I would like to bring before you a few thoughts on the love of Christ. We have learned what His service is and are in the enjoyment of that, but there is something higher. I am not occupied now with the benefits that result from it but with the love that produced it.
The love of Christ puts me not so much above circumstances as above man in every form. I have the knowledge of the love of a Person Who knows me where I am down here. He shows me that He has been Himself in the circumstances I am in. Nothing more affects a person than knowing that there is a heart thoroughly devoted to him. Is Christ's heart devoted to me? Yes, thoroughly devoted to you. It is an immense thing too to find that the Person so devoted to you is One Who knows all about you. Such is the love of Christ.
Let me call your attention to the difference between knowing the service of Christ and knowing His heart. Look at the case of the woman who touched the hem of His garment. Just imagine yourself for a moment in her position and think what a feeling was in her mind-what a disclosure the Spirit of God had made to her heart. She saw in that Stranger there in the crowd One Who not only had power to cure her, but also with readiness to use that power, not because of any desert, but simply by contact. She is an instance of a person knowing the service of Christ and yet not knowing His love. She has touched Him but has not confidence to come to Him; on the contrary, she is fearing and trembling and hesitating. When she comes to Him and owns the blessing she has received she gets a further thing. She learns now not His service, but His love. " And He said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." " Daughter " What a feeling her heart gets now. She goes away knowing not only that she is cured but that she is loved by the Savior.
I will turn now to some examples of learning the love of Christ. The first is the story of Joseph's brethren. We all know pretty well the history of Joseph. He was represented to his father as dead. But when the famine came, and bread was wanted, the father heard there was corn in Egypt and sent down Joseph's brethren. There it was discovered after a time that the one who had been reported dead was the one who had the bread of life. They were made acquainted with Joseph and received under his protection. It is a figure of a greater than Joseph. We learn that it is possible for a soul to be acquainted with the service of Christ and to have received its benefits, and yet not know His heart. Joseph's brethren lived for seventeen years under his care but they did not know his feelings towards them. That only came out after the death of their father, when they were forced to cast themselves directly on Joseph and had no one else to whom they could look.
If you have not already passed through this the day will come when you must do it. And then what comes out? That whilst there is the most thorough disclosure of what I am naturally towards the Lord Jesus Christ, the love that is in His heart for me shines out at the same time. What a blessed thing! " Joseph wept when they spake unto him." It was quite true, that they had behaved badly to him, but he loved them. That is what a guilty man finds when he really comes to close quarters with the Lord. There is One Who can see you without a spot. " Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more." " He spake to their hearts." This goes farther than anything Joseph had done for them. This is what the guilty man finds when he comes near to Christ, not His service merely, but the love of the Savior's heart.
I pass to another example. Cant. 5: 2. " I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love." This is the indolent man. How often do we hear saints say " I am not so bright as I used to be! " Scripture accounts for it. You are inactive; you are asleep. Sleep means inactivity. It is not inactivity in doing good works merely. To express Christ is greater than any good work, and if you are expressing Christ, you will not do anything badly.
Here is inactivity-sleep—and the Lord comes to awaken. It is by a knock, not a voice. A voice is from the Word, a knock is rather circumstances. She is aroused by the knock, and opens to her Beloved but finds He has withdrawn Himself. This is the depression people complain of. What is it all for? The Lord wants to teach you what His love to you is, to bring your heart into a deeper knowledge of Himself. How are souls recovered from this depression? We find the mode of recovery in verses 10-16. It is by occupation with what the Beloved is, all His graces and perfections. There is an instance of it in the disciples whom the Lord met going to Emmaus. " He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." That is what brightens up the soul. It is not seeking to find out how you fell into such a state but being occupied with Himself.
Turn now to the New Testament for another case. Luke 5. Here was Peter giving up his ship, his time and his means for the service of the Lord. What more could be desired? The Lord tells him in effect " You do not understand the right ground of service; you have not learned what I am yet." It is not denied that he was really serving Him. But you may see a man giving his time and means for the propagation of the gospel, and yet very possibly he has never yet come to close quarters with the Lord. What is the effect when Peter recognizes who the Lord is? " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord." Was he doing anything wrong? No, but the Lord is teaching him what He is and what Peter is. And He brings him to this: " They forsook all and followed Him." They never doubted His love afterward. Peter could cast himself into the sea to meet Him. People think you may bring human energy and zeal into the service of the Lord, but it will have to die out some day. You must be brought to know the reality of what Christ is and that will show you what you are yourself. The result is what we see here. They brought their ships to land, forsook all and followed Him.
In John 2 we have another example of the love of Christ. It is sympathy we have here. Nothing gives us such an idea of the heart of Christ as His sympathy. Fellowship is when He raises us up to His own level; sympathy when He comes down to our circumstances, not to our level. The Spirit of God alone can give us a sense of His love following us all along our path here and entering into all our circumstances. " Jesus wept." Can you form an idea of a heart that can stoop down to what is in yours, the sense of your bereavement, to use that as an opportunity for the disclosure of His love? The house of mourning is more welcome to Him than the house of feasting because it gives Him an opportunity for disclosing His love. He comes and walks beside one, and can comfort the bereaved heart in the assurance that he is " a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother." Death had laid hold upon the stay of Mary's heart, but death cannot lay hold upon Him. Man has failed, but the Lord fails not.
One word more as to sympathy. Nothing softens a person but this. The principle of the world is, think of yourself, take care of yourself, nobody else will. But how different this is! What a different tone and manner it gives me to know there is One Who cares for me with a perfect, unfailing love! In Mary's case, the dearest object on earth is taken away from her; her prop and support is gone, but the Lord says " I will use that to come in and acquaint you with my heart." He does not simply say " I will raise Lazarus " though in His wonderful grace He does raise him. What things Mary would have to talk of to her restored brother as they went along She could say to him " The Lord has given you back to me after teaching me how to do and bear without you; after teaching me that He can Himself come in and with His wonderful sympathy supply the place of every loss."
So the Lord in His varied ways is teaching us one great lesson which should give a character to every one of us; the all-sufficiency of His love. Hence I look at everything as coming from Him. If I meet with love from any I welcome it. There is not a particle of love in the heart of a saint that has not come from the heart of Christ.
Do you complain of the lack of love? I have got more love than I can ever take in. My only regret is that I do not give out more. There is more love in the heart of Christ than you can practically understand; therefore it is " the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
May we each join in the language of the apostle in the close of Rom. 8, " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? "