“My son, thou art not yet strong and prudent in thy love.”
“Wherefore O my Lord?”
“Because for a little opposition thou fallest away from thy undertakings, and too eagerly seekest after consolation. The strong lover standeth fast in temptations, and believeth not the evil persuasions of the enemy. As in prosperity I please him, so in adversity I do not displease.”
“The prudent lover considerest not the gift of the lover so much as the love of the giver. He looketh for the affection more than the value, and setteth all gifts lower than the Beloved. The noble lover resteth not in the gift, but in Me above every gift.”
Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
The strong lover, the fodder of many a dime store novel. Yet too often the hero or heroine is just the opposite of Kempis’ hero, plunging instead into temptation and believing the persuasion that the fulfillment of lust justifies any behavior. Jesus is our great example of love. He is the archetype of hupomone.
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8
Christ stood fast. He stayed the course to complete a plan that called for the complete sacrifice and abasement of his very being. He rejected the lies of the enemy time after time. He rejected that Matthew could never be anything except a crooked tax collector. He rejected that a girl named Mary Magdalene was too soiled to be of any use to anyone. He rejected that a woman of Samaria could never serve the Gospel. He rejected that the human race was not worth the sacrifice. He rejected that a young man who was raised in the faith but walked away wreaking destruction all around him for 25 years could not turn his life around and become a tool of the Holy Spirit and a man who sees value in imitating Christ.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
As the song says “This is love”. It stands fast in Truth. The strong lover is based not in circumstance but based in the Gospel, a love that is truly for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health but its strength transcends the grave.
38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
This is the love God has for us and it is the love that is required of any who would be proved a true lover.
I will be posting The Proving of a True Lover Series in its entirety on Easter Sunday (tomorrow). I cannot think of a better day to celebrate the love of God!
“My son, thou art not yet strong and prudent in thy love.”
Fan Into Flame Ministries 