| Our love for the Lord seems so small and feeble compared to His love for us. To His own He says that “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee,” and “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” He “who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved),” and now, being redeemed, we have “the love of God … shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” But little as our love may seem compared to His, we do “love Him, because He first loved us,” and we say with David, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.” “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again,” and “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Our Lord said, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” |
