OUR COMMANDING INTEREST
T. D. Beveridge
Ruth 1: 15–18; 2 Samuel 15: 19–22; Philippians 1: 21; 3: 12–14
What one would like to speak about, beloved brethren, is the thought of a commanding interest. From the youngest child up to the oldest brother or sister, a commanding interest is something that takes preference above all other things in our lives. I would desire that from our time together Christ might become the commanding interest in our lives. I do not know what it might be in your life, but I have no doubt some things take up a lot of your time and interest. When you become older other things take up your time and interest. How much can be lost through things which, if they are weighed up, are not worthwhile. I think largely in the older brethren we can see that Christ is their wholehearted commanding interest. “I raise the question, as I do with myself, What place does Christ have in my life? We live in an age when material things, prosperity, education and study have a tremendous pull on the hearts of men. They have such a pull that they would take up all the time and energy that persons have, to the exclusion of the blessed God. It says in the Scriptures, “they did not think good to have God in their knowledge”, Romans 1: 28. Largely, what surrounds us is that kind of attitude.
Now, I do not think there is one in this room who would be thinking like that, but what I do desire is that you might find a commanding interest in being set in relation to the things of Christ. Paul says, “for me to live is Christ”. What a testing scripture! I am tested, as I have no doubt each one of us is tested by these words. What do you like to live for? Are there things around you would like to live for? things you would like to indulge in and go into? The world is full of things,
pleasures the Scriptures speak of, and persons set themselves to go in for these things. The contrast is “for me to live is Christ”. I desire that should come into every heart. If you are young you can commit yourself to Christ whole-heartedly. I think we have reached the time when we need to be whole-hearted. If you have one foot in the world, and then you desire to be with the brethren and come to the meetings the thing does not work. I say that, beloved brethren, having tried it. You would like to be engaged in the Lord’s things but you would also like to have some enjoyment in the things of the world. It does not work because you do not enjoy either. You do not enjoy the world and you do not enjoy Christ. God desires your interest should be in His things. How great they are! We spoke of one of the greatest events that is going to happen, the rapture of the saints. What a thing that will be when those of us who love Christ are taken up; that will literally happen.
So I read of these two persons whose interests were whole-hearted. An interesting thing in Ruth’s case is that Naomi tested her; she sought to leave Moab without Ruth. It is good to be real about things. You might have good intentions but are they real? Sometimes we have to be tested to find out the depth of our reality. Naomi would represent someone on the line of recovery. You might say she had heard the glad tidings and she was returning to her own land and to her own people. But Ruth says, “Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from following after thee; for 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. Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part me and thee!” How whole-hearted she was! I would like us all to be whole-hearted. She committed herself fully to Naomi. There was no thought that she would turn away; she was whole-hearted in her committal. It says of Naomi, “And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her”.
How attractive that is!
I think Christ finds persons attractive who are whole-hearted in their committal to Himself.
So she shines in that way; it might be some young sister or older sister who needs to commit herself afresh to Christ. You can do it now, you do not even need to wait until the meeting is finished; in your heart you can commit yourself now whole-heartedly to. Christ and to—all that He is doing in recovery, and come into untold blessing. I did not go into the rest of this Scripture but what blessings Ruth came into. There is untold blessing if you commit yourself whole-heartedly. I stress that, because if you do it in part measure only, neither side will prove to be enjoyable by you. O, beloved brethren, let us be whole-heartedly committed to Christ and to the recovery as this young woman was. I suggest that to the beloved sisters, to commit themselves whole-heartedly. I would not say that persons are not committed, but at the time we have reached in this dispensation the great need is to be whole-hearted in our committal to Christ.
So I read about Ittai. The king was in rejection. Christ is rejected, it is very manifest! What confusion there is in the religious world as to Christ; what awful utterances have been made as to His holy Person. A really true Christian feels intensely the awfulness of what surrounds us in a world where persons despise Christ and would say such things about Him. Here is this man, Ittai, and the king, David, is in rejection. At such a time he is prepared to commit himself whole-heartedly to David. Then there is the word of David to him, “Thou didst come yesterday, and should I this day make thee go up and down with us, seeing I go whither I can? Return and take back thy brethren. Mercy and truth be with thee!” The Lord would test out the reality of the work in our hearts. It was not just a case of saying that he would follow him, but he was going to show by his way of life that he was whole-heartedly committed. I think that is a vital thing in our own lives, that we show
by the way we live that we are whole-heartedly committed to Christ. So Ittai says, “As Jehovah liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be”. How lovely! Just to commit yourself whole-heartedly in that way to the rejected Lord. Christ will reign in a coming day, but in the time of His rejection, in the time of His absence, there is need for full wholehearted committal.
I raise the question with myself as I do with every one here. How committed are we to Christ during His absence, in our places where we gather? Are we whole-hearted in our committal?
It would mean that you would want to be wherever the brethren were. If they were gathering together you would want to be there. I think these desires would come into your heart as you are committed to Christ, the absent One. You would want to be in the best place you could be to be near to Him, and that would be amongst His people. I am not saying that from the point of view of saying that we are the church. I am not saying that, but where there are those committed to Christ, our desire should be to be with them. That should be our commanding interest above all other interests. How forceful and powerful interests can be that may come into our lives to draw us away from Christ. Satan is one of the most adept foes at drawing persons away from Christ; what skill he has had, over two thousand years, to water down and seduce and weaken. How powerful he is! But against that, the blessed Spirit of God is here to enable us to commit ourselves fully to be here whole-heartedly for Christ.
So this man, in the time of David’s rejection, commits himself whole-heartedly—“As Jehovah liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be”. Then it says, “And David said to Ittai, Go and pass over. And Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him”. When you are younger the pull of the world is very strong, and many things can appeal to you that would draw you away from Christ. Sometimes I could say that I appreciated the older brethren who would draw alongside you and pass on a word to encourage you to remain with the saints. It says of Ittai that he “passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him”. It suggests to me that the man had influence; he had influence over this company, over these persons, just as Abraham had influence over his household, he could retain them. How we can thank God for persons who are ready and willing to speak a word of encouragement to stimulate us to continue in our whole-hearted committal to Christ; to warm our hearts if we have been turning away. They have been able to speak a word briefly to us, and that has affected us, and kindled those desires to be more whole-hearted in our committals. I trust that that might be the portion of each one of us here that our committal would be full and whole-hearted.
I read of Paul in Philippians writing, “For for me to live is Christ”. How testing that is! Does Christ have the first place in all our arrangements, beloved brethren? We are going to be eternally with Him in glory, but down here we are to learn what it is to be in the company of Christ and to do that, and to get the fullest benefit of it, needs full committal to Himself. “For for me to live is Christ”. Can you say that? Are your circumstances and arrangements such that He has the first place or are there other things that demand your time and energy which might take you away from Him? He is looking for whole-hearted committal. Let that be our chief interest. That is worthwhile. The other interests may be necessary. I am not saying here that persons should not work, and things like that; we need to fulfil righteousness, but the thing is, Does Christ have the first place in our lives?
So I read that other section in chapter 3 where Paul says, “I do not count to have got possession myself; but
one thing—forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue”. His energies were in that direction. Are our energies, beloved brethren, in that direction—pursuing Christ, to be found here living for Him? What a privilege! There are privileges in our present condition that will cease with death or when the Lord comes. The privilege is that now we can be here for Himself, our absent Lord. How worthy He is of whole-hearted committal!
I have not much more to say, but I trust that from today onward our interest may be wholehearted, it may be commanding. I use that word in the sense that it overrides all other matters.
There are many things that engage us, dear brethren, but let Christ and His interests have the first place in our hearts. There will be trials, and some of the dear brethren know very deep testing within their personal lives; touched perhaps as to personal health; touched perhaps as to our families; affected perhaps in our work places. God has to do with us in all these matters, but His desire is that we should be found as those whose interests are His interests.
May that become so in every heart here. Life is brief, very brief even at its longest. James says of it, “It is even a vapour, appearing for a little while, and then disappearing”, James 4: 14. Let our lives be such that Christ is the One we are living for, for His name’s sake.
Address at Maidstone
1 May 1999