THE LOVE OF CHRIST

THE LOVE OF CHRIST

I have been very much helped lately, though through much conflict, in judging myself as to whether it was that I had faith in the Lord’s love for me, or faith in His power (”I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”,) Philippians 4: 13. Naturally speaking, you could have more reliance on a friend that has means than on the friend that has no means; but the friend that has no means, if he has love, is a better ^[p. 252] friend. Therefore if I know that the Lord loves me personally, the more I study that love the more I see, not what He could give, but what He could be to me; and when His love to you begins to be attractive, you are surprised to find where it will lead you, and what it will open out to you.

Every christian has learned Him as a Saviour, but the first real beginning in the soul of this attachment is your discovery that He loves you. As He said to Peter “Fear not”, (Luke 5), I will advance you from a mere fisherman to be a fisher of men; for Peter had said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord”. (Luke 5: 8) It is not only that He is the object of my heart, but I find that the One I love has made me an object to His heart! A great day for the soul! People are ready to say how they love Him, but how far can they say that they are conscious of His love to them, that they so prize it, that it is the greatest secret of their heart? When the Lord’s love is before you, you find this love is drawing you from darkness to light. He begins by showing His desire for your spiritual advancement, and not by advancing you in earthly position. It is beautiful to see that the work of true love is to set aside darkness, or whatever would interfere with association; and therefore it is not esteemed as it ought to be, because we are looking for something on the earth, and the tendency is to judge of His love by earthly gifts or favours down here.

The bride in Song of Songs 1: 4 began rightly when she said, “Draw me, we will run after thee”. The unfailing mark of true affection, if I know He loves me, is that I seek His company, and therefore plainly, if you keep your first love, you will seek to have company with Him. The Ephesians had given up their heavenly position when they lost their first love. If you are thus true in heart to Him, you can follow out what you get in chapter 2, “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste”. (Song of Songs 2: 3) It is very plain that company is dearer to the heart than any gift, and in the end you find, “He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love”. (Song of Songs 2: 4)

But alas! like the bride, though one knows the peculiar sweetness of sitting under His shadow with great delight, yet the tendency is to think of oneself and one’s own interests here, to drop down into selfish engrossment, and sleep like the bride in chapter 5. Sleeping is not doing anything actually wrong, but it is making oneself happy without the Lord, a state of inactivity with regard to Him. It often follows a very happy time; but then you feel you have had an irreparable loss, and you want to return to your first love. This we see in chapter 5 brings out great exercise, and the peculiar exercise connected with it is that which is always fruitful in occupying you with Himself personally, so that when you reach Him again you are nearer to Him “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine”, (Song of Songs 6: 3) I would not dwell so long on this point, only that I see it is where the weakness of christians lies: they do not expect the Lord to draw them out of this place, to make it an unrestful place; on the contrary, they are looking to find rest here.

Surely Mary Magdalene, when in the agony of her heart she could not find the Lord, was indifferent about everything here; but He, true to His love for her and not merely seeking to relieve her present distress, tells her not to touch Him, but to tell His disciples that He is going away - a great practical lesson, a deep dark disappointment it must have been to her, but it was the Lord’s love which would not conceal from her that the only way henceforth of reaching Him was outside of everything here, which, in the long run, the true heart gladly accepts - that we can be where He is fully accepted, and be clear of the place where He is refused as she found before the ^[p. 254] close of that day, when she met Him again on resurrection ground - an unequalled moment to her soul! This prepared her for the great history of those who belong to the rejected Christ, set free from everything in the purity and perfection of His work, so that she could have said: “As he is, so are we in this world”, (1 John 4: 17) and that, consequently, she is part of the consecrated company, and, relieved of every human pressure, she can enter the holiest to share before God in all the fragrance and acceptance of Christ, of which we have no type; the fulness and magnitude of it are only made known by the Spirit of God; it is not detailed in Scripture. She is united to Him, made a member of His body, and therefore shares in all His interests and all His power, and can come forth to act here unhinderedly according to His own pleasure; and it is then only that the greatness of worship on God’s side is fully known.

Now we see how the love of Christ conducts one all along to His own company, to be in unclouded communion with the Father and with Himself. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ”, (1 John 1: 3) We cannot get any higher than that - a most amazing height; and yet it is from that height where all things are of God, that we must look down if anything tries us here, instead of trying to scramble out of the trouble here by one palliation or another.

I trust you will see very fully how blessedly one is conducted by His love to a scene where everything is solved, and where your heart is assured that the love that has brought you to the top will order for you all along the road below. But, if you understand it, you would look at it, not as being in the trouble, but as living with Him out of it, marking His gracious way of freeing from it.

Scarborough,