Ah, dear heart, what language, what lofty prayers do I bid to Heaven that such realities may truly be made real in my heart especially in fidelity to the Christian faith! “To see as Christ sees, to feel as Christ feels, to love as Christ loves, and to approve as Christ approves.” What a glorious thing it would be that when finally we enter glory all these would be a final reality of us. But may it never be that we would settle any less in this Pilgrim’s journey than to be conformed ever closer to the image of our Lord, Christ Jesus!
“…so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ…”—Philippians 1:10
If divine light has enlightened your mind, divine life quickened your heart, and you love the Lord and His people, you must approve of the things that are excellent.
For they are so commended to your conscience that you can no more do otherwise than you can tell a deliberate lie or call black white.
And as you approve of them, you will disapprove of everything which is contrary to, or falls short of this excellency.
Now this is what distinguishes us from the world and the spirit of it, and from all whose eyes are blinded by the god of this world—that whilst they approve of things God abhors, we approve of the things that God loves.
Here is the mind of Christ; here is the teaching of the Spirit giving us in some measure to see as Christ sees, to feel as Christ feels, to love as Christ loves, and to approve as Christ approves. We shall never go so far wrong so long as we are approving the things that are excellent, and seeking, as the Lord may enable, to know the will of God and do it.
But directly we lose sight of this spiritual standard and set up the opinion of men, then our eyes get blinded, our hearts hardened, our consciences benumbed, and instead of approving the things that are excellent, we may gradually and insensibly drift into the very spirit of ungodliness.
—J.C. Philpoti
Footnotes
- Philpot, J. (1997). Ears from Harvested Sheaves . (April 1). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc. [↩]
