Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
3. The Lord appeared of old unto me ] It is best to take this as put in the mouth of the people themselves.
of old ] rather, as mg. from afar, as the same Hebrew word is rendered ch. Jer 30:10. The people from their distant exile in Assyria think upon God as dwelling upon His accustomed seat, Mount Zion.
with lovingkindness have I drawn thee ] mg. have I continued lovingkindness unto thee. Cp. Psa 36:10 and mg. of Psa 109:12. But, considering the strong influence of Hosea on Jeremiah, it is perhaps best to retain “have I drawn” (or I draw). Cp. the parallel in Hos 11:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Of old – From afar (margin). See Jer 30:10. To the Jew God was enthroned in Zion, and thus when His mercy was shown unto the exiles in Assyria it came from a distant region 2Ch 6:20, 2Ch 6:38.
With lovingkindness … – Rather, I have continued lovingkindness unto thee.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 31:3
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Everlasting love
I. Our once desolate and miserable condition by nature. Were we not captives? yea, bond-slaves? All our happiness consisted in forgetting ourselves. Everything marked us as, in the worst sense, slaves. Some of us professed to despise the opinions of men, and yet, what were we but the slaves of men? What did we pursue? Nothing but the applause of men. What were we afraid of? Nothing but their censure. How afraid of singularity, when we first perhaps had some thoughts concerning our souls. What was this but slavery? Look at the lives we led. We lived but for ourselves. Self was our Nebuchadnezzar, who took possession of the city, our walls, and got all for himself. Self, perhaps, in some decent, moral form, but still self; the fleshy, unregenerate, corrupt, carnal self. Was not this the greatest slavery? And who was the master, the grinding tyrant of this slave? To whom had we sold ourselves for nought? Who was it that led us captive at his will? (2Ti 2:25-26.)
II. The love which God has towards His true Israel. And what is its peculiar character? It is Sovereign and Distinguishing.
1. It is a Love bounded by His Will. His most wise, righteous, and holy Will, (Exo 33:19).
2. It is personal and individual. I have loved thee. Thee, a poor sinner, a prodigal; thee, a poor, unprofitable servant thee, a poor backslider in heart too oft; thee, too much, too frequently ungrateful;–yet have I loved thee–yes, thee, notwithstanding all; thee, singly and alone, as if there were no other; thee, as one of the innumerable family, the many sons whom I will bring to glory.
3. It is effectual and overcoming. With lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Ah, how gently, how tenderly, how silently, sometimes mysteriously, but ever in love.
4. This love is everlasting. Time never knew its beginning, eternity shall never know its end. Closing remarks:–
1. All religion consists in individuality. Religion is a personal thing.
(1) It is so in our confessions (2Sa 12:13).
(2) It is so in our standing before God (Luk 18:13).
(3) So is it in the consolations of the Spirit (Gal 2:20).
2. All the blessings of present salvation spring from God s everlasting love. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
Secret drawings graciously explained
I. Gods dealings with us are never understood till He Himself appears to us. He must speak, or we cannot interpret His acts. Though all things in the field and the garden show what the sun doeth, yet none of these fruits put forth by the sun can be perceived till the sun himself reveals them. For first, man is not in a condition to perceive God till God reveals Himself to him. By nature we are blind Godward; yea, deaf, and in all ways insensible towards the great Spirit. The Lord said of Cyrus, I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me; and even so may He say of many an unconverted man, I warned thee, and aroused thee, and drew thee when thou wast not aware of Me. Besides this, we are so selfish that, when God is drawing us to Himself, we are too much absorbed in our own things to notice the hand which is at work upon us. We crave the world, we sigh for human approbation, we seek for case and comfort, we desire above all things to indulge our pride with the vain notion of self-righteousness. And, therefore, we look not after God. Moreover, God must explain His dealings to us by revealing Himself to us, because those ways are in themselves frequently mysterious. He does not usually begin by giving the man light, and peace, and comfort. No, but he sorely plagues him with darkness that might be felt. He makes sweet sin to become bitter; He pours gall into the fountains of his carnal life till the man begins to be weary of the things which once contented him. Full often the Lord fitteth the arrows of conviction to the string, and shooteth again, and again, and again, till the soul is wounded in a thousand places, and is ready to bleed to death. The Lord kills before He makes alive. But I say again, how could we expect unspiritual men to see the hand of the Lord in all this? God must reveal Himself to the man, or else he will not discover the hand of the Lord in the anguish of his spirit. This appearance of the Lord must be personal. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me. True knowledge of God is always a Divine operation, not wrought at second-hand by instrumentality, but wrought by the right hand of the Lord Himself. No man can come to Me, saith Christ, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him; and no man understands those drawings except the same Father shall come unto him, and manifest Himself to him. Till we know the Lord by personal revelation, we cannot read His handwriting upon our hearts, or discern His dealings with us. This appearance needs to be repeated. The text may be read as a complaint on the part of Israel. Israel says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me–as much as to say, He has not appeared to me lately. Of old He was seen by brook, and bush, and sea, and rock; when Jacob met Him at Jaddok, and Moses in the wilderness at the burning bush; but now His visits are few and far between. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me. Oh, that He would appear now! I pray at this time that those of you who are mourning after that fashion may be able to rise out of it. It is not the Lords desire that He should be as a stranger in the land, or as a wayfaring man that tarrieth but for a night. He is willing to abide with us. His delights are with the sons of men. This appearance is ever an act of mighty grace. The text might be read, The Lord appeared from afar to me. So He did at the first. What a great way off we were from God, but behold the Beloved came, like a roe or a young hart, leaping over the mountains, skipping upon the hills! He came to us in boundless love when we lay at deaths dark door, the fast-bound slaves of hell. He can and will come again. If He came to us from far, He will surely come again now that He has made us nigh. Expect Him to come to you on a sudden. Pray for the immediate revelation of God Himself to your spirit in a way of joy and transport that shall set your soul in rapid motion towards the Lord. Should the Lord return to you in gracious manifestation, take care that you do hot, lose Him again. If the Bridegroom deigns to visit you, hold Him fast.
II. When the Lord does so appear, we then perceive that He has been dealing with us. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. What exceeding love the Lord showed to us before we knew Him! Let us now look back and remember the love of long-suffering, which spared us when we delighted in sin. The Lord did not cut us off in our unbelief; therein is love. The next admirable discovery is the Lords restraining grace. We now see that the Lord held us back from plunging into the deepest abysses of sin. Blessed be God for those crooks in my lot which kept me from poisonous pleasures! So, too, we now see the preparations of grace, the ploughing of our hearts by sorrow, the sowing of them by discipline, the harrowing of them by pain, the watering of them by the rain of favour, the breaking of them up by the frosts of adversity. These were not actually grace, but they opened the door for grace. We now see how in a thousand ways the Lord was drawing us when we knew Him not. The text chiefly dwells upon drawings. I beg you to refresh your memories by recollecting the drawings of the Lord towards you while you were yet ungodly. Often these were very gentle drawings: they were not such forces as would move an ox or an ass, but such as were meant for tender spirits; yet sometimes they tugged at you very hard, and almost overcame you. Drawing supposes a kind of resistance; or, at any rate, an inertness; and, truly, we did not stir of ourselves, but needed to be persuaded and entreated. Some of you will recollect how the Holy Spirit drew you many times before you came to Him. The Lord surrounded you as a fish is surrounded with a net; and though you laboured to escape you could not, but were drawn more and more within the meshes of mercy. Do you remember when at last the Holy Spirit drew you over the line; when at last, without violating your free will, He conquered it by forces proper to the mind? Blessed day! You were made a willing captive to your Lord, led in silken fetters at His chariot-wheels, a glad prisoner to almighty love, set free from sin and Satan, made to be unto your Lord a lifelong servant.
III. We perceive that loving-kindness was the drawing force. Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. At first we think God has dealt sternly with us, but in His light we see light, and we perceive that the drawing power, which has brought us to receive mercy, is the Divine loving-kindness. Love is the attractive force. What multitudes of persons have been drawn to the Lord first by His loving-kindness in the gift of His dear Son! The loving-kindness of God as seen in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus draws men from sin, from self, from Satan, from despair, and from the world. Next, the hope of pardon, free and full, attracts sinners to God. Thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee, makes a man run after Christ. I have known others drawn to the Lord by another view of His loving-kindness, namely, His willingness to make new creatures of us. The prayer of many has been, Create in me a clean heart, O God; and they have been charmed by hearing that whosoever believes in Jesus is born again, to start on a new life, ruled by a new principle, and endowed with a new nature, sustained by the Holy Spirit. Oh, the loving-kindness of the Lord! You may measure heaven; you may fathom the sea; you may plunge into the abyss, and tell its depth; but the loving-kindness of the Lord is beyond you. Here is an infinite expanse. It is immeasurable, even as God Himself is beyond conception. It is everywhere about us, behind, before, beneath, above, within, without. Every day the Lord loads us with benefits.
IV. Then we learn that the great motive of the Divine drawings is everlasting love. Lot your spirit lie and soak in this Divine assurance: I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Take it up into yourself as Gideons fleece absorbed the dew. Notice, the Lord has done it. It is an actual fact, the Lord is loving you. Put those two pronouns together, I and thee. I, the Infinite, the inconceivably glorious–thee, a poor, lost, undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving sinner. See the link between the two! See the diamond rivet which joins the two together for eternity: I have loved thee. See the antiquity of this love: I have loved thee with an everlasting love. I loved thee when I died for thee upon the Cross, yea, I loved thee long before, and therefore did I die. I loved thee when I made the heavens and the earth, with a view to thine abode therein: yea, I loved thee before I had made sea or shore. There is a beginning for the world, but there is no beginning for the love of God to His people. Nor does that exhaust the meaning of everlasting love. There has never been a moment when the Lord has not loved His people. There has been no pause, nor ebb, nor break in the love of God to His own. That love knows no variableness, neither shadow of turning. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. You may take a leap into the future, and find that love still with you. Everlasting evidently lasts for ever. We shall come to die, and this shall be a downy pillow for our death-bed, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. When we wake up in that dread world to which we arc surely hastening, we shall find infinite felicity in everlasting love. When the judgment is proclaimed, and the sight of the great white throne makes all hearts to tremble, and the trumpet sounds exceeding loud and long, and our poor dust wakes up from its silent grave, we shall rejoice in this Divine assurance: I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Roll on, ye ages, but everlasting love abides! Die out, sun and moon, and thou, O time, be buried in eternity, we need no other heaven than this, I have loved thee with an everlasting love! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Three wonders
I. A great wonder.
1. The object mentioned. Thee. Most unworthy.
2. The attribute displayed. Love. What is it?
3. The person speaking. I, whom ye have–
(1) Doubted.
(2) Despised.
(3) Disregarded.
II. A greater wonder. With an everlasting love. Wonderful to love us at all. More wonderful to love us with such a love. This love is everlasting in its–
1. Counsels.
2. Conquests.
3. Continuance.
4. Consequence.
III. The greatest wonder. Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee To send food to the hungry, is gracious in the wealthy; but to bring the hungry in the kindest manner to the royal table–this is wonderful indeed. We shall see here–
1. A wonderful display. I have drawn thee. Here is inferred our helplessness and unwillingness to come. God draws by many means.
2. A wonderful instrument. Loving-kindness. The heavenly magnet. Kindness does not always go with love. God saves us. Here is kindness. But He does so in the best possible way. In the tenderest, most gentle manner.
3. A wonderful reason. Therefore. Gods reason is in Himself. Our salvation the fruit of everlasting love, and nothing else. Should we not love Him? (W. J. Mayers.)
Divine philanthropy before all time
I. Uncreated men are the objects of Divine love. Men in actual existence are not everlasting; they are only creatures of a day, mere shadows passing upon the earth. But in the mind of the Infinite they are eternal.
1. Because He loved them He created them.
2. Because He loved them He created them what they are. He made them capable of enjoying every kind of happiness of which we have any conception.
II. Created men are the subjects of Divine love.
1. Gods love in nature has a power to draw men to Him. His love in nature appears in two forms.
(1) In the form of utility. Nature ministers to mans necessities and gratifications.
(2) In the form of beauty. What is beauty, but the costume of love, the pictures and statues of love, nay the voice, the winning music of love?
2. God s love in mediation has a power to draw men to Him. The incarnation of Christ is at once the effect, the channel, and the instrument of Divine love, and the Divine love that draws with a moral magnetism of the highest measure. (Homilist.)
Constraining love
I. The love of God towards us. From everlasting to everlasting is the love, like the existence, of the living God. Simple, childlike faith in this grand truth is an essential element in all personal religion (1Jn 4:16). The life of the newborn soul may be said to begin with the uprising of this knowledge, this faith.
II. The practical expression of Gods love.
1. An external revelation (Joh 3:16; 1Jn 4:9). Open your heart to the influence of the Cross of Calvary, comprehend in some measure the sacred sorrow of Him who there took the burden of our sins upon Him that He might bear them all away, and you can never doubt the everlasting love wherewith the Father loves you.
2. An internal force. Even in his Divine relations man is not a being to be compelled by resistless force to move in any path chosen for him, but one who is endowed with the wondrous power of yielding in response to persuasive influence a free and willing service (Hos 11:4). That is the noblest kind of persuasive influence which appeals not so much to our fears as our desires, which awakens not terror but love. (Homiletic Magazine.)
Gods love for man
I. His love for man is personal. I have loved thee.
1. The distinguishing constitution He has given him. He has endowed him with more faculties of enjoyment than any other creature in the universe possesses. He has given him intellect, by which be can enjoy the pleasures of meditation; social affection, by which he can enjoy the blessings of friendship; religious affinities, by which he can have sympathy with the source of all life and blessedness.
2. His wonderful mercy in the mediation of His Son.
II. His love for man is eternal.
1. Humanity had nothing to do with exciting it.
2. Christ had nothing to do with procuring it. Christs mediation was the effect, not the cause of Gods love for man. His mediation was no afterthought. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.
III. His love for man is attracting.
1. How attracting it is in its nature! Kindness is always attractive; and its attracting power is always in proportion to its spontaneity, disinterestedness, and magnanimity.
2. How attracting it is in its manifestation! Look at it–
(1) In nature. The world overflows with Divine kindness.
(2) In revelation. (Homilist.)
Everlasting love revealed
This startling remembrance came to Israel at a time when her sorrows were very great, and her sins were greater still. She dwelt with hope upon that Divine assurance of irrevocable favour: I have loved thee with an everlasting love. When earthly joys ebb out, it is a blessed thing if they make room for memories of heavenly visitations and gracious assurances. When you are at your lowest, it may happen that then the God of all grace comes in, and brings to your remembrance the love of your espousals, and the joy of former days, when the candle of the Lord shone round about you. At the same time, it was not merely a time of inward sorrow, but a period of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; for Jehovah was speaking in tones of sovereign grace, and pouring forth great rivers of promises, and seas of mercy. Sometimes you pour water down a dry pump, and that sets it working so that it pours forth streams of its own; and so, when our gracious God pours in His love into the soul, our own love begins to flow, and with it memory awakes, and a thousand recollections cause us to bring to mind the ancient love wherein we aforetime delighted, and we cry, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me.
I. The marvellous appearing. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me. Here are two persons; hut how different in degree I Hers we have me, a good-for-nothing creature, apt to forget my Lord, and to lira as if there were no God; yet He has not ignored or neglected me. There is the High and Holy One, whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, and He has appeared unto me. Between me and the great Jehovah there have been communications; the solitary silences have been broken. The Lord hath appeared, hath appeared unto me. Do I hear some asking, How is this? I understand that God appeared to Israel, but how to me? Let me picture the discovery of grace as it comes to the awakening mind, when it learns to sit at the feet of Jesus, saved by faith in the great sacrifice. Touched by the Spirit of God, we find that the Lord appeared to each one of us in the promises of His Word. Every promise in Gods Word is a promise to every believer, or to every character such as that to which it was first given. Furthermore, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, in the person of His Son. God came to each believer in Christ Jesus. Say, Yes, eighteen hundred years ago and more, the Lord in the person of His dear Son appeared unto me in Gethsemane, and on Calvary as my Lord, and my God, and yet my substitute and Saviour. Since that, the Lord has constantly appeared unto us in the power of His Holy Spirit. Do you remember when first your sin was set in order before your tearful eyes, and you trembled for fear of the justice which you had provoked? Do you remember when you heard the story of the Crucified Redeemer? when you saw the atoning sacrifice? when you looked to Jesus and were lightened? It was the Holy Spirit who was leading you out of yourself; and God by the Holy Spirit was appearing unto you. Now, we hold this appearance in precious memory: The Lord hath appeared of old unto me. Many things are preserved in the treasure-house of memory; but this is the choicest of our jewels. How gracious, how glorious was the appearance of God in Christ Jesus to our soul! This appearance came in private assurance. To me it was as personal as it was sure. I used to hear the preacher, but then I heard my God; I used to see the congregation, but then I saw Him who is invisible. I used to feel the power of words, but now I have felt the immeasurable energy of their substance. God Himself filled and thrilled my soul. I cannot help calling your attention to the fact, that the Lord came in positive certainty. The text does not say, I hoped so, or I thought so; but, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying. To me it is bliss to say, I know whom I have believed. My soul cannot content herself with less than certainty. I desire never to take a step upon an if, or a peradventure. I want facts, not fancies.
II. The matchless declaration. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
1. Here is a word from God of amazing love. Jehovah saith, I have loved thee. Think it over. Believe it. Stagger not at it. If the husband should say to his wife, I have loved thee, she would believe him: it would seem only natural that he should do so. And when Jehovah says to you, a feeble woman, an unknown man, I have loved thee, He means it.
2. Note, next, it is a declaration of unalloyed love. The Lord had been bruising, and wounding, and crushing His people, and yet He says, I have loved thee. These cruel wounds were all in love.
3. This statement is a declaration of love in contrast with certain other things. What a difference between the false friend-ship of the world and sin, and the changeless love of God! You have provoked Him to jealousy by gods which were no gods, but He has never ceased His love. What a miracle of grace is this! How sweetly does immutability smile on us as we hear it say, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love!
4. Thus, our text is a word of love in the past. I have loved thee. We were rebels, and He loved us. We were dead in trespasses and in sins, and He loved us. We rejected His grace, and defied His warnings, but He loved us. The matchless declaration of the text is a voice of love in the present. The Lord loves the believer now. Whatever discomfort you are in, the Lord loves you. The text is a voice of love in the future. It means, I will love thee for ever. God has not loved us with a love which will die out after a certain length of time: His love is like Himself, from everlasting to everlasting. This is a declaration of love secured to us–secured in many ways. Did you observe in this chapter how the Lord secures His love to His people, first, by a covenant? Further, this love is secured by relationship. Will you dart your eye on to the ninth verse, and read the last part of it? I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. A man cannot get rid of fatherhood by any possible means His love is pledged again by redemption. Read the eleventh verse, For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he. Would you see the indenture of Gods covenant love? Behold it in the indented hands and feet of the Crucified Redeemer. This is a declaration of love Divinely confessed. The Lord has not sent this assurance to us by a prophet, but He has made it Himself–The Lord hath appeared. Notice, that it is love sealed with a yea. God would have us go no further in our ordinary speech than to say ,yea, yea; and surely we may be content with so much from Himself. His yea amounts to a sacred asseveration: Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
III. The manifest evidence. I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. Here are drawings mentioned. Have you not felt them? These were drawings resulting from love. He drew us because He loved us with an everlasting love. Other drawings of Divine goodness are resisted, resisted in some cases to the bitter end, and men justly perish; but the drawings of everlasting love effect their purpose. Here are drawings mentioned: these were drawings from God. How sweetly, how omnipotently, God can draw! We yield to the drawings because they come from the Lord s own hand, and their power lies in His love. As the drawings come from God, so are they drawings to God. Blessed is he whose heart is being drawn nearer and nearer to the Most High. The Lord assures us that these are drawings of His loving-kindness. However He draws, it is in love; and whenever He draws, it is in love. These drawings are to be continuous. With loving-kindness have I drawn thee; and He means to do the same evermore. Such a magnificent text as ours ought to make us consider two things. The first is, Is it so? Am I drawn? If God loves you with an everlasting love, He has drawn you by His loving-kindness: is it so or not? Has He drawn you by His Holy Spirit, so that you have followed on? Are you a believer? Do you carry Christs cross? You have been drawn to this. Then take home these gracious words: I have loved thee with an everlasting love. If you have not been so drawn, do you not wish you were? But, child of God, if you know these drawings, and if it be true that God loves you with an everlasting love, then are you resting? I have a feeble hope, says one. What? How can you talk so? He who is loved with an everlasting love, and knows it, should swim in an ocean of joy. Not a wave of trouble should disturb the glassy sea of his delight. What is to make a man happy if this will not? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Christian drawn unto God
I. I Have Loved Thee. The love of God differs from ours, and this in two respects
1. It is more abundant. Our love partakes of this narrowness of our nature–it can embrace but a few objects and it cannot travel far. But God is an infinite Being. He fills all space with His presence; there is no limit to His capabilities. His love is accordingly an infinite love. Our love is a taper, shining on a few objects only and on those dimly; the love of God is a sun, throwing its light wide as it is His good pleasure to throw it, pervading His universe, brightening and warming and gladdening millions on millions of objects as easily and effectually as one.
2. It is also a free, self-moving love. It rises spontaneously in His mind, as water rises in a fountain. It requires nothing in any object, no merit or amiableness or beauty or anything else, to call it forth.
II. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. There never was a period when God did not live and did not love you. He loved you before your father or mother or any one else loved you; He loved you before you were born; He loved you before the earth or the heavens were created; He loved you in the very first moment He loved at all. Would you tell how old His love to you is? You must first tell how old the Ancient of days Himself is. Would you measure His love to you? It must be with a line which can stretch to the beginning of eternity on the one hand, and reach to the end of it on the other.
III. I have drawn thee, the Lord says; and this is very naturally and beautifully said here. Real love, we know, is always of a drawing nature. Its tendency ever is to bring near to us, or to lead us near to the object we love. Give me my infant, the tender mother says. Let me if possible have my children around me, says the affectionate father. So the Lord says here, I have loved you, and therefore, because I have loved you, I have drawn you, drawn you to Myself. When the soul at last turns to Christ and through Christ to God, it is because God in some way is working on that soul, and attracting and drawing it.
IV. The Lord tells us in the text how He draws His people to Him. With loving-kindness have I drawn thee. My love to thee is so strong, that it not only impels Me to draw thee to Me, but it influences Me in all My conduct while drawing thee. We may assign a twofold meaning to the words, regarding them as descriptive both of the means which the Lord employs to bring His people to Him, and of the manner in which He deals with them while bringing them. He will draw them by His loving-kindness, and He will draw them by that lovingly, most kindly and tenderly. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
New revelations of old truths
I. A revelation has been made to us of Divine truth. In a strange land, when the shadows of evening come on, the traveller has sometimes the consciousness that he is passing through the fairest scenes, he instinctively feels that the darkness is hiding from him the most wonderful revelations of nature. So we sometimes feel that we are in the presence of great truths, that have yet to be revealed to us. We feel, long before we understand. Our hearts burn within us, when we listen to words, the full meaning of which we do not comprehend. How strange it is, that when we have listened to the words of truth, we sometimes feel as if visions we had dimly seen were realised, or our confused thoughts were put into shape, and expressed in words, as if this was what we had heard before, or were on the point of thinking out for ourselves. Truth seems like the language of childhood, as if we were familiar with its tones, and had lived a former life, where we had heard its voice before. The heart recognises it as Divine.
II. We have new revelations of an old truth. With every Divine appearance came a revelation. He who appeared of old to the Church breathing words of love, hath in these last days spoken unto us. That last appearance was the most perfect expression of love, that last revelation left nothing unsaid that even Divine love could say. How much has love said in this world–how much it says to you this day. You have not found out yet the depth, the full significance of its revelations. You know something, you may know far more. The more you love, the more you will be capacitated for manifestations of love. We need new, constant assurances of the Divine love. We cannot live in the past alone. Do you ask why are new revelations necessary? Why is it not enough to be told once that God loves us? Why must we be told again and again? I answer, we should require assurances of love from a friend if we felt that our affinities with his pure nature were anything but entire, that we often pained him by our recklessness, and prevented his intercourse with us by our indifference; and surely, with all my frailties and sins, with the deep consciousness of my unworthiness, I need God to tell me that He loves me, and I want Him to repeat the assurance. There is, moreover, a peculiar sensitiveness about love; it craves for fresh utterances, for strong, unequivocal assertions, just as Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him as his own soul; so the love of God is so essential to us that we cannot live without it, we prize it above all things, and hence we long to hear, in the depths of our souls, the words, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
III. The love of God is ever new. It is an everlasting love. God loved you long before you realised His love. You have, perhaps, sometimes thought that He loved you because you loved Him; it is quite the reverse; you love Him because He first loved you. God will still love through all changes–in sorrow, in sickness, in old age, in death. God will love us for ever. His loves is always fresh; it is the same to-day as yesterday, and to-morrow it will be as to-day.
IV. It is Gods love that attracts men. This love draws. Men yield to this Divine power. This is the power of the Gospel; this subdued, this won you. What melted that heart of ice,–what, but the warm breath of love? What drew you, but the cords of love that were entwined about your heart! (H. J. Bevis.)
Love everlasting
What is love? Is it not delight in an object, and is it not desire to promote the well-being of an object? The love of God answers to these definitions. Some resolve love into self-love. We delight in what we love, therefore, say some, we love for the delight. But this is a serious error which may be refuted by a thousand facts. Just think of the facts by which you may refute this error. And let me here make two remarks concerning love generally,–First, its existence is universal, except as sin reigns and checks it; and, secondly, its work and its service are multiform and extensive. Men love, angels love, and God is love, We feel, and observe, and mark its existence on earth; we hear of it in heaven; and we know that there is but one place tenanted by beings capable of love who do not love, and that place is hell; and we also know that there is but one class of human beings from which it has departed, namely, souls that are lost. Love! It gushes forth from the throne of God, flows round the universe, and rises again to the level of its source. Like an inverted tree, it roots in heaven, and yet drops its fruit upon this wide world, and upon beings in the lowest terrestrial estate. Nor is love, to drop our figure, inactive or useless among the children of men even in their low estate. It unites, as in conjugal life, two streams of being and makes them one,–it causes the mother to forget her anguish and to make her bosom the refuge and the strength of helpless infancy–it makes parents ministering angels, and children bright morning stars in the household firmament–it creates all that is meant by home–it impoverishes itself to enrich others, and exposes itself to danger to protect and otherwise to serve others–it feeds the hungry; clothes the naked; shelters the homeless; takes charge of the orphan; attends at the sick-bed in the face of contagion; visits the captive in prison; weeps at the grave; builds hospitals; erects almshouses, asylums, and places of worship–it instructs, warns, entreats, reproves, consoles, and in ton thousand forms ministers to the creature while it worships the Creator–it renders benefits to the sinner and serves the Saviour; it intercedes on earth and it offers praise in heaven; it weeps here, it rejoices in the world above. Thus love, sanctified and directed by the Saviour of man and by the Spirit of all grace, makes God dwell in the man, and it causes the man to dwell in God. Such, speaking generally, is love. And love is everlasting. It is eternal–it ever will be, as it always hath been. As a principle it is eternal. It will never die. It will never die from the human heart. In all redeemed human spirits love will live an eternal life. Some emotions will pass away as the clouds; others will abide as the blue firmament itself; and among these love in redeemed humanity will have the pre-eminence. Now, connect these ideas of love with the everlasting love of God. Jehovah here says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Only the love of God is from everlasting. The love of unfallen angels and of redeemed men hath immortality–it is to everlasting, but not from everlasting. Gods love alone hath eternity–eternity embracing past, present, and future. There are four things which we would notice here concerning the everlasting love of God.
1. It is not derived, or imparted, or excited by us in the sense of being awakened by us. We are the occasion in part of its being aroused and expressed, but it is not a derived or imparted love. Ours is a love that is as a spark from the great fire that burns in Gods heart, fire of love that is underfeed, self-existent, independent.
2. It is perfect, it is impossible to add anything to it, nor could anything be taken from it without rendering it imperfect, it is as complete as love can be found.
3. Instead of being divorced from the other attributes and affections of God, it is allied with them all–love and self-existence, love and independence, love and omnipotence, love and boundless wisdom, love and unspotted purity, love and undeviating righteousness.
4. In all respects is the love of God, Godlike–equal with God. Verily, that man is loved whom God loves. What though no creature may care for him, if God loves him he is loved for ever, and infinitely loved; he is loved with all the strength of the Divine affection; on the other hand, he knows not what it is to be loved in perfection, who does not know and believe the love of God for us.
Just look further, at the love of God when embracing sinful men, and notice three things about it.
1. It is personal in its objects. He loves you individually; and His loving a large number is by His loving each one in that number.
2. Although embracing sinners, the love of God is discriminating, and pure, and righteous love. It delights where it can delight, and seeks the good of its object in every form, and in the highest degree.
3. The love of God follows those whom it embraces. It was prolonged to the seed of Abraham beyond numerous apostasies and spiritual adulteries; it is prolonged to us beyond seasons of declension and of backsliding. The love of God goes after us. It follows us into every new relationship, into every new duty, into every new trial, into every new temptation, into fresh provocation, and claims upon Gods forbearance; it follows us through life into death, and through death into immortality. (S. Martin.)
Divine love
I. Divine love is a fact; there can be no doubt of the teaching of Scripture on this subject. The God of the Bible is a God of love, He is a Father in heaven, He cares for men, watches over them, guides them, saves them. What more beautiful symbols of Divine love and watchfulness can there be than that of the Good Shepherd in search of those who have wandered away from Him–of the lost sheep; and when He finds the lost one He lays it on His shoulder rejoicing. This attitude of Divine love is the very core of the Gospel; and it is surely a blessed truth for us, although it is sometimes hard for us to realise it.
1. It may seem strange, yet it is true, that there are hearts who can more readily feel that God is angry with them than that God really loves them. The instinct of conscious guilt is fear, and when the sense of sin is strongly awakened, we are apt to turn away from God and to feel as if God must hate us.
2. We feel, as it were, in other moments that the human heart is strangely inconsistent. We feel as if the powers of nature were strong in us, and the sense of sin dies down; we feel as if God would overlook our sins, and that we are not so sinful after all; we feel as if we might trust to His goodness, as if it were, so to speak, good nature. But this is equally inconsistent with true spiritual experience. To all that is evil in human life and human history, whether in Gentile or in Jew, God is a consuming fire.
II. God loves us everlastingly. The fact of Divine love is not only sure in itself, it is never uncertain in incidence. Whatever appearances there may seem to the contrary, it is still there. No cloud can extinguish it, however it may obscure it; no misery, born of the depths of human despair, no tragedy of human agony or of human crime, can make that love doubtful; it is still there, it is around us, it is with us; its everlasting arms are holding us even when we cannot feel it, and grasping us in its soft embrace although our feet may be bleeding and sore with the hardness of the road along which we travel. All sorrow is a gift, and every trouble that the heart of man has, an opportunity. You may not know this now, you may never know it, and yet it is true. Gods love knows no relenting. My will for you is a will of good without variableness or shadow of turning. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Just a few words only as to the last point–I have loved thee; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
III. The love of God is individual; it is personal; it is the love of one loving heart to another; it is no mere impersonal conception of supreme benevolence; it is the love of a father to a child, the love of a mother to a daughter; it would not be love otherwise, for it is a distinguishing idea of love that it discriminates its object. How personal always was the ministry of our Lord! Come unto Me. Take up My cross. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? (Principal Tulloch.)
The love of God
I. A declaration of gods love. God is love; that is His nature–love in the abstract; not simply loving, kind, tender, benevolent, good, but love. This love displays itself in Christ. The fatherhood of God is nowhere seen in its royalty, but it is in its exhibition in Jesus Christ. This love He declares has this peculiarity–that it is everlasting.
1. It had no birthday. Go back through a past eternity, still you find no date for its commencement. Find out a day when the Lord Jesus was not loved by the Father, and you have the day when the Church was not loved by Him; you will arrive at the time when His love first began to the Church, for He says, Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved me, and Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. It foresaw all the rebellion, backslidings, frailties, sins, infirmities–everything that would characterise the individual upon whom that love rested; and yet the Lord loved you, because He would love you; and that is the only reason that love itself can assign, because He would keep the covenant which He made with His own Son for you.
2. As it had no birthday, so it has no changing day. Like its Author, it is immutable, unvarying. There is nothing that can occur in reference to the objects on whom God s love is fixed that He did not foresee, and there is no change that can occur in the Divine mind as to any improvement in His plan and order of government, or manifestation of mercy to man.
(1) This love bestowed upon you the greatest blessings before conversion. Strange to say, and yet it is a great and solemn truth, that while you were an enemy it gave you Christ-gave you the Spirit to regenerate you. Love, ere you were born, was manifested towards you–made the covenant, formed the plan of mercy by which you might be saved.
(2) This love changes its dispensations, not its nature. Who questions a fathers love when he corrects a rebellious son? Who doubts the teachers love when he compels his pupil to apply his mind to the subject of instruction? So God acts. If it be necessary to make you diligent in His service, to overcome temptation, to draw you away from the world and its vanities and its corruptions, He may deprive you of property, He may remove an idol, He may stain your pride, He may bereave you of one who is as your own soul, He may prostrate your honour in the dust, He may suffer your own family to rise against you; and the very spring of all this is love.
3. It has no dying day. Love is a golden chain, one end of which is fixed to God s throne in eternity past, and the other end to His throne in eternity to come. This love of God is a bond not to be dissolved, a union never to be broken, a depth which cannot be fathomed, a height which can never be scaled, a length which can never be traversed, a breadth which cannot be measured, a science that passeth all knowledge, a fire which many waters cannot quench, a flame which the floods cannot drown, a sovereign stronger than death, a constrainer which cannot be overcome, a breastplate which cannot be pierced, a safeguard which casts out all fear, an inhabitant that can never be removed, a preventive to every evil, a catholicon for all woe. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, &c.
II. The manner in which this love is displayed, or the evidences by which we may ascertain that we possess it.
1. See how with loving-kindness He has drawn you in the paths of providential arrangement! Begin with the earliest dawn of memory: why were you drawn to such a school? Why did you form such friendships? Did not that love draw you to a situation, a locality as foreign co your thoughts as can well be, give you prosperity, make you influential, happy and blessed, and a blessing to others? What a constraint, often inexplicable, has it put upon your inclinations to accomplish an object which, had it been granted, you afterwards saw would have been your ruin! But the cord stayed you, the love was thrown around you to keep you back. Afflictions, too, have been some of the most beneficial cords of love that have visited you–cords which confined your aspirations and checked your vanity, taught you to pray, taught you to sympathise with others, taught you to love.
2. In the progress of regeneration this is wondrously manifested.
3. In the experimental enjoyment of His favour we see this Divine discovery. Your life has consisted of so many steps from one manifestation of Divine love to another.
4. Practical remarks.
(1) Every soul who hears me may be interested in this love.
(2) How humbling the contrast of our love to God! How inconstant, how feeble, how spiritless is our level
(3) Let us imitate God in His dealings with us. If we would prevail with others, we shall find that the cords of love are better than the rod of Moses. Neither ministers nor private Christians can scare men into the ways of godliness; no threats will frighten a man to be holy. (J. Sherman.)
Everlasting love
I. The great source of redemption–everlasting love–love without beginning, love without change, and love without end.
1. Everlasting love is love without a beginning. The eternity of Divine love is a subject which we cannot fathom, but we may look at it in relation to our own being. Go back behind creation, before the Divine will had generated a single atom of matter, and in that very we discover ourselves in a perfect, living, actual conception, subjective being was embraced, nourished, and delighted in by everlasting love. The love of God is not an emotion of delight created by the appearance of comeliness, but delight itself; not an emotion excited by beauty, but beauty itself. There is a tendency in the human mind to thrust itself behind the birthday of time, and fall–where? Into the arms of everlasting love.
2. Everlasting love is love without change. Man, in relation to the eternity of God, must be regarded as a whole. Everlasting love embraces that whole. Our first impulse is to regard it as encircling the pure and the innocent, but turning aside from the disobedient and simple. It is not so, for the Word says, God so loved the world. Sin has transformed a paradise into a wilderness, a heaven into a hell, but sin cannot change everlasting love. That explains it all.
3. Everlasting love is love without end. On every Mohammedan tombstone the inscription begins, He remains, i.e., God. To-day we will write on every gravestone, The love of God remains. Ah, there are many gravestones besides those in the churchyard. You may imagine inscriptions like these: To the memory of friendship; To the memory of parental and filial affection; To the memory of marriage sacredness and devotion. But those fires, which once burnt brightly, have gone out for want of fuel, or for something that is worse. Should there be an aching void or bitter disappointment because former sources of affection have dried up, let us not turn to the devil to supply their places, but let us turn to the everlasting love of God.
II. The method of redemption. Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. We sometimes think that our Heavenly Father deals with us harshly, or unkindly. Yes, why the cross and not the crown? You see the child running in from the garden full of tears, and saying, Something has hurt me. On examination it is found that a thorn is in one of the fingers. Then the gentlest of hands will endeavour to extract it. When she is doing so, the child will cry out, Oh, mother, you hurt me. Ah, it is not the mother that hurts, but the thorn. When God takes out the thorn, we think that He hurts us. Not so, it is the thorn. Even God cannot take sin out of the heart but that it will give pain.
1. In dealing with the attractions of everlasting love, we must bear in mind the fact that we can only be saved by attraction. Grace begins its work by transforming the heart into the image of the Son of God. One grain of the Saviours love in that heart will leaven the whole. The sinner must be made willing to part with his sin. The power to effect this comes from God, but it can only be applied when the willing cry rends his heart, Lord, save, or I perish.
2. Consider the particular form which Gods loving-kindness has assumed in order to attract man to virtue. Under what aspects has mercy appeared unto men? We look back, and see an altar, and a victim, and a priest. But we soon learn that these are only types, yet, Gods mercy pursued man in times of yore, and does now, and everywhere. To-day, it is not altar, victim, or priest; but the Son of God, in a body like our own, and bearing up under the vicissitudes of life. In Christ Jesus we have the picture of loving-kindness. Sometimes that picture is in words of sympathy, of love, of encouragement, and inspiration. Never man spake like this Man. At other times the picture is in deeds,–the most gracious and marvellous. The sick are healed. The blind see. The deaf hear. The dead live. Is the picture overdrawn? (T. Davies, M. A.)
The place of love among Divine attributes
According to the Catechism of the Westminster Assembly, God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth A very comprehensive and noble definition, no doubt I yet did it never strike you as strange that there is no mention of love here? This appears a very remarkable omission, as remarkable as if an orator, who undertook to describe the firmament, left out the sun, or an artist in painting the human face, made it sightless, and gave no place on the canvas to those beaming eyes which impart to the countenance its life and expression. Why did an assembly, for piety, learning, and talents, the greatest perhaps that ever met in England, or anywhere else, in that catalogue of Divine attributes, assign no place to love? Unless we are to understand the term goodness as comprehending love, the omission may be thus explained and illustrated. Take a globe, and observing their natural order, lay upon its surface the different hues of the rainbow; give it a rapid motion around its axis, and now the colours vanish. As if by magic the whirling sphere instantly changes into purest white, presenting to our eyes a visible and to our understanding a palpable proof that the sunbeam is not a simple but a compound body, thread spun of various rays which, when blended into one form light; so all the attributes acting together make love, and that because God is just, powerful, holy, good, and true, of necessity, therefore, God is love. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The wonder of Divine love
Is it not an unheard-of wonder that so strong a stream of infinite love should run underground for so many years, and that so many rebellions all that while should not dam it up, but that it should hold on its course uninterrupted, and work out all that had obstructed the current of it, and at last bubble up at a time designed, and save, and wash, and purify the wretched, defiled creature? (T. Goodwin.)
The love of Christ perennial
They tell us that the sun is fed by impact, from objects from without, and that the day will come when its furnace flames shall be quenched into grey ashes. But Christs love is fed by no contributions from without, and will outlast the burnt-out sun, and gladden the ages of ages for ever. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The love of God suggested by human love
Would that we might understand the meaning of the expression, The love of God. It is hinted at in this world. Passing along the streets, one hears the words of a song or catches the strains of a piece of music being played, and he says, That is from Beethoven or Mozart, I recognise the movement. So in this life, we catch strains of the love of God. We behold it in the mothers disinterested, self-denying love; we see it in the lovers glow and in the little childs innocent affection; but these things are only hints.
The magnetic influence of Gods loving-kindness
What a delightful thing it is to be drawn. Scarcely anybody likes to be driven, but there are very few who dont in their hearts enjoy the drawing process. Cast round about the heart those mysterious cords of love, as soft as silk, and yet as strong as steel; ah! they cant be resisted, and the wonder of it is that there is any desire to resist them. Love has conquered us. These cords have been let down from heaven to encircle us and lift us up out of the pit, just as was done to Jeremiah when he was in the pit; they let ropes down, and presently he was drawn up to life and liberty again. Ah, yes, it was the Cross that drew most of us. What a magnet is the story of the Cross! The power of the atonement has been felt by all of us who have believed, so that we were made willing to enter into the blessing of God. Some of us scarcely know how, but we found ourselves beneath the blood-stained tree. We turned our back upon it for many a year, but it turned us round at last. Blessed be the name of our loving Saviour! these cords are still drawing men to Jesus. I wonder how any one can resist the love of God in Jesus Christ! I saw some little children in a Brixton street the other day playing with a magnet. It was evidently a new toy, and they found much pleasure in this little instrument. What amused me was, that one child ran and brought a stone, another a piece of glass, to see if the magnet influenced them. You know, of course, the result; but the children did not know–they were experimenting. It seems as if we ministers are too much like those dear little ones. We have a magnet, but oh, how few there are who yield to the attracting power! The fault is not with the instrument, for Christ has said, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me. Your hearts need changing; there is not as yet in you anything that responds to the call; nothing that answers to the message of His love. Oh! I pray you, ere you rest to-night, fall on your knees and implore God to touch your heart till the story of the Cross moves it and Jesus wins it. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
The attractive power of kindness
A new teacher came to the little school district, who was the beginning of a new order of things to others as well as Dwight L. Moody. She opened the exercises the first morning with prayer, and that made s great impression upon the boys. But they were still more astonished when she told them that she intended to have good order, and yet have it without whipping any one. Ere long, Dwight had broken one of the rules, and was asked to remain after school. He supposed she had decided to whip him in private, and expected the usual punishment. To his surprise, as soon as they were alone, the teacher began to talk in the kindest way to him, telling him how it grieved her to have him disobey. This was harder on Dwight than a whipping. Finally she said, I have made up my mind that if I cannot rule the school by love, I will give it up. I will have no punishment. If you love me, try and keep the rules, and help me in the school This was too much for Dwight, and he surrendered at once. You will never have any more trouble with me, he answered, and I will whack the first boy that makes you any trouble! And whack him he did, the very next day, to the surprise of his companions and the consternation of the teacher.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love] veahabath olam ahabtich, “and with the old love I have loved thee.” “Also, with a love of long standing have I loved thee.” – Blayney. “But I love thee always.” – Dahler. I still bear to the Jewish people that love which I showed to their fathers in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the promised land. Can it be supposed, by any person seriously considering the context, that these words are spoken of God’s decree of election in behalf of the Jews? Those who make it such, act most injudiciously on their own principle; for, how few of the Jews have ever given evidence that they were the children of God, from their restoration from Babylon to the present day! The words refer simply to their state as a people, most wondrously preserved by the providence and mercy of God, as a standing proof of the Divine authority of the Scriptures, and as an evidence of God’s displeasure against sin.
Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.] “Therefore have I lengthened out mercy to thee.” – Blayney.
C’est pourquoi je t’ai conserve ma grace. –
Dahler.
“Therefore I have preserved my grace to thee.”
The exiles, who had not for a long time received any proofs of the Divine protection, are represented as deploring their state; but God answers, that though this may seem to be the case, he has always loved them; and this continued love he will show by bringing them out of their captivity. However creeds may fare, this is the sense of the passage; all the context proves this.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The word
saying being not in the original, hath given advantage to some to think that the first words are either the words of some of the people owning that the Lord indeed had of old appeared to and for them, but doubting whether the kindness of God still held toward them; or else complaining that these were old stories. To which the prophet replies by assuring them that Gods love was not a temporary love, manifested to a single generation, but it was an everlasting love; therefore he had drawn them with loving-kindness, he had all along dealt graciously with them, that way attempting to oblige them to that duty which they owed to him: this drawing with loving-kindness he calleth a drawing with the cords of men, Hos 11:4, who ordinarily are little wrought upon by force, but won by love.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. Israel gratefullyacknowledges in reply God’s past grace; but at the same timetacitly implies by the expression “of old,” that God doesnot appear to her now. “God appeared to me of old,but now I am forsaken!” God replies, Nay, I love thee with thesame love now as of old. My love was not a momentary impulse, butfrom “everlasting” in My counsels, and to“everlasting” in its continuance; hence originated thecovenant whereby I gratuitously adopted thee (Mal 1:2;Rom 11:28; Rom 11:29).Margin translates, “from afar,” which does notanswer so well as “of old,” to “in the wilderness”(Jer 31:2), which refers to theolden times of Israel’s history.
with loving kindness . . .drawn (Ho 11:4). Rather,”I have drawn out continually My loving kindness towardthee.” So Ps 36:10,”Continue (Margin, ‘Draw out at length’) Thy lovingkindness.” By virtue of My everlasting love I will stillextend My loving kindness to thee. So Isa44:21, “O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, [saying],…. Either to the prophet, bidding him say to the church what follows, so Jarchi: or to Christ, who was from eternity with the Father; lay in his bosom; between whom the council of peace was; with whom the covenant was made; and whom God loved before the foundation of the world; and which is observed by him, for the comfort of his people, Joh 17:24; so Cocceius; but rather they are the words of Israel, or the church, owning the above instances of God’s grace and goodness; and that he had greatly appeared to them, and for them, in former times; but then this was a great while ago; and besides, now he hid his face from them, and they were under the tokens of his displeasure, and not of his love; to which the Lord replies, for the word “saying” is not in the text, which makes the following a continuation of the church’s speech, though wrongly; since they are the words of the Lord, taking up the church for speaking too slightly and improperly of his love, and in a complaining way:
yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love; not only of old, or a good while ago, but from all eternity, and with a love which will always last, and does, notwithstanding dark and afflictive providences; for this love is like himself, sovereign, unchangeable, and everlasting: “I have loved thee”: I, who am the great God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; a God of infinite purity and holiness; do whatever I please in heaven and in earth; and am the Lord that changes not: “have loved”; not love only now, and shall hereafter; but have loved, not for some time past only, but from all eternity, with the same love I now do: “thee” personally, “Jacob, have I loved”, Ro 9:13; thee nakedly, and not thine, or for anything done by thee; thee separately and distinctly, and not others; thee a creature, vile and sinful, a transgressor from the womb, and known to be so beforehand; “thee” now openly, and in an applicatory way, through the evidence of the spirit: “with an everlasting love”: a love from everlasting, which does not commence in time with faith, repentance, and new obedience; these being the fruits and effects of it; but was from all eternity, as appears from the eternal choice of the persons loved in Christ; from the everlasting covenant made with them in him; from the constitution and setting up of Christ as their Mediator from everlasting; and from the security of their persons and grace in him, before the world began: and this love will endure to everlasting, without any variation or change; nothing can separate from it. The evidence of it follows:
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee; out of a state of nature; out of Satan’s hands; out of the pit wherein is no water, the horrible pit, the mire and clay; unto Christ, his person, blood, righteousness, and fulness, by faith to lay hold upon them; unto his church, and to a participation of the ordinances and privileges of it; to nearer communion with God, and at last will draw to eternal glory. This is the Father’s act, and to him it is usually ascribed: it chiefly regards the work of conversion, and the influence of divine grace on that; though it also includes after acts of drawing: it supposes weakness in men; is the effect of powerful and efficacious grace; and is done without offering any violence or force to the will of man, who is drawn with, and not against, his will. This is an instance of the love of God; a fruit and effect of it: it is love that draws a soul to Christ, and is the cause of its coming to him; it is love that reveals him to it, and causes it to come to him; love is then manifested and shed abroad in the heart; a cord of it is let down into it, and with it the Lord draws; it is not by the threats of the law, but by the declarations of grace in the Gospel; the cause of drawing is love, and the manner of it is with it. The Targum of the whole verse is,
“Jerusalem said, of old the Lord appeared to our fathers; prophet, say unto them, lo, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore have led you with goodness.”
It may be rendered, “I have drawn out”, or “extended, lovingkindness to thee” i; see Ps 36:10.
i “protraxi tibi misericordiam”, Vatablus; “protraxi, [vel] extendi ad te clementiam”, Calvin; “extendo erga te benignitatem”, Junius Tremellius “meam”, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The last part is commonly rendered, “I have therefore drawn thee in mercy;” but the sense is frigid and unsuitable. I therefore doubt not but that he, on the contrary, means, that the mercy of God would not be evanescent, but would follow the people from year to year in all ages. At the beginning of the verse the Prophet introduces the Jews as making a clamor, as the unbelieving are wont to do, who, while they reject the favor of God, yet wish to appear to do so with some reason. Then, in the first place, is narrated the blasphemy of the people. These impious and diabolical words were no doubt everywhere heard at that time, “He! God has appeared to us, but it was a long while ago:” as profane men say at this day, when we bring forward examples of God’s favor from the Law or from the Prophets, or from the Gospel, He! c’est du temps jadis. Thus, they facetiously deride whatever God has at any time testified in his word, as though it were obsolete, because it is ancient. It is the same when we announce any terrors according to ancient examples, “He! it happened formerly, but a long time ago.” They then always return to that impious common saying, Le temps jadis. And the same thing Jeremiah meant to express here, At a remote time Jehovah appeared to us; that is, “Thou indeed speakest in high terms of the redemption by which the fathers were liberated, but what is that to us? why dost not thou rather shew us plainly what God intends to do? and why dost thou not bring forward some ground for present joy? why dost thou not really prove that God is propitious to us? but thou speakest of the ancient deliverance, while that narrative is now as it were obsolete.”
We hence see, that men have been always from the beginning ungrateful to God; for as far as they could, they buried the kind acts of God; nor by this only was their impiety discovered, but because they treated with scorn all ancient histories, which have yet been preserved for us, in order that our salvation might be promoted.
“
Whatsoever is written,” says Paul, “has been written for our instruction, that through the patience and the consolation of the Scripture we might have hope.” (Rom 15:4)
He there shews that we are to learn patience from the examples contained in the Scripture, and that we have there a ground for strong consolation, so that we may cherish hope until God delivers us from all miseries. But what say the profane?” He, thou tellest us what has been written, but this is remote from us, and through length of time has vanished away: what is antiquity to us?” But though the Jews used this sacrilegious language, let us yet learn to embrace whatever is set before us in Scripture, while God invites us to hope for mercy, and at the same time exhorts us to patience; nor let this blasphemy ever fall from our mouths; nay, let not this thought ever creep into our hearts, “God appeared a long while ago.” Let us then abominate the ingratitude of those who would have God to be always present, and yet pay no regard to his ancient benefits.
Hence the Prophet answers, But, etc.: the copulative ו is here an adversative, as though he had said, Nay, or Yea, for it may also be taken for גם, gam, “Yea, I have loved thee with perpetual love.” Then God answers the ungodly, and shews, that he having become once the liberator of his people, did not undertake this office through a momentary impulse, but because he had so promised to Abraham, and had adopted the people. Since then God’s covenant was perpetual, he thus refutes here the impious calumny, that God acted bountifully only for a moment towards his people, and had regard only once for their miseries, so as to help them. Yea, he says, I have loved thee with perpetual love God then here shews, that the redemption, by which he had exhibited a remarkable proof of his mercy, was founded on the gratuitous adoption which was not for one year, but perpetual in its duration. We thus see that he reproves the detestable blasphemy of the people, and intimates that adoption was the cause of their redemption.
And this passage ought to be carefully noticed: for these false imaginations come immediately to our minds, when we read or hear how God had in various ways and degrees been merciful towards his people, “He! that happened formerly, but we know not whether God’s purpose remains the same; he, indeed, conferred this favor on his ancient people, but we know not whether the same can or will be extended to us.” Thus the devil, by his craft, suggests to us these false imaginations, which impede the flow of God’s favor, that it may not come to us. So the grace of God is stopped in its course, when we thus separate ourselves from the fathers, and from all his servants towards whom he has been so merciful. It is, therefore, a doctrine especially useful, when the Prophet shews, that whatever blessings God has at any time conferred on his ancient people, they ought to be ascribed to his gratuitous covenant, and that that covenant is eternal: and hence there is no doubt but that God is at this day prepared to secure the salvation of all the godly; for he remains ever the same, and never changes; and he would also have his fidelity and constancy to shine forth in the covenant which he has made with his Church. Since, then, the covenant of God is inviolable and cannot fail, even were heaven and earth brought into confusion, we ought to feel assured that God will ever be a deliverer to us: how so? because his covenant remains the same; and, therefore, his power to deliver us will remain the same. This is the use we ought to make of this clause.
A confirmation afterwards follows, Therefore have I prolonged towards thee my mercy I have already said, that this clause is otherwise rendered and explained. But nothing can be more diluted when we read thus, “I have drawn thee in mercy.” What has this to do with the perpetuity or the continued course and progress of love? But the other meaning is very suitable, that God would prolong his mercy to Israel. There is understood only one letter, but this does not interfere with the sense; and such forms of speech are elsewhere often found, he then says, that as he had embraced Israel with perpetual love, he had, therefore, drawn out or extended his mercy; for from the time he delivered his people from the tyranny of Pharaoh, and fed them forty years in the desert, he had bestowed on them many benefits. For with what victories favored he them? and then how often had he pitied them? God then ceased not from continuing his mercy to them from the time he had stretched forth his hand to them. And according to this view it is very appropriately said, that he had prolonged his mercy; for not only for one day or one year did he shew himself propitious to the Israelites, but he had exhibited himself the same for four hundred, five hundred, six hundred years. And thus also is best confuted that impiety and blasphemy of the people, that God had formerly appeared to them; “Nay,” he says, “except thou suppressest most wickedly my benefits, thou must perceive that the benefits I conferred on thy fathers have been long extended to thee, and have been perpetual and manifold.” (22)
We now perceive the real meaning of the Prophet. Were any to prefer turning the preterite to the future, I would not object, “Therefore will I prolong (or extend) towards thee my mercy.” This sense would be suitable. But when the words are taken as they are, we see why the Prophet adds, that God’s mercy had been prolonged, that is, that he might condemn the ingratitude of the Jews, because they did not rightly consider the benefits which had been bestowed on them for so many ages. It follows —
(22) I find nothing satisfactory as to this verse, except the explanation here given, and it is that of the Targum. The first clause is the people’s cavilling answer to what is declared in the foregoing verse. Jacob is the person introduced, as representing the people. He says, it is indeed true, —
“
At a remote period Jehovah appeared to me.”
Then the rejoinder to this is exactly suitable, —
But with perpetual love have I loved thee, Therefore have I prolonged to thee mercy.
Or, “extended to thee mercy,” (see Psa 109:12,) or, “continued to thee mercy,” or, according to Blayney, “lengthened out mercy to thee.” Now there is a consistency in the whole passage, according to this view, and also in what follows, “I will again build thee,” etc. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) The Lord hath appeared of old unto me . . .The Hebrew adverb more commonly refers to distance than to time. From afar the Lord appeared unto me. The thought is that of a deliverer who hears the cry of his people in the distance, and then draws near to help them. Jehovah enthroned in Zion, or in the heaven of heavens, hears the cry of the exiles by the waters of Babylon or Nineveh.
Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.Some translators render I have preserved (or respited) thee, others I have continued my loving kindness to thee, as in Psa. 36:10; Psa. 109:12; but the LXX., Vulg., and Luther agree with the English Version, and it finds sufficient support in the meaning of the Hebrew verb and in the parallel of Hos. 11:4.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Of old Better, as the margin, from afar; in allusion to the sense of distance from God which would be wrought by their material separation from that sanctuary which they had always regarded as the chosen seat and special abode of Israel’s God.
With lovingkindness have I drawn The marginal reading on this verse is also to be preferred: I have extended, that is, continued, lovingkindness unto thee.
Jer 31:3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me From afar off Jehovah appeared unto me. These words, it is certain, were not spoken in reference to the same time that those were which go before. They may well be included in a parenthesis, and seem designed to intimate, that the prophet was favoured with a visionary prospect of a remote period to come, in which God is represented as discoursing of the transactions belonging to that period, as if they were already at hand; and this accounts for the use of verbs in the past tense, both in the preceding verse, and in Jer 31:6-7. It is manifest from Jer 31:26 that the prophet had been in a vision or trance, out of which he awaked. And it is no less evident, that the general restoration of Israel, the subject of the discourse which he had heard during his vision, so much to his satisfaction, is not yet accomplished, nor entered upon, nor is there any certainty when it exactly will be.
DISCOURSE: 1068 Jer 31:3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.
THERE is a most glorious connexion subsisting between the Lord and his people: He is their God, even the God of all the families of Israel; and they are his people, devoted altogether to his service. He is the God of every individual, as much as if no other object of his love existed in the whole creation besides; and they are his exclusively, and without reserve. But here two questions arise: How are they brought into this connexion with him? and, From whence does this exalted privilege arise? Our text enables us to answer these questions; and we will answer them in their order.
I.
How are Gods people brought into this glorious connexion with him?
Our text informs us, that we are drawn to it by the Father himself. We shall therefore answer this first question by shewing,
1.
How he draws them
[The term drawing is supposed to import somewhat of a force that is inconsistent with the free agency of man: and, were that idea just, we should be found among the first that would oppose such a doctrine as unscriptural and absurd. But the drawings of Gods Spirit do not in the least interfere with the liberty of human actions. The drawing of which our text speaks, is with the cords of a man, and with the bands of love [Note: Hos 11:4.]: it is through the medium of the understanding, the will, and the affections: the understanding, as enlightened with divine truth; the will, as determined by sound judgment; and the affections, as engaged by the excellence of those things which the will is bent to follow. True it is, that we cannot precisely declare the manner in which the operations of the Holy Spirit influence the soul; for we do not even know honour own spirit acts upon the body: but we know infallibly, that God does influence the minds of men; not however by making them to act contrary to their will, but by milking them willing in the day of his power [Note: Psa 110:3.].]
2.
That their connexion with him is altogether owing to his influence
[If the most express declarations of Scripture can determine any thing, the point in hand is established beyond a doubt: for our blessed Lord says, that no man, whatever his quality or talents, can come to him, in the exercise of true faith, unless the Father draw him [Note: Joh 6:44.]. This testimony is decisive. But the truth of the point established by it is no less clear, from the representation which the Scriptures give us of the work which is wrought on the minds of all who are truly brought to God. It is called a creation [Note: Eph 2:10.], which we all know to be the work of God; and a resurrection from the dead, which is equally beyond any finite power to effect [Note: Eph 2:1. with 1:19, 20.]. Whatever may be supposed to have effected the good work within us, it is expressly excluded, that God may have all the glory [Note: Joh 1:13. Rom 11:16.]. If it be said, that such difficulties exist only in more abandoned characters, we answer, that the Apostles themselves put themselves, in this respect, on a level with the vilest of mankind [Note: Eph 2:3-5. Tit 3:3-6.]: and thereby fully confirm the testimony of our Lord above cited.]
The next question that arises is,
II.
To what must this exalted mercy be traced?
Is it any peculiar fitness in this or that man, which occasions God to single him out as an object to be drawn by him; or is the mercy vouchsafed by God to whomsoever he will, according to his own sovereign will and pleasure? We cannot hesitate to declare, that the whole salvation, from first to last, is purely of grace.
[St. Paul himself was constrained to say, By the grace of God I am what I am: and, of course, every one else must do the same. But we cannot but have observed, on many occasions, how indignantly the natural man revolts from this doctrine. We do not doubt the sovereignty of God in rescuing man from destruction rather than the fallen angels; or in making the Jews his peculiar people, in preference to all others upon earth; or in selecting Isaac and Jacob whilst he rejected Ishmael and Esau: nor can we doubt that we ourselves, as enjoying the light of revelation, are objects of his sovereign choice, when we see far the greater part of mankind involved in midnight darkness: and yet we cannot endure the doctrine, when applied to the more immediate communication of Gods mercy to our souls. But to Gods everlasting love is our salvation ascribed in our text; and to that alone can it with truth or propriety ever be ascribed: I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.]
Now this is the plain doctrine of Scripture And in relation to this subject God is peculiarly jealous Address To those who cannot receive this doctrine
[Would it not be well to search and examine what is the real foundation of your objections to it? Nothing can be more clear, than that the doctrine of Divine influences pervades the Holy Scriptures, and that these influences are constantly represented as imparted to men according to Gods sovereign will and pleasure: yet the generality of men reject those doctrines merely because they cannot explain all the difficulties involved in them. But does the denial of these doctrines involve no difficulties? Yes indeed, and incomparably greater: nor is there a single doctrine, even of natural religion, and much more of that which is revealed, that has not some difficulty attached to it. But the truth is, that our proud hearts do not like to be so stripped of all goodness, or to be made so entirely dependent on God. Here is the root of the whole controversy: and, when once the soul is humbled in the dust before God, we shall readily receive Gods declarations without gainsaying, and thankfully accept his mercy as a free unmerited gift. 2.
To those who profess to have the experience of it in their own souls
[Have you been drawn by divine grace? and have you a good hope that you are of the number of Gods elect? Then remember for what end he has drawn you, and for what end he has chosen you: it has been to make you a holy and a peculiar people to himself. Has he chosen you? it is that you should be holy [Note: Eph 1:4.]. Has he predestinated you? it is to be conformed to the image of his Son [Note: Rom 8:29.]. Has he created you anew? it is unto good works, which God hath before ordained that you should walk in them [Note: Eph 2:10.]. Hence God makes the consideration of his electing love a motive and a reason for following after holiness of heart and life: The Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them; and he chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked [Note: Deu 10:15-16.]. O, beg of him that you may be enabled thus to improve the blessings he has conferred upon you. This will best put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, who imagine that the doctrines of grace are subversive of morality, and that the honour which you give to God is only a cloak for idleness and sin. For this end alone are the drawings of Gods Spirit desirable, namely, to make you more holy, more spiritual, more heavenly than any person without those influences can be. Say then, with the Church of old, Draw me, and I will run after thee [Note: Son 1:4.]; and prove, by the steadiness of your heavenly course, that you do not pray in vain, and that God does not bestow upon you his grace in vain.]
3.
To those who desire to embrace and feel it
[Many there are who wish to submit to the revealed will of God, and yet never can contemplate his sovereignty without a fear and dread arising in their souls: but this is occasioned by their looking only on the dark side of the question, and thinking what must become of them if they are not elect: they contemplate sovereignty in connexion only with justice, and not in connexion with love and mercy. If they turned their thoughts more to his everlasting love, they would soon feel its attractive and constraining influence. We do not say that terror is not often made use of by God to awaken men; but it is by loving-kindness that he draws them into sweet communion with himself. Think then generally of his love to man, in providing redemption for him when he had passed by the fallen angels without any such gracious provision for their restoration to his favour: from thence proceed to think more particularly of his love to you, in having sent you the tidings of his salvation, and in having given you a desire to possess an interest in it; and you will then soon find a sweet confidence springing up in your souls: you will look to him as a Father; you will regard him as a Friend; you will feel encouragement to cast yourselves upon him, and pleasure in giving up yourselves to his service. Seek only to know how much he has loved you, and you will soon be constrained to love him, and to delight yourselves in him.]
I do not presume to determine, but I venture to observe, that I conceive the former part of this verse is the language of the Church; and the latter the words of Jehovah. The Church having heard the Lord say in the foregoing verse, how gracious the Lord was, in bringing his people out of Egypt, takes up the subject in the opening of this verse, and is about to speak of some of the ancient proofs of God’s love, when Jehovah himself interrupts her by speaking. Yea, saith the Lord, wouldst thou speak, of ancient love, how ancient wouldst thou make it? It began not in Egypt; not with the Patriarchs; not with the creation of the world; but from everlasting. And the one sole cause for which I have drawn thee is, because, from everlasting I have loved thee. Precious consideration to the believer. In Jesus the Church hath been beheld, and loved, from all eternity. Joh 17:23 .
Jer 31:3 The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, [saying], Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Ver. 3. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me. ] This seemeth to be the people’s objection. a You tell us what was done of old; but these are ancient things, and little pertaining to us, who are now under a heavy captivity; iam refrixit et obsoleta videtur Dei beneficentia. Hereunto is answered,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore with lovingkinduess have I drawn thee. a Iudaeorum quiritantium verba. – Zeged.
everlasting love. See notes on Isa 44:7.
Everlasting Love
The Lord appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.Jer 31:3.
This tender and gracious assurance appears here in a somewhat unexpected connexion. The Book of Jeremiah, taken as a whole, is a sad book; it consists in the main of warnings, expostulations, and prophecies of doom; and these prophecies are shown in process of fulfilment almost while they were being uttered. It is a sombre picture of human life which is presented to us in these vivid pages. And yet here we have, in the very midst of all this darkness and all these oracles of stern judgment, the sweet utterance which forms the text: The Lord appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. With lovingkindness? Loved with an everlasting love? Nothing could have seemed less like it just then. Fierce, terrible, merciless were the ways of God to Israel so far as appearances went, and not without cause. Love was about the last word that could describe the relations of these suffering people to their offended God.
Think what the circumstances were. The chosen people were ripe for judgment. There were two invasions within a few years of each other, each of them involving a siege of Jerusalem and the carrying away of thousands of prisoners into captivity. The scenes of horror associated with both must have been indescribably dreadful, especially after the second, when Jerusalem was left a heap of smoking ruins. It was in the interval between these two sieges that the text was most probably spoken, and the fact is surprising when we consider the circumstances. The prophets view is that Gods love is not shown by His leaving His people to perish morally in the slough of an enervating security, but rather in the infliction of suffering which purifies the soul by the discipline of the flesh. He holds, with wonderful insight, that their sorrows not only are punishments for their sins, but are of the nature of a drastic preparation for the unique work which Israel had yet to do in the world. He foretells the return from the Captivity, which at the moment was only just beginningin fact, the greater of the two Captivities had not yet taken place; Jerusalem was still standing and autonomous at the time the prophecy was uttered. Jeremiah says that after seventy years the exiles will be permitted to return to their own land, and then will commence their distinctive spiritual mission to all the nations upon earth. And this, as we now know, came true to the letter.
There are three strands in the prophets thought
I.The love of God lies behind the darkest experiences of life.
II.This love is everlasting and changeless.
III.It is a tender and individual love, manifesting itself as lovingkindness.
I
Love Offered from Afar
The Lord appeared of old unto me.
1. The words, The Lord appeared of old unto me, saying, etc., might mean either that the prophet had been convinced from early days, as well as all through the period of affliction, that God is a God of love; or it might mean, and more probably does mean, as the Hebrew literally states, The Lord appeared from afar unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. The expression from afar suggests the more beautiful idea of the two. The thought is that God hears, as it were, from afar, the cry of His children and comes to their relief. The image suggested is that of the poor enslaved children of Zion far away in a strange land stretching their hands towards their ancient home and praying to God, whose altar once stood there, to come to their deliverance; and God hears that prayer and comes and breaks down their prison walls and brings them back.
Jeremiah represents Jehovah as seeking to win back His chosen people to Himself under the figure of a lover wooing a maiden. Jehovah speaks from His far-away dwelling-place, and when the virgin of Israel, in her distant exile, hears him, she answers, From afar Jehovah appeared unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Then Jehovah makes answer:
Again will I build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel:
Again shalt thou take thy tabrets and go forth in the dances of them that make merry;
Again shalt thou plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria; while they that plant shall enjoy the fruit.1 [Note: H. W. Battle.]
2. But in a still deeper sense the meaning is that those who are afar from God in spirit will be heard and helped by Him at the first instant of their turning towards Him again. The saying is in substance almost exactly the same as that immortal utterance of the Master in the parable of the Prodigal Son, When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. It is not that God is a great way off, but that we in spirit may be a great way off from the apprehension of His eternal holiness and truth. But the grace of God takes advantage of every smallest opportunity to find entrance to the soul. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard. The faintest motion of our spirits Godward brings Him to our assistance. There may be very little in us for His goodness to take hold of, but such as it is He makes use of it. Those desolate Jews who lay in tears by the waters of Babylon were scarcely conscious of any change in their spiritual condition beyond the fact that they had suffered; they had been tried in the fire; their worldly delights had been rudely and cruelly swept away from them, but they could not yet have been capable of very much in the way of heavenly-mindedness. Nevertheless, says the prophet, God grasped at the little they had and gave Himself to increase it. It is the same with us. When everything is going well with us in the outer world we may be far from the Kingdom of Heaven, but when trouble overtakes us our thoughts turn more readily to God and things eternal.
During my absence I discovered the fact that love vanquishes distance, andI think I may say it reverentlythat love vanquishes death. I seemed to see it as a network of golden filaments, invisible to the selfish eye, but holding together the whole world. Moreover, India showed to me, much more clearly than I ever gathered before I went, the lovelessness of men when they have not heard or have not believed that God is Love.
Religion there is fear, not love; worship there is an attempt to propitiate the baleful and destructive forces in the midst of which we have to live; love has no part in it. In Mohammedanism, which has taken a fifth of India under its leadership and inspired them with its ideal, there is only submission to the Supreme Authority, but no love. I came back, therefore, as you can imagine, with quite a new apprehension of the meaning of the words of this text; and I wonder whether I ever could have learned the full meaning of that word apart from the experiences of the past few months.1 [Note: R. F. Horton.]
3. The crowning glory of the Christian religion, the sum of all its glories, is its God. He is one; He is personal; He is self-existent, almighty, eternal; He is holy, wise, loving and good. Fairbairn states that the transcendent moment for man, the moment of supreme promise and of grandest hope, was when the idea of a moral deity entered his heart, when all the energies of religion came to be moral energies for the making of moral men. The moment when gravitation, navigation, the secrets of the sea, or the stars, or the earth, were discovered had neither singly nor all combined equal or even approximate significance for man. Take from him this religion steeped in morality, made living by the moral character of its God, and you will leave him without the grandest energy working for God and peace and progress that ever came into his history or into his heart.
At heart Christianity is simply a revelation of a perfect God, doing the work of perfect love and holiness for His creatures and transforming men into His own likeness, so that they will do the work of love and holiness towards their fellows. He is the universal Father, the giver of every good gift and every perfect gift. It is in Him that we live and move and have our being. He is interested in the welfare of every child made in His image, and makes all things work together for his good. His glory is to diffuse happiness, and fill up the silent places of the universe with voices that speak out of glad hearts.
The greatest of the philosophers of Greece did but sum up the belief of antiquity when he put into the mouth of Phaedrus the words: Love is a mighty god, and wonderful among gods and men, but especially wonderful in his birth. For he is the eldest of the gods, which is an honour to him; and a proof of his claim to this honour is, that of his parents there is no memorial; neither poet nor prose-writer has ever affirmed that he had any.1 [Note: R. E. Hutton, The Crown of Christ, ii. 254.]
4. There is nothing that so challenges the attention of the non-Christian peoples as the statement that God is love and that He loves them and desires their redemption and their present and eternal well-being. There is nothing that impresses them as this does. Missionaries say that people who were disposed to shut their ears to the message and to drive them away were profoundly affected by the story of Gods love and mercy and goodness. When they heard a little they were eager to hear more. The story is so unlike anything they ever heard or imagined and so pleasing in itself that they are charmed by it. It is to them like good news from a far country, like rivers of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Friendship and love [he wrote to Professor von Wyss of Zrich] are the deepest springs of happiness in this world. And what else is the sum of Christianity than Gods love in Christ, Christ for the world and we for Christ? The theology of the future must start from Johns definition of God, God is love. Just now we have set on foot in the Presbyterian Church a revision of the Westminster Confession. The Confession is too rigidly Calvinistic for my liking, a creed for the small number of the elect but not for the whole world for which the Saviour died.
We need a theology, we need a confession, that starts from the living person of Jesus Christ, the God-man and Saviour of the world. This is the burden of Peters confession, the fruitful germ of all creeds; this is a central fact and truth on which all true Christians can agree. We need a theology and a confession that is inspired and controlled, not by the idea of Divine justice, which is a consuming fire, but by the idea of Divine love, which is life and peace. Love is the key which unlocks His character and all His works. And this love extends to all His creatures, and has made abundant provision in Christ for the salvation of ten thousand worlds.1 [Note: The Life of Philip Schaff, 428.]
God is love, and I for one can never conceive that God shuts out any human being from that love either here or in the world to come. But I think that a man can, and often does, as we know, so harden himself in sin here that he shuts away the love of God from himself. Now, God never compels, so that it is possible that this process may go on hereafter. I cannot conceive God not trying to reach the soul, but I can conceive the soul getting so hardened and devilish that it may go on resisting for ever.2 [Note: Bishop John Selwyn: A Memoir, 256.]
I vexed me with a troubled thought,
That God might be
A God whose mercy must be bought
With misery.
But theres no wrath to be appeased
In heaven above;
No wrath with bitter anguish pleased,
For God is Love.
No pleasure from our suffering
The Lord could steal,
Or anguish of the meanest thing
He made to feel.
But on Himself the grief He took,
The pain and loss
And shame of sin, and its rebuke
Upon the Cross.
For love rejoiceth not in pain
Of good or bad,
But beareth all, and still is fain
To make us glad.
Love circles us with mercies sweet,
And guides our way,
And sheds its light around our feet
By night and day.
O love of Jesus! love of heaven!
O holy Dove,
Teach all the ransomed and forgiven
That God is Love.1 [Note: Walter C. Smith.]
II
Love that Lasts
I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
The love of God is everlasting and changeless in contrast to that of other lovers. Elsewhere Jeremiah says, All thy lovers have forgotten thee. Israel had had many lovers professing regard and offering service; but what had their regard and service come to? They were now cold, careless, perhaps even hostile. They had shown the appearance of love to Israel, not that they cared for Israel, but because they themselves were advantaged. Now, that is no true affection which changes when the thing loved ceases to gratify us. Yet this was all that the affection of these other lovers amounted toa mere name of love, a feeling which, in the course of time, was to evince their own instability and bring shame to them. But God is a contrast to all this. He loves with an everlasting love. He loved Israel, not only in the days of prosperity and wealth and beauty, but in the days of downfall and despair. His thought penetrates through to the abiding worth of humanity. We do not slander human affection, or in any way underestimate it, when we say that man cannot love his fellow-man as God loves him. God it is who first of all shows man what love really is; then man, having the Spirit of the Divine Father breathed into him, learns to love also. We cannot attain to anything which will give us the right to say with respect to duration that ours is an everlasting love; but, as true Christians, we may have something of the quality of that affection.
1. Love is everlasting.It is from the first to the last. Love was, before love was expressed, as design is in the mind of the architect before he produces his drawings, and as harmony in the soul of the composer of music before he has written a musical passage. From everlasting, until the day of creation, love was pent up, if one may so speak, in the being of God, as the central fires of our globe, or as the waters of a spring without an outlet. It was unmanifest then, as the light below the horizon ere the morning has dawned. This cannot be said of selfishness or sin in any form. Sin is old, but sin is not eternal. One can look back through the past and see where sin begins; we cannot look back through the past and see where love begins, it is from everlasting.
In a letter dated June 22, 1864, Clerk Maxwell, who was then Professor of Natural Philosophy at Kings College, London, wrote to his wife: Love is an eternal thing, and love between father and son or husband and wife is not temporal if it be the right sort, for if the love of Christ and the Church be a reason for loving one another, and if the one be taken as an image of the other, then, if the mind of Christ be in us, it will produce this love as part of its complete nature, and it cannot be that the love which is first made holy, as being a reflection of part of the glory of Christ, can be any way lessened or taken away by a more complete transformation into the image of the Lord. I have been back at 1 Corinthians 13. I think the description of charity or Divine love is another loadstone for our lifeto show us that this is one thing which is not in parts, but perfect in its own nature, and so it shall never be done away. It is nothing negative, but a well-defined, living, almost acting picture of goodness; that kind of it which is human, but also divine.1 [Note: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, 338.]
2. Gods love is continuous.He loved us from the first of time, He loves us to the last. As His love cared for us in the past, it continues to care for us during the whole of our earthly life, notwithstanding all that may appear to be at variance with it. As it embraced us at first, irrespective of any good qualities in ourselves, so it embraces us throughout the whole of our varying experience. Our trials are no proof of its having forsaken us. Our unworthiness and sinfulness have not driven it away. When Israel was suffering as the consequence of wrong-doing, even then God bore testimony to His everlasting love, and intimated that through their suffering He would wean them from their sin, and thus promote their welfare. Thus did it prove its immutability amidst all changes in their experience, and in spite of all faults in their character.
Mans love ebbs and flows like the tide. Often it is as fickle as it is fervent. Sometimes when it talks loudest we can trust it least. Absence may cool it. Some little disappointment or opposition may change it into ill-concealed or unconcealed dislike. But there are no such changes in the love of God. His is no ebbing and flowing tide, but a sea, like the Mediterranean, ever full. His is no waxing and waning moon, but a full-orbed sun for ever shining in its strength. It shines as brightly and strongly now as it has ever done throughout the ages that are past; and it will continue to shine with the same brightness and strength throughout all the ages that are to come.
Our hearts may be well-nigh broken under some crushing sorrow; the light of our life may be taken away; the bitterness of death may enter our homes; the winter of an intolerable discontent may smite within us every spring of happiness and leave only the consciousness of a misery that hardly dares to lift its head. God may seem far away from usat least as a power of lovein the midst of the darkness that surrounds us. The very sun may be turned into blackness, and the flowers of the earth and the charms of the sea and sky, which were once as the breath of Paradise, may seem only to add to our misery. But the voice of God is not still because man does not hear it, and the love of God is not gone because man does not feel it. It is still crying to us; it abides as an everlasting fact. No cloud can extinguish it, however it may obscure it; no misery born of the depths of human despair, no tragedy of human agony or of human crime, can make that love doubtful. It is still there; it is around us; it is with us; its everlasting arms are holding us even when we cannot feel it, and grasping us in its soft embrace although our feet may be bleeding and sore with the hardness of the road along which we travel.
I cannot go
Where Universal Love smiles not around,
Sustaining all yon orbs and all their suns;
From seeming evil still educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression.1 [Note: James Thomson.]
3. To the Divine love there is absolutely no end.Never having begun, it will never terminate, but will last as long as God Himself shall live; for throughout the eternity which is His lifetime He never ceases to be Himself, and He is love. We have in His love, therefore, a guarantee not only for our present but for our future welfare. Never can we reach a point in our existence in which this love will not encircle and provide for us. When we come to die, He will love us as much in dying as He has loved us while we lived. When we appear at His judgment-seat, He will love us as much as when He gave Christ to die for us; through all eternity He will love us as much as He has ever done.
To a friend who was experiencing a heavy sorrow, Dr. Martineau wrote, Often the love of God is hidpasses behind the cloud and leaves us with a cold shudder of alarm, as if it were not there. But the Divine realities do not depend on our apprehension of them; the eclipse of our vision makes no difference to their shining, except to us. The Infinite Love abides behind, and waits till we return to it, and the intercepting veil falls away. At times, I think, when the mists of fear and distrust gather round the heart, it is even better to forget Him till He finds us again, and say: I will possess my soul in patience, than to accuse either Him or oneself of deserting a relation which is suspended, it may be, only to be more closely bound.1 [Note: The Life and Letters of James Martineau, i. 450.]
III
Love as Lovingkindness
Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
1. Here again is an alternative rendering. It might be, as the margin of the Revised Version has it, I have continued loving-kindness unto thee. But the expression as it stands is truer to the facts. The profound idea which it enshrines is that, despite appearances, the afflictions of Israel have all been the instruments of Gods love, means whereby He has been drawing His people towards Himself and towards a higher destiny than they knew. The sublime declaration thus made is that God draws His children by kindness even when it seems most like cruelty. It is almost audacious in its defiance of probabilities as judged from the standpoint of the natural man. Jeremiah calmly tells his contemporaries that all the ruin, woe, and devastation through which they were at the moment passing was a mode of the loving-kindness of God. One can hardly wonder that they refused to believe him, for anything more unlike the evidence of their senses it would have been difficult to find. We shall never reach the heart of the mystery of earthly misery and wretchedness by any exercise of the mind, but only by development of soul. For here is an amazing paradoxthat the very thing which to the wisdom of this world is the most conclusive demonstration that there is no Divine love is that wherein the spiritual mind discerns it most clearly.
True love is not mere benevolence, it is a burning fire, a passionate eagerness to possess the souls of those who are loved. Therefore it is that the perfect love of God embraces what in our poor earthly language we term the wrath of God against all unrighteousness of men and also the grief of the Holy Spirit at mans ingratitude, as where it is written it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. There is no contradiction between those two great texts, God is love and Our God is a consuming fire, for the Love Divine is a Consuming Fire, which warms, lightens, and quickens all whose nature will receive it, but burns up all the wood, hay, stubble which cannot receive it. And so when the sword flashes forth in terrible judgment, the Hand behind the cloud that wields it is the Hand of Love.
You see the child running in from the garden full of tears, and saying, Something has hurt me. On examination it is found that a thorn is in one of his fingers. Then the gentlest of hands will endeavour to extract it. When she is doing so the child will cry out, Oh, mother, you hurt me. Ah, it is not the mother that hurts, but the thorn. When God takes out the thorn, we think that He hurts us. Not so, it is the thorn. Even God cannot take sin out of the heart without its giving pain. Woe is me; who will deliver me from this body of death? There are trials and disappointments, there are crosses and burdens, and we feel them keenly. God is then extracting the thorns. But in all His dealings His tender mercy is over all His works. Everywhere, and at all times, it is His lovingkindness.1 [Note: T. Davies.]
2. Nothing but lovingkindness can draw men to goodness. No coercive forceonly the force of lovecan bring the sinner into repentance and faiththe repentance that shall not be repented of, and the faith that will secure the favour of God. It would be an easy matter for God to crush the sinner, and deprive him of every facility for sin; but it is a different matter to crush his sin and the desire which fosters it. The sinner may quail in the presence of Gods displeasure, or he may cease altogether from sin by reason of the abuse and the destruction of natural force; but there is no virtue in his tremor; there is no faith in his weakness. The sinner must be made willing to part with his sin. The power to effect this comes from God, but it can be applied only when the willing cry rends his heartLord, save, or I perish.
I understand the word drawn to be used here as the opposite of driven. I take the meaning to be, It is because I love you that I do not force you; I desire to win by love. We often express surprise that human life does not reveal more traces of Gods omnipotence. We see the visible universe subject to inexorable law and yielding submissively to that law. But man does not yield submissively; he resists the will of the Eternal. Why should he be allowed to resist? Is he not but an atom in the infinite spacesthese spaces that obey the heavenly mandate? Why not put down his insane rebellion and crush his proud will into conformity with the universal chorus? The Bible gives its answer. It is because love is incompatible with the exercise of omnipotence. Inexorable law can rule the stars; but the stars are not an object of love. Man is an object of love, and therefore he can be ruled only by loveas the prophet puts it, drawn. Nothing is a conquest for love but the power of drawing. Omnipotence can subdue by drivingbut that is not a conquest for love; it is rather a sign that love is baffled. Therefore it is that our Father does not compel us to come in. He would have us drawn by the beauty of holiness; therefore He veils all that would force the will.1 [Note: G. Matheson, Thoughts for Lifes Journey, 70.]
Two beautiful allegories by the late Mr. Munro, The Journey Home and The Dark Mountains, describe a certain Palace of Unbelief, belonging to Azrael, the Prince of Darkness. It has no background; its motto is: Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Here the careless revellers are disturbed by the sudden arrival of an unlooked-for visitor. His name is Conscience. He is pale and stern, with the starry crown of Truth upon his white forehead. All shrink back trembling at his approach, as though from the angel of death himself. Yet he does not win the wanderers back to the narrow way. They do but shudder for a moment at the awful vision. Then, once more, they strive to drown the new like the old cares, in mirth and debauchery. But are long another unbidden guest enters Azraels palace. His head is crowned not with stars but with thorns. His eye tells not of wrath, but of mercy. His words are words of love unspeakablethe love that in Gethsemane and on Calvary showed itself stronger than death. And that mighty love prevails. The fetters of lust and selfishness and pride are broken, and the prisoner is free.1 [Note: E. Curling, The Transfiguration, 103.]
3. Gods love is truly personal; it is the love of one loving heart for another. When God is speaking to the Jewish nation, He very often, and as a rule, addresses them as if they were one person. Was it that He always saw Abraham in them? Was it that He always saw the Messiah in them? Or is it the language of affection? The more earnest we are in anything, the more we point our words. And so God, gathering in the wide circumference of His comprehensive love for every Jew, in every age, to the centre of a single man, says, I have loved thee. For with God the capacity of love is universal. It embraces all. Yet it individualizes all. It is to you and to me, and all who believe in Him and look to Him as a Father. How personal always was the ministry of our Lord! Come unto me. Take up my cross. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
Gods love is like His sunlight, diffused throughout the heavens, catching the heights of the hills and crowning them with ruddy gold and clothing them in purple. So it seems to us an easy and a natural thing for God to love some people; outstanding men and women whose goodness might make them dear to Him. But this is not all that the sun does. It climbs higher that it may creep lowerdown the hillsides farther and farther, until it lifts the mists of the valley and covers the meadows with its glory: and kisses the daisy and fills its cup with gold, and puts energy and strength into its very heart. God loves the good, the true, the pure, but His love rises higher that it may come down lower; and He loves meme.2 [Note: M. G. Pearse, Parables and Pictures, 52.]
Let me link together detached sentences from the Word, that in their associations we may discern what is meant by the depth of the love of God. The high and lofty One whose name is holy. He is gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God began to wash the disciples feet. And one cried with another, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord! Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more. All these are suggestive of what is meant by the love-depths of our God. It is only the really lofty that can truly reach the really deep. The arm that can reach far upward is the only arm that can reach far downward. It is only holy love that can deal with humanitys deepest needs. A low love has no depths of service. Low love is a thing of compromise, and has no dealings with extremes, whether of holiness or of sin. Holy love, crystalline love, goes down and down into human necessity, and is not afraid of the taint. Sunbeams can move among sewage and catch no defilement. The brilliant, holy love of God ministers in the deepest depths of human need.
Gods love is deeper than human sorrow. Drop your plummet-line into the deepest sea of sorrow, and at the end of all your soundings, underneath are the everlasting arms. Gods love is deeper than death, and there are multitudes who know how deep grim death can be. Just twelve months ago, said a near friend of mine a week or two ago, I dug a deep grave! Aye, and I know it was deep enough. But the grave-diggers spade cannot get beneath our Fathers love. Gods love is deeper than the deepest grave you ever dug! And entering into the sepulchre they saw an angel, and you can never dig into any dreary, dreary dwelling of death which is beyond the reach of those white-robed messengers of eternal love. Yes, Gods love is deeper than death. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
And Gods love is deeper than sin. Listen to this: He descended into hell, and He will descend again if you are there. If I make my bed in hell. Thou art there. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. He bore our sin; then He got beneath it; down to it and beneath it; and there is no human wreckage, lying in the ooze of the deepest sea of iniquity, that His deep love cannot reach and redeem. What a Gospel! However far down, Gods love can get beneath it!1 [Note: J. H. Jowett, Things that Matter Most, 15.]
Everlasting Love
Literature
Armitage (W. J.), The Fruit of the Spirit, 11.
Curling (E.), The Transfiguration, 102.
Davies (T.), Sermons, ii. 53.
Hutton (R. E.), The Crown of Christ, ii. 253.
Landels (W.), Until the Day Break, 58.
Macintosh (W.), Rabbi Jesus, 57.
McLean (A.), Where the Book Speaks, 200.
Martin (S.), Fifty Sermons, 171.
Matheson (G.), Thoughts for Lifes Journey, 70.
Paget (E. C.), Silence, 65.
Pearse (M. G.), Parables and Pictures, 52.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxxii. (1888), No. 1914; 1. (1904), No. 2880.
Stewart (J.), Outlines of Discourses, 174.
Tulloch (J.), Sundays at Balmoral, 18.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), v. (1867), No. 521.
Christian Commonwealth, xxxiv. 285 (R. J. Campbell).
Christian World Pulpit, xxv. 209 (J. Tulloch); lvii. 109 (J. S. Maver).
Homiletic Review, lxi. 147 (H. W. Battle).
of old: Heb. from afar
I have: Deu 7:7-9, Deu 10:15, Deu 33:3, Deu 33:26, Hos 11:1, Mal 1:2, Rom 9:13, 1Jo 4:19
an: Psa 103:17, Isa 45:17, Isa 54:8, Isa 54:9, Rom 11:28, Rom 11:29, 2Th 2:13-16, 2Ti 1:9
with lovingkindness have I drawn: or, have I extended loving-kindness unto, Son 1:4, Hos 11:4, Joh 6:44, Joh 6:45, Rom 8:30, Eph 1:3-5, Eph 2:4, Eph 2:5, Tit 3:3-6, Jam 1:18, 1Pe 1:3
Reciprocal: Gen 35:9 – General Exo 4:5 – the Lord Num 3:15 – General Deu 7:8 – because Deu 23:5 – because the 1Ch 17:9 – I will Psa 36:10 – continue Son 2:10 – spake Isa 43:1 – created Isa 43:4 – I Have Isa 57:18 – will heal Eze 16:8 – thy time Eze 39:25 – Now will Zec 1:13 – with good Luk 1:54 – General Joh 10:28 – they Joh 13:1 – having Rom 8:35 – shall separate Col 3:12 – beloved
LOVED WITH EVERLASTING LOVE
I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Jer 31:3
I. We cannot estimate the length of Gods love.When did it begin to be? Long before I was born. Long before the Cross was raised on the brow of Calvary. Long before the world was made. Its foundations lie in His own eternity. And when will it cease to be? Neither in the hour of death, nor yet in the ageless years that stretch beyond. Yea, He says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
II. We cannot measure the breadth of Gods love.I have a very many-sided nature. Body, soul, spirit; my intellect, my memory, my imagination, my conscience, my will, my heart; each has its distinct and separate demands. But He meets and satisfies them all. Your soul, He assures me, shall be as a watered garden.
III. We cannot scale the height of Gods love.Up to the noblest honours and joys He raises me, above the worlds wealth and victory and royalty, up to His own presence, His own home, His own heart. He that scattereth Israel will gather him, He tells me, and will keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
This is love that deserves the name. When such a God is ours, when we are His, how rich is our heritage!
Illustrations
(1) The whole chapter is full of promises of love and light and joy, preceded, as such blessings must ever be, by the broken heart and the contrite spirit on the part of the recipient. Its primary reference is to Israel at the restoration, when the Lord returns to bless Zion and restore Jerusalem. But, meanwhile, it is for the spiritual Israelfor those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christthe Messiah Who has come.
(2)From no less fountain such a stream could flow,
No other root could yield so fair a flower:
Had He not loved, He had not drawn us so;
Had he not drawn, we had nor will nor power
To rise, to come;the Saviour had passed by
Where we in blindness sat without one care or cry.
Jer 31:3. Appeared unto me represents Israel as speaking and acknowledging the mercy of the Lord. That mercy was extended to the people because the Lord loved them notwithstanding their many acts of unfaith-fulness toward Him.
Jer 31:3-4. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me The prophet here personifies the Jewish nation, the people spoken of in the foregoing verse, who are introduced as calling to mind how God, in times of old, had manifested himself to the fathers of their nation, and appeared for their deliverance. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love These are evidently the words of God addressed to Zion or Jerusalem. As if he had said, The mercies I promised you, as a nation, when I made a covenant with your fathers, shall never fail. My love was not a temporary love, manifested merely to a single generation, but it is an everlasting love, and will continue through all generations. Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee I have shown my benignity toward you, by taking all opportunities of doing you good, and preventing you, by acts of grace and goodness, to draw you to myself, as your God, from all the idols to which you had turned aside. I have ever dealt graciously with them who fear me, and who hope in my mercy, and will always continue so to do. Again I will build thee, O virgin of Israel Thy inhabitants shall be again restored to thee, who shall rebuild their cities and habitations that lay desolate during the time of their captivity. Perhaps the Jews have the title of virgin of Israel bestowed upon them to imply that, in consequence of their repentance and reformation, they should be washed from the stains of their former idolatries, so often compared to whoredom in the Scriptures. Lowth. Thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets All the signs, both of religions and civil joy, shall be restored to thee. That it was usual for the women of Israel to go forth with tabrets and dancing in times of public rejoicing and prosperity, see Exo 15:20; Jdg 11:34; 1Sa 18:16. These times were now to be renewed.
31:3 The LORD appeared {d} of old to me, [saying], {e} I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
(d) The people thus reason as though he were not so beneficial to them now as he had been of old.
(e) Thus the Lord answers that his love is not changeable.
Assurance of future salvation rests on Yahweh’s eternal commitment and His loving election of Israel (cf. Exo 19:5-6; Deu 7:9). He had loved it "from afar" in the wilderness following the Exodus, and He would love it "from afar" in the Exile. "Love" and "faithfulness" are both strong covenant terms.
"It is the LORD’s constant commitment to Israel that bridges the generations and makes restoration possible." [Note: Scalise, p. 108.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
GRACIOUS INFLUENCES THE FRUIT OF ELECTING LOVE
[God does not lore us because we first loved him; but we love him because he first loved us [Note: 1Jn 4:19.]. It was thus also with the Apostles themselves: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain [Note: Joh 15:16.]. To us the terms, Election and Predestination, almost sound like blasphemy: but the Apostles did not view them in this light: they considered every blessing we enjoy as the fruit of Gods electing love, and of his sovereign will predestinating us from all eternity to the enjoyment of it [Note: See Eph 1:3-6 and 2Th 2:13-14.] They are particularly careful to exclude all works of ours from forming a ground of Gods electing love, lest we should boast as having in some degree merited his favour [Note: 2Ti 1:9.]. The whole tenour of the Scriptures shews, that God hath compassion on whom he will have compassion [Note: Rom 9:15.]; and that his people are a remnant according to the election of grace [Note: Rom 11:5.].]
[How strongly did he guard his people of old against imagining that his distinguishing favour to them was founded in any superior goodness of theirs [Note: Deu 7:7-8.]! In like manner he puts it to us; Who made thee to differ? and What hast thou which thou hast not received? and, If thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it [Note: 1Co 4:7.]? The whole of his Gospel is purposely designed to cut off all ground of glorying from man, that God alone may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ [Note: Rom 3:27. Eph 2:8-9. 1Co 1:28-29.].]
1.
But it is not wise for persons who are mere novices in religion to be disputing about abstract doctrines: it were better far to seek after God according to the light they have. All must acknowledge, that they ought to take God as their God, and to give themselves to him as his people. Let me then urge you to do this with your whole hearts: and we have no fear but that, if once you be enabled to do this, you will say, Not unto me, O Lord, not unto me, but unto thy name he the praise.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)