“Do You Love Me?”

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 27 1876,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" John 21:16.

This is a very short and simple text and some would think it very easy
to say all that can be said upon it, but, indeed, it is a very large
text and too full of meaning for me to attempt to expound it all. The
words are few, but the thoughts suggested are very many There are
subtle meanings, too, in the original Greek well worth considering, and
allusions which deserve to be followed out. I intend, at this time, to
confine myself to one point, and to ask your consideration of one
thought only. May the Spirit of God prepare our hearts for our
meditation and impress the Truth of God upon them. My one point is
this–our Lord asked Peter whether he had a love to His Person. The
inquiry is not concerning his love to the kingdom of God, or the people
of God–it begins and ends with his love to the Son of God.

"Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" He does not say, "Do you now
perceive the prudence of My warnings when I bade you watch and pray?
Simon, son of Jonas, will you, from now on, cease from your
self-confidence and take heed to My admonitions?" It is not even, "Do
you now believe My doctrines? Do you now trust in One whom, the other
day, you denied?" Neither is it asked, "Are you pleased with My
precepts? Are you a believer in My claims? Will you still confess Me to
be the Son of the Highest?" No, these matters are not brought under
question, but the one inquiry is, "Do you love Me? Have you a personal
attachment for Me, to My very Self?"

He calls him by his old, unconverted name, Simon, son of Jonas, to
remind him of what Grace had done for him and then He asks only about
his love. The question deals with personal attachment to a personal
Christ–and that is my sole subject. Observe that our ever wise and
tender Savior questioned Peter about his love in plain terms. There was
no beating about the bush. He went at once to the point, for it is not
a matter about which ambiguity and doubt can be endured. As the
physician feels his patient's pulse to judge his heart, so the Lord
Jesus tested, at once, the pulse of Peter's soul. He did not say,
"Simon, son of Jonas, do you repent of your folly?" Repentance is a
very blessed Grace and very necessary, but it was wiser to look, at
once, to Peter's love, because it is quite certain that if a disciple
loves his master he will deeply grieve for ever having denied him.

The Lord does not even ask His follower about his faith which might
well have been put under question, for he had with oaths said, "I know
not the Man." It would have been a highly important question, but it
was answered when Peter avowed his love, for he who loves, believes,
and no man can love a Savior in whom he does not believe. The Lord left
every other point out of His question, or perhaps I ought, rather, to
say concentrated every other point into this one in-quiry–"Do you love
Me?" Learn from this fact that one thing is necessary–love to Jesus is
the chief, the vital point to look to.

This question the Lord asked three times, as if to show that it is of
the first, of the second and of the third importance–as if it
comprised all else and, therefore, He would again and again and again
insist upon it–as orators dwell with repetitions and emphatic
sentences upon topics which they would urge home upon their hearers.
This nail was meant to be well fastened, for it is struck on the head
with blow after blow. With unvarying tone and look, the Lord enquired,
"Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" It shows what weight our Savior
attached to the matter of his love, that He asked him about that, about
that only and about that three times over.

When you are examining yourselves, look mainly to your hearts and make
thorough inquisition into your love. Is Jesus really loved by you? Have
you a deep attachment to His Person? Whatever else you trifle with, be
earnest here! Remember that the Lord Jesus, Himself, asked the question
and He asked it until He grieved Peter. So long as he was but
recognized as a disciple, Peter must have felt ready to receive the
severest possible rebuke and think himself gently treated. Therefore it
was not easy to grieve him. Our Lord was slow at all times to cause
pain to any true heart, yet on

this occasion, for wise reasons, He reiterated His inquiry till He
touched Peter's unhealed wounds and made them smart. Had he not made
his Master's heart bleed? And was it not fit that he should feel
heart-wounds himself? A threefold denial demanded a threefold
confession–and the grief he had caused was fitly brought to his memory
by the grief he felt.

Now, this morning, if I press this question until I grieve some of you,
till I grieve myself, also, I shall not be censurable for having done
so. To comfort you would be a good work, but sometimes it may be better
to grieve you. Not always is sweet food the best thing we can bring
you–bitter medicine is sometimes more important. I shall not have
pushed the question beyond its legitimate sphere if I should so present
it as to stir your hearts even to anguish! True love has more or less
of pain about it. Only the mere pretender passes through the world
without anxious inquiry and heart-searching. Better far that you should
be grieved today and be found right at last, than that you should
presumptuously feel yourselves secure and be deceived in the end!

We remarked that the question was put by our Lord Himself. What if the
Lord Jesus should meet you today and should say to each one of you, "Do
you love Me?" If the question came at the end of one of our sermons, or
just as we had done teaching, I should not wonder if it startled us.
Found, as we are, in His House, having just sung sweet hymns in His
honor, having united in prayer and heartily joined in His worship, it
would seem strange to be questioned as to our love to Him and yet it
would not be unnecessary. Imagine, then, that your Lord has found you
quite alone and is standing before you. Think of Him touching you with
His hand and gently asking, "After all, do you love Me?"

How would you feel under such a question? Would you not be struck with
it and, perhaps, with shame begin to tremble and think over a dozen
reasons why such a searching question was suggested to you just now?
And if the Lord were to repeat it three times and each time put it
distinctly to you, and to you only, would you not feel great searchings
of heart? Yet would I have you so receive the question. Let it come to
you now as from Jesus. Forget that it is spoken by the minister, or
written in the text. Bear it only as spoken by Jesus, by that same
Jesus who has redeemed you from death and Hell by His most precious
blood!

He addresses it to you rather than to others–is there not a cause?
Singling you out of the company, He gazes on you fixedly and says,
"Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?"–you know why there is such
cause to question you. Answer for yourself, alone, for He puts the
enquiry only to you. Never mind Nathanael, now, nor Thomas, nor the two
sons of Zebedee–"Do you love Me?" Really, truly does your heart beat
true towards Jesus of Nazareth? Come, Peter, yes or no? You say, "Yes,"
but is it so? Is it so? Is it so? I want the enquiry to come to my own
soul and to yours this morning, as if Jesus really stood before each
one of us and said, "Do you love Me?"

May the Lord grant us Grace to make solemn enquiry as to this matter,
to bear honest witness and to give a true answer which shall be the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

I. Our first observation shall be this–LOVE TO THE PERSON OF CHRIST
MAY BE ABSENT FROM OUR HEARTS. Unhappy thought and yet most certainly
true! Even in our hearts there may be no love for Christ! I know of
nothing which can screen any one of us from the necessity of the
question. Our gifts and apparent Graces may prevent our fellow
creatures questioning us, but nothing should prevent our questioning
ourselves, for certainly there is nothing which will prevent the Lord,
Himself, from putting the enquiry to us.

No outward religiousness renders this enquiry needless. Are we
professors of religion? Are we very constant in attending to outward
forms of worship? Do we enter very heartily into all the public
exercises of God's House? Yes, but there are thousands who do that,
hundreds of thousands who do that every Lord's-Day and yet they do not
love Christ! My Brothers and Sisters, are not multitudes wrapped up in
forms and ceremonies? If the service pleases the eyes and the ears, are
they not quite content? Love to the Person of Christ has not occurred
to the mass of avowed worshippers of Jesus!

We know others to whom the end-all and be-all of religion is an
orthodox statement of doctrine. So long as the preaching is according
to the confession of faith and every word and act is piously correct,
they are well pleased. But no love to Jesus ever stirs their
hearts–religion to them is not an exercise of the heart at all–it is
mere brain work and hardly that. They know nothing of the living soul
going out towards a living Person, a bleeding heart knit to another
bleeding heart, a life subsisting on another life and in love with it.
We know Brothers and Sisters who carry this very far and if the
preacher differs from them in the merest shade, they are overwhelmed
with pious horror at his unsoundness– and they will not hear him
again–even if he preaches Christ most preciously in all the rest of
his discourse, it is nothing, because he cannot say correctly their
"Shibboleth."

What is orthodoxy without love, but a catacomb to bury dead religion
in? It is a cage without a bird! The gaunt skeleton of a man, out of
which the life has fled! I am afraid that the general current of Church
life runs too much towards externals and too little towards deep
burning love to the Person of Christ. If you preach much about
emotional religion and the heart-work of godliness, cold-blooded
professors label you as rather mystical and begin to talk of Madame
Guyon and the danger of the Quietist school of religion. We would not
mind having a little spice of that, even if we were blamed for it, for,
after all, the realizing of Christ is the grand thing! The faith which
is most blessed is faith which deals most fully with the Person of
Jesus Christ. The truest repentance is that which weeps at the sight of
His wounds and the love which is most sweet is love to the adorable
Person of the Well-Beloved.

I look upon the Doctrines of Grace as my Lord's garments and they smell
of myrrh, aloes and cassia. I look upon His precepts as His scepter and
it is a rod tipped with silver. And I delight to touch it and find
comfort in its power. I look upon the Gospel ordinances as the Throne
upon which He sits and I delight in that Throne of ivory overlaid with
pure gold. But oh, His Person is sweeter than His garments, dearer than
His scepter, more glorious than His Throne! He, Himself, is altogether
lovely, and to love HIM is the very heart's core of true religion! But
perhaps you may not love Him, after all. You may have all the externals
of outward religiousness and yet the secret of the Lord may not be with
you. It will be vain to reverence the Sabbath if you forget the Lord of
the Sabbath! It is vain to love the sanctuary but not the Great High
Priest, vain to love the wedding feast but not the Bridegroom! Do you
love ME? That is the question. "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love ME?"

Nor, Brothers and Sisters, would the highest office in the Church
render it unnecessary to ask the question. Peter was an Apostle and not
a whit behind the very chief of them. In some respects he was a
foundation stone of the Church and yet it was necessary to say to him,
"Do you love Me?" There was once an Apostle who did not love the Lord.
There was an Apostle who coveted 30 pieces of silver–a goodly price
was that at which he sold his Master. The name of Judas should sound
the death-knell of all presumptuous confidence in our official
standing! We may stand very high in the Church and yet fall to our
destruction! Our names may be in the list of religious leaders and yet
they may not be written in the Lamb's Book of Life. So, my Brother
minister, deacon, or elder–it is necessary to put to ourselves the
question, "Do you love the Lord?"

The enjoyment of the greatest Christian privileges does not render this
question unnecessary. Peter and James and John were the three most
favored of all the Apostles. They witnessed certain of our Lord's
miracles which were done in secret and beheld by no other human eyes.
They beheld Him on the Mount of Transfiguration in all His Glory and
they saw Him in the Garden of Gethsemane in all His agony and yet,
though thus favored, their Lord felt it necessary to ask of their
leader, "Do you love Me?" O my Brother, you have had high enjoyments,
you have been on Tabor, illuminated with its transporting light and you
have also had fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, or, at any
rate, you think you have.

You are familiar, alike, with inward agonies and spiritual joys! You
have been the friend of the Lord and eaten bread with Him and yet,
remember, there was one who did this and yet lifted up his heel against
Him! Therefore it is necessary to say to you, my Brother, "Do you love
the Lord?" Do you really love Him, after all? For it is not certain
that you do just because of what you have seen and enjoyed. It is easy
to invent a remarkable experience, but the one thing necessary is a
loving heart. Take heed that you have this.

Nor, my dear Brothers and Sisters, does the greatest warmth of zeal
prevent your necessity of this question. Peter was a red-hot disciple.
How ready he was both to do and to dare for his Master! How impetuously
he cried when he was on the lake of Galilee, "Lord, if it is You, bid
me come to You on the water." What daring! What faith! What vehement
zeal! And here, too, in the narrative before us, when the Lord was by
that same Sea of Tiberias, Peter, in his headlong zeal, cannot wait
until the boat touches the shore. He girds on his fisher's coat and
plunges in to meet the Master whom he loves and yet, with that headlong
zeal before Him, the Lord says, "Do you love Me?"

Yes, young man, you are earnest in the Sunday school, you have sought
the conversion of the little ones and succeeded above many! You
encourage others and give impetus to every movement in which you
engage. And yet you need to enquire whether you do, in very deed, love
the Lord or not. Perhaps, my dear Brother, you stand up in the corners
of the streets and face the ungodly throng and delight to talk of
Jesus, whether men oppose or not. Yet are you sure you love Jesus? My
Sister, you visit the poor and care for the needy. You lay yourself out
to do good to young people and are full

of warmth in all things which concern the Redeemer's cause. We admire
you and hope your zeal will never grow less– but for all that, even to
you must the question be put–"Do you love the Lord Jesus?"

There is a zeal which is fed by regard to the opinions of others and
sustained by a wish to be thought earnest and useful. There is a zeal
which is rather the warmth of nature than the holy fire of Grace. This
zeal has enabled many to do great things and yet, when they have done
all, they have been as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal because
they did not love Jesus Christ! The most zealous actions, though they
naturally lead us to hope that those who perform them are lovers of
Jesus, are not conclusive evidence and, therefore, we must still
enquire, "Do you love the Lord?"

Yes, dear Friends, and I will go a little further–the greatest
self-denial does not prove it. Peter could say, "Lord, we have left all
and followed You." Though it was not very much, yet it was all Peter
had and he had left it all for the good cause, without having gained
any earthly good in return. He had been frequently abused and
reproached for Jesus' sake and he expected to be reproached still more,
yet he was loyal and willing to suffer to the end. Yet the Lord,
knowing all that Peter had sacrificed for His sake, nevertheless said
to him, "Do you love Me?" For sadly, strangely true it is that men have
made considerable sacrifices to become professed Christians and yet
have not had the root of the matter in them.

Some have even been put into prison for the Truth of God and yet have
not been sincere Christians. It is not for us to say, but it is to be
feared that in the martyr days some have given their bodies to be
burned, yet because they had not love, it profited them nothing. Love
is essential. Nothing can compensate for its absence. And yet this
precious thing may not be in your hearts! O God, I tremble as I
remember that perhaps it is not in mine! Let each one hear the
question, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?" I must press the point
still a little further. It is often necessary for us to ask this
question because there are other points of religion besides the
emotional. Man is not all heart–he has a brain and the brain is to be
consecrated and sanctified. It is, therefore, right that we should
study the Word of God and become well instructed scribes in the kingdom
of Heaven.

Peter went to college three years, with Jesus Christ for a tutor, and
he learned a great deal–who would not from so great a Teacher? But
after he had been through his course, his Master, before He sent him to
his lifework, felt it necessary to inquire, "Do you love Me?" Brother,
you may turn over the pages of your book. You may digest doctrine after
doctrine. You may take up theological propositions and problems and you
may labor to solve this difficulty and expound that text. You may
answer the questions, till, somehow or other, the heart grows as dry as
the leaves of the volume and the book-worm feeds on the soul as well as
the paper, eating its way into the spirit. It is, therefore, a healthy
thing for the Lord to come into the study and close the book and say to
the student, "Sit still a while, and let Me ask you, 'Do you love Me?'
I am better than all books and studies. Have you a warm, human, living
love for Me?"

I hope many of you are very diligent students–if you teach in the
Sunday school you ought to be. If you preach in the streets or in
cottage meetings you ought to be. How shall you fill others if you are
not full yourselves? But, at the same time, look most of all to the
condition of your heart towards Christ. To know is good, but to love is
better. If you will study, you can solve all problems. Yet, if you love
not, you have failed to comprehend the mystery of mysteries and to know
the most excellent of sciences. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
Look well, then, to the question, "Do you

love Me?"

Much of Christian life, also, ought to be spent in active labor. We are
to be up and doing! If there was anything to do, Peter was the man to
do it. He had gone forth to preach the Gospel and even the devils had
been subject to him! Peter had worked marvels in Jesus' name and he was
ordained to work yet greater wonders. Yet, despite all that Peter had
done, his love needed to be examined. Even though those feet of Peter's
had walked the sea, which no other man's feet had done, yet Peter must
be asked, "Do you love Me?" He had just dragged that huge net to the
shore with all that host of fishes, a hundred and fifty and three! With
great skill and mighty effort he had drawn the whole catch on shore,
yet this did not prove his love.

There are preachers of the Gospel among us who have dragged a full net
to shore–the great fishes have been many! They have been great and
successful workers, but this does not prevent its being necessary for
the Lord to examine them as to their hearts. He bids them put aside
their nets for awhile and commune with Him. Shut up the Church Book.
Fold up the membership roll and have done counting your fishes! Come
into your chamber, Jesus means to ask you something! "In My name you
have cast out devils, but did you love Me? You cast the net on the
right side of the ship, as I told you,

but did you love Me? You drew to shore that catch of fishes, but did
you love Me?" Brothers and Sisters, this is the solemn fear, "Lest
after having preached to others I myself should be a castaway." Lest
after bringing others to Jesus and serving God well in the school, or
in some other sphere, you should, nevertheless, make a dead failure of
it, because you have not loved Jesus Himself!

I must press the question again and again, and I pray the Holy Spirit
to let its power be felt by every one of us. Possibly we may have been
called to contend earnestly for the faith. And we may have been
battling with the King's enemies on this side and on that and standing
up for the Truth of God even as for dear life. It is well to be a good
soldier of Jesus Christ, for this age needs men who are not afraid to
bear reproach for speaking out the Truth of God with strong, stern
words. But to this spirit it is most important that the question should
come, "Do you love Me?" A man may be a very firm Protestant but may not
love Christ. He may be a very earnest advocate of Divine Truth, but he
may not love Him who is the Truth, itself! He may maintain Scriptural
views as to Baptism and yet he may never have been baptized into
Christ.

A man may be a staunch Nonconformist and may see all the evils against
which Nonconformity is a protest, but still he may be conformed to the
world–and be lost, notwithstanding all his dissent! It is a grand
thing for every Christian warrior to look well to this breastplate and
to see that he can promptly reply to the question, "Simon, son of
Jonas, do you love Me?" Putting all together, let me say to you,
Beloved–however eminent you may be in the Church of God and however
distinguished for services or for suffering–do not evade this
question! Bare your heart to the inspection of your Lord! Answer Him
with humble boldness while He says to you, again and again, even till
He grieves you, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?"

II. We will now turn to a second head. WE MUST LOVE THE PERSON OF
CHRIST OR ALL OUR PAST PROFESSIONS HAVE BEEN A LIE. It is not possible
for that man to be a Christian who does not love Christ. Take the heart
away and life is impossible. Your very first true hope of Heaven came
to you, if it ever did come at all, by Jesus Christ. Beloved, you heard
the Gospel, but the Gospel, apart from Christ, was never good news to
you. You read the Bible, but the Bible, apart from a personal Christ,
was never anything more than a dead letter to you. You listened to many
earnest entreaties, but they all fell on deaf ears until Jesus came and
compelled you to come in.

The first gleam of comfort that ever entered my heart flashed from the
wounds of the Redeemer. I never had a hope of being saved until I saw
Him hanging on the tree in agonies and blood. And because our earliest
hope is bound up, not with any doctrine or preacher, but with Jesus,
our All in All, therefore I am sure, even if we have only lately
received our first hope, we must love Jesus, from whom it has come. Nor
do we merely begin with Him, for every Covenant blessing we have
received has been connected with His Person and could not be received
apart from Him. You have obtained pardon, but that pardon was through
His blood. You have been clothed in righteousness, but He is the Lord,
your Righteousness. He is, Himself, your glory and your beauty.

You have been cleansed from many sins by conversion, but it was the
water from His opened side which washed you. You have been made the
child of God, but your adoption has only made you feel more akin to the
Elder Brother, through whom you are made heirs of God. The blessings of
the Covenant are, none of them, separate from Christ, and cannot be
enjoyed apart from Him any more than light and heat can be divided from
the sun. All blessings come to us from His pierced hands and,
therefore, if we have received them we must love Him. It is not
possible to have enjoyed the golden gifts of His unbounded love without
being moved to love Him in return. You cannot walk in the sun without
being warmed, nor receive of Christ's fullness without being filled
with gratitude.

Every ordinance of the Christian Church, since we have been converted,
has either been a mockery, or else we have loved Christ in it. Baptism,
for instance–what is it but the mere washing away of the filth of the
flesh and nothing more unless we were buried with Christ in baptism
unto death? Like as He rose from the dead by the Glory of the Father,
even so we, also, might rise to newness of life! The Lord's Supper,
what is it? What but a common meal for the eating of bread and the
drinking of wine, unless Christ is there? But if we have come to the
Lord's Supper as true men and not as falsehearted hypocrites, we have
eaten His flesh and drunk His blood–and is it possible to have done
that and not to love Him? It cannot be!

That communion with Christ which is absolutely essential to ordinances
is also sure to produce in the heart love towards Him with whom we
commune. And so, Beloved, it has been with every approach we have made
towards God in all

the long years of our Christian life. Did you pray, my Brother? Did you
really speak with God in prayer? You could not have done it except
through Jesus the Mediator. And if you have spoken to God through the
Mediator, you cannot remain without love to One who has been your door
of access to the Father. If you have made a profession of religion, how
can it be a true and honest one unless your heart burns with attachment
to the Great Author of salvation? You have great hopes, but what are
you hoping for? Is not all your hope wrapped up in Him? Do you not
expect that when He shall appear you shall be like He is?

You are hoping to die triumphantly, but not apart from His making your
dying bed soft as a pillow of down. You are hoping to rise again, but
not apart from His Resurrection, for He is the first fruits of the
Resurrection harvest. You expect to reign upon earth, but it is with
Him. You do not expect a millennium apart from the King. You expect a
never-ending Heaven, but that Heaven is to be with Jesus where He is
and to behold His Glory. Since, then, everything that you have
obtained–if, indeed, you have received it from the Lord–has Christ's
name stamped on it and comes to you direct from His pierced hands. And
it cannot be that you have received it unless you love Him.

Now, when I ask the question, remember that upon your answer to it
hangs this alternative–a hypocrite or a true man, a false professor or
a genuine convert–a child of God or an heir of wrath. Therefore answer
the enquiry, but answer it with deliberation. Answer it
conscientiously, as though you stood before the bar of Him who now so
tenderly enquires of you, but who will then speak in other tones and
look with other glances, even with those eyes which are like a flame of
fire. "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love Me?"

III. Our third consideration is this–WE MUST HAVE LOVE TO THE PERSON
OF CHRIST OR NOTHING IS

RIGHT FOR THE FUTURE. We have not finished life yet–a long pilgrimage
may possibly lie before us. Now all will go right if we love Christ,
but nothing can proceed as it should if love to Jesus is absent. For
instance, Peter is called to feed the lambs and feed the sheep, but for
a true pastor, the first qualification is love to Christ. I gather from
this incident and I am sure I do not press it unduly, that Jesus
Christ, meaning to make Peter a feeder of His lambs and sheep, acts as
a tester to see whether he has the proper qualifications. And He does
not so much inquire about Peter's knowledge or gifts of utterance, as
about his love, for the first, second and third qualification for a
true pastor is a loving heart.

Now, mark, what is true of a pastor is true of every useful worker for
Christ. Love is essential, my dear Friend. You cannot work for Christ
if you do not love Him. "But I can teach in the school," says one. "No,
not as school should be taught, without love to Jesus." "But I am
connected with an interesting society, which is doing much good." "But
you are not glorifying God unless you are connected with that society
because you love Jesus Christ." Put down your tools, for you cannot
work profitably in my Lord's vineyard unless your heart loves Him. His
vines had better be untrimmed than be pruned by angry hands. Let the
lambs alone, Sir, you will never rear them if your heart is hard and
ungentle. If you do not love the Master, you will not love His work, or
His servants, or the rules of His House–and we can do better without
you than with you. To have an unloving worker grumbling about the
Lord's House and vineyard would be distressing to the whole family.
Love must be in the heart, or true service cannot come from the hands.

Then, again, perhaps suffering lies before you–and if your heart is
not true to Christ, you will not be able to patiently endure for His
name's sake. Before long the time came for Peter to glorify God by
death. Peter has to be girded and to be taken where he would not. Now,
can he be fit for martyrdom if he does not love Jesus? Tradition says
that he was crucified with his head downwards because he felt it too
much honor to be put to death in the same position as his Lord. It may
be so. No doubt he was put to death by crucifixion and it was his
strong, deep love which made him more than a conqueror. Love makes the
hero. When the Spirit of God inflames love, He inspires courage.

See then, O Believers, how much you need love for the future. Young
Christian, you will have to run the gauntlet before you enter Heaven. I
do not care what sphere of life you occupy, you are very particularly
favored if somebody does not mock at you and persecute you. Between
here and Heaven you will be tried and, perhaps, your foes will be the
men of your own household! Many will watch for your stumbling and even
place stumbling blocks in your way. To walk steadily you will need to
carry the fires of love in your heart. If you do not love Jesus
intensely, sin will get the mastery over you. Self-denials and
humiliations, which would be easy with love, will be impossible without
it. Rightly to work or to suffer, or to die, we must love Jesus with
all our hearts.

Look, my Brothers and Sisters, if we have no love for Jesus Christ's
Person, our piety lacks the adhesive element. It fails in that which
will help us to stick to the good old way to the end and hold out to
the end. Men often leave what they

like, but never what they love. Men can deny what they merely believe
as a matter of mental conviction, but they will never deny that which
they feel to be true and accept with heartfelt affection. If you are to
persevere to the end, it must be in the power of love. Love is the
great inspiriting force. Many a deed in the Christian life is
impossible to anything but love. In serving Christ you come across a
difficulty far too great for judgment, far too hard for prudence, and
unbelief sits down and weighs and calculates. But love, mighty love,
laughs at the impossibility and accomplishes it for Jesus Christ.

Love breaks through troops. Love leaps over walls and, hand-in-hand
with Faith, she is all but Omnipotent! No, through the power of God
which is upon her, she can do all things for Jesus Christ her Lord. If
you lack love, your energy is gone. The force which nerves the man and
subdues his foes is lacking. Without love, too, you are without the
transforming force. Love to Christ is that which makes us like He is.
The eyes of love, like windows, let in the Savior's image and the heart
of love receives it as upon a sensitive plate until the whole nature
bears its impression. You are like that which you love, or you are
growing like it. If Christ is loved, you are growingly becoming like
He. But without love you will never bear the image of the heavenly. O
Spirit of God, with wings of love, brood over us till Christ is formed
in us!

My Brothers and Sisters, there is one other reflection–without love
for Christ we lack the perfecting element. We are to be with Him soon.
In a few more weeks or months, none of us can tell how few, we shall be
in Glory. Yes, you and I. Many of us shall be wearing the white robes
and bearing the palm branches. We shall only buy two or three more
almanacs, at the outside, and then we shall keep no more reckoning of
days, for we shall be where time, with its little eddies and currents,
shall be forgotten in the eternal rainbow of the ages. But if we do not
love Jesus, we shall not be where He is. There are none in Heaven that
have not first learned to love Him here below. So we must have love for
Jesus, the future imperiously demands it and, therefore, I put the
question with all the greater seriousness and vehemence, "Simon, Son of
Jonas, do you love Me?"

IV. But now I will suppose I have received an answer from you and you
are able to say you do love Jesus. Then my fourth and closing head must
be, IF WE DO LOVE HIM, WHAT THEN? Why then, if we do love Him, let us
do something for Him, for Jesus Christ replied to Peter the moment he
said, "You know all things, You know that I love You"–"Feed My sheep."
Very kind, it was, of the Savior, because He knew from His own heart
that wherever there is love there is a desire for activity. Because
Jesus loved so much, therefore it became His meat and his drink to do
the will of His heavenly Father.

And so thinks Jesus–"Peter loves Me and his heart will ache if I do
not give him something to do. Go and feed My lambs, go and feed My
sheep." Brother, Sister, if you love Christ, do not idle away this
Sunday afternoon! If you love Christ, get to work! What are you doing?
Attending the means of Grace and getting a good feed. Is that all?
Well, that is doing something for yourself. Many people in the world
are very busy at feeding–among the most active with knife and
fork–but I do not know that eating a man's bread is any proof of love
to him. A great many professing Christians give no proof of love to
Christ except that they enjoy sermons. But now, if you love Jesus
Christ as you say you do, prove it by doing good to others–"Feed My
sheep."

I see a company of Brethren met together to hold a conference and to
grow in Grace. Very excellent, indeed–grow away, Brothers and Sisters,
as fast as ever you can–I like to see you as a flower garden, all
a-growing, all a-blowing. But when you have done all that, I pray you
do not congratulate yourselves as though you had done a mighty fine
thing, because there is nothing in it unless it leads you to work for
others. To publish accounts of such happy gatherings is like telling
the poor people of Whitechapel that the Lord Mayor and Aldermen had a
fine banquet of turtle soup. Suppose I read that you have had a
splendid series of meetings? Well, I am glad you enjoyed yourselves,
but the point is this–if there is anything in it, get to work!

If you love Christ, feed His sheep and lambs. If it is not all talk. If
it is not all much ado about nothing. If it is not all fuss–get to
soul-winning! Get down among the poor and needy! Get down among the
lost and wandering! Get down among the dark and ignorant and hold forth
Jesus Christ as the balm of Gilead and the Savior of sinners! After
all, this is the test of how much you have grown in Grace–this is the
test of your higher life–this is the proof of how much you have become
like Jesus. What will you do for Him? For if you do not go, now, and
feed His sheep and feed His lambs, it does not matter what you say or
what you think you enjoy–you do not give that proof of love which
Jesus asks for.

I put it in this final word–when next you teach your classes, or your
own families–do it for love of Jesus. Say to your heart, "I love
Christ and now I am going to teach for love of Him." Oh, there will be
a grand class this afternoon, my Sister! You will get on mightily if
you teach for love of Him–every word you say will be powerful since it
is suggested by love of Him! That girl who makes so much noise and
troubles you so much, you will bear with her for love for Him. That
restless young urchin, you cannot get the truth into him–you tell him
many tales and when you have done he wants another. You will patiently
give him another for the love of Christ.

When you pray with the little ones, pray because you love them for
Christ's sake. You are going to preach, do the preaching for love of
Christ. We sometimes do it because it is our turn to do it, but it
should never be so. You know how delightfully servants will wait upon
you if they do it for love. You have been out for a few weeks and at
last you come home. Look at the room! What a welcome it is before you!
They have half destroyed the garden to bring in the flowers to make the
table look nice for you! That supper–well, it is just the same supper
that any Mary or Jane would have cooked, but see how it is put upon the
table! Everything seems to say it is done for love of master and
mistress, to show our affection and respect for them–and you enjoy it
indescribably, because it tells of love!

Now, tomorrow and as long as you live, do everything out of love to
Christ! It will spread flowers over your work and make it look
beautiful in His eyes. Put love's fingers to work, love's brains,
love's eyes, love's hands–think with love, pray with love, speak with
love, live with love and in this way you will live with power and God
will bless you for Jesus' sake. Amen.

PORTION OFSCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–John 21. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–786, 787, 640.
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