LEARNING IN THE DIVINE SCHOOL

J. Taylor

I want now to show you in the first passage I read (Matthew 14: 22–32) how Peter with the others was amenable to divine influence. If I am first, I am apt to assume that my will must rule, that my judgment must be right—and I have therefore to learn, with others, how to come under divine constraint. It says, “And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship”; He constrained them. Were they not constrainable they would have missed this experience. Now this, dear brethren, is an important lesson for every one of us in the school of God—the lesson of being constrainable; for after all you may just err a little, assuming that your standpoint is best. Even the great apostle Paul—what is striking about him in the book of Acts is that he was amenable to advice from his brethren. I do not go into the details; but if you look through

the Acts you will see that whilst he would go to Jerusalem and suffer, he was nevertheless amenable to advice. (see Acts 17: 10, 14, 15; Acts 19: 30). Unless I learn to give up an unbending will, I shall disqualify myself, both for the assembly and for the kingdom. The Lord constrained or compelled His disciples to go into the ship. Peter might have objected and said, Lord, You are not going with us, and I do not wish to go just now; it does not seem advisable; but He constrained them. How shall we get on in assembly matters unless we cultivate the habit of accepting, of bending under sound advice, under heavenly influence?

He constrained His disciples, and they entered that boat; it was a boat full of men whose wills had given way to Christ.

What a fine picture that is morally! It is what the assembly is, a number of men and women who are brought into subjection to Christ, who have obeyed from the heart the form of teaching delivered them, who are amenable to divine restraint, to divine correction. That may work out through advice from one and another. We are to be subject one to another in the fear of Christ. I am not always right—it is quite possible I may err a little bit; why not think it over, and see the wisdom of divine compulsion? It is a remarkable picture, a number of men getting into a boat under divine compulsion.

(Vol. 25, p.392)