LOVE’S LAW AND LIFE – Charles Spurgeon
LOVE’S LAW AND LIFE
Introduction
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15.
This is a chapter singularly full of certainties and remarkably studded with “ifs.” Concerning most of the great things in it, there never can be an “if,” and yet “if” comes up, I think, no less than seven times in the chapter, and “if,” too, not about trifles, but about the most solemn subjects. It is, perhaps, worthy of mention that with each of these “ifs,” there is something connected, as following out of it, or appearing to be involved in it, or connected with it. Look at the second verse. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.” If there had been no place for us in the Glory Land, Jesus would have told us. If any truth of God which had not been revealed would have made our hope a folly, our Lord Jesus would have warned us of it, for He has not come to lure us into a fool’s paradise and, at the last, deceive us. He will tell us all that it is necessary for us to know in order to a wise faith and a sure hope. The Lord has not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth—He has not spoken in contradiction of His revealed Word. Nothing in His secret decrees or hidden designs can shake our confidence or darken our expectation. “If it were not so, I would have told you.” Had there been a secret thing which would have injured your prospects, it should have been dragged to light that you might not be deceived, for the Lord Jesus has no desire to win disciples by the suppression of distasteful truths. If there were anything yet to be revealed which would render your hope a delusion at the end, you would have been made acquainted with it—Jesus, Himself, would break the sad news to you—He would not leave you to be horrified by finding it out for yourselves! He kindly declares, “I would have told you.”
The Promise of His Return
Notice the third verse. Again we meet with “if,” and its consequence. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” If the Lord Jesus should go away (and this is a supposition no longer, for He has gone), then He would return again, in due time. Since He has gone, He will come again, for He has made the one to depend on the other. We make no question that He went up into Heaven, for He rose from out the circle of His followers and they saw Him as He went up into Heaven. They had no sort of doubt as to the fact that the cloud received Him out of their sight and, moreover, they received assurance out of Heaven, by an angelic messenger, that “He shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven.” “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” His going home pledges Him to come and compels us to look for Him!
Knowing Christ Is Knowing God
The next “if” comes at the beginning of the seventh verse—“If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also.” If we really know the Lord Christ, we know God. In fact, there is no knowing God aright except through His Son Jesus! It is evidently true that men do not long hold to theism pure and simple. If our scientific men get away from the Christ, the Incarnate God, before long they drift away from God altogether. They begin to slide down the mountain when they quit the Incarnate Deity—and there is no more foothold to stop them. No man comes to the Father but by the Son—and no man long keeps to the Father who does not keep to his faith in the Son. Those who know Christ know God, but those who are ignorant of the Savior are ignorant of God, however much they may pride themselves upon their religion! They may know another god, but the only living and true God is unknown except by those who receive Jesus. The Divine Fatherhood, of which we hear so much in certain quarters, is only to be seen through the window of Incarnation and Sacrifice. We must see Jesus before we can gain even so much as a glimpse at the Infinite, the Incomprehensible, and the Invisible! God comes not within finite perception till He enters human flesh—and there we behold His Glory, full of Grace and truth.
Answered Prayer in Jesus’ Name
The next variety of “if” you will find a little farther down in the chapter, namely, in the 14th verse—“If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” The “if” in this case involves an uncertainty about our prayers, if an uncertainty at all. Taking it for granted that we ask mercies in the name of Jesus, a glorious certainty is linked to them. Jesus says, “I will do it.” Here our Lord speaks after a Sovereign style. We may not say, “I will,” but the “I wills” pertain to Christ. He can answer and He has the right to answer—and, therefore, He says without reservation, “I will.” “If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Oh that we might put the first “if” out of court by continually petitioning the Lord and signing our petitions with the name of Jesus! May we be importunate only in prayers to which we are warranted to set that august name and then, boldly using His name and authority, we need be under no apprehension of failure! The great Father in Heaven never denies the power of His Son’s name, neither does the Son Himself draw back from the keeping of His own pledges! True prayer operates with the same certainty as the laws of Nature. “Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Oh that we did delight more in the Divine name and character—and then our prayers would always speed to the Throne!
Obedience Born of Love
Now comes the “if” of our text, of which I will say nothing for the moment. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Something, you see, is to come out of this “if,” as out of all the others. If something, then something—“If you love me,” then carry it out to the legitimate result—“keep My commandments.” You have the next “if” in verse 23—“Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves Me, he will keep My words.” Respect to His wisdom and obedience to His authority will grow out of love. “The love of Christ constrains us.” We hear that passage often misquoted, “The love of Christ ought to constrain us,” but that is a corruption of the text. The Apostle tells us that it does constrain us and, if it really enters the heart, it will do so. It is an active, moving power, influencing the inner life and then the external conduct—‘Tis love that makes our willing feet in swift obedience move.” “If a man loves Me, he will keep my words.” He will believe in the verbal inspiration of His Lord. He will regard His teaching as Infallible. He will attend to it and remember it. More than this, he will, by his conduct, carry out the words of his Lord and so keep them in the best possible manner by enshrining them in his daily life.
Rejoicing in Christ’s Glory
The chapter almost closes at the 28th verse by saying, “If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, I go unto My Father, for My Father is greater than I.” Where there is an intelligent love for Christ, we rejoice in His gains even though we, ourselves, appear to be losers thereby. The corporeal absence of our Lord from our midst might seem to be a great loss to us, but we rejoice in it because it is for His own greater Glory. If He is enthroned in Glory, we dare not lament His absence. Our love agrees to His departure, yes, rejoices in it, for anything which conduces to His exaltation is sweet to us. Let us at this moment, because we love Him, rejoice that He has gone to the Father!
The Serious Nature of the “If”
So you see the chapter, if you read it, though enriched with heavenly certainties, is yet besprinkled with “ifs.” Like little pools of sparkling water among the ever-abiding rocks, these “ifs” gleam in the light of Heaven and refresh us even to look upon them. Let us now think of our own text and may the Holy Spirit lead us into the secret chambers of it! “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” The present “if” is a serious one. Let that stand as our first head. Secondly, the test which is added concerning it is a very judicious one—“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” In the third place, I will give you the reading of the Revised Version, and say, that test will be endured by love, for the words may be interpreted—“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Obedience will follow upon love as a matter of certainty.
The Seriousness of the Question
To begin, then, THE “IF” IN OUR TEXT IS A VERY SERIOUS ONE. It goes to the very root of the matter. Love belongs to the heart, and every surgeon will tell you that a disease of the heart may not be trifled with. A clever doctor said to me, “I feel at my ease with any matter if it does not touch the head or the heart.” Solomon bids us keep the heart with all diligence, “for out of it are the issues of life.” If the mainspring fails, all the works of a watch refuse to act. We cannot, therefore, think little of a question which concerns our love, for it deals with a vital part. O friends, I hope there is no question about our love for Jesus! Observe how our Savior puts this “if” concerning love in such a way as to teach us that love must be prior to obedience. The text is not, “Keep My commandments and then love Me.” No, we do not expect pure streams till the fountain is cleansed. Nor does He say—“Keep My commandments and love Me at the same time,” as two separate things, although that might, in a measure, correspond with truth. But love is put first because it is first in importance and first in experience. “If you love Me”—we must begin with love—then, “keep My commandments.” Obedience must have love for its mother, nurse, and food. The essence of obedience lies in the hearty love which prompts the deed rather than in the deed itself.
True Religion and the Heart
I can conceive it possible that a man might, in his outward life, keep Christ’s commandments and yet might never keep them at all so as to be accepted before God. If he became obedient by compulsion, but would have disobeyed if he dared, then his heart was not right before God and his actions were of little worth. The commandments are to be kept out of love to Him who gave them. In obedience, to love is to live—if we love Christ, we live Christ. Love to the Person of our Lord is the very salt of our sacrifices. To put it most practically—I often say to myself, “Today I have performed all the duties of my office, but have I been careful to abide in my Lord’s love? I have not failed as to doing all that was possible—I have gone from early morning till late at night, packing as much work as possible into every hour and trying to do it with all my heart. But have I, after all, done this as unto the Lord and for His sake?” I tremble lest I should serve God merely because I happen to be a minister and am called to preach His Word, or because the natural routine of the day carries me through it. I am concerned that I may be impelled by no force but the love of Jesus! This fear often humbles me in the dust and prevents all glorying in what I have done. Only as we love our Lord can our obedience be true and acceptable.
Conclusion
The main care of our lives should be to do right and to do it because we love the Lord. We must walk before the Lord as Abraham did and with the Lord as Enoch did. Unless we are under the constant constraint of love to the Lord Jesus Christ we shall fail terribly—“Knowledge, alas! is all in vain, And all in vain our fear, In vain our labor and our pain If love is absent there.” See, dear friends, how inward true religion is—how far it exceeds all external formalism? How deep is the seat of true grace! You cannot hope to do that which Christ can smile upon until your heart is renewed. A heart at enmity with God cannot be made acceptable by mere acts of piety. It is not what your hands are doing, nor even what your lips are saying. The main thing is what your heart is meaning and intending. Which way are your affections tending? The great flywheel which moves the whole machinery of life is fixed in the heart—therefore this is the most important of all suggestions—“If you love Me.”
Self-Examination and Response
“If you love Me” is a searching sound. I start as I hear it! He that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation produces, as the first fruit of his faith, love to Christ—this must be in us and abound, or nothing is right. Packed away within that box of sweets called “love,” you shall find every holy thing, but if you have no love, what have you? Though you wear your fingers to the bone with service, weep your eyes out with repentance, make your knees hard with kneeling and dry your throat with shouting, yet if the heart does not beat with love, your religion falls to the ground like a withered leaf in autumn! Love is the chief jewel in the bracelet of obedience! Hear the text, and mark it well—“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” O Sirs, what a mass of religion is cast out as worthless by this text! Men may keep on going to Church and going to Chapel and they may be religious, yes, throughout a whole life and, apparently, they may be blameless in their moral conduct—and yet there may be nothing in them because there is no love to the ever-blessed Christ at the bottom of the profession!
The Need for True Love
When the heathen killed their sacrifices in order to prophesy future events from the entrails, the worst sign they ever got was when the priest, after searching into the victim, could not find a heart—or if that heart was small and shriveled. The soothsayers always declared that this omen was the sure sign of calamity. All the signs were evil if the heart of the offering was absent or deficient. It is so in very deed with religion and with each religious person. He that searches us searches principally our hearts! He who tries mankind tries chiefly the reins of the children of men. The Master is in our midst, tonight, walking down these aisles with noiseless tread, girt about the paps with a golden girdle and robed in snow-white garments down to His feet. Look! He stops before each one of us and gently asks, “Do you love Me?” Three times He repeats the question! He waits for an answer. It is a vital question—do not refuse a reply. Oh that the Spirit of the Lord may enable you to answer in sincerity and truth and say, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You!”
Conclusion: Personal Response
This matter of love to Jesus is put prior to every other because it is the best reason for our obedience to Him. Notice—“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Personal affection will produce personal obedience. Do you not see the drift of the words? The blessed Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” because, truly, operative love is mainly love to a person and love to our Lord’s Person begets obedience to His precepts! There are some men for whom you would do anything—you will to yield to their will. If such a person were to say to you, “Do this,” you would do it without question. Perhaps he stands to you in the relation of master and you are his willing servant. Perhaps he is a venerated friend and because you esteem and love him, his word is law to you. The Savior may much more safely than any other be installed in such a position! From the throne of your affections He says, “If you love Me—if your heart really goes out to Me—then let My word be a commandment. Let My commandment be kept in your memory and then further kept by being observed in your life.”
Final Thoughts
So you see the reason why the Master begins with the heart—because there is no hope of obedience to Him in our actions unless He is enshrined in our affections! This is the spring and source of all Holy living—love to the Holy One. Dear friends, have you been captured by the beauties of Jesus and are you held in a Divine captivity to the adorable Person of your redeeming Lord? Then you have within you the impulse which constrains you to keep His commandments!
Personal Call to Action
It was greatly necessary for our Lord thus to address His disciples. Yes, it was necessary to speak, thus, even to the Apostles. He says to the chosen 12, “If you love Me.” We should never have doubted one of them. We now know by the result that one of them was a traitor to his Lord and sold Him for pieces of silver, but no one suspected him, for he seemed as loyal as any one of them. Ah, if that question, “If you love Me,” needed to be raised in the sacred college of the 12, much more must it be allowed to sift our Churches and to test ourselves! Brothers and Sisters, this word is exceedingly necessary in the present assembly! Hear its voice—“If you love Me.”
Final Exhortation
The mixed multitude here gathered together may be compared to the heap on the threshing floor and there is need of the winnowing fan. Perhaps you have almost taken it for granted that you love Jesus—but it must not be taken for granted! Some of you have been born in a religious atmosphere, you have lived in the midst of godly people and you have never been out into the wicked world to be tempted by its follies—therefore you come to an immediate conclusion that you must assuredly love the Lord! This is unwise and perilous! Never glory in armor which you have not tested, nor rejoice in love to Christ which has not sustained trial! What an awful thing if you should be deceived and mistaken! It is most kind of the Savior to raise a question about your love and thus give you an opportunity of examining yourself and seeing whether you are right at heart. It will be far better for you to err upon the side of too great anxiety than on that of carnal security. To be afraid that you are wrong and so to make sure of being right, will bring you to a far better end than being sure that you are right and, therefore, refusing to look into the ground of your hope!
Conclusion
I would have you fully assured of your love for Jesus, but I would not have you deceived by a belief that you love Him if you do not. Lord, search us and try us! Remember, if any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ he will be anathema maranatha—cursed at His coming! This applies to every man, even though he is most eminent. An Apostle turned out to be a son of perdition—may not you? Every man, even though he is a learned bishop, or a popular pastor, or a renowned evangelist, or a venerable elder, or an active deacon, or the most ancient member of the most orthodox assembly, may yet turn out to be no lover of the Lord!
Final Prayer
Though he has gathered to break bread in the sacred name with a select company, yet if he does not truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, the curse rests upon him, whoever he may be. So let us take from the Master’s lips the heart-searching words at this time, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Let us take them personally home, as if addressed to each one of us personally and alone. While considering the text, let each one view himself apart. What have you to do in this matter with keeping the vineyards of others? See to your own hearts. The text does not say, “If the Church loves Me,” or, “If such-and-such a minister loves Me,” or, “If your brothers love Me.” No, but it is, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” The most important question for each one to answer is that which concerns his personal attachment to his Redeemer and the personal obedience which comes out of it.
Amen