To be saved is to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Solemn, indeed, it is when one does not love Him, for the Scripture declares. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema [or, accursed]" (1 Cor. 16:22).

The Fact of His Love

To love Him is the result of knowing His love for us. The apostle John says, "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Why He loved us is the mystery of love and of divine sovereignty, replete with grace. Not one of us merits His love, but yet His love has gone out to all without exception, for, "God so loved the world" (John 3:16); "God commendeth His love toward us" (Rom. 5:8); "Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it" (Eph. 5:25).

The Proof of His Love

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation [the satisfying sacrifice] for our sins" (1 John 4:9,10). The greatest proof of His love is thus seen in God sending His Son into this world of sin to die for sinful men that they might live through Him. And the love of Christ led Him to the depths of death on the cross to endure the judgment against us, and shed his blood to effect reconciliation and justification for every believer in Him. Truly, "Greater love hath no man than this" (John 15:13).

The Results of His Love

In the book of the Song of Songs—the song of love in the Old Testament—the Holy Spirit inspires lyrics of sacred expressions of the love the bridegroom has for the bride. Because of His love told to her, reciprocal expressions of love flow out to Him. In all this we have typified the love of Christ to the earthly remnant of Israel in a coming day, of the love of Christ to the Church, which is His body, and to each individual in that body. Christ delights to extol the virtues and graces of Himself as seen in those who are responsive to His love, and what He has made them to be through His redemption. Detailed descriptions are given by Him of the beauty He sees and appreciates in His own. The perfection of their acceptability to Him is summed up in these words, "Thou art all fair, My love; there is no spot in thee" (Song of Solomon 4:1-7).

Listening to the expressions of His love for the bride stirs her heart's affections and causes a song of love to return to Him. To not only know that He died to redeem us, but to know from His own lips what He thinks of us, and of "the love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Eph. 3:19), inspires a song of love to Him ignited by the flames of His own love to us. She sings to Him of His excellencies, detailing His entire being she has come to know from Himself and sums it all up in these words, "He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved" (Song of Solomon 5:9-15). Does my reader know Him as such?

This love is a love that "Many waters cannot quench . . neither can the floods drown it" (Song of Solomon 8:7). Let nothing be allowed to crowd it out of the first place it should have in our hearts and lives. Only then can we please Him who is rightly jealous of our affections. Only then can we be kept from being swept away in the current of the world and the destructive path of self-pleasing. Only then will the lampstand of testimony shine brightly because of love for Him in this dark world through which we are passing.