Do you ever wonder whether you really love Jesus?
To be honest I don't (wonder that is); I kind of just assume that I do.
But there's a problem here....presuming my standing before God is very dangerous. The Scriptures teach that we should make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10) and that we should examine ourselves to see that we are in the faith (2 Cor.13:5). We should be asking ourselves some critical questions. Not questions about whether we're trying hard enough, for it's all by grace, but questions about whether we're truly walking in faith and repentance or whether we are in fact just relying on something we said or did more years ago than we care to remember.
J. C. Ryle (Anglican Bishop, 1816-1900) gives us some pointers as to how what genuine love for Christ looks like. He writes:
If we love a person, we like to think about him. We do not need to be reminded of him. We do not forget his name or his appearance or his character or his opinions or his tastes or his position or his occupation... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
If we love a person, we like to hear about him. We find a pleasure in listening to those who speak of him. We feel an interest in any report which others make of him... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
If we love a person, we like to read about him. What intense pleasure a letter from an absent husband gives to a wife, or a letter from an absent son to his mother... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
If we love a person, we like to please him. We are glad to consult his tastes and opinions, to act upon his advice and do the things which he approves... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
If we love a person, we like his friends. We are favorably inclined to them, even before we know them. We are drawn to them by the common tie of common love to one and the same person... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
If we love a person, we are jealous about his name and honor. We do not like to hear him spoken against, without speaking up for him and defending him... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
If we love a person, we like to talk to him. We tell him all our thoughts, and pour out all our heart to him. We find no difficulty in discovering subjects of conversation... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
Finally, if we love a person, we like to be always with him. Thinking and hearing and reading and occasionally talking are all well in their way. But when we really love people we want something more... Well, it is just so between the true Christian and Christ!
Holiness, (Darlington, England: Evangelical Press,) 247-249.
So what if that's not us and we want it to be? The path of "trying harder, getting up earlier, doing more" is legalism and death. What we need to do instead is to see Jesus in the pages of the Bible - see his worth, his work, his provision, his grace. We need to see him through hearing the Word with faith (1 Sam. 3:21, Gal. 3:3-5).
In short we need to bring the gospel to bear on our paucity of love and see God work in our hearts. And he will!
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Thing is though, if you really love Jesus, you need to count the cost of that because, without trying to sound down on anyone or any group, just like the woman who blows a years wages on Jesus in one act of truly loving him without limits, those around who love him with limits will be as likely to criticise you as to praise you for it. In the act of really loving Jesus then you must really be willing to show, at the deepest and most aching level, who it is that you are. . . because Jesus finds this beautiful. It strikes me that this is a large part of what he meant by "loving yourself" as the true arbiter of loving others. I'm rarely encouraged to behave like this by anyone I know.
ReplyDeleteCheers, John Arthur.