5-1. The Greatest
“We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
We first come to know something of the Lord Jesus’ love by what He did for us; but that is only the basis for coming to know His love in what He is to us. The first is known at the Cross, the latter is entered into through personal fellowship with the risen Lord.
“There are three steps in appreciation of His love for us. First, I learn that He loves me so much that He saved me. He is our treasure ‘My Beloved is mine’ (S.S. 6:3). The second step of affection is the consciousness that He loves me so much that He has a right to me. He would have me for Himself. ‘I am my Beloved’s’ (S.S. 6:3).
“The third step is the consciousness that He loves me so much that He wants my company ‘His desire is toward me’ (S.S. 7:10). Love’s delight is found in the company of its object. May we know in a deeper way, and in a fuller measure, the sweetness of personal intimacy with ‘the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me’ (Gal. 2:20).
“Much ministry is lost upon us as to any practical result, because we are not prepared to be detached from things here, so as to be simply here for Christ. And the preparation for this is to come personally under the influence of the blessed attractiveness of the Lord Jesus. When we sit under His shadow with great delight, everything else becomes so small, and loses its hold upon our hearts.” -C.A.C.
“But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).