D. Scott Meadows

21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Observation 3. Love is the grace that most needs keeping. It is the most prone to decay (Matt 24.12; Rev 2.4). It is the grace we can least spare because it produces faithfulness. Toward God, love is the root of all affections—anger, hate, grief, hope, desire, delight, contrition, and so forth (2 Cor 5.14; 1 Jn 5.3). “Faith worketh by love” (Gal 5.6). Faith receives grace; love exercises it. Toward man, love prompts and sustains our service to others in need. There is “the labor of love” (1 Thess 1.3). Love is the glue that holds people together (Col 3.14). We fellowship and cooperate cheerfully by love toward one another. The less we love our brethren the more prone we are to apostasy, that is, association with the wicked and losing our zeal for spiritual things.

Therefore, we must beware of love’s decrease, even as true Christian believers. We are vulnerable to going backward spiritually. Our affections may be deadened through long familiarity with holy things. This will happen unless we take pains to keep our graces stirred up. As priests were charged to keep the fire in the Temple always burning, so by our prayers, meditation, and constant work, we must keep our love alive and fervent. Neglect leads to losses. Also, indulging our sins is like pouring water on this holy fire (1 Thess 5.19). Whether through flirting with sin or fretting over life’s cares, love will decay, and that will be seen in two ways.

First, love may decay in intensity. The heart grows cold and sluggish. We become less inclined towards God, with less awe, less concern to please Him, less desire to enjoy Him, and less pleasure in thinking about Him. Decreased intensity of spiritual experience is common after we have been converted a while, when love is more settled and diverse. Beware of this decrease, for then love is growing cold.

Second, love may decay in exercise. We forget God, neglect duty, tolerate sin, omit private worship, and lose sweet thoughts of Him (Psa 104.34). Any beloved object occupies a person’s frequent thoughts and we return to the object as often as possible. So when we can go days and weeks without seeking God in prayer, we love Him little if at all. Other symptoms of this heart-malady include no concern for glorifying God, no strategizing of how to serve Him, no grief over having sinned, no awareness of our faults, no caution against offending God, no spiritual vigilance, and no disgust with temptations. When a warm love for Christ dwells in us, sin does not fare nearly so well (Tit 2.11, 12). When love for Him cools, we do not guard our heart nor watch our tongue. We go through the motions in public worship because we are just not into it. We confess our sins without remorse. We pray for spiritual blessings with no expectation of obtaining what we ask. We are angry without realizing how dangerous that is. We say prayers for others without sympathy or brotherly love. We give thanks without gratitude. We stop or greatly minimize talking informally with our brethren about spiritual things. We hear sermons without really paying attention to them. We read without a desire to gain spiritual profit. We sing without a melody in our heart. All these regrettably widespread symptoms are evidence of a heart declining in love for God.

As you love your own souls, beware of this great evil!

1. Be “rooted and grounded in love” (Eph 3.17). Do not be so easily pleased or satisfied with flashes of love in your heart or being deeply moved by a sermon, but get solid grace and thorough experiences. Sudden affections eventually come to nothing. A tree that has taken root is much less likely to wither.

2. Increase and grow in love (1 Thess 4.10). Being satisfied with your present degree of love is surely a precursor of decay. Every day you should be mortifying love of sin, love of self, and love of the world, while loving Christ more and more.

3. Notice the very first subtle signs of spiritual decline and nip it in the bud. Crush the egg before you have to kill the serpent. The person who keeps a house in good repair all the time prevents its ruin and fall. Plug up every hole and chink in your armor before things get worse.

4. Plead with your own heart. However much you love Christ, it is less than He deserves. However faithfully you perform your duty, you owe Him more. He is to be loved with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your might. Anything less than this dishonors Him. Remember the greatness of His love for us who has “called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.” Surely Christ is looking to be much loved in return!

5. In Revelation 2.5, the Holy Spirit requires three things of us when we have decayed in love. 1) Consideration: “Remember whence thou art fallen” means ponder the case well with remorse. 2) Humiliation: “Repent.” Turn not just from gross sins but even lessened degrees of love. 3) Reformation: “Do the first works.” Do not accept anything less than a return to your former good condition (Jn 20.17). Ω