Communicating
Good Things
(Excerpt)
"Let
him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good
things." There can be no doubt but that this refers primarily to temporal
support. "The laborer is worthy of his hire." If a man gives himself
wholly to the ministry of the Word, it is evident that the things necessary for
his sustenance must come from those who are taught. But this by no means
exhausts the meaning of the injunction. The one who is taught in the Word must
communicate to the teacher "in all good things." Mutual help is the
burden of this chapter.
"Bear
ye one another's burdens."
Even the
teacher who is supported by those who are taught, is to assist others
pecuniary. Christ and the apostles, who had nothing of their own--for Christ
was the poorest of the poor, and the disciples had left all to follow
Him--nevertheless distributed to the poor out of their little store. See John
13:29.
Joh
13:29 For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had
said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or,
that he should give something to the poor.
When the
disciples told Jesus to send the hungry multitudes away, that they might buy
themselves victuals, He said, "They need not depart; give ye them to
eat." Matt.14:16. He was not trifling with them; He meant what He said. He
knew that they had nothing to give the people, but they had as much as He had.
They did not perceive the power of His words, so He Himself took the few loaves
and dealt out to the disciples, and thus they did really feed the hungry
people. But His words to them meant that they should do just what He did. How
many times our own lack of faith in Christ's Word has hindered us from doing
good and communicating (Heb.13:16), the sacrifices which please God.
Heb
13:16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased.
As the
teachers contribute not only the Word but temporal support as well, so those
who are taught in the Word should not confine their liberality merely to
temporal things. It is a mistake to suppose that ministers of the Gospel never
stand in need of spiritual refreshment, or that they can not receive it from
the weakest in the flock. No one can ever tell how much the souls of teachers
are encouraged by the testimonies of faith and joy in the Lord, which come from
the mouths of those who have heard the Word. It is not simply that the teacher
sees that his labor is not in vain. The testimony may have no reference
whatever to anything that he has done; but a humble soul's joyful testimony to
what God has done for him, will often, through the refreshment it gives the
teacher of the Word, be the means of strengthening the souls of hundreds.
Sowing and
Reaping
"Whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap." A simple statement of fact, that
can not be made plainer by any amount of talk.
The
harvest, which is the end of the world, will reveal what the sowing has been,
whether wheat or tares. "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life
everlasting." "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy;
break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and
rain righteousness upon you." Hos.10:12. "He that trusteth in his own
heart is a fool," and equally foolish is he who trusts in other men, as is
seen from the next verse: "Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped
iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; because thou didst trust in thy way,
in the multitude of mighty men." "Cursed be the man that trusteth in
man, and maketh flesh his arm," whether it be his own flesh or that of some
other man. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope
the Lord is." Jer.17:5,7.
Everything
enduring comes from the Spirit. The flesh is corrupt, and it corrupts. He who
consults only his own pleasure,--fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind,--will reap a harvest of corruption and death. But "the Spirit is
life because of righteousness," and he who consults only the mind of the
Spirit, will reap everlasting glory; for "if the Spirit of Him that raised
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Rom.8:11,13. Wonderful!
If we live, we die; if we die, we live! This is the testimony of Jesus:
"Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his
life for My sake shall find it." Matt.16:25.
This does
not mean the loss of all joy in this present time. It does not mean undergoing
a continual deprivation and penance, going without something that we long for,
for the sake of getting something else by and by. It does not mean that life in
this present time shall be a living death, a long-drawn-out agony. Far from it.
That is a crude and false idea of the Christian life--the life that is found in
death. No; whoever comes to Christ and drinks of the Spirit, has in himself
"a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:14. The
joy of eternity is his now. His joy is full day by day. He is abundantly
satisfied with the fatness of God's house, drinking of the river of God's own
pleasure. He has all that he longs for, because his heart and his flesh cry out
only for God, in whom is all fullness. Once he though he was "seeing
life," but now he knows that he was then but gazing into the grave, the
pit of corruption. Now he begins really to live, and the joy of the new life is
"unspeakable, and full of glory." So he sings:-- "Now none but Christ can satisfy, None
other name for me; There's love, and life, and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found
in Thee." A shrewd general always
seeks to seize upon the strongest positions; so wherever there is a rich
promise to believers, Satan tries to distort it, so as to make it a source of
discouragement. Accordingly, he has made many believe that the words, "He
that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption," mean that they
must all their lives, even after being born of the Spirit, suffer the
consequences of their former life of sin. Some have supposed that even in
eternity they would have to bear the scars of their old sins, saying, "I
can never hope to be what I should have been if I had never sinned." What a libel on God's mercy, and the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus! That is not the freedom wherewith Christ
makes us free. The exhortation is, "As ye have yielded your members
servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your
members servants to righteousness unto holiness;" but if the one who thus
yields himself to righteousness must always be handicapped by his former bad
habits, that would prove that the power of righteousness is less than that of
sin. But that is not so. Grace abounds over sin, and is as mighty as the
heavens. Here is a man who for gross
crimes has been condemned to imprisonment for life. After a few years'
imprisonment he receives a free pardon, and is set at liberty. Some time
afterward we meet him, and see a fifty-pound cannon-ball attached to his leg by
a huge chain, so that he can move about only with the greatest difficulty.
"Why, how is this?" we ask in surprise. "Were you not given your
freedom?" "Oh, yes," he replies, "I am free; but I have to
wear this ball and chain as a reminder of my former crimes." One would not
think of such "freedom" as that very desirable. Every prayer inspired by the Holy Ghost is a
promise of God; and one of the most gracious of these is this: "Remember
not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; according to Thy mercy
remember Thou me for Thy goodness' sake, O Lord." Ps.25:7.
When God
forgives our sins, and forgets them, He gives us such power to escape from them
that we shall be as though we had never sinned. By the "exceeding great
and precious promises," we are made "partakers of the Divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
2Pet.1:4.
Man fell
by partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; the Gospel presents
such a redemption from the fall, that all the black memories of sin are
effaced, and the redeemed ones come to know only the good, like Christ,
"who knew no sin." Yes; they
that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, as we have all proved
in ourselves. "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be
that the Spirit of God dwell in you." The Spirit has power to free us from
the sins of the flesh, and from all their consequences.
Christ
"loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to
Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish."
Eph.5:25-27.
"By His stripes we are healed." The memory of sin,-not of individual
sins,--will be perpetuated in eternity only by the scars in the hands and feet
and side of Christ, which are the seal of our perfect redemption.
The Glad
Tidings
By E. J.
WAGGONER
(Excerpt- To be continued)
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