My Jesus, I Love Thee
This lovely hymn was either written by a young Canadian man on his conversion, or an Englishman a few years later. It is a beautiful devotional song that has given expression to the faith of countless people since it was published.
Welcome to another Friday Classic Hymn, where we take some old hymns—or sometimes some new ones, the good ones—and tell the stories behind them, take a look at the words, and then sing them together. If you enjoy this type of content, please check out all the other Friday Classics that I've done. I've done a whole bunch by now, so subscribe to the channel and maybe share this with somebody who would enjoy it. I'd appreciate that.
Today's hymn is called a beloved devotional hymn because it's a very personal-sounding song. I knew it because a South African artist, Raymond Sers, recorded it once on one of his albums—just the first verse, though. It kind of went into a different song; it was a bit of a medley. I always knew this first verse and the melody, but this week I decided to go and look up the song and really enjoyed the rest of it.
My Jesus, I Love Thee—what a beautiful song! What are your memories of the song? Do you have any special memories, or was there a place that you can remember singing this? Do you sing it in your church now? Please share your stories in the comments below and share the words of the song that mean something to you. Maybe a line just touches your heart today. Please share it below. Let's be on this journey together.
The Story Behind "My Jesus, I Love Thee"
The song was written by William R. Featherston, and there's not much known about this man. There are no photos of him online, but what we do know is that he wrote the song as a teenager in Canada. He grew up at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Montreal.
When he was converted and came to know personally that Jesus loved him at the age of 16, he sat down and wrote this beautiful song. The story is that he then sent it to his aunt, who encouraged him to have it published. The first time that we find the song in a hymnal is in an English hymnal in 1864.
Before that, it's a little bit odd. There's another story which is that a man named James Duffield, an Englishman, wrote this hymn, which is why it appears in the English hymnal first. The people who believe this say there's no sign of this hymn in Canada, so how can we say that Featherston wrote it? Nobody quite knows whether it was Featherston or Duffield.
But everyone knows who wrote the melody. The original melody that appeared in that hymnal in England was not the popular one that we know for this hymn today. A Baptist minister named Adoniram Judson Gordon was looking at this hymnal and really enjoyed the lyrics of this song, but he didn't like the melody. He said the melody didn't do it for him. So being a composer himself, he put a new melody to the song. This is the one that most of us know and love today.
Gordon became good friends with D.L. Moody, the great evangelist of his time, and helped him to compile hymnals along with some of the other musicians that Moody knew and used.
Featherston died at the age of 28—a young man. Nobody quite knows if this was his song. Gordon died in his 60s. Not much else is known about Duffield and his life story. There's a bit of a mystery behind this one, and yet it's a special one.
Now, one of the books I use for my research for these videos is a book called 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth Osbeck. When he's writing about this song in this book, this is what he says at the end, and I thought this was quite profound:
"When studying the backgrounds behind our enduring hymns such as My Jesus, I Love Thee, one never ceases to marvel at the workings of God in bringing together the necessary circumstances that make possible the birth and preservation of expressions such as these, which believers in every generation and culture can employ in their praise and adoration of the Almighty."
I like that. We don't quite know how it happened that God used whoever wrote the words and got these words into Gordon's life so that he could write this beautiful hymn, which is what has made it endure so much. Let's take a look at these words—whoever wrote them—and why they are so popular even today.
What Do the Lyrics of "My Jesus, I Love Thee" Mean?
If we believe that this was written by a young man who had just turned to Christ, then these are very special words.
Verse 1
My Jesus, I love Thee—that's such a lovely personal start. "My Jesus." He's realised that Jesus loves him and is his Lord, Saviour, friend.
My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine. You are my God. I love You so much. I wonder if that's true for you. I wonder if you can say along with him today, "My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine."
For Thee all the follies of sin I resign. Now, we don't talk about this that much in many churches today. We like the "my Jesus, I love Thee" part, but to say, "For You, Lord, I resign from sin. I write off sin. I turn from sin and all its foolishness"—the modern church doesn't always talk this way. That's a generalisation, of course; a lot of churches do, but there are many churches that don't like to tell us about signing off sin and turning away from the foolishness of sin. We prefer to say "God loves you just as you are" and just leave it at that.
But this was obviously a real conversion, because it was not only a recognition of the love that Jesus had for him but the recognition that my life needs to change because of this love, and that it can change now because I've been made new.
My gracious Redeemer, My Saviour art Thou—lovely words to describe Jesus. Redeemer, so He lifts me up, He gives me life, He makes me new. He's my Saviour; He's the one who, though I was lost, saved me. Though I was drowning, He rescued me.
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. This is a lovely line that is repeated in every verse of four verses. What I love about this line is the seasons of life that he talks about throughout the hymn change, but he's going to say, "Whatever I'm going through, I will love You now."
So here at the beginning: if ever I've loved Thee, it is now that You've saved me, that I love Thee, that I love You. But it's going to grow, as you'll see, as we go along.
Verse 2
I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me. That comes from 1 John: "We love because God first loved us." Remember, it's a response to His grace. He loves us, reaches out to us, and we reach out and take the hand that is stretched out to us. It is He who initiates. He's the Saviour; we don't save ourselves. He loved us first.
What did He do? He purchased [our] pardon on Calvary's tree. We know that that's what the cross is all about—Jesus purchasing our pardon as He died at Calvary, on the cross, on the tree. He paid the price that we owe so that we may go free, took our place so that we can be forgiven. Wonderful.
I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow. Beautiful. I love You, Lord, for wearing the crown of thorns on Your head. You went through so much so that I could be forgiven and set free. I am so grateful. I love You for what You've done for me. Isn't it special to sing these words?
Verse 3
Now it's where it starts to progress. In verse three, he says, I'll love Thee in life, I'll love Thee in death. Here he is at the beginning of his Christian life saying, "I'm going to love You all throughout my life, but I'm also going to love You in death." He knows that death is a reality. "I'm going to love Jesus even if I'm dying."
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath. I love that. Even every breath I own is just a gift from God, lent to me in His grace. I'm going to praise Him with every breath I have. As long as I'm breathing, I'll be praising.
Then he says this: And say when the death dew lies cold on my brow, "If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now." When I'm right at the end and I'm cold because I've just about to die or I have died, I'm going to have loved You deeper than ever in that moment of death.
Now, there's a deep thing to sing. I've sat with people who are dying, and most of them who are Christians know where they're going. They're not afraid of where they're going, but they're afraid of the process. They're afraid of the pain that might come in the moment of death.
This man, recognising that he's going to die, says, "In that moment of death, I'm going to be praising, and if ever I've had love for Jesus in my heart, it's going to be that moment."
Verse 4
Then verse four: he looks even further ahead. Now he's in heaven. I love this.
In mansions of glory and endless delight—that's a nice picture of heaven. I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright. What a bright place—no darkness, no night. We're going to be adoring Him in that wonderful place.
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow. The New Testament promises crowns—various different crowns throughout the New Testament for those who remained faithful to Jesus. Rewards await us in heaven if we are faithful.
In fact, I remember—I believe it was a Wesley Duewel book called Ablaze for God, great book, one of the books that really changed my life. I can say that. I was reading it because I was about to enter the pastoral role. He said you need to tell people about the crowns that await them if they remain faithful, because what if they reach heaven and never realised they could strive for crowns? I always remembered that.
Of course, we don't serve God so that one day we get a crown, because the truth is we will cast our crowns at His feet when we see Him. The crowns will mean nothing compared to the glory of Jesus. Nonetheless, this is a lovely picture of us singing and worshipping Jesus in heaven with the crowns that He's given us on our heads.
If ever we've loved Jesus, it's going to be then. I like this progression in the song about how, in the moment of conversion, I think to myself, "My love for Jesus is as strong as it's ever been." But as my love progresses to death and beyond, my love for Him is going to be stronger. I like this. He's saying my love will not grow cold, my love will not waver. I'm going to love this God with all that I've got.
Conclusion
What a beautiful personal song of devotion and love for Christ. I ask you again: which words have blessed you today? Which words have grabbed you and made you think about your own life? Beautiful, beautiful song.
Before I sing it, I just want to say thank you again for supporting the channel—those of you who support me on Patreon and on PayPal. I'm deeply grateful and humbled that you would choose to do that. Thank you very much.
Let's sing the song together and make it personal for yourself. Some songs are communal, meant to be sung with others, and that's powerful. Some songs are just between you and God, and I think this is one of those. I hope it's going to lift your spirits as we sing it today.
References
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 More Hymn Stories. 1985. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
