Chrysostom
Beloved of All
The Scriptures are a deep well, and to draw from them meaning we must search with earnest prayer, not with a casual hand. You seize upon the promise that you are a chosen people, but see that you do not turn this medicine into poison by a careless application. For if He chose you, it was not that you might remain in slumber, but that you might walk as one chosen. When the prophet speaks of the Servant in whom God’s soul is well pleased, He does away with the adversary and signifies unanimity with the Father. So you must have this same mind with Him, not fashioning God into the image of your own desires, but conforming your will to His.
You say you are love and never rejected, but let us examine the nature of this love. For one man has two friends and calls this love, but this is to love for the sake of being beloved. The love that renders us admirable, that makes us like God, is not this. We regard even God with admiration when He shows love toward man, when He is long-suffering. This is to love for God's sake: to be disposed toward all men as brethren, to pity and weep for those who are made vile by sin. If your love affirms what God has not blessed, it is not the love that comes from above.
The bond that stood against us was not mere feelings of rejection, but the handwriting of our disobedience to God’s commands. This bond the devil held, and Christ tore it asunder on the Cross, not by ignoring sin, but by suffering the punishment for it Himself. If you cling to the comfort of being God’s special possession while holding fast to what His Cross condemns, you take possession of the goods of Christ and consume them for no purpose. You will have to give an account.
Do not think that being chosen means you can rest on a declaration of love. He chose untaught persons, not so they could boast in their ignorance, but so His power could be made perfect. The Apostle Paul, that chosen vessel, remained two whole years in a hired dwelling. Did he disobey? By no means. But we are not trained in the law of God, so we become sharp inquirers into the faults of others while taking no account of our own. Search the depth of your heart. Is this love you proclaim submission to His word, or a love that strives and cries out against His commands? A bruised reed He will not break, but neither does He leave the reed unhealed to remain in its bruising. Let your faith stand not in the wisdom of men, who might soothe you with pleasant things, but in the power of God, which remits joyfully and commands, “Go and sin no more.” This is the greater thing you have yet to see.
You say you are love and never rejected, but let us examine the nature of this love. For one man has two friends and calls this love, but this is to love for the sake of being beloved. The love that renders us admirable, that makes us like God, is not this. We regard even God with admiration when He shows love toward man, when He is long-suffering. This is to love for God's sake: to be disposed toward all men as brethren, to pity and weep for those who are made vile by sin. If your love affirms what God has not blessed, it is not the love that comes from above.
The bond that stood against us was not mere feelings of rejection, but the handwriting of our disobedience to God’s commands. This bond the devil held, and Christ tore it asunder on the Cross, not by ignoring sin, but by suffering the punishment for it Himself. If you cling to the comfort of being God’s special possession while holding fast to what His Cross condemns, you take possession of the goods of Christ and consume them for no purpose. You will have to give an account.
Do not think that being chosen means you can rest on a declaration of love. He chose untaught persons, not so they could boast in their ignorance, but so His power could be made perfect. The Apostle Paul, that chosen vessel, remained two whole years in a hired dwelling. Did he disobey? By no means. But we are not trained in the law of God, so we become sharp inquirers into the faults of others while taking no account of our own. Search the depth of your heart. Is this love you proclaim submission to His word, or a love that strives and cries out against His commands? A bruised reed He will not break, but neither does He leave the reed unhealed to remain in its bruising. Let your faith stand not in the wisdom of men, who might soothe you with pleasant things, but in the power of God, which remits joyfully and commands, “Go and sin no more.” This is the greater thing you have yet to see.
