Do you love Me?

(J. C. Ryle, "The Gospel of John" 1873)

"Simon son of John, do you love Me?" John 21:16

"Do you love Me?" may seem at first sight a
simple question. In one sense it is so. Even a
child can understand love, and can say whether
he loves another or not.

Yet "Do you love Me?" is, in reality,
a very searching question. We may . . .
  know much,
  and do much,
  and profess much,
  and talk much,
  and work much,
  and give much,
  and experience much,
  and make much show in our religion,
and yet be dead before God, from lack
of love, and at last go down to the pit.

Do we love Christ?

That is the great question!

Without this there is no vitality about our
Christianity. We are no better than . . .
  painted wax figures,
  lifeless stuffed beasts in a museum,
  sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.

There is no life where there is no love to Jesus.

Knowledge,
orthodoxy,
correct views,
regular use of forms,
a respectable moral life;
all these do not make up a true Christian.