John Owen, Communion with God (1657)
Reflecting on John 16:27, “The Father himself loves you,” Owen recorded:
Jesus, in effect, says … “I do not have to pray that the Father may love you, for this is his special attitude toward you. He himself loves you.
“It is true indeed that I will [ask] the Father to send you the Spirit, the Comforter.
“But as for that free, eternal love, there is no need for me to pray for that, because above all things the Father loves you.
“Be fully assured in your hearts that the Father loves you. Have fellowship with the Father in his love. Have no fears or doubts about his love for you.
“The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to him is not to believe that he loves you” (13). …
Let then this be the first thought that we have of the Father, that he is full of eternal love to us. Let our hearts and thoughts be filled with his love to us, even though many discouragements may lie in our way (28).
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