SERVING AND WAITING

^[p. 339] SERVING AND WAITING

1 Thessalonians It is always interesting to turn to the first Epistle to the Thessalonians to see what one may call the simple effect of the truth on minds that had been educated in things very different from christianity. The apostle recognised the fact of their election, so that it is evident there was in them a very real work of God. This was the basis on which any enlightenment of mind rested. One may reasonably suppose that the saints themselves had the sense in their souls of being subjects of the sovereign mercy of God. God had from the outset chosen them. This is a very important point in the history of souls. The first impression produced on men by the word of God must of necessity connect itself with their sense of responsibility, and this is right, and is met by the grace of God. But the reception of the Spirit as the seal of God must inevitably sooner or later bring in other thoughts in regard of God. Moses had to learn in reference to Israel that they could exist only through the sovereign mercy of God. And the same thing must come home to all of us. The proper effect of it would be to produce the sense that we have no title to live to ourselves, that the claim of God is absolute. In this way we are marked off from the world, it has ceased to have any claim on us, we are a people sanctified to God.

All the world bore witness to the reality of the work in the Thessalonians, which was evidenced by their attitude toward God and His Son. This serves to make plain what the apostle had preached among them. The Son of God had been revealed in him that he might preach Him as glad tidings among the heathen, and he had evidently preached Him in this way among the Thessalonians. It is to be noticed that not only had they turned to God from ^[p. 340] idols, but it was to be in bondage to a living and true God. They had been in bondage to dumb idols, or rather to what lay behind idolatry. The same kind of bondage exists in our day, for men are in bondage to the great Babylonish system around us, in which man has his glory, and which is maintained by the god and prince of this world. And this is the great agency for blinding the minds of men lest the light of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine for them. The Thessalonians had turned to God, not with the mere idea of escaping from the abominations of idolatry, but of being bound to the God who had revealed Himself to them through the gospel. I think it is evident from this that they must have been deeply impressed with the sense of what God is. The light of a living and true God had come home to them. They could be in bondage to such an One without suffering moral degradation. And to be in bondage to Him proved that there was moral affinity. Bondage to idols proved moral affinity, and the same principle holds good in regard to bondage to God. The great foundation on which christianity is built is that God has been pleased to reveal Himself, and that in His Son; hence it is evident that the only God that can be known is a living and true God. In the Old Testament we have hints now and again of a living God, but God did not make Himself manifest in that way, though there were witnesses to it; but in the presence of the Son of the living God, He is revealed in that light. He is a living God in relation to man, and man is to be in relation to a living God, and therefore discharged from the penalty of death under which he is labouring. If we apprehend God as a living God, it is the proof that we stand in relation to Him as such. “Living” is not a mere abstract idea, descriptive of God, but a characteristic of Him in what He is in relation to ^[p. 341] men. This is made good in us in the writing of Christ, by the Spirit of the living God. If God is revealed as a living God, the question is legitimately raised, in what does He live, that is, morally? The answer may be, in the activities of love. And thus He is made known to the heart of the believer by the Spirit of the living God. God commends His love to us, in that, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. And thus God is known, and we are bound to Him by the very force of what He is. This all hangs on the fact of God having been livingly revealed, and of the Spirit being here to make the revelation good in the heart of the believer. And the Spirit does not design to make a mere transient impression, but one that is being continually deepened, so that bondage becomes more complete. But the fact is that bondage to what is infinitely and divinely perfect is compatible with perfect liberty. This was in the mind of the Thessalonians, and should be the effect of the gospel on all that receive it. To suppose that any creature can stand in absolute liberty is out of the question. God is independent of any other being, and, being love, maintains consistency with His own nature; but any creature must be bound by the sense it has of God, or it is lawless. Bondage to a living and true God is our portion now, since God has been revealed on earth in this light.

But there was another thing that characterised the Thessalonians, and that was waiting. It was part of their faith. The gospel had made them acquainted with the Son of God, and if He had been here once, it was possible that He might come again. More than this, it is morally a necessity that He should come again, in order that He may be glorified in the scene from which He has been rejected. He has been raised from the dead as witness on the part of God that He has appointed a day in which He will ^[p. 342] judge the world in righteousness. The lawlessness of the world has well-nigh run its day, and the moment is not far distant when God will take up all the threads into His own hands. The principles of the kingdom have been witnessed in the ministry of the Lord down here, and when the heavenly city is complete then God will manifest the kingdom. In view of this there must come wrath on the world, for the world has no design to allow God to take the kingdom. It will seek to hold its own. It appears to me that the language of men means that God must limit Himself to heaven, and not interfere with man on earth — it is for man to order things there. Hence wrath is coming on the world. And as far as saints are concerned, if they had to wait to the coming of the wrath they would have no power to take themselves out of its application. But the Son of God is known to them, the One who is the Firstborn among many brethren, and they await Him as Saviour. He is our Deliverer from the coming wrath, and I judge the way of this is in conforming us perfectly to Himself, so that we should be in every way suited for the courts above. Thus we await the Son of God.

We have seen the simplest elements of christianity realised in those who were young in the faith in such a way as that they were marked by them. And the same things remain unchanged in regard of us. We need to be roused from the lethargic influences around. Christendom has long given up the coming of the Lord, and is using the word of God to serve its own ends; and it behoves every one who has been really affected by the gospel to seek to get back to what marked the saints in early days. The power for that lies in the knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself, and in the appropriation of the Son as the expression and witness of our blessing, and as having power to completely conform us to Himself.