LOVE'S WAY
LOVE’S WAY
Exodus 21: 1 - 6; Luke 7: 44 - 48
I have in mind to speak about love, in order that we may see how it develops in the believer, so that he becomes a model. In using the word ‘model’ I necessarily imply that all are not models. The love of many has waxed cold. Much is said in Scripture for those who love, and much is said against those who do not love. It is not only that those who do not love miss spiritual enjoyment and privilege, but are nigh unto a curse, for the apostle says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha”, 1 Corinthians 16: 22. That is to say, he is exposed to the curse. Not that he is under it now, but he shall be under it when the Lord comes. So that aside from the blessing and joy of love, or the act of love — possessed love and active love — one is in a most solemn position. Of him who has not got it, it is said that he is nothing. As to present importance in the testimony of God, he is nothing. If I have not love, I am nothing.
I wanted to show from these passages the presence of love, and how that in each case it is presented as a model in the one contemplated. The first mention is in the form of descending love. We can understand the suitability of that, for love is of God — indeed God is said to be love, so that in those who have it, or wherever it is, it emanates from God. Hence it is first mentioned in Scripture in the form of descending love — love in Abraham for Isaac. We can understand that the typical reference is to God. It is to God in the manner in which He loved Christ. That is to say, perfect love expressed to a perfect Object. God loved us in spite of our unloveliness, but not so with Christ. It was perfect love with [p. 398] nothing at all to hinder it, or disturb it. And so before you have the expression of it publicly in the gospel you get the Lord down here until He had become thirty years of age. Having become incarnate He had gone through all the stages of growth in humanity.
We get Him as an infant in Luke, and we are told elsewhere that He was cast upon God even then. John Baptist comes nearest to that of any; of whom it is said he was filled with the Spirit from his infancy; but it was not said that he was cast upon God from infancy. So that we see pre-eminence in Christ — even in infancy. There is much more unwritten than is written in the scripture. In God’s way of book-making, largeness is not at all in view, but smallness. No subjects are so great as those treated of in Scripture. That so much should be told in such a small compass is a great wonder. So in the account of the infancy of Christ, how much is unwritten! Think of the history of those twelve years! His parents went up to the feast as their custom was each year; and when He was twelve years they took Him up. What unwritten history was there for God in those twelve years in that holy obscure life! But light shines for us, and a few words are written by the Spirit of God so that we might see a little of what was there.
Mary and Joseph returned after the feast as was customary, and went a day’s journey without Jesus. They did not know He was not in the company. That is to say, there was deterioration. Alas! it applies to us as well. There is a continual tendency to deterioration in our appreciation of Christ. Mary could travel a whole day and think He was in the company, whereas He was not. What were God’s thoughts? He was occupied with that holy Boy, whatever His parents were occupied with. It might have been this or that notable person they had heard speaking in the [p. 399] temple, or the temple itself. There was no doubt much small talk in their journey back, and no attention paid to Christ. A sad picture! A picture which is common in every locality where the people of God are today. What was heaven thinking about Him? He was intensely delightful to God — the perfect Meat Offering. He was for God. They returned and found Him in the temple, and Mary says, “Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing”. It was something that they sought Him sorrowing. It is well when we do seek Him sorrowing. Mary speaks to Him on the natural side — “Thy father and I”, referring to Joseph. But He says, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” He is on spiritual lines — “My Father” referring to God. She speaks to Him on natural lines. He speaks to her on spiritual lines.
That is just a peep, if I may call it, on that wonderful life. As it is said later, “All the words of this life” — a life so delightful to God. In chapter 3, the Lord being about thirty years of age, we have the announcement, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. There is the public declaration on the part of God of His delight in Him. He has found an object on earth who is perfectly lovable to Him. He loves us in spite of our unloveliness, but not so with Christ. So that it was a descending love in Abraham. “Take now thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest”; love descending in type from Him who is the source of it. It was perfect love expressed to a perfect Object as regards Christ. As the Lord Jesus says later, “Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”. But now it is a Man who has grown up in the contrariety of the world whom the Father loved. It is love descending, and I may add it is the same with ourselves, only with us it is in spite of our unloveliness. “For God”, we are told, “commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we [p. 400] were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, Romans 5: 8. That is the love of God. He would have us to know it — to be acquainted with it — the kind of love — the love that shows itself in spite of our unloveliness. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”.
But not only is it commended — it is shed abroad down here. “Shed abroad”, as it says, “in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us”. Such is God’s way. Not only is it presented to us objectively, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”, but brought down by the Spirit, and placed in our hearts — “shed abroad” there, as it says, “by the Holy Spirit”. It is the Holy Spirit. It is not to be associated or mixed with natural thoughts or feelings. It is by the Holy Spirit. It is shed abroad in our hearts and the result is you have ascending love in the saints, and the assurance as in Romans that all things work together for good to those who love God. It is a moral triumph that there are those in this world who love God. Loving God is the ascending side. God loving us is the descending side.
I wanted to show from Exodus 24 how God entered into covenant with His people. Chapters 19 and 20 contemplate God having entered into a covenant. Why did God enter into a covenant? Surely because He loved them. He entered into a covenant with His people, and they accepted the terms of it. That is how the matter stands. “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do”. Moses came to the people with the covenant, and went back to God with the people’s acceptance of it. In chapter 24 sacrifices are offered and the blood of the covenant is shed. It is a confirmed covenant. God sets down alongside that a model as to what is really essential to that covenant; and I desire to call attention to it, because with God it is not only the assertion of things, but the showing
[p. 401] of them. It is one thing to assert, but it is another thing to show. As you get with the apostle, “Yet show I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence”. That is the way of love. It was not only to be spoken of, but to be shown. So God here shows a type of Christ. He shows how the response comes.
What are the terms? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength”. That is the first great commandment. That was ascending love — love going up to God — but I have to be shown that. So that the Lord Jesus spoke of love down here — indeed He cited this commandment as the first — He not only spoke of love, He showed it. And in what circumstances? In the circumstances of a bondman! It is where we are tested, you see, in the circumstances of a bondman. This was new to the Lord. He had been in the form of God, and loved as God. If He loved any one it would be descending love. But now it is in the form of a bondman — Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking a bondman’s form. A bondman’s form. He speaks indeed, in Zechariah 12, of man acquiring Him as that. Such is the holy mind of Christ as becoming man, He was the servant of all. Marvellous fact!
Such a position involves irksomeness, but not in His case. He filled every position perfectly and graced it, so that in a bondman’s position He loves. That is what I wanted to come to. No doubt many of us find ourselves in circumstances of irksomeness. We might serve those who are greater than ourselves, but to serve those who are not greater, as He did, is the test.
Martha served. She is a well-known character in this matter. No doubt she could look after a household well. She received the Lord into her house; but receiving the Lord is not all. You might make [p. 402] Him uncomfortable after you receive Him. It is the grace with which you entertain Him that counts. “Carest thou not that my sister has left me to serve alone”. It was irksome to her. She was not gracing the position. She was not serving in love. Love never grumbles; it ever graces its own act. It dignifies the thing it is doing. That is where Martha failed.
The Lord served as a bondman. Love shone there. First, ascending love, that is, “I love my master”. He plainly said it in every movement down here. It was the way of surpassing excellence, shining in perfection in Christ. Then the horizontal love. He loved His wife — that is to say, the saints, the excellent of the earth, in whom was all His delight. He never regarded them lightly, or trivially; the saints were everything to Him. Think of what a saint is! Look at a planet! Wonderful thing! But there was no workmanship expended on it as on the weakest saint of God.
See the blind man in John 9 — born blind. The Lord says neither did he sin nor his parents. Why was he blind? That the works of God should be manifested in him. Think of that, beloved brethren! Is he not greater than any of the planets? or even the sun or the moon? True enough they are the works of God. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork”. But here is one man, a despised blind man on the street, and he is to be an exhibition of the works of God. That is the way John presents things. John presents to us the works of God, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. The works of God are to be manifested in one man. We must think of the saints in that connection. “We are his workmanship”. That is the way the Lord took account of them — the saints, the excellent of the earth, in whom was all His delight. These are the ones He loved. “I love my wife” — love flowing out to those whom He regarded in this way. He regards His personal dignity, but He regards the saints as His companions. But then there are the children — the saints viewed in another light. “Behold I and the children whom God hath given me”; those who are loved by Him. It is descending love.
You have the expression “daughter” in the gospels. That is a parental expression. The Lord represented that side too — the parental side. And it is very blessed to have the sense of parental affection in One come near to us as becoming man. Therefore you see, beloved, love is shown, in the bondman’s form, in Christ — in One in these circumstances. I beg of you to notice that it is love — the perfect expression of it in these peculiar circumstances.
Now I wanted to show in the woman in Luke 7 how this is reflected in us, so that we may see how it is possible. She is a woman of the city. That was how she was known — a very disreputable character. But she acquired fame that Gabriel would have desired. She acquired it by loving. She acquired the wonderful faculty of loving. She says not a word about it. But One who knew better than she did said something about it, and this surely is much more desirable. She is showing the thing, and in showing it she afforded the Lord a model. She merges from the position of a woman of the city before heaven and earth to be a model lover. One would emulate that.
The Lord turns to the woman. He did not turn to Simon. He spoke to Simon; but in speaking to Simon He was looking at the woman. With all Simon’s means and power to entertain, there was not an atom of loveliness there. What a thing, beloved, to be in a locality in this way — available to Christ so that He may speak to others about you! How refreshing she was to His heart! He turns to her and speaks to Simon. “Seest thou this woman?” Did Simon see her? Yes, he looked upon her with disdain, and in his heart he said, “If he were a prophet, he would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner”. Did Jesus not know? Yes, He was looking at her and taking account of what she was doing. Her heart was touched by the grace brought to her — even to her — and she was weeping. What did those tears mean? They meant feelings of the appreciation of the grace that brought Him there that she, a poor sinner, might be cleansed from her sins — forgiven. It is a question of actual transgression. She was weeping and washing His feet with tears, and wiping them with the hairs of her head.
No doubt she had some spiritual intelligence as to the value of her hair. And so it is something to every enlightened woman who knows grace, she knows what the hair means. It was given to her in place of a covering. It was a teacher of nature to her that she might have power on her head because of the angels, that she might be exhibiting grace as Christ came down and exhibited it.
Christ was Simon’s head, but Simon did not recognise it. She did. She knew instinctively, but not in the way we know it. Instinct is in a sense greater than knowledge. She recognised who He was, and she wiped His feet with her hair, and kissed His feet. Think of the feelings that looked with disdain on that blessed Man! She was showing love as heaven had shown it. She loved much because she had been forgiven much. She had learned grace. It was love — not a love of relationship, but love that flows from the knowledge of grace — the knowledge of Christ coming so low to make forgiveness possible.
She kissed His feet, and anointed them with myrrh, which was an intelligent action. It was befitting that those feet should be anointed thus. Those feet [p. 405] carried Him to death, to bear our sins in His own body. Think of the grace! “In his own body”; and “on the tree”. Were those feet not worth anointing with myrrh? They were. There was some understanding that He was to suffer. So He calls attention to her. He goes over the ground with Simon. It was delightful to Him to call Simon’s attention to the woman, that we might get the idea of love, and might be an exhibition of it; that you might so shine, and become a model greater than a preacher — greater than any gift; that God can turn to you and say, “Seest thou this woman?” So that it is within the range of all to be a model in love. May the Lord help us! If He has set forth a model as is brought before us here, He can bring others to it in any locality. That is what the work of God leads to.