The Christian has got a nature which all the motives in the world can never touch: which knows and is constrained by the love of Christ; but we are apt to let a quantity of little earthly motives creep in again. Hence the charge, "Thou hast left thy first love."
In confessing Christ, we often fail through not keeping "grace and truth" in their proper harmony: both came by Jesus Christ: and in Him we never see them in collision.
Trial may force our thoughts to desire the coming of Christ; but if we knew its full blessedness, we should love that "blessed hope " for its own sake.
Testimony for Christ must always flow from intercourse with Him-not simply doing things because we desire to bear testimony for Him, for then our hearts will be thinking about our testimony, instead of about Him.
In every Christian there is the grace which was in the Lord Jesus Christ: not indeed fully developed: even as in the heart of man there is every evil thing, though more or less developed.
No word of commandment can produce fruit: but the Spirit leads us as partakers of the divine nature to bring forth fruit.