Walking Worthy: March 2018
Table of Contents
Walking Worthy
What is it worth? What is he worth? What are you worth? Often value or worth is measured by comparison with others and their worth. John the Baptist compared his worth to the Lord Jesus and declared, “The latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.” The centurion said, “Lord, do not trouble thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof.” The value of someone or something can change. In returning home, the prodical son lamented to his father, “I am no more worthy to be called thy son.” Vessels for the kingdom of heaven are to be gathered and evaluated. Of some it will be said, “Cast the worthless out.” If we look at ourselves in comparison to God or His Son, we must say of ourselves, “I am not worthy.” But God has not left us in our worthless state; we have been redreemed to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we are to live in a manner that is suited, not to self worth, but to the worth of the persons and the place into which we have been brought. We are to walk worthy of God. We are to walk worthy of the Lord. We are to walk worthy of the heavenly place and inheritance in which we have been called to share. We are to walk worthy of the value of the great message—the gospel—that called us and now is going out to others through our lives. How are we doing? Let’s read on and consider.
Walking Worthy of the Vocation, of the Lord, of God, of the Gospel
In Ephesians we see the expression “walking worthy” in connection with the character of the epistle. This treats of the Christian and then of the church’s privileges, and then the saint is exhorted while on earth to “walk worthy of his vocation.”
In Colossians, where the glory of the person of Christ is brought out, they are to “walk worthy of the Lord.”
In Thessalonians, they, who once lived under the power of demons and had been brought to know the one true God, are called to “walk worthy of God.” They were “turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God.”
In Philippians, where the gospel is spoken of as in conflict in the world, they were to walk worthy of the gospel (Phil. 1:27). So Paul was “set for the confirmation and defense of the gospel.” Timothy had “served with him in the gospel.” The women had “contended with him in the gospel.” Paul was set “for the defense of the gospel” and in prison for it. A right walk was needed, but they were not to be terrified by their adversaries. The true gospel was, as a cause, in conflict in the world. The message was of infinite worth and were to walk worthy of it. They were “striving together with the faith of the gospel,” contending along with the faith of the gospel in the world—not “for” the faith, but “with” it, as an associate with it in its conflicts.
In Thessalonians, they were to “walk worthy of God,” as dear children, “who has called us to His own kingdom and glory.” The divine manifestation of God’s worth is seen in the man Christ Jesus the Lord. He is now in heaven. On earth those who call Him “Lord” are to walk worthy of Him. They have been called to share a place with Him in heaven and to share in His inheritance. Now they are to live in earth in a manner which is manifests the worth of their calling.
The Remembrancer, 1893
Reconciliation
We are delivered from the power of darkness and passed over to the place where Christ is—where He is spoken of only as in that place. Not only are we brought into light out of darkness, but we are associated in the kingdom with the only begotten object of His special love—the kingdom of God’s dear Son. We have this place into which grace has brought us; we are “made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12).
But then we have it all in these poor earthen vessels, though “risen with Christ,” and therefore we are to “seek those things which are above.” We are told to “set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead” (Col 3:2-3)—dead to the law, dead to sin, quickened together with Christ. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4). The risen Christ at God’s right hand is our life, and yet we are not taken out of this world.
Three Worthies
And then we are also told, “Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” (Col. 1:10). I get three “worthies” in the epistles: “worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12), “worthy of the vocation” (Eph. 4:1), and, here, “worthy of the Lord.” My path through this world is to be worthy of Him. My life should be the expression of Christ; my life, ways, everything should be the expression of everything that Christ expressed.
“Fruitful unto every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). Here I get growth. I get no growth in reconciliation, there is no growth in the value of Christ’s blood, but the moment I get here, there is “increasing.” I know God, and I say, “That is not fit for God.” I purify myself. It does not say I am as pure as Christ, but that I am to purify myself “even as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). As I get my eye purified, I see better; I get my “senses exercised to discern good and evil,” and the more I get on, the more I see what I am getting onto.
Perfection
Here I would say a word, as I find it current in certain circles that perfection is attainable here. But there is no perfection for the Christian except Christ in glory. If I am a risen man, I take Him on earth as a pattern for my steps, but not what I am to attain to. Christ down here is unattainable, because Christ had no sin, and I have sin. There is no perfection down here; you never find any who maintain that there is, who do not lower it to Adam condition. I seek to walk as Christ walked, not after the flesh at all, but the point I am aiming at and looking to is Christ in glory. It is “when he shall appear” that I shall be like Him, and until then I seek to be as like Him here as ever I can be.
“This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling [or, the calling above] of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14). I have no calling down here; the “calling above” is the whole thing that God has set before us.
People say, God cannot give you a rule you cannot attain to. But I say, God never gives you a rule to which you can attain—never! First there was the law. Could man attain to that as in the flesh? It was not subject to the law of God, nor can be. And now there is Christ in glory. Can I attain to that? Never here! But I press on to it; it is before me, and I never attain it till I get to Him. This object that I am aiming at governs me where I am; “I live by the faith of the Son of God,” and if you are not living by Him glorified, you have not got Him at all. If you look for perfection down here, you have lost your object; it is a complete blunder in the very nature of the thing. Christ in glory is the object to which our minds ought to be always looking. We are predestinated “to be conformed to the image of his Son,” and if you are looking at anything else, you are not looking at that.
Patience and Long-Suffering
And now, as regards the path down here, we are “strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power” (Col. 1:11). And what is the fruit of it? It sounds like a poor thing—“patience”! But there is a working of will in us that does not like to be thwarted. That is not patience! “Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:4). We need divine power for patience; this is the first thing. And what next? “Long-suffering.” As we get it in Ephesians: “I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering” (Eph. 4:1-2). And then I get “joyfulness.” The moment I get the will broken—my will bowing to God’s will and bearing with patience everything I come across—then joy is unhindered.
Thus we have got the place in which we are set, and then the behavior with which we are to walk in it. What the apostle looks for is that we should be “filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9). But do we not often find ignorance of His will? Where we do, there is always our own will working. He looks for a spiritual conformity to Christ’s mind so to mark our mind and walk and ways that our life should wear the expression of the life of Christ. It is not merely avoiding positive sins; it is far more than that. The question is: What will please Christ? The question really is, Is Christ in our hearts enough to make us seek only one thing upon this earth until we get to Him where He is? If our hearts are set on Christ, our one desire will be to “walk worthy of the Lord,” and then the world will not know us.
Thus we see that not only are our sins gone, but we are brought into this new place in Christ: “delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of his dear Son,” and that, being thus brought there, we have now to walk in it “worthy of the Lord.”
He wants us to be “holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight.” That is what He would have us—what is pleasing to Himself. We are forgiven, justified, reconciled to God, fit for the inheritance of the saints in light, fit for the kingdom of God’s dear Son, and sent now to walk down here in the consciousness of our place up there.
May the Lord only give His saints to have a deeper, truer sense of the place into which He has brought them in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they may know what it is to be brought to God according to the acceptance that is in Christ Jesus.
J. N. Darby (adapted)
The Heavenly Calling: What Is It to Be Worthy of It?
The Epistle to the Ephesians, after blessedly unfolding the mystery of the church, continues: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph. 4:1). Law made standing to depend on walk. Grace makes walk to depend on standing. It sets us in heavenly places in Christ, and then urges a walk worthy of the position. This is God’s present way, and it is as remote from legalism on the one hand as it is from antinomianism (a wrong doctrine, teaching that Christians are freed from obedience to any moral law, having supposedly been set free by grace, as presented in the gospel) on the other. The walk of the individual Christian then must be suited to his calling in Christ. As a member of His body, he must behave consistently. If the body is not of the world, he is not of the world; if the body is heavenly, he is heavenly. As the whole body should manifest its true character, so should each member. Now the church is separate from the world, united with Christ in heaven, and indwelt by the Spirit. If then the believer is to walk worthy of his vocation, such is the character which he is to exhibit in the world.
Severed From the World
Looking at the matter from this point of view, what is the walk which would befit a Christian? Having a heavenly calling, how could he mix himself with the pleasures, the politics, the vanities, and the ambitions of the world? Worldly pleasures would be avoided, not because natural conscience condemned them, but as inconsistent with the believer’s vocation. Are such scenes, he would ask, suited for one who is associated with Christ in death and resurrection, who belongs to heaven, and is awaiting the return of the Savior to take him there? How can I enjoy the pleasures and frivolities of a world from which I am severed by my heavenly calling—a world which hates my heavenly Head and contemns my heavenly hope, and which is rushing on to the fearful judgments that precede the day of the Lord? Would the honors, the applause, or the high places of such a doomed world attract his heart? Would he not say like Daniel as he saw the judgment of Babylon traced by God’s finger on the wall, “Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation”? (Dan. 5:17).
What would Belshazzar and his lords have thought of Daniel’s interpretation if they had seen him clutching at power and a place in the city whose overthrow he had foretold? And what can the world think as it sees believers grasping at the empty distinctions of a scene on which the shadow of approaching judgment already rests? Surely it is for those who can read the handwriting to be solemnly warning the world instead of chasing its fleeting honors or seeking for its worthless applause.
T. B. Baines (adapted)
Worthy of the Lord
There are many who own the name of Jesus, the Savior, and preach forgiveness of sins in that blessed name. Some of such also speak of meeting in the name of Jesus. Now, the name of Jesus is unspeakably precious, and “blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Rom. 4:7-8). But for those who had heard and believed the grace of God, Paul prayed thus, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9-10).
The Lordship of Jesus
The lordship of Jesus is not only equally set aside by the two great streams of human wickedness—infidelity and superstition—but what is still more distressing is that many who preach the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus and who own that name most precious also often set aside the authority of Him as Lord.
We may speak of Him as Lord of heaven and earth, but do we truly own Him as our Lord in every detail of daily life? Sinners after salvation are frequently left to find their own way in the present confusion of Christian profession, never asking or reflecting on what is suited to the Lord, or whether this is walking worthy of the Lord. When Jesus the Saviour is not known as Jesus the Lord, a person will found doing that which is right in his own eyes.
“Show Me Thy Way”
In the crowds that walk along the broad road of profession, there are, no doubt, learned and far-seeing men, but the path of following the Lord is a narrow path, and “the vulture’s eye hath not seen it” (Job 28:7 JND). It can be discerned only by the Spirit in complete submission to the claims of Him who is Lord. Consider the earnest prayer of Paul: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Or even the words of Moses in another day, who could say, “Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way” (Ex. 33:13).
Let us read a few more words of Moses: “That I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight: and consider that this nation is Thy people” (Ex. 33:13). Is this the childlike desire of our hearts, having found grace in His sight, that we also may know Him, be more and more acquainted with Himself, and thus ever find His full, free favor? Do we know, and do we thus speak to Him about, His whole redeemed church? What was the answer of the Lord? “And He said, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest” (Ex. 33:14). Is not this enough?
“My Presence”
Yes, it is enough. “He said unto Him, If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? is it not in that Thou goest with us?” (Ex. 33:16). Must not this separate from whatever disowns the lordship of Jesus? “So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth” (Ex. 33:16).
And was Israel, as a nation, more separate from the people that were upon the earth than is the church of God? But note, if it is not separation to the Lord Himself, it is only sectarianism, or the disowning of Jesus as Lord. Can we truly say, “Is it not in that Thou goest with us? so shall we be separated”? We must walk with the Lord, or we cannot walk worthy of the Lord. The world ever rejects and disowns Him. And does He not say of His own that are in the world, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14)?
“The Knowledge of His Will”
The first thing, then, that Paul prays for, for the beloved saints in Christ, is that they “might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. 1:9). Is this our prayer, our desire? Or are we merely content to walk in a manner which suits our natural tastes and desires — a manner right in our own eyes? If, however, a servant knows his Lord’s will and does it not, does his knowledge profit him? Rather, he is the more to blame. Thus the prayer continues, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing” (Col. 1:10).
The Lord or the World?
After Christ ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit descended and formed the church. Then through the Apostle Paul instructions were given concerning its organization and operation. Since that time, all forms of Christian fellowship formed by man displace Jesus as Lord. In the beginning the world hated and persecuted the church of God. Now, many principles and people who run the world also govern in the church of profession. All this we must confess and deplore, for it is not possible to walk worthy of the Lord while walking worthy of a worthless world.
Do you own Jesus as your LORD? No doubt this can be done only by the Spirit of God. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 12:3). We may own other lords, but if we truly own Jesus “the Lord,” we may rest assured this is by the Spirit of God.
What divine comfort, then, there is in these words of life, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Yes, if we have found grace in His sight, we may count on His presence with us. It is enough; we need no more; soon we shall see His face in glory—the One who is Lord of all.
Christian Truth (adapted)
The Power to Walk Worthy
All our blessings are accomplished by Christ and vested in Him; our place is to possess and enjoy them. To possess and enjoy God’s gifts, we must first value them as gifts, and here is our difficulty; our pride blunts our sense of need. Grace has provided and laid up in Christ; I can enjoy it when I am in a position to enjoy it. We see this in the apostle’s prayers in Ephesians. In the first, he prays that the saints might know the power which wrought in Christ and what He has accomplished for them; in the second, that they might know Christ Himself—that they might be filled with all the fullness of God. By knowing their place in Him, they could then enjoy Him and it.
As the soul enters into the knowledge of the place into which it has been brought, it learns the power which wrought in Christ. Truly, God’s power must first work in me to raise me to that position. Being in the position, I not only know the power but enjoy the fruit of it, and while I keep it I enjoy power efficiently. I do not gain the position. Through grace it is mine, and I take it. There is power in the taking of it, and still greater, evidently, in keeping it, because it is its effect.
I am bound to take every position in which the grace of Christ has set me, and my weakness is that I do not. The position is the verification of Christ’s power, and in taking it and maintaining it, I am acknowledging Him, even though in that position my own infirmities are more openly disclosed. When we are impressed with the largeness of Christ’s work and what grace is, we take up the position to which we are called, as we have light. Also we are taught instinctively that it is a moral error to surrender it in our walk, for doing so is a return to nature.
Fitness to Walk Worthy
We are, however, constantly allowing the question of fitness to mar our enjoyment. Our fitness did not put us there. Grace put us there, and while we own Christ and His work we enjoy the effect of it. Our eye rests on the goodness and worth of the Giver, not on the unworthiness of the receiver. Our labor is not to make ourselves fit to express the grace shown to us, but to walk worthy of the vocation. Let a soul refuse to acknowledge the vocation as his, and his action, however sincere, must, at least, be legal and coerced.
Another hindrance is the tendency to measure ourselves with the difficulties in the path, and not to look at Him who puts us there. Difficulties in the way always occur to those who have no heart to encounter them. Thus Israel lost Canaan for the giants, and the cities walled up to heaven shut out the goodness and majesty of God. Caleb as an individual held the position and he had the power of it. Years afterward, when he laid low the giants and cities, he had the full fruition of it.
To Lose It
It is possible to have enjoyed our position, and then to lose it, or rather the sense of it. We have not walked worthy of it, and the effect is a craving for enjoyment and deliverance which were once known. Alas! In this state how many things are offered to compensate for our loss! Attention to forms, good works, acts of obedience and the like are freely proposed and adopted, but if we had kept our position, we should not only have known the power which wrought in Christ, but the reaching forward, according to the second prayer in Ephesians, would be unto Christ Himself and all the fullness of God. We can have no genuine power to act in any position if we doubt our title to it. If I have learned distinctly the real value of Christ for me, though I may make many mistakes, yet the light gradually breaks in on my understanding and I advance in acquaintance with the power which wrought in Christ.
Never Surrender
Any position we are led to by God’s grace, let us never surrender. “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned” (2 Tim. 3:14). It is to call in question the excellence of the position when we surrender it, for how then could we prove our appreciation of its worth as God’s calling? This applies to every truth we learn. If a believer acts unlike a child of God, he may surrender the fact that he is a child of God, or he may maintain that he is one, and being humbled, cast himself upon the grace which has given him so undeserved a calling. In the first case he escapes censure, for he denies responsibility, but in the other, he learns from the censure, though he is thereby afflicted. This desire to escape censure by denying responsibility is a great evil and arises from a low state of communion, because the soul has been imperceptibly filled with other things, and the sense of grace has become faint. Either trial or more deadness follows.
The Place of Power
I might try to keep my position, but in a careless way. This would not be power and would lead to judgment. This happens when there is more of imitating others than learning for myself. The position to be of power must be in spirit and energy according to God, or it is merely human, which is worthless. Eli is an example. Rightly a priest, he had neither the discernment nor the energy suited for such a place. The man that is not true to God is true to anyone else.
Let us not excuse ourselves from a position to escape the responsibilities of it. There are inalienable, ever-existing rights and privileges to the church—privileges of which it may lose the enjoyment by failure. Still, repentance always puts us at the open door to possession. The church has never lost its right to the affections of Christ, or the privilege of His lordship. The moment it occupies a true position, be its state ever so low, it is in the power suited to it. I desire to insist on this, that my taking my proper position irrespective of former failure is the place of power. Could the soul do a worse thing than seek a lower place than the one assigned it by God? Certainly not. And it is not humility.
Consider Ezra and Nehemiah
Ezra and Nehemiah eagerly and unhesitatingly return to the position to which God had called their nation. True, they also returned to Jerusalem shorn judicially of the physical power with which the nation was once honored. But though conscious of all this, yet they confidently resume their old position with God, and though there were many enemies, yet as long as they retained it they had power and blessing. Some would say to them, “The time is not come” (Hag. 1:2), and the result was, “Ye looked for much and ... I did blow upon it” (Hag. 1:9). But when they were admonished and resumed the work, the Lord says, “From this day I will bless you” (Hag. 2:19). Now we learn here what has been a sore evil even today, namely, that because we are not able to present as great a front to the world as we once were permitted to do, consequently we say “the time is not come.” From this comes all our weakness, I am persuaded.
We want to learn all that from the beginning God has called us to; nothing short of His vocation will satisfy Him nor bless us. May our souls indeed learn that if we would have power to serve Him, we must own the place, and take the place, His grace sets us in. To go back to a lower position or to remain in one is to have the Lord “blow on what we bring home.” The church may be feeble and faltering, but she is loved in spite of it all, and she but crowns her sin when she does not own it. If we have conflict with wicked spirits in heavenly places, it is because we are in heavenly places and have fellowship with Christ’s victory over all the power of evil. The true soul always wants the sense of this victory, and as long as it owns the full service of Christ and where His grace sets us, it is satisfied and progresses with energy. But if we lose our place, as in this dreary journey we are apt to do, we will become occupied with expressing our own victory instead of Christ’s. Such attempts are unsatisfying and so powerless that there is an insensible but decided return to worldliness. Nothing but true position is power, for nothing else is grace.
G. V. Wigram (adapted)
Walk Before Me
Those who fight the Lord’s battles must be contented to be, in no respect, accounted of. They must expect to be, in no wise, encouraged by the prospects of human praise. And if you make an exception so that the children of God will praise you, whatever the world will say, beware of this, for you may turn them into a world and find in them a world, and you may sow to the flesh in sowing to their approbation, and you will neither be benefited by them nor they by you so long as respect for them is your motive, so long as you are conscious as to how they will think of you.
All such motives are a poison to you and a taking away from you the strength in which you are to give glory to God, and because such a time may be needful for you, I beseech you, be prepared for a time when you shall be as persons unknown, even to those that know God. It is not the fact, that all that see the face of the Lord, do see each other. It is not the fact that the misapprehension of the world is the only misapprehension the Christian must be contented to labor under. He must expect even his brethren to see him through a mist, and to be disappointed of their sympathy, and their cheers of approbation. The man of God must walk alone with God; he must be contented that the Lord knows. And it is such a relief, yea, it is such a relief to the natural man within us, to fall back upon human countenances and human sympathy that we often deceive ourselves and think it brotherly love, when we are just resting on the earthly sympathy of a brother worm. You are to be followers of Him who was left alone, and you are, like Him, to rejoice that you are not alone, because the Father is with you, that you may give true glory to God. Oh, I cannot but speak of it. It is such a glory to God to see a soul that has been, through the flesh, accessible to the praise of man, surrounded by hundreds and thousands of his fellow-creatures, every one of whom he knows how to please, and yet that he should be contented, yea, peaceful and happy in doing, with a single reference to God, that which he knows they will all misunderstand and misconceive. Here was the victory of Jesus.
J. N. Darby
Continue Thou
As many will recognize, the above quotation comes from 2 Timothy 3:14, Paul’s last epistle, just before he was martyred for the name of Christ. In the earlier part of the chapter, he has described the state of Christendom in the last days—days that he characterizes as “perilous times.” The conditions depicted in verses 1-8 are not those of the heathen world; rather, they are what has become of that which professes to know Christ and to bear His name. This state of things had already begun before the apostles were taken home to be with the Lord, and thus we have ministry and instruction for the days in which we live.
A Race of Endurance and Patience
In spite of the declension around him and the ominous prophecy that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13), Paul’s exhortation to Timothy is to “continue in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of” (vs. 14). The Christian pathway is a race, but it is not merely a 100-meter dash; rather, it is a marathon, where endurance and patience are needed. Above all, it is important to continue steadfast to the end. Paul himself recognized this, and he expressed the wish that he might “finish my course, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 20:24 JND). Later, in this same book of 2 Timothy, he could say, “I have combated the good combat, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7 JND). (The word translated “course” and “race” are the same in the original Greek.)
Even the world recognizes that endurance to the end in that which is right is a laudable thing. As far back as the sixteenth century, the well-known British sea captain Sir Francis Drake used to pray these words: “O Lord God, when Thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, give us also to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished that yieldeth the true glory.” In spite of his practice of attacking and plundering Spanish merchant vessels, it is possible that he had faith: The Lord knows. Other examples could be cited of those who persevered in that which had taken hold of them and finished it in spite of difficulties.
Our Walk
For the believer in these last days, there is a special need to continue in what we have been given. Sad to say, there are too many who start out well in the Christian pathway, but then decide that it is too hard. They may not turn away from Christianity, but rather from a pathway of faithfulness to the Lord, in what they have “learned” and perhaps have even been “assured of.” To learn something is to hear it, or read it. In Timothy’s case, he was well versed in the Holy Scriptures from his younger years, because of the faithfulness of his mother and grandmother. Also, he had learned much from Paul, no doubt verbally, concerning the truth of the assembly. However, to be assured of something in a scriptural way is to have walked in it. Only as we walk in what we have heard can we really have it as our own. Before we have walked in what we know, we are among those who “seem” to have it—see Luke 8:18. What we seem to have will be taken away from us eventually, if we do not walk in it.
Paul’s Teaching and Lifestyle
Paul knew from experience about this, for he could say in 2 Timothy 1:15 that “all they which are in Asia be turned away from me.” They were still Christians, but Paul’s doctrine was not something they wanted. A broader path attracted them, with more respect from the world; the kind of teaching and lifestyle that made a man a despised prisoner did not suit them.
So it is today. In these last days God has seen fit to restore to us the precious truth of the assembly—truth that had been lost, at least to the church collectively, for hundreds of years. But now, at the end of the dispensation, God has recovered it to us. Many are aware of it, have heard it, and even walked in it. Are we willing to continue in it?
It is easy to continue when things are going well—when the testimony is bright, when the work of the Lord is expanding, when there is plentiful blessing in the gospel, and good ministry for believers. However, Satan is always ready to attack that which honors Christ, and it is then that the test comes. Will we continue in the face of misunderstandings, strife and trials within the house of God? Reproach and persecution from the world are bad enough, but it is harder to bear that which comes from within. No doubt Paul himself felt keenly the rejection by those to whom he had ministered some of the highest truth ever given to man. Yet he continued on, and he exhorted Timothy to do the same.
The Finish
God values those who finish the race. Although in one sense every true believer will finish the race, yet God places a high premium on those who are faithful to the end, in what has been committed to them. What is committed to us may not be the same for all believers, for God takes account of the light given to us. Of course, God’s purpose is for “all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). However, we live in a day when the church outwardly is in a broken and divided state. As a result, there are varying degrees of light and understanding among those who compose the true church. Those who have more light are more responsible, just as others with less light will be held accountable only for what they have been given.
These last days are indeed perilous, as we have already noted, and as we approach closer to the end, things will get worse, not better. Yet God has promised the needed grace for whatever He sends, and He will never give us truth in His Word without making it possible for us to carry it out. Paul was faithful to the end, as was our real example, our Lord Jesus Christ. We too can press on without fear, knowing that the reward for faithfulness is ultimately in the glory, not down here.
W. J. Prost
James Webb Space Telescope
For some years now, the well-known Hubble space telescope has been providing unprecedented data from the universe. Named after the famous U.S. astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), it was launched in the year 1990 and hovers in space about 350 miles above the earth. With its large mirror and intricate technological equipment, it has detected galaxies in the universe that were hitherto unknown, as well as more unusual things such as “black holes” and “supernovae.”
It was Edwin Hubble who, back in 1929, using Einstein’s theory of relativity, claimed to have discovered that the universe, once thought to be static, is actually expanding. (There is good evidence that the idea of an expanding universe was first proposed by a Belgian astronomer, George Lemaitre, two years before Hubble did.) However, there is still controversy over this assertion, although various other pieces of research since that time seem to have confirmed that this is so. Galaxies in the universe look as if they are moving away from each other, and the more distant the galaxies, the more rapid seems to be their movement away from one another. The universe appears to be expanding.
More recently, several scientists received the Nobel prize in 2011 for their work during the 1990’s, in which they claimed that not only was the universe expanding, but that its rate of expansion was accelerating. Again, there has been serious debate in the scientific world about this claim.
The Size of the Universe
It is clear that the universe is huge—much larger than man ever thought it was. God declares in His Word, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. ... There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” (Psa. 19:1,3). Something of the immensity of the cosmos can be understood by viewing it with only the naked eye, but modern technology has enabled man to see much more. The more man has been able to discover, the more he finds that it is much more vast and much more complicated than he originally thought.
More recently, during the 1990s, work began on a much larger telescope, which is tentatively scheduled to be sent up into space in October 2018. The James Webb telescope, at a cost to date of nearly 9 billion dollars, will dwarf the Hubble telescope, with a much larger mirror and power to look much farther into outer space. Destined to be stationed in space about 1 million miles away, it will apparently be held in place because of the balance of the gravity of the sun and the earth. Facing away from the sun, it will be protected by a solar shield with successive layers, to insulate it from the extreme heat of the sun.
The Scientific Point of View
Needless to say, the potential of such a telescope is immense, but as always, the natural man approaches such capability from the wrong point of view. First of all, his pride rivals the potential of the telescope; NASA’s Eric Smith, Webb’s program director, is alleged to have said, “We will be watching the universe light up after the Big Bang.” Another NASA scientist is quoted to have said, ‘Humankind has always wondered about the universe, and now our telescope technology has caught up with our questions.” The most significant comment comes from a contributor to Forbes magazine: “Hubble taught us what our universe looks like; James Webb will teach us how our universe came to be this way.”
Even more significant is the fact that the scientific community persists in basing its observations and calculations on the widely accepted but ridiculous Big Bang theory, first propagated in the 1920s. Any honest student of physics must realize that such a theory contradicts both the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The whole idea of a “Big Bang” totally conflicts with Scripture, and it is really another of man’s attempts (like the theory of evolution) to get away from any responsibility toward God. Man has discovered much, and he is proud of it, but as another has most fittingly commented, “Man is a discoverer; never a Creator.” With all his abilities to fashion such things as a multi-billion-dollar telescope, he has never been able to create something out of nothing. Yet his warped reasoning will allow for a supposed “Big Bang,” which allegedly brought something as complicated as our universe into being without God. Instead of being humbled by what he has discovered, man fills himself with pride, while he unhesitatingly ascribes to a “Big Bang” something that could happen only by the power of God.
By Faith We Understand
But Scripture speaks in clarion tones: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3). Once we bring God in, everything falls into place; we are not compelled to indulge in wild imaginations or deny any of the laws of physics, in order to make everything plausible. However, there is an unusual paradox here, and one which man is unable to deal with, unless he is willing to admit divine revelation.
On the one hand, man is a finite creature, and although he can understand the concept of eternity, he is totally unable to wrap his mind around it. Being bounded by time, man cannot come to grips with anything eternal, except in a conceptual way. For this reason, he rejects the truth of an infinite God, who existed from eternity and who is able to create something out of nothing. Of course, this is not the only reason man rejects the thought of God. Ultimately, he wants to avoid any thought of responsibility to God, and thus he prefers to pretend either that He does not exist, or at least that He is a distant Being who does not take any interest in His creature man. Indeed, many false religions, as well as so-called “New Age” thinking, embody the notion that God is in everything, including ourselves, and that He is merely a force in the cosmos that sustains it.
Eternity
On the other hand, man cannot get away from himself, and since he was created for eternity, not merely for time, he seeks for that which is eternal. A recent article in a prominent American magazine discussed the potential of the James Webb telescope, and the author made the following remark:
“It says something both odd and exceptional about our species that while we could rightly be preoccupied with the simple business of surviving on the one world we’ve got ... we always have one eye trained outward. We can’t say exactly what we’re looking for—deliverance, company, answers to eternal questions—but we look out all the same” (emphasis mine).
Thus man wants answers to the eternal questions that inevitably come into his mind, while he denies the revelation of the God who inhabits eternity.
Divine Revelation
How comforting it is to turn away from man, “whose breath is in his nostrils” (Isa. 2:22), and to be subject to divine revelation in the Word of God. In keeping with the character of the eternal God, His Word “liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). Once it has served God’s purposes, the universe which man seeks to explore will eventually be burned up, to make way for the creation of a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). Despite man’s efforts in space research and the spending of billions of dollars, he will never discover eternal realities. It is only in Christ and in the understanding of the mystery of God that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3) are found. We can rest in this and in a God who has chosen to reveal Himself in Christ, whom we now know as Father. How much better this is than mere factual information about the universe!
W. J. Prost
Unto Their Desired Haven Psa. 107:30
I know, O Lord, though all around be dark,
I need not fear:
Rough are the waves that toss my little bark,
But Thou art near;
The stormy winds alone Thy word fulfill;
Their rage shall cease;
When Thou dost give this charge, “Be still,”
All will be peace.
Yes, I shall see, soon as this storm has passed,
Across the soul:
That He who slumbers not, held every blast,
In His control;
And though o’ershadowed by this present woe,
My heart may quail;
Strong in the grace, the strength Thou dost bestow,
I shall prevail.
O blessed Saviour, by whose life I live,
Lighten mine eyes;
Let me not miss the lessons Thou dost give;
Oh make me wise;
Keep me while tempest-driven on life’s dark sea,
Close to Thy side;
There anchored by sure hope in Thee,
Let me abide.
Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord, my all, what can I lose,
Since Thou art mine?
Keep me, O my best beloved, my portion choose,
For I am Thine;
To the “desired haven” let me come,
IN THINE OWN WAY;
There will be no night in Thy blest home,
BUT CLOUDLESS DAY.
T. Holliday