I AM going to point out to you briefly certain things that you will find in this passage — things which helped to make the Apostle Paul the saint and servant of God that he was. We must not suppose that he had an easy path, any more than some of us. Perhaps, in the warehouse where you are employed, you have to rub shoulders with ungodly men. Many things happen, day after day, that try both your spirit and your temper, and you may sometimes wish you were in other circumstances, thinking that, if you were, your spiritual life would be more vigorous, that you would grow and get on faster in the things of God. But we are poor judges as to that, and we may well remember that if in a lawful position, we are where the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is all-sufficient for us.
Now, in fact, the Apostle Paul had a very rough time of it, and he could say what we could not, at all events with the same fullness of meaning. Look, for instance, at verses 8, 9: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” Think for a moment of what those terms suggest—troubled perplexed—persecuted—cast down! And then glance at verse 11: “We which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake.” Now, of course, we cannot say that. The Apostle Paul’s path was indeed a great deal rougher than ours. The storms of persecution for Christ’s sake continually howled around him, and he tells us in Romans 8:3636As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (Romans 8:36) that he and his fellow-Christians were looked upon as so many sheep for the slaughter. So the apostle had much to endure, but he found in his pathway that Christ was all-sufficient.
Now, I shall speak particularly to those who, through grace, have made a start in the Christian life. Of course, the first thing for any of us is to know the Lord Jesus as our own personal Saviour. Nothing is more mischievous than for unconverted persons to try to live a Christian life. No one can lead a Christian life until he is a Christian. You must first be born again. You must know Christ as your Saviour, and receive at His gracious hands the forgiveness of your sins and the salvation of your soul, and when you can say that Christ is yours, then you begin to live the Christian life.
But without further preface let me name some of the things that made Paul the saint and servant that he was. There are four in number. We shall find the first in verse 16. “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Thank God, there is the inward man, born of the Spirit. The Apostle here speaks of it as being renewed day by day. And so I hope it is with us. The outward man, as we well know, needs daily renewal. Therefore we go to bed and sleep, and sit down, most of us, to two or three good square meals in the course of the day. Now, if the outward man needs to be renewed thus, so does the inward man. Somebody may say, “But how does the renewing take place? What contributes to it?” I believe two things. First of all, prayer, which is the very breath of the Christian. If we neglect the throne of grace if we seldom bow our knees in prayer to our God and Father in heaven, you may depend upon it that we shall suffer great loss. But there is more. You will remember a verse in the end of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” There is then a renewal that comes from waiting on the Lord. Now I believe that “waiting on the Lord” means more than simply bowing our knees in prayer to God in the morning, and again at night. We must also wait upon Him with His Word before us, to hear from Him, to receive through the pages of His blessed book some communication from Him whose words are spirit and life. You have but to read the first Psalm to see that the one who meditates upon God’s truth is likened unto a tree planted by the rivers of water, whose leaf never withers, and who brings forth fruit in his season.
May I, then, ask you to remember that the inward man should be renewed day by day? When God’s redeemed people were journeying from Egypt to Canaan the manna fell every day, and every day they gathered it up. So must it be with us. May God graciously incline our hearts to pay frequent visits to the throne of grace. We can do so, you know, not only in our own bedrooms, but when we walk along the busy street, or when serving in the warehouse or office where we are employed. All the day long, though our minds be engaged with business, we can be in the spirit, if not in the attitude, of prayer, and God’s Word may be treasured up richly in our heart and memory.
Now for our second point. You will find it at the end of the chapter, verse 18. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.” Observe the contrast between things seen and not seen, and mark what is said about them. The things which are seen are temporal, they perish and pass away; it is the unseen things that are eternal. And the Holy Spirit is given to us Christians in order that we might enter into them. Now these were the things at which the Apostle looked. His eye was on the invisible. Men of the world would not understand this. They might say, “How can any one look at things that are not seen?” It is a mystery which they cannot explain. But it is simple enough to the Christian. We are called upon, then, to have the eyes of the heart fixed upon the unseen—upon the things that God has prepared for them that love Him, things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. They are all revealed in the Holy Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit is given to us that we might know them. Let these, then, be that on which the eyes of our heart rest. Of course, we have to do our daily business, and do it well. A Christian servant should be the best of all servants, and a Christian master should be the best of all masters. There is no doubt about that, and thus, in our daily calling, we should glorify the name of our Lord Jesus. That does not militate at all against what I have said.
The third thing that had a powerful influence upon the Apostle is named in verse 10 of chapter 5. He had just been saying that he labored, he earnestly endeavored, he strove, he made it his chief business that, whether present or absent, he might be well pleasing to his Lord and Master. “For,” adds he, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” Now the Apostle was not only a saved man, just as you are, but he was also a servant of Christ, as we all are in our little measure. And so he said in substance, “I may not find that everybody will pat me on the back, and say, ‘Well done,’ and I do not make it my aim to win the esteem of men; my one ambition is to be acceptable to my Lord and Master in that day when I shall be manifested at His tribunal.” So should it be with us, for we must all appear there, and our life pass under scrutiny— shall I say the judgment? — of our gracious Lord and Master. Perhaps somebody may say, “But how does that agree with what we get in John 5:24,24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24) where we are told that we shall never come into judgment?” Ah! we Christians will never come into judgment on account of our sins. It was for these that Christ died. The judicial question is passed, blessed be God, but then our life will come under our Master’s judgment and review. The Apostle did not lose sight of that. He was anxious that his life should receive His Master’s approbation. God help us, then, to keep these three things in view: First, the inward man, renewed day by day; second, the eye of the heart on unseen and, eternal things; third, we must all be manifested at the tribunal of our Master.
One other thing, and this is my last verse 14. “The love of Christ constraineth us.” It is blessed to have the heart under the powerful influence of the love of Christ. Of all the mighty factors in the life of the Apostle, that was the mightiest. He says elsewhere, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” And so he judged that if the Lord Jesus Christ had died for him, and he was, by God’s grace, among them that lived, it became him not to live unto himself, but unto Him who died and rose again. It ought to be so with us. True, we do not move in the same circle as the Apostle; we have neither received his great gifts nor his call to service; but if your lot is cast in the humblest sphere, let us live and move in it to the glory of Him who died for us and rose again. How needful it is to remember that the name of the Lord Jesus is written upon us, and that at home, in business, in the church, or in whatsoever circle we have to be, we are to carry ourselves so as to please our gracious Lord and Master. Those, then, are the four things brought before us in this passage, all of which contributed to make the Apostle Paul the saint and servant that he was, the last but not least, the constraining love of Christ.
W. B.