Vital Godliness: A Treatise on
Experimental and Practical Piety
CHAPTER 15
Love to God
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind,” (Matthew 22:37).
That love to God is a pressing duty is manifest from all the
Scriptures. By Moses God said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might,” (Deut. 6:5). “And now,
Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your
God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul?” (Deut. 10:12). “You shall love the
Lord your God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his
commandments, always,” (Deut. 11:1). “It shall come to pass, if you shall
hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day; to love
the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,”
(Deut. 11:13). “If you shall diligently keep all these commandments which I
command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and
to cleave unto him; then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before
you,” (Deut. 11:22). “If you shall keep all these commandments to do them, which
I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to walk ever in his
ways,” (Deut. 19:9). “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the
heart of your seed, to love the Lord.” your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, that you may live,” (Deut. 30:6). Again, “Know therefore that the
Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy with
those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,” (Deut.
7:9).
The same duty is clearly and repeatedly urged in other parts
of the same book. Thus it appears that in his early revelations, love to God was
greatly insisted on as a high duty; that its nature was well explained; that men
were taught that it well agreed with the fear of God; that it always produced
the fruit of obedience; that great blessings, temporal and spiritual, were
connected with it; and that it was one of the promises of the covenant that God
would implant this grace in the hearts of his people.
When our Savior came, he dwelt much on the love of God,
declared it the greatest and first duty of men, essential to true religion, and
incapable of being substituted by outward observances. His apostles taught the
same doctrine. It may be well to observe that love to God includes the three
Persons of the Trinity. Love to the Father is not different from love to the Son
or to the Holy Spirit. In each case it is the same. He who loves him who begat,
also loves him who was begotten of him. He who loves the Son loves the Father,
for he and the Father are one. One person of the Trinity is no less lovely than
another. All the persons of the Godhead are the same in substance and in
attributes, though having different offices in man’s salvation. Love to either
person is love to God. Love to God is love to all the persons of the Godhead.
Let this view be retained in mind. It will prevent many painful and perplexing
doubts respecting our duty. He who honors the Son, honors the Father and the
Spirit. He who loves the Spirit is sure to love the Father and the Son.
It should be stated that love to God is sometimes spoken of
in Scripture as properly expressive of an affection of the mind, and sometimes
it is used figuratively as a fit term to designate the whole of true religion;
or all the fruits of genuine love to God. In most cases there is little
difficulty in learning the precise sense in which it is to be taken. Nor is this
variation in the sense of a term confined to the word love, nor to the modes of
speaking adopted by the inspired writers. Several of the Christian graces are
spoken of in the same way in Scripture. And in all the best writers of our
language—a part is often put for the whole.
It is also proper to say that the phrase,
the love of God, as used in
Scripture, has two senses. Sometimes it expresses
our love to God. Thus our Savior
said, “Woe unto you, Pharisees! for you tithe mint and rue and all manner of
herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God.” Again, “I know you, that you
have not the love of God in you,” (John 5:42). In like manner Paul says, “Hope
takes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the
Holy Spirit which is given unto us,” (Rom. 5:5). John also says, “This is the
love of God, that we keep his commandments,” (1 John 5:3). In like manner Jude
says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God,” (Jude 21). In all these and many
other places, by “the love of God,” is to be understood love to God.
But in the following texts, “the love of God” means
God’s love to us. “Neither
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Rom. 8:39). “God commends his
love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom.
5:8). The same sense attaches to the phrase elsewhere. But this variation
produces no confusion. The meaning in any single passage of Scripture is clear.
We have just the same form of speech when we discourse of the love of a father
or mother, where we may either intend the love of a parent to a child, or that
of a child to a parent.
Love
to God is commonly spoken of under three distinctions.
1.
There is the love of Gratitude.
As ingratitude is one of the basest vices, embracing almost all others, so
gratitude is one of the noblest virtues, and is never found but with many others
in its train. The judgment of mankind fully sustains this view. A celebrated
writer says, “He that calls a man ungrateful, sums up all the evil that a man
can be guilty of.” Yet how common is this vice. Seneca says, “If it were
actionable, there would not be courts enough in the whole world to try the cases
in.” On the other hand, gratitude is a noble virtue. It carries much that is
just and amiable with it. A deaf mute is said to have defined it to be “the
memory of the heart.” It is wonderful that some refining philosophers and
divines, who have been thought very fond of distinctions, even where there was
no difference, have not been able to discriminate between love to the gift and
love to the giver, and so have made gratitude a sordid affection.
This is the more marvelous in theologians, as the Bible
always speaks well of gratitude to God. If this be not so, we have no safe rule
for interpreting such texts as the following: “We love him, because he first
loved us.” “I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications.
Because he has inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long
as I live.” “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to
whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” He who loves God as David,
Mary, and John, has the genuine affection demanded by the word of God.
There is, on earth, no love to God without warm and lively
gratitude. The unconverted rejoice in the gifts of God, and often pervert them
to their carnal gratifications. Such have no genuine holy gratitude. They even
despise his chief gifts, his unspeakable gift, his Son, and his precious gift of
the Spirit. Holy gratitude would never leave men to such daring wickedness. It
would mightily draw them to God. Alas for us: “We inscribe our afflictions upon
a rock, and the characters remain; we write our mercies in the sand of the
sea-shore, and the first wave of trouble washes them out.”
2.
There is the love of Delight.
This consists in delight in the character of him
whom we love. The entire nature and perfections of God are amiable and
admirable. Mere power, separated from wisdom and goodness, is not amiable,
though it may be amazing. But we never separate God’s attributes, though we
distinguish between them. Infinite
power, guided by infinite love and infinite skill—is a rock of delight.
That was a great revelation to the patriarch, “I am the Almighty God.” In it the
saints have ever since rejoiced. To a wicked man the omniscience of God is a
source of terror and aversion. To him who loves God, it is a fountain of
delight. He heartily invokes the scrutiny of him who knows all hearts. He cries,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts, and see if
there be any wicked way in me.” So that those who love God delight even in his
natural attributes. Without these he would be no God to them.
Yet the moral perfections of God are special objects of
direct delight. All the saints delight in that proclamation which Jehovah made
of himself to Moses: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and who will by no means clear the
guilty.” No regenerate person would think the character here drawn improved by
the omission of a single trait. All is lovely. This love of delight in God is
mighty in its power. Show me a child of God, and I will show you one who loves
to sing, “Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I
desire besides you.”
The highest point of holy delight in the character of God is
reached when his glorious attributes are seen harmoniously uniting in the
production of some vast and happy result. This is a chief part of our pleasure
in contemplating the plan of salvation. There mercy and truth; righteousness and
peace; wisdom and power; goodness and severity; wrath and love—wonderfully and
illustriously meet and embrace each other. They unitedly produce glory to God in
the highest, and at the same time peace on earth, goodwill to men.
This scheme will form a perpetual study to men and angels. I
am not surprised that angels desire to look into it. I wonder not that heaven is
filled with thundering hallelujahs to God and the Lamb forever and ever. In this
plan of mercy, as in a lens, all the rays of the divine glory meet. Yet their
brightness may be endured. The flesh of the Son of God is a veil which hinders
the radiance from being intolerable. Yet on earth he was seen “full of grace and
truth.” “The fullness of the Godhead” dwelt in him bodily. The great attraction
of the moral law is, that it is a copy of God’s character. The great source of
pious delight in Scripture is, that it is the word of God. Creation and
providence are never so exalted themes of delightful contemplation, as when we
most fully regard them as the results of God’s matchless excellence. Redemption
gets all its glories here.
3.
There is also the love of goodwill, or beneficence.
It manifests itself in pity to
the miserable, in forgiveness to
the injurious, in compassion to
the weak, in pleasure at the good estate of those whom we love. God is
infinitely above us, and never needs our compassion. Even Jesus Christ, the
sufferings of whose human nature once held the inanimate creation in strange
sympathy, suffers no more. He has overcome, and has set down on his throne. He
was dead, but he is alive for evermore. God is holy, and has done us no wrong.
We may in our pride—complain of him, and dream of forgiving him; but
the Judge of all the earth makes no
mistakes, and is never unkind or unjust. Neither is Jehovah accountable
to us. We cannot without presumption revise his decisions, or find fault with
his judgments. Though we greatly need forgiveness from him, he has no need of
ours. Nor can we be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable
unto himself, or as he that is kind may be advantageous to his friend. It is no
gain to the Almighty that we cleanse our ways.
But we can express our goodwill to those who are quite beyond
the need of our aid. Towards God we can manifest it in many ways. We can show
benevolence to his people, especially those of them who are greatly afflicted.
Indeed, he has constituted them the receivers of our bounty in his place.
Whatever is done to them is done to him. We can show our goodwill towards God by
honoring him, by rejoicing in the worship which others render to him, and by
delighting in the advancement of his glory. This love is the great animating
principle in heartily praying, “Hallowed be your name: may your kingdom come;
may your will be done in earth as it is done in heaven.” This love is wonderful,
passing the love of woman. It fills the heart with all gladness when God is
glorified and his name exalted.
Though we thus distinguish the acts of love, yet they are all
performed by the same person. They all proceed from the same pious affection. In
many respects they all agree. They all strengthen a gracious character. All love
to God has for its object the same Being, the Three in One—Him who is infinite,
eternal, unchangeable in his wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and
truth.
All the exercises of love are refreshing. They awaken not
painful emotions. All the kindly affections produce pleasant effects. Whoever
enjoys the luxury of having his heart drawn out to God in gratitude, delight, or
good-will, would gladly continue in that state always.
It is not of the nature of true love to God to count the
cost, or to make much of its services. Even as Jacob served seven years for
Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her; so the
true friend of God is sustained through a life of trial and sorrow by his love
to God.
“While duty
portions out the debt it owes
With scrupulous precision and nice justice,
Love
never measures, but profusely gives;
Gives, like a thoughtless prodigal, its all,
And trembles then, lest it has done too little.”
True love is not selfish, cold, and calculating. “Love does
not seek its own.” “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.” Here was the soul of martyrdom. The labors of love would
be impossible, if they sprang from any other principle. Because they are the
fruit of love, they are esteemed as nothing.
Where the love of delight exists, there will be a desire to be like the object
beloved. No praise is so great, as that which we
render by imitating another. Therefore all who delight in God do hunger and
thirst after righteousness, and are wholly pleased with God’s law, and are
deeply pained when they find their hearts inclined to corruption. They never
will be satisfied until they awake in God’s likeness. To be like him is their
highest aim.
Those who love God, desire also to please God. This is very
natural. Above all things, the righteous wish to please God. His will is their
law. His favor is their life. His smile is their joy. Love to God is a powerful
principle. It becomes the
master-passion. It is “strong as death.” “Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his
house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” Love roused and sustained Paul
in all his toils and sufferings. It made the confessors joyfully endure the
confiscation of their goods. It has made heroes of babes, and martyrs of the
most timid. No principle of human action is more efficient.
Love to God is indeed not always of the same strength. Some
love so little that they are constantly kept in doubt about their state, and are
uncertain whether they love God at all. In some, love is but a spark with some
smoke. In others it is a strong, steady flame.
If genuine, it will finally gain the
victory over all opposing influences. Love to God
grows, so that in due time it
sways every power of the mind, every inclination of the heart. Love to
God promotes the happiness of all whose hearts it rules. Believers know what
Paul means by “the comfort of love.” “He who dwells in love dwells in God, and
God in him.” Solomon says, “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a
stalled ox, and hatred therewith.” This he speaks of love in a family. But how
much more true is it of the love of God. It
turns all bitter into sweet, converts
all sorrow into joy. “All things work together for good to those who love
God.”
Nor is our love to God a well-spring of life merely to the
living: it wonderfully cheers and animates the dying, and keeps the best of them
in a delightful strait. It makes them triumph over death. It goes still further:
“Herein,” says John, “is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the
day of judgment.” Of all things promised by God, nothing has surprised me more
than this. Oh wonderful, wonderful love, to give “boldness in the day of
judgment.” True love seeks union and communion. “How can we expect to live with
God in heaven, if we love not to live with him on earth?” Aversion puts away its
object, or withdraws from it; but love draws near its object, and rejoices to
know and be known. Those who love God are looking for and hastening unto the
coming of the day of God. They wait for him as the watchmen wait for the
morning; as the thirsty land waits for the rain. He is their life. His coming
will be their coronation day. After that they shall be forever with the Lord.
Christ is the magnet which lifts up their hearts to God. To be with him and to
behold his glory will be the grand reward.
But even in this life, the soul, by means of faith in God’s
word and through the agency of the blessed Spirit, has sweet communion with God.
In this it greatly joys. Paul offered a very benevolent prayer when he asked
that his brethren at
The
Qualities of the love which God
requires are,
1.
That it be Sincere, not feigned,
not in pretense. Here is the point where sad
deficiency is found in the love of many. It is not hearty. Its professions are
mere pretenses.
2.
Genuine love to God is Supreme.
It puts him before and above all others. It admits of no rivals in the heart. It
does not hesitate to prefer him to every other object. Others may be means of
good to us, but God is the portion of his people, the lot of their inheritance.
3.
True love to God regards all his character, laws, and judgments. It does not
find fault with his justice. It does not cavil at
the strictness of his law. It approves of the purity of his ordinances, of the
simplicity of his worship, and of the sovereignty of his authority.
4.
There is, in genuine love to God,
Consistency. It is not fitful. It loves
always; not indeed with equal vigor, but yet with constancy. It is both an
affection and a principle. Like other affections, it is liable to ebb and flow;
but as a principle, nothing can change it while God upholds it. We may know that
we love God by our cheerful, sincere obedience to his will. “Now are you my
disciples, if you do whatever I command you.” “Love is the fulfilling of the
law.”
We may also prove our love to God by our love to his people.
“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the
brethren.”
We also express our love to God by our possession of a
childlike temper towards him. The Spirit of adoption always goes with love to
God; so that all believers may say, “We have not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear.” This love to God is essential to Christian character. None can
be admitted to the heavenly mansions without it. We may be saved without
science, without literature, without wealth, without genius, without renown,
without family, without health, without the favor of man. But there is no
admission to heaven without sincere love to God. “We must be baptized in the
fire of love, or burned in the fire of hell.” “If I speak the languages of men
and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I
am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body
to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing,” (1 Cor. 13:1-3).
John Angell James says, “Let the love we bear to God pervade
and influence every thought and word and action. We shall then abhor that which
he abhors, and depart from evil. We shall subdue our own will, and find our best
happiness in doing his.”
The importance of this love to God is seen at every step in
the Christian life. Without it men are continually perplexed concerning their
duty and their liberty. It is a remark of John Newton, that “love is the
clearest and most persuasive casuist; and when our love to the Lord is in lively
exercise, and the rule of his word is in our eye, we seldom make great
mistakes.” Cold reason can never safely settle questions which must chiefly be
determined by the heart. Logic is a poor substitute for love. Right affections
are often a better guide than all the rules of reasoning. This is so with the
mother, in her sleepless care of her babe. It is so with the devoted husband, in
his ceaseless watch over his helpless wife. It is so when filial piety sits down
to watch the last flickerings of life in a venerable and beloved parent. It is
eminently so in the love of a child of God, to his Father who is in heaven.
He who finds his heart warmed with love to God need not
trouble himself respecting his election. Leighton well says, “He who loves God,
may be sure that he was first loved by God. And he who chooses God for his
delight and portion, may conclude confidently that God has chosen him to be one
of those who shall enjoy him, and be happy with him forever; for that our love
and electing of him is but the return and repercussion of the beams of his love
shining among us.” “Love begets love.” This is most true of God’s love to us.
All our love to him, is engendered by his love to us. And so if we choose him,
we may know that he has chosen us, and ordained us, that we should bear much
fruit to his glory.
He who thus loves God will surely be provided for. His
temporal needs shall not be forgotten before God. Chrysostom says, “If you have
a concern for the things which are God’s, he will also care for you and yours.”
“Seek first the
