As Christians we are to keep first things first, and Christ is always first! We are to learn of Him, think like Him, follow after Him, live for Him, become like Him, and reflect Him to others. However, we can’t do that if we are so occupied with self and entangled with the world that we are unable to live in communion with Him. Abiding in Christ is the key to everything. Apart from the vine the branches can do nothing, and thus become good for nothing. The importance of our union with Christ is pictured well in these words by James Smith in 1840:

“Whom having not seen ye love.”1 Peter 1:8

We have never seen the glorified body of Jesus, but we have believed what His word declares of Him, and believing we love Him. As the only-begotten Son of God, who was exalted, dignified, and glorified from everlasting; as the voluntary Saviour of poor lost sinners, who became incarnate, suffered, bled and died for them. We love His adorable person, His countenance is majesty, His heart is love, His hand is omnipotence, His eye is bountifulness, His bowels are compassion, and His presence and smile are heaven. We love His precious salvation, in its freeness, completeness, and glory. We love His delightful promises, which anticipate our wants, meet all our wishes, and fill our souls with peace. We love His throne, where He meets us, attends to our requests, and blesses us indeed. We love His holy precepts, which exhibit His authority, display His love, and call us to holiness. We love His heaven-born family, who wear His likeness, are the excellent of the earth, and resemble the children of a king. Oh to love Him more! To love Him with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength! To manifest our love to Him by holy actions, and a useful life!–James Smith

A bleeding Saviour, seen by faith;
A sense of pardoning love;
A hope that triumphs over death,
Give joys like those above.

Reading the Bible is great, but sometimes we rush through it so that we forget what we read almost as soon as we read it. It is better to read one verse and meditate on it than to read an entire chapter and forget it. Most would agree that nothing is more important than the Bible, but their actions say something else. They hurry through the Word so they can get on to something of far less importance, and fail to profit from it. If we are to reap from what we read we must meditate on it.

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”–Rom. 5:7-8

We find it easy to love people who are easy to love. In reality, we tend to like people who are like us. Furthermore, we assume that God’s love is bound by the same standards. If He loves us, we assume it must mean that we are not all that bad. Not only is this view false in every way, it destroys a deep appreciation for the amazing beauty of God’s love—that He loved the unlovely, and died for the unloving.

D. A. Carson illustrated the difference between our vision of love and God’s:

Charles and Susan are walking down the beach, hand in hand. They’ve kicked off their shoes and the wet sand squishes between their toes. Charles turns to Susan, gazes deeply into her large hazel eyes and says, “Susan, I love you; I really do.” What does he mean? If we assume he has decency and Christian virtue, the least he could mean is something like, “Susan, you mean everything to me. I can’t live without you. Your smile paralyzes me from fifty yards; your sparkling good humor, your beautiful eyes, the scent of your hair—everything about you transfixes me . . . I really love you.”

Or do his words I love you mean something like, “Susan, in spite of the fact that your nose is so large it belongs in cartoons, your hair has enough grease to lubricate an eighteen-wheeler, your knees make a camel look elegant, and your personality would scare Attila the Hun, I really love you.”

I’m guessing Charles meant the first one! Yet this is how human love differs from God’s love. When Romans 5 tells us that God “loved us,” it doesn’t mean that God looked down on us and said. “You mean everything to me. I can’t live without you: your personality, your witty conversation, your beauty, your smile— everything about you.”

Not a chance!  When God says, “I love you,” He is saying, “Listen—your nose and greasy hair, your disjointed knees and selfish personality, your wretched sinfulness—all make you disgustingly unattractive to Me. But I love you because I have chosen to love you, through My Son, your Savior.”

My friend, if you think you deserve God’s love, even to the smallest degree, you will never feel totally secure in Him. You will live in perpetual fear that you might do something undeserving of His love and, if that is the case, then you definitely will!

Don’t be afraid. This is the amazing beauty of God’s love toward us, that “while we were still sinners, He died for us.” The truth is, there isn’t anything you can do that will ever change His mind. His love for you is the same yesterday, today . . . and forever!

Thank the Lord for loving you so much that He not only chose to die for you while you were still in your sins, but He chooses to love you every day in spite of your sin. Pray that He will give you strength to obey His command to love others in the same way He has loved you.(Stephen Davey)