Do I Have The Love Of Christ In My Heart?
Is my heart ruled, governed, and motivated
by the love of Christ? Do I have within me the kind of love that Christ
produces in his people! Love is absolutely essential to true godliness.
Paul tells us that if we have all other
things, and have not love, they shall profit us nothing. The absence of love is
fatal. As you read 1 Corinthians 13, do not think to yourself, "Love is a
very great virtue, most commendable and useful, it would be a great thing if I
could obtain it." Oh, no! We must have it!
The Holy Spirit tells us that this love is
something which characterizes all who are born of God. We must have it, or else
we are not born of God. If I do not have this love, no matter what else I may
have, no matter what else I may do, if I do not have the love of Christ in my
heart, I am a lost man; and the same is true of you.
C. H. Spurgeon said, "This love is the
common, everyday livery of the people of God. It is not the pre-rogative of a
few. It is the possession of all. It is put before you not only as a thing
greatly desirable, but absolutely needful; for if you excelled in every
spiritual gift, yet if you had not this, all the rest would profit you nothing
whatsoever. You must attain it, or you cannot enter into eternal life."
This love is not a condition to be met in
order to get salvation. But it is the sure result of God's saving grace in
Christ.
Christian love is greater than all other
spiritual gifts and graces. Without love, all other gifts and graces are
meaningless and useless (1 Cor.. 13:1-3). This one
thing, love, is the fulfilling of the law of God (
Where
this love is absent grace is absent. No man is born of God who does not have
the love of Christ implanted in his heart as a ruling principle of life (1 John
2:9-1 11;
The love of Christ, or the absence of it,
is a thing easily identifiable. This is not some profound, mysterious point of
theology. It is not some sweet-sounding, but useless, emotion. The love of
Christ is a gift of divine grace that is clearly demonstrated in the lives of
God's elect (1 Cor. 13:4-7). This love causes a person
to be kind, patient. content, gentle, even tempered,
humble, self-denying, generous, honest, truthful. forbearing,
and forgiving toward others, both in the church and out of it.
Love is preferable to all other gifts and
greater than all other graces, because love is the only thing that will last forever(1 Cor. 13:8-13). All other gifts will come to an
end. All other graces will cease. But love will go on in heaven. Faith will be
no more, when we see him whom we have believed. Hope will be no more, when we
have that for which we have hoped. But love will continue and come to
perfection when we enter heaven. Love is the only thing we have in this world
which we can carry into the world to come. Heaven is a world of love, perfect,
unceasing, glorious, Christ-like love. No one will enter that city of peace and
world of love except those who have the love of Christ in their hearts.
In the light of these three searching
questions, let everyone honestly and earnestly examine his own self before God:
Do I have the faith of God's elect! Do I have the hope of the gospel! Do I have
the love of Christ in my heart! "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these
three; and the greatest of these is love."
Don Fortner