THE CHRISTIAN WAY
E. M. Walkinshaw
2 Peter 2: 20–22; Luke 1: 76–80; 1 Corinthians 13: 9–13
The first of these scriptures refers to the way of righteousness, the second to the way of peace, and the third to love which is “a way of more surpassing excellence” (1 Corinthians 12: 31). I desire with the Lord’s help just to draw your attention to these three aspects of the christian way. The christian way is one way; I trust we are all in it. Mark’s gospel refers to a young man running into the way; he went out of it quickly too. The Lord loved him and we could say that the Lord, looking upon our young men and young women here this afternoon, loves them. They are in the circle, at any rate, of those who love the truth. I suppose naturally they could be doing things which would be far more agreeable to them, quite within the confines of righteousness too, but in God’s mercy they are found in the circle of those who love the truth. There is, of course, that aspect also, the way of truth. Have you noticed it in this first passage? Peter speaks in this very same chapter, in a dark setting, of the way of truth (2 Peter 2: 2), the straight way (2 Peter 2: 15), and finally the way of righteousness.
I think the Lord would help us from this passage to keep in that way. Righteousness is just doing what is right, it is as simple as that really, and the way of righteousness is that we are moving in it, under the hand of God. It is quite easy to be in a certain position without being in this way, but the Lord would encourage us to keep in it, not simply because it is a serious thing to go out of it, which the passage shows, but because it is a way that leads to life and leads to a greater knowledge of God—and what is more valuable to any person than the knowledge of God? I do not feel I know Him too well; I would like to know Him better, but I think that as we grow in the knowledge of Him day by day, by keeping in touch with Him and beginning the day with Him, we are helped in the way of righteousness and preserved from turning from it.
The passage shows us that some have turned from it. We do not realise just how serious it is to turn out of the way of righteousness. Peter shows us how serious it is. We treat things very lightly (I speak for myself, but others share the sentiment) and regard lightly the fact that persons have turned back from the holy commandment. If the Lord has given light and teaching and blessing in the last 140 years, then the way in which it has been treated by some is very serious. They have turned back from it; but whatever the Lord gives is given with His authority. We may say there are no apostles today. We have no Paul, and we certainly have no Peter. Peter says in effect, I will write to you so that you can remember these things when I have gone. But the fact still remains, beloved brethren, that whatever the Lord gives, through whomsoever He may give it, is given with the weight of His authority behind it, and we need to understand this.
I think as we understand that He is the source of what has been given in the recovery, in the light, the teaching, and the unfolding of His mind, we shall understand that it is not only to preserve us but it is to help us to grow in the knowledge of Himself. He would also warn us that it is a serious thing to turn back from it. I believe it could be said to be contained in “the holy commandment”. So he says here, “It were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them”. I wonder about ourselves, dear brethren. It is not a question of being formally in any position; that is fairly simple. I may be there, as we have often said, circumstantially, but that does not keep me in the way morally. The street outside might, of course, illustrate it, but this way is moral. I have to ask myself if I have turned back. If so, it is better not to have known it.
You think of the many persons who have never known this way, you would have quite a different view of them from those that have known it and turned back. There are many persons who have never been in the light of what the Lord has given, nor been in the way of righteousness in this sense. Although we would speak guardedly of any believer, you would have to view them quite differently, I think, in the light of this scripture, from those who have known and then turned back. You may say, ‘This is rather extreme’. This is because the apostle is not dealing with degrees of departure, he is dealing with the truth, and the truth is the truth; the degrees we would leave with the Lord. The fact of the truth is that the word of the true proverb has happened to them, “The dog has turned back to his own vomit; and, The washed sow to her rolling in mud”. So the Lord would give us, I believe, not only the positive side but He would also give us the solemn warning not to turn back from the way of righteousness. So Peter in this dark setting gives us the way of truth, the straight way, and the way of righteousness.
Again you may say that what is being said is very negative. All that I can submit in reply is that this chapter be read. Chapter 1 is very positive but what I would submit is that this chapter be read in the light of these three references, the way of truth, the straight way, and the way of righteousness, because, dear brethren, while we understand and love the positive presentation of the truth, it is always essential that we should be warned lest we ourselves turn back. May the Lord help us and keep us in the way of righteousness, practising it; another scripture says “pursuing” it, not just accepting it, or acquiescing, or assenting to it and refusing to be governed by it but, “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2: 22).
Now the next passage is the way of peace. That is a wonderful way, is it not? Now we come to something that is not so dark in its context. The context of the first way was dark. It spoke of departure and apostasy; we are in the presence of it, dear brethren. But here we come to the way in which God has operated, the way in which, as the scripture says, “The dayspring from on high has visited us”. I wonder if there is any application of that today? Do you think the dayspring from on high has visited us? Have we known something of the bowels of mercy of our God? I think we have; we are only here on that ground. I would love to know more of such visitations, would not you? —much more of the compassions of God which are towards us in order to guide our feet into the way of peace; the remission of sins, and our feet guided into the way of peace. It was Mr. Darby who said, ‘All we need to do is what is right and go on in peace’. If you are right with God, you will be right with spiritually-minded persons, with others who love God. But in any case, all you need to do is to pursue what is right and go on in peace.
You have the link between the way of righteousness and the way of peace. Whatever persons may say as to what they have found since any move they may have made, I do not think that any one who is not in the way of righteousness can possibly be in the way of peace, for the kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14: 17).
Nothing can take precedence over righteousness. If you allow fellowship to take precedence over righteousness in your life you may finish in an unrighteous fellowship. If you allow sovereignty to take precedence over righteousness you may end with an unrighteous sovereign! Nothing in God’s kingdom, under God’s sway, can take precedence over righteousness. But then that leads into peace, the way of peace.
It is a wonderful thing, if I may say so, that Mr. Darby makes more of peace than he does of joy. Of course we want joy—some of us are not very good exponents of it, I grant you that—but it is a wonderful thing to have peace and to be in the way of peace. Are you in it? This passage speaks of the remission of sins. I suppose we could ask each other, and especially our young people. Do you know the forgiveness of your sins? It will lead to peace. This is what God desires, it is the disposition of God. How embracive the new covenant is, how God’s disposition is towards men. It is towards His people truly, as indicated in this passage, but it is also towards men.
He has visited His people, as Zacharias says here. This child was to be called prophet of the Highest because he was going before the face of the Lord to make ready His way (that would be, of course, before the face of the Lord Jesus), but what I specially wanted to bring out was, “To guide our feet into the way of peace”. There is much to disturb, and some of us at any rate, because of the experiences we have had, and the loss of the brethren that we have loved, sometimes become depressed. We might as well be honest, I do, and I find I have just a little of the spirit of what Mr. Darby said to the effect that the pressure of the breakdown was never absent from his mind for one hour in the day. The Lord has so brought things to pass that that has been brought home to us in our immediate circumstances and relations.
At one time I used to talk very academically about the 1845 division, and other divisions, and perhaps have pride hidden in the heart in knowing the issue that was involved in each. But when the Lord brings it home to you in your own immediate connections and those with whom you walk, you begin to feel it in your own soul rather than merely understand it in your mind. And yet the Lord would have us walking in the way of peace, which is consequent upon being in the way of righteousness.
Now I would like to ask you, Are you in the way of peace? I am not saying you should not be exercised and be with the Lord as carrying the burdens of the testimony, but at the same time, however difficult the circumstances, He would lift us so that we can understand that there is a way here into which our feet are to be guided. It implies that they may not be in the way of peace and therefore would need to be guided into it. May the Lord similarly guide our feet into that way. May He keep them in the way of righteousness, guide them into the way of peace, and then, finally, into the “way of more surpassing excellence” (1 Corinthians 12: 31), that is, love’s way.
Perhaps we should have read the verse, “But desire earnestly the greater gifts, and yet shew I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence”. It has often been noted that Paul does not say I will teach it to you, but I will show it to you. “Yet shew I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence”. Then he goes on to say, “If I speak with the tongues of men …”. Do you think it would have brought it home more forcibly to their consciences if he had said you? I wonder how they would have felt—‘If you speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, you are just a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal’. That is how I would minister it! But no, he is showing a way, so he uses himself and he says, “If I speak”, and I do not doubt that in the presence of the Lord he allowed his own heart to be searched while he was saying it. “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal”. You have heard brass bands, I expect, they move your emotions for a moment but they leave your conscience and heart untouched.
Now he goes on a little later to say that if he has not love “I am nothing”. How strong the word is, but then at the end of the chapter he says, “Now abide faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these is love”.
Now, dear brethren, I believe the Lord would exercise us about the way of love. The way of righteousness is needed, leading to the way of peace, but I believe that if anything at all is to be for the pleasure of God it must spring from love. It must spring from His own nature, not from effort, but from love.
Therefore how we need to keep more in His presence so that we might be formed more in His nature. That is what is really in the mind of God. Those who have taught us rightly have told us that our true measure is our formation in love; not our ability to speak with the tongues of men and of angels, not that I could do that and no one here, I suppose, would presume to be able to do that, but the great thing is to be in the way of love. What an influence it is! What a power it is I suppose it is the power that will presently bring the whole universe into one under the headship of Christ. Everything will be held thus, but in the meantime love is to be seen here in testimony, in the scene of hatred, where men are hateful and hate one another and, as Paul says to Titus, some of us were like that too.
In such a scene God has those who are moving in the way of more surpassing excellence. It is not just something that is taught, but something that is shown. He says to the elders at Ephesus, “I have shewed you”, and, dear brethren, I think we need to lay hold of Mr. Raven’s statement that it is but a few whose privilege and responsibility it is to minister the truth, but it is the responsibility of everybody to be an exponent of it because it is in such persons, and in such persons only, that God’s testimony will be carried through.
Now I believe this way, I speak guardedly, is the greatest, although very akin to righteousness and also to truth. Love is not just something sentimental; to love rightly you love in truth; to love rightly you love in righteousness. If you looked at the sixteen chapters of this epistle you might say to yourself, Well, he has said some hard things, some strong things, asking them if they were ignorant, and the like. But whence did they spring? I think, dear brethren, those things sprang from his love for them, and that was why the ministry was effective. A mere exposition of scripture, however great it is, will not effect anything for God. It might add something to somebody’s knowledge, and even perhaps add something to everybody’s knowledge, but it will effect nothing for God. If there is any effective service, any movement, I think it must spring from love, love for Christ, love for God, love for the brethren, and that really is the “way of more surpassing excellence”.
May the Lord encourage every one of us. Not only would He warn us about turning back from the holy commandment and out of the way of righteousness, but He would guide our feet into the way of peace in a day when peace is not known in the world. The world is corrupt and full of violence. We think of God guiding our feet into the way of peace and keeping them in it, and then giving us to understand, and to be in the gain of, the way of more surpassing excellence. Faith and hope will cease, but love will abide, and it will abide eternally. May the Lord help us all to be in the way of righteousness, peace, and love, for His name’s sake.
Bournemouth
8 September 1973