Christ's love compels us. (2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV)
"The love of
God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 5:5). That was the
dynamic of service. Now, that is simple and it works in two ways. All activity, work, and what is
called "service" for the Lord, without that behind it, is lacking in the true
power of fruitful service, but if that is there, we cannot help being the Lord’s
servants. Nothing can make us true servants of the Lord but a personal
passionate love for Himself. Nothing can substitute that. But given that, there
is no need for any kind of human ordination, an ecclesiastical setting apart.
You are the Lord’s servant right enough if you have an adequate love for Himself
in your heart. It will be, it will work out. All our value to the Lord depends
upon the measure of our heart-love for Himself. That is all. There is nothing
profound about that, but it is testing.
We may do many things, like the church at Ephesus later on. It did many
things, but the Lord said, "I have this against thee, that thou hast left thy
first love" (Rev. 2:4). And in effect He said: "There is no justification in
your lampstand remaining, it is merely an empty profession, an outward vessel
without the inner Lord, the inner light." And unless this original first love is
recovered, it is mere profession, doing many things, but the thing which
justifies our existence is that love and only that. Nothing but that love will
keep us going. It is the power of endurance through the years, and it is an
awful thing to come to a Christian life which has got to be kept up without that
love for the Lord in the heart. It is only that love that really makes the
Christian life possible under all the strain of the years. I am quite sure that
in the case of the apostle, with all his suffering and all he had to meet, the
thing that kept him going was that flame of love in his own heart for the Lord
Himself. Through the suffering, nothing but a strong love for the Lord will keep
us going.