GOING ON TO PERFECTION
GOING ON TO PERFECTION
The beginning of everything necessarily refers to its finish or completion. If the beginning is not right, the end cannot be right; “That which is crooked cannot be made straight”. Hence the nazarite, when he failed, had to begin over again. From the hand of God everything has had a good beginning, and if there had been no obstruction to its full development, each thing would have reached perfection of its kind. But everything here has suffered through the perverseness of man. Hence in every period when there was real reviving of the heart to God, there was a return to the beginning, as God has first presented it; but the return to the beginning was [p. 291] not with the intention of continuing at the beginning, but of going on to perfection. It is but too evident that if the beginning is the limit to one’s aim, then that which was necessary as a true start becomes a snare; and the immatured beginning is a dwarf or reproach, instead of a testimony to the praise of God.
Joshua felt this with regard to Israel when they were discomfited before their enemies, lest the nations should say that God was not able to bring them in. Even as it is said of men; “This man began to build, and was not able to finish”.
When the beginning is of God, the same power which produced the beginning can alone effect maturity; and when the Lord is not hindered, it must be so. It is no new thing to be said, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you ...?”
In every time the greatest favour from God was when He led one or more of His people to return to the old paths; and surely it has been an unequalled favour that He has been pleased to revive the truth of the church in these closing days. But the greater the blessing, the more should we be on our guard lest we should lose it, as it has happened to many aforetime; and these things “are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come”. Through the grace of God there are thousands who can with thankfulness own that they have been led to see the right beginning; therefore the question now is, Are we maturing? Are we advancing from this right beginning? Or are we contenting ourselves with having started aright, as if that was enough without making any further advance. If we are, we shall be, as it were, spiritually petrified, while boastful of our beginning! Like Israel, of whom it is said, “The temple of the Lord, are these”, when they were not able to lift up their heads before their conquerors.
The danger now is, as there has been through the goodness of God a good beginning, that through the artifice of the enemy we should not mature or go on to [p. 292] perfection. If there be no advance from the right beginning, there is not only no power, but the continuance in a state without any maturing is a pitiable reproach, instead of a testimony to the glory of God.
In reading through the Scriptures how frequently it must strike us that men of God began well, but did not go on to perfection. Noah begins well, but is unintentionally overpowered by the product of his own hands. It may be alleged that he had departed from his beginning; that is true, but the departure was in consequence of his not having gone on advancing in the line and manner of his beginning, just as it was with Lot, who having started aright, was led away by the green fields of Sodom. But the greatest danger is when we content ourselves with our beginning, or with the recovery of a lost standing, as Jacob did at Shalem. He had returned to the land. It was a great favour from God to bring him back; and he had learned in the morning after the night of wrestling the great truth that his name was Israel. But he did not go on from that. He was so contented after his return to the land with this good beginning that he stops there, and settles at Shalem. There is no thought in his mind to fulfil his promise, or to go on to the completion of it, which was Bethel. This is our great danger, and here hundreds have failed. The beginning has not been surrendered; the truth of the church, the distinctive one for this period has not been given up, but there has been no advance. There has not been in many cases any growth in the knowledge of it as it is in the mind of God. There has been a settling at Shalem. The truths revived at the beginning are not denied, but there is no divine advancement. Souls are as practically ignorant of what the church is as the mystery of God, as if they had never accepted the truth of it. If we look around, how rare it is generally to see any maturing in the knowledge of the mystery of God! It is a comfort that those who desire to grow are sure to do so, but those who content themselves with the mere truth, are [p. 293] like Jacob at Shalem; they are not maturing, and they will become as he did, a reproach instead of a testimony to the name of the Lord. It is common with man, when his power is less than his position, to fall back on the latter, in order to obtain for himself what the former would have secured to him; and thus the man of God who rests on his position betrays himself, he has not power; he is not walking with God; and he seeks to obtain a relief for his conscience by asserting his position, when he has not power to maintain it; for there is never power where there is not the activity of life; when one is not adding according to 2 Peter 1; when one does not “add to your faith virtue”, and so on.
We see continually in Israel’s history how they began well but, failing to complete their undertaking, were reduced to impotency and reproach. They were saved from death, and ate the passover and went up out of Egypt; but before they were delivered from Egypt’s power, they said unto Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?” Is there no parallel to this in our day? Do we not see many accepting with satisfaction the truth of the gospel, but even before deliverance, before holy separation from the scene of judgment is known, there is repining in the heart which is really reluctant to leave the world; for nothing but resurrection power can lead us outside it. They had begun well, and were placed by the grace of God in perfect safety in the scene of judgment; but alas! when they were thus favoured they became a spectacle of unbelief, because they had not faith in God to reach the finish. An unfinished act always indicates imbecility, and is a reproach; and it is the reproach that remains, and not the power which marked the beginning.
On almost every new start there was a recurrence of this lamentable tendency. Soon after the song on the other side of the Red Sea, they murmured. Again, they [p. 294] came to the borders of the land, and would not go in because discouraged by the evil report of the spies. Further on they were placed in the land, but were overpowered in it, because they did not complete what they had undertaken. “They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel ... They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt”; for “they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word ... but were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works”. Everything of God must meet with opposition in a world of evil; but His power, the same which enables us to begin, is able to ensure a completion of His will. When the eye has been diverted from God, discomfiture and failure must ensue. The blessed God cannot allow that His calling should be only partially entered on. When we stop, or permit ourselves to be hindered, we lose His support; and we soon disclose that we are worse off than when we never had it. A great elevation suddenly lost, leaves one in a more abject condition than if one never had it.
Ezra in his day, and the remnant of Israel, with great purpose of heart, confiding in the Lord, journeyed from Babylon to Jerusalem, and commenced the rebuilding of the temple. As long as they bravely defied the enemy they succeeded, but when they yielded to the pressure and contented themselves with their position in the land — with their good beginning, they forfeited even personal blessing; they sowed much, but it came to little (see Haggai 1: 9 - 11). They lost the support of God on every side when they ceased to advance in order to complete the undertaking they were called to. They might have contended that they were in the land; that they were on the right ground; all true, but they were not maturing; and hence they were reduced to a miserable condition in the land — in their high position. Nothing is so sad or humiliating as misery in a high position. The moment any one is content with his progress, or his measure of light, then he is resting in what he is or has,
[p. 295] and not in God; and there is neither freshness in his soul nor vigour in his testimony. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. We cannot lose what we have entered on, because the whole is ours through grace, though we surely lose enjoyment in it. Israel did not lose the land because they had declined from their proper work; neither do we lose the measure of the truth we have reached because we are not growing up unto Him in all things, who is the Head, even the Christ; but it is important to see that when we limit ourselves to what we have, and do not press on to the finish of it, the Lord does not give us more. He does not confide His mind to us, He does not give us any fresh opening of the word as to the great circle of His interest. There may be given words of comfort and instruction for the daily need of souls, but the things that He would disclose to His friends — His present interest as Head of His body the church — are not communicated. If the chief subject in the heart of Christ is hardly ever referred to, and when referred to is as something unknown, surely there must be very little intimacy between us and the Lord; and I feel convinced that there is no surer test than the extent in which Christ’s interests in the church is in one’s mind and affection. If the church be the dearest object to Christ’s heart, how could I be near Him without becoming interested in what He is interested in, and how could I fix as a limit for myself, that I am on the true ground — that I believe in Matthew 18: 20, and that is enough?
Can any one read the Acts and not see how the apostles themselves lost ground by continuing at Jerusalem, and how James and the great company with him were eventually behind the testimony, because they had confined themselves to the measure of christianity that suited Jerusalem? Would Paul place a limit to the saints when he writes: “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”? There is to be no limit. The effect of a limit is to check the power of God. Thus it was at the reformation. To secure justification by faith was the one thing proposed, and all was limited to this. And in this day the danger has been, that having found the right ground for christian fellowship this should be the limit, and that progress from this is not necessary. Is this good beginning the finish? Certainly not. Why then limit it? If we do not mature, we shall not only lose the power to mature, but we shall sink into reproach and impotent disorder; the very opposite to the beautiful beginning which God favoured us with.
If we mark the course of every good beginning, we shall see there was prosperity and power — the faith sounding out, as long as there was progress or maturing in the truth; and surely for every anointed eye in the present century, there is abundant evidence of the verity of this statement. Joy and strength marked those who were advancing in the line they had entered on. Very ignorant at first, they gradually got more light, and as the light came they walked according to it; so that there was a remarkable alteration in one thing or another, and an abandoning of things once admitted or sanctioned, for ways consonant with their increased light. Many at the present hour have more light than the first great pioneers had at the beginning. And if one would shelter himself for not walking up to it, under the subterfuge that he is the same as those at the beginning, he ignores the light which has been given during the last sixty years, and lands himself in a company of believers more or less encumbered by human rules.
God grant that His own may be awakened to see that no limit, however good, can in any way make up for the completion in the mind of God; and that they may see that if we content or shelter ourselves with a good beginning — the right ground — we shall infallibly lose our power in testimony, and ere long will be an open reproach where there once was a bright beginning.