We have now seen that there are certain unfailing characteristics of the new nature and life which the children of God possess; that, in other words, as the apostle John teaches, this new nature, whether as seen in the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, or in the believer, must necessarily flow out in the same channels. But in other scriptures we find precepts and exhortations which reveal what God desires for His children, and mark out the manner of life and walk which is pleasing in His sight. Now all these exhortations are seen, when rightly considered, to be but traits in the life of our blessed Lord, showing us what He was and did in His passage through this world; and thus while they afford divine guidance for our souls, they are both standards wherewith to measure ourselves, and encouragements to stimulate us to follow in His steps. It is an immense help to connect such scriptures with Christ, as otherwise they become both dry and legal, bringing the child of God into bondage instead of furnishing a motive, drawn from the love and the grace of Christ, for a holy and happy liberty in the path of obedience.
The first of these precepts which bear upon our especial subject is found in the “Sermon on the Mount.” Our Lord says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:43-4843Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. 44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43‑48)).
The fundamental principle of this scripture is, that God’s children should be His representatives in this world, that their very conduct should proclaim what they are, and to whom they belong. This is the force of the words, “that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven,” that is, acting in such a way that their moral likeness to the Father will be seen. The illustration the Lord uses makes this apparent. Men say, “Love your neighbors and hate your enemies,” but in contrast with this the Lord says, “Love your enemies.” In these two things indeed the heart of man and the heart of God are revealed. Man may shrink from accepting this as true of himself, that he loves his neighbors and hates his enemies; but it is the exact expression of the flesh, of man’s corrupt heart. It is not in man to love those that hate him. But God, on the other hand, has told out His heart in the gift of His beloved Son to a world that denied and crucified Him. As the apostle Paul writes, “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It was when we were enemies that we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. This was love peculiar to God, love going out in blessed activity towards those who had nothing in them worthy of love, rather everything to turn it aside; love therefore that flowed out from the depths of God’s own heart, because, being love, He delights to love, and therewith to bless the objects on which it rests. It is this same love—love of the same character—that is to distinguish God’s children. Even the worst of men will love those that love them, and salute their brethren; for that is a selfish love, a love which spends itself on those from whom it expects a return and a recompense. This is human and not divine love; and hence the Lord says to His own, “I say unto you, Love your enemies ... .Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father [which is in heaven] is perfect.”
A whole system of theology has been built up on these closing words; but attention to the context should have obviated all possible misconception. The doctrine of Christian perfection—perfection in the flesh, as it really is—can find no support from this scripture, except indeed the words of our Lord are wrested from their connection. For the point here insisted on, as has been shown, is, that the followers of Christ, in contrast with the men of this world, and like God Himself, should show kindness and love to all classes alike, enemies as well as friends, good as well as evil; that just as God acts from His own heart, and sends His temporal blessings on all alike, irrespective of their character, so should —His people; and in doing so they will prove that they are His children, and be perfect even as their Father is perfect.
Some years back, two ladies called upon a well-known servant of the Lord, and in the course of their conversation they advocated this doctrine of perfection. The question was put—
“Have you attained this perfection?”
“We believe we have.”
“Then you are perfect?”
“Yes.”
“Are you as perfect as Christ?”
After some hesitation the reply was given in the affirmative. “Then,” responded the servant of God, “I would not give much for your Christ.” And yet, with the doctrine they held, what other answer could be returned; for either “perfect” means “perfect” according to God’s standard, or something less. If the former, Christ is its only measure; if the latter, it is not perfection. But even if the passage were allowed to be an exhortation to attain to all the moral perfectness of God (which, as we have seen, it is not) it could not be pressed into the support of such a doctrine. For example, Christ Himself is our standard; we are to walk as He walked (1 John 2:66He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. (1 John 2:6)). But it would be to forget what He is and was upon the earth, if we turned round and said, “We have reached the standard; our walk is as perfect as His, and even more, we have attained to His perfection.” For be it remembered that there are no degrees in perfection. It is perfection, and nothing short of it; and through the grace of God we shall attain it, but not until we see our blessed Lord as He is (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)). Then we shall be like Him. In the meantime we are to purify ourselves as He is pure, daily to be transformed into His likeness; and this process of transformation will go on just in proportion as we are occupied in beholding the glory of the Lord displayed in His unveiled face. But it will only be “from glory to glory”— “from one degree to another,” and then when we behold Him face to face we shall have awaked in His likeness. We can never therefore, as another has said, rest in attainment, but rather in attaining. Still, while we sojourn here we are called upon to represent the Father in His attitude of grace towards all, and in this sense to be perfect even as He is perfect.
Another aspect of this truth is presented in the gospel of Luke. There we read, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:3636Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. (Luke 6:36)). Now this word “merciful” is most remarkable, and this will be perceived if we adduce another scripture. “I beseech you therefore, brethren,” says the apostle Paul, “by the mercies of God” (Rom. 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)). This word “mercies” is the same as in Luke. And what are the mercies of which the apostle speaks? They are all the mercies expressed in redemption, as told out from chapter 5 to the end of chapter 8. They are, in other words, the unfoldings of the heart of God in the display of His grace in our salvation; for it is on the exhibition and enjoyment of these that the apostle grounds the exhortation to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God, our reasonable service. When, therefore, our blessed Lord tells us to be merciful, as our Father also is merciful, He reminds us of our responsibility to represent the Father, to tell out the virtues of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, to act towards others as He has acted towards us, so that the Father’s heart and character may be displayed through our walk and ways. We are, therefore, to do good to all, to be ever givers without expectation of recompense; and to love our enemies, because otherwise we should misrepresent our God and Father. What a blessed mission it is to which we are called! Christ revealed the Father, and He would have us also to be revealers of the Father in order that others may discern the character of the One who has made us His children by what we are as we pass through this scene.
This same truth is found in more than one of the epistles. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says, “Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children” (Eph. 4:3232And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32); Eph. 5:11Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; (Ephesians 5:1)). It is not as in our version, “as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you,” but as we have given it, “as God in Christ” For the apostle here presents God in the riches of His grace, acting, without motive, except in Himself, and needing therefore no inducement to forgiveness; but acting solely from His own heart—these forms of display being but the manifestation of what He is as seen in redemption. But he presents Him in this way as our standard, and hence he says, “Be ye imitators of God as beloved children.” As in the gospels, so here, the children are desired to present in their conduct the character of God as their Father. And thereon the apostle shows us God as love, and God as light—the two words which tell out all that God is; and he says to us, “You are also to display love and light.” Thus he says, “Walk in love,” (vs. 2); and, “walk as children of light” (vs. 8). Christ Himself is brought in as the example of love in His having loved us, and given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor; for in this act of sacrifice He is the expression of the whole heart of God. And inasmuch as we are now light in the Lord we are to walk as children of light, and the fruit of the light (it is light, not Spirit) is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth—in such a walk proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
We may well, in the face of such scriptures, challenge ourselves as to whether these desires of God for us are sufficiently borne in mind. The temptation to measure ourselves by one another is so great that we cannot be too frequently reminded that God Himself, according to what He is as displayed in redemption as love and light, is our standard for walk and conduct. And with what motives are we herein furnished to become imitators of God as beloved children! Thus, for example, we are to forgive one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us; that is, we are to act from our own hearts in grace, even as God acted in our salvation—seeking no motive outside of ourselves (save indeed in the God of our salvation), but finding our delight in the expression of that unspeakable grace of which we ourselves have been the subjects. It is, however, by no means intended that we should always pronounce our forgiveness to those who have sinned against us; but as to our own feelings we are ever to be in a state of forgiveness. We are never to retain inwardly the sin of a brother. However we may be sinned against, before God we are instantly to forgive; and then, as already explained, when the one who has committed the wrong, as our Lord taught Peter, comes and says, “I repent” (Luke 17), forgiveness is to be granted him. God Himself acts in this manner. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” and we, because His children, are to act on the same principle. Grace retains nothing, always forgives; but for the offender’s own sake, for the glory of God indeed in the first place, it waits for the sinner’s self-judgment before it openly absolves from the sin.
We are therefore set down close to the heart of God and of Christ, and are thus to draw our motives for walk and conduct from the unspeakable grace of the One, and from the unfathomable love of the Other; for the more we ourselves are under the power of divine grace and love, the more will grace and love flow out from our hearts towards our fellow-believers. It is indeed a question of heart, of the heart filled with the sense of the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit; and when in any measure this is the case with us we shall act towards all around us in the spirit of these precepts.
In the epistle to the Philippians the apostle gives another exhortation to the saints, that they may approve themselves as the children of God. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons” (children, really) “of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation” (not nation), “among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:14-1614Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. (Philippians 2:14‑16)). The manner of the introduction of this exhortation is worthy of all attention. It is, “Do all things without murmurings and disputings” (or reasonings): “that ye may be.” The Father knew, and our foolish hearts too in measure know, how prone we are to these murmurings and disputings. We murmur at a thousand things in our lot, just as the Israelites did in the wilderness, and thereby question the care, the love, and the wisdom of Him who orders all our path, and lose the blessed sense of His presence with us. As a consequence, we become an easy prey to the suggestions and temptations of the enemy. Hence disputings or reasonings are also mentioned; for the moment unbelief prevails, so that we walk by sight, reasoning takes the place of faith. There is nothing so destructive of confidence in God as a questioning mind. A child of God should abhor reasoning, remembering that word of the psalmist, “I hate thoughts.” The thoughts of God are our portion, and with these we should be content, and to be satisfied with these is in fact the sign of a lively faith.
Ah, these murmurings and disputings are verily the little foxes that spoil the vines! And not only so, for the connection here is most grave. These things are to be avoided, that we may be blameless and harmless, which we never are when we fall into murmurings and disputings. Nay, it is not too much to say that nothing more dishonors the name of Christ, nothing more belies our character as God’s children. And yet they are so common that little is thought about it. But how could I murmur, if I have any sense of the Father’s care and love? How could I be disputing, if I know my place as a child with the Father? No; both the one and the other are falsifications of the grace of God.
If now we examine a little more closely verse 15, we shall see that the apostle has really given us a portrait of Christ. For every word in this exhortation is the exact expression of what He was in this world. He was blameless and harmless—or, as some translate, harmless and simple—in all His path from Bethlehem to Calvary. “Which of you,” He said to His adversaries, “convinceth Me of sin?” And three times did even Pilate testify that he found no fault in Him (Luke 23). That He was infinitely acceptable to God we know, for He was the One in whom God found His delight; but man also, though hating and rejecting Him, was compelled to bear witness to His harmless life. He went about doing good, scattering blessings with a bounteous hand around His path; walking so perfectly before God and before man that the eagle eyes of His persistent enemies could not detect a single action on which they could ground a truthful accusation against Him. Baffled and defeated, if not abashed, in their every attempt to catch something out of His mouth which might be used to compass His destruction, they resorted to false witnesses, who distorted His words, to produce even the semblance of a charge against Him. And how could it be otherwise with that holy and spotless life?
Moreover, He was the Son of God, and surely without rebuke, or rather, as the word more exactly is, without spot. No defilement could possibly attach to Him; nay, He could touch even the leper without being defiled, and, in the power of the Spirit of holiness that dwelt in Him, banish the leprosy itself. This is but a type of His whole life. He was surrounded by sin and its pollutions, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; but, like a clear stream, that is sometimes seen passing through the dirty waters of another without losing its own crystal purity, the blessed Lord remained without spot. Amidst darkness He was only light; and thus as the Lamb, foreordained before the foundation of the world, He was without blemish and without spot, and as such the Lamb by whose precious blood it is we have been redeemed. Moreover, He shone as light in the world; for, as John tells us, “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” Yea, as He Himself testified, He was the light of the world, and as such He held forth the word of life.
This is then a perfect picture of what Christ was, and yet, as we have said, these words exhibit the Father’s desires for His children, for every member of His family in this world. He would have each one of us to seek these characteristics. This is only to say again that Christ Himself is the standard for the children of God. We are to be like Him by-and-by, when we see Him as He is; then we shall be perfectly conformed to His image. But now, while we anticipate this consummation of our blessedness, He would have us walk like Christ. If we say we abide in Him, we ought ourselves also so to walk even as He walked. We may fail every hour, and indeed every minute, but the standard remains the same; and the more constantly we are occupied with, the more we meditate upon, Christ, have Him before our souls as the One on whom we feast, and in whom we delight, the more we shall be conformed to His image, and the more closely, as a consequence, we shall follow in His steps.
God’s desire for us then is, that we should reflect in some measure the image of His Son. We know therefore what will most please our God and Father. In olden times, and indeed in the present, we read of professing Christians making costly sacrifices to win the favor of God. Sacerdotalism preys and thrives upon these things, extorting from its followers gifts and money under the plea that God will be pleased with them on account of their offerings. There is only one way of finding acceptance with God, and that is through faith in the Lord Jesus, who was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace” (favor) “wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Being now brought into the favor of God in this way, we shall then best please Him by following the example of our Lord and Saviour. We thus read, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” And what was the characteristic of the life of Enoch? It was that he walked with God. The Lord Jesus did this perfectly, and the Holy Spirit has been pleased also to testify that Enoch walked with God. This then is the way to please God, not by rich gifts or costly offerings, but by a walk in subjection to the Word, according to God’s mind—a walk with God—occupied and having fellowship with Him in His things. And such a walk is open to every child of God. The Apostle Peter does but express this in another way when he writes, “As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
Such is the royal road to the enjoyment of God’s favor. He loves all His children perfectly; but the one who is most closely following the Lord will enjoy the largest manifestation of it. The Lord loved Peter equally with John, but it was only John who was permitted to lay his head upon the Saviour’s breast The truth is, John being closer to the Lord in his walk, entering more into the mind of his Lord, could receive this special mark of favor. It was equally open to Peter; but Peter’s own condition of soul was the hindrance to his enjoyment of it The Lord Himself lays down this principle. He says, “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:2121He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)). So likewise it is the obedient child that —will receive the largest manifestation of the Father’s love. If therefore the Father reveals His mind for His children, it is but to show how they can best please Him, to indicate the only pathway to blessing and the enjoyment of His own unbounded affections.