Love for God, Not for Self, Should Be Ultimate

by Nov 11, 2008Uncategorized

Even lost people can have their affections toward God raised high if they think that God is making much of them, says Jonathan Edwards.

But the exercises of true and holy love in the saints arise in another way. They do not first see that God loves them, and then see that he is lovely, but they first see that God is lovely, and that Christ is excellent and glorious, and their hearts are first captivated with this view, and the exercises of their love are wont from time to time to begin here, and to arise primarily from these views; and then, consequentially, they see God’s love, and great favor to them. The saint’s affections begin with God; and self-love has a hand in these affections consequentially, and secondarily only. On the contrary, those false affections begin with self, and an acknowledgment of an excellency in God, and an affectedness with it, is only consequential and dependent. In the love of the true saint God is the lowest foundation; the love of the excellency of his nature is the foundation of all the affections which come afterwards wherein self-love is concerned as a handmaid: on the contrary, the hypocrite lays himself at the bottom of all, as the first foundation, and lays on God as the superstructure; and even his acknowledgment of God’s glory itself depends on his regard to his private interest.

(The Religious Affections, Banner of Truth edition, p. 172)

Read More 

“The Horse Is Dead, Sir.” “Well, Beat It Some More.”

“The Horse Is Dead, Sir.” “Well, Beat It Some More.”

Faithlife just posted a blog interview they did with me about Authorized. Is there more to be said? Maybe a little! I got my first academic review of Authorized, and though I’m waiting to see if my response will be published in the same journal (the editor was...

Review: The ESV Preaching Bible

Review: The ESV Preaching Bible

The new ESV Preaching Bible is another win for Crossway. They gave me a copy to review (no strings attached, of course—well, actually, there were two ribbons in the Bible for bookmarking, but they weren’t attached to any stipulations from Crossway, just to the supple...

I’ve Got an Article in a New Book

The new Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia has an article in it from yours truly, namely “Love.” A few friends have credits, too, including (but not limited to) Joe Tyrpak on David Brainerd (he wrote his DMin dissertation on Brainerd); Ryan Martin; and Nathan Lentfer. I...

Introduction to the New Testament for Bibles International

I wrote the following introduction to the New Testament for Bibles International; it is being translated and placed into Bibles all around the world. The Bible tells one story, because God has one plan for all of history (Isa. 46:9–10; Gal. 4:4–6). The 27 books of the...

Leave a comment.

0 Comments