Do You Love Me?

The teenager was on a tour of European cities when he happened to visit the art gallery at Dusseldorf, where he noticed a portrait that would transform his life. The year was 1719, and having spent some years at Wittenberg University, the young man was still undecided on his life's calling.

Born into an aristocratic family, Count Zinzendorf had the influence of a godly grandmother, who herself had been influenced by the new Pietist movement. She passed on to her grandson a desire for a devotional and experiential walk with God.

After 200 years, Lutheranism had remained orthodox, yet its orthodoxy of belief could not make up for the growing dryness and academic dustiness of many believers. The Pietists reacted against this coldness, and they emphasized that Christ wasn't just to be explained doctrinally but to be followed practically.

In this pietistic atmosphere, Zinzendorf developed his relationship with Christ-one that was so real to him as a child that he would often write notes to his Savior, throwing them out of the castle window in the hope that Jesus would find them. This naivety in devotion soon matured into a lifelong dedication to the imitation of Christ and to communion with Him in extended prayer and costly service.

Zinzendorf is remembered today for a number of spiritual breakthroughs. Providing shelter for persecuted Christian refugees from Moravia, he founded a Christian community at Herrnhut, which later became the center for the eighteenth-century Moravian Movement.

It was in response to an outpouring of the Spirit there in 1727 that a prayer meeting was started which continued unabated for over one hundred years, the community sharing the responsibility to call on the Lord night and day throughout that period.

Out of this great prayer came a great mission. Up to this time, taking the gospel overseas had not been a priority for the Protestant churches. This began to change as the Moravians began to send missionaries to all parts of the globe, Zinzendorf himself visiting America, Britain, and the West Indies.

Zinzendorf's motivation for this international expansion can be traced back to the painting he saw as a teenager at Dusseldorf, by seventeenth-century painter Domenico Feti. It was a portrait of Christ wearing the crown of thorns, under which was a Latin inscription:

THIS I HAVE SUFFERED FOR YOU, BUT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR ME?

Immediately he knew that orthodoxy of belief must be accompanied by orthodoxy of discipleship and service. The Moravian Revival was a revival of the centrality of Christ in the church's devotion and service.

Preaching in London in 1746 on John 21:16, he proclaimed:

The character of a Christian, the entrance into this state and the entire progress in it as well are based on the text I have read, "Do you love me?"

By his life and legacy, it is clear that Zinzendorf's answer was an unqualified YES.



Kevin Adams was born in South Wales and has authored two books and a film on Welsh revival history. He is the senior pastor of East Baptist Church in Lynn, Massachusetts.