WORKING FOR GOD
A SEQUEL TO WAITING ON GOD!
By Andrew Murray
© Copyright: Public Domain
Note: In Scripture references Murray used Roman numerals. For the sake of the modern reader,
these have been converted to Arabic numerals in the following public domain text.
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
Publishers of Evangelical Literature
1901
COPYRIGHT 1901
BY
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
INTRODUCTION
The object of this little book is first of all to remind all Christian workers of the greatness and the
glory of the work in which God gives a share. It is nothing less than that work of bringing men
back to their God, at which God finds His highest glory and blessedness. As we see that it is
God's own work we have to work out, that He works it through us, that in our doing it His glory
rests on us and we glorify Him, we shall count it our joy to give ourselves to live only and wholly
for it.
The aim of the book at the same time is to help those who complain, and perhaps do not even
know to complain, that they are apparently labouring in vain, to find out what may be the cause
of so much failure. God's work must be done in God's way, and in God's power. It is spiritual
work, to be done by spiritual men, in the power of the Spirit. The clearer our insight into, and the
more complete our submission to, God's laws of work, the surer and the richer will be our joy and
our reward in it.
Along with this I have had in view the great number of Christians who practically take no real
part in the service of their Lord. They have never understood that the chief characteristic of the
Divine life in God and Christ is love and its work of blessing men. The Divine life in us can show
itself in no other way. I have tried to show that it is God's will that every believer without
exception, whatever be his position in life, gives himself wholly to live and work for God.
I have also written in the hope that some, who have the training of others in Christian life and
work, may find thoughts that will be of use to them in teaching the imperative duty, the urgent
need, the Divine blessedness of a life given to God's service, and to waken within the
consciousness of the power that works in them, even the Spirit and power of Christ Himself.
To the great host of workers in Church and Chapel, in Mission-Hall and Open-Air, in Day and
Sunday Schools, in Endeavour Societies, in Y. M. and Y. W. and Students' Associations, and all
the various forms of the ministry of love throughout the world, I lovingly offer these meditations,
with the fervent prayer that God, the Great Worker, may make us true Fellow-Workers with
Himself.
ANDREW MURRAY.
Wellington, February, 1901.
Chapter I
Waiting and Working
'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside
Thee, which worketh for him that waiteth for Him.' - Isa. 40:31, 64:4
Here we have two texts in which the connection between waiting and working is made clear. In
the first we see that waiting brings the needed strength for working - that it fits for joyful and
unwearied work. 'They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up on
eagles' wings they shall run, and not be weary they shall walk, and not faint.' Waiting on God has
its value in this: it makes us strong in work for God. The second reveals the secret of this
strength. 'God worketh for Him that waiteth for Him.' The waiting on God secures the working of
God for us and in us, out of which our work must spring. The two passages teach the great lesson,
that as waiting on God lies at the root of all true working for God, so working for God must be
the fruit of all true waiting on Him. Our great need is to hold the two sides of the truth in perfect
conjunction and harmony.
There are some who say they wait upon God, but who do not work for Him. For this there may be
various reasons. Here is one who confounds true waiting on God (in living direct intercourse with
Him as the Living One), and the devotion to Him of the energy of the whole being, with the
slothful, helpless waiting that excuses itself from all work until God, by some special impulse,
has made work easy. Here is another who waits on God more truly, regarding it as one of the
highest exercises of the Christian life, and yet has never understood that at the root of all true
waiting there must lie the surrender and the readiness to be wholly fitted for God's use in the
service of men. And here is still another who is ready to work as well as wait, but is looking for
some great inflow of the Spirit's power to enable him to do mighty works, while he forgets that as
a believer he already has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in Him that more grace is only given to
those who are faithful in the little and that it is only in working that we can be taught by the Spirit
how to do the greater works. All such, and all Christians, need to learn that waiting has working
for its object, that it is only in working that waiting can attain its full perfection and blessedness.
It is as we elevate working for God to its true place, as the highest exercise of spiritual privilege
and power, that the absolute need and the divine blessing of waiting on God can be fully known.
On the other hand, there are some, there are many, who work for God, but know little of what it is
to wait on Him. They have been led to take up Christian work, under the impulse of natural or
religious feeling, at the bidding of a pastor or a society, with but very little sense of what a holy
thing it is to work for God. They do not know that God's work can only be done in God's
strength, by God Himself working in us. They have never learnt that, just as the Son of God could
do nothing of Himself, but that the Father in Him did the work, as He lived in continual
dependence before Him, so, and much more, the believer can do nothing but as God works in
him. They do not understand that it is only as in utter weakness we depend upon Him, His power
can rest on us. And so they have no conception of a continual waiting on God as being one of the
first and essential conditions of successful work. And Christ's Church and the world are sufferers
to-day, oh, so terribly! not only because so many of its members are not working for God, but
because so much working for God is done without waiting on God.
Among the members of the body of Christ there is a great diversity of gifts and operations. Some,
who are confined to their homes by reason of sickness or other duties, may have more time for
waiting on God than opportunity of direct working for Him. Others, who are overpressed by
work, find it very difficult to find time and quiet for waiting on Him. These may mutually supply
each other's lack. Let those who have time for waiting on God definitely link themselves to some
who are working. Let those who are working as definitely claim the aid of those to whom the
special ministry of waiting on God has been entrusted. So will the unity and the health of the
body be maintained. So will those who wait know that the outcome will be power for work, and
those who work, that their only strength is the grace obtained by waiting. So will God work for
His Church that waits on Him.
Let us pray that as we proceed in these meditations on working for God, the Holy Spirit may
show us how sacred and how urgent our calling is to work, how absolute our dependence is upon
God's strength to work in us, how sure it is that those who wait on Him shall renew their strength,
and how we shall find waiting on God and working for God to be indeed inseparably one.
1. It is only as God works for me, and in me, that I can work for Him.
2. All His work for me is through His life in me.
3. He will most surely work, if I wait on Him.
4. All His working for me, and my waiting on Him, has but one aim, to fit me for His work of
saving men.
Chapter II
Good Works the Light of the World
'Ye are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' - Matt. 5:14, 16
A light is always meant for the use of those who are in darkness, that by it they may see. The sun
lights up the darkness of this world. A lamp is hung in a room to give it light. The Church of
Christ is the light of men. The God of this world hath blinded their eyes Christ's disciples are to
shine into their darkness and give them light. As the rays of light stream forth from the sun and
scatter that light all about, so the good works of believers are the light that streams out from them
to conquer the surrounding darkness, with its ignorance of God and estrangement from Him.
What a high and holy place is thus given to our good works. What power is attributed to them.
How much depends upon them. They are not only the light and health and joy of our own life, but
in every deed the means of bringing lost souls out of darkness into God's marvellous light. They
are even more. They not only bless men, but they glorify God, in leading men to know Him as the
Author of the grace seen in His children. We propose studying the teaching of Scripture in regard
to good works, and specially all work done directly for God and His kingdom. Let us listen to
what these words of the Master have to teach us.
The aim of good works. - It is, that God may be glorified. You remember how our Lord said to
the Father: 'I have glorified Thee on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to
do.' We read more than once of His miracles, that the people glorified God. It was because what
He had wrought was manifestly by a Divine power. It is when our good works thus too are
something more than the ordinary virtues of refined men, and bear the impress of God upon them,
that men will glorify God. They must be the good works of which the Sermon on the Mount is the
embodiment - a life of God's children, doing more than others, seeking to be perfect as their
Father in heaven is perfect. This glorifying of God by men may not mean conversion, but it is a
preparation for it when an impression favourable to God has been made. The works prepare the
way for the words, and are an evidence to the reality of the Divine truth that is taught, while
without them the world is powerless.
The whole world was made for the glory of God. Christ came to redeem us from sin and bring us
back to serve and glorify Him. Believers are placed in the world with this one object, that they
may let their light shine in good works, so as to win men to God. As truly as the light of the sun is
meant to lighten the world, the good works of God's children are meant to be the light of those
who know and love not God. What need that we form a right conception of what good works are,
as bearing the mark of something heavenly and divine, and having a power to compel the
admission that God is in them.
The power of good works. - Of Christ it is written: 'In Him was life, and the life was the light of
men.' The Divine life gave out a Divine light. Of His disciples Christ said: 'If any man follow Me,
be shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.' Christ is our life and light. When it is said
to us, Let your light shine, the deepest meaning is, let Christ, who dwells in you, shine. As in the
power of His life you do your good works, your light shines out to all who see you. And because
Christ in you is your light, your works, however humble and feeble they be, can carry with them a
power of Divine conviction. The measure of the Divine power which works them in you will be
the measure of the power working in those who see them. Give way, O child of God, to the Life
and Light of Christ dwelling in you, and men will see in your good works that for which they will
glorify your Father which is in heaven.
The urgent need of good works in believers. - As needful as that the sun shines every day, yea,
more so, is it that every believer lets his light shine before men. For this we have been created
anew in Christ, to hold forth the Word of Life, as lights in the world. Christ needs you urgently,
my brother, to let His light shine through you. Perishing men around you need your light, if they
are to find their way to God. God needs you, to let His glory be seen through you. As wholly as a
lamp is given up to lighting a room, every believer ought to give himself up to be the light of a
dark world.
Let us undertake the study of what working for God is, and what good works are as part of this,
with the desire to follow Christ fully, and so to have the light of life shining into our hearts and
lives, and from us on all around.
1. 'Ye are the light of the world!' The words express the calling of the Church as a whole. The
fulfilment of her duty will depend upon the faithfulness with which each individual member loves
and lives for those around him.
2. In all our efforts to waken the Church to evangelise the world, our first aim must be to raise the
standard of life for the individual believer of the teaching: As truly as a candle only exists with
the object of giving light in the darkness, the one object of your existence is to be a light to men.
3. Pray God by His Holy Spirit to reveal it to you that you have nothing to live for but to let the
light and love of the life of God shine upon souls.
Chapter III
Son, go Work
'Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.' - Matt. 21:28
The father had two sons. To each he gave the command to go and work in his vineyard. The one
went, the other went not. God has given the command and the power to every child of His to
work in His vineyard, with the world as the field. The majority of God's children are not working
for Him and the world is perishing.
Of all the mysteries that surround us in the world, is not one of the strangest and most
incomprehensible this - that after 1800 years the very name of the Son of God should be
unknown to the larger half of the human race.
Just consider what this means. To restore the ruin sin had wrought, God, the Almighty Creator,
actually sent His own Son to the world to tell men of His love, and to bring them His life and
salvation. When Christ made His disciples partakers of that salvation, and the unspeakable joy it
brings, it was with the express understanding that they should make it known to others, and so be
the lights of the world. He spoke of all who through them should believe, having the same calling.
He left the world with the distinct instruction to carry the Gospel to every creature, and teach all
nations to observe all that He had commanded. He at the same time gave the definite assurance
that all power for this work was in Him, that He would always be with His people, and that by the
power of His Holy Spirit they would be able to witness to Him to the ends of the earth. And what
do we see now? After 1800 years two-thirds of the human race have scarce heard the name of
Jesus. And of the other third, the larger half is still as ignorant as if they had never heard.
Consider again what this means. All these dying millions, whether in Christendom or
heathendom, have an interest in Christ and His salvation. They have a right to Him. Their
salvation depends on their knowing Him. He could change their lives from sin and wretchedness
to holy obedience and heavenly joy. Christ has a right to them. It would make His heart glad to
have them come and be blessed in Him. But they and He are dependent on the service of His
people to be the connecting link to brink them and Him together. And yet what His people do is
as nothing to what needs to be done, to what could be done, to what ought to be done.
Just consider yet once again what this means. What a revelation of the state of the Church. The
great majority of those who are counted believers are doing nothing towards making Christ
known to their fellow-men. Of the remainder, the majority are doing so little, and that little so
ineffectually, by reason of the lack of wholehearted devotion, that they can hardly be said to be
giving themselves to their Lord's service. And of the remaining portion, who have given
themselves and all they have to Christ's service, so many are occupied with the hospital work of
teaching the sick and the weakly in the Church, that the strength left free for aggressive work, and
going forth to conquer the world, is terribly reduced. And so, with a finished salvation, and a
loving Redeemer, and a Church set apart to carry life and blessing to men, the millions are still
perishing.
There can be no question to the Church of more intense and pressing importance than this: What
can be done to waken believers to a sense of their holy calling, and to make them see that to work
for God, that to offer themselves as instruments through whom God can do His work, ought to be
the one aim of their life? The vain complaints that are continually heard of a lack of enthusiasm
for God's kingdom on the part of the great majority of Christians, the vain attempts to waken
anything like an interest in missions proportionate to their claim, or Christ's claim, make us feel
that nothing less is needed than a revival that shall be a revolution, and shall raise even the
average Christian to an entirely new type of devotion. No true change can come until the truth is
preached and accepted, that the law of the kingdom is: Every believer to live only and wholly for
God's service and work.
The father who called his sons to go and work in his vineyard did not leave it to their choice to do
as much or as little as they chose. They lived in his home, they were his children, he counted on
what they would give him, their time and strength. This God expects of His children. Until it is
understood that each child of God is to give His whole heart to his Father's interest and work,
until it is understood that every child of God is to be a worker for God, the evangelisation of the
world cannot be accomplished. Let every reader listen, and the Father will say to him personally:
'Son, go work in My vineyard.'
1. Why is it that stirring appeals on behalf of missions often have so little permanent result?
Because the command with its motives is brought to men who have not learned that absolute
devotion and immediate obedience to their Lord is of the essence of true salvation.
2. If it is once seen, and confessed, that the lack of interest in missions is the token of a low and
sickly Christian life, all who plead for missions will make it their first aim to proclaim the calling
of every believer to live wholly for God. Every missionary meeting will be a consecration
meeting to seek and surrender to the Holy Spirit's power.
3. The average standard of holiness and devotion cannot be higher abroad than at home, or in the
Church at large than in individual believers.
4. Every one cannot go abroad, or give his whole time to direct work but everyone, whatever his
calling or circumstances, can give his whole heart to live for souls and the spread of the kingdom.
Chapter IV
To Each one his Work
'As a man sojourning in another country, having given authority to his servants, to each one his
work, commanded the porter also to watch.' - Mark 13:34.
What I have said in a previous chapter of the failure of the Church to do her Master's work, or
even clearly to insist upon the duty of its being done by every member has often led me to ask the
question, What must be done to arouse the Church to a right sense of her calling? This little book
is an attempt to give the answer. Working for God must take a very different and much more
definite place in our teaching and training of Christ's disciples than it has done.
In studying the question I have been very much helped by the life and writings of a great
educationist. The opening sentence of the preface to his biography tells us: 'Edward Thring was
unquestionably the most original and striking figure in the schoolmaster world of his time in
England.' He himself attributes his own power and success to the prominence he gave to a few
simple principles, and the faithfulness with which he carried them out at any sacrifice. I have
found them as suggestive in regard to the work of preaching as of teaching, and to state them will
help to make plain some of the chief lessons this book is meant to teach.
The root-principle that distinguished his teaching from what was current at the time was this:
Every boy in school, the dullest, must have the same attention as the cleverest. At Eton, where he
had been educated, and had come out First, he had seen the evil of the opposite system. The
school kept up its name by training a number of men for the highest prizes, while the majority
were neglected. He maintained that this was dishonest: there could be no truth in a school which
did not care for all alike. Every boy had some gift every boy needed special attention every boy
could, with care and patience, be fitted to know and fulfil his mission in life.
Apply this to the Church. Every believer, the feeblest as much as the strongest, has the calling to
live and work for the kingdom of his Lord. Every believer has equally a claim on the grace and
power of the Holy Spirit, according to his gifts, tofit him for his work. And every believer has a
right to be taught and helped by the Church for the service our Lord expects of him. It is when
this truth, every believer the feeblest, to be trained as a worker for God, gets its true place, that
there can be any thought of the Church fulfilling its mission. Not one can be missed, because the
Master gave to every one his work.
Another of Thring's principles was this: It is a law of nature that work is pleasure. See to make it
voluntary and not compulsory. Do not lead the boys blindfold. Show them why they have to
work, what its value will be, what interest can be awakened in it, what pleasure may be found in
it. A little time stolen, as he says, for that purpose, from the ordinary teaching, will be more than
compensated for by the spirit which will be thrown into the work.
What a field is opened out here for the preacher of the gospel in the charge he has of Christ's
disciples. To unfold before them the greatness, the glory, the Divine. blessedness of the work to
be done. To show its value in the carrying out of God's will, and gaining His approval in our
becoming the benefactors and saviours of the perishing in developing that spiritual vigour, that
nobility of character, that spirit of self-sacrifice which leads to the true bearing of Christ's image.
A third truth Thring insisted on specially was the need of inspiring the belief in the possibility,
yea, the assurance of success in gaining the object of pursuit. That object is not much knowledge
not every boy can attain to this. The drawing out and cultivation of the power there is in
himself - this is for every boy - and this alone is true education. As a learner's powers of
observation grow under true guidance and teaching and he finds within himself a source of power
and pleasure he never knew before, he feels a new self beginning to live, and the world around
him gets a new meaning. 'He becomes conscious of an infinity of unsuspected glory in the midst
of which we go about our daily tasks, becomes lord of an endless kingdom full of light and
pleasure and power.'
If this be the law and blessing of a true education, what light is shed on the calling of all teachers
and leaders in Christ's Church! The know ye nots of Scripture - that ye are the temple of
God - that Christ is in you - that the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you - acquire a new meaning. It tells
us that the one thing that needs to be wakened in the hearts of Christians is the faith 'in the power
that worketh in us.' As one comes to see the worth and the glory of the work to be done, as one
believes in the possibility of his, too, being able to do that work well as one learns to trust a
Divine energy, the very power and spirit of God working in him 'he will, in the fullest sense
become conscious of a new life, with an infinity of unsuspected glory in the midst of which we go
about our daily task, and become lord of an endless kingdom full of light and pleasure and
power.' This is the royal life to which God has called all His people. The true Christian is one
who knows God's power working in himself, and finds it his true joy to have the very life of God
flow into him, and through him, and out from him to those around.
1. We must learn to believe in the power of littles - of the value of every individual believer. As
men are saved one by one, they must be trained one by one for work.
2. We must believe that work for Christ can become as natural, as much an attraction and a
pleasure in the spiritual as in the natural world.
3. We must believe and teach that every believer can become an effective worker in his sphere.
Are you seeking to be filled with love to souls?
Chapter V
To Each according to his Ability
'The kingdom of heaven is as when a man, going into another country, called his own servants,
and delivered them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one to
each according to his several ability.' - Matt. 25:14.
In the parable of the talents we have a most instructive summary of our Lord's teaching in regard
to the work He has given to His servants to do. He tells us of His going to heaven and leaving His
work on earth to the care of His Church of His giving every one something to do, however
different the gifts might be of His expecting to get back His money with interest of the failure of
him who had received least and of what it was that led to that terrible neglect.
'He called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods, and went on his journey', is
literally what our Lord did. He went to heaven, leaving His work with all His goods to the care of
His Church.His goods were, the riches of His grace, the spiritual blessings in heavenly places, His
word and Spirit, with all the power of His life on the throne of God, - all these He gave in trust to
His servants, to be used by them in carrying out His work on earth. The work He had begun they
were to prosecute. As some rich merchant leaves Cape Town to reside in London, while his
business is carried on by trustworthy servants, our Lord took His people into partnership with
Himself, and entrusted His work on earth entirely to their care. Through their neglect it would
suffer their diligence would be His enrichment. Here we have the true root-principle of Christian
service Christ has made Himself dependent for the extension of His kingdom on the faithfulness
of His people.
'Unto one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one to each according to his several
ability.' Though there was a difference in the measure, every one received a portion of the
master's goods. It is in connection with the service we are to render to each other that we read of
'the grace given to each of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ.' This truth, that every
believer without exception has been set apart to take an active part in the work of winning the
world for Christ, has almost been lost sight of . Christ was first a son, then a servant. Every
believer is first a child of God, then a servant. It is the highest honour of a son to be a servant, to
have the father's work entrusted to him. Neither the home nor the foreign missionary work of the
Church will ever be done right until every believer feels that the one object of his being in the
world is to work for the kingdom. The first duty of the servants in the parable was to spend their
life in caring for their master's interests.
'After a long time the lord of those servants cometh and maketh a reckoning with them.' Christ
keeps watch over the work He has left to be done on earth His kingdom and glory depend upon it.
He will not only hold reckoning when He comes again to judge, but comes unceasingly to inquire
of His servants as to their welfare and work. He comes to approve and encourage, to correct and
warn. By His word and Spirit He asks us to say whether we are using our talents diligently, and,
as His devoted servants, living only and entirely for His work. Some He finds labouring
diligently, and to them He frequently says: 'Enter into the joy of thy Lord.' Others He sees
discouraged, and them He inspires with new hope. Some He finds working in their own strength
these He reproves. Still others He finds sleeping or hiding their talent to such His voice speaks in
solemn warning: 'from him that hath shall be taken away even that he hath.' Christ's heart is in His
work every day He watches over it with the intensest interest let us not disappoint Him nor
deceive ourselves.
'Lord, I was afraid and hid thy talent in the earth.' That the man of the one talent should have
been the one to fail, and to be so severely punished is a lesson of deep solemnity. It calls the
Church to beware lest, by neglecting to teach the feebler ones, the one-talent men, that their
service, too, is needed, she allow them to let their gifts lie unused. In teaching the great truth that
every branch is to bear fruit, special stress must be laid on the danger of thinking that this can
only be expected of the strong and advanced Christian. When Truth reigns in a school, the most
backward pupil has the same attention as the more clever. Care must be taken that the feeblest
Christians receive special training, so that they, too, may joyfully have their share in the service
of their Lord and all the blessedness it brings. If Christ's work is to be done, not one can be
missed.
'Lord, I knew that thou art a hard man, and I was afraid.' Wrong thoughts of God, looking upon
His service as that of a hard master, are one chief cause of failure in service. If the Church is
indeed to care for the feeble ones, for the one-talent servants, who are apt to be discouraged by
reason of their conscious weakness, we must teach them what God says of the sufficiency of
grace and the certainty of success. They must learn to believe that the power of the Holy Spirit
within them fits them for the work to which God has called them. They must learn to understand
that God Himself will strengthen them with might by His Spirit in the inner man. They must be
taught that work is joy and health and strength. Unbelief lies at the root of sloth. Faith opens the
eyes to see the blessedness of God's service, the sufficiency of the strength provided, and the rich
reward. Let the Church awake to her calling to train the feeblest of her members to know that
Christ counts upon every redeemed one to live wholly for His work. This alone is true
Christianity, is full salvation.
Chapter VI
Life and Work
'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work. I must work the
works of Him that sent Me. I have glorified Thee on the earth I have finished the work Thou
gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me with Thyself.' - John 5:34, 9:4, 17:4.
'Work is the highest form of existence.' The highest manifestation of the Divine Being is in His
work. Read carefully again the words of our Blessed Lord at the head of the chapter, and see what
Divine glory there is in His work. In His work Christ showed forth His own glory and that of the
Father. It was because of the work He had done, and because in it He had glorified the Father,
that He claimed to share the glory of the Father in heaven. The greater works He was to do in
answer to the prayer of the disciples was, that the Father might be glorified in the Son. Work is
indeed the highest form of existence, the highest manifestation of the Divine glory in the Father
and in His Son.
What is true of God is true of His creature. Life is movement, is action, and reveals itself in what
it accomplishes. The bodily life, the intellectual, the moral, the spiritual life - individual, social,
national life - each of these is judged of by its work. The character and quality of the work
depends on the life: as the life, so the work. And, on the other hand the life depends on the work
without this there can be no full development and manifestation and perfecting of the life: as the
work, so the life.
This is specially true of the spiritual life - the life of the Spirit in us. There may be a great deal of
religious work with its external activities, the outcome of human will and effort, with but little
true worth and power, because the Divine life is feeble. When the believer does not know that
Christ is living in him, does not know the Spirit and power of God working in him, there may be
much earnestness and diligence, with little that lasts for eternity. There may, on the contrary, be
much external weakness and apparent failure, and yet results that prove that the life is indeed of
God.
The work depends upon the life. And the life depends on the work for its growth and perfection.
All life has a destiny it cannot accomplish its purpose without work life is perfected by work. The
highest manifestation of its hidden nature and power comes out in its work. And so work is the
great factor by which the hidden beauty and the Divine possibilities of the Christian life are
brought out. Not only for the sake of what it accomplishes through the believer as God's
instrument, but what it effects on himself, work must in the child of God take the same place it
has in God Himself. As in the Father and the Son, so with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, work is
the highest manifestation of life.
Work must be restored to its right place in God's scheme of the Christian life as in very deed the
highest form of existence. To be the intelligent willing channel of the power of God, to be
capable of working the very work of God, to be animated by the Divine Spirit of love, and in that
to be allowed to work life and blessing to men it is this gives nobility to life, because it is for this
we are created in the image of God. As God never for a moment ceases to work His work of love
and blessing in us and through us, so our working out what He works in us is our highest proof of
being created anew in His likeness.
If God's purpose with the perfection of the individual believer, with the appointment of His
Church as the body of Christ to carry on His work of winning back a rebellious world to His
allegiance and love is to be carried out, working for God must have much greater prominence
given to it as the true glory of our Christian calling. Every believer must be taught that, as work is
the only perfect manifestation, and therefore the perfection of life in God and throughout the
world, so our work is to be our highest glory. Shall it be so in our lives?
If this is to come, we must remember two things. The one is that it can only come by beginning to
work. Those who have not had their attention specially directed to it cannot realise how great the
temptation is to make work a matter of thought and prayer and purpose, without its really being
done. It is easier to bear than to think, easier to think than to speak, easier to speak than to act. We
may listen and accept and admire God's will, and in our prayer profess our willingness to
do, - and yet not actually do. Let us, with such measure of grace as we have, and much prayer for
more, take up our calling as God's working men, and do good hard work for Him. Doing is the
best teacher. If you want to know how to do a thing, begin and do it.
Then you will feel the need of the second thing I wish to mention, and be made capable of
understanding it, - that there is sufficient grace in Christ for all the work you have to do. You will
see with ever-increasing gladness how He the Head works all in you the member, and how work
for God may become your closest and fullest fellowship with Christ, your highest participation in
the power of His risen and glorified life.
1. Life and work: beware of separating them, The more work you have, the more your work
appears a failure. The more unfit you feel for work, take all the more time and care to have your
inner life renewed in close fellowship with God.
2. Christ liveth in me - is the secret of joy and hope, and also of power for work. Care for the life,
the life will care for the work. 'Be filled with the Spirit.'
Chapter VII
The Father abiding in Me doeth the Work
'Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work.' - John 5:17-20.
'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak I speak
not of Myself: but the Father abiding in Me doeth the work.' - John 14:10
Jesus Christ became man that He might show us what a true man is, how God meant to live and
work in man, and how man may find his life and do his work in God. In words like those above,
our Lord opens up the inner mystery of His life, and discovers to us the nature and the deepest
secret of His working. He did not come to the world to work instead of the Father the Father was
ever working - 'worketh even until now.' Christ's work was the fruit, the earthly reflection of the
Heavenly Father working. And it was not as if Christ merely saw and copied what the Father
willed or did: 'the Father abiding in Me doeth the work.' Christ did all His work in the power of
the Father dwelling and working in Him. So complete and real was His dependence on the Father,
that, in expounding it to the Jews, He used the strong expressions (v. 19, 30) John 5:19, 3: 'The
Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing' 'I can do nothing of Myself.'
As literally as what He said is true of us, 'Apart from Me ye can do nothing,' is it true of Him too.
'The Father abiding in Me doeth the work.'
Jesus Christ became man that He might show us what true man is, what the true relation between
man and God, what the true way of serving God and doing His work. When we are made new
creatures in Christ Jesus, the life we receive is the very life that was and is in Christ, and it is only
by studying His life on earth that we know how we are to live. 'As I live because of the Father, so
he that eateth Me shall live because of Me.' His dependence on the Father is the law of our
dependence on Him and on the Father through Him.
Christ counted it no humiliation to be ,able to do nothing of Himself, to be always and absolutely
dependent on the Father. He counted it His highest glory, because so all His works were the
works of the all glorious God in Him. When shall we understand that to wait on God, to bow
before Him in perfect helplessness, and let Him work all in us, is our true nobility, and the secret
of the highest activity? This alone is the true Son-life, the true life of every child of God. As this
life is known and maintained, the power for work will grow, because the soul is in the attitude in
which God can work in us, as the God who 'worketh for him that waiteth on Him.' It is the
ignorance or neglect of the great truths, that there can be no true work for God but as God works
it in us, and that God cannot work in us fully but as we live in absolute dependence on Him, that
is the explanation of the universal complaint of so much Christian activity with so little real
result. The revival which many are longing and praying for must begin with this: the return of
Christian ministers and workers to their true place before God - in Christ and like Christ, one of
complete dependence and continual waiting on God to work in them.
Let me invite all workers, young and old, successful or disappointed, full of hope or full of fear,
to come and learn from our Lord Jesus the secret of true work for God. 'My Father worketh, and I
work' 'The Father abiding in Me doeth the works.' Divine Fatherhood means that God is all, and
gives all, and works all. Divine Sonship means continual dependence on the Father, and the
reception, moment by moment, of all the strength needed for His Work. Try to grasp the great
truth that because 'it is God who worketh all in all,' your one need is, in deep humility and
weakness, to wait for and to trust in His working. Learn from this that God can only work in us as
He dwells in us. 'The Father abiding in Me doeth the works.' Cultivate the holy sense of God's
continual nearness and presence, of your being His temple, and of His dwelling in you. Offer
yourself for Him to work in you all His good pleasure. You will find that work, instead of being a
hindrance, can become your greatest incentive to a life of fellowship and childlike dependence.
At first it may appear as if the waiting for God to work will keep you back from your work. It
may indeed - but only to bring the greater blessing, when you have learned the lesson of faith,
that counts on His working even when you do not feel it. You may have to do your work in
weakness and fear and much trembling. You will know that it is all, that the excellency of the
power may be of God and not of us. As you know yourself better and God better, you will be
content that it should ever be - His strength made perfect in our weakness.
1. 'The Father abiding in Me doeth the work.' There is the same law for the Head and the member,
for Christ and the believer. 'It is the same God that worketh all in all.'
2. The Father not only worked in the Son when He was on earth, but now, too, that He is in
heaven. It is as we believe in Christ in the Father's working in Him, that we shall do the greater
works. See John 14:10-12.
3. It is as the indwelling God, the Father abiding in us, that God works in us. Let the life of God
in the soul be clear, the work will be sure.
4. Pray much for grace to say, in the name of Jesus, 'The Father abiding in me doeth the work.'
Chapter VIII
Greater Works
Verily, verily, I say unto You, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also and
greater works shall he do because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name,
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name,
that will I do.' - John 14:12-14.
In the words (ver. 10) 'The Father abiding in Me doeth the works,' Christ had revealed the secret
of His and of all Divine service - man yielding himself for God to dwell and to work in him.
When Christ now promises, 'He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also,' the
law of the Divine inworking remains unchanged. In us, as much as in Him, one might even say a
thousand times more than with Him, it must still ever be: The Father in me doeth the works. With
Christ and with us, it is 'the same God who worketh all in all.'
How this is to be, is taught us in the words, 'He that believeth on Me.' That does not only mean,
for salvation, as a Saviour from sin. But much more. Christ had just said (vers. 10, 11), 'Believe
Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: the Father abiding in Me doeth the works.' We
need to believe in Christ as Him in and through whom the Father unceasingly works. To believe
in Christ is to receive Him into the heart. When we see the Father's working inseparably
connected with Christ, we know that to believe in Christ, and receive Him into the heart, is to
receive the Father dwelling in Him and working through Him. The works His disciples are to do
cannot possibly be done in any other way than His own are done.
This becomes still more clear from what our Lord adds: 'And greater works shall he do because I
go unto the Father.' What the greater works are, is evident. The disciples at Pentecost with three
thousand baptized, and multitudes added to the Lord Philip at Samaria, with the whole city filled
with joy the men of Cyprus and Cyrene, and, later on, Barnabas at Antioch, with much people
added to the Lord Paul in his travels, and a countless host of Christ's servants down to our day,
have in the ingathering of souls, done what the Master condescendingly calls greater works than
He did in the days of His humiliation and weakness.
The reason why it should be so our Lord makes plain, 'Because I go to the Father.' When He
entered the glory of the Father, all power in heaven and on earth was given to Him as our
Redeemer. In a way more glorious than ever the Father was to work through Him and He then to
work through His disciples. Even as His own work on earth 'in the days of the weakness of the
flesh, had been in a power received from the Father in heaven, so His people, in their weakness,
would do works like His, and greater works in the same way, through a power received from
heaven. The law of the Divine working is unchangeable: God's work can only be done by God
Himself. It is as we see this in Christ, and receive Him in this capacity, as the One in and through
whom God works all, and so yield ourselves wholly to the Father working in Him and in us,' that
we shall do greater works than He did.
The words that follow bring out still more strongly the great truths we have been learning, that it
is our Lord Himself who will work all in us, even as the Father did in Him, and that our posture is
to be exactly what His was, one of entire receptivity and dependence. 'Greater works shall he do,
because I go to the Father, and whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.' Christ
connects the greater works the believer is to do, with the promise that He will do whatever the
believer asks. Prayer in the name of Jesus will be the expression of that dependence that waits on
Him for His working, to which He gives the promise: Whatsoever ye ask, I will do, in you and
through you. And when He adds, 'that the Father may be glorified in the Son,' He reminds us bow
He had glorified the Father, by yielding to Him as Father, to work all His work in Himself as Son.
In heaven Christ would still glorify the Father, by receiving from the Father the power, and
working in His disciples what the Father would. The creature, as the Son Himself can give the
Father no higher glory than yielding to Him to work all. The believer can glorify the Father in no
other way than the Son, by an absolute and unceasing dependence on the Son, in whom the Father
works, to communicate and work in us all the Father's work. 'If ye shall ask anything in My name,
that will I do,' and so ye shall do greater works.
Let every believer strive to learn the one blessed lesson. I am to do the works I have seen Christ
doing I may even do greater works as I yield myself to Christ exalted on the throne, in a power
He had not on earth I may count on Him working in me according to that power. My one need is
the spirit of dependence and waiting, and prayer and faith, that Christ abiding in me will do the
works, even whatsoever I ask.
1. How was Christ able to work the works of God? By God abiding in Him! How can I do the
works of Christ? By Christ abiding in me!
2. How can I do greater works than Christ? By believing, not only in Christ, the Incarnate and
Crucified, but Christ triumphant on the throne.
3. In work everything depends, O believer, on the life, the inner life, the Divine life. Pray to
realise that work is vain except as it is in 'the power of the Holy Spirit' dwelling in thee.
Chapter IX
Created in Christ Jesus for Good Works
'By grace have ye been saved through faith not of works, lest any man should glory. For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we
should walk in them.' - Eph. 2:[8-]10.
We have been saved, not of works, but for good works. How vast the difference. How essential
the apprehension of that difference to the health of the Christian life. Not of works which we have
done, as the source whence salvation comes, have we been saved. And yet for good works, as the
fruit and outcome of salvation, as part of God's work in us, the one thing for which we have been
created anew. As worthless as are our works in procuring salvation, so infinite is their worth as
that for which God has created and prepared us. Let us seek to hold these two truths in their
fulness of spiritual meaning. The deeper our conviction that we have been saved, not of works,
but of grace, the stronger the proof we should give that we have indeed been saved for good
works.
'Not of works, for ye are God's workmanship.' If works could have saved us, there was no need
for our redemption. Because our works were all sinful and vain, God undertook to make us
anew - we are now His workmanship, and all the good works we do are His workmanship too.
'His workmanship, created us anew in Christ Jesus.' So complete had been the ruin of sin, that
God had to do the work of creation over again in Christ Jesus. In Him, and specially in His
resurrection from the dead, He created us anew, after His own image, into the likeness of the life
which Christ had lived. In the power of that life and resurrection, we are able, we are perfectly
fitted, for doing good works. As the eye, because it was created for the light, is most perfectly
adapted for its work, as the vine-branch, because it was created to bear grapes, does its work so
naturally, we who have been created in Christ Jesus for good work, may rest assured that a
Divine capacity for good works is the very law of our being. If we but know and believe in this
our destiny, if we but live our life in Christ Jesus, as we were new created in Him, we can, we
will, be fruitful unto every good work.
'Created for good works, which God hath afore prepared that we should walk in them.' We have
been prepared for the works, and the works prepared for us. To understand this, think of how God
foreordained His servants of old, Moses and Joshua, Samuel and David, Peter and Paul, for the
work He had for them, and foreordained equally the works for them. The feeblest member of the
body is equally cared for by the Head as the most honoured The Father has prepared for the
humblest of His children their works as much as for those who are counted chief. For every child
God has a life-plan, with work apportioned just according to the power, and grace provided just
according to the work. And so just as strong and clear as the teaching, salvation not of works, is
its blessed counterpart, salvation for good works, because God created us for them, and even
prepared them for us.
And so the Scripture confirms the double lesson this little book desires to bring you. The one, that
good works are God's object in the new life He has given you, and ought therefore to be as
distinctly your object. As every human being was created for work, and endowed with the needful
powers, and can only live out a true and healthy life by working, so every believer exists to do
good works, that in them his life may be perfected, his fellowmen may be blessed, his Father in
heaven be glorified. We educate all our children with the thought that they must have their work
in the world: when shall the Church learn that its great work is to train every believer to take his
share in God's great work, and to abound in the good works for which he was created? Let each of
us seek to take in the deep spiritual truth of the message, 'Created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God hath afore prepared' for each one, and which are waiting for him to take up and fulfil.
The other lesson - that waiting on God is the one great thing needed on our part if we would do
the good works God has prepared for us. Let us take up into our hearts these words in their Divine
meaning: We are God's workmanship. 'Not by one act in the past, but in a continuous operation.
We are created for good works, as the great means for glorifying God. The good works are
prepared for each of us, that we might walk in them. Surrender to and dependence upon God's
working is our one need. Let us consider how our new creation for good works is all in Christ
Jesus, and abiding in Him, believing on Him, and looking for His strength alone will become the
habit of our soul. Created for good works! will reveal to us at once the Divine command and the
sufficient power to live a life in good works.
Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to work the word into the very depths of our consciousness:
Created in Christ Jesus for good works! In its light we shall learn what a glorious destiny, what
an infinite obligation, what a perfect capacity is ours.
1. Our creation in Adam was for good works. It resulted in entire failure. Our new creation in
Christ is for good works again. But with this difference: perfect provision has been made for
securing them.
2. Created by God for good works created by God in Christ Jesus the good works prepared by
God for us - let us pray for the Holy Spirit to show us and impart to us all this means.
3. Let the life in fellowship with God be true the power for the work will be sure. As the life, so
the work.
Chapter X
Work, for God works in You
'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you both to
will and to work, for His good pleasure.' - Phil. 2:12, 13.
In our last chapter we saw what salvation is. It is our being God's workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works. It concludes, as one of its chief and essential elements, all that treasury of
good works which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. In the light of this thought
we get the true and full meaning of to-day's text. Work out your own salvation, such as God has
meant it to be, a walk in all the good works which God has prepared for you. Study to know
exactly what the salvation is God has prepared for you, all that He has meant and made it possible
for you to be, and work it out with fear and trembling. Let the greatness of this Divine and most
holy life, hidden in Christ, your own absolute impotence, and the terrible dangers and temptations
besetting you, make you work in fear and trembling.
And yet, that fear need never become unbelief, nor that trembling discouragement, for - it is God
which worketh in you. Here is the secret of a power that is absolutely sufficient for everything we
have to do, of a perfect assurance that we can do all that God really means us to do. God works in
us both to will and to work. First, to will He gives the insight into what is to be done, the desire
that makes the work pleasure, the firm purpose of the will that masters the whole being, and
makes it ready and eager for action. And then to work. He does not work to will, and then leave
its unaided to work it out ourselves. The will may have seen and accepted the work, and yet the
power be lacking to perform. The renewed will of Romans 7 delighted in God's law, and yet the
man was impotent to do, until in Romans 8:2-4, by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, he
was set free from the law of sin and death then first could the righteousness of the law be fulfilled
in him, as one who walked not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
One great cause of the failure of believers in their work is that, when they think that God has
given them to will, they undertake to work in the strength of that will. They have never learnt the
lesson, that because God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works, and has afore prepared the
good works in which we are to walk, He must needs, and will most certainly, Himself work them
all in us. They have never listened long to the voice speaking 'It is God which worketh in you.'
We have here to do with one of the deepest, most spiritual, and most precious truths of
Scripture - the unceasing operation of Almighty God in our heart and life. In virtue of the very
nature of God, as a Spiritual Being not confined to any place, but everywhere present, there can
be no spiritual life but as it is upheld by His personal indwelling.
Not without the deepest reason does Scripture say, He worketh all in all. Not only of Him are all
things as their first beginning, and to Him as their end, but also through Him, who alone
maintains them.
In the man Christ Jesus the working of the Father in Him was the source of all He did. In the new
man, created in Christ Jesus, the unceasing dependence on the Father is our highest privilege, our
true nobility. This is indeed fellowship with God: God Himself working in us to will and to do.
Let us seek to learn the true secret of working for God. It is not, as many think, that we do our
best, and then leave God to do the rest. By no means. But it is this, that we know that God's
working His salvation in us is the secret of our working it out. That salvation includes every work
we have to do. The faith of God's working in us is the measure of our fitness to work effectively.
The promises, 'According to your faith be it unto you,' 'All things are possible to him that
believeth,' have their full application here. The deeper our faith in God's working in us, the more
freely will the power of God work in us, the more true and fruitful will our work be.
Perhaps some Sunday-school worker reads this. Let me ask, Have you really believed that your
only power to do God's work is as one who has been created in Christ Jesus for good works, as
one in whom God Himself works to will and to work? Have you yielded yourself to wait for that
working? Do you work because you know God works in you? Say not that these thoughts are too
high. The work of leading young souls to Christ is too high for us indeed, but if we live as little
children, in believing that God will work all in us, we shall do His work in His strength. Pray
much to learn and practise the lesson in all you do: Work, for God worketh in you.
1. I think we begin to feel that the spiritual apprehension of this great truth, 'God worketh in you,'
is what all workers greatly need.
2. The Holy Spirit is the mighty power of God, dwelling in believers for life and for work.
Beseech God to show it you, that in all our service our first care must be the daily renewing of the
Holy Spirit.
3. Obey the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Believe in His indwelling. Wait for His
teaching. Yield to His leading. Pray for His mighty working. Live in the Spirit.
4. What the mighty power of God works in us we are surely able to do. Only give way to the
power working in you.
Chapter XI
Faith working by Love
'In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision but faith working
through love. Through love be servants one to another for the whole law is fulfilled in this: Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' - Gal. 5:6, 13.
In Christ Jesus no external privilege avails. The Jew might boast of his circumcision, the token of
God's covenant. The Gentile might boast of his uncircumcision, with an entrance into the
Kingdom free from the Jewish law. Neither availed aught in the Kingdom of heaven - nothing
but, as we have it in 6:15, a new creature, in which old things are passed away and all things
become new. Or, as we have it in our text - as a description of the life of the new
creature - nothing but faith working by love, that makes us in love serve one another.
What a perfect description of the new life. First you have faith, as the root, planted and rooted in
Christ Jesus. Then as its aim you have works, as the fruit. And then between the two, as the tree,
growing downwards into the root and bearing the fruit upward, you have love, with the life-sap
flowing through it by which the root brings forth the fruit, Of faith we need not speak here. We
have seen how believing on Jesus does the greater works how the faith in the new creation, and in
God working in us, is the secret of all work. Nor need we speak here of works - our whole book
aims at securing for them the place in every heart and life that they have in God's heart and in His
Word.
We have here to study specially the great truth that all work is to be love, that faith cannot do its
work but through love, that no works can have any worth but as they come of love, and that love
alone is the sufficient strength for all the work we have to do.
The power for work is love. - It was love that moved God to all His work in creation and
redemption. It was love that enabled Christ as man to work and to suffer as He did. It is love that
can inspire us with the power of a self-sacrifice that seeks not its own, but is ready to live and die
for others. It is love that gives us the patience that refuses to give up the unthankful or the
hardened. It is love that reaches and overcomes the most hopeless. Both in ourselves and those for
whom we labour love is the power for work. Let us love as Christ loved us.
The power for love is faith. - Faith roots its life in the life of Christ Jesus, which is all love. Faith
knows, even when we cannot realise fully, the wonderful gift that has been given into our heart in
the Holy Spirit shedding abroad God's love there. A spring in the earth may often be hidden or
stopped up. Until. it is opened the fountain cannot flow out. Faith knows that there is a fountain
of love within that can spring up into eternal life, that can flow out as rivers of living waters. It
assures us that we can love, that we have a Divine power to love within us, as an unalienable
endowment of our new nature.
The power to exercise and show love is work. - There is no such thing as power in the abstract it
only acts as it is exercised. Power in repose cannot be found or felt. This is specially true of the
Christian graces, hidden as they are amid the weakness of our human nature. It is only by doing
that you know that you have a grace must be acted ere we can rejoice in its possession. This is the
unspeakable blessedness of work, and makes it so essential to a healthy Christian life that it
wakens up and strengthens love, and makes us partakers of its joy.
Faith working by love. - In Christ Jesus nothing avails but this. Workers for God! believe this.
Practise it. Thank God much for the fountain of eternal love opened within you. Pray fervently
and frequently that God may strengthen you with might by the power of His Spirit in your inner
man, so that, with Christ dwelling in you, you may be rooted and grounded in love. And live then,
your daily life, in your own home, in all your intercourse with men, in all your work, as a life of
Divine love. The ways of love are so gentle and heavenly, you may not learn them all at once. But
be of good courage, only believe in the power that worketh in you, and yield yourself to the work
of love: it will surely gain the victory.
Faith working by love. - In Christ Jesus nothing avails but this. Let me press home this message,
too, on those who have never yet or only just begun to think of working for God. Come and
listen.
You owe everything to God's love. The salvation you have received is all love. God's one desire
is to fill you with His love. For His own satisfaction, for your own happiness, for the saving of
men. Now, I ask you - Will you not accept God's wonderful offer to be filled with His love? Oh!
come and give up heart and life to the joy and the service of His love. Believe that the fountain of
love is within you it will begin to flow as you make a channel for it by deeds of love. Whatever
work for God you try to do, seek to put love into it. Pray for the spirit of love. Give yourself to
live a life of love to think how you can love those around you, by praying for them, by serving
them, by labouring for their welfare, temporal and spiritual. Faith working by love in Christ
Jesus, this alone availeth much.
1. 'Faith, Hope, Love: the greatest of these is Love.' There is no faith or hope in God. But God is
love. The most Godlike thing is love.
2. Love is the nature of God. When it is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit love
becomes our new nature. Believe this, give yourself over to it, and act it out.
3. Love is God's power to do His work. Love was Christ's power. To work for God pray earnestly
to be filled with love to souls!
Chapter XII
Bearing Fruit in every Good Work
'To walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto
all patience.' - Col. 1:10.
There is a difference between fruit and work. Fruit is that which comes spontaneously, without
thought or will, the natural and necessary outcome of a healthy life. Work, on the contrary, is the
product of effort guided by intelligent thought and will. In the Christian life we have the two
elements in combination. All true work must be fruit, the growth and product of our inner life, the
operation of God's Spirit within us. And yet all fruit must be work, the effect of our deliberate
purpose and exertion. In the words, 'bearing fruit in every good work,' we have the practical
summing up of the truth taught in some previous chapters. Because God works by His life in us,
the work we do is fruit. Because, in the faith of His working, we have to will and to work, the
fruit we bear is work. In the harmony between the perfect spontaneity that comes from God's life
and Spirit animating us, and our co-operation with Him as His intelligent fellow-labourers, lies
the secret of all true work.
In the words that precede our text, 'filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding,' we have the human side, our need of knowledge and wisdom in the
words that follow, 'strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory,' we have the
Divine side. God teaching and strengthening, man learning to understand and patiently do His
will such is the double life that will be fruitful in every good work.
It has been said of the Christian life that the natural man must first become spiritual, and then
again the spiritual man must become natural. As the whole natural life becomes truly spiritual, all
our work will partake of the nature of fruit, the outgrowth of the life of God within us. And as the
spiritual again becomes perfectly natural to us, a second nature in which we are wholly at home,
all the fruit will bear the mark of true work, calling into full exercise every faculty of our being.
'Bearing fruit unto every good work.' The words, suggest again the great thought, that as an
apple-tree or a vine is planted solely for its fruit, so the great purpose of our redemption is that
God may have us for His work and service. It has been well said: 'The end of man is an Action
and not a Thought, though it were of the noblest.' It is in his work that the nobility of man's nature
as ruler of the world is proved. It is for good works that we have been new created in Christ
Jesus: It is when men see our good works that our Father in Heaven will be glorified and have the
honour which is His due for His workmanship. In the parable of the vine our Lord insisted on
this: 'He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit.' 'Herein is My Father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit.' Nothing is more to the honour of a husbandman than to succeed
in raising an abundant crop - much fruit is glory to God.
What need that every believer, even the feeblest branch of the Heavenly Vine, the man who has
only one talent, be encouraged and helped, and even trained, to aim at the much fruit. A little
strawberry plant may, in its measure, be bearing a more abundant crop than a large apple-tree.
The call to be fruitful in every good work is for every Christian without exception. The grace that
fits for it, of which the prayer, in which our words are found, speaks, is for every one. Every
branch fruitful in every good work - this is an essential part of God's Gospel.
'Bearing fruit in every good work.' Let us study to get a full impression of the two sides of this
Divine truth. God's first creation of life was in the vegetable kingdom. There it was a life without
anything of will or self-effort, all growth and fruit was simply His own direct work, the
spontaneous outcome of His hidden working. In the creation of the animal kingdom there was an
advance. A new element was introduced - thought and will and work. In man these two elements
were united in perfect harmony. The absolute dependence of the grass and the lily on the God
who clothes them with their beauty were to be the groundwork of our relationship - nature has
nothing but what it receives from God. Our works are to be fruit, the product of a God-given
power. But to this was added the true mark of our God-likeness the power of will and
independent action: all fruit is to be our own work. As we grasp this we shall see how the most
absolute acknowledgment of our having nothing in ourselves is consistent with the deepest sense
of obligation and the strongest will to exert our powers to the very utmost. We shall learn to study
the prayer of our text as those who must seek all their wisdom and strength from God alone. And
we shall boldly give ourselves, as those who are responsible for the use of that wisdom and
strength, to the diligence and the sacrifice and the effort needed for a life bearing fruit in every
good work.
1. Much depends, for quality and quantity, on the healthy life of the tree. The life of God, of
Christ Jesus, of His Spirit, the Divine life in you, is strong and sure.
2. That life is love. Believe in it. Act it out. Have it replenished day by day out of the fulness
there is in Christ.
3. Let all your work be fruit let all your willing and working be inspired by the life of God. So
will you walk worthily of the Lord with all pleasing.
Chapter XIII
Always abounding in the Work of the Lord
'Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' - 1 Cor. 15:58.
We all know the fifteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians, in its Divine revelation of the meaning of
Christ's resurrection, with all the blessings of which it is the source.
It gives us a living Saviour, who revealed Himself to His disciples on earth, and to Paul from
heaven. It secures to us the complete deliverance from all sin. It is the pledge of His final victory
over every enemy, when He gives up the kingdom to the Father, and God is all in all. It assures us
of the resurrection of the body, and our entrance on the heavenly life. Paul had closed his
argument with his triumphant appeal to Death and Sin and the Law: 'O Death, where is thy
victory? The sting of Death is Sin, and the power of Sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.' And then follows, after fifty-seven verses of
exultant teaching concerning the mystery and the glory of the resurrection life in our Lord and
His people, just one verse of practical application: 'Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye
stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.' The faith in a risen, living
Christ, and in all that His resurrection is to us in time and eternity, is to fit us for, is to prove itself
in - abounding work for our Lord!
It cannot be otherwise. Christ's resurrection was His final victory over sin, and death, and Satan,
and His entrance upon His work of giving the Spirit from heaven and extending His kingdom
throughout the earth. Those who shared the resurrection joy at once received the commission to
make known the joyful news. It was so with Mary and the women. It was so with the disciples the
evening of the resurrection day. 'As the Father sent Me, I send you.' It was so with all to whom
the charge was given: 'Go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature.' The
resurrection is the beginning and the pledge of Christ's victory over all the earth. That .victory is
to be carried out to its complete manifestation through His people. The faith and joy of the
resurrection life are the inspiration and the power for the work of doing it. And so the call comes
to all believers without exception: 'Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye always abounding in
the work of the Lord!'
'In the work of the Lord.' The connection tells us at once what that work is. Nothing else, nothing
less than, telling others of the risen Lord, and proving to them what new life Christ has brought to
us. As we indeed know and acknowledge Him as Lord over all we are, and live in the joy of His
service, we shall see that the work of the Lord is but one work - that of winning men to know and
bow to Him. Amid all the forms of lowly, living, patient service, this will be the one aim, in the
power of the life of the risen Lord, to make Him Lord of all.
This work of the Lord is no easy one. It cost Christ His life to conquer sin and Satan and gain the
risen life. It will cost us our life, too - the sacrifice of the life of nature. It needs the surrender of
all on earth to live in the full power of resurrection newness of life. The power of sin, and the
world, in those around us is strong, and Satan does not yield his servants an easy prey to our
efforts. It needs a heart in close touch with the risen Lord, truly living the resurrection life, to be
stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. But that is a life that can be
lived - because Jesus lives.
Paul adds: 'Forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not vain in the Lord.' I have spoken more
than once of the mighty influence that the certainty of reward for work, in the shape of wages or
riches, exerts on the millions of earth's workers. And shall not Christ's workers believe that, with
such a Lord, their reward is sure and great? The work is often difficult and slow, and apparently
fruitless. We are apt to lose heart, because we are working in our strength and judging by our
expectations. Let us listen to the message: 'O ye children of the resurrection life, be ye always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know your labour is not in vain in the Lord.'
'Let not your hands be weak your work shall be rewarded.' 'You know that your labour is not vain
in the Lord.'
'In the Lord.' The expression is a significant one. Study it in Romans 16 where it occurs ten times,
where Paul uses the expressions: 'Receive here in the Lord' 'my fellow-worker in Christ Jesus'
'who are in Christ, in the Lord' 'beloved in the Lord' 'approved in Christ' 'who labour in the Lord'
'chosen in the Lord.' The whole life and fellowship and service of these saints had the one
mark - they were, their labours were, in the Lord. Here is the secret of effectual service. Your
labour is not 'in vain in the Lord.' As a sense of His presence and the power of His life is
maintained, as all works are wrought in Him, His strength works in our weak ness our labour
cannot be in vain in the Lord. Christ said: 'He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit.' Oh! let not the children of this world, with their confidence that the masters
whose work they are doing will certainly give them their due reward, put the children of light to
shame. Let us rejoice and labour in the confident faith of the word: 'Your labour is not in vain in
the Lord. Wherefore, beloved brethren, be ye always abounding in the work of the Lord.'
Chapter XIV
Abounding Grace for Abounding Work
'And God is able to make all grace abound unto you, that ye may abound unto every good
work.' - 2 Cor. 9:8.
In our previous meditation we had the great motive to abounding work - the spirit of triumphant
joy which Christ's resurrection inspires as it covers the past and the future. Our text to-day assures
us that for this abounding work we have the ability provided: God is able to make all grace
abound, that we may abound to all good works. Every thought of abounding grace is to be
connected with the abounding in good works for which it is given. And every thought of
abounding work is to be connected with the abounding grace that fits for it.
Abounding grace has abounding work for its aim. It is often thought that grace and good works
are at variance with each other. This is not so. What Scripture calls the works of the law, our own
works, the works of righteousness which we have done, dead works - works by which we seek to
merit or to be made fit for God's favour, these are indeed the very opposite of grace. But they are
also the very opposite of the good works which spring from grace, and for which alone grace is
bestowed. As irreconcilable as are the works of the law with the freedom of grace, so essential
and indispensable are the works of faith, good works, to the true Christian life. God makes grace
to abound, that good works may abound. The measure of true grace is tested and proved by the
measure of good works. God's grace abounds in us that we may abound in good works. We need
to have the truth deeply rooted in us: Abounding grace has abounding work for its aim.
And abounding work needs abounding grace as its source and strength. There often is abounding
work without abounding grace. Just as any man may be very diligent in an earthly pursuit, or a
heathen in his religious service of an idol, so men may be very diligent in doing religious work in
their own strength, with but little thought of that grace which alone can do true, spiritual effective
work. For all work that is to be really acceptable to God, and truly fruitful, not only for some
visible result here on earth, but for eternity, the grace of God is indispensable. Paul continually
speaks of his own work as owing everything to the grace of God working in him: 'I laboured
more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me' (1 Cor. 15:10).
'According to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of His
power' (Eph. 3:7). And he as frequently calls upon Christians to exercise their gifts 'according to
the grace that was given us' (Rom. 12:6). 'The grace given according to the measure of the gift of
Christ' (Eph. 4:7). It is only by the grace of God working in us that we can do what are truly good
works. It is only as we seek and receive abounding grace that we can abound in every good work.
'God is able to make all grace abound unto you, that ye may abound in all good works.' With
what thanksgiving every Christian ought to praise God for the abounding grace that is thus
provided for him. And with what humiliation to confess that the experience of, and the surrender
to, that abounding grace has been so defective. And with what confidence to believe that a life
abounding in good works is indeed possible, because the abounding grace for it is so sure and so
Divinely sufficient.
And then, with what simple childlike dependence to wait upon God day by day to receive the
more grace which He gives to the humble.
Child of God! do take time to study and truly apprehend God's purpose with you, that you abound
in every good work! He means it! He has provided for it! Make the measure of your consecration
to Him nothing less than His purpose for you. And claim, then, nothing less than the abounding
grace He is able to bestow. Make His omnipotence and His faithfulness your confidence. And live
ever in the practice of continual prayer and dependence upon His power working in you. This will
make you abound in every good work. According to your faith be it unto you.
Christian worker, learn here the secret of all failure and all success. Work in our own strength,
with little prayer and waiting on God for His spirit, is the cause of failure. The cultivation of the
spirit of absolute impotence and unceasing dependence will open the heart for the workings of the
abounding grace. We shall learn to ascribe all we do to God's grace. We shall learn to measure all
we have to do by God's grace. And our life will increasingly be in the joy of God's making His
grace to abound in us, and our abounding in every good work.
1. 'That ye may abound to every good work.' Pray over this now till you feel that this is what God
has prepared for you.
2. If your ignorance and feebleness appear to make it impossible, present yourself to God, and say
you are willing, if He will enable you to abound in good works, to be a branch that brings forth
much fruit.
3. Take into your heart, as a living seed, the precious truth: God is able to make all grace abound
in you. Trust His power and His faithfulness (Rom. 4:20, 21 1 Thess. 5:24).
4. Begin at once by doing lowly deeds of love. As the little child in the kindergarten. Learn by
doing.
Chapter XV
In the Work of Ministering
'And he gave some to be apostles and some, prophets and some, evangelists and some, pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of
the body of Christ.' - Eph. 4:11, 12.
The object with which Christ when He ascended to heaven bestowed on His servants the various
gifts that are mentioned is threefold. Their first aim is - for the perfecting of the saints. Believers
as saints are to be led on in the pursuit of holiness until they 'stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God.' It was for this Epaphras laboured in prayer. It is of this Paul writes: 'Whom we
preach, teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ' (Col.
4:12 1:28).
This perfecting of the saints is, however, only a means to a higher end: unto the work of
ministering, to fit all the saints to take their part in the service to which every believer is called. It
is the same word as is used in texts as these: 'They ministered to Him of their substance Ye
ministered to the saints and do minister' (Luke 4:30, 8:3 1 Cor. 16:15 Heb. 6:10 1 Pet. 4:11).
And this, again, is also a means to a still higher end: unto the building up of the body of Christ.
As every member of our body takes its part in working for the health and growth and
maintenance of the whole, so every member of the body of Christ is to consider it his first great
duty to take part in all that can help to build up the body of Christ. And this, whether by the
helping and strengthening of those who are already members, or the ingathering of those who are
to belong to it. And the great work of the Church is, through its pastors and teachers, so to labour
for the perfecting of the saints in holiness and love and fitness for service, that every one may
take his part in the work of ministering, that so, the body of Christ may be built up and perfected.
Of the three great objects with which Christ has given His Church apostles and teachers, the work
of ministering stands thus in the middle. On the one hand, it is preceded by that on which it
absolutely depends - the perfecting of the saints. On the other, it is followed by that which it is
meant to accomplish - the building up of the body of Christ. Every believer without exception,
every member of Christ's body, is called to take part in the work of ministering. Let every reader
try and realise the sacredness of his holy calling.
Let us learn what the qualification is for our work. 'The perfecting of the saints' prepares them for
the 'work of ministering.' It is the lack of true sainthood, of true holiness, that causes such lack
and feebleness of service. As Christ's saints are taught and truly learn what conformity to Christ
means, a life like his, given up in self-sacrifice for the service and salvation of men, as His
humility and love, His separation from the world and devotion to the fallen, are seen to be the
very essence and blessedness of the life He gives, the work of ministering, the ministry of love,
will become the one thing we live for. Humility and Love - these are the two great virtues of the
saint - they are the two great powers for the work of ministering. Humility makes us willing to
serve love makes us wise to know how to do it. Love is inventive it seeks patiently, and suffers
long, until it find a way to reach its object. Humility and love are equally turned away from self
and its claims. Let us pray, let the Church labour for 'the perfecting of the saints' in humility and
love, and the Holy Spirit will teach us how to minister.
Let us look at what the great work is the members of Christ have to do. It is to minister to each
other. Place yourself at Christ's disposal for service to your fellow Christians. Count yourself their
servant. Study their interest. Set yourself actively to promote the welfare of the Christians round
you. Selfishness may hesitate, the feeling of feebleness may discourage, sloth and ease may raise
difficulties - ask your Lord to reveal to you His will, and give yourself up to it. Round about you
there are Christians who are cold and worldly and wandering from their Lord. Begin to think
what you can do for them. Accept as the will of the Head that you as a member should care for
them. Pray for the Spirit of love. Begin somewhere - only begin, and do not continue hearing and
thinking while you do nothing. Begin 'the work of ministering' according to the measure of the
grace you have. He will give more grace.
Let us believe in the power that worketh in us as sufficient for all we have to do. As I think of the
thumb and finger holding the pen with which I write this, I ask, How is it that during all these
seventy years of my life they have always known just to do my will? It was because the life of the
head passed into and worked itself out in them. 'He that believeth on Me,' as his Head working in
him, 'the works that I do shall he do also.' Faith in Christ, whose strength is made perfect in our
weakness' will give the power for all we are called to do.
Let us cry to God that all believers may waken up to the power of this great truth: Every member
of the body is to live wholly for the building up of the body.
1. To be a true worker the first thing is close, humble fellowship with Christ the Head, to be
guided and empowered by Him.
2. The next is humble, loving fellowship with Christ's members serving one another in love.
3. This prepares and fits for service in the world.
Chapter XVI
According to the Working of each several Part
'That we may grow up in all things into Him, which is the Head, even Christ from whom all the
body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint together supplieth, according
to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the
building up of itself in love.' - Eph. 4:15, 16.
The Apostle is here speaking of the growth, the increase, the building up of the body. This growth
and increase has, as we have seen, a double reference. It includes both the spiritual uniting and
strengthening of those who are already members, so as to secure the health of the whole body and
also the increase of the body by the addition of all who are as yet outside of it, and are to be
gathered in. Of the former we spoke in the previous chapter - the mutual interdependence of all
believers, and the calling to care for each other's welfare. In this chapter we look at the growth
from the other side - the calling of every member of Christ's body to labour for its increase by the
labour of love that seeks to bring in them who are not yet of it. This increase of the body and
building up of itself in love can only be by the working in due measure of each several part.
Think of the body of a child how does it reach the stature of a full-grown man? In no other way
but by the working in due measure of every part. As each member takes its part, by the work it
does in seeking and taking and assimilating food, the increase is made by its building up itself.
Not from without, but from within, comes the work that assures the growth. In no other way can
Christ's body attain to the stature of the fulness of Christ. As it is unto Christ the Head we grow
up, and from Christ the Head that the body maketh increase of itself, so it is all through that
which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part. Let us
see what this implies.
The body of Christ is to consist of all who believe in Him throughout the world. There is no
possible way in which these members of the body can be gathered in, but by the body building
itself tip in love. Our Lord has made Himself, as Head, absolutely dependent on His members to
do this work. What nature teaches us of our own bodies, Scripture teaches us of Christ's body.
The head of a child may have thought and plans of growth - they will all be vain, except as the
members all do their part in securing that growth. Christ Jesus has committed to His Church the
growth and increase of His body. He asks and expects that as wholly as He the Head lives for the
growth and welfare of the body, every member of His body, the very feeblest, shall do the same,
to the building up of the body in love. Every believer is to count it his one duty and blessedness
to live and labour for the increase of the body, the ingathering of all who, are to be its members.
What is it that is needed to bring the Church to accept this calling, and to train and help the
members of the body to know and fulfil it? One thing. We must see that the new birth and faith,
that all insight into truth, with all resolve and surrender and effort to live according to it, is only a
preparation for our true work. What is needed is that in every believer Jesus Christ be so formed,
so dwell in the heart, that His life in us shall be the impulse and inspiration of our love to the
whole body, and our life for it. It is because self occupies the heart that it is so easy and natural
and pleasing to care for ourselves. When Jesus Christ lives in us, it will be as easy and natural and
pleasing to live wholly for the body of Christ. As readily and naturally as the thumb and fingers
respond to the will and movement of the head will the members of Christ's body respond to the
Head, as the body grows up into Him, and from Him maketh increase of itself.
Let us sum up. For the great work the Head is doing in gathering in from throughout the world
and building up His body, He is entirely dependent on the service of the members. Not only our
Lord, but a perishing world is waiting and calling for the Church to awake and give herself
wholly to this work - the perfecting of the number of Christ's members. Every believer, the very
feeblest, must learn to know his calling - to live with this as the main object of this existence.
This great truth will be revealed to us in power, and obtain the mastery, as we give ourselves to
the work of ministering according to the grace we already have. We may confidently wait for the
full revelation of Christ in its as the power to do all He asks of its.
Chapter XVII
Women adorned with Good Work
'Let women adorn themselves not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment but
through good works. Let none be enrolled as a widow under threescore years old, well reported of
for good works . . . if she hath diligently followed every good work. - 1 Tim. 2:10, 5:9, 10.
In the three Pastoral Epistles, written to two young pastors to instruct them in regard to their
duties, 'good works' are more frequently mentioned than in Paul's other Epistles. In writing to the
Churches, as in a chapter like Romans 12 he mentions the individual good work by name. In
writing to the pastors he had to use this expression as a summary of what, both in their own life
and their teaching of others, they had to aim at. A minister was to be prepared to every good
work, furnished completely to every good work, an ensample of good works. And they were to
teach Christians - the women to adorn themselves with good works, diligently to follow every
good work, to be well reported of for good works the men to be rich in good works, zealous of
good works, ready to every good work, to be careful and to learn to maintain good works. No
portion of God's work presses home more definitely the absolute necessity of good works as an
essential, vital element in the Christian life.
Our two texts speak of the good works of Christian women. In the first they are taught that their
adorning is to be not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment, but, as becomes
women preferring godliness, with good works. We know what adornment is. A leafless tree in
winter has life when spring comes it puts on its beautiful garments, and rejoices in the adornment
of foliage and blossom. The adorning of Christian women is not to be in hair or pearls or raiment,
but in good works. Whether it be the good works that have reference to personal duty and
conduct, or those works of beneficence that aim at the pleasing and helping of our neighbor or
those that more definitely seek the salvation of souls - the adorning that pleases God, that gives
true heavenly beauty, that will truly attract others to come and serve God, too, is what Christian
women ought to seek after. John saw the holy city descend from heaven, 'made ready as a bride
adorned for her husband.' 'The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints' Rev. 21:2, 24:). Oh! that every Christian woman might seek so to adorn herself as to please the Lord that loved her.
In the second passage we read of widows who were placed upon a roll of honour in the early
Church, and to whom a certain charge was given over the younger women. No one was to be
enrolled who was not 'well reported of for good works.' Some of these are mentioned: if she has
been known for the careful bringing up of her children, for her hospitality to strangers, for her
washing the saints' feet, for her relieving the afflicted and then there is added, 'if she hath
diligently followed every good work.' If in her home and out of it, in caring for her own children,
for strangers, for saints, for the afflicted, her life has been devoted to good works, she may indeed
be counted fit to be an example and guide to others. The standard is a high one. It shows us the
place good works took in the early Church. It shows how woman's blessed ministry of love was
counted on and encouraged. It shows how, in the development of the Christian life, nothing so fits
for rule and influence as a life given to good works.
Good works are part and parcel of the Christian life, equally indispensable to the health and
growth of the individual, and to the welfare and extension of the Church. And yet what multitudes
of Christian women there are whose active share in the good work of blessing their
fellow-creatures is little more than playing at good works. They are waiting for the preaching of a
full gospel, which shall encourage and help and compel them to give their lives so to work for
their Lord, that they, too, may be well reported of as diligently following every good work. The
time and money, the thought and heart given to jewels or costly raiment will be redeemed to its
true object. Religion will no longer be a selfish desire for personal safety, but the joy of being like
Christ, the helper and saviour of the needy. Work for Christ will take its true place as indeed the
highest form of existence, the true adornment of the Christian life. And as diligence in the
pursuits of earth is honoured as one of the true elements of character and worth, diligently to
follow good works in Christ's service will be found to give access to the highest reward and the
fullest joy of the Lord.
1. We are beginning to awaken to the wonderful place woman can take in church and school and
mission. This truth needs to be brought home to every one of the King's daughters, that the
adorning in which they are to attract the world, to please their Lord, and enter His presence
is - good works.
2. Woman, as the image of 'the weakness of God,' 'the meekness and gentleness of Christ,' is to
teach man the beauty and the power of the long-suffering, self -sacrificing ministry of love.
3. The training for the service of love begins in the home life is strengthened in the inner chamber
reaches out to the needy around, and finds its full scope in the world for which Christ died.
Chapter XVIII
Rich in Good Works
'Charge them that are rich in the present world, that they do good, that they be rich in good works,
that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up for themselves a good
foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed.' - 1
Tim. 6:18.
If women are to regard good work as their adornment, men are to count them their riches. As
good works satisfy woman's eye and taste for beauty, they meet man's craving for possession and
power. In the present world riches have a wonderful significance. They are often God's reward on
diligence, industry, and enterprise. They represent and embody the life-power that has been spent
in procuring them. As such they exercise power in the honour or service they secure from others.
Their danger consists in their being of this world, in their drawing off the heart from the living
God and the heavenly treasures. They may become a man's deadliest enemy: How hardly shall
they that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven!
The gospel never takes away anything from us without giving us something better in its stead. It
meets the desire for riches by the command to be rich in good works. Good works are the coin
that is current in God's kingdom: according to these will be the reward in the world to come. By
abounding in good works we lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Even here on earth they
constitute a treasure, in the testimony of a good conscience, in the consciousness of being
well-pleasing to God (1 John 3) in the power of blessing others.
There is more. Wealth of gold is not only a symbol of the heavenly riches it is actually, though so
opposite in its nature, a means to it. 'Charge the rich that they do good, that they be ready to
distribute, willing to communicate, laying up for themselves a good foundation.' 'Make to
yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it fails, they may
receive you into the eternal tabernacles.' Even as the widow's mite, the gifts of the rich, when
given in the same spirit, may be an offering with which God is well pleased Heb. 13:16). The
man who is rich in money may become rich in good works, if he follows out the instructions
Scripture lays down. The money must not be given to be seen of men 'but as unto the Lord. Nor
as from an owner, but a steward who administers the Lord's money, with prayer for His guidance.
Nor with any confidence in its power or influence, but in deep dependence on Him who alone can
make it a blessing. Nor as a substitute for, or bringing out from that personal work and witness,
which each believer is to give. As all Christian work, so our money-giving has its value alone
from the spirit in which it is done, even the spirit of Christ Jesus.
What a field there is in the world for accumulating these riches, these heavenly treasures. In
relieving the poor, in educating the neglected, in helping the lost, in bringing the gospel to
Christians and heathen in darkness, what investment might be made if Christians sought to be rich
in good works, rich toward God. We may well ask the question, 'What can be done to waken
among believers a desire for these true riches? Men have made a science of the wealth of nations,
and carefully studied all the laws by which its increase and universal distribution can be
promoted. How can the charge to be rich in good works find a response in the hearts that its
pursuit shall be as much a pleasure and a passion as the desire for the riches of the present world?
All depends upon the nature, the spirit, there is in man. To the earthly nature, earthly riches have
a natural affinity and irresistible attraction. To foster the desire for the acquisition of what
constitutes wealth in the heavenly kingdom, we must appeal to the spiritual nature. That spiritual
nature needs to be taught and educated and trained into all the business habits that go to make a
man rich. There must be the ambition to rise above the level of a bare existence, the deadly
contentment with just being saved. There must be some insight into the beauty and worth of good
works as the expression of the Divine life - God's working in us and our working in Him as the
means of bringing glory to God as the source of life and blessing to men as the laying up of a
treasure in heaven for eternity. There must be a faith that these riches are actually within our
reach, because the grace and Spirit of God are working in us. And then the outlook for every
opportunity of doing the work of God to those around us, in the footsteps of Him who said, 'It is
more blessed to give than receive.' Study and apply these principles - they will open the sure road
to your becoming a rich man. A man who wants to be rich often begins on a small scale, but
never loses an opportunity. Begin at once with some work of love, and ask Christ, who became
poor, that you might be rich, to help you.
1. What is the cause that the appeal for money for missions meets with such insufficient
response? It is because of the low spiritual state of the Church. Christians have no due conception
of their calling to live wholly for God and His kingdom.
2. How can the evil be remedied? Only when believers see and accept their Divine calling to
make God's kingdom their first care, and with humble confession of their sins yield themselves to
God, will they truly seek the heavenly riches to be found in working for God.
3. Let us never cease to plead and labour for a true spiritual awakening throughout the Church.
Chapter XIX
Prepared unto every Good Work
'If a man therefore cleanse himself from them, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, meet
for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work.' - 2 Tim. 2:21.
Paul had spoken of the foundation of God standing sure (2:19), of the Church as the great house
built upon that foundation, of vessels, not only of gold, silver, costly and lasting, vessels to
honour, but also of wood and of earth, common and perishable, vessels to dishonour. He
distinguishes between them of whom he had spoken, who gave themselves to striving about
words and to vain babblings, and such as truly sought to depart from all iniquity. In our text he
gives us the four steps in the path in which a man can become a vessel unto honour in the great
household of God. These are, the cleansing from sin the being sanctified the meetness for the
Master to use as He will and last, the spirit of preparedness for every good work. It is not enough
that we desire or attempt to do good works. As we need training and care to prepare us for every
work we are to do on earth, we need it no less, or rather we need it much more, to be - what
constitutes the chief mark of the vessels unto honour - to be prepared unto every good work.
'If a man cleanse himself from them' - from that which characterises the vessels of
dishonour - the empty profession leading to ungodliness, against which he had warned. In every
dish and cup we use, how we insist upon it that it shall be clean. In God's house the vessels must
much more be clean. And every one who would be truly prepared unto every good work must see
to this first of all, that he cleanse himself from all that is sin. Christ Himself could not enter upon
His saving work in heaven until He had accomplished the cleansing of our sins. How can we
become partners in His work, unless there be with us the same cleansing first. Ere Isaiah could
say, 'Here am I, send me,' the fire of heaven had touched his lips, and he heard the voice, 'Thy sin
is purged.' An intense desire to be cleansed from every sin lies at the root of fitness for true
service.
'He shall be a vessel of honour, sanctified.' Cleansing is the negative side, the emptying out and
removal of all that is impure. Sanctified, the positive side, the refilling and being possessed of the
spirit of holiness, through whom the soul becomes God-possessed, and so partakes of His
holiness. 'Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit' - this first, then, and so
'perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.' In the temple the vessels were not only to be clean,
but holy, devoted to God's service alone. He that would truly work for God must follow after
holiness 'a heart established in holiness' (1 Thess. 4:14), a holy habit of mind and disposition,
yielded up to God and marked by a sense of His presence, fit for God's work. The cleansing from
sin secures the filling with the Spirit.
'Meet for the Master's use.' We are vessels for our Lord to use. In every work we do, it is to be
Christ using us and working through us. The sense of being a servant, dependent on the Master's
guidance, working under the Master's eye, instruments used by Him and His mighty power, lies at
the root of effectual service. It maintains that unbroken dependence, that quiet faith, through
which the Lord can do His work. It keeps up that blessed consciousness of the work being all His,
which leads the worker to become the humbler the more be is used. His one desire is - meet for
the Master's use.
'Prepared unto every good work.' Prepared. The word not only means equipment, fitness, but also
the disposition, the alacrity which keeps a man on the outlook, and makes him earnestly desire
and joyfully avail himself of every opportunity of doing his Master's work. As he lives in touch
with his Lord Jesus, and holds himself as a cleansed and sanctified vessel, ready for Him to use,
and he sees how good works are what he was redeemed for, and what his fellowship with his
Lord is to be proved in, they become the one thing he is to live for. He is prepared unto every
good work.
1. 'Meet for the Master's use,' that is the central thought. A personal relation to Christ, an entire
surrender to His disposal, a dependent waiting to be used by Him, a joyful confidence that He
will use us - such is the secret of true work.
2. Let the beginning of your work
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