MUSINGS

‘MY SISTER’ OR ‘MY WIFE’? When Abram went down to Egypt in Genesis 12 (and it happened again in chapter 20), he adopted the device of saying that Sarah, his wife, was his sister. If, moving in our own wisdom, we go down to Egypt, that is sure to happen. I shall begin to put my personal interests, my business, or my home and family, in the first place, “and the assembly will take some lower place. But just as a man’s wife (speaking of what, is natural) has the first place in his affections and arrangements; so the assembly is to take priority, with us. It is a sure sign of spiritual decline when the assembly slips in our order of priorities. She is still my sister; there still some relationship; I still break bread; I still love the brethren; but other things are becoming more important. I find, for example, more and more reasons for not being at the meetings. Other interests eat into the time that I used to devote to the things of the Lord. The assembly is my sister, but no longer my wife. May the Lord awaken us to this danger. Let His love afresh constrain us. He loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it. To purchase it He sold “all whatever he had”. He never regards her in any lesser light than as His wife. May our affection and devotion take on something of that sacrificial character.

FCM