“Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory”

Whom having not seen you love  

The Greek says “toward whom you now do not see.” Our faith finds full expression in the direction of our faith – the Lord Jesus. We find joy in a person. The emphasis in this phrase is upon the person of Christ – “whom.” The Greek implies the idea of “toward whom” placing emphasis upon the direction of our faith toward a person.

Joy resides in a person. He is the ground of our joy. God accomplished salvation through the work of His Son Jesus Christ. Joy stems from the possession of that salvation.

The word “seen” means to catch a glimpse. Asia Minor’s Christians had not even caught a glimpse of the Lord Jesus on earth yet they loved Him. They never had an eye to eye personal contact with the Lord yet they loved him dearly.

We do not need a picture of Jesus to love Him. We do not rely on some artist’s conception of Him to appreciate what He has done for us. However, we cannot love someone unless we have a clear conception of who that person is. We must know a person before we can love him or her properly.

I John 4:7-10 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

To know Him is to love Him; to know Him better is to love Him better.

The Old Testament’s saints had not seen Him either yet they lived by faith (Hebrews 11). The Holy Spirit paints a vivid portrait of Him in the Word. Without the Holy Spirit’s revelation of Him in the Word, we cannot love him.

“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5: 5)

If you do not know the Lord Jesus you are missing out on life with a capital “L.”

Napoleon made a powerful point about the Lord Jesus when he said, “An extraordinary power of influencing and commanding men has been given to Alexander (the Great), Charlemagne and myself. But with us, the presence was necessary, the eye, the voice, the hand. Whereas Jesus Christ has influenced and commanded His subjects without His visible bodily presence for eighteen hundred years.”

One day we will see Jesus:

“They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads,” (Revelation 22:4).

Do you anticipate the day that you will see the Lord Jesus Christ? Unless we have the eye of faith in time, we will never see His face in eternity.

PRINCIPLE:

The more we know the Lord Jesus the more we love Him.

APPLICATION:

We did not fall in love with our spouses before we saw them! A marvel is that multiplied millions have fallen in love with the Lord Jesus without ever seeing Him. Very few people saw Him during the brief 33 and a half years He spent on earth, yet thousands have given their lives for Him.

When we utilize God’s provision for us in time, the result is a wonderful love affair between us and God. The focus of a believer’s faith is not on abstract knowledge but on the person of Christ. Yet we cannot know the person of Christ without the Word of God.