Tuesday, August 2, 2016

The Most Suitable Good

A thing is desirable, because it is suitable. The suitableness of the object allures our desires and love.


Suitableness is the ground of love. A thing might be good in itself, yet, if we apprehend no suitableness in it to us then the love of our hearts is not upon it. Therefore, in pain and sickness, a man judges ease and health to be better for him than gold and silver because they are more suitable. A man in hunger and thirst, esteems bread and water to be better than honors and pleasures because they are more suitable.


Love to Christ is grounded on the soul discerning the suitableness of Christ unto him. He says, "Food is not more suitable to a hungry man, nor medicine to a sick man, nor clothing to a naked man than Christ is to me, a poor, sinful, and lost man, an undone, perishing, and damned man! For I am naked and He will give clothe me with His perfect righteousness, I am blind and He will restore my spiritual sight, I am enslaved to sin and Satan and He will give me liberty,  I am lost and He will save me, I am guilty and He will pardon me, I am polluted and He will cleanse me, I am an enemy to God and He will reconcile me, I am ignorant and He will teach me, I am indebted and He will be my Surety,  I am poor and He will make me wealthy to all eternity, I am a stranger to God and He bring me into acquaintance with Him, I am unfit for Heaven and He will make me fit to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.


Love to Christ includes a discovery of Christ unto the soul, as the most suitable good.  In poverty, Christ will be my riches. In disgrace, Christ will be my honor. In bonds and mprisonment, Christ will be my liberty. In pain, Christ will be my comfort. In death, Christ will be my life. In the loss of all things, Christ will be better to me than the enjoyment of all these things!


Though I have riches yet I might be damned. But if I have Christ then I shall be saved!  Though men admire me yet God might loathe me. But if I have Christ then the Lord will love me!  Though I prosper in the world, in all my pomp I might be walking in the way to everlasting misery!  But if I have Christ He will lead me in the paths unto eternal glory!


Look, O my soul, look around about you, and you shall find none so suitable to you, as the lovely Savior. Then He alone shall have my best love. Is there none for me like Him? Then I will fix my love on Him!




[Thomas Doolittle]


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Colossians 3:11 ... Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.


Ephesians 4:6 ... One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.


Romans 8:39 ... Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.❤