Chapter 54
A Faithful Witness
[This chapter is based on the Epistles of John.]
After the ascension of Christ, John stands forth as a faithful, earnest
labourer for the Master. With the other disciples he enjoyed the
outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and with fresh zeal and
power he continued to speak to the people the words of life, seeking to
lead their thoughts to the Unseen. He was a powerful preacher, fervent,
and deeply in earnest. In beautiful language and with a musical voice he
told of the words and works of Christ, speaking in a way that impressed
the hearts of those who heard him. The simplicity of his words, the
sublime power of the truths he uttered, and the fervour that characterised
his teachings, gave him access to all classes.
The apostle's life was in harmony with his teachings. The love for
Christ which glowed in his heart led him to put forth earnest, untiring
labour for his fellow men, especially for his brethren in the Christian
church.
Christ had bidden the first disciples love one another as He had loved
them. Thus they were to bear testimony to the world that Christ was formed
within, the hope of glory. "A new commandment I give unto you,"
He had said, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another." John 13:34. At the time when these words were
spoken, the disciples could not understand them; but after they had
witnessed the sufferings of Christ, after His crucifixion and
resurrection, and ascension to heaven, and after the Holy Spirit had
rested on them at Pentecost, they had a clearer conception of the love of
God and of the nature of that love which they must have for one another.
Then John could say to his fellow disciples:
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life
for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
After the descent of the Holy Spirit, when the disciples went forth to
proclaim a living Saviour, their one desire was the salvation of souls.
They rejoiced in the sweetness of communion with saints. They were tender,
thoughtful, self-denying, willing to make any sacrifice for the truth's
sake. In their daily association with one another, they revealed the love
that Christ had enjoined upon them. By unselfish words and deeds they
strove to kindle this love in other hearts.
Such a love the believers were ever to cherish. They were to go forward
in willing obedience to the new commandment. So closely were they to be
united with Christ that they would be enabled to fulfil all His
requirements. Their lives were to magnify the power of a Saviour who could
justify them by His righteousness.
But gradually a change came. The believers began to look for defects in
others. Dwelling upon mistakes, giving place to unkind criticism, they
lost sight of the Saviour and His love. They became more strict in regard
to outward ceremonies, more particular about the theory than the practice
of the faith. In their zeal to condemn others, they overlooked their own
errors. They lost the brotherly love that Christ had enjoined, and,
saddest of all, they were unconscious of their loss. They did not realise
that happiness and joy were going out of their lives and that, having shut
the love of God out of their hearts, they would soon walk in darkness.
John, realising that brotherly love was waning in the church, urged
upon believers the constant need of this love. His letters to the church
are full of this thought. "Beloved, let us love one another," he
writes; "for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God,
and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In
this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His
only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another."
Of the special sense in which this love should be manifested by
believers, the apostle writes: "A new commandment I write unto you,
which thing is true in Him and in you: because the darkness is past, and
the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth
his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother
abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But
he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and
knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his
eyes." "This is the message that ye heard from the beginning,
that we should love one another." "He that loveth not his
brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and
ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to
lay down our lives for the brethren."
It is not the opposition of the world that most endangers the church of
Christ. It is the evil cherished in the hearts of believers that works
their most grievous disaster and most surely retards the progress of God's
cause. There is no surer way of weakening spirituality than by cherishing
envy, suspicion, faultfinding, and evil surmising. On the other hand, the
strongest witness that God has sent His Son into the world is the
existence of harmony and union among men of varied dispositions who form
His church. This witness it is the privilege of the followers of Christ to
bear. But in order to do this, they must place themselves under Christ's
command. Their characters must be conformed to His character and their
wills to His will.
"A new commandment I give unto you," Christ said, "That
ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one
another." John 13:34. What a wonderful statement; but, oh, how poorly
practised! In the church of God today brotherly love is sadly lacking.
Many who profess to love the Saviour do not love one another. Unbelievers
are watching to see if the faith of professed Christians is exerting a
sanctifying influence upon their lives; and they are quick to discern the
defects in character, the inconsistencies in action. Let Christians not
make it possible for the enemy to point to them and say, Behold how these
people, standing under the banner of Christ, hate one another. Christians
are all members of one family, all children of the same heavenly Father,
with the same blessed hope of immortality. Very close and tender should be
the tie that binds them together.
Divine love makes its most touching appeals to the heart when it calls
upon us to manifest the same tender compassion that Christ manifested.
That man only who has unselfish love for his brother has true love for
God. The true Christian will not willingly permit the soul in peril and
need to go unwarned, uncared for. He will not hold himself aloof from the
erring, leaving them to plunge farther into unhappiness and discouragement
or to fall on Satan's battleground.
Those who have never experienced the tender, winning love of Christ
cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in the heart is a
constraining power, which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation, in
the tender, pitiful spirit, in the uplifting of the lives of those with
whom they associate. Christian workers who succeed in their efforts must
know Christ; and in order to know Him, they must know His love. In heaven
their fitness as workers is measured by their ability to love as Christ
loved and to work as He worked.
"Let us not love in word," the apostle writes, "but in
deed and in truth." The completeness of Christian character is
attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from
within. It is the atmosphere of this love surrounding the soul of the
believer that makes him a savour of life unto life and enables God to
bless his work.
Supreme love for God and unselfish love for one another --this is the
best gift that our heavenly Father can bestow. This love is not an
impulse, but a divine principle, a permanent power. The unconsecrated
heart cannot originate or produce it. Only in the heart where Jesus reigns
is it found. "We love Him, because He first loved us." In the
heart renewed by divine grace, love is the ruling principle of action. It
modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, and
ennobles the affections. This love, cherished in the soul, sweetens the
life and sheds a refining influence on all around.
John strove to lead the believers to understand the exalted privileges
that would come to them through the exercise of the spirit of love. This
redeeming power, filling the heart, would control every other motive and
raise its possessors above the corrupting influences of the world. And as
this love was allowed full sway and became the motive power in the life,
their trust and confidence in God and His dealing with them would be
complete. They could then come to Him in full confidence of faith, knowing
that they would receive from Him everything needful for their present and
eternal good. "Herein is our love made perfect," he wrote,
"that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as He is,
so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casteth out fear." "And this is the confidence that we have in
Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if
we know that He hear us, . . . we know that we have the petitions that we
desired of Him."
"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." "If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The conditions of obtaining
mercy from God are simple and reasonable. The Lord does not require us to
do some grievous thing in order to gain forgiveness. We need not make long
and wearisome pilgrimages, or perform painful penances, to commend our
souls to the God of heaven or to expiate our transgression. He that "confesseth
and forsaketh" his sin "shall have mercy." Proverbs 28:13.
In the courts above, Christ is pleading for His church --pleading for
those for whom He has paid the redemption price of His blood. Centuries,
ages, can never lessen the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice. Neither life
nor death, height nor depth, can separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus; not because we hold Him so firmly, but because He holds
us so fast. If our salvation depended on our own efforts, we could not be
saved; but it depends on the One who is behind all the promises. Our grasp
on Him may seem feeble, but His love is that of an elder brother; so long
as we maintain our union with Him, no one can pluck us out of His hand.
As the years went by and the number of believers grew, John laboured
with increasing fidelity and earnestness for his brethren. The times were
full of peril for the church. Satanic delusions existed everywhere. By
misrepresentation and falsehood the emissaries of Satan sought to arouse
opposition against the doctrines of Christ, and in consequence dissensions
and heresies were imperilling the church. Some who professed Christ
claimed that His love released them from obedience to the law of God. On
the other hand, many taught that it was necessary to observe the Jewish
customs and ceremonies; that a mere observance of the law, without faith
in the blood of Christ, was sufficient for salvation. Some held that
Christ was a good man, but denied His divinity. Some who pretended to be
true to the cause of God were deceivers, and in practice they denied
Christ and His gospel. Living themselves in transgression, they were
bringing heresies into the church. Thus many were being led into the mazes
of scepticism and delusion.
John was filled with sadness as he saw these poisonous errors creeping
into the church. He saw the dangers to which the church was exposed, and
he met the emergency with promptness and decision. The epistles of John
breathe the spirit of love. It seems as if he wrote with a pen dipped in
love. But when he came in contact with those who were breaking the law of
God, yet claiming that they were living without sin, he did not hesitate
to warn them of their fearful deception.
Writing to a helper in the gospel work, a woman of good repute and wide
influence, he said: "Many deceivers are entered into the world, who
confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and
an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we
have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth,
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there
come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your
house, neither bid him Godspeed: for he that biddeth him Godspeed is
partaker of his evil deeds."
We are authorised to hold in the same estimation as did the beloved
disciple those who claim to abide in Christ while living in transgression
of God's law. There exist in these last days evils similar to those that
threatened the prosperity of the early church; and the teachings of the
apostle John on these points should be carefully heeded. "You must
have charity," is the cry heard everywhere, especially from those who
profess sanctification. But true charity is too pure to cover an
unconfessed sin. While we are to love the souls for whom Christ died, we
are to make no compromise with evil. We are not to unite with the
rebellious and call this charity. God requires His people in this age of
the world to stand for the right as unflinchingly as did John in
opposition to soul-destroying errors.
The apostle teaches that while we should manifest Christian courtesy we
are authorised to deal in plain terms with sin and sinners; that this is
not inconsistent with true charity. "Whosoever committeth sin,"
he writes, "transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression
of the law. And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and
in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth
hath not seen Him, neither known Him."
As a witness for Christ, John entered into no controversy, no wearisome
contention. He declared what he knew, what he had seen and heard. He had
been intimately associated with Christ, had listened to His teachings, had
witnessed His mighty miracles. Few could see the beauties of Christ's
character as John saw them. For him the darkness had passed away; on him
the true light was shining. His testimony in regard to the Saviour's life
and death was clear and forcible. Out of the abundance of a heart
overflowing with love for the Saviour he spoke; and no power could stay
his words.
"That which was from the beginning," he declared, "which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; . . . that which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship
with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son
Jesus Christ."
So may every true believer be able, through his own experience, to
"set to his seal that God is true." John 3:33. He can bear
witness to that which he has seen and heard and felt of the power of
Christ.
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