The Tests of Love for God.
by Thomas Watson, All Things for Good/A Divine Cordial
Let us test ourselves whether we are among those who love God. As the fruits will best show our love for God, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and we should search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden.
1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of God. “When I awake, I am still with thee” (Psalm 139:18). Thoughts are as travelers in mind. God is the treasure, and where the treasure is, there is the heart (Matt 16:21). By this, we may test our love for God. What are our thoughts most upon? Can we say we are ravished with delight when we think of God? Have our thoughts got wings? Have they fled aloft? Do we contemplate Christ and glory? Oh, how far are they from being lovers of God, who scarcely ever think of God…In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God” (Psalm 10:4). A sinner crowds God out of his thoughts. He never thinks of God, unless with horror, as the prisoner thinks of the judge.
2. The next fruit of love is the desire for communion. Love desires familiarity. “My heart and flesh longs for the living God” (Psalm 84:2). King David being debarred from the house of God where the tabernacle, the visible token of His presence, cried out for the living God. If we love God, we prize His ordinances because there we meet with God. He speaks to us in His Word, and we talk to Him in prayer. By this, let us examine our love for God. Do we desire intimacy of communion with God? Lovers cannot be long away from each other, such as loving God, having a holy affection, and knowing not how to be from Him. They can bear the want of anything but God’s presence. They can do without health and friends; they can be happy without a full table, but they cannot be satisfied without God. “Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like them that go down into the grave” (Psalm 143:7). Lovers have their fainting fits. David was ready to faint away and die when he did not have sight of God. They who love God cannot be contented with having ordinances unless they may enjoy God in them; that was to lick the glass and not the honey.
What shall we say to those who can be all their lives long without God? They think God may be best spared: they complain they want health and trading, but not that they want God! Wicked men are not acquainted with God, and how can they love those who are not acquainted? Nay, which is worse, they do not desire to be acquainted with Him. “They say to God, Depart from us, and we desire not the knowledge of thy ways” (Job 21:14). Sinners shun acquaintance with God. They count His presence a burden, and are these lovers of God? Does that woman love her husband, who cannot endure to be in his presence?
3. Another fruit of love is grief. Where there is love for God, there is grieving for our sins of unkindness against Him. A child who loves his father cannot but weep for offending him. The heart that burns in love melts in tears. Oh! that I should abuse the love of so dear a Saviour! Did not my Lord suffer enough upon the cross, but must I make Him suffer more? Shall I give Him more gall and vinegar to drink? How disloyal and disingenuous have I been! How have I grieved His Spirit, trampled upon His royal commands, slighted His blood! This opens a vein of godly sorrow and makes the heart bleed afresh. “Peter went out, and wept bitterly” (Matt. 26:75). When Peter thought how dearly Christ loved him, how he was taken up into the mount of transfiguration, where Christ showed him the glory of heaven in a vision, that he should deny Christ after he had received such signal love from Him, this broke his heart with grief: he went out, and wept bitterly.
By this, let us test our love for God. Do we shed the tears of godly sorrow? Do we grieve for our unkindness against God, our abuse of mercy, our non-improvement of talents? How far are they from loving God, who sin daily, and their hearts never smite them! They have a sea of sin and not a drop of sorrow. They are so far from being troubled that they make merry with their sins. “When thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest” (Jer. 11:15). Oh, wretch! Did Christ bleed for sin, and do you laugh at it? These are far from loving God. Does he love his friend who loves to do him an injury?
4. Another fruit of love is magnanimity. Love is valorous, and it turns cowardice into courage. Love will make one venture upon the most significant difficulties and hazards. The fearful hen will fly upon a dog or serpent to defend her young ones. Love infuses a spirit of gallantry and fortitude into a Christian. He who loves God will stand up for His cause and advocate for Him. “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). He who is afraid to own Christ has little love for Him. Nicodemus came sneaking to Christ by night (John 3:2). He feared being seen with Him in the day. Love casts out fear. As the sun expels fogs and vapors, so divine love, in great measure, expels carnal fear. Does he love God that can hear His blessed truths spoken against and be silent? He who loves his friend will stand up for and vindicate him when he is accused. Does Christ appear for us in heaven, and are we afraid to appear for Him on earth? Love animates a Christian, fires his heart with zeal, and steels it with courage.
5. The fifth fruit of love is sensitiveness. If we love God, our hearts ache for the dishonor done to God by wicked men. To see not only the banks of religion, but morality, broken down, and a flood of wickedness coming in; to see God’s sabbaths profaned, His oaths violated, His name dishonored; if there be any love to God in us, we shall lay these things to heart. Lot’s righteous soul was “vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked” (2 Pet. 2:7). Sodom's sins were as many spears to pierce his soul. How far are they from loving God, who are unaffected by His dishonor? If they have but peace and trading, they lay nothing to heart. A man who is dead drunk never minds nor is affected by it, though another be bleeding to death by him; so, many, being intoxicated with the wine of prosperity, when the honor of God is wounded, and His truths lie bleeding, are not affected by it. Did men love God? They would grieve to see His glory suffer and religion itself become a martyr.
6. The sixth fruit of love is hatred against sin. Fire purges the dross from the metal. The fire of love purges out sin. “Ephraim shall say, What have I to do anymore with idols!” (Hos.14:8). He that loves God will have nothing to do with sin unless to give battle to it. Sin strikes not only God’s honor but His being. Does he love his prince who harbors him, who is a traitor to the crown? Is he a friend to God who loves that which God hates? The love of God and the love of sin cannot dwell together. The affections cannot be carried to two contrarieties at the same time. A man cannot love health and love poison, too, so one cannot love God and sin, too. He who has any secret sin in his heart allowed is as far from loving God as heaven and earth are distant one from the other.
7. Another fruit of love is crucifixion. He who is a lover of God is dead to the world. “I am crucified to the world” (Gal. 6:14). I am dead to the honors and pleasures of it. He who is in love with God is not much in love with anything else. The love of God and the ardent love of the world are inconsistent. “If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). Love to God swallows up all other love, as Moses’ rod swallowed up the Egyptian rods. If a man could live in the sun, what a small point would all the earth be? When a man’s heart is raised above the world in the admiring and loving of God, how poor and slender are these things below? They seem like nothing in his eye. It was a sign the early Christians loved God because their property did not lie near their hearts, but they “laid down their money at the apostles’ feet” (Acts 5:35).
Test your love for God with this. What shall we think of, such as having never had enough of the world? They have the dropsy of covetousness, thirsting insatiably after riches: “That pant after the dust of the earth” (Amos 2:7). Never talk of your love to Christ, says Ignatius, when you prefer the world before the Pearl of price; and are there not many such, who prize their gold above God? If they have a south land, they do not care about the water of life. They will sell Christ and a good conscience for money. Will God ever bestow heaven upon them who so basely undervalue Him, preferring glittering dust before the glorious Deity? What is there on earth that we should so set our hearts upon? Only the devil makes us look upon it through a magnifying glass. The world has no intrinsic worth; it is just paint and deception.
8. The next fruit of love is fear. In the godly, love and fear kiss each other. A double fear arises from love.
(i.) A fear of displeasing. The spouse loves her husband and would rather deny herself than displease him. The more we love God, the more fearful we are of grieving His Spirit. “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen.19: 9). When Eudoxia, the empress, threatened to banish Chrysostom, Tell her (said he) I fear nothing but sin. That blessed love puts a Christian into a hot fit of zeal and a cold fit of fear, making him shake, tremble, and not dare to offend God.
(ii.) A fear mixed with jealousy. “Eli’s heart trembled for the ark” (I Sam. 4:13). It is not said that his heart trembled for Hophni and Phinehas, his two sons, but his heart trembled for the ark, because if the ark were taken, then the glory was departed. He that loves God is full of fear lest it should go ill with the church. He fears lest profaneness (which is the plague of leprosy) should increase, lest popery get a footing, lest God should go from His people. The presence of God in His ordinances is the beauty and strength of a nation. So long as God’s presence is with a people, they are safe, but the soul inflamed with love to God fears lest the visible tokens of God’s presence should be removed.
Let us test our love for God by this touchstone. Many fear lest peace and trading go, but not lest God and His gospel go. Are these lovers of God? He who loves God is more afraid of losing spiritual blessings than of the temporal. If the Sun of righteousness is removed from our horizon, what can follow but darkness? What comfort can an organ or anthem give if the gospel is gone? Is it unlike the sound of a trumpet or a volley of shots at a funeral?
9. If we are lovers of God, we love what God loves.
(i.) We love God’s Word. David esteemed the Word, for the sweetness of it, above honey (Psalm 19:103), and for the value of it, above gold (Psalm 119:72). The lines of Scripture are richer than the mines of gold. Well, may we love the Word; it is the load-star that directs us to heaven; it is the field in which the Pearl is hidden. That man who does not love the Word but thinks it too strict and could wish any part of the Bible torn out (as an adulterer did the seventh commandment) has not the slightest spark of love in his heart.
(ii.) We love God’s day. We do not only keep a sabbath but love a sabbath. “If thou call the sabbath a delight” (Isa. 58:13). The sabbath keeps up the face of religion amongst us; this day must be consecrated as glorious to the Lord. The house of God is the palace of the great King; on the Sabbath, God shows Himself there through the lattice. If we love God, we prize His day above all other days. All the week would be dark if it were not for this day; on this day, manna falls double. Now, if ever, heaven gate stands open, and God comes down in a golden shower. This blessed day, the Sun of righteousness rises upon the soul. How does a gracious heart prize that day, which was purposefully made to enjoy God?
(iii.) We love God’s laws. A gracious soul is glad of the law because it checks his sinful excesses. The heart would be ready to run wild in sin if it had not some blessed restraints put upon it by the law of God. He that loves God loves His law — the law of repentance and self-denial. Many say they love God, but they hate His laws. “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us” (Psa. 2:3). God’s precepts are compared to cords; they bind men to their good behavior, but the wicked think these cords too tight. Therefore, they say, Let us break them. They pretend to love Christ as a Saviour but hate Him as a King. Christ tells us of His yoke (Matt. 11:29). Sinners would have Christ put a crown upon their head, not a yoke upon their neck. He was a strange king who should rule without laws.
(iv.) We love God’s picture and His image shining in the saints. “He that loves Him that begat, loves him also that is begotten of him” (1 John 5:1). It is possible to love a saint yet not to love him as a saint; we may love him for something else, for his ingenuity, or because he is generous and bountiful. A beast loves a man, not as he is a man, but because he feeds and gives him provender. But to love a saint as he is a saint is a sign of love to God. If we love a saint for his saintship, as having something of God in him, then we love him in these four cases.
(a) We love a saint, though he is poor. A man that loves gold loves a piece of gold, though it is in a rag: so, though a saint is in rags, we love him because there is something of Christ in him.
(b) We love a saint, though he has many personal failings. There is no perfection here. In some, rash anger prevails; in some, inconstancy; in some, too much love of the world. A saint in this life is like gold in the ore; much dross of infirmity cleaves to him, yet we love him for the grace in him. A saint is like a fair face with a scar: we love the beautiful face of holiness, though there be a scar in it. The best emerald has its blemishes, the brightest stars their twinklings, and the best of the saints have their failings. You that cannot love another because of his infirmities, how would you have God love you?
(c) We love the saints, though they differ from us in some lesser things. Perhaps another Christian does not have as much light as you, which may make him err in some things; will you presently unsaint him because he cannot come up to your light? Where there is union in fundamentals, there ought to be union in affections.
(d) We love the saints, though they are persecuted. We love precious metal, though it is in the furnace. St. Paul bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus (Gal. 6:17). Those marks are honorable, like soldiers' scars. We must love a saint as well in chains as in scarlet. If we love Christ, we love His persecuted members.
If this be love to God, when we love His image sparkling in the saints, how few lovers of God are to be found! Do they love God, who hates them that are like God? Do they love Christ’s person, who are filled with a spirit of revenge against His people? How can that wife be said to love her husband, who tears his picture? Indeed, Judas and Julian are not yet dead; their spirit lives in the world. Who is guilty but the innocent? What greater crime than holiness if the devil may be one of the grand juries! Wicked men seem to bear great reverence to the saints departed; they canonize dead saints but persecute living. In vain do men stand up to the creed and tell the world they believe in God when they despise one of the articles of the creed, namely, the communion of saints. Indeed, there is no more significant sign of a man ripe for hell than this, not only to lack grace but to hate it.
10. Another blessed sign of love is to entertain the good thoughts of God. He who loves his friend construes what his friend does in the best sense. “Love thinketh no evil”
(I Cor.13:5). Malice interprets all in the worst sense; love interprets all in the best sense. It is an excellent commentator upon providence; it thinks no evil. He that loves God has a good opinion of God; though He afflicts sharply, the soul takes all well. This is the language of a gracious spirit: “My God sees what a hard heart I have; therefore, He drives in one wedge of affliction after another to break my heart. He knows how sick of pleurisy; therefore, He lets blood to save my life. This severe dispensation is either to mortify some corruption or to exercise some grace. How good is God, that will not let me alone in my sins but smites my body to save my soul!” Thus, he who loves God takes everything in good part. Love puts a candid gloss upon all God’s actions. You who are apt to murmur at God, as if He had dealt ill with you, be humbled for this; say thus with yourself, “If I loved God more, I should have better thoughts of God.” It is Satan that makes us have good thoughts of ourselves and complex thoughts of God. Love takes all in the fairest sense; it thinketh no evil.
11. Another fruit of love is obedience.” He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he is that loveth me” (John 14:21). It is vain to say we love Christ’s person if we slight His commands. Does that child love his father, who refuses to obey him? If we love God, we shall obey Him in those things that cross flesh and blood: (i.) in things difficult, and (ii.) in things dangerous.
(i.) In things difficult. As in mortifying sin. Some sins are not only near to us as the garment but dear to us as the eye. If we love God, we shall set ourselves against these in purpose and practice. Also, in forgiving our enemies. God commands us, upon pain of death, to forgive. “Forgive one another” (Ephes. 5:32). This is hard; it is crossing the stream. We are apt to forget kindnesses and remember injuries, but if we love God, we shall pass by offenses. When we seriously consider how many talents God has forgiven us and how many insults and provocations He has put up with at our hands, we write after His copy and endeavor rather than bury an injury and retaliate against it.
(ii.) In things dangerous. When God calls us to suffer for Him, we shall obey. Love made Christ suffer for us. Love was the chain that fastened Him to the cross; if we love God, we shall be willing to suffer for Him. Love has a strange quality; it is the most minor suffering grace yet the most suffering grace. It is the least suffering grace in one sense; it will not suffer known sin to lie in the soul unrepented of, and it will not suffer abuses and dishonors done to God; thus, it is the least suffering grace. Yet it is the most suffering grace; it will suffer reproaches, bonds, and imprisonments, for Christ’s sake. “I am ready not only to be bound but to die, for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). indeed, every Christian is not a martyr but has the spirit of martyrdom. He says as Paul, “I am ready to be bound”; he has a disposition of mind to suffer if God calls. Love will carry men out above their strength. Tertullian observes how much the heathen suffered for the love of their country. If the spring head of nature rises so high, surely grace will rise higher. If love for their country will make men suffer, much more should love to Christ. “Love endureth all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). Basil speaks of a virgin condemned to the fire, who, having her life and estate offered her if she would fall to the idol, answered, “Let life and money go, welcome Christ.” It was a noble and zealous speech by Ignatius: “Let me be ground with the teeth of wild beasts, if I may be God’s pure wheat.”
How did divine affection carry the early saints above the love of life and the fear of death? St. Stephen was stoned, St. Luke was hanged on an olive tree, and St. Peter was crucified at Jerusalem with his head downwards. These divine heroes were willing to suffer rather than by their cowardice to make the name of God suffer. How did St. Paul prize the chain that he wore for Christ? He gloried in it as a woman proud of her jewels, says Chrysostom. And holy Ignatius wore his fetters as a bracelet of diamonds. “Not accepting deliverance” (Heb.11:35). They refused to come out of prison on sinful terms and preferred their innocence over their liberty.
By this, let us test our love for God. Have we the spirit of martyrdom? Many say they love God, but how does it appear? For His sake, they will not forego the slightest comfort or undergo the most minor cross. If Jesus Christ had said to us, “ I love you well, you are dear to me, but I cannot suffer, I cannot lay down my life for you,’ we should have questioned His love very much and may not Christ suspect us, when we pretend to love Him, and yet will endure nothing for Him?
12. He who loves God will endeavor to make Him appear glorious in the eyes of others. For example, being in love will be commending and setting forth the amiableness of those they love. If we love God, we shall spread His excellencies abroad to raise His fame and esteem and induce others to fall in love with Him. Love cannot be silent; we shall be as many trumpets, sounding forth the freeness of God’s grace, the transcendence of His love, and the glory of His kingdom. Love is like fire: where it burns in the heart, it will break forth at the lips. It will be elegant in setting forth God’s praise: love must have vent.
13. Another fruit of love is to long for Christ’s appearing.” Henceforth there is a crown of righteousness laid up for me, and not for me only, but for them which love Christ’s appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8). Love desires union; Aristotle gives the reason because joy flows upon the union. When our union with Christ is perfect in glory, our joy will be complete. He that loves Christ loves His appearing. Christ’s appearance will be a happy appearance to the saints. His appearance now is very comforting when He appears for us as an Advocate (Heb. ix. 24). But the other appearing will be infinitely more so when He shall appear for us as our Husband. He will that day bestow two jewels upon us. His love, a love so great and astonishing that it is better felt than expressed. And His likeness. “When he shall appear, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). From both these, love and likeness, infinite joy will flow into the soul. No wonder then that he who loves Christ longs for His appearance. “The Spirit and the bride say come; even so come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:17, 20). By this, let us test our love for Christ. A wicked, self-condemned man is afraid of Christ’s appearance and wishes He would never appear, but in the same way as love, Christ is joyful to think of His coming in the clouds. They shall then be delivered from all their sins and fears, acquitted before men and angels, and forever translated into the paradise of God.
14. Love will make us stoop to the meanest offices. Love is a humble grace; it does not walk abroad in the state; it will creep up on its hands, stoop, and submit to anything that may be serviceable to Christ. As we see in Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both of them are honorable persons, yet one takes down Christ’s body with his own hands, and the other embalms it with sweet odors. It might seem much for persons of their rank to be employed in that service, but love made them do it. If we love God, we shall not think of any work that may mean anything to us by which we may be helpful to Christ’s members. Love is not squeamish; it will visit the sick, relieve the poor, wash the saints’ wounds. The mother who loves her child is not coy and lovely; she will do those things for her child, which others would scorn to do. He who loves God will humble himself to the meanest office of love to Christ and His members.
These are the fruits of love to God. Happy are they who can find these fruits, so foreign to their natures, growing in their souls.
