The love that a Christian has for Christ is a practical, as well as an emotional thing. It has its own distinguishing marks.
J.C. Ryle expressed it very well, I think:-
1. If we love a person, we like to think about him. We do not need to be reminded of him. We do not forget his name or his appearance or his character or his opinions or his tastes or his position or his occupation.…
John Stott spells out one important aspect of ‘living under the cross’:-
…The cross is a revelation of God’s justice as well as of his love. That is why the community of the cross should concern itself with social justice as well as with loving philanthropy. It is never enough to have pity on the victims of injustice, if we do nothing to change the unjust situation itself. Good Samaritans will always be needed to succour those who are assaulted and robbed; yet it would be even better to rid the Jerusalem-Jericho road of brigands.
The Song of Songs is a strange, unique, beautiful book.
Strange – partly because God isn’t mentioned from beginning to end.
Unique – because it is the one book of the Bible that gives a sustained and detailed celebration of love between a man and a woman.
Beautiful – because it does all of this in wonderfully imaginative poetry. It has every right to be called ‘The Song of Songs’, the greatest love song of them all.…
It is a commonplace amongst preachers to distinguish between the various Greek words for ‘love’ (philia, storge, eros and agape) and assert that agape is the word that fits Christian love.
There is a considerable amount of truth in this, of course. Agape, scholars inform us, was a little-used word in secular Greek and therefore was conveniently available to have Christian meaning poured into it.
But the matter can easily be over-stated. …
Our Lord has just been drawing attention to the self-righteous Pharisees, v30, and announcing that he is the friend of tax-collectors and ‘sinners’, v34. Here is a story which illustrates both these points.
A Pharisee had invited Jesus to have dinner with him. Picture the scene. Now consider the actions and reactions of the three people involved.
Who this woman was, we do not know.
She was well known for her immorality. …
The purpose of this Epistle. The need for reassurance. ‘We know’, 1 Jn 5:13. Three tests: head (believing the truth), 1 Jn 2:22; hands (obeying God’s commands), 1 Jn 2:2; heart (living a life of love); 1 Jn 4:20. These depend on each other, 1 Jn 3:23.
In this passage, tells us what should motivate our love for each other, vv7-11.
God is love.…
The Puritan John Milward posed the question, In what sense is it lawful to love oneself? In answering the question, he points out that Scripture teaches the sinfulness of self-love, 2 Tim 3:1-4. The worship of self is idolatry of the most common and destructive kind. But, although love of the sinful self is hateful, love of the natural self is good, as all divinely created things are good.
We love our bodies, and are bound to care for them, Eph 5:29; cf.…
God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. (Augustine)
“My brethren, when God first began to love you, He gave you all that He ever meant to give you in the lump, and eternity of time is that in which He is retailing of it out.” (Thomas Goodwin)
“I think it is possible on earth to build a young, new Jerusalem, a little, new heaven of this surpassing love. God, either send me more of this love, or take me quickly over the water, where I may be filled with his love.”…
