Many Christians spend much of their lives desiring the love of Christ, and still more in desiring to love Christ. “Draw me, we will run after Thee” (Song of Sol. 1:44Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee. (Song of Solomon 1:4)). Here is love to Christ, but a sense of distance. “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?” (Song of Sol. 1:77Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? (Song of Solomon 1:7)). Such expressions as these in the Song of Solomon express the state of many a soul now, as well as they describe the condition of the remnant of Israel in days to come. How many of us have felt a well-known line in a hymn suit the real state of our souls: “Oh, draw me, Saviour, after Thee,” and may have wondered why a dear servant of the Lord should have altered it to, “Lord, Thou hast drawn me after Thee.” Is not the difference immense?
The difference would not be greater than if you saw a child looking eagerly through a shop window at various kinds of delicious fruit within. Yes, that child loves grapes and pears and plums and greatly desires them, but not one does it enjoy; it is outside, and they are all inside. A kind hand opens the door, and a loving voice says, Come in, my child. Freely I give you all. Eat and enjoy whatever is for your good. How real the difference between the desire of that child and the enjoyment of the fruit! And has not that One with the wounded hands opened the door? “He brought me to the banqueting house, and His banner over me was love” (Song of Sol. 2:44He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. (Song of Solomon 2:4)).
Some make a very common mistake, thinking that we must love Him more, and more, and more, until at last we may hope to arrive at this banquet of love. It is not so; it is not an act of our own. “He brought me to the banqueting house.” Oh, how tenderly He led me with those wounded hands to the banquet of love! But must it not be our love to Him that makes the banquet of love? No — “His banner over me was love.”
Abiding in His Love
It is quite true in another sense that we need constantly His power to keep us and guide us through this wilderness. But “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:1616Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. (John 4:16)). Yes, He has not only brought us into the banquet of love and spread His banner over us, but this is our dwelling place. The banner of love ever floats over us. The fruit is ever sweet; the perfect rest is ever secure. Never can He cease to love or intercede for those whose sins He bore.
There is no effort to love; all is deep, perfect, full enjoyment. “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love” (John 15:99As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. (John 15:9)). Surely then He could not love us more! We have not to keep His commandments to cause Him to love us, but to abide in His love. “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love” (John 15:1010If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. (John 15:10)). He would not have us remain outside in the continual disappointment of mere desire, but come into the banquet of full joy in the everlasting possession of His love, with the conscience purged and in perfect repose, through His precious blood. His love to us has been displayed to the utmost. We cannot desire God to love us more than He does, for nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
The Desire to Love
But we may say, “Ought I not to desire to love God?” How plain the answer! If we know and believe this wondrous love of God to us, we will love Him, because He first loved us. As the children of God, we have the nature of our Father, and He is love. Would it not be a strange child that desired to love its parent? And the love of God leads us to delight to keep His commandments. It is the very outflow of the new nature, by the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. True love is never occupied with self; desire to love is always so. If we are seeking and desiring to love God, we will find nothing but self-occupancy, from beginning to end. Our thought will be that the more we love God, the more He will love us. This shows sad ignorance of the great fact declared here.
But if we know and believe the love of God to us in sending His Son, then every barrier to the love of God has been removed. We have not to desire, but “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us” (Rom. 5:55And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5)). That love is revealed in Christ, and we may take our happy seat beneath His shade in everlasting repose.
C. Stanley, adapted