The Love of the Spirit

“I beseech you by the love of the Spirit.” Rom. xv:30.

say much of the Father’s love and the wonderful love of Jesus, but do we fully realize and appreciate the love of the Spirit?

I. The very fact that the Holy Spirit has left the love and joy of heaven and made His residence for nearly two thousand years in this uncongenial world, places His sacrifice alongside that of Jesus Christ in His incarnation and redemption. Indeed the sacrifice of the third Person of the Trinity has been a far longer one than that of the Son. If we would stop to realize what heaven is and then how diflferent this dark and sinful world must seem in comparison with that glorious abode we will be able to form some idea of the infinite condescension of the Holy Spirit. Some realization of it is possible, if we look at the lives of missionaries who have gone forth from happy Christian homes and immured themselves for a whole life-time among the brutal and degraded people of some heathen land. Far deeper was the descent of the Holy Spirit in coming from heaven to earth and dwelling for all these ages in continual contact with the selfishness, wickedness, and uncleanness of this polluted world.

2. The love of the Spirit is seen in His union with the Lord Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry and His partnership with Him in all that He felt and said and did. All the Saviour’s works of beneficence were equally wrought by the Holy Ghost who rested upon Him; all His greatest words were spoken at the impulse and through the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Do we admire and adore the love of Jesus in forgiving sinners, in comforting mourners, in healing sick and suffering men and women and in taking the little children in His arms? That was also the love of the Spirit. Do we love to remember His gentle and gracious promises, those immortal words of love and grace that never can be forgotten, and that no human language can ever parallel or approach? That was all spoken through the Spirit quite as much as by the lips of the Lord.

3. The love of the Spirit is seen in the grace with which He seeks and saves lost sinners. In the three parables of Luke, chapter xv., the Holy Spirit is represented by the woman who had lost one piece of silver and with a woman’s invincible patience and perseverance swept the house and sought diligently till she found it; so the Holy Spirit seeks the lost jewels of human souls in the dust and grime of sin, sparing no pains and counting no time too long until at last He finds and restores them. There are men and women in heaven to-day who met all the approaches of divine grace for nearly a whole life-time with hardness of heart, indifference and even scorn, and who at last were won to God through His patient love. How we shall adore Him some day as He takes us back over our past and at every stage reminds us again, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.’’

4. The Holy Spirit’s love is manifested in His indwelling in human hearts. His making our bodies His temples, and His infinite and ceaseless tenderness and care in our spiritual life and training. What condescension for the most glorious of beings to become incarnate in some poor black man, some humble beggar, some illiterate convert who has just accepted Christ in the slums of one of our cities. In such lowly habitations the heavenly Comforter condescends to dwell for a life-time, patiently teaching, cleansing and comforting. Like a true mother the Holy Spirit is always busy with His charge. Nothing is too trifling for His interest; nothing is too hard for His love and power. Truly we may say:

Like a web of loving kindness,

All our life His mercy wove,

Every thread and fibre telling.

Of His everlasting love.

5. The love of the Spirit is suggested by the language used even when we ofifend Him. The Scriptures do not speak of the anger, but of the grief of this gentle Friend: ‘’Grieve not the Hply Spirit

of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.’’ How this ought to humble us and make us ashamed of our negligence and disobedience!

6. The Holy Spirit loves us with a jealous love. In James iv. 9 we read, “The Holy Spirit that dwelleth within us loveth us to jealousy.” The Holy Spirit is grieved when Christians set their affections upon the world and allow anything to separate them from supreme devotion to the Lord Jesus. With such a loving Friend let us also be jealous for His supreme rights and endeavor so to live that He will find in us the satisfaction and the delight which we have found in Him.