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Do you love Me?



"Simon son of John, do you love Me?" John 21:16

"Do you love Me?" may seem at first sight a
simple question. In one sense it is so. Even a
child can understand love, and can say whether
he loves another or not.

Yet "Do you love Me?" is, in reality,
a very searching question. We may . . .
  know much,
  and do much,
  and profess much,
  and talk much,
  and work much,
  and give much,
  and experience much,
  and make much show in our religion,
and yet be dead before God, from lack
of love, and at last go down to the pit.

Do we love Christ?

That is the great question!

Without this there is no vitality about our
Christianity. We are no better than . . .
  painted wax figures,
  lifeless stuffed beasts in a museum,
  sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.

There is no life where there is no love to Jesus.

Knowledge,
orthodoxy,
correct views,
regular use of forms,
a respectable moral life;
all these do not make up a true Christian.

(J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of John" 1873)

DOES Christ receive us when we come to him, notwithstanding all our past sinfulness? Does he never chide us for having tried all other refuges first? And is there none on earth like him? Is he the best of all the good, the fairest of all the fair? Oh, then let us praise him! Daughters of Jerusalem, extol him with timbrel and harp! Down with your idols, up with the Lord Jesus. Now let the standards of pomp and pride be trampled under foot, but let the cross of Jesus, which the world frowns and scoffs at, be lifted on high. O for a throne of ivory for our King Solomon! Let him be set on high for ever, and let my soul sit at his footstool, and kiss his feet, and wash them with my tears.

Oh, how precious is Christ! How can it be that I have thought so little of him? How is it I can go abroad for joy or comfort when he is so full, so rich, so satisfying. Fellow believer, make a covenant with thine heart that thou wilt never depart from him, and ask thy Lord to ratify it. Bid him set thee as a signet upon his finger, and as a bracelet upon his arm. Ask him to bind thee about him, as the bride decketh herself with ornaments, and as the bridegroom putteth on his jewels. I would live in Christ's heart; in the clefts of that rock my soul would eternally abide. The sparrow hath made a house, and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God; and so too would I make my nest, my home, in thee, and never from thee may the soul of thy turtle dove go forth again, but may I nestle close to thee, O Jesus, my true and only rest.

When my precious Lord I find,
All my ardent passions glow;
Him with cords of love I bind,
Hold and will not let him go.

- Charles Spurgeon

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I love Thee because Thou has first loved me,
And purchased my pardon on Calvary’s tree.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.