LOVE NEVER FAILS
E.T.Maynard
1 Corinthians 13: 8; 2 Timothy 4: 11; Luke 24: 29-36
It is not difficult to gather from the setting of these scriptures that there is the suggestion of the day of small things, outwardly. Paul, at a very critical time, in the passage referred to in 2 Timothy 4, spoke of the whereabouts of certain persons not many and then he said "Luke alone is with me". One man, only one. "Take Mark, and bring him with thyself" two more not many; small numbers!
In Luke 24 the Lord is seen labouring, we might say, in a service of love. We are acquainted with the structure of this well-known chapter and the result of this labour of love to get two persons moving in the right direction; then you get the eleven mentioned later on, not many. Brokenness is suggested in the eleven, not twelve but eleven. We know what happened, causing depletion in the number. It is a day of small things but Paul assures us; and we are being helped and the Lord does help to prove in the way of experience that "love never fails". There should be no doubt in our minds, beloved brethren, when we just reflect on the constant service to us of the blessed Spirit in the flow of substantial, constructive ministry that is coming, that the dispensation is going to finish in glory. The question is whether or not we are concerned that the Lord is looking to us who are privileged to be in the area where the truth is cherished, and asserted in power, as to whether we will set ourselves to afford Him the wherewithal to finish the dispensation in glory. It would be derogatory to think that divine Persons would ask us to do something that is impossible. To each of the churches in Revelation, whatever the conditions were, dark as it was in Laodicea, the Lord speaks of an overcomer: "He that overcomes". The Lord Himself is speaking, beloved brethren; He supposes that there will be persons who overcome. His word "He that overcomes" is the assurance that He has in mind (I speak reverently) that there will be such persons. There is no doubt in His mind. The blessed reality of His manhood is in it, for He speaks as a man what a wonderful Man He is! "He that overcomes", He says. In every church there will be overcomers. The Lord said "My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work", John 4: 34. We have to make up our minds that, come what may, the service of God and assembly life and conditions must be our first concern, even to the exclusion of food, if needs be. We are to be overcomers.
I referred to the passage in Luke to show how divine Persons skilfully make way for us to show whether or not, or to what extent, we are loving in response to divine love. "Love never fails", Paul says. We can see from his life how closely he followed his Master at every turn of the way. What variations there were in his life and in his service but he went on steadily, without flinching, in the course that his Master had dictated for him and had set out in His life personally. Paul could say at the end "I have finished the race, I have kept the faith", 2 Tim 4: 7. This is the man that tells us that "love never fails". It was seen in Christ personally. Do we see it? I would be bold enough to say for every one here, that we have seen, in Christ personally, that love never fails. He is looking for us to give an answer from our side in experience. That is the kind of material He is going to finish with in assembly conditions, however difficult, however dark, outwardly. Inwardly, He is going to finish with this mind His own skilful service as Priest, as Shepherd, as Saviour - what is He not to us? - and coupled with that, the service of the blessed Spirit, the One of whom Jesus could speak as "another Comforter". Formation in us should be the equivalent, insofar as it can be seen in creatures, of what is seen in Himself personally.
"Love never fails". Let us get down to it, beloved brethren. What a time we are in - the choicest of times! What an age it has been! and we are to have part in the continuance of what is so delightful to God. So the Lord said, to quote Him again, "My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work".
Paul must have been very much comforted with a man like Luke just beside him and with him at one of the most crucial times in his history, when he was thinking of what would happen to the testimony. What greater occupation could we have, beside praising God and engaging ourselves in the service of God, than to be concerned as to how the testimony is going to continue to the end? The end is in mind: "Better is the end of a thing than its beginning" , Eccles 7: 8. Are we going to be available to the Lord to the end, the better side of the dispensation? I trust that we may be able to focus our gaze on the things that are going through. "Lift up your eyes and behold ...", John 4: 35. The Lord Jesus was seeing it. What eyes are His! Who can fathom the Lord's estimate of what He is looking at? It is the product of His own work and He calls on us to look at it. Let us be on the alert to see how things are being maintained in a day of small things, in circumstances of suffering and smallness, and yet the very best coming into evidence. Faith can count on it that it will be better yet; it will be more wonderful as we go on. So Paul says "Love never fails". And Luke was alongside of him at that crucial time, the evidence, from that point of view, that love was not failing .
The scripture in Luke 24 shows how, from the point of view of the Lord's service to His own, love never fails. We are not told just where those two brethren ate their meal, or if they ate it. We know that the "breaking of bread" at that time was a Jewish meal. "He was made known to them in the breaking of bread". Some time ago I heard two Jewish men speaking of sitting down together and breaking bread. The breaking of bread which they had in mind was a supper, a meal; it is a family idea. And here we have two persons travelling home, tired, I suppose, and hungry, finally sitting down to a meal. The Lord is asserting His rights in love. Nothing stops Him from getting through to what is in His mind at any time, where there is a desire to "constrain" Him. Under such circumstances He is unhindered. So it says in this passage, "As he was at table with them, having taken the bread, he blessed, and having broken it, gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him. And he disappeared from them". We are told nothing further about the meal. Immediately, they begin to speak about what happened on the way, and then it says "And rising up the same hour". Whether or not they ate is not the question. It is left for you and me to show that there may come a time when food may be left, if needs be. Assembly life, and getting on with what God has in mind, may have to come first: "My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work". They recognised Him, He disappeared, and they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem. Nothing further is said of the meal. It leaves it open for you and me to prove at every turn, which may involve deferring the most necessary things of life, that "love never fails".
The Lord would have these persons return to the eleven and those with them. When they went back they had certain things to say, to add to the word "The Lord is indeed risen, and has appeared to Simon". Is that not better than an ordinary meal? They contributed to the joy; they added their jewels to the collection, so to speak. What jewels how He was made known to them in the breaking of bread; how He had spoken to them on the way! Then, as they were saying these things, He himself stood in their midst, and said "Peace be unto you".
Let us be encouraged and the Lord will help us; "love never fails". We are in the best; let us be in it fully, for His Name's sake.
BROOKLYN NY
13 November 1973