December 23

If a man love me, he will keep my words.—John 14:23.

WHAT admirable goodness is it in Jesus, that puts a value upon our affection, and accepts such a small return! Our most intent and ardent love bears no more proportion to his, than a spark to the element of fire. Besides, his love to us was pure, and without any benefit to himself; but ours to him is profitable to our souls, for their eternal advantage. Yet with this he is fully satisfied; when we love him in the quality of a Saviour, we give him the glory of that he designs most to be glorified in, that is, of his mercy to the miserable. For this reason he instituted the sacrament of the supper, the continuance of his love to refresh the memory of his death, and quicken our fainting love to him. Now the love that our Saviour requires, must be:—

1. Sincere and unfeigned. This declares itself by a care to please him in all things. If a man love me, saith Jesus, he will keep my words. Obedience is the most natural and necessary product of love: for love is the spring of action, and employs all the faculties in the service of the person loved. The apostle expresses the force of it by an emphatical word, The love of Christ constrains us: it signifies to have one bound, and so much under power, that he can not move without leave. As the inspired prophets were carried by the Spirit, and entirely acted by his motions: such an absolute empire had the love of Christ over him, ruling all the inclinations of his heart, and actions of his life. This alone makes obedience cheerful and constant; for love is seated in the will, and the obedience that proceeds from it is out of choice, and purely voluntary. No commandment is grievous that is performed from love. And it makes obedience constant: that which is forced from the impression of fear, is unsteadfast; but what is mixed with delight, is lasting.

2. Our love to Christ must be supreme, exceeding that which is given to all inferior objects. The most elevated and entire affection is due to him who saves us from torments that are extreme and eternal, and bestows upon us an inheritance immortal and undefiled. By the offering of himself to Divine justice, he has obliged us to present our bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service. Life itself, and all the endearments of it, relations, estates, are to be held in low esteem, when set in comparison with him. Nay, if, by an impossible supposition, they could be separated, our Saviour should be more dear to us than salvation. For he declared greater love in giving himself for our ransom, than in giving heaven to be our reward. When we love him in the highest degree we are capable of, we have reason to mourn for the imperfection of it. In short, a superlative love, as it is due to our Redeemer, so it only is accepted by him. He that loveth father or mother, son or daughter, more than him, is not worthy of him. And he tells us in other places that we must hate them, to show, that our love to him should far exceed the affection that is due to those relations, that in all occasions where they divide from Christ, we should demean ourselves as if we had only for them an indifference, and even an aversion. Indeed the preferring of any thing before him, who is altogether desirable in himself, and infinitely deserves our love, is brutishly to undervalue him, and in effect not to love him. For in a temptation where Christ and the beloved object are set in competition; as a greater weight turns the scales, so the stronger affection will cause a person to renounce Christ, for the possession of what he loves better. It is the love of Christ reigning in the heart, that is the only principle of perseverance.