"The Controlling Dynamic: The Love of Christ"

ADDRESSING himself to the assembly of the saints, the apostle says: "At any rate there has been no selfish motive. The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:14, Phillips).*

How can we gauge its strength? It is impossible to measure the mighty power of God. Like the electrical wave it is hidden in mystery, yet once it flashed before human eyes in the loop of life. And like the current that makes the thin wire of the arch light incandescent with its white heat, while its scope is beyond human register, we can note some of its qualities.

Greater Than the Love of a Parent

Lay it alongside the best measuring line we possess the love of a parent. While history records thrilling examples of the self-sacrificing devotion of fathers and mothers, yet it bears witness that even such tenderness has its limits. The discovery of urns at Gazer containing the skeletons of little children is a case in point. Why should all these be found together? Archeologists give the one answer these are the remains of the first born children which the heathen Canaanites offered to their idols. What scenes do those little fragile bones, that shiver into ashes at the faintest touch, recall! See the father take the babe from the mother's arms. Superstition has conquered love. The childish hands are outstretched in mute appeal to hearts that are strangely cold, its cry rings on ears that are deaf, as it is cruelly laid on the altar of some god. Perhaps it was scenes like these that gave point to the prophet's pathetic contrast: "Can a woman forget her sucking child . . . ? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."

God's Love for Israel

Think of God's love. If you want to measure it, count the rebuffs it patiently endured. Consider ancient Israel and God's patience with her. Never had a kingdom such a succession of gifted, inspired, courageous prophets. Never had a city such a mission as its capital. Situated on the spur of the mountain range, its site suggests the simile of a lighthouse, for it was meant by God to radiate His truth through the darkened nations of the world.

It was not through ignorance that Israel sinned. In vain it often tried to extinguish the Heaven-sent light. When it buried under a heap of stones the mangled body of some outspoken servant of Jehovah, a new voice would be heard whose fearless accents would prick the guilty conscience, and again the instinct of fear would find vent in a murderous act. Yet God would not be silent. He found His messengers in a long line of pre-Christian martyrs, and even when the last had been slain, His love had not become exhausted; "last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son" (Matt. 21:37).

Then came a generation of Jews more honored than all before, for God Himself walked their streets in human form. It was their privilege to listen to words laden with love, to witness acts which photographed before their eyes the face of the Eternal; yet their hatred became more in flamed, and the knife was drawn again, this time to be thrust into the very heart of God. And yet, though their stubbornness, their sin, arouse His anger, His love outreaches His wrath, His passion ends in pleading, and over the rebellious city with its thoughtless, wayward crowds, there floats a piteous cry, puntuated by sobs, passionate with the appeal of infinite love: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

Here was a love which desertion could not alienate, which ingratitude could not chill, which treachery could not transform, which death could not destroy, which the grave could not smother, and which Heaven cannot conceal. Surely the heart would be hard indeed that such love did not constrain!

The Response to Love

A second element in this love is response. It is just possible that the words of the text, "The love of Christ constraineth us," may refer to our love for Him.

We are constantly seeing many a meaner motive prompting to heroic sacrifice. Human history is bedazzled with deeds of patriotic self-sacrifice, that of a soldier who has fired the magazine though he knew it meant his death, that of a miner who has faced fatal fumes to rescue the entombed, that of a doctor----------A monument stands in Greenock commemorating the death of six young physicians who gave their lives to stem the plague of cholera. But I might exhaust every profession---that of the engineer, the sailor, the builder---and find the same role of honor. Surely we, then, as ministers, with obligations so much greater, with need as urgent, should be constrained by our devotion to Jesus into acts as heroic and even more lasting in their results.

Love Begets Compassion

But I think there is even a third content in this love, if I understand that text as meaning that we have the Spirit of Christ within us; then we shall be possessed of His compassion. "Then were all dead," says the same context, and though that might be interpreted in different ways, yet it undoubtedly flashes before our mind as a vision of the world as God sees it---dead in sin. This is a spectacle which should move us!

Could we tear aside the pretense from so many of our modern customs, and lay bare the lifeless soul beneath, then we might be startled into acts of devoted service. Yes, if we could borrow Heaven's viewpoint, then we would see the flood of sin surging beneath, engulfing the souls of men and women. Yonder are some homes in the slums of our cities, where there is practically no chance for the souls en trapped. They are beyond their depth, and their only hope lies in some brave rescuer who has given himself to the service of God. But not only there does this flood bring death. The rich and the learned, as well as the poor and the ignorant, are surrounded and swept away by this fatal current.

All can remember what scenes of desolation photographers present after an earth quake. Under the debris of fallen houses lay hundreds of human beings crushed and lifeless, and over those stricken streets, that had been washed by the subsequent tidal wave, there brooded the silence of death. So to heavenly eyes may appear many of our busy thoroughfares, where men jostle one another in their pursuit of pleasure or gain, but where souls are dead, and where the angels go about the streets as mourners. It is such a vision that should move the heart of the minister, as it did the Master, to tears of pity and deeds of heroism.

May the indictment leveled at Israel never be accusingly placed upon us: "In gratitude to God, the neglect of opportunities and blessings, the selfish appropriation of God's gifts these were comprised in the sin that brought wrath upon Israel." ---Christ's Object Lessons, p. 302. Could it be this "sin" is already being duplicated? "Men are in peril. Multitudes are perishing. But how few of the professed followers of Christ are burdened for these souls. The destiny of a world hangs in the balance; but this hardly moves even those who claim to believe the most far-reaching truth ever given to mortals. . . . There is a stupor, a paralysis, upon the people of God, which prevents them from under standing the duty of the hour." --Ibid., p. 303.

May Heaven help us if our emphasis on "lesser things" is responsible for preventing our congregations from "understanding the duty of the hour"! "Every day the probation of some is closing. Every hour some are passing beyond the reach of mercy. And where are the voices of warning and entreaty to bid the sinner flee from this fearful doom? Where are the hands stretched out to draw him back from death?" --Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 140.

Love Leads to Positive Action

The love of Christ constrains us to some thing positive. There are some who seem to think that they have done their duty when they have corrected or criticized those who are working. What the world needs today is men of positive outlook. It is tired of merely negative criticism. Did you ever meet a man who was made to repent by the stings of scorn, who was converted by criticism? What we want is not men who are apologetic about Christ they do more harm than good but those who have unshaken faith, and share it, and live it, and work for it. If others look on askance, instead of using hard words, let them produce a better ideal, a nobler life, a more satisfactory way of dealing with sin. Criticism of that kind can be useful, but mere words are wasteful. Let men act, not from a consideration of consequences, but from a sense of duty, and leave the results to Christ. Man can only contemplate immediate actions. Most decisions in life produce a succession of effects that are endless; it is like an angle, small at the apex but embracing infinities at the base. It is foolish, therefore, to try to predict the full consequences of an act; but one thing you can determine, and that is whether it is in the interests of Christ or not. If it is, do it, and you will have all eternity to count up the blessings which it begets.

God's program in the world needs a vigorous push in the right direction, a uniting of all the wandering energies of men into line with the divine purpose. So let the love of Christ constrain us not to pull back but to press on. Remember Burke's words: "Applaud us when we run; console us when we fall; cheer us when we recover; but let us pass on for God's sake let us pass on." I say, "Rise up, O men of God!"