OBEDIENCE THE RESULT OF LOVE
OBEDIENCE THE RESULT OF LOVE
By what instruction may the servant lead saints to love God, and what is the evidence that we do love Him? There is nothing we are so ignorant of as the love of God, and it is only as I am able to form some estimate of the love of God, that I am able to receive, even in measure, the things that God has prepared for them that love Him; therefore the apostle prays that we may be rooted and grounded in love, in order to comprehend with all saints the love of Christ; otherwise you would not be able to acknowledge the vastness of that glory which He has prepared for them who were aforetime His enemies. The Lord’s exhortation to His disciples is-”Continue ye in my love” (John 15: 9). This would lead them into obedience to His precepts, for if they abide in His love they must observe [p. 260] that which would keep them in the course of its desires; if I continue in His love I cannot oppose His pleasure. If I do not continue in His love I lose the great moving principle of practical conduct here, while continuing in His love insures my ready acquiescence with all His desires and decrees. Now if I tell you to continue in the love of Christ, it is a very different thing from telling you to see whether you love Christ. I do not think it is correct or helpful to ask saints — Do you love Him who suffered for you? and so on; I the rather seek to convince them of His love to them. “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4: 19). Press on saints as much as you can how Christ loves them, and that they have to continue in His love, then you will have a practical company, for continuing in the happy sense of His love is everything. You need not then trouble your soul about how much you obey, for if you continue in His love you must obey, it is a necessity to your heart to do so, and the more you continue in the love the better you will obey. People begin at the wrong end, and therefore they are often hesitating to adopt this or that course, whereas continuing in the unbroken embracings of His love must lead you into obedience, for if not there would be an interruption to the enjoyment of the love, and this is well known to the one who lives under its banner, and to whom it is sweet. If you ask saints to love, it sets them searching their own hearts and building their consolation on their own sensations which are not abiding, instead of resting in that which abides for ever in Christ.