"Do You Love Me?" Debt of Love

If you do not love Christ, let me tell you plainly what is the reason.  You have no sense of debt to Him.  You have no feeling of obligation to Him.  You have no abiding recollection of having got anything from Him.  This being the case it is not likely, it is not probable, it is not reasonable that you should love Him.

There is but one remedy for this state of things.  That remedy is self-knowledge, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit.  The eyes of your understanding must be opened.  You must find out what you are by nature.  You must discover that grand secret, your guilt and emptiness in God's sight.

Perhaps you never read a Bible at all, or only read an occasional chapter as a mere matter of form, without interest, understanding, or self-application.  Take advice this day, and change your plan.  Begin to read the Bible like a man in earnest, and never rest till you become familiar with it.  Read what the law of God requires, as taught by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5.  Read how Paul describes human nature in the first two chapters of his letter to the Romans.  Study such passages as these with prayer for the Spirit's teaching, and then say whether you are not a debtor to God and a debtor in mighty need of a Friend like Christ.

Perhaps you have never known anything of real, hearty, business-like prayer.  You have been used to regarding religion as an affair of churches, chapels, forms, services, and Sundays, but not as a thing requiring the serious, heartfelt attention of the inward man.  Take this advice and change your plan.  Begin the habit of real, earnest pleading with God about your soul.  Ask Him for light, teaching, and self-knowledge.  Ask Him to show you anything you need to know for the saving of your soul.  Do this with all your heart and mind, and, no doubt, before long you will feel your need of Christ.

Not to love Christ is to be in imminent danger of eternal ruin.  

- To see your need of Christ and your amazing debt to Christ is the first step towards loving Him.  

- To know yourself and find out your real condition before God is the only way to see your need.  

- To search God's Word and ask God for light in prayer is the right course by which to attain saving knowledge.  

Take this advice and be saved.

To Be Concluded...

Adapted from the Writings of J.C. Ryle