DEVOTEDNESS TO THE LORD
DEVOTEDNESS TO THE LORD
Devotedness to the Lord begins when you know His love. It is more than the knowledge of His work; you must be near Him to know His love, and as His love is known, He not only claims your heart, but the [p. 384] more you are drawn to Him the more you feel that He is worthy of all the devotion of your heart. Thus He becomes the one controlling object of your life, reaching upward and onward, until you know His love “which passeth knowledge”. Ephesians 3: 19.
The believer is first occupied with the greatness of His work, as Jonathan with David, or as the woman in the Pharisee’s house (Luke 7), and the effect of knowing His work is, that like them, you openly and publicly honour Him. But Jonathan never fully followed David; David was not the exclusive object of his heart. The disciples, as we see in Luke 5, were very ready to wait on the Lord, and they had received a remarkable instance of divine favour in the abundant haul of fishes, but it was His word to them, “Fear not”, which so touched their hearts as expressing his love for them, that when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed Him. Devotedness had begun, but devotedness to the Lord has to encounter many a difficulty, and it receives no succour from anything or anyone around.
As far as I see, the two women, Martha and Mary, at the end of Luke 10, set forth in miniature the two classes of the new company which is described from chapter 11 to chapter 18: 30. Martha desires to minister to Him, but Mary is devoted to Him, and wants to be in the secret of His mind.
The first great exercise of the devoted heart is when the light of God leads to the discovery that Christ is rejected on the earth. Though you believe on Him risen and glorified, yet it is slowly that you realise that He is never seen again upon the earth as He was, and that He is refused here. When you see that, you can enter into the desolation of Mary Magdalene (John 20); in her agony she says, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him”. John 20: 13.
It has been remarked that a woman brought in sin, and it was given to a woman to announce the blessed tidings, not only of Christ’s ascension, but that He identifies us with Himself in His new position: “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. John 20: 17.
Now when this is realised by the heart devoted to Christ, its language is that of Ruth to Naomi: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee”. (Ruth 1: 16) It was not only that Ruth had affection for her mother-in-law, as Orpah had who “kissed her”, but “Ruth clave unto her”. (Ruth 1: 14) No place can suit her but the place where Naomi is. She says, “whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried”. (Ruth 1: 16,17) The devoted one may have had many things to interest him in the old country, in his native soil, but the object of his heart is gone to another place, and company is the only thing which satisfies love; it is no effort to follow our object.
Now let us look at some of the exercises to which the devoted heart is subjected. The first, as to moral magnitude, is when divine light shows you that Christ is rejected on the earth. This is in contradiction to the aim and effort of christendom which, in every circle of government, from the throne to the cemetery, is to persuade men that He is accepted and honoured; so that as a rule, everyone, with few exceptions, from men of the highest morality, intellect, and position, down to the unlearned peasant, is persuaded that He is acknowledged in His rightful place, and consequently that they can accept any honour in this place. This is a huge delusion! The exercise of the heart devoted to Christ is to refuse this, and to accept the place where He is accepted instead of the place where He is refused.
It is not easy to describe the immensity of the change, when in heart you leave your own place here for His place, the place which He has prepared for you; John 14: 3. Things here, naturally beautiful and [p. 386] attractive, are surprisingly eclipsed, and you are a pilgrim here, not because of the troubles and trials of this place, but because your heart’s object is in another place.
The next exercise is as to the world. The more you seek to serve it, the less you are liked by it; you might be living on the best of terms with your neighbour, but when you make use of an opportunity to speak to him about his soul, he becomes distant and reserved, as if you had grievously offended him; so you have to learn that for your love you have hatred, and we are reminded of the Lord’s words: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you”, John 15: 18. This comes as a surprise and pain to you, for you are estranged even from your nearest relatives if you are faithful to them, and not ashamed of Christ and His words: and however kind they may be naturally, you are made conscious that there is a great distance between you and them. Though you seem to do them little good, you feel that their influence with you is injurious; they have the power, which those who are less intimate with you have not, to revive old tastes and old impressions. Thus you are taught that “a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10: 36), and your heart is not at ease until you are in practical isolation from them, and till it answers to the word: “forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty”, Psalm 45: 10,11. At the same time you ever cultivate great readiness to render them any service, indeed, as it becomes us, to “do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith”, Galatians 6: 10.
Now you come to the next exercise, your own home and surroundings. If your heart has deeply entered into the two former exercises, it is evident that your own home must bear the marks of it. On the one hand you cannot accept the place or position where Christ [p. 387] is rejected, and on the other you cannot keep the society of your fellow men, when you know that they are adverse to that which is nearest to your heart. The more retired and simple your home is, according to your spiritual taste, the more unnoticed you are, the more you commend yourself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. If your means are small and only equal to your wants, you have less temptation to enlarge, or to indulge yourself or your family; but when your means are ample, if your heart is not kept truly devoted to the Lord, there is a temptation to surround yourself with the natural advantages of the earth.
It is humbling to see how many are not afraid to go forth to serve the Lord, like Gideon’s army, who when tested by the water (the benefits of this life) fail in full devotedness, so that, as in that day, only a few, comparatively, remain to follow the Lord fully. These could accept the benefit (or earthly mercy) without being detained by it.
A sudden accession of property is always a test as to whether Christ is fully the object of the heart. One may wonder why God in His providence, allows increase of earthly means to those who seek to follow the Lord fully. He does so, not only for a test, but to give an opportunity of serving His own, and this at a loss and cost to yourself. Shall I offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing? The danger is that anyone should desire to be rich and so “fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts” (1 Timothy 6: 9); and then you are unable to take the highest place of service, as our blessed Lord could say, “I am among you as he that serveth”. (Luke 22: 27) If we were more devoted, we should find a way of escape from the various things that tempt us.
Having said so much as to the exercises on our own side, I now turn to the exercise of a devoted heart with reference to the Lord. The chief desire of a heart [p. 388] devoted to Christ is to join Him in His new place on the earth, that is in His assembly. We learn, like Peter, what it is to leave the ship to walk on the water to go to Jesus, where He is supreme above all the power of evil here. It is in this journey, that one who is really set upon reaching the Lord, who is not here, finds how his own infirmity casts him upon Christ; and he learns, as in Hebrews 4: 14, that “we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God”. Thus the one who is seeking Christ outside of every thing here, finds that his own infirmities distress and distract him; but like Peter, who in the sense of his weakness cried out to the Lord to save him, so now with us: every infirmity casts us more upon the Lord, and while we really seek Him in order to be near Him, we also find that the only way we can he relieved of the pressure of our infirmities is by His present sympathy. This sympathy is not to remove the circumstances which cause the affliction, but to draw us into His own company; as Mary of Bethany learned when Jesus walked with her to the resurrection, and then (John 12) she could sacrifice what contributed to her own position naturally - she buried it with Him!
Thus in a double way you are drawn to Him, and the heart delighted in coming to Him, the living Stone, you find you are a component part of His assembly. To the one who is truly affected by the great fact of Christ’s rejection from the earth, it is incomparable joy to find Him in His own assembly. It is not only that He draws you into His company in the holiest, in all the blessedness of His acceptance with God, but there you learn His pleasure as to His interests here on earth.
There is another exercise peculiar to the present state of things, when the church has become a great house in which there are not only vessels to honour but to dishonour: your desire is to separate from [p. 389] everyone who is unsuited to His presence. This is paramount to the devoted one, and he purges himself from the vessels to dishonour, that he may be “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work”, 2 Timothy 2: 21.
The next exercise is as to the state of those who are following the Lord. The more your heart is devoted to Him, the more you will care for the advancement and blessing of His own. If you do not show this care for those near you, with whom you are walking in fellowship, you will not do so for those who are unknown to you; not that you would not show coldness and reserve when it was necessary, for it is right to show reserve to one who is walking unfaithfully: “have no company with him, that he may be ashamed” (2 Thessalonians 3: 14) - but you would not cease to care for him. There is no real service without suffering; “we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus”. 2 Corinthians 4: 11.
Lastly, there is a deep and continued exercise as to the way the saints are waiting for His coming. It has a very peculiar effect on you when you realise that the Lord has bought the field for the treasure in it. While naturally you would look at the beauties of it for your own pleasure, it now presents itself to you in a new aspect. As you are devoted to Him, His treasure is your paramount interest here, and your great aim will then be to reach that which was lost when the ruin began - first love. The Lord says to Ephesus, “Thou hast left thy first love”, (Revelation 2: 4) and necessarily, that is to leave the place where the Lord is. Paul has to say, “all they which are in Asia be turned away from me”. (2 Timothy 1: 15) You cannot enjoy His love if you are not in company with Him, and to be in company with Him is what your heart is set on if you are devoted to Him. Thus practically you have a little power, you keep His word, and do not deny His name; you are in heart the bride, whose affections are set upon Him as the bright and [p. 390] morning star, and the Spirit and the bride say, “Come”.
The Lord give each of us to be more thoroughly devoted to Him, that we may know the exceeding blessedness of it, and be in the path of the just which is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day; Proverbs 4: 18.