the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
We are his workmanship. - Ephesians 2:10.
WHEN we consider what the Scriptures say concerning the depravity and corruption of our nature, and which we know to be true from all history, observation, and experience, how wonderful is it that any of the fallen race should be found in possession of moral excellence, or what the Scriptures call true holiness! The cause may naturally awaken and engage our attention. From whence comes this transformation? It cannot arise from the creature; for how can the remedy spring from the disease? “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and, however modified, cannot be otherwise. The stream cannot rise higher than the fountain.
There is no effect without a cause, and an inadequate cause, say the Schoolmen, is no cause at all. As man could not produce it in himself, so neither could others for him. Neither men nor angels, nor men and angels combined, could have produced this transformation. It is above the power of education, or of moral suasion; and if we turn to the Scriptures, we shall find the sacred writers (and in language too plain to require the aid of philosophy to explain) ascribe this new creation to the agency of God. They, without exception, acknowledge this great moral change, from the beginning to the end, to be the work of God’s Holy Spirit; therefore we read of Christians “living in the Spirit,” “walking in the Spirit,” and of their being “led by the Spirit.” So we read of “worshipping God in the Spirit,” and of “praying in the Holy Ghost.” He may, as the God of grace, and he does, make use of instrumentality. And to carry into effect his own gracious purposes in the salvation of sinners, he employs agency; for, so far from excluding it, he absolutely enjoined it.
The book is not written without the pen, nor can the pen write without the hand to hold it. “Who, then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.” Let us observe, also, how this operation is represented. It is called a creation; and who can create but God only? It is called a resurrection; and who can raise the dead, God only excepted? “But you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Every believer is ready to acknowledge that God alone can change the heart and produce this transformation; and when the question is put to him, “Who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou hast not received?” he will, without any hesitation, reply, “Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” “By the grace of God I am what I am.” But his desire will be that the work begun may be carried on until the day of redemption, and he will pray, with the Psalmist,
“Forsake not the work of thine own hands.”
The world knoweth us not. - 1 John 3:1.
THE meaning here is not merely that Christians are not discerned by the men of the world, but that the world does not approve of them. The word “know “is often taken in this sense. Thus Paul says, “Know them who labour among you, and are over you in the Lord;” that is, acknowledge them, and conduct yourselves toward them in a manner becoming their calling. Now, how does the world regard Christians?
As far as it discerns them, does it admire them? does it esteem them as regenerate and Spiritual? For this is the question here. There is another sense in which they may like them, not because of their Spiritual or heavenly-minded qualities, but notwithstanding these and in spite of these. They may have other claims, they may be relatives or friends, they may be as amiable, as gentle, as agreeable as others; and thus they may approve of them, not because they are born of God, not because they are renewed after his image. The people of the world must often come into contact with real Christians, but they do not make them their models, their chosen companions; they do not wish to be intimate with them.
When most at home, when they are engaged in Spiritual concerns, they know them not, and they would be withdrawn from them. People of the world are under obligations to Christians. Christians are useful to all. For their sakes it is that the frame of nature continues, that judgments are withdrawn, that blessings are bestowed or continued. If unknown to their neighbours, yet they retire and pray, and their supplications for them ascend to heaven. Yet the ungrateful world knows them not. But more is implied here than is expressed.
It means the world actually dislikes Christians. If proof were necessary, it would be easy to cite passages of Scripture. “Marvel not, my brethren,” says John, “if the world hate you;” and says the Saviour, “Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” The Christian’s principles and practices condemn the world. They that hate light and love darkness will be sure to hate the light that breaks in upon their sinful practices. Among us persecution is not legal; but there are instances of injustice and persecution which are beyond the reach of the law. “The carnal mind is enmity with God.” “The tongue no man can tame.” And the sacred writers tell us that evil-speaking will be the portion of the righteous in all ages and in all places.
The world will always turn the Christian’s excellencies into scandal; their zeal will be accounted enthusiasm, their faith will be esteemed folly, their hope delusion, their meekness meanness. They have always some convenient names, and misrepresentations, and slander by which to disparage and defame the friends and followers of the Saviour. If there is nothing blameable in their deportment, the world will impeach their motives. It is in vain, therefore, for Christians to expect real candour from the world. And those who will be followers of the Redeemer must still go forth bearing his reproach, for “the world knoweth us not.”
It does not discern us, it does not approve us, it actually dislikes us.
