THE greatest blessing that can belong to a believer this side of the glory, is to have a heart for and full of Christ. Can we find a desire for ourselves more deep than this, “That I may know Him,” or a prayer for one another more holy than this, “That ye may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge”? No one could truly say, “That I may know Him,” who has not experienced His love; and truly to pray to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for one another, “That ye may know the love,” would be impossible, unless in measure experimentally we have in our hearts that which the mightiest understanding cannot contain.
To know the love, to know it within the heart, is the nearest approach to the deepest joys of heaven that we shall ever experience. Our hearts are small, and cannot take in much of the love; they will be of larger capacity by-and-bye; but if not in degree, yet in quality, the joy of heaven is ours, when our hearts are filled with Christ.
God has, in grace, distributed much knowledge of His truth to His people in our days. He has given a light upon His word, and eyes to see what His word means, which were not the portion of His own a hundred years ago. God has met for us new phases of evil, fresh activities of error, by showing to us what His word means. Such knowledge should humble its possessors, yet such is the mystery of human pride, that this knowledge is actually boasted in, as if the knowledge made the possessor powerful, so that it is necessary to inquire, as of the Corinthians of old, “What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?”
The knowledge is given, and this should be a consideration, leading us to praise God and to self-abasement, for grace appreciated always humbles. It is a gift—a blessed gift—but still a gift. Where there is boasting of the knowledge, as if its possessor were somebody, Satan is not far off. Almost invariably, such as boast of what they know, are not the miners who dig and wash out the gold, but such as pick up the precious things the diggers find.
The knowledge of truth is like a wall around us: thereby much error is fenced out. To us is therefore the greater responsibility, as living within such a circle. The Lord did not forget either the faithfulness or the privileges of those of Ephesus who tried the false apostles and found them liars. And from Himself we know that the Corinthians were strong in knowledge, and came behind in no gift; yet the Corinthians lacked holiness, and the Ephesians left their first love. The decay began at the heart. The fruit appeared to be sweet and pleasant, but a fault was in the core. And the Lord looks to the heart; He seeth not as man seeth.
The head may overgrow the heart, but the heart cannot overgrow the head. Intellectual interest in Scripture may supplant affection for the Lord; but as He is better known, the believer is better able to bear the knowledge of the deepest mysteries. We may get interested in books, or our Bibles, and yet be sluggish towards Christ. We may give up exterior worldliness, and yet be carried away from communion with Christ in the whirl of religious activities.
“Sanctify them through Thy truth,” said our Lord of His own to His Father. What truth? Not truths, not doctrines merely, but “Thy truth.” The wonderful fact that He is our Father. The knowledge of the truths of the Bible—living word of God as it is—does not make a man holy; “The letter killeth.”
Had the Corinthians had a better acquaintance with Christ, they had not boasted in their behavior toward s sin. They would have seen the evil with the eyes of Christ, and judged it as He did. And where there is wisdom to explain Scripture, yet want of ability to deal with moral evil, there would seem to be an absence of heart acquaintance with Christ. The Ephesians with all their wisdom had left their first love.
It is a good test to the heart to inquire, “Suppose I were upon my dying bed, how would my heart speak?” At such a moment, the prayer would surely be, unless the time had to be spent in self-judgment and confession, “That I may know Him” —Himself —His person. In that one word, “Himself,” every desire for eternity is satisfied. And if we would truly say, “to me to die is gain,” we must also be able to say, “to me to live is Christ.”
A child can love as well as a man. No doubt its love will be simply expressed, and in a way that for a man would be unseemly But the love is the jewel, not the setting The Ephesians had left the jewel, and the Lord searched their hearts for it in vain There is many a simple saint, who can hardly say the A B C of the truth as men speak, whose affections to Christ are such a treasure to Him that He comes in and sups with His simple lover. It is a feast for Him—marvelous His grace!—as well as for the one who hear( His knock and opened to Him.
Only to think of it, that His own are Hi joy, and their love His delight! It is more wonderful than the fact that we shall shine in the glory. We are but mere specks upon this earth, which itself is only a speck in Hi: great creation; yet He who made all things and upholds all things, would fill the Halt speck with Himself! What condescending love! He humbled Himself to win us; had He not done so, we should never have understood Him. He is not found out by search ing; but as He dwells with us, we know Him Our hearts require strengthening for this And the Holy Spirit effects the work within us. It would be too glorious to believe, it the Holy Ghost did not strengthen us, that He who fills all things, fills us. “May Christ dwell in our hearts by faith.”
And, if near Christ, there will be a holy desire to do His pleasure. The Lord tells us that, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” Keeping His words is having an acquaintance with His mind, not merely knowing His distinct orders, His commandments, We know by the general tone of our friend’s character what he likes—what is suitable to his nature; and so by our Lord’s words WE know Himself, and if we love Him, we shall keep His words.
The very instincts of love are sometimes a faithful guide. How exquisitely the instinct of love wrought in Mary. She knew what suited her Master. They made the Lord a feast, and Lazarus sat at the table with Him. This is our place as raised up by Him from the dead. True to herself, Martha served. And as the supper proceeded, and all delighted in what Jesus had done for them, Mary brought out of her stores a special portion for the Lord Himself. She was not understood by the disciples, but at the very moment when all were thinking of Jesus as the One who had given life to the dead, with the wisdom of love she produced her “very costly” box of spikenard, and anointed Him for His own burial! “Then said Jesus, ‘Let her alone, against the day of my burying hath she kept this.’” Love did the very thing which cheered the heart of Christ, and at such a moment.
Quite true, we are not to be guided by our love to Christ; for if we love Him, we keep His sayings. The scriptures are the guide, but if we love Christ, we shall heed His word. It will be our lamp.
There is a vast difference to us even in the use of the word, when we have it as having Christ filling our hearts, or when we gather of its stores for our own information. It is a very important difference whether we have our hearts so prepared by His presence, that we can enter into the truths of Scripture in communion with God about Christ, or whether we have the truths without the communion. And it is of deep moment for our soul’s welfare that we keep this distinction clear. Let us not be content with head knowledge only, let us earnestly seek that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith.
H. F. W.