“BE NOT THEREFORE ASHAMED”
D. E. Remmington
I had an impression, beloved brethren, to refer to this section of Scripture because of the references to not being ashamed. Paul says, “Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner”. Then he says in verse 12, “I am not ashamed”. And Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Paul’s chain. On the other hand, Phygellus and Hermogenes and all in Asia clearly were ashamed of Paul.
We have been speaking today of the truth as to Christ and the assembly; the glory of the body of Christ. And what is the body of Christ for but the display of Himself? We
have been reminded of Revelation 21, when the city will be for the display of God in all His greatness, and of the assembly being the fulness of Him who fills all in all; but the assembly is to be for the display of Christ even now. One has felt challenged in recent times as to the importance of being found in the testimony, and among those where Christ is seen in display.
Paul says here, “Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord”. Do you ever feel ashamed of the testimony? You may say, ‘Well, yes, when people talk about publicly-known failure in recent times’. I believe, beloved brethren, that in a day like this there is a special demand to be found faithful in the testimony.
There has been a history of much failure, in which we have each had our part, but that is not to cause us to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Let me ask you a simple question.
When did you last confess the name of the Lord Jesus to a person other than amongst your brethren? Is it so long ago that you cannot remember? It is of vital importance to be in the testimony in faithfulness to Christ, for our present salvation depends to a large degree on our preparedness to be found thus. In a day when things have gone to wrack and ruin publicly, what need there is that you and I should stand in the breach as never before and be faithful to the name of the Lord Jesus. So Paul would encourage us—“Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord”. What an encouragement to us to be found in the testimony of our Lord Jesus! The Lord is in disrepute; the name of the Lord is, alas, not welcomed in the world. It brings, reproach, and who of us likes reproach? When we speak of reproach we think of Moses. He took the long-term view; he was not ashamed
of the reproach of Christ, then think of his reward!
Then Paul adds, “nor of me his prisoner”. Now Paul is in disrepute as well, but there is encouragement not only not to be ashamed of Christ, but not to be ashamed of Paul either.
The truth as to Christ and the assembly, the light which has come to us at its height, is not popular. Alas, how few comparatively there are here today; how few there are as you look
round generally; this but testifies to the fact that Paul is in reproach. How thankful we can be for the truth which has come to us, the light to which we have been recovered as to the Head in heaven and the body here on earth. That was Paul’s distinctive ministry. How thankful we can be for the ministries, the outline of sound words, which have unfolded the truth to us. We need to value and to read the ministry so as to “have an outline of sound words, which words thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus”. It is not to be something which we read and take in in an intellectual way, but it is to be kept “by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us”; then it will not be just knowledge, it will be worked out in a substantial character. Thus there will be this testimony as to Christ, and a representation concretely of the truth as to the assembly.
What an example Paul himself is to us. He says, “I am not ashamed”. In days when there were such persons as Phygellus around, and all in Asia had turned away from Paul you might think he would have been very despondent. Is Paul ashamed, because of what had come in to mar the testimony, to spoil the features of Christ in the saints, for which he had laboured? No,
“I am not ashamed”. Why?
“For I know whom I have believed”. He had a link with the Man in the glory. He does not say I know what I have believed, but “whom I have believed”. Paul was almost on his own, and you feel very much for those now who are just two or three, but in such circumstances Paul was not ashamed. He was as bright as ever, as buoyant as ever; “I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep for that day the deposit I have entrusted to him”. Now where is your deposit? Paul’s deposit was not in a bank here, it was with Christ in glory. He had Christ as his Object, and, come what may, you could not have deflected Paul. Christ had met him on the Damascus road, he had seen Christ in glory, and that was what was governing him in his pathway here. So, though things outwardly are weak and there is much to sorrow over, Paul would encourage us to go on, and to prove the power of Christ on high, and the Spirit here below, to support and encourage us in the testimony.
Then Paul says, “All who are in Asia … have turned away from me”. It does not say that they had turned away from the Lord; they had not necessarily turned away, you might say, from an evangelical line; but they had turned away from Paul and Paul’s glad tidings, the truth at its height. Because the Spirit is here, there will be what is collective to the end. How thankful we can be for that! That is involved in Paul’s glad tidings. Those who turned away from Paul gave up the truth as to the assembly. We can say that, objectively, every believer having the Spirit is in the assembly; but the Spirit’s great work is that the truth should not just be objective, but should be worked out substantially, and that we, as in the circle where the truth is worked out collectively, should be there not just as
being right positionally, but as fitted together in a substantial way. We are not to be isolated individual units, but built together, fitted together, to be a habitation of God in Spirit.
How sad that some have given up the truth as to what is collective and go on as if they were isolated individual units. May we continue as those who are built up together and maintained
together in the truth at its height as to Christ and the assembly. We shall not then be found among those of whom Paul says, “All who are in Asia, of whom is Phygellus and Hermogenes, have turned away from me”. We would be among those who go on and seek in faithfulness to maintain what has been committed to us. How full is the light that has been committed to us! What a responsibility is upon us; but what encouragement to be found as those who are livingly and vitally in the testimony, personally, householdly, and collectively.
Then there is this man, Onesiphorus, and his household. He was not ashamed of Paul, or of Paul’s chain. It would have taken courage to go and visit that Roman jail where Paul was a prisoner. He would have been immediately identified with Paul. Would you like to be identified with a prisoner like Paul? It would test us. Onesiphorus sought out Paul very diligently and refreshed him. What an encouragement to Paul! “The Lord grant to him to find mercy from the Lord in that day—and how much service he rendered in Ephesus thou knowest best”.
So what encouragement there is, beloved brethren, that we should be found as those who are not ashamed. We have much entrusted
to us—all the light that has shone out, which we have here in the Scriptures, made good to us in the power of the Spirit; all that has been opened up to our understanding through the ministry that has come to us how thankful we can be! But I believe the call of the day is for persons who are faithful, standing in the testimony, and not ashamed of Christ, not ashamed of Paul’s glad tidings, and not ashamed of Paul’s chain.
May we all be encouraged, even though we be in days of weakness and brokenness, to be found as those who would continue, with the Lord’s help and that of the Holy Spirit, to seek to hold the truth at its height, not having any lower standard. That would test us in our individual pathways, but what a comfort to the heart of the Lord that there should be little companies on the face of this earth in which He has been rejected, who accept His rejection, and who seek to be faithful to Him in the little time that remains until we shall be with Him for ever.
12 April 1974
Published by F. C. Mutton, 22 Christchurch Road, Ilford, Essex IG1 4QY, England Printed by High Speed Printing Limited, 43 Conduit Street, London, W1S 2YJ