The Nature of Love to God
John James. Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… I. THAT THE LOVE WHICH WE OUGHT TO CULTIVATE AND CHERISH, IN REFERENCE TO GOD, IS SUPREME IN ITS DEGREE. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" thus reminding us that, in every respect, God is to have the preeminence, because He possesses a right of absolute and entire proprietorship in us, as the author and the end of our existence because He only is adapted, in Himself and in the benefits which He has to bestow, to constitute the happiness of man, as an intelligent and immortal being. And, indeed, it cannot be otherwise: it is utterly impossible that the love of God should be a subordinate principle. Wherever it exists it must be the ascendant; from its own nature it cannot mix with anything that is unlike itself, and, in reference to its object, it cannot by possibility admit of a rival. For what is there in us to which it can be subordinated? Can the love of God in us be subordinated to the love of any sin? Certainly not; for "if any man love Me," said the Saviour, "he will keep My commandments." Can the love of God in us be subordinated to the love of fame? Certainly not — "How can ye believe," said Christ, "while ye seek honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God?" Can the love of God be subordinated in us to the love of the world? Most certainly it cannot. This is as inimical to it, and as unlikely to mix with it, as any other principle or feeling that can be specified: "Love not the world," says the Apostle, "neither the things of the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him," — and "The love of money is the root of all evil." Can the love of God be subordinated in us to the love of creatures? Can it be subordinated to the love of the various comforts and enjoyments of this life? Most certainly it cannot — for what says our Lord? Why, He asserts thus much on this subject that if any man love houses or lands — that if any man love father or mother — that if any man love wife or children — that if any man love sister or brother, more than Him, he is not worthy of Him. Nay, indeed, He goes beyond this, and gives us to under. stand, that where the continuance or preservation of our own life is inimical to, or incompatible with, the performance of our duty to Christ, even to this our love to God is not to be subordinated; for, says He, "If any man love his own life more than Me, he is not worthy of Me." This is the view we are to take of that gracious empire established over man by Jesus Christ: it is not the reign of coercion or of fear, but of freedom and of love. It supposes the entire surrender of our hearts to Christ, so that Christ is enthroned in our affections, and exercises entire dominion over us, bringing every imagination and thought of the heart into entire subjection. It would be just as foolish to say, that a kingdom was given up to a conqueror while at the same time its strongholds were in possession of his adversary, as for an individual to say that he had surrendered his heart and affections to Christ, while, at the same time, these affections are placed on anything opposed to the will and inimical to the interests of Christ. II. THAT THE LOVE OF GOD, AS INCULCATED UPON US BY HIMSELF, IS TO BE REGARDED AS A RATIONAL EXERCISE OF OUR AFFECTIONS, IMPLYING THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE ESTEEM OF GOD. Man is not only the subject of passion, but also of reason. It is originated in us by the knowledge of God; it arises from the admission of the soul into an acquaintance with God. But this is not all: there are vast multitudes that have this knowledge of God; at the same time, they love not God. And hence we would distinctly and seriously impress it upon your minds that that knowledge of God which is to originate in us supreme affection for Him, implies the peculiar and personal application to us of the benefits of His grace — it supposes our reconciliation to God by the forgiveness of our sins, through faith in the redemption that has been wrought out by Jesus Christ. When this becomes the case, "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us;" then our love assumes the character of filial love, the love which a child feels to its parent. III. THAT THE LOVE OF GOD, INCULCATED UPON US BY THE PRECEPTS OF HIS HOLY GOSPEL, SUPPOSES SUPREME DELIGHT OR COMPLACENCY IN GOD. Now, the exercise of our affections forms a very prominent part of that capacity of happiness by which we are distinguished; for our own experience has taught us that the presence of that object on which our affections are placed is essential to our happiness; and that its absence at any time occasions an indescribable feeling of pain, which cannot be alleviated by the presence of other objects, however excellent in themselves — for this very reason, that they do not occupy the same place in our affections. Look, for instance, at the miser: let him only accumulate wealth and add house to house and land to land, and to the presence and claims of every other object he seems completely insensible: his attention is completely engrossed with the one object of his pursuit; and, dead to everything else, he cares not to what sufferings or privations he submits, if he can only succeed in gratifying his penurious avidity. Now, look at the same principle in reference to the love of God. Wherever it exists, it lifts the soul to God, as the source and fountain of its happiness — it brings the mind to exercise the utmost possible complacency in God — it leads the mind to seek its felicity from God — it brings it to Him as to its common and only centre. God is the centre to which the soul can always tend the sun in whose beam she can bask with unutterable pleasure and delight; she finds in Him not merely a stream but a sea — a fountain of blessedness, pure and perennial, of which no accident of time can ever deprive her. IV. THAT THE LOVE OF GOD, AS INCULCATED UPON US IN HIS WORD, IMPLIES THE ENTIRE AND PRACTICAL DEVOTEDNESS OF OURSELVES TO HIS SERVICE AND GLORY. Ordinarily, you know, nothing is more delightful than to promote, in any possible way, the interests of those whom we love: and whatever is the sacrifice which we make, however arduous the duty we perform, in order to accomplish this object, if successful, we feel ourselves more than adequately rewarded. (John James.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. WEB: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.