THE instruction of this chapter is very simple. The Lord is not so much here a revealer of the secrets of the Father, as He is a teacher, one addressing us upon very homely truth, and it is very happy to see the Lord coming down to the practical detail of daily life. It is in this way we read the chapter. We have here the duties of the soul in passing through the scenes of life.
The first matter is HYPOCRISY (vers. 1-3). Don’t practice it, purge out the leaven of the Pharisees. It is all folly in you, and how beautiful are the figures He uses to enforce the practical lessons. There is a day coming when all shall be revealed.
The next thing is FEAR (vers. 4, 5). “I say unto you, my friends,” &c. This came very naturally after the other, for “the fear of man bringeth a snare.” Don’t fear man, his terror only extends to this life. Then He passes on (vers. 6, 7), if you rightly apprehend God, He need not be a spirit of fear. “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings,” &c. He first conducts the heart from the fear of man and the fear of God, and then conducts it a step farther, and shows that God is not really an object of fear; “He numbers the hairs of your head,” don’t be afraid.
“Also I say unto you,” &c. (vers. 8-12). Still He has the heart in His hands to lead us to confidence in God. Let me tell you that God has special care over you. You may be rejected, but when you become witnesses in the earth, the Holy Spirit will teach you, and the world must not gainsay you. What a beautiful place that puts the poor disciple of Christ into! Here he is not only the care of God, but the vessel of the Holy Ghost, and as a vessel of the Holy Ghost, protected and guarded by God. These are not difficult things to apprehend. Do I know that He numbers the hairs of my head, and having given me His Spirit, He watches over me in the moment of my difficulty, and to teach me in the hour of danger how to carry myself?
COVETOUSNESS—A very common thing in the moral of this life (vers. 13, 14). Jesus would not take the place that this man’s covetousness put Him into. There was in all this much of reverence to Christ. This was not a profane man. In one sense he was a religious man, but ah! the love of the world may mix itself in the heart when there is very much of reverence to Jesus Christ. I see in this man a certain measure of deference to Christ. He took his cause to Christ, not to the magistrate, but He mistook Christ. “Who made Me a ruler?” &c. (ver. 14). As if he said, “Do I, come to settle the interests of this life? Cast all your care on Him who careth for you.” I came to take you out of all this (ver. 15). “Take heed... a man’s life consisteth not,” &c. This is the first corrective.
Don’t measure yourself by what you have, don’t value a man according to what he has. The ground of a certain rich man,” &c. (ver. 16). This parable was the proof — the man was prospering, getting richer and richer, and see how the Lord cut the account very short indeed. But He has not done with the subject. “Take no thought;” “Consider the ravens;” “God feedeth them.” Here He is leading the heart from the scene around to God, who is above all. The ravens have not a storehouse nor a barn, but they have God — could you and I be as the raven, and as the sparrow? they have, I say, no storehouse nor barn, they have the God of the spring, and the God of the harvest. What a simple figure! I may be sitting as a sparrow alone upon the housetops without these things, but having God. Now He counsels the heart further, “Consider the lilies.” The lily has no spinning-wheel, but the lily has God, as the raven and the sparrow have God. Solomon had the purple of Tyre — the merchandise of all the nations. Ah, how simply the divine teacher speaks to my heart, and I want a heart open to this beautiful admonition.
This is all homely life — the Lord came to the door of Abram’s tent and spoke of the concerns of his family. Here He comes to my heart to talk about the raven and the lily. “Seek not ye” (ver. 29). “Your Father knoweth” — exquisite! That is, your Father knows that your body wants clothing and food — that gives reality to the Lord’s thoughts; and oh, in the perplexities of life all this is verified. “Rather seek ye,” &c.; “Fear not, little flock,” &c. That shows that when He tells us to seek the kingdom it is not a doubtful matter as to whether we attain it, but to seek it so as to have our hearts upon it. Don’t then be seeking in doubt as to whether you shall reach the kingdom, but in desire to have your heart upon it. “It is your Father’s good pleasure;” “Sell that ye have.” The more I transfer my expectations to heaven, the more my heart is on the road to it; there is no doubt of this, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” If you want to improve your property, the care of that will employ your heart. If you are bent on the improvement of your mind, that will engage your heart. If I have my expectations in the presence of the glory of Christ, I should be enabled to sell that which I have here. Whatever we are looking upon as an object to cultivate or improve, that will have our hearts.
“Let your loins be girt,” &c. (vers. 35, 36). “Immediately” — why open immediately? Because they are watching. If I am not able to open immediately, and that there is something to be done before I can do so, the heart is not free for Christ. Are we in the attitude of expectation? or can I say, I desire to have the girded loins and the burning lamp. I pray the Lord to gird my loins a little tighter, and to trim my lamp a little more. I am conscious the girdle is loose, and the lamp burning dimly, but I can say to the Lord, Tighten the one, and trim the other, and so be ready. Oh! pray Him by His Spirit to do all this for you. Beautiful figures here as expressive of expectation. This puts you into an attitude, not as in the spirit of bondage or fear, but of desire; not in the spirit of those who seek the kingdom as doubtful of obtaining it, but as a thing really desirable.
“Be ye also ready” (ver. 40). Beautiful! beautiful and yet serious — you don’t know the hour, and it is very happy you don’t, because the operation of that is to keep us always watching — there would have been a grand moral defect if the hour had been known. “Then Peter said,” &c. (ver. 41). The Lord knows that the capacity of expectation depends upon moral character in the world. If I am loving elevation and importance, this contends with the expectation of the kingdom. Let us ask the question honestly, Do I love power here? Yes, my poor heart does. Well, the Lord has taken you for better or for worse. The Lord Jesus knows all, but we should watch against all this. If I am indulging in the low habits of the flesh; if I am eating and drinking with the drunken (mark, not being drunk myself); if, I say, we are indulging in these things, they contend with the trimming of the lamps.
“I am come to send,” &c. (vers. 49-53). Here is serious truth, homely truth, verified in every age and dispensation (ver. 52). When the converting power of God enters a family — what it does! It is even so! We cannot linger over this. But will He ever come to give peace? Indeed He will, and His name shall be the “Prince of Peace,” and of the increase of His government and of His peace, there shall be no end. Oh, ask God speedily to accomplish the number of His elect, and to hasten His kingdom. “He said also” (ver. 54), “Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right” (ver. 57). This is beautiful! Do you prize that thought? We have the mind of Christ and know all things. “He that is spiritual judgeth all things.” This is the same truth, but more faintly here in the chapter before us. Pray for this mind, don’t be satisfied merely with a good conscience, though that is blessed, but look for other habits of the Lord, even the apprehensions of a spiritual mind. The priests did so under the law, they could say “that is clean,” and “that is not CLEAN,” so we should carry a priestly mind. “I beseech you by the mercies of God” (Rom. 12:1, 2). This is all priestly character, priestly mind. May the Lord carry us through the moral memory of life thus. We should shrink instinctively from what is defiling, and choose what is good. Look to keep the conscience unrebuking. May the Lord endow us thus to walk practically through the scene, yet rise above it all, and to walk cleanly through the scene, but with a mind above it!
J. G. EELLETT.