Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.

Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.

Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.

Charles Wesley  1747

Charles Wesley had a dislike of people changing his lyrics (he passionately disliked the ‘mending’ of his verse by others to suit their own theological pedantries or tastes).  Above is the original text of a well known and much sung hymn.  I think though that the moving of some of the text into a more commonly recognised vernacular strengthens some hymns in their ‘transportation’ through time.  What is most striking here though, is not the minor changes in words, but the vast and powerful resonance with the present reality of living as a Christian – of how we experience and know Jesus through faith.

I love many of the new songs that come to the people of God each year from all around the globe – but we lose too much when we shed the treasures of past corporate worship when we throw them over simply for the sake of novelty and ‘keeping fresh’.  Sometimes the very reason that we are singing songs 250 years on is precisely BECAUSE they hold treasure and help us to treasure that which is most valuable in the Christian life.

In this hymn, Charles Wesley helps us to see and treasure Christ as the Loving Saviour of the unloving and undeserving – causing us to treasure Jesus all the more. Jesus will come one day and complete in those who love Him the perfection of His love: truly transforming us into the image of His likeness for all eternity.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:7-12