The Dignity of Love

But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. PHILIPPIANS 2:7–8

Near the end of her address Aggressive Christianity, Catherine Booth took up an objection she had heard many times. Her way of carrying the gospel into the streets, people said, would be undignified. It would bring the gospel into disrepute and the preacher into collision with respectable society. Her reply is one of the finest passages in all her sermons, and it gives this chapter its title.

What dignity is

Everything, she said, depends on what we mean by dignity. Is it human dignity or divine? Earthly or heavenly? “It was a very undignified thing, looked at humanly, to die on a cross between two thieves.” And yet, looked at morally and spiritually, it was the grandest sight earth or heaven had ever seen: almighty strength allying itself with human weakness in order to raise it, eternal wisdom veiling itself in human ignorance in order to enlighten it, everlasting love baring its breast to suffer in the place of its rebellious creature. That, she said, was the dignity of love. “If I understand it, that is the dignity of the Gospel — the dignity of love.”

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. HEBREWS 12:2

That dignity, she went on, will never suffer by any gentleman carrying the gospel into the back slums of his city. It will never suffer by any employer talking lovingly to his servant girl or errand boy and trying to bring his soul to Jesus. It will never suffer even if a person is dragged through the streets by a mob, as Christ was, for the sake of souls. She desired, she said, no other dignity than this.

The poor

This was not a theory for her. She spent her life among the respectable and the destitute alike, and she refused to rank them. Her closing words in Adaptation of Measures were a prayer that the Lord would help her hearers to go down among the fishermen, the poor, the weak, the unlearned and the vulgar, quoting Paul’s command to condescend to men of low estate.

Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. ROMANS 12:16

She insisted that the poor were not objects of charity but people with souls, fully capable of the highest things. She saw the Army’s working-class converts put learned visitors to shame by their unction and their prayer. When cultivated visitors confessed that they felt they had nothing to say in such meetings, because the people were so far ahead of them, her counsel was that they should come down from their high-mightiness to the level of these people, and they would find what the people had found.

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? JAMES 2:5

The cost

The dignity of love is costly, and she was plain about the price. In How to Work for God with Success she listed what must be given up. First, reputation. She knew this from inside: her own sore spot, she said, had been the fear of being called an impudent woman and put in the newspapers. It is easy to wound an enemy, she observed; “it is the blood of your friends that is the test!” Then habits: the fashionable frivolities, the wine, the dress and the gossiping evenings that left no appetite for prayer. Then money.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. LUKE 9:23

On money she was as blunt as on anything. She had once heard an old saint say that the use of money was the surest test of a person’s character, and thought it extravagant; she had lived, she said, to agree with him. “God never uses anybody largely until they have given up their money.” She did not demand that everyone give away everything. If you think it right to keep some, she said, keep it to use for Him, and account for it as strictly as you would expect a clerk to account to you.

Her advice for facing all this was characteristically brisk. “Make up your mind to be crucified at the start, and then it will be easy.” Count the cost once, fully, at the beginning, and it will not have to be counted again every time the bill arrives.

The reward

And she did not leave it there. She was sure the cost is repaid. Blessed is he that considereth the poor, she quoted, and she loved the tender promise that follows.

The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. PSALM 41:3

But the reward she valued most was spiritual children. Everyone longs for children, she said, and no parent would sell them. What will it be to stand before the throne with the children God has given you through years of costly labour, and say, Here am I and the children whom Thou hast given me? “The children! the children! you shall have children! Won’t that be reward enough?” She knew many of hers were already waiting for her.

Weighing it

Her call to costly discipleship is a needed corrective to a comfortable Christianity. But it came from a woman of extraordinary, almost relentless intensity, and it should be received with some wisdom. She drove herself hard through years of illness, and she sometimes drove her hearers as hard, with little room for weariness, limitation or rest. The same Lord who calls us to take up the cross also said to tired disciples, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while (Mark 6:31). Self-denial is not the same as self-destruction, and giving everything to Christ includes giving Him our need for rest. It is also worth saying that a sacrifice made to earn God’s favour, or to be seen by others, is not what she meant. The whole point of the dignity of love is that it looks away from itself.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Ask where your sense of dignity keeps you from serving someone. Go and serve them.

2. Think of one person of low estate in your circle whom you have treated as a project rather than a person. Change the way you speak to them.

3. Examine your use of money this month as if it were the surest test of your character. What does it say?

4. Name the reputation you most fear to lose. Offer it to Christ, as she did.

5. If you are exhausted, take seriously His invitation to rest. Costly love must be sustained, not spent in a season.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus, You made Yourself of no reputation for me. I have guarded mine as if it were worth more than You.

Teach me the dignity of love. Send me down among the poor and the despised, not as a benefactor but as a brother or sister.

I give You my reputation, my habits and my money. Show me what to keep and how to use it for You.

And give me children in the faith, so that on the last day I may say, Here am I, and the children whom You have given me. Amen.