SERVICE MUST BE OUTSIDE THE ORDER OF THINGS HERE
SERVICE MUST BE OUTSIDE THE ORDER OF THINGS HERE
To be Christ’s servant, doing His will in everything in a world and a nature that simply seeks itself, is a wondrous privilege and a calling of great dignity. What discipline such a life would afford us if we were simply studying to fulfil the good pleasure of His will in all our course! How every little thing would call forth an expression of His mind, and a displacement of that which is against or unsuitable to Him. It is such a different thing to live for Him who is no longer here, or of this scene, and to live for man even in the most exemplary way. To be a good man, a benefactor, is creditable to man. The Christian, the servant of Christ, takes different and higher ground; he seeks to commend Christ, not man, and as he does so he goes contrary to all that is around him and even to his old self; but his spirit is succoured by the Lord and enriched by communion with Christ. Goodness to man will not be by any means wanting in him, but it will [p. 251] come out in quite a different way. If Christ be the object of the servant’s heart he will neglect no opportunity which is offered of commending Christ. The good work will be as easy as the good word. The importance of the work is regarded in relation to Him to whom it is done. When He is the object, the eye is single, and as the heart is true to Him who is outside everything here it longs to be here entirely for Him, and as He is outside of everything His servant would be so also. If you knew that Christ was on some lonely mountain, apart from all human associations, how you would like to join Him there! But now He has sanctified Himself, set Himself apart, that we might be sanctified truly; shall we not then walk in separation from everything here, and find in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost that it is only in this separation we can be here for Him, for it is only thus that we are in company with Him. It is not in the things here but outside of them that we can be here for Him or serve Him. This makes our path singular and very serious. To be in a scene which is natural to us, and at the same time to be through the Spirit united to One who is not only not in it but who is also not of it, and with whom we walk, and whom we serve, is a wondrous thing. In order to serve Him truly we must be outside of the order and current of things here, and morally in the sphere in which Christ is.
How to be thus, simply and naturally, is the next question. As we live in any order of things, we find it natural and easy to live in that order. Now the order for us is to live morally with Christ in glory. Can any order be more perfect or blessed? Such are its moral qualities, and so much does it confer that if we are even a little conversant with it, we necessarily are, because of its greatness, made conscious that it is divine, and entirely different from any other order, and seeing that, as we behold the Lord’s glory (2 Corinthians 3: 18) we are transformed into the same image; we are not only impressed by this superior order, but we acquire power to be here in accordance with it, and the great difficulty of being here when He is not here is solved. As we are with Him where He is, we get so used to and formed into the things where He is, and which suit Him, that, as walking here, we are almost [p. 252] unconsciously pursuing, as if natural and easy to us, the order of things in which we have been formed by association with Him. We are not looking around to see how we ought to act; but in company with Him where He is, we seek to find space for Him here where He is not. As we are with Him and formed into His order of things, so do we unconsciously exhibit His virtues in the path through this wilderness, and this produces a separation, a tone, and an exclusiveness from all around, and yet a power to contribute to all around us which is heart satisfying, because in it we are linked with Christ, and above the vanity and desires of the men of this age, and this is true service; so that, in a word, the great thing for us all, and especially for the servant, is to keep the eye on Him, and thus transformed to His image and order, our works down here will be the expression of Him, and we shall serve Him, and be in His interests in the truest way.
May we be so transformed into His order of things that gleams of heavenly light may be seen in all our ways and words to the glory of Him who is the object of our hearts, and the source of everything to us.