GOOD BUILDING, OR, EFFECTIVE TEACHING
GOOD BUILDING, OR, EFFECTIVE TEACHING
Two things are necessary in order to insure the value and permanency of any structure, namely, material and skill. The one is that with which it is to be built; and the other, the manner in which the work is done. It is evident that any building must suffer from defects in either of these, only with this difference, that when the material is good, but there is deficiency of skill in using it, the defect will be apparent from the start. There is no good building then; but when there is skill with bad material, there will often be the appearance of good [p. 144] building, until an unexpected collapse or dilapidation discloses the badness of the material.
In order therefore to secure good building, or effective teaching, there must be two things - divine material, and divine skill; the lack of either is fatal to the building. The only good material is the word of His grace, and the only true skill is the charity or grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and when either is wanting, there is a lack of real service to the saints. The best of servants may not succeed in building, but none can expect to succeed except he builds rightly. There may be the heart and purpose to serve, without the means to effect it. Moses was most genuine in his purpose to serve, and had made the greatest sacrifices in order to do so, but at first he utterly failed; he had neither material nor skill. After a lapse of forty years, he returned to Egypt with the word of the Lord, and in all the patience and grace of a true servant. Then he was efficient, though he was often baffled and almost overwhelmed. It is important to note that often the most zealous servants at first, have neither the word nor the skill or temper for using it, and therefore are like Peter, very eager, but like him cutting off the right ear in their attempt at serving.
Now in bad building, natural skill makes natural material attractive for the natural mind. Thus Aaron succeeded when he made a calf to satisfy the religious tastes of Israel.
Job is a remarkable instance of a man having the right word, but being unable to influence others by it, because of his lack of skill or the absence of unselfishness which alone commends the word of God. David in another way had the right desire to build the temple, but though it was right for him to have it in his heart, yet he was not approved of by the Lord for a builder, the character of his former services debarred him. Solomon, on the other hand, though highly endued with the wisdom to render him fully competent, loses skill because he seeks his own gratification, and his wisdom became a dead letter.
“[p. 145] Much food is in the tillage of the poor; but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment”, Proverbs 13: 23.
It is striking and deeply interesting the pains the Lord takes to make His servants skilful. No amount of truth - material - will succeed to the credit of the servant, apart from skill or charity. A man, to be an effective teacher, must be a living transcript of the truth he insists on; if he is not, he is urging others to adopt what he has not adopted himself, and he weakens its force, in that while he asserts it will produce distinct effects on those who receive it, he cannot show perhaps a trace of them on himself. The effective teaching is when one can say, like Gideon, “As I do, so shall ye do”; or as the apostle, We were “an ensample unto you to follow us”. Again, “Brethren, be followers together of me”; still more. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”.
We know that the word of God accomplishes that whereto it has been sent, and unless there was something to hinder its action in the instrument conveying it, I conclude that the action would occur, though it may not always be visible. It is plain that whenever the Lord speaks to a soul (that is, in all the recorded cases in Scripture) that where there is “good ground” there is a true and blessed effect; hence it is said to the servant, “If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth”, Jeremiah. 15: 19. When the word is not presented in its purity, if it were to have an effect, then it would be an injurious effect, because it is not the truth, or at least it is imperfect truth. The servant who is not careful in adhering to the word of God is so practically unsubdued in himself, where the subjection must always be first and greatest, that he must be unskilful and too self-important to be of any use to others. It is said in reference to service “Make the tree good, and his fruit good”. Matthew 12: 33.
Effective teaching is a very protracted laborious thing. See how the apostle speaks of his ministry at Ephesus, “Remember, that by the space of three years I ceased [p. 146] not to warn every one night and day with tears”. (Acts 20: 31.) The assiduity and perseverance is very remarkable. There is more heart to proceed when one is assured of ultimate success, than when nothing can be expected beyond gaining a disciple or an adherent; that is, when the growth and perfection of the saint is not the first result before the mind.
I can always count on the good soil in a saint, that is, that though he be very much carried away by present things, though slumbering and sleeping with no bodily activity for Christ, yet that he can be awakened, and aroused to a true sense of his duty. Hence the apostle writes fifteen chapters to the Corinthians, not to expose a great moral enormity then already well known, but to arouse their consciences to a sense of their complicity with evil in consequence of it. A servant has a wonderful character and amazing skill, when he gives no offence or occasion of stumbling in anything that the ministry be not blamed. How formed of God, what an exemplification of the power and greatness of grace, when he can in any measure say with the apostle, “In everything commending ourselves as God’s ministers, in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in straits, in stripes, in prisons, in riots, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, in pureness, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God; through the arms of righteousness on the right hand and left, through glory and dishonour, through evil report and good report: as deceivers, and true; as unknown, and well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as disciplined, and not put to death; as grieved, but always rejoicing; as poor, but enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things”, 2 Corinthians 6: 4 - 10.
It will be found that a servant with less light and knowledge, who is practically more under the power of it, because more skilled, is more effective than the one with greater light, who is not so much the exponent of it.
[p. 147] It is very serious how the lack of the servant becomes aggravated in the saints. The servant said in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming”, the church slumbered and slept. The servant is held accountable for the state of the saints to whom he ministers, as John says, when exhorting the saints in his first epistle, as a motive to their faithfulness, that we may “not be ashamed before him at his coming”. Do servants enter much into this? That they should be ashamed before the Lord at His coming because of the state of the saints. The anticipation of such a thing would surely urge the servants to take a deeper interest in the welfare of the saints among whom they minister; as Paul says (1 Thessalonians 2: 19,20), “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy”. Or, as we learn from Hebrews 13: 17, that the teachers watch for their souls as they that must give account, and as John says, the servant would lose his reward because of the declension of the saints. “Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward”. 2 John 8.
The cases and the passages I have cited must impress on every servant the grave and laborious duties of his calling, and that good building or effective teaching is a very slow, very arduous, a very continual, but a very blessed work, carrying its own reward with it. On the other hand, if any man build on the best foundation, “wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire”. 1 Corinthians 3: 12 - 15.
Every material which will not stand the fire is natural, and can be built up by natural means, and looks better to the natural eye, and is more acceptable to the natural [p. 148] taste, than the divine material, which is quite incomprehensible to it. The declension traceable in the seven assemblies, from Ephesus to Laodicea, is merely an aggravated, and gradually increasing departure from Christ; leaving the first love in Ephesus, while they could not bear them that are evil; literally so occupied with the dangers on many s side, that they lost their first love. While barricading the back door they left the front one open; the greatest treasure was abstracted; and thus with all their antipathy to evil, they were really unfitted to be the candlestick, until at last in Laodicea they can boast of their natural acquisition of doctrines and scriptural knowledge with great human results, and Christ Himself outside - man benefited by christianity and the new creation in Christ entirely overlooked.
May each servant of Christ who reads these lines seek grace from Him in order that he may be preserved from using natural material which natural skill can utilize in the most acceptable way to the natural mind of the mass, alas, of inquirers; but that he may be more and more careful each day, to adhere to the pure word of God, the gold, the silver, and the precious stones, learning from Him skill to use it beneficially for His people.