June 5, Evening
C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling
"He that loveth not knoweth not God." — 1 John 4:8 · KJV
The distinguishing mark of a Christian is confidence in the love of Christ and the yielding of the heart's affections to Christ in return. First, faith sets her seal on a man by enabling his soul to say with the apostle, "Christ loved me and gave Himself for me." Then love gives the countersign and stamps the heart with gratitude and love to Jesus in return. "We love Him because He first loved us." In the grand old ages, the heroic period of the Christian faith, this double mark was plain in all believers in Jesus. They were men who knew the love of Christ and rested on it as a man leans on a staff whose strength he has tested. The love they felt toward the Lord was not a quiet emotion hidden away in the secret chamber of their souls, spoken of only in their private assemblies when they met on the first day of the week and sang hymns in honor of Christ Jesus the crucified. It was a passion of such vehement, all-consuming energy that it was visible in all their actions, spoke in their everyday conversation, and looked out of their eyes even in their most ordinary glances. Love for Jesus was a flame that fed on the core and heart of their being, and so by its own force it burned its way into the outer man and shone there. Zeal for the glory of King Jesus was the seal and mark of all genuine Christians. Because they depended on Christ's love, they dared much; because they loved Christ, they did much—and it is the same now. The children of God are ruled in their inmost powers by love; the love of Christ constrains them. They rejoice that divine love is set upon them, they feel it shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to them, and then out of sheer gratitude they love the Savior with a pure heart, fervently. My reader, do you love Him? Before you sleep, give an honest answer to a weighty question.