A HOLY LIFE - Intro 3

a treatise by John Bunyan

edited in modern English by Jon Cardwell

As there is a twofold faith, two sorts of good works, and so forth, so there is also a twofold love to Christ; the one standing, or stopping, in some passions of the mind and affections; the other is that which breaks through all difficulties to the holy commandment to do it. Scripture mentions both of these; and though all true love begins at the heart, yet that love is only minimally placed in reserve for future use when it does not break through in practice. How many there are in the world that seem to have the first, but how few show the second. The young man in the gospel (Mark 10:17) did by his running, kneeling, crying, questioning and begging of Christ to show Him the way to life, show that he had inward love to Christ and his own salvation; yet it was not a love that was “strong as death,” “fierce as the grave,” and hotter than the coals of juniper (Song of Solomon 8:6).[i] It was a love that stopped in mind and affection, but could not break out into practice. This kind of love, if it was left alone and not pressed to proceed until it comes into a laboring practice of the commandment, will love as long as you will, specifically, as long as mouth and tongue can wag; yet you shall not, by all your skill drive this love farther than the mouth; “for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain” (Ezekiel 33:31).

Nor can this love be counted as the right kind just because it is in the heart, for the heart knows how to conceal love, as much as any other matter. This is contrived or artificial love, or love that pretends to have dear affections for Christ, can give Him nothing of value. The world is full of this kind of love today, especially the professing believers of this age; but as I said, of this the Lord Jesus gives little or no credit, for it is essentially defective in its core. Therefore, Christ and His servants describe the true and right kind of love with reference to Himself and His church.

First, with reference to Himself: “If anyone loves Me,” He says, “he will keep My word” (John 14:23). And again, “Whosoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me” (John 14:21). And, “Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word that you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 14:24). Now, take note of where Christ places a sign of love. It is not in word or speech. It is not in great and seemingly affectionate gestures. It is, however, in a practical walking within the law of the Lord. Therefore, those, and only those are called the undefiled in the way. You know who it is that says, “I am the way.” “Blessed,” says David, “are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD” (Psalms 119:1).

But here again, the hypocrite will give us the slip by bringing our attention to his external matters, such as tithing his “mint and dill and cumin” (Matthew 23:23). Yet, he still neglects the weightier matters of the law, namely, justice, mercy, faithfulness; or else, as it relates to the meaningful and symbolic ordinances, still neglecting to do to all men as he would have them do unto him. But let them know that God never ordained expressive ordinances, such as baptism, the Lord’s supper, or the like, for the sake of water, or of bread and wine; nor was it because He takes any delight in our being dipped in water, or that we eat that bread; but they were ordained to minister to us, by the suitability of the elements, further knowledge of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and of our death and resurrection by Him to newness of life through our sincere partaking of those elements. For this reason, he that eats and believes not, and he that is baptized and is not dead to sin nor walks in newness of life, neither keeps these ordinances or pleases God. To be dead to sin is to be dead to those things forbidden in the moral law. For sin is the transgression of the law. There is no benefit in bragging that I am a saint because of this or that expressive ordinance if I sin by practicing lawlessness, because “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). For I am convicted of the law as a transgressor, and therefore determined to be one that does not love Christ, though I make a noise of my obedience to Christ, and of my partaking of His expressive ordinances. The Jews of old made a great noise with their expressive and symbolic ordinances, while they lived in violation of the moral law; yet, their practice of expressive ordinances and symbolic rituals could not save them from the judgment and displeasure of their God. They could go regularly to the temple, keep their feasts, slay their sacrifices, and be pretty meticulous about all their expressively symbolic things. But they loved idols and lived in violation of the last six commandments of the Ten Commandments. This is the reason that God cast them out of His presence. Listen to what the prophet said of them, (Amos 4:4-5) “‘Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days; offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel!’ declares the Lord GOD.” Therefore, as I said, the hypocrite gives us the slip; for when he hears that love is in the keeping of the commandments of God, then he takes himself to the more external parts of worship, and neglects the more weighty matters, and that, to the provoking of the God of Israel.

Second, as love for God is shown by keeping His commandments, then love for my neighbor is also by keeping the commandments of God. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God,” —in us, both to God and man, “that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:2-3). He that does not keep God’s commandments does not love God or men.

We must, therefore, learn to love one another. He that keeps God’s commandment does what is right to his brother because that is God’s commandment. He that keeps God’s commandment does unto his brother just as he would have his brother do unto himself, for that is God’s commandment. He that keeps God’s commandment does not shut up his bowels of compassion from his brother because that would run contrary to God’s commandment. Furthermore, he that keeps God’s commandment shows his brother what he must do to correctly honor the Christ that he professes to believe: therefore, he that keeps the commandment loves his brother. Yes, keeping of the commandment means loving the brethren.

But if all love were tried by this one text, which we pretend to have one to another, how much of that that we call love would be found to be nothing less? Preposterous are our spirits in all things, nor can they be guided right, but by the Word and Spirit of God; the which, the good Lord grant unto us plentifully, that we may do that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes, that there may also be wrought sound repentance in us, by them, for all that has been done by us amiss, in case He give up “Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers;” for that they have sinned against Him by not walking in His ways, and by not being obedient to His law (Isaiah 42:24).

Let me add, in case God does not only punish us in the sight of the wicked by their hand, but also embolden them to say that it was God that set them on; yes, for fear that they make those sins of ours, which we have not repented of, not only their byword against us for generations to come, but also the argument, one to another, of their justification for all the evil that they shall be allowed to do to us: saying, when men shall ask them, “Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?” (Deuteronomy 29:24; 1 Kings 9:8; Jeremiah 22:8); it is because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, and walked not in His ways.

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[i] The “coals of juniper” is a Hebrew expression Gachaliy R’tamiym used in Psalm 120:4. It refers to coals that burn quite hot and quite long. [J. Cardwell’s added footnote]

[“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”]