DIVINE LOVE
Exodus 21:5,6; John 13:1; 15:9-12; Romans 8:35-37
These scriptures all speak about love. I had a particular impression on Lord’s day of the greatness of divine love. As we look upon the emblems every Lord’s day, we should get an impression as to the greatness of divine love, and a fresh sense of the greatness of the way in which it has been demonstrated in the giving of the Lord Jesus. He has held nothing back; He has loved more than any other. Our love cannot be compared to His. We sang of that:
‘Our love is oft-times low,
Our joy still ebbs and flows’. (Hymn 349)
We all know that, so there is nothing to be compared to the particular character of divine love. I feel limited in speaking about it; there is such depth and power in it, there is an abundance about divine love that cannot really be described. But it can be experienced, and these scriptures bring out how it has been demonstrated by the Lord Jesus, how it is known now, and how it will be known eternally. Think of how the love of the Lord Jesus towards His own has been demonstrated in its fulness, and we can know it at the present time. Words cannot describe it, but its warmth and power and excess can be known by us.
On Lord’s day, reference was made in thanksgiving to this scripture in Exodus 21 about the bondman. It speaks typically of the Lord Jesus, the One who came from Godhead glory and took up a bondman’s form. He came here to serve in lowliness and humility, in dependence and obedience. He came into the lowliest of circumstances to serve His God and Father and to serve His own, to serve men, to express the love of God in its fulness. It says here, “But if the bondman shall say distinctly”; there is no doubt about this love, dear brethren, no doubt about the distinctiveness of the love of Christ. The bondman says “I love my master”. It refers to the way in which Jesus loved His Father, the way in which that love for His Father was demonstrated at Calvary. We can take account of His pathway of devotion before that, but then He unflinchingly committed Himself to the will of His God and Father, to what was before Him as “he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”, Luke 9:51. So “the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”. You might say that it was laid upon Jesus at Calvary, but He committed Himself in such a distinctive character, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”. The love of this wonderful Person, the love of Christ, is to affect us. There is nothing to be compared to it, or to the way that it has been demonstrated in its fulness. In love for His Father, the Lord Jesus held nothing back. His love for His Father was in His heart, the whole of God’s purpose was in His heart, and He held nothing back. It was because of His love for His Father that He went through with what was involved in His laying down His life and giving His all.
Then there is the bondman’s love for his wife, speaking of Christ’s love for the assembly. His love would secure it; it says: “Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”, Eph.5:25. He loved it so much, that vessel which was so dear to His affections, that He gave His all to secure it; “having found one pearl of great value, he went and sold all whatever he had and bought it”, Matt.13:46. May we be affected by the love of this Person.
There was also the bondman’s love for his children. That encompasses us. What love was demonstrated by Christ; “I will not go free”. Oh, the distinctive love of Christ! May it affect us day by day, particularly on a Lord’s day morning as we show afresh our commitment to the Lord in the scene of His absence:
‘For thou hast loved us with love never failing,
Laid down Thy life for us, given Thine all.’ (Hymn 164)
Dear brethren, let us be affected more and more by the love of this Person. I felt we had a particular impression of it on Lord’s day; we started with Hymn 235;
‘Love in Thy lonely life
Of sorrow here below’.
Think of the love of Jesus, day by day committed to the will of His God and Father. Along with that, He loved His own; He cared for them day by day. He had nothing but the best in mind for them, their preservation and their care. John leaned on His bosom and had a peculiar place in His affections. The love of Jesus was known by His disciples in His life here, and it is still known at the present time.
In John 13, it says: “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. It would include His work on the cross at Calvary, but I think it encompasses more than that. He loves us at the present time, as we often sing:
‘Tis stable as His steadfast throne,
For evermore the same’. (Hymn 349)
His love, demonstrated at Calvary in its fulness, is still the same now. He held nothing back then, and His love is still towards us. What a wonderful comfort, support and encouragement it gives us to know that His love is still the same, still towards us. This verse in John 13 has been spoken of as referring to the love for His own that there was in the past, His love at present and the love that will be in the future. It is an unceasing love, a love that will carry us through. We need the power of that love to carry us through; “having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end”. It will carry us through into eternity.
I read in chapter 15 where Jesus tells them to: “love one another, as I have loved you”. This was the verse that was in my mind. The character of His love is to be known in the Christian circle, a circle of affection. It was known among the disciples, it was brought into expression. Divine love is known, it has been brought into expression. It is not just something written down on paper. You can write about love, but it is something that comes into expression, and it is experienced as it is expressed. The love which is towards us in Christ is expressed in the Christian circle. We love Christ so much because of all He has done and because of who He is, but then we love those who are of the same character as Him, who are of the same order as Him, who are like minded. We are to “love one another; as I have loved you”. May it come into expression more. It is there; we could all say that we have known something of this divine love that has come into expression in the circle of the saints. May we know it in a greater way.
In Romans, it says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”. There are so many things that can come in to discourage us, to turn us aside, to cause us to get down at times, but what comfort this scripture would give us, “If God be for us, who against us?” If the love of Christ is for us, what can come against us? It says, “But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us”. What a Person He is! “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and to the ages to come” (Heb.13:8); His love is the same, and is towards us. May we know more of it, this ‘rich unbounded treasure’ (Hymn 448). The depth of His love is a rich, unbounded treasure, and it is towards us. May we be encouraged and comforted as taking account of the greatness of the love of Christ, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Dundee
3 June 2014
K. Walker