"CHILDREN, HAVE YE ANY MEAT?"

“CHILDREN, HAVE YE ANY MEAT?”

This question of our Lord’s, addressed to His disciples after His resurrection, expresses, as applied to ourselves, the true test of our moral position now. He had declared, “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture”, John 10: 9. Pasture was as distinctly provided by Him as salvation, for it was promised to any one using Him as the door. To be without pasture was simply to have overlooked or not used the door; and hence our answer to the question, “Have ye any meat?” determines our true moral state. It is not salvation merely that we have received; but we are set here as saved ones to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the mind and ways of Him by whom we live. Hence there are little children, young men, and fathers (1 John 2), showing the grades, not of salvation, but of maturity in the divine life. We are new creatures in Christ, and we are to grow in grace and by the true knowledge of God. There is unmistakable evidence that one has departed from the place of the Holy Spirit, if there is no advance in the knowledge of Christ and His word. Let people excuse themselves as they may, there can be no doubt on this point. The Comforter was to teach all things and bring all things to their remembrance which Christ had said to them (John 14: 26); and further, in testimony (chapter 16: 13) we read, “He will guide you into all truth ... whatsoever he ^[p. 49] shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come”. Turn to any part of New Testament Scripture, and you will find one truth plainly declared, even that the whole service of the Spirit of God to saints now is to instruct them in the things of God, “that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God”. And to this end are bestowed all the ministerial gifts, “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”. It is plain from Scripture that pasture is the great and distinct portion of the saints now, and that if they are not enjoying the good of it, there must be somewhere a grieving of the Spirit and a departure from the line in which Christ could meet us and minister to our souls. He now nurtures and cherishes His church, and surely this is more than the salvation of the soul.

Now even where it is not denied that pasture is provided, there is often great ignorance or dullness of apprehension as to what is really pasture. The Lord tells Peter to feed His lambs. Paul tells the elders of Ephesus to feed the flock of God. Surely this was not to preach salvation to them, but something more than salvation. Well then, what is pasture, and how shall we be able truly to say that we are enjoying it? Pasture is the knowledge of the Son of God by which we grow up to Him in all things. The effect of pasture is growth; and where there is growth, without doubt there is pasture. We are new creatures in Him, and all effective ministry must advance us in our only true state and condition. The great delay to souls is the slowness of heart and dullness of faith to see ourselves on resurrection ground in the risen One, the last Adam; and then from this point growing on and advancing in Christ, who is our life, and source and spring of everything. Oh if the saints of God would but wake up to this one simple fact, that their beginning, and not only their end, is in the life of Christ, they would understand and seek to “grow up to him in all things,

who is the head”, Ephesians 4: 15. But now ministry in the word, for the most part, is but urging on souls how they are accepted in Christ, and how happy they ought to be. Even this, indeed, is in advance of the general order and scope of evangelical teaching, which is simply presenting Christ on the cross, suffering for our sins. If Jeremiah could weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people, surely we ought to lay to heart the imperfect, superficial way souls have believed in Christ. Take up what religious book you may, even the best, and you will find that for the most part it treats of the way in which rest for the soul may be found, instead of starting the soul from peace, and leading it into those higher delights which a knowledge of Christ imparts. I believe no one can walk in the path of righteousness until he is in untroubled rest before God, and I am assured that the uncertainty in the walk of many is in consequence of imperfect peace in the presence of God. I invite my readers to this inquiry: Do religious teachings or religious books in general aim at leading souls on in Christ, or only leading them up to Christ for safety and rest from Him? Now it is as “complete in him” that I start in my new condition (see Colossians 2). If you do not start me in my new condition, how can you advance me in it? I am not speaking of attainment here. I am merely insisting on the state of soul preparatory to growth. It is plain that I must know that I possess eternal life, and that I am by the Spirit united to Christ, before I can grow. The Lord says to His disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now”. But when the Holy Spirit was come, He would guide them into all the truth. If not spiritual, we are like the Corinthians, but babes, carnal (1 Corinthians 3); or like the Galatians we need that “Christ be formed” in us, we are not prepared for growth (Galatians 4: 19); or like the Hebrews, we have need of milk and not meat; we are “babes”, unskilful in the word of righteousness (Hebrews 5: 12 - 14).

^[p. 51] Now the little child of 1 John 2: 13 - 20 is prepared for growth. He is in Christ, knows the Father, has an unction from the Holy One, and knows all things, or as Peter writes, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby”, 1 Peter 2: 2. Growth is the natural result of nourishment, where there is life and health; but if there be not life and health, there is no appropriation of the nourishment, the pasture. The purpose and use of pasture is to produce growth. If there be no pasture, there can be no growth. But if there be a desire for growth, there will always be a seeking for truth to grow thereby. The Lord never fails to provide pasture for His sheep. He is the door. By Him they enter in, and in Him they find pasture. If we turn aside as Peter, when he went fishing and induced his companions to follow him (John 21), we shall be toiling all the night and taking nothing. Hence the present sad state of saints, look where we may. They are without pasture; there is no unfolding of the counsel of Christ, and consequently no growth, no deepening knowledge of the Son of God.