CAN A WITNESS OF CHRIST BE WORLDLY?

CAN A WITNESS OF CHRIST BE WORLDLY?

We must consider what is involved in the word ‘witness of Christ’ before we can definitely answer the question, Can a witness of Christ be worldly? We must also get a clear idea of what worldliness is. It is plain enough that a witness should set forth clearly the One of whom he testifies, or his testimony is a failure. Certainly he ^[p. 32] cannot have any other aim; he can accept no lower standard. The Holy Spirit is the witness of Christ, and in His testimony there is no failure. And our Lord, after saying, “He shall testify of me”, adds, “And ye also shall bear witness”. The Holy Spirit is here to testify of the absent Christ, and every one led by the Holy Spirit is, as far as he is led by Him, a witness of Christ. Surely it is plain that such a witness cannot be worldly; and if I be asked what ‘worldly’ means, I reply, All that is not of the Father. To be in any measure a witness of Christ, I must faithfully represent Him in everything. Wherein I fail, I so far fail in being a witness, The strength and leading of the Holy Spirit is to make me a true witness, and as I walk in the Spirit I am one. My standard is Christ. I represent Him as I walk in the Spirit, who is on earth to testify of Him. I am His witness in the power of His life. I am for God, above the influences of an evil world, and I speak and act as He directs me.

The first great question to settle is, What is my testimony? I answer, Christ. And then it is evident that as I, in the power of the Spirit, represent Christ, I bear witness of Him. He is the standard, therefore I do not ask, May I do so-and-so? may I hold this or that position? but, Does the Holy Spirit use such a position for testimony to Christ? Some positions He can and does use for this; for instance, that of a parent, a husband, or a master. Nothing can be plainer than that I am a witness of Christ only as I set Him forth, and that to fail in representing Him is to fail in being His witness. It is no question of how much of the world I may hold and still be saved, or how much of it I may retain and be a preacher; but the question is, What constitutes me a witness? and the answer to it is, as the word imports, that I represent Him. If I want to see Christ on earth, I ought to see Him in His witness. But if one were to try to form an idea of Christ now from those who assume to be His witnesses, one must ^[p. 33] be driven to imagine that Christ loved the world and relished the honour and glory of it! Alas! what a testimony we give of Him! To be what He would be were He here, not only as He was, but as He is — this, and nothing short of this, is what I am called to as His witness, and what it is the Holy Spirit’s office to maintain me in; and so far as I miss this, I lose the idea of a witness. A man may preach the gospel very earnestly, but though he bear witness to the grace of God, he is not himself a witness unless he presents Christ in himself, in that moral power in which Christ would be were He here. A man living in, and honoured by, the world may preach the gospel for souls, and that feelingly; but he is not a witness unless it can be proved that Christ would live in the world and be honoured by it! I am not now referring to a man’s business or support; he must have some means of subsistence, and often God gives more, but as a gift to be used for Him and not for self. But what I press is, that in the most zealous preaching, though there be testimony to the grace and value of the gospel, there is no testimony to Christ unless it be accompanied with power in the Spirit, which places outside of flesh; and if outside of flesh, it must be outside of earthly position, for in earthly position I am in the flesh and not in the Spirit; and if I can retain earthly position, and still testify of Christ, then Christ is reigning on the earth and is not rejected from it; and hence the Holy Spirit is not His witness, for He is not the absent, rejected One! If He be, He can have nothing to say to high position in an earthly way. How could He? So that if I seek or maintain high position, I am not His witness. I may be a true saint or a zealous preacher, but in all honesty let me admit that I am not a witness. I am not walking in the Spirit; I am but a babe — that is to say, carnal, not spiritual (1 Corinthians 3: 1). I like and value the things which suit and aggrandise men. It is vain for me to plead for my course by referring to Daniel or to others who lived before Christ’s death, as is often done. It is that great fact, the death of Christ, which makes all the difference, for it was as rejected from the earth that He took the place of separation from it. His witnesses now are not to be merely witnesses of any given truth. Daniel was a faithful witness of the truth in his day. Christ had not come. Christ had not been rejected, and the witness necessarily takes his type according to the nature of the testimony committed to him. Surely testimony to Christ absent, testified of here by the Holy Spirit, is very different from the testimony committed to Daniel.

In a word, I maintain for Christ in everything and avoid all that which would minister consequence or recognition to the flesh, and hence I am outside and against the world, and not in any degree of it.