COMMITTAL AND EARNESTNESS
E. M. Walkinshaw
1 Timothy 6: 11–16; 2 Timothy 2: 15; Romans 15: 30–33
I thought to say a word, I trust of exhortation to all of us, as to committal to the Lord and earnestness in it. In these days men are very casual about things and sometimes in raising questions with them you get the common expression, ‘I could not care less’. That should never be our attitude, dear brethren; we should never be dilatory in anything that we do but should do all as to the Lord Christ (Colossians 3: 23, 24). So in our daily lives, in our business, whatever we do, we should never be careless or indifferent but take everything up rightly before the Lord as recognising Him and as having the spring of our confidence in God. The Lord would encourage us, especially
younger men and women, to be committed to Him. It is said of certain that “they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God’s will”, 2 Corinthians 8: 5. It is a wonderful thing to be committed to Him. It is not possible to be committed to anyone greater or to anyone more patient; where some of us would have been had He not been patient I know not.
He is our Master in the heavens who is wonderfully gracious and patient with all of us.
So I speak of committal, which is so essential, especially in these days of breakdown and ruin. Now I find from experience that if I think of committing myself to Him I tend to shrink from it because of what it might involve. If I commit myself to Him totally it means that I am subject to Him, to His will, and it means the setting aside of my own will. I find by experience that it is painful, and I am sure that that is the experience of every one that would be committed to the Lord and committal to Him is full-time. Of course, you may not be occupied full-time in service, most of us are but part-timers. There are persons in some employment who are called casual labourers. The word ‘casual’ should never be applied to a Christian labourer, but most of us would have to accept the fact that we are part-time, or eleventh-hour men (Matthew 20: 26). Nevertheless, the Lord would not have us casual, but committed to Him and committed to “the work of the Lord”—I wonder if we all are. We said in the reading that if the Lord sees just the desire to be committed to Him He is very pleased with that. You may be very young, you may be in your teens, you may be middle-aged; whatever age you are, if you desire to be committed He is pleased with that and I think His Spirit would foster it so that you grow in your committal to Him.
Now I suppose that those of us who seek to walk in the light of the assembly would have to understand that our primary responsibility is in our local assembly. Hence, of course, incidentally, to change one’s locality is a matter that needs very sober consideration because it has been pointed out that if you change your place around the tabernacle you may well put yourself out of gear with the breastplate, speaking practically. Hence the Lord would have us know where we are set and to be committed to Him primarily to serve the brethren where we are set. One example of that was beloved Mr. Taylor who, when he went to New York in the presence of many difficulties, committed himself to the Lord and to His interests in that place; and then it extended to a universal influence. Who knows what the Lord may do with a committed person! The Lord is not short of gift if you are committed to Him and desire gift, and every one of us should desire gift. He has plenty of gift; there is no shortage with the Lord, whether it be the gift of prophecy, or the evangelist, or teaching. It may be that we should stir up one another. May I make an appeal to younger men? The Lord would give the gift, especially in these days, of the evangelist so that there may be an increase not simply in souls that are saved and have eternal security, but in souls that are brought into the assembly. How wonderful that is!—the most august assembly on this earth. You think of that, that each of us here as a believer is a component part of the most august assembly this world has ever seen. I wonder if you realize it. The Lord would have us to be committed to Him and however weak we may feel there is a resource in Him; ‘He will establish’ and ‘In Him is strength’ (2
Chronicles 3: 17). So we find our all in Him as abiding in Him.
So Timothy is written to by Paul who is thinking of the continuation of the testimony, as also those of us who are growing older do. We would
not say, as Hezekiah said, ‘Well, as long as there is peace and truth in my days that is all that matters; I am nearing my end so let others get on with it’ (Isaiah 39: 8). That is never the attitude of a committed person, however old he may be; he would always be thinking of the testimony, because as the Lord works He prepares us for heaven and our place there, but the self-same work prepares us for the testimony because His work is producing in us the heavenly character that is needed for heaven and is also needed for the testimony.
Consequently we can appeal to young men and young women with a view to the continuance of the testimony. So let us be committed! If you feel, as I have felt, ‘Well, what does it mean if I commit myself to it?’—What does it mean? Maybe I cannot go the way I would like to.
Maybe I cannot even live where I would like to; yet I shall always find that His will is good and acceptable and perfect, and that it is much better than mine. What a Master He is!
Here Paul says, “Thou, O man of God, flee these things”. “These things”; we know what they are. “The love of money is the root of every evil; which some having aspired after, have wandered from the faith, and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6: 10). This is not a word for rich people because rich people do not desire to be rich. It is persons that have not much who may desire to be rich; they wander from the faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. The word for the rich people is later in the chapter; you will see that; but here the love of money is the root of every evil. Now if someone told me he did not love money I would say, You do not know your own heart. I am quite sure it would be quite a thrill to me if someone left me one hundred thousand pounds. Every human heart loves money because money is power and, alas, sometimes it has been seen to be a power in God’s assembly. It should have no power there. But
every human heart loves money, so we have to learn to judge that and in simple piety, day by day, accept the position that God has put us in governmentally—and not to take one another out of it either.
Piety means that the spring of my confidence is in God; not in money, not in my business, not in my ability, but in God, and in whatever circumstances He has set me I bow to them. Hence there is no competition in keeping up with others, or coveting what others have, but rather the acceptance in simplicity of the place in which God has put me, the circumstances in which He has put me, and contentment in them. “Piety with contentment is great gain”. We brought nothing into the world, Paul says, and it is manifest that we shall carry nothing out; we shall leave it all behind. Most will know of the very rich man as to whom it was asked, ‘And how much did he leave?’ The reply I was, ‘Every penny’. What we do take with us is the knowledge of God.
Now it is worth committing yourself to the Lord and He will, in due time, indicate to you where you should be and what you should do, what your place is in the body, what you have to fill out. So Paul says here, “Strive earnestly in the good conflict of faith”—strive earnestly—not a casual commitment, but “strive earnestly in the good conflict of faith. Lay hold of” (or ‘seize’) “eternal life”. We cannot afford to be casual, dear brethren. Christianity is simple, but it is earnest. Christianity is life and vitality. Do we prove it to be such? “Lay hold of eternal life”. It is indestructible. The gold and the silver are destructible; that word
“eternal” could be rendered ‘indestructible’. Now while eternal life is the gift of God, “the act of favour”, as this translation says (Romans 6: 23), at
the same time there has to be exercise to lay hold of it. Now is it so with you? And I ask myself, Is it so with me? Do I desire to lay hold of eternal life, or to lay hold of riches or possessions in this life? If I have them, let me be faithful as a steward in whatever I have; but is that my object, to lay hold of material possessions, or to lay hold of indestructible life?
What matters with a person is his state of soul. A rich man’s castle, according to the state of his soul, might be the wilderness to him, and a poor man’s cottage, according to the state of his soul, might be his heaven. It is not a question of riches or poverty but the state of the soul.
What is primarily before you? Seize eternal life, go in for it, and the Spirit of God will help you to enjoy it. Now there is no question about it, dear brethren, that we are very much affected by the environment in which we live, particularly in business. In some places practices are loose and in these days it is becoming more difficult for the Christian and the conditions tend to affect him. Take for instance the propensities of men; many think nothing of thieving from their master; it is something that does not matter. These things, dear brethren, the believer is to eschew, to keep clear from them, and as kept near to the Lord we shall not be characterized by what characterizes men in the world—careless indifference as to what is their own and what belongs to someone else. Those in business know full well that it is sometimes difficult to find a person that you can trust, but how wonderful, as passing through this scene, to be some testimony to Christ and marked by what pleases Him. The primary object that is to be before you is to seize eternal life. O, you young men, lay hold of that, seize it, go in for it with earnestness; it is indestructible life. Such persons will come into the enjoyment of it and be useful to the Lord in His testimony and, I am assured, will not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of Paul His prisoner (2 Timothy 1: 8). I like to think of these men, Paul and Timothy. One gets a feeling of simple affinity with them and learns almost to love them, although not present with us. It is perhaps not possible to love a person who is not present—and whom we have not seen—except, of course, the Lord, “Whom having not seen, ye love” (1 Peter 1: 8)—but you feel the character of the men appeals to you, their devotion, their earnestness, and the way in which they would lay hold of eternal life.
In the second passage Paul says to Timothy—and this is perhaps very particularly for those who seek to serve, although that would be all of us in a way—“Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. So that as the Lord may give you opportunity, or as you desire and seek gift, it is not to make something of you, or to make something of the recipient of the gift, but to make everything of Christ, ‘the expression of an impression of Christ’, as it has been called.
But strive diligently. You cannot take up ministry, or preaching, casually. We may try to. In these days we have volumes of books—it would not be too difficult to give an address on a subject; you find a scripture and you can look up the books. A young man said to me some time ago, ‘I would not do it, but I could give an address; that would be easy’. But would it be from the Lord? Would it be the word of the Lord? That is the point.
So ‘strive diligently to present thyself approved to God’, not ‘approved of God before men’, but “present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. Now we are told at school that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, but I rather favour Mr. Darby’s definition, ‘A straight line is one which always follows the same direction’ (Coll.Wrtgs.32. p.145). If we speak of work or ministry, where is the direction? The direction is to be always to Christ, so, “Cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. Keep that before you; strive diligently; do not take up any service lightly; the Lord would have us take it up with earnestness and with an honest heart. Well, I say, the Lord has gift beside Him. There is no shortage with God; it may be there is a shortage with our desires and our requests, but I am sure of this, that it is the person that commits himself unreservedly to the Lord to whom the Lord will give gift, and all gifts, including the evangelist and teacher, are to one end and that is to build up the saints.
Now the next matter is striving in prayer. “But I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that, ye strive together with me in prayers for me to God”. “Strive together with me”; I suppose everybody here says his or her prayers. I have been rather surprised when speaking to men in the world by the number of persons who have told me that they say their prayers. Very good; we are very thankful for every person who says his prayers morning and evening. Daniel prayed three times a day. Be thankful for any one that says his prayers, but this is “strive together with me in prayers”—with Paul! What would Paul be praying about? Here it is that his ministry which he had for Jerusalem would-be acceptable to the saints. Think of striving together with Paul. What an outlook! What prayers! How little one strives in prayer. You may say, Is God reluctant to give; do we need to urge Him? You could never say that of God.
because He has given liberally, but He loves to see earnestness with His people and He loves to have them with Him in earnestness in what He is doing. I would like to take that on more, although I find I am very much tested by it. I can pray a little, read a little, meditate a little, but when it comes to striving together with Paul to God, that is another question, and I suppose that the thought of striving with Paul would be striving for those who would be seeking to maintain Paul’s ministry, both in principle and practice.
It is a wonderful thing to have the light of the assembly. I suppose that is what Paul would wish to present; so here he is urging the brethren to pray for him. You might think to yourself, ‘Paul does not need my prayers; who am I to pray with Paul?’ But he wanted the brethren to strive with him, in prayers to God for him. Let us take it up, dear brethren. A little earlier in this epistle he writes, “as regards prayer, persevering”. We do need to persevere in prayer, not simply for our needs, not simply for recovery from illness, good as those things are, but for the promotion of the work of God in the saints that there may be something of the nature and character of the assembly in these last days that our Lord will have when He comes to take the assembly to Himself.
May the Lord encourage us in these simple features. The first is laying hold of eternal life, then striving diligently “to present thyself approved to God”, and, finally, striving in prayer.
Be in earnest about these things. I am sometimes happy to quote John Bunyan who says, ‘I note that these things are only for those persons who are in downright earnest’. May the Lord help us to come into the life of Christianity and be committed more to it.
Address at Peterhead
30 August 1986