Difference between revisions of "The Fifth Requisite of Love to Christ"
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Latest revision as of 23:40, 4 March 2020
The Fifth Requisite of Love to Christ.
This love to Christ includes highest valuation of him, greatest estimation , which is appreciating love. We can only love him—when we prize him. We can only love him most—when we prize him most. We cannot despise a thing or person—and yet love him. We cannot have base, low, and undervaluing thoughts of one—and yet love him more than another whom we more highly esteem and value.
Does not the worldling , who loves his money more than other things—value it above other things? Does not the ambitious person, who loves his honor and his credit more than other things—esteem it more than other things? And will it not be so with him who loves Christ? He is a cursed man who values anything above Christ, and esteems it more than Christ As Christ is precious to him who believes , 1 Peter 2.7—so he is to him who loves .
Pearls are valued but as pebbles,
and diamonds are valued as dirt,
and diadems are valued as dung,
by a man who loves Christ—when they stand in competition with our love to Christ. In the practical judgment of a sincere lover of Christ, Christ cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire; the gold and the crystal cannot equal him, and he would not exchange him for jewels of fine gold. With him no mention shall be made of diamond, or of pearl—for the worth of Christ is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia does not equal him, neither shall the purest gold, or the most refined silver, be weighed, in the balance of his judgment—to be preferred before Christ. For to him Jesus is more precious than rubies; and all the things the heart of man can desire besides him, are not to be compared with him!
Christ is that treasure hidden in a field, which when this lover has found, for joy thereof, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. He is that goodly pearl of great price, which when found, all shall be left, or lost, and parted with—that this might be obtained, Matthew 13.44-46. And what a man gives all for—he values that more than all he gives for it.
Can that man be judged to love Christ, who values his corruptible silver—above the incomparable Savior? who esteems earth—above Heaven? who values the creature—more than the Creator? Or is not he deservedly to be reckoned an anathema , who shall esteem the dross of this world—above the darling of God? or thick clay—above him who excels the clearest crystal? or the things of time, which are only for time—above that Christ who is a good for all eternity?
Section 7. The Sixth Requisite of Love to Christ.
This love to Christ takes in the permanent volition of the will, the settled inclination of the heart, towards the Lord Jesus Christ. For what else is love, but the volition of the rational appetite? Or the will's volition of good, apprehended by the understanding? Or the will's choosing him, and adhering to him? Disobeying of the will from Christ, is no better than hating him!
Can a man love Christ—and yet not will to obey him? Can he love him, and yet not choose him? Can he love him, and the will refuse him? Was disobedience—ever accounted as loving? or turning away of the heart from an object—ever taken for the loving of it? or is it not a contradiction? Will not—and love not—is all one. "You will not come to me! I know you, that you have not the love of God in you!" John 5.40, 42. What the object of the love of the heart is—is object of the choice of the will. And such as is the choice of your wills—such are you.
If you choose the world before Christ—I dare boldly to call you a worldly man!
If you choose pleasures before Christ—I dare confidently to declare you a voluptuous man!
But if Christ is chosen before all other things—I may term you to be a truly holy man.
Suppose then the world, and the riches thereof, the honors and the pleasures of it, were set on the one hand—and Christ on the other hand. Which would you really choose?
It is an easy thing to say that you would choose Christ, and not the world. But my question is, which you would really choose?
Can you say, and appeal to God who knows your heart: "Lord, you who know all things—you know that I choose Christ before riches, Christ before pleasures, liberty, life, or anything that is dear unto me in this world. You know that I would rather have Christ without the world—than the world without Christ. You know that I would rather have the Lord Jesus with disgrace, with poverty, and with the cross—than all the treasures of the world!"
This must be a man's will, and this must be a man's choice—or he cannot be said to have sincere love to Jesus Christ.