Pure love is strong, vital, unquenchable. No mere circumstance in the universe can put out its living flame. How much higher is this than people’s mere affections for one another! Divorce courts cry aloud the shameful vanity of the so-called “love” of couples who are married for a time, then no longer love one another! A little lapping of the waters of trying circumstances, shallow as they may be, is enough to quench the flickering flame of the “love” that at first they so strongly affirmed.

But “many waters,” the awesome depths of unspeakable suffering and agony, the raging waves and billows, not merely of the trials of earthly circumstances, but of the dreadful judgment of God against sin; that anguish of being alone, forsaken, enduring the awful floodtide of the guilt of our sins—all of this could not quench the pure love of the heart of the blessed Lord Jesus toward those so sinful and undeserving. What love indeed!

For love is His very nature, infinitely higher than all the wealth of the universe could purchase. Men have foolishly tried to purchase the love of their children with all the substance of their house, lavish gifts of every material kind, only to find their children treating them with utter contempt. Such great gifts will not beget love. The Lord could have given us anything He desired to satisfy our lusts; but He gave Himself, not merely things. This is love, pure, precious, and real. Because He loved, He gave Himself; and only this unaffected, unfeigned love can bring love’s response from our hearts. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19).