IT IS SUFFICIENT
Matthew 10: 24, 25 (to “his lord”)
I have been thinking, dear brethren, of this verse 25 in Matthew 10 because it gives us a standard to have before our minds in the recognition that God is working in each one of us, and we have to be watchful that we align ourselves with what He is doing and do not hinder it, so that the work may proceed easily. It says in the epistle to the Philippians, “that he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, Phil 1: 6. That is a remarkable statement. The work of God has begun, I suppose, in every one of us in this room; we would assume that, that everyone in this room, brother and sister, old and young, is a subject of the work of God; not simply a work at one particular moment, but a work that has begun and is going to be completed, and is to be completed unto Jesus Christ’s day. That is a remarkable expression; it is the day in which Jesus Christ will be vindicated publicly. We read of “man’s day” (1 Cor 4: 3); we read of “Christ’s day” (Phil 1: 10); we read of “the day of God”, 2 Pet 3: 1 2. There is man’s day which is this present time; there is the day of Christ which is the day to come, what we speak of as the millennium, the world to come; there is the day of God which is eternity. “Jesus Christ’s day” is, of course, the same day as “the day of Christ”, but it has particularly in mind that in that day Jesus Christ will be vindicated, and He will be vindicated, dear brethren, in us. Let us keep that in mind! The work of God in us is according to Christ, and it has in view the public universal vindication of Christ in the day of Jesus Christ, the day when that Man, Jesus Christ, will be publicly honoured.
We all know what kind of Man Jesus is, what kind of Man He was. God put the seal of His approval upon Him, not only when the Spirit of God descended upon Him, but even more so when God raised Him from among the dead, a selective resurrection, and then exalted Him by His right hand. So we have to take account of things in that light, that there has been the delineation here, in the life of Jesus, in the flesh and blood condition in which we are, of perfection in manhood according to God’s desires. It has all been set out perfectly. What immense detail entered into the thirty-three and a half years in flesh and blood condition of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ! It is affecting to us to think, dear brethren, that we are in the same condition that He was in, though He was in it sin apart, of course; all fully recognise that. But I mean we are in the limited condition of flesh and blood as compared with the eternal glorious conditions which are shortly to follow. It is an affecting thing that Christ was in that condition once, a condition of flesh and blood; yet in that condition of limitation which the Lord so wondrously accepted, so that He did not even go outside the limits of Israel in His service, what was infinitely pleasing to God in every detail of human life was worked out.
Now God is working in us, “he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”. And so we are to understand and keep in mind, dear brethren, that there is a process going on in every one of us. It has not been completed yet. I have no doubt that when the work of God in any one of us is completed the Lord takes such an one. Soon we shall all be taken because the work of God in us will be of such a character that it demands resurrection. We shall soon all be translated, but in the meantime the work of God is going on. Well now, the point is, what is it that the work of God is reaching with us? What is He arriving at? That I believe is what is in mind in this expression, “sufficient”. “The disciple”, the Lord says, “is not above his teacher, nor the bondman above his lord. It is sufficient for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the bondman as his lord”. We are regarded in this double light as disciples and as bondmen.
I suppose we must be disciples first if we are to be satisfactory bondmen. A disciple is one who is learning, and in his learning is being disciplined so that the learning may become effective and fruitful; but then the bondman is that you have absolutely no other will but that of the one to whom you belong, you are his absolute property. So there is the idea of the disciple and then that of the bondman and that applies to each one of us. “It is sufficient for the disciple”, let that remain in our minds, dear brethren! Whatever we may have before us in our outlook let it remain in our minds that “it is sufficient for the disciple that he should become as his teacher”. You do not want anything else, and you do not want to cease your exercises until that has been reached. “It is sufficient for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the bondman as his lord”.
Now this is something we all need to keep in mind, especially those who have to mingle with men of business, and so on, because the businessman is very different from Jesus. The spirit of the businessman is very different from the Spirit of Jesus. One is not saying it as in any way involving any disparagement to our dear brothers who are in business, because they have to be in it and they can be in it with God; only it is well to bear in mind that the spirit of the world and the spirit of the businessman is entirely different from the Spirit of Jesus. I am sure everyone would agree it is so if they stop and think of it, and therefore we need, as passing through a world like this, to have the divine standard, the divine ideal, before our minds and hearts. Mr James Taylor said years ago5 that the Son of God was God’s ideal, and that is exactly the idea, that we are to have an ideal before us, and the ideal before a disciple is that he becomes as his teacher. That is sufficient, he does not need anything else. He does not need any embellishment to it or any addition, his simple desire is to become as his Teacher and the bondman to become as his Lord.
In John 13 the Lord says, “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord, and ye say well, for I am so. If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher”. See how He reverses it. “If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher”. That is, the lordship has to come in first in its recognition by us. There has to be submission, practical submission, and that, of course, dear brethren, is something that needs renewing and maintaining every day. Practical submission to the Lord—that comes first. “If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also”. I do not know what the feelings of the disciples were as Jesus moved round and one by one washed their feet. You can understand how it would affect them, especially afterwards when the Spirit came. When John wrote this gospel you can understand how he would be affected as he recorded this as to the Lord washing their feet. I have often thought that, as he wrote the first chapter of his gospel and dilated, if one may use the expression, on the personal glory of Christ—“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being ...”, he would say to himself, ‘And He washed my feet!’ You can understand how it would affect him, dear brethren, and it is intended to affect us.
There is nothing more necessary than that the disciple should become as his Teacher and the bondman as his Lord; and so here the Lord says, “I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also”. Well, as this spirit is promoted amongst us—and I speak as much to myself as to my brethren—you can easily understand that it will tend very greatly to the unification of the saints in our local assemblies and then more generally; because it is a great thing to recognise the assembly. There is nothing more wonderful on earth, there is nothing more wonderful in the sphere of creation, than the assembly, a body of persons who are God’s creatures, indwelt by the Spirit and formed by the work of God, so that in final result in the whole assembly there is an exact representation of Christ. It will be the fulness of Christ, nothing lacking, nothing redundant, a marvel of divine workmanship, and it is divine grace that we should have our part in it. We want to see to it, dear brethren, that we do not hinder the work of the Spirit, but that we see the lines on which He is working. The lines on which He is working are just this: it is for each one to say to himself and herself, ‘It is sufficient for me that I become as my Teacher, it is sufficient for me as the Lord’s bondman that I become as my Lord’.
LONDON
2nd August 1966
From Ministry of the Word, 1967
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