| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 22 |
Page 6 |
In our Master’s service we should work together in love. It never should have to be said of us that other people cannot work with us. The secret of being agreeable workfellows is love. The Christian who is always wanting to be an officer, to have positions of prominence, to be chairman or president, first in something, has not caught the spirit of the love of Christ, who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Love never demands the first place. It works just as enthusiastically and faithfully at the foot of a committee as at the head of it. It works humbly, seeking counsel of the other members, and not asserting its own opinion as the only wise one. It seeks in honor to prefer the other rather than self. It is content to be overlooked, set aside, if only Christ is help up. It is patient with the faults of fellow workers. It strives in all ways to have the Master the real leader in all work. “Love one another; as I have loved you,” is the command of Christ. Hold together, stand together. Be as one in love for others which will sacrifice anything, everything, that the Master’s name may never suffer any dishonor.
This counsel of Christ calls us to a love like His in building up His kingdom. “As I have loved you.” How as that? He loved and gave Himself. We must love and give ourselves. Some people are leaving out the cross these days in their though of Christ. They preach about His wonderful teaching, His marvelous character, His sublime works, but say nothing about His death. But we need the cross. We can be saved only by a sacrificial love. Then the service of our which will really bless others must also be a sacrificial service. “As I have loved you” means loving unto the end. We must give our lives for the brethren as He gave His life for us.
It is not easy, but it was not easy for Christ to love us as He did. To love as He did is to let our lives be consumed as in a flame, to let them be burned as on an altar. The trouble with too much of what we call life is that it costs nothing, is only a sort of gilded selfishness, is not ready to give up anything, to suffer, to endure. Oh, profane not the holy name of love by calling such life as that love! To love as Christ loves is to repeat Christ’s sacrifice continually in serving, bearing, enduring, that others may be helped, blessed, saved. Christ’s love laid itself across the chasm of eternal death to make a bridge for us to pass over, from death to life. “Love one another, as I have loved you.” Let us try to know what the words mean, and then let the love of Christ itself into our heart. Then it will not be we that love, but Christ loving in us.
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