REFLECTIONS

"The Expulsive Power of a New Affection

Misplaced affections need to be replaced by the far greater power of the affection of the gospel. It is not enough to understand the worthlessness of the world; one must value the worth of the things of God. The love of God and the love of the world are two affections, not merely in a state of rivalship but in a state of enmity-and that so irreconcilable, that they cannot dwell together in the same bosom. The only way to dispossess (the heart) of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one. Nothing can exceed the magnitude of the required change in a man’s character, when bidden as he is in the New Testament, to love not the world.

But the same revelation which dictates so mighty an obedience, places within our heart an affection which once seated upon its throne, will either subordinate every previous inmate or bid it away. Beside the world, it places before the eye of the mind Him who made the world and with this peculiarity, which is all its own-that in the Gospel do we so behold God, as that we may love God.  It is when He stands dismantled of the terrors which belong to Him as an offended lawgiver and when we are enabled by faith, which is His own gift, to see His glory in the face of Jesus Christ, and to hear His beseeching voice, as it protests good will to men, and entreats the return of all who will to a full pardon and a gracious acceptance-it is then, that  a love paramount to the love of the world, and at length expulsive of it, first arises in the regenerated bosom. It is when released from the spirit of bondage with which love cannot dwell, and when admitted into the number of Gods children through the faith that is in Jesus Christ, the spirit of adoption is poured upon us- it is then that the heart brought under the mastery of one great and predominant affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, in the only way in which the deliverance is possible.  The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure on; and by the love of what is good, to expel the love of what is evil. And never does the sinner find within himself so mighty a moral transformation, as when under the belief that he is saved by grace he feels constrained thereby to offer his heart a devoted thing and to deny ungodliness. We know of no other way by which to keep the love of the world out of our heart, than to keep in our hearts the love of God."   

-Thomas Chalmers  Scottish Minister 1780-1847