "They have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace; peace: when there is no peace."
Yes, it seems plain that one great cause of the trouble is that the sense of sin is small and consequently repentance has been shallow, producing a very feeble form of Christianity, and preachers will do well to show men "that they should repent and turn to God," as Paul did. Yet, if preachers have only experienced a shallow repentance themselves, how can they preach it in power?
Let us, nevertheless, face the fact that this is what is needed, and that love with us will be small if our thoughts of what we have been for given are small, for Christ said, "To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."
Does someone exclaim, Then must I be a great sinner if I am to have much love for the Lord?—But such a question indicates that the questioner is comparing himself with his neighbour and not measuring himself by the holiness of God nor taking into account the cost of his redemp tion. Our blessed Lord had to go through the pangs of Calvary and the horrors of being forsaken of God when our sins were laid upon Him. We must see our sin in the light of the greatness of the ransom, paid in agony and blood by our great Redeemer. In that light minor differences disappear.
The Dead Sea is some 1,300 feet below sea level. Mount Everest is 29,140 feet above. But the sun is 92,900,000 miles away from the earth, and when we think of this, we do not consider which is the further from the sun because we realize that the difference is not worth talking about. If we see our selves in the unsullied light of the holiness of God, like Job, who was one of the most upright of men, we shall exclaim, "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth."
Above all we must apprehend aright the cost to God and to our Saviour of our redemption. For this we must be ready to stand in thought at the foot of the central cross on Golgotha's hill outside the gates of the City of Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago, and there gaze upon the Son of God crucified for the world's sin—yes, but for our personal sins. And as in thought you stand there, do not hurry away, but pause and say to yourself, He died there for me. Then confess, "My sin was so great that such a sacrifice on the part of my Saviour was required to pay the penalty of my guilt." The prophecy was being fulfilled, "He was numbered with the transgressors," and "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Yes, He was forsaken, that I might never be forsaken in the outer darkness because of my sins—it was for me.
Then, will not gratitude and love so fill our souls that from our hearts will rise the fervent prayer,
"Lord, take my heart and let it be
For ever closed to all but Thee."
for,
"Love so amazing, so Divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."
Let us now see how fervent love grows, manifests itself, and has its grand reward. We shall only learn this at the Master's feet and if we are really set on being Christ's disciples indeed. Let us, then, in thought join the disciples in the upper room at Jerusalem and with them listen to the last loving words of our Saviour, ere He goes forward to the cross, there to give Himself in atonement for sin and to prove His love for His own to the full. His words are recorded by the Apostle John, who in the gospel under his name, refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."
We catch the tender tones of His voice as He talks with His loved ones about their love to Him: after all, it is what He thinks about it that really matters. "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." Then further, "He that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and He that loves Me shall be loved of My Father and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him."
These words make it very plain that our love is seen only in the measure that we keep His commandments, and if we are careless of His commandments it is a sure sign of our lack of love for Him. And how great the recompense for him whose love is manifested by loving obedi ence. Here, then, we see the way that love is fostered and developed.
Does someone ask why the keeping of Christ's commandments is urged, when Scripture affirms that we are not under the law but under grace? Do we call our blessed Saviour, Lord? If so, and we mean it, then we shall look for His direc tions and be eager to know what His will for us is, that we may do it. We have Christ's own words, "Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." From this, then, we see that love, if real and not in word only, delights to obey such a Master, and if we obey because of love, then it is grace and not law that controls us.
Have we not all experienced that it is in the measure we have interested ourselves in others for the Lord's sake, and out of fervent love to Him, that we have experienced the joy of the Lord; whereas when we have allowed our interest to flag and have become self-centred our joy and fervour of spirit have declined and we have missed the sense of the Lord manifesting Himself to us, as He promised to those who have and keep His commandments.
Good indeed will it be if love to the Lord leads us to this experience, yet love with us may grow even still more, and then we shall not only make ourselves acquainted with our Lord's commandments and keep them, but we will diligently seek to find in the Scriptures what is the mind of Christ, learning what are the things that please Him and what He would have us do, even though no definite command is expressed. Thus we may learn the mind of Christ and instinctively know how to act in whatever circumstances we may be placed in this life.
And so as we listen further to the Lord talking to His disciples in the upper room, we hear Him saying, "If a man love Me he will keep My word: and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make our abode with him." Surely this means full communion with the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit, such as is not enjoyed by those who have not loved Him enough to become acquainted with His mind, by searching and meditating on His Word and keeping it.
In commercial life a man may take his young son into his business, wondering how he will conduct him self. To his satisfaction and pleasure the young fellow quickly begins to show interest in the work, constantly going to his father to receive his instructions: what he is to do, and how he wishes it to be done. As the months roll by he manifests increas ing keenness to learn his father's mind, and eagerness to further the business accordingly. The relations between them become more and more intimate and harmonious until the son has so fully got to know his father's mind that he can be trusted to attend to the business just as the father himself would. He not only observes the commandments, but carries out the word.
Let us respond then to the word of the Psalmist, "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." And let the word through Jude be ever what we have before us; "Keep yourselves in the love of God," remembering that it is the love of God that awakens and strengthens our love, and that there is no measure to His love, hence our love should ever grow more and more. Then let us not forget that we can only practise love as we manifest the grace of God to others and care for the interests of Christ in this world as we await His return.
"The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ."