DOING RIGHT

^[p. 93] DOING RIGHT

2 Corinthians 13:7; Matthew 3:15; 2 Timothy 2:22

What I have in mind is the idea of doing right. The first saint, or man of faith, in the list given in Hebrews is accredited with doing right; that is Abel. There can be no doubt that he is intended to furnish a lead for us in this respect, but God Himself must be the Initiator of all things according to Himself. And so we learn righteousness from God. Indeed, His is a peculiar kind of righteousness, righteousness which is of God. And it is significant that the father of all believers is said to have been accounted righteous on the principle of faith. His faith was reckoned to him as righteousness, it is said; so that the father of all believers is accounted righteous, and no one could be accounted righteous from amongst sinners, save on the principle of faith. It is on that principle that we are righteous, that is, righteousness is imputed to us. But in the possession of imputed righteousness, Abraham learned how to be righteous; and, as far as I remember, he is the first one to use the word aright, and he attributes it to God, rightly. Abraham says, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). A very excellent question which has its own answer, and settles a thousand questions. We can understand how the father of all believers, as reckoned righteous on the principle of faith, should have the idea in his mind and attribute it to God in the most absolute way. But he also had in mind that there were righteous men on the earth, and he interceded for such, which is also beautiful. He began the great principle of intercession in that way for the righteous: “Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:23) He had fifty in his mind; he had forty-five in his mind, then forty; then thirty, then twenty, then he had ten in his mind, to intercede for. We may be sure that it was delightful to Jehovah to see the foreshadowing of ^[p. 94] Christ in this great intercessory service of love in Abraham. Abraham was extremely limited, but still, relatively the principle was there. It is said of Jesus, the Priest in heaven, that He ever lives to make intercession. What infinite myriads are included in His service, in His intercession! Beyond our reckoning is the number in His mind! It says, “He ever liveth” as if that were His only employ for the moment in the mind of the writer of Hebrews. “He ever liveth to make intercession for them”, Hebrews 7:25. And so in order to confirm Abraham’s spiritual correctness, the New Testament says that Lot was a righteous man. There was at least one in the city. Abraham did not come down to one, but there was at least one there. And instead of saving the city on his account. Lot was saved out of it, and that is the principle. There may be the promulgation of the gospel on account of the intercession of Christ on high, and our intercession too, but it is not to save the world; the effect is to save us out of it, dear brethren, a very great matter! It is current all the time; our High Priest above regarding us for intercession, particularly those who are right — I mean, practically righteous, for imputed righteousness, obtained by faith, is only confirmed as righteousness is practised. So that John in his epistle makes much of the practice of righteousness. And so the apostle in these two remarkable epistles finishes up with “That ye may do what is right”. The Corinthians, who were generally on the way to recovery, were indeed restored, and he commended them as such. That is to say, restored to grace is one of the greatest things here. “He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins”,(James 5:20) a remarkable thing! The apostle effected it in his letters, God working with him. But he was under reproach in the eyes of many in Corinth for it, although not so much at the end as at the beginning; but God’s way is to recover gradually, but where it is a ^[p. 95] collective matter, it takes time, and patience is greatly needed. We do not know what the ultimate result was as to all at Corinth, but the apostle in this epistle (2 Corinthians 10;6) had good hope that their obedience would be fulfilled; that is, he writes on the principle of the moral whole. The assembly is simply dependent on every person in it, but in the moral sense on the many, the moral whole. The whole idea is in the many, and we can be sure the many had already begun to deal with evil and the appearance of it, and had cleared themselves. They had the assurance that the work would go on, for God is very patient, and Paul was patient; and God would teach us to be patient, especially when restoration is needed in a collective sense. As I said, we do not know just what was the final result as to detail, but there cannot be any doubt that the assembly at Corinth was set on its feet according to God. “Having in readiness to avenge all disobedience(2 Corinthians 10:6)”. Nothing was to be omitted. Let no one assume that any detail of disobedience will be passed over or glossed over by God. It may take days or weeks or months or years, but the process will go on and God will have His way. It is wisdom to let Him have His way immediately. The apostle says, “Having in readiness to avenge all disobedience”;(2 Corinthians 10:6) that is, the obedience of the mass at Corinth was fulfilled. He ends up here regarding any that might think him reprobate. It was terrible to think that there were those who had such thoughts about him. He says, “Now I hope that ye will know that we are not reprobates. But we pray to God that ye may do nothing evil; not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do what is right, and we be as reprobates”. That is to say, each Corinthian was to take heed to himself and see to it that he was doing what was right, for, as the conditions were amongst the many, there were those who fell in with that without much question, and without much challenge to their own hearts, whereas the Spirit of God would challenge every heart, and say to each — ‘^[p. 96] You have heard what this brother says about Paul; they say his speech is naught; they would discredit him’. The Spirit of God would say to every young person at Corinth, ‘See to it you do not do what is wrong. Leave Paul for a moment. See to yourself. See you do not do what is wrong’. That is the word, dear brethren, at all times, especially in crises and difficulties amongst us; it is for each to see to it that he does not do what is wrong. That is what the apostle stresses here. He says, ‘My prayer for you is not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest or right’. That is, every one. If I am under a cloud, I may say others have put me there, but then I must do what is right, whatever others may do. I must do what is right. See then you do what is right, and that is the sure way of deliverance, whatever the deliverance may be. Righteousness is stamped across the position at the present time — it is a question of what is right. If I pursue what is right, I will reach the end I desire. If I am a righteous person, I do not want any other end, and every time I do what is right, I am nearer to the end I desire.

So that is the point the apostle makes here: that ye do what is right and what is honest. Each one is to take that to heart. And then as the Lord shows in His word to John, there is the idea of fulfilling all righteousness. It is not only righteousness in general, or in the main features of any matter, but all righteousness. I am speaking now of standards. I know full well what each of us is. James says, “We all often offend”, (James 3:2). One ought to say that, feeling that he is the one mentioned. But then the standard is the point, and the Lord here is the standard. The more we adhere to the standard in spirit or in attitude, the more we shall be conformed to it. The Lord here sets a standard. “Thus it becometh us”. It is not “Me”, though He is supreme in it, of course. It is one of the finest statements in ^[p. 97] Scripture. Scripture says He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. He loved it. So here He says, “It becometh us”, not you, or me, but “us”, and, of course, that has to be extended to every Christian. “It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”; not simply to say ‘I do so and so, and so and so’. It is all righteousness, whatever there is entering into it. “It becometh us”. It is the kind of dress we should wear, that is, the attitude of our minds. There is a standard set, and I do not want to lower it; it is a question of ‘all righteousness’.

So as to the third point, in Timothy, the idea of leadership is a very great thought of God, one of the greatest thoughts of God, and in view of current conditions, that is, in view of the general breakdown contemplated in this well known epistle, the leader here is righteousness. Of course, Paul is still alive, and he enjoins Timothy to do what he heard and saw in him. No one led in such a way as Paul. He said, “Be ye followers of me” (1 Corinthians 11:1). He is the only one who says or could say that. The Spirit of God says it through him. There was one man here who answered to the mind of God in so far as it can be in a creature. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”, (1 Corinthians 11:1). So he sent Timothy to Corinth to remind them of his ways; not simply of his teaching or preaching, but of his ways, as they were in Christ; that they might see them in the beloved child, Timotheus. So that the idea of leadership is clearly in a man or men, but in broken times, before we can clearly see a man as a leader, we must see righteousness as a leader. The first thing is to learn that leader, to know it, to keep it clearly in mind. It is simply this, that under all circumstances, I must do right. That is simply what is meant; not only that I do it, but I am pursuing it; not only that I am doing it now, but I am pursuing it now. It is a steady thing before the mind; the necessity for doing right is ever present in all emergencies in our histories here. The necessity for right would always ^[p. 98] be present, and I keep my eyes fastened upon it. So in a crisis, I put the question to myself — ‘is that right? Is this right?’ That is the point, you see. As sure as I ask a question like that before God, I shall find my way. There will be no mistake at all. If I challenge everything before God (not men) I shall not be unrighteous. It is right there are leaders, but righteousness in 2 Timothy is the leader, the first leader. “Pursue righteousness” is the word, meaning an energetic attitude of mind. That is the first thing to think of when anything comes up. Is the thing right or wrong? If it is right, pursue it; that is, I am vigilant in regard to that point. The next thing is to pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace. That is how it is. Then the next thing after these four is “with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. How can I tell people with pure hearts? This scripture requires that you and I should know, a very remarkable thing! It does not say if they exist; it supposes that they do exist. There is a certain moral triumph in the way the Spirit of God writes here that there are such in the world; those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The address to Corinth says, “With all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”,(1 Corinthians 1:2) but here it is “out of a pure heart”. People say, ‘I do not know them’; but I am to know, I am to find out if their hearts are pure, and I am responsible to find out. That is the point. The Spirit of God puts it on us, if they are there, to know them; they are there; as knowing them, you are to see to it that you are with them, and that you are following these four things with them; first, righteousness, then faith, love and peace.

May God bless these thoughts to us!