What Does It Mean To Love God?
How may we know whether we love God? (cont.)
(1) He who loves God desires His presence.
(2) He who loves God, does not love sin.
(3) He who loves God is not much in love with anything else.
(4) He who loves God cannot live without Him.
Things we love we cannot be without. A man can do without music or flowers — but not food. Just so, a soul deeply in love with God looks upon himself as undone without him. “Hide not your face from me, lest I be like those who go down into the pit.” Psalm 143:7. He says as Job, “I went mourning without the sun;” chapter 30:28. I have starlight, I lack the Sun of Righteousness; I enjoy not the sweet presence of my God. If God is our chief good – we cannot live without him! Alas! how do they show they have no love to God who can do well enough without him! Let them have but food and drink, and you shall never hear them complain of the lack of God.
(5) He who loves God will be at any pains to get Him.
What pains the merchant takes, what hazards he runs, to have a rich return from the Indies! “The merchant races to the farthest Indies.” Jacob loved Rachel, and he could endure the heat by day, and the frost by night, that he might enjoy her. A soul that loves God will take any pains for the fruition of him. “My soul follows hard after you.” Psalm 63:8. Love is “the pendulum of the soul.” (Augustine) It is as the weight which sets the clock going. It is much in prayer, weeping, fasting; it strives as in agony, that he may obtain him whom his soul loves. Plutarch reports of the Gauls, an ancient people of France, that after they had tasted the sweet wine of Italy, they never rested until they had arrived at that country. He who is in love with God, never rests until he has a part in him. “I will seek him whom my soul loves.” Song of Songs 3:2. How can they say they love God, who are not industrious in the use of means to obtain him? “A slothful man hides his hand in his bosom.” Prov 19:24. He is not in agony – but lethargy. If Christ and salvation would drop as a ripe fig into his mouth, he would be content to have them; but he is loath to put himself to too much trouble. Does he love his friend, who will not undertake a journey to see him?
– Thomas Watson (1620–1686) – an English, Nonconformist, Puritan preacher and author.
(… to be continued next week, DV)