It is important at all times to distinguish between that which is common to the whole family of God, and that which is the special relationship which any individual may hold to the family. It will be found that what we have in common is far more extensive than what, any individual saint can possibly have as peculiar to himself. And this must be the ease when we know that union with Christ is the portion of all that believe on Him, and that all the blessings flowing from this are not only the highest but also the common blessings of the church. Now we are very liable to fix our attention on that which distinguishes an individual member of the body of Christ, on account of some superadded gift from the ascended Jesus. We look on such an one as apart from the body, and on that account as removed far above our own sphere, so that we think him unable to sympathize with us, and ourselves unable to follow him. It is thus that we have insensibly been led to lower the value of apostolical example, and the tone of apostolical precept, little thinking that the change in the aspect of outward things could affect the essential distinction between the church and the world. In the case of the apostle Paul for example, we see so much strikingly singular, and the astonishing facts accompanying his conversion and ministry are of so extraordinary a character, that whilst we only contemplate him thus, we wonder but dare not imitate. And this is as it should be. For as an apostle, Paul has had none to follow him. In this his special relation to the church as the depositary by visions and revelations of the counsels of God and of the mind of Christ, and the communicator by preaching and writing of those things in which the Lord had appeared unto him, he stands singular and aloof from the body.
But there is another character in which he is presented to us, and that is as the servant of Jesus Christ, and when he mentions this in connection with his apostleship, he gives the title of servant precedence over that of apostle (Rom. 1:11Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Romans 1:1)). Now the servant was that character which he could only sustain by virtue of being not his own but bought with a price—it was a redemption character—one which belonged to the whole redeemed family as well as himself, and therefore essential not only to salvation but to glory. Truly as an apostle too he was redeemed, and sent forth as the apostle of that redemption, the power of which he knew in his own soul. But neither salvation, life, nor glory, was essential to apostleship, but they were to service. Apostleship was a gift over and above that which was common to all, and placed an individual in a distinct relation to others, but not so as to make the common and essential blessings of less value, but rather to enhance them. For although Paul might have been God's accredited organ of communication of all mysteries to the church, yet he himself would have lost his blessing and specialty of reward had he not used his apostleship as a servant.
And this is the Lord's own preventative against exaltation in any church office: if it be not used in service, the person loses his reward. “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.” It is this which distinguishes authority exercised in the church from that which is exercised in the world. “Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The world's officer has all the insignia of present power about him, and demands to be acknowledged, and is to be acknowledged, as having power—the source of his authority is visible, and the exercise of it manifest to the eye. On the other hand the source of authority in the church is invisible; it is from above, from the ascended Jesus, and its exercise is in real spiritual control and guidance—and the great object is that the person who is the Channel by which it is exercised, should so lose his prominence, that Jesus and not the man himself should be exalted. And thus it is exercised in service to Him.
It was so in the case of the Lord Jesus Himself— “He took on Him the form of a servant.” And although His own proper and native dignity as the eternal Son was constantly shining forth, even whilst He was sustaining the character He had assumed; yet He strictly maintained it, and sought to hide Himself, that the glory of Him who had sent Him might appear. He was “among them as one who served” —serving them for His sake Who had sent Him. We have the beautiful portrait of the Lord as the servant thus given to us. “Behold My Servant, Whom I uphold, Mine Elect in Whom My soul delighteth: I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street—a bruised reed shall He not break and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.” The way in which this is applied by the Holy Spirit to the Lord Jesus in Matt. 12, shows the parts of the servant character, which are truly valuable and of great price in the sight of God. He had restored the withered hand— “then the Pharisees went and held a counsel against Him—how they might destroy Him;” but when Jesus knew it, He withdrew Himself from thence— “He did not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard” against them; nothing escaped Him of what man would term honest indignation, no railing word against their malice, “He did not strive.” The patient Servant was upheld by the arm of Him Whose servant He was; and the Spirit which was upon Him, was another spirit from that of man, and led Him while serving others in blessing to show forth that He served not Himself, but that as the Servant He was only His Who sent Him, and reproach and malice did not make Him fail or discourage Him, because His object was only to do the work of Him that sent Him But we follow Him a step farther in this patience of service: “as He withdrew great multitudes followed Him and He healed them all; and charged them that they should not make Him known, that it might be fulfilled,” &c. &c. As the Servant He was not discouraged by opposition, neither was He elated by that which He had wrought; He tried to hide Himself that God might be glorified; and when He might have turned on the Pharisees with the multitudes He had healed, He would not allow any man to hear His voice in the street, but charged them that they should not make Him known. Here is the real Servant, the One Who hides Himself, that He Whom He serves may appear—the One Who loses all self-interest in the interests of others.
Now it is especially in this character that Jesus, the perfectly instructed and wise Servant, holds Himself up to our imitation. “The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord: it is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household? Fear them not therefore.” But there are two spheres of service, and although the same principles guide in both, yet the circumstances are so very different, as to give a different character to the service. The world and the church are the two places of service. The ministry of the Lord was chiefly confined to the former; for He came as the Servant of Jehovah to Israel— “He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” Here was active service, such as man could recognize, and in which He sought to hide Himself, that God might be glorified. It was attended too with present results, and had its value in measure appreciated by man. But if we look to our Lord's service in the church, we find it characteristically presented in one beautiful incident, leading Him to take a lower place than ever He had taken in His service in and to the world. “When Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end—Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and went to God; He riseth from supper and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and girded Himself: after that He poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded So after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call Me Master and Lord, and ye say well: for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his master; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye, if ye do them.”
It is in following out this example, that we trace the servant in the apostle Paul. The sphere of his service was the church, and although the perfect servant is only to be found in the above example, yet the details of service are more shown by the apostle than by the Lord Himself. But first let us notice the great principle of serving in the church: in the Lord it was the conscious possession of all things—had anything been lacking to Himself, He could not have served; but nothing could be added to Him to Whom the Father had given all things. Again those whom He served had no claim upon Him for service— “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?” showed the service to be perfectly free. The apostle too, knowing the fullness of Jesus as his own, stood in the consciousness of one who possessed all things, and at the same time as one who knowing himself not his own, but bought with a price, could say, “though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself the servant of all.” In another place, it is true, he says, “I am debtor both to Greeks and barbarians; both to the wise and the unwise.” Man could claim nothing of him, but as the Lord's servant, he felt all had a claim on him. Blessed service indeed which is based on liberty, and whereinsoever exercised is always to the Lord.
On the first calling of the apostle Paul, as a chosen vessel to bear the name of the Lord before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, he was to be shown how great things he had to suffer for the name-sake of Jesus. The disciple was not to be above his Master, but everyone who is perfect is to be as his Master. And the more perfect the servant, so much more would there be conformity in humiliation, in weariness, and in everything which was sorrowful to man as man, to the Master Himself. It is thus that the Master connects service with everything contrary to that which the flesh would crave. He sat weary on the well, there was nothing around Him to relieve Him, but it was relief to the weariness to serve—My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work. And so He taught. “He that loveth his life shall lose it: and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man will serve Me, let him follow Me.” Truly humbling to the Master to be denied the common refreshment which His own bounty had given to man—and so the disciple followed His steps, and if he was used of the Lord to dispense the living water, it was “in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst.” It is in contrast with those who were getting into ministerial ease and honor (1 Cor. 4:1, 91Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. (1 Corinthians 4:1)
9For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. (1 Corinthians 4:9)), that he brings in his own personal sufferings, as marking the character of real service. So again we find after he has described the apostasy in its features of self-love and self-indulgence, he silently contrasts his own conduct as properly exhibiting the servant of the Lord. “Hast thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Thus making his conduct a sample of that which would characterize faithfulness in any period throughout the dispensation. There might be many other general notices adduced as. proving that service to the Lord must be in sorrow and suffering, and that the instructed servant would always be able to say, “that no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.”
But I would desire to notice a peculiar class of trials which do not so much outwardly appear, but which strikingly exhibit the servant of the Lord. They are marked by the apostle as “the afflictions of the gospel” —and while including outward trial, are by no means confined to it. It is as one having nearly arrived at the end of his course that the apostle mentions to Timothy—like-minded indeed with the apostle, but apparently failing in that endurance for the elect's sake which so marked Paul's service. “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.” It is probably “suffer evil with the gospel” —Jesus when personally present suffered evil—the gospel when preached drew out the same evil. Paul the preacher, suffered for preaching it—and now he calls on Timothy to be a fellow-sufferer with the Lord, His gospel, and Himself. Many turned back and walked not with the Lord when they heard His hard sayings, and a grievous trial it was to the apostle to find all in Asia turned away from him, and himself imprisoned and unable to visit them. How likely then was the heart of the comparatively young soldier to faint, and to grow dispirited, not from the attacks of open enemies, but from the desertion, suspicion, and luke-warmness even of friends.
How assiduously did the apostle seek to give to Timothy confidence in the same power, even a resurrection-Lord, which had sustained and carried him through. The shame of supporting a cause abandoned by so many and with its prime mover in prison was very great. Hard indeed to bear the scorn of being embarked in that which to man's eye was a tottering cause, and nothing but the consciousness in the soul of the apostle, that God was not looking for any sufficiency in him, but supplying to him all-sufficiency in all things, could have given him such a bounding spring as to make him rise above all apparent failure and disappointment. The confusion and disorder at Corinth, the turning to another gospel at Galatia, the danger of apostasy among the Hebrews, were all sources of trial, unheeded, unknown, and incapable of being felt by man as man, but wearing the mind, so as to make him very consciously to know, what it was to hate his life in this world. One thing too which tended to lead the servant in conformity with his Master, was that he stood alone. Timothy was like-minded, yet he could hardly sympathize with the apostle, who saw before his eyes, that his departure would indeed be the occasion for grievous wolves to enter in. All appeared to be sustained by the energy of the Spirit in this chosen vessel, and whilst he is exhorting Timothy to steadfastness, the repeated charge, “thou therefore endure hardness,” “watch thou in all things, endure afflictions,” “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” shows that he hesitated to expect that ability of Timothy to endure which had so characterized his own service in the church. It was the full consciousness that he did not go to the warfare at his own charges, that the Master Whom he served was no austere Master, that sustained the soul of the apostle. He might summarily and authoritatively have settled every question, but this would not have been to have served others for the Lord's sake.
The relation in which the apostle stood to the Corinthians appears to me to be especially that of the servant in suffering, the servant being perfected according to his Master. It is not persecution or outward hardship, but the laying himself out in grace to kindle the grace which was in them. The first seven chapters of the second Epistle are, in my judgment, the experience of the apostle as the servant of the church. No fainting, no discouragement, no striving, no lifting up, no quenching the smoking flax, no breaking the bruised reed, but a willingness even to suffer his own reputation for faithfulness and power to be questioned, so that he might serve them in the way they needed to be served. The first Epistle to the Corinthians sufficiently informs us of the grievous disorder of the church—a disorder I believe which would shock any of our communions—which have indeed by their regulations secured order, but it is order arising from outward regulations and not that which the apostle sought as the remedy, that which arises from the power of inward life and grace. If I were asked what there was, which could induce the apostle to act towards the church of Corinth, as he did, instead of proceeding to extreme measures in punishing their delinquencies at once, I would say there were three things specially noticeable in his conduct, which most clearly mark that his object was not mere outward decency, but life in the Spirit.
First—The apostle was able to reckon largely on the full supply of grace in Jesus for a case so extreme. He had known that grace in his own extremity—he lived on it himself. It was this alone which prevented his sinking under the pressure of “the care of all the churches.” Jesus was risen and over all. His own confidence was what he pointed out to Timothy, when he said, as encouraging him against many difficulties, “Remember Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, raised from the dead according to my gospel.” In utter insufficiency in himself to meet a case so desperate us that of the Corinthian church, except it were in immediate severity of judgment, Paul was enabled to reckon largely on the sufficiency which was in Christ Jesus—he knew no limit to the resources of His grace.
Secondly—The apostle did not judge after the seeing of his eyes or the hearing of his ears, grievous as were the reports that had reached him touching their disorders—but he judged of them as they were in Christ, and not according to their actual circumstances. He reckoned that there was life in them, although it was almost smothered, and the wisdom was to strengthen the things that were ready to die. The first nine verses of the first chapter of the first Epistle are most remarkable in this light. Had he gone on the ground of evidence, he might well have doubted if they were Christians at all. But the Lord had told him that he had much people in that city. They were “the seal of his apostleship,” for his word had come to them in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. The name of Jesus had been confessed by them; and although the flesh and the world appeared almost to have overwhelmed them, and disputation to have taken the place of faith, yet he would not suffer Satan to make him set aside their confession, or to disown his own labor, because of their present appearances. He takes them on the ground of being in Christ, and before a single word of apprehension escapes him, he so grounds them in the faith, that subsequent rebuke should not have the effect of unsettling but of establishing.
But, thirdly, there was the personal bearing of the apostle himself towards this church. He might have come with the rod, and doubtless his immediate presence would have stopped many abuses, and silenced many a prating preacher. He was fully conscious of the power that he had “to revenge all disobedience,” and “to use sharpness according to the power which the Lord had given him to edification and not to destruction.” Now had his object been to establish his claim to authority, this would have been the readiest way. But he was fully conscious of his authority, and the question with him was to use it unto edification. To have produced acquiescence to his commandments by his immediate presence was not his object. His delight was to see obedience flowing from grace, as he saw in the Philippians, who not only “obeyed in his presence, but much more in his absence,” and to Witness order produced by inward life and not outward restrictions. This was the object of his first Epistle: he took the place of the patient servant, neither fainting nor being discouraged, and waited patiently to see its result. He had the rod at his command, but he did not strive, nor lift up. He said indeed, “Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come unto you; but I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will: and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up but the power, for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. What will ye? shall I come to you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?”
(To be continued.)