Jonathan Edwards - The Religious Affections

The Religious Affections - Counterfeit Love

“Persons may seem to have love to God and Christ, yea, to have very strong and violent affections of this nature, and yet have no grace. For this was evidently the case with many graceless Jews, such as cried Jesus up so high, following him day and night, without meat, drink, or sleep; such as said, ‘Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,’ and cried, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David.’ The apostle seems to intimate that there were many in his days who had a counterfeit love to Christ in Ephesians 6:24: ‘Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus in sincerity.’ The last word, in the original, signifies incorruption; which shows that the apostle was sensible that there were many who had a kind of love to Christ, whose love was not pure and spiritual. So also Christian love to the people of God may be counterfeited. It is evident by the Scripture, that there may be strong affections of this kind without saving grace; as there were in the Galatians towards the Apostle Paul, when they were ready to pluck out their eyes and give them to him; although the apostle expresses his fear that their affections were come to nothing, and that he had bestowed upon them labour in vain, Galatians 4:11, 15.”