December 4

“Having loved His own who were in the world–He loved them unto the end!” — John 13:1

His own! How sweet the words are! They tell of a close and most sacred relation. His own! We belong to him, not simply as property–but in the ownership of love. “You are not your own, for you are bought with a price.” The prints of the nails–tell of the cost of our redemption. We are “His own” because the Father gave us to Him. “They were Yours–and You gave them to Me!” Then we are “His own” because we have voluntarily given ourselves to Him. That is what you did when you became a Christian. You accepted the love that claimed you.

The relation is like that between two friends. The world cannot intermeddle. It is a close, personal relation. All believers are Christ’s own–but there is a sense in which each one has all of Christ for himself. We all sit down at the same communion table and the banner of love is over all; yet each one has a whole communion of his own. The sun shines upon the broad field and bathes all the million grass-blades and flowers in his beams. But each blade and each flower can say, “The sun is mine; he shines for me!” Christ’s love is for all his church; but the smallest of his little ones can say, “He is my Friend, my Savior, my Master!” “We are Christ’s own.” All of Christ is ours–all of his love and all of his grace.