SWEETNESS OF LOVE Part 1

The wisdom of the fathers

THE SWEETNESS OF LOVE Part 1

Even after being “rooted and grounded in love” through the new birth (Eph. 3:17), it is not unusual to find within the heart such things as a desire for pre-eminence, a desire for human praise and honor, or a desire to lay up treasures on earth. These desires for something more for self are constantly coming into conflict with the Son’s nature of love. And because there is always something or someone interfering with the fulfillment of these desires, this fallen nature leads to murmuring and resentment and restlessness.

While the child of God will want to become more like Jesus, these traits from the old nature will continue to muddy the stream. It prevents the pure love of God from being consistently revealed. God is not fully satisfied with His children when they are merely “rooted and grounded in love.” God wants children who have been empowered to express His image of love in everything they do. He wants you to “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (v. 19)

God’s divine love is a boundless monopolist, and it cannot settle itself down into a homelike rest and fixed tranquility until every impure and unloving temper is purged away. God’s work of entire sanctification supplies an overcoming life that makes it possible to live for God alone. But the devil can still tempt the believer to return to a self-seeking and self-directed way of life.

Since Satan was able to draw the holy Adam away from the eternal life and even tempt the Son of God to become worldly-minded, we can know he will use everything within his power to turn us back to the world. He knows the Word of God as well as anyone. He therefore knows precisely what is needed to separate people from the eternal kingdom of God. "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62) "No one can serve two masters… You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matt. 6:24)

God created man to serve Him alone. Jesus therefore knew how to respond to the devil when He was tempted to the self-seeking and self-exalting ways of the world. He said, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” (Matt. 4:10)

We will all need to recognize this unbreakable law if we hope to survive Satan’s temptations. God will not permit anyone to serve themselves. After purifying the heart, God works to enlarge the vessel by revealing more light. He begins to show us more and more what Jesus was like. Increasing light always leads to a deeper sacrificing of self for the purpose of revealing more of the Christ-life.

If the individual begins to resist this light and give way to the devil’s temptation to live for self or to exalt self, a crack will develop, permitting darkness to seep back into the once pure and holy heart. It is not difficult to find Christians who were once fully sanctified now living by their own will in a self-seeking and self-exalting way of life.

(from "White Robes" by G.D. Watson)