Love That Can Hate # 3 (and others)

Love That Can Hate # 3 (and others)

This instinctive, Christian love, like all true and pure love, is to manifest itself by preferring one another in honor; or as the word might possibly be rendered, "anticipating one another." We are not to wait to have our place assigned before we give our brother his. There will be no squabbling for the chief seat in the synagogue, or the uppermost rooms at the feast, where brotherly love marshals the guests. The one cure for petty jealousies and the miserable strife for recognition, which we are all tempted to engage in, lies in a heart filled with love of the brethren because of its love to Christ, and to the Father who is His Father as well as ours. What a contrast is presented between the practice of Christians and these precepts of Paul! We may well bow ourselves in shame and contrition when we read these clear-drawn lines indicating what we ought to be, and set by the side of them the blurred and blotted pictures of what we are. It is a painful but profitable task to measure ourselves against Paul's ideal of Christ's commandment; but it will only be profitable if it brings us to remember that Christ gives before He commands, and that conformity with His ideal must begin, not with details of conduct, or with emotion, however pure, but with yielding ourselves to the God who moves us by His mercies, and being transformed by the renewing of our minds, and the indwelling of Christ in our hearts by faith.

~Alexander MacLaren~

(The End)
_______________________

The Prosperity of the Wicked

"For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. From their callous hearts comes iniquity, the evil conceits of their minds know no limits. They say, "How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?" This is what the wicked are like - always carefree, they increase in wealth. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me - until I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely You place them on slippery ground; You cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!" (Psalm 73).

Oh, how little is that man's condition to be envied, who for these short pleasures of sin - must endure an eternity of torments!

O sirs! Do wicked men purchase their present pleasures at so dear a rate - as eternal torments? And do we envy their enjoyment of them so short a time? Would we envy a man going to execution, because we saw him go up the ladder with a gold chain around his neck and a scarlet gown on his back? Surely not! Oh, no more should we envy the grandeur of worldly men, for for every step they take is but a step to an eternal execution!

Oh, how much more worthy of our pity, than envy - is that man's condition, who has all his happiness confined to the narrow compass of this present life - but his misery extended to the uttermost bounds of an everlasting duration! 

The rich man also died and was buried in hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus by his side. So he called to them - Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire!" (Luke 16:22-24).

~Thomas Brooks~
______________________

The Sword of His Pure, infinite, and incensed Wrath

To see God thrust the sword of His pure, infinite, and incensed wrath through the very heart of His dearest Son, notwithstanding all His supplications, prayers, tears, and strong cries - is the highest manifestation of the Lord's hatred and indignation of sin - which ever was, or ever will be!

It is true God revealed His great hatred against sin by turning Adam our of paradise, and by casting the angels down to hell,, and by drowning the old world, and by raining hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and by the various and dreadful judgments which He has been pouring forth upon the world in all ages. But all this hatred is but an emblem of hatred, compared to that hatred which God manifested against sin in causing the whole curse to meet upon our crucified Lord. It is true God reveals His hatred of sin by those endless, easeless, and remediless torments, which He inflicts upon devils and damned spirits. But this is no hatred - compared to that hatred against sin, which God revealed when He opened all the floodgates of His envenomed wrath upon His Son - His own Son, His only Son, His Son who always pleased Him, His Son who never offended Him.

Cast your eye upon the actings of God the Father towards Jesus Christ, and you will find that He has inflicted more and greater torments upon the Son of His dearest love, than all mortals ever have or could inflict upon others. God made all the penalties and sufferings that were due to us - to fall upon Jesus Christ. God Himself inflicted upon dear Jesus whatever was requisite to the satisfying of His justice, to the obtaining of pardon, and to the saving of all His elect!

~Thomas Brooks~