THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVING CHRIST
[p. 496] THE IMPORTANCE OF LOVING CHRIST
John 13:18 - 30; Colossians 1:12 - 19
The exercise I have is to call attention to the great importance of loving Christ. I want to connect it with the advantages that accrue from it, especially that it leads us into the benefit of His headship. One feels a peculiar exercise as to the headship of Christ, and what I would remark is, that, aside from loving Christ, souls get no direct advantage from it. I use the word direct, for you may get indirect advantage from it although your love for Christ may be very little. You may get indirect advantage by observing others who profit by it, who are in the good of it, but it is quite obvious that each believer should know the headship of Christ. Each believer who has the Spirit is in the body, and we read in regard of Christ as Head, “from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God” (Colossians 2:19). Therefore, every believer ought to be in direct relation with Christ in his own soul, in order that he should get the benefit of the headship and correspondingly contribute to the whole. Our contribution may be little or it may be much.
The two disciples who had left Jerusalem for Emmaus, when they returned to the company made a contribution to the company. In the house at Emmaus their souls had been touched by Christ’s headship. They returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven and those that were with them, who were speaking about Christ as risen, and immediately they add their quota, telling the company how the Lord had spoken to them by the way and especially that He was made known unto them in the breaking of bread. Now that was a contribution by those who had come into the light of Christ as Head. The same [p. 497] may be said of Mary Magdalene. Look at the contribution she made to the disciples as recorded in John 20. For the moment she eclipsed even the eleven; she contributed to such an extent as to give them light as to their new relationship and position. I call attention to these two instances so that you may see the great gain of headship. Whether you have a meagre apprehension of it or a very full apprehension of it, there is gain for you and there is gain for the company, for you become a contributor. One would feel extremely poor and ashamed not to be a contributor in some sense. Indeed, we know that to each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ, and it is that we should be contributors.
Well now, my point is for the moment to show you that it depends on love for Christ, and I selected John’s gospel because he says more about love than any of the evangelists. He says more too, perhaps, about hatred than any of them; he is a man of extremes in a sense, and he presents the things that he speaks of in their absoluteness. In speaking of love in contrast to hatred he intimates clearly that love is according to Christ and that hatred characterises Antichrist. It seems to me that Judas is the representative of the anti-Christian spirit; whereas, in a modest way, John presents “the disciple whom Jesus loved” as the expression of the spirit of Christianity.
In view of the character of John 13, it is very suited that these two opposites should appear in it. I am not saying that other New Testament writers do not speak of love; they all do; Paul is very express about it; he says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22). Very strong language this! It is his way, in one sense, of expressing his estimate of Christ; he had wonderful affection for Christ. He is speaking to the [p. 498] Corinthians. Amongst them, alas! there were evidently non-lovers of Christ. You will not remain long a non-lover; if you are that now you may presently become a hater of Christ. Hence the apostle is very pronounced in reminding you of the curse.
In writing to the Ephesians he does not suggest there were any amongst them who did not love Christ. He had a very great experience of the spiritual affections at Ephesus. You will all remember how, having called the elders, they embraced him; that is very beautiful! They loved him. They felt most of all, it says, that they should see his face no more. It was a scene to touch the heart. They loved the apostle, and this was really an evidence that they loved Christ. He does not therefore suggest that there was a non-lover amongst them; he rather emphasises in his epistle that they had faith in Christ Jesus and love, not only for him, but for all the saints. It is a wonderful thing to love Christ and all the saints. At the end of his epistle the apostle remarks, “Grace be with all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (Ephesians 6:24). He suggests there the possibility of the existence of love for Christ in insincerity. I am not prepared to define how it works out in the individual, but the apostle suggests it, and I mention it so that we may inquire what is the character of our love. Is there an element of corruption there? He pronounced his benediction on those who loved Christ in “incorruption” (N.T.). Remember that word.
So the apostle Paul treats of love very extensively; but, as I was remarking, John uses the word more frequently, he weaves it into the whole fabric of his writings, and on the opposite side you have presented the anti-Christian spirit, and Judas is the father of it. The reason why I say that Judas is the father of the anti-Christian spirit is that he was with Christ,
[p. 499] and so had the opportunity of knowing Him. Having known the Lord he left Him and betrayed Him. One cannot be an antichrist unless one knows Christ in some sense, you know in some sense what you are objecting to. Hence the characteristic of Antichrist is, “they went out”. Judas went out. We have the word, “he went out”, meaning that he left the circle in which the love of Christ was active. Let us beware of going out. Perhaps some trivial thing has given occasion to it, but one goes out. In what direction is your face? Think of the company you are leaving when you go out. Judas was the first to go out of the Christian circle; he has had many followers, alas! In his epistle John speaks in the plural. He says “there are many antichrists ... they went out from us” (1 John 2:18,19). Judas did not go out unexposed. Neither should you assume that you are unexposed. You may fancy you are, but be your grievance what it may, if you go out you are exposed; besides, you will get into bad company, and it will get worse. It is a painful but wholesome thing to reflect on the course of those who have withdrawn from the circle of Christian fellowship. Judas went out exposed, as I said. The Lord said of him, “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me”. It is a terrible thing to lift up your heel. It is operating behind a person, the opposite of “face to face”. It is an action marked by darkness; it is treachery. One could trace it.
The heel is found early in the Scriptures. Satan is the author of that sort of activity: “thou shalt bruise his heel”, the Lord said to him (Genesis 3:15). It is well to be reminded that he who acts in that way has his head bruised; it is inevitable. “It shall bruise thy head”, that is Satan’s annulment. The tribe of Dan is like “an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward” (Genesis 49:17). That is anti-Christian. As you know, Jacob himself had [p. 500] learned the lesson, for he was a “heel-holder”, one who operates in the rear. That thread runs right through Scripture; it is the anti-Christian thread, and Judas is the exponent of it. He had been in the company of the Lord for some three years, so that he had known Him. So carefully was he concealed as to his true character that only the Lord, apparently, knew him; but the Lord knew him from the beginning. We may be sure that the spirit of antichrist is under the eye of Christ in whomsoever it may be.
Well now, there was “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, he was not acting from the back, he was on Jesus’ bosom. He is reposing in confidence, the confidence begotten of known affection; that was John. He is pleased modestly to regard himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved, and he rewards the Lord, as it were, for the place He gave to him, for he never tires of calling attention to the love of Christ. In chapter 14:22 Judas says: “Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us and not to the world?” As to this disciple, the apostle carefully says he was not Iscariot. It was not that Judas, it was another. Thank God, there was another Judas. As I was saying, love for Christ is the great antidote to the anti-Christian spirit, hence chapter 14:21,23 enlarges on the great advantage of loving Christ; “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”, and further the Lord says, “If any man love me, he will keep my words”. These are tests, keeping His commandments and His words. Besides the former, all the wonderful communications of Christ are treasured in the heart of the lover of Christ.
Now in turning to Colossians what I wanted to point out was that the Father has translated us into the kingdom of that One, the Son of His love. What a kingdom that is! Think of rule in the hands of the Son of the Father’s love. I only refer to that part [p. 501] of the passage to call attention to the manner in which the heart is engaged in Colossians. It is engaged with the Son of the Father’s love, and then the apostle proceeds to tell us who He is. No one is prepared for such light save a lover of Christ. Colossians is specially for those who love Christ, but the danger was the admitting of an addition to Christ. I call attention to that for a moment. An addition to Christ! True affection will not admit of it. Mary Magdalene would not admit of it for a moment. The apostle, therefore, enlarges on Christ’s personal dignity and glory in order that the saints should acknowledge His headship. I want to dwell on that just for a little, and I would refer to David.
Many of you will remember how that in the history of David, after the recovery of Ziklag, he remained in Ziklag for two days. That I apprehend to be, in a sense, the epistle to the Romans. It is not, as it were, a station at which you are to remain, but it is important to remain for some time in it in order that the soul should be matured in the sense of recovery. Indeed it is not only recovery, but victory. We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. David recovered all, and there was that which was designated “David’s spoil”.
David inquired of the Lord on the third day: Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah? The point is: Shall I go up? Did you ever ask that question? It is not the divine thought that we should remain on the plain; things on the plain must be adjusted, but the soul that loves Christ inquires as to an upward movement. The Lord says to David, “Go up ... unto Hebron”. Hebron was a remarkable place. The Spirit of God, in mentioning it in Numbers 13:22, tells us that it “was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt”. Now ponder for a moment over David in Hebron. Caleb had been there, an illustrious man; the Levites had lived there. Consider David in the [p. 502] streets of Hebron. Doubtless there were buildings there. What would David say of them? As a spiritual man he would say, ‘These structures are not patterned on anything in Egypt’. How do you order your circumstances, whether domestic or religious? Are they patterned after the world? Christendom is patterned after the world, nothing else. Hebron would suggest that which existed before the world system. That is a thought we need to get into our souls.
Christ is said to be the beginning: He is the image of God. He is before everything; He is the Firstborn; nothing preceded Him, beloved friends. That is Colossians. Romans, in its general teaching, dates back to Eden, it refers to the fall and the recovery, but when you get to Colossians you come to see things that existed before, for Adam was but a figure of Him that was to come. We need to live in Hebron, beloved friends. David lived there and reigned there, partially, it is true, but he reigned there for seven years and six months. What a time it was! He begat children there; he begat none at Ziklag, but at Hebron his family increased. Increase is in Colossians. It is in the apprehension of Christ as Head that you get increase. It is a wonderful thing to dwell on the thought of what existed before the world.
David did not, however, build in Hebron. It is not the grand objective of the Spirit, but a most important point if our souls are to be imbued with the sense of what existed before the world. In saying many things about Christ the apostle goes on to say, “He is the head of the body, the assembly ... the beginning”. I would I could convey what I had in my mind as to the idea of the beginning and that the beginning is before the world system was ever devised. It all originates in Christ. John enlarges on the beginning in his epistle. He says, “That which was from the beginning” (1 John 1:1). That is Christ as man. Whereas in his gospel he says, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1). How the Lord would have us to sit down and drink in that thought! Like David, to meditate in the streets of Hebron as to the pattern of things according to God; still, as I was remarking, there is no building. David’s period in Hebron was not marked by building, it was a formative period; it was a period preparatory to Jerusalem; there you get the structure. I can only touch on the thought.
In Ephesians we come to the headship of Christ, but not only for the individual Christian. It is said that He is set over all things; He is “head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (chapter 1:23). And then it says further that He has “ascended up far above all heavens” (chapter 4:10). What for? “That he might fill all things”; and that being so, it says, He has given gifts unto men. Now I apprehend that the force of that passage is that things are operated, to refer to the type, from Jerusalem. The assembly is really formed on earth by Christ from His present position. The gifts are here to edify; for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body. After what pattern? Anything from Zoan? No, nothing. All is rigidly excluded. You are reminded of the pattern given to Moses.
Now if you look at Chronicles just for a moment, the first book begins with Adam. You have all the threads traced until you reach David! How perfect that is! David is the head typically. According to the narrator in Chronicles Solomon is not the designer of the temple, he is simply acting under David. The temple is wholly designed after a heavenly pattern. Egypt and Babylon are rigidly shut out. Would that the Lord’s people throughout Christendom could see that! Things should all antedate the world.
[p. 504] David received the pattern of the temple “by the Spirit” (1 Chronicles 28:12). There you are, so to say, at the top. Everything is patterned after divine wisdom. Well, beloved friends, it is in that sense that one understands Ephesians, and I commend to you the subject in that light.
May the Lord give us in these days to have love for Christ, and as we have love for Christ we shall come into these things; whereas if we are devoid of it, sooner or later we shall get on to anti-Christian lines.