Jesus answered and said . . . , If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:23.

To seek always for the supremacy of Christ and Christlikeness is the finest and most inspiring spiritual exercise we can know. This is the certainty, not in and from ourselves, but in the sovereign love that has come to rule our hearts and lives. In our weakness we are allied to His strength. Even though we see through a glass darkly, we have a clear knowledge of Christ and His righteousness.

One of the dangers to the Christian life is the keeping of a watch on self without walking with God. In this approach, it is easier to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of religious extremism than to love God and to love our fellow men. We need to face frankly the peril of making perfection a self-centered process, something to be attained by much effort and rigid concentration.

By this method we may win attention and admiration for our efforts. But where is our love for God and man? Loving others does not draw attention to ourselves. Always to calculate, to analyze, to judge the mistakes of ourselves and others, never carries us beyond ourselves.

Conformity to a perfect norm does not satisfy the heart of God or even ourselves. God wants the loyalty, the love, and devotion spontaneously given to Him. The true Christian is not concerned only with his efforts to achieve sinlessness. We make Christ our end, not only perfection.

We cannot bring to God a nature with sin completely eradicated. But we can bring a love and devotion to Christ and His righteousness that can never be satisfied with less. God then accepts and regards what we really mean, desire, and intend as though it were really accomplished. At His coming He will make it so. We are complete in faith that works by love to the best of our ability. We are one with Cod.

This means that we want Christ, that we love Christ, that we enjoy Christ. We walk with God as Enoch did. We are never alone. This is the supreme thing, the crucial thing, in our lives.