Love Divine All Loves Excelling
A great Charles Wesley hymn! But his brother John was not convinced by some of his words. Let's take a look at why... and then we'll sing two different versions of the song together at the end (Beecher and Blaenwern).
Welcome back to Friday Classic Hymns. Today we're looking at another Charles Wesley hymn. I've already done a few of Wesley's hymns—I've done "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing", "Jesus Lover of My Soul", "And Can It Be That I Should Gain", and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". Go and have a look at those for a little bit more detail about Wesley's life.
Today I want to explore "Love Divine All Loves Excelling"—a beautiful song, an absolutely stunning hymn. I wonder if you know the song? If it's been part of your church history or your walk of faith, please share that in the comments below. Please tell your stories about the song. If some of these words really touch your life or touch your heart today, share that below as well.
I only learnt this last year when I was doing my Canaan Melodies project. If you haven't checked that out, by the way, I'm recording an old Nazarene hymnal from 1914, going through all the songs and recording them one by one. This was number five in the hymnal. I'd never heard it before, so I sat and learnt it and just loved these words. They're so Wesleyan and inspiring for me, trying to live a life of holiness by God's grace.
Let me tell you the story behind it. Before I do, please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Like the video, give it a thumbs up. If you could share this maybe with somebody who would enjoy it, that would be wonderful.
The Story Behind "Love Divine All Loves Excelling"
Charles Wesley was the great hymn writer of the Wesley family. John Wesley was famous for starting the Methodist Church. Their parents, Samuel and Susanna Wesley, were great people of God as well—very well known and respected in the church.
Charles was a brilliant scholar and received a scholarship for his studies. He ended up becoming ordained in the Anglican church. With his brother John, he went over to Georgia in 1735 to try and preach to the Native Americans. The whole thing went wrong and they came back, both of them quite dejected. However, they'd met a group of Christians called the Moravians, and both of these men were deeply touched by the Moravians' ministry.
There's a story of Charles being very sick and not knowing if he was going to make it through the night. He called one of the Moravian leaders to come and speak to him. As this man spoke to him and asked, "Are you ready to meet God? Are you right with God?" Charles said, "Yes, I've tried my best. I've been a good person."
His friend shook his head and said, "No, that's not the basis of your being right with God. It's your faith in His grace—in His saving grace, in His sacrifice on the cross. Faith, grace, and faith alone."
This was the moment for Charles when he finally came to Christ in a real way. He realised, on his deathbed just about, that he was loved not because he had been a morally good person but because his faith was in Christ. This changed everything for him. Soon after, his brother experienced something very similar, and the Methodist movement took off after that.
Wesley's hymns—Charles Wesley's hymns—were so important in this whole movement. Methodism was often said to have been born in song because these hymns that the Wesleys brought out (mostly Charles) just captured the people and taught them the theology of the church in a way that they could grasp, because it was in song. I suppose today it's the same. Our songs tell us so much about our theology. We need to sing songs that are theologically rich, because that's how many of our people learn the truth, or only half of the truth. We need to sing powerful and theologically correct songs.
Charles wrote some deep, deep theological songs, and today's one—"Love Divine"—is one of those with very deep theology, as we'll look at now.
Him and John didn't get along so well the whole time. At one point they clashed quite heavily about different doctrines that they differed on, and this song actually—you'll see—John changed some of the wording because he didn't quite agree with some of Charles's ideas in these lyrics.
Later on, when John had sent Methodist ministers to America, methodism was yet to become its own denomination. When John ordained people himself, outside of the authority of the church, to send them to America, Charles was absolutely upset by this. There was a big clash between them because Charles said you cannot work outside the authority of the church.
These two men had such a big impact, but they weren't always quite on the same page. When Charles died in 1788, it's said that John was quite upset that he couldn't bury him where he wanted to. Charles had specified that he would be buried in a Church of England graveyard because he was an Anglican through and through, whereas John had started this Methodist thing and wanted to bury Charles outside one of the Methodist chapels. Charles was having none of that, so John had to consent to bury him where Charles wanted to be buried.
His influence has been great. He is really the prince of hymn writers in the minds of most people, along with Isaac Watts. These two Englishmen wrote some of the most beautiful poetry which has been set to music, and we are richer for having known the hymns that they wrote.
Let's take a look at these words of "Love Divine" which we still sing in the church today.
What Do the Lyrics of "Love Divine All Loves Excelling" Mean?
Verse One: Divine Love Dwelling Within Us
Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven, to earth come down; Fix in us Thy humble dwelling, All Thy faithful mercies crown.
Most people believe that the idea for this hymn came from another song Charles had listened to—John Dryden's song "The Song of Venus", which came out of his play King Arthur, which went: "Fairest isle, all isles excelling, Seat of pleasure and of loves." It's quite widely believed that Wesley borrowed that phrase—that "excelling" word—and almost Christianised it for his hymn.
It's a beautiful thought, isn't it? Love divine—so it's from God, divine from God—all loves excelling. The love from God is more excellent, above, greater than all other loves.
It's the joy of heaven to earth come down. Jesus came down to earth and brought love with Him so that we could experience it. Now, through His Spirit, we keep experiencing it here on earth. It's not just in heaven.
Fix in us Thy humble dwelling—so come live within us, which of course was one of Jesus's prime teachings: that He would come and live within us and abide with us.
All Thy faithful mercies crown—crown us with all Your mercy which You're faithful to give.
Jesus, Thou art all compassion—I love that line. Jesus, You are completely compassionate.
Pure unbounded love Thou art—beautiful. Jesus is the picture of pure love through and through.
Visit us with Thy salvation, Enter every trembling heart.
Jesus is still coming down (maybe not in bodily form anymore, but through His Spirit) to bring His salvation and to enter every trembling heart. I think that word "trembling" is very fitting. It means humble—not fearful, but humble and open to His coming.
Has He entered into your trembling heart and visited you with this offer of salvation? It's a loving offer because He is love in perfection, as we've seen.
Verse Two: The Second Rest and Sanctification
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast.
That's how He does it today. He comes and breathes His Spirit into us—loving Spirit, there's that word love again. When we are troubled, His Spirit gives us strength and helps us go on.
Let us all in Thee inherit, Let us find that second rest.
Here we find one of the first controversial lines in this song: "second rest". Wesleyans believe, to different degrees in different denominations of Wesleyan churches, that there is a second blessing, a second work of grace. God justifies us, and then subsequent to that, He sanctifies us. It's not the end of our growth—we keep growing through it all. When He saved us, it's not the end of our struggling. We still struggle a bit with our faith.
When He gives us that second rest, that sanctification, that's when our intense struggle with sin stops. I mean, you still have to fight off temptation for the rest of your life, but you aren't losing the battle the whole time.
Some people disagree with this completely. I'm sure some of you probably do. Some of you who come from Reformed churches will say that's nonsense. But it's quite a big part of Wesleyan theology that sanctification is a second rest, a second blessing.
We can inherit it in Him. It's an act of grace. We work out our salvation by pursuing growth, but His grace is what not only justifies us but sanctifies us as well, as a second work of grace.
Take away our bent to sinning.
Again, this is one that a lot of churches change today. They don't like that line. Your Reformed churches will sing that line differently: "Take away the love of sinning." They've changed it.
Wesley wrote "Take away our bent to sinning", and he believed (as do many holiness churches today) that the second work of grace removes our bent to sinning, removes our compulsion to sin. We still can sin. We still can follow the temptations, and then it kind of gets implanted back into us if we do. But we have no obligation to. Again, this is different from a lot of Reformed teaching, which says you'll always be a slave to sin until you die.
John Wesley was a bit unsure about this at this point, and some of these lines he changed. But Charles was a believer in the second work of grace, and many people are today.
Alpha and Omega be, End of faith, as its beginning, Set our hearts at liberty.
Be our beginning, be our end. End of faith as its beginning. Faith—faith, not works—is what begins God's grace in us, or what unlocks it. Then our hearts are set at liberty. Freedom comes when we embrace God's grace in this way, by faith.
Verse Three: Deliverance and Eternal Worship
Come, Almighty, to deliver, Let us all Thy life receive.
Not just some of it, but let us receive all Your life, Your fullness and deliverance.
Suddenly return, and never, Nevermore Thy temples leave.
Come quickly—"suddenly" means come quickly—and don't leave us, nevermore leave us. Remember, we're His temple now. There's no temple in Jerusalem that is where God stays. He lives within His people's hearts. He's saying, "Lord, never leave this temple that You've entered."
Thee we would be always blessing, Serve Thee as Thy hosts above.
We want to be blessing You and serving You just like the angels do.
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing, Glory in Thy perfect love.
That's a great desire that he has to worship because of the love that he's talking about. He wants to always be worshipping, without ceasing, praising this God just like the angels do. I suppose this is the goal of every Christian: to live a life of ceaseless worship.
Verse Four: The New Creation and Final Glory
Finish, then, Thy new creation; Pure and spotless let us be.
John Wesley didn't like this one either: "Pure and spotless let us be." He said, "No, we need to change that. That's expecting a bit too much of God for this life."
Again, your Reformed churches will agree with John Wesley on that. Pure and spotlessness only comes once you've died. But Charles here seemed to be saying, "Yes, You can make me a new creation and finish Your work within me even now."
Let us see Thy great salvation perfectly restored in Thee.
Come and save me perfectly and restore me.
Changed from glory into glory.
It doesn't mean that your growth is over, but it means that the staining of sin is over. You're still growing in grace, going from glory into glory. You'll continue to grow until you take your place in heaven.
Changed from glory into glory, Till in heaven we take our place.
We're going to grow and grow, and then one day we'll take our place in heaven.
Till we cast our crowns before Thee, Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
There He does cross over into heaven, and that's when the work is finished—when we are glorified. We can cast our crowns before Him. Every crown that He's given us, we just cast them down as we are so lost in wonder and love and praise of Jesus.
Conclusion
These are radical words. What do you think? Are they a little bit too hectic, expecting a bit too much of God in terms of cleansing the sinful nature and making us pure and spotless? Do you agree with John perhaps, that maybe he was taking it a bit too far? Or do you agree with the holiness theology of the day (even today) that says the second work of grace can cleanse our sinful nature and let us live pure and spotless lives?
By the way, that doesn't mean free from all fault. There will always be a falling short. We're not saying that we will be perfect. Even John Wesley wrote a lot about Christian perfection, and he always said that it's not the same perfection as God, but it's a perfection of our intentions—so that we're truly desiring and trying to honour God. We will get it wrong sometimes, but that's different from wilfully sinning.
Getting it wrong and falling short of perfection and asking for God's forgiveness is different from wilfully sinning. This is the distinction in Wesleyan theology: that we can be free from the power of sin, free from wilfully sinning, but still falling short and needing to say "Forgive us our trespasses" every day. Of course, only when we're glorified will those faults be washed away too.
I love the song. I read it, I sing it, it makes me glad. It reminds me of the deep love of Christ. It empowers me to live my life as I remember about His sanctifying grace. How about you? Do you love it? I hope so.
A big thank you to those who donate towards my ministry. I'm a pastor in a small church, and it's actually my online work that makes me a living. The church is growing to a point where hopefully I'll be able to do that through the church, but for now, online is my living. Thank you for donating to the work I do through Patreon or PayPal. Please don't feel pressured to do that—this content will always be free so that everyone can enjoy it.
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References
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast.
Frank Colquhoun. Sing to the Lord: A Fresh Look at Great Hymns on Praise. 1988. Hodder & Stoughton: London.
