| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 26 |
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We must prove our love by our life. “If ye love me, keep my commandment.” We cannot live truly except by loving, but we cannot love and not live worthily. It is very easy to say we love a person, but our conduct is the only true index. In one of his epistles John, the disciple of love writes: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed nor in truth” (1 John 3:16-18). John is speaking of the proof of love to our fellowmen, but the same principle applies to our profession of love to Christ. It is not enough that we sing it in our hymns and say it in our prayers and recite it in our creeds; we must show it in our life by obedience to His commandments. A fruit tree proves its usefulness by bearing fruit. If there is “nothing but leaves,” the tree’s profession is empty. The rosebush must prove its right to the distinction by putting forth beautiful roses in the season for roses. When we claim to be Christ’s friends, we must show it by doing what Christ bids us do.
Promise follows requirement. If we truly love Christ, we will keep His commandments. Then he says, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.” The “and” is important. It links the promise back to the previous verse. There are four links in the chain. If we love Christ, we will keep His commandments; then He will pray the Father, and the Father will give us another Comforter. The disciples thought they would be sore losers by Christ’s leaving them, and so they were, in a sense. It broke their hearts to part from Him. But He assures them that instead of His personal presence another heavenly Friend would be sent to them. The name “Comforter” is a very precious one. Even in the common usage of the English word it is sacred. One who is a comforter to us ministers to us in our sorrows, consoles us when we are in grief. Then the word “another” shows what kind of comforter the Spirit would be — Jesus had been a comforter, and the Spirit would be one like Him. We sometimes wish we had lived when Jesus was on earth, and feel that those who knew Him in the flesh had a privilege no other believers ever again can have. But this word tells us that the Holy Spirit, who came in Christ’s place, is all to us that Jesus was to His friends. He may not take away our sorrows, from us, but if not, He gives us strength so that we can bear them. That is part of what the Holy Spirit does for us. He is not, however, merely a comforter in the sense that the word is now used. The word is “Paraclete,” which has not precise equivalent in English. The same word is translated “Advocate” in one of John’s epistles, which means one who stands by or stands for one. We may put all our affairs into the hands of this Advocate. He will defend us, intercede for us, and be our comrade and friend.
The world does not want to receive the Holy Spirit — “Whom the world cannot receive.” It has no love for Him, no eyes to behold His beauty, no ears to hear His words. The world does not want the Spirit as guest. Only those who desire to be holy have any yearning for Him. It is one of the most wonderful proofs of the love of God that the Holy Spirit is wiling to live in a corrupt, defiled, loathsome human heart, amid all its sin and uncleanness, for the purpose of cleansing it and making it holy and fit for heaven. It was one of the qualities of the love of Christ that it went out in compassion and longing to the most unworthy. Someone defined the love of God as “loving people He did not like.” The Spirit of God takes up His abode in the worst heart, that He may make it clean and holy.
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