The True Test of Love to Christ Himself.

PETER had been very certain of his love to Christ. He felt in his heart the consciousness of a love great enough to lay down his life for his Lord. So sure of himself was he that he went the length of saying that he would not be offended in Christ though everyone else should be. (John 13:1717If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. (John 13:17); Matt. 26:3333Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. (Matthew 26:33).) When put to the test he was to learn by his fall how much pride and self-confidence there had been in his spirit. Yet it would be wrong to say that his love to Christ was not deep and true. It was. It remained so after his fall. He knew it—he knew his Lord knew it. It was this very consciousness of his genuine love which gave their smart to the Lord’s probing words in our portion. Without entering upon all the detail we would remark the responses of the Lord to Peter’s threefold re-avowal of his love. The old avowal (John 13) in unchecked self-confidence had been corrected by, “Thou canst not follow Me now,” or paraphrased, “Thou canst not die with Me now, let alone by thyself for My sake.” Peter’s dreadful lapse followed; chastened thereby, his re-avowals are met on the Lord’s part by no reference whatever to devotion to Himself, but only to His lambs and sheep. “Feed them; tend them,” says the Lord. “Show by this thy love to Me. Thou wilt find them weak and wayward, hungry and helpless, and serving them will be humbling, wearying work for thee. But in this long, monotonous and self-sacrificing task thou shalt prove thy love to Me. At the end, when all youth’s ardour is spent and age has overtaken thee, My strength shall be made perfect in weakness, thy weakness, and thou shalt lay down thy life for My sake. Thus thy love shall have all its desire.” To this effect are the gracious words of the Lord Jesus to this favored servant. Do they not say, as plainly as can be, that in Christ’s absence, no greater proof of love to Himself can be afforded than love to His flock?
A Common Mistake.
Sometimes we hear a declaration like this, “Love to Christ comes before love to those who are His.” It could be pressed to bind something on us as the command of the Lord, which, if observed, would lead to slighting the children of God to their injury. Now that cannot be a command of the Lord which produces such a result. It can only be a tradition of men. In this event, therefore, to give due weight to the more obvious duty of loving in deed and in truth those who are really Christ’s would bring us deliverance from its authority.
On the other hand, the intention of such a declaration may be to warn us, in reference to the Lord’s command to depart from iniquity (2 Tim. 2:1919Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. (2 Timothy 2:19)) against transgressing through amiability to the Christians, real and professing, entangled in the iniquity. Although, in leaving them, there might be the appearance of slighting the children of God, they are not thereby injured. The command of the Lord would, for them, be reinforced by the example of our faithful obedience. We should do well in such a case to heed the admonition, for we must all confess that it is possible to plead love for “Christians” in such a way as to justify evil communications which corrupt good manners (1 Cor. 15:3333Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. (1 Corinthians 15:33)). Unhappily there is a wideness in men’s tolerance—their idea of Christianity—which would obliterate in practice the difference between divine truth and deadly error.
Nevertheless, this declaration “Love to Christ comes before love to those who are His” is mistaken in form, whether the intention be good or not; mistaken because it presents the possibility of an opposition or conflict between love to Christ and love to His own. This cannot be. Where does Scripture convey the thought? It would be nearer the truth to assert that in Scripture, far from being opposed, they are almost interchangeable expressions. Will Christ not say, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me?” (Matt. 25:4040And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:40)). This is an instance where a form of sound words, which we are enjoined to hold fast, would secure us from unsound practice.
Attitude Christ-ward is Infallibly Reflected in Attitude Saint-ward.
According to 1 Corinthians 13:1-3,1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1‑3) the withholding of love from those who are Christ’s would destroy any claim to devotion to Christ Himself even in one who, in maintaining this “devotion,” should give his own body to be burned. It is easier for the flesh to make this sacrifice than to love. It may cut athwart all my likes and preferences to associate in love with a certain brother. I, as naturally constituted, could not possibly love him, naturally considered; he would never have been my selection for a companion. Yet for my faith, he is my God-chosen and God-begotten brother, nearer by reason of divine and eternally binding ties than any earthly relationship could make him; and both he and I are predestinated by God to be conformed to the image of His Son. Those who are partakers with us of the divine nature by new birth, have undeniable claims upon our love, from which nothing can excuse. Love may be unable in certain circumstances to be “kind” and pleasant; it would always rebuke and discountenance what is unholy with greater or less severity; but the person of one child of God cannot be ignored by another, nor brotherly duty withheld, without reflecting upon God as Father, and upon the Lord Jesus as Saviour. Let us make no mistake; this test is absolute. Would that every truly devoted soul had seen this more clearly! Then such a one as Bernard of Clairvaux, the great Roman Catholic monk of the twelfth century could not have been a persecutor and at the same time the author of the hymn we all love,
“Saviour, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast.”
A similar principle is seen in the Old Testament. Early in Israel’s history God kept him as the apple of His eye (Deut. 32:1010He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. (Deuteronomy 32:10)); late, the prophet still declared in His Name, “He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye” (Zech. 2:88For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. (Zechariah 2:8).) The most sensitive part of that valuable and most delicate organ is the figure employed to signify the preciousness to Him of those who were His portion then. Again, what a warning of doom is pronounced in Matt. 18:6,6But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matthew 18:6) before the founding of the Church, on anyone who should cause one of His little ones to stumble! All this, however, is afterward surpassed, for depth and reality of meaning in “Why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:44And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 9:4).) This, the risen Christ’s challenge to Saul of Tarsus, tersely told their unity with Him, now that redemption was accomplished and the Holy Spirit given. The vessel chosen to reveal the truth of the oneness with Christ of all believers learned from this challenge to consecrate himself to the service of those so beloved, if he would prove his devotion to their glorified Head. Henceforth he cares for all the churches (2 Cor. 11:2828Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. (2 Corinthians 11:28))— those very sheep he had cruelly torn; his bond service to Christ takes the form of suffering for those united to Christ as His body, and of a whole-life ministry on behalf of the aggregate of all believers, the assembly (Col. 1:24, 2524Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: 25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; (Colossians 1:24‑25)). Martyrdom may make its appeal to the eager, fervent and strong, yet it is the showing of love through one sharp, short test; whereas a lifetime of thankless toil bestowed on the objects of the grace of Christ may be richer proof by far of a faithful, constant love to Himself. What a strain upon the words of love such labor can be! “Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Cor. 12:1515And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. (2 Corinthians 12:15)). After all the continuous spending of spiritual and physical energy on their behalf through three-long years, after his tears and toil and temporal help, Paul the aged, the prisoner of the Lord at Rome must say, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me” (Acts 20:28,28Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28) etc.; 2 Tim. 1:1515This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. (2 Timothy 1:15)).
Is it not iniquity to put asunder what God has joined and to imagine that any real lack of love towards His can be consistent with love to Him? By Him actions are weighed, and His weights are just and invariable. No costly devotions to Christ Himself (as we might fondly imagine) either in zeal for doctrine, or “godly order,” or any other thing can ever exempt from the lowly brotherly duty. If we should attempt to justify the neglect of it on such exalted grounds, would it not be to use deceitful weights?
The Real Character of One-sided Devotion.
There is a possibility of insisting so one-sidedly on love to Christ, that this love to Christ, so-called, may become nothing other than a zealot’s refined intellectual devotion to a spiritual idea. The Word of God commands, “That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:2121And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (1 John 4:21)). This is to guard against a professed love Godward being etherealized into an unpractical affection, divorced from the realities of pilgrimage through a wilderness world along with companions in faith. Reflect how severely our blessed Saviour Himself condemned the hypocrisy which substituted devotion to “divine things”— a gift to the temple treasury—for the fulfillment of a plain human duty—the honoring of father and mother (Matt. 15:1-91Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, 2Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. 3But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? 4For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. 5But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; 6And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 7Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 8This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. 9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (Matthew 15:1‑9)). The fulfillment of the visible and ascertainable obligation, in other words of the human side, is the true test, both under law and grace, of a professed devotion to God. Let love to parents or to a brother in Christ be absent and such a profession is nullified, and the one who makes it is convicted of hypocrisy.
Are we wrong in asserting that the purer and stronger the love to Christ is, the more strenuous, self-sacrificing and tender will be the love to His own? T. D