Morning By Morning #220

The upright love Thee.

Song of Songs 1:4 KJV

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

True believers love Jesus with a deeper affection than they dare give any other being. They would rather lose their father or mother than part with Christ. They hold all earthly comforts loosely in their hands but carry Him securely locked in their hearts. They voluntarily deny themselves for His sake, but they are not to be led to ever deny Him. Love is shallow if the fires of persecution can dry it up, for the true believer’s love is a deeper stream than this. Enemies have diligently worked to separate the faithful from their Master, but their attempts have been fruitless in every period of history. Neither crowns of honor nor frowns of anger have been able to untie this bond that is stronger than a Gordian knot. [Editor’s note: A legend from the mid-sixteenth century says that the king of Gordium (a city in Asia Minor, now northwestern Turkey) tied an intricate knot, prophesying that whoever untied it would become ruler of Asia. The legend further has it that Alexander the Great severed it with his sword.] This attachment is no common bond that the world’s power can dissolve even over a great length of time. The Devil himself, nor any man, has been able to find a key to open this lock. Never has the craftiness of Satan been more useless than when he has used it seeking to sever the union of two divinely welded hearts.

The Scriptures say, “The upright love Thee,” and nothing will blot out that sentence. The intensity of the upright’s love, however, should not be judged as much by what we see of it but by their inner longings. It should be our daily lament that we do not love enough, yearning that our hearts were capable of more love and could be reaching further. Like Samuel Rutherford (Scottish Presbyterian theologian, 1600? – 1661), we cry, “Oh, for enough love to encircle the earth and rise above heaven—yes, even over the heaven of heavens and ten thousand worlds—that I may place it all upon my beautiful Christ—and only Christ.”

Alas, our longest reach is only a span of love, and our affection is but a drop in the bucket compared to what He deserves. Yet if our love were measured by our intentions, it would be great indeed, so we trust our Lord to be its judge. Oh, that we could give all the love in our hearts in one great bundle—a massive gathering of all believers’ love—to Him who is “altogether lovely” (Song 5:16).

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Many professing Christians only look to Jesus for “fire insurance,” thinking it saves them from the fires of hell. Yet a true relationship with Jesus is just that—a relationship—not an insurance contract. And one of the major evidences of that relationship is love—love for God and others, especially other believers.

From the beginning we have been commanded: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5), and Jesus added: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). This love is not to be simply an external love, but a deep inner love, for Peter wrote, “Love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Peter 1:22).

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands” (1 John 5:2).