Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Aug 1944

It is evident that a worldly system of preferring one man above another was creeping into the Church of God in Corinth. The disciples were beginning to walk after the manner of men. From earliest times men have arisen with their several systems of teaching :- systems of political economy, moral codes, and systems of theology, have been propounded, gaining adherents in greater or lesser numbers. The wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent have always had their admirers and votaries. The wisdom of the world has ever made its appeal successfully to the worldly-mindedness of men. One can think of the vast systems of Mahomet and Buddha, and, nearer home, the Romish system, which like an octopus extends its tentacles to drag to its greedy, insatiable maw the souls that fall a prey to its soul destroying teaching. In the realm of international politics such names are bandied about from lip to lip as Democracy, Fascism, Communism, whilst 'at home, the names of Tory, Liberal, Socialist, stand each for a system of political ideals, which claim their various followings. All these forms of teaching, for systems of teaching they are, have the effect of segregating men into different camps, and largely they follow the different systems in the hope that there will be something in them for them. Some systems of teaching grow like mushrooms, because they make tremendous play on the covetous and base part of human nature.

What is the cure for all this? and what was the remedy for this spirit of segregation which was beginning to pervade the Church in Corinth? The answer

is-

"The word of the Cross." God said:

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

And the prudence of the prudent will I reject."

God is not so foolish as to destroy the wisdom of the wise until He had something to put in its place. He does not root up evils without having the new plants ready to plant in their place. He does not pull down a house without having the plan and material on the ground to build a far better dwelling. He said to Jeremiah the prophet, in a day of destruction and demolition, "See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up- and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow; to build, and to plant." The whirlwind of divine judgement would sweep through peoples and realms, but after a scene of utter ruin would arise houses and orchards in a fairer world than had previously been. But alas, however so many times this may have happened in the world's history, the new inhabitants were no different from the old. Systems of worldly wisdom once more grew up, men corrupted themselves again, and the world of fair hopes -and glorious promises became what it had been before. And it was man that did it!

But now that God destroys the wisdom of the wise, and men are taught to turn from Mr. Worldly Wiseman, to whom may they go? The answer is to Christ crucified. Here is God's wisdom. Men may ask, "What do you see in it?" A Man upon a cross? Is that God's wisdom? No, not a mere man upon a cross. That has happened times without number, when another poor fellow paid for his crimes at the hand of the public executioner. So was it on Golgotha where the two malefactors died for robbery. One confessed that they justly deserved all they got, but turning to Christ, he said, "This Man hath done nothing amiss" (Luke 23.41). But Christ crucified is something different. What is this? an innocent man dying at the hands of an ignorant rabble? Nay, verily! Who is Christ? He is God an Man. It is such a God, whose weakness is stronger than men, and whose wisdom is wiser than men, who died on a Roman cross. What for? To become men's wisdom, for they had none of their own. All human systems of wisdom pander to human pride, exalt the human ego, enlarge the capital "I," but the cross lays human pride in the dust and when down imparts to man the true wisdom of self abandomnent, which is the gateway to all true knowledge, for "knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up" (1 Corinthians 8. 1). Christ crucified is God's hidden wisdom, a wisdom which none of the rulers of-the world knew or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2.8). The cross is the cure for sectarisnism and the segregation of men.

The Apostle asked a vital question when he said, "Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" He answered his own query by saying, "May it not be." How many lives are lived in a spiritual" black-out"! The causes for such things are well-nigh innumerable, but all have the same source and root from which they spring, namely, sin. What is sin? It literally means a missing of the mark, error. In its essence and nature it is lawlessness (1 John 3.4), it is the violation of what is right. Sin in its infancy may appear very innocent, and such aberration from the path of virtue may seem worthy of toleration or even commendation, and those who would correct apparently innocent disorders would be deemed very puritanical, or a product of the Victorian era and not of modern thought and conditions.

Let us remember that a lion's cub -has a lion's nature. It may seem innocent and playful as a kitten, but given time to grow it will kill as all its kind will do. The thornbush has no thorns when it first pushes its tender green shoot through the ground; it is then so nice, as all tender plants are (as He our Lord was who never grew any thorns, Isaiah 53.), but in due time it will grow its thorns and its leaves. So sin in youth seems so unhurtful, but it is lawlessness in youth as in maturity. James indicates the process of its growth and its end: "Lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin: and sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death " (chapter i. 15). Lust is over-desire, and there may be some considerable undefined margin between desire and over-desire; a desire which is lawful may in time become unlawful, if it develops. Then it gives birth to sin, and how often earthly or worldly-minded believers want to know what's the wrong in this and what's the wrong in that. Apparently they do not stop to consider what good is in it, what profit will accrue, and wherein by their actions grace will abound to others. Self-pleasing and self-gratification are spiritually septic sores of which there is no healing save by anointing with the salve of the self-sacrifice of the Lord of Glory.

"It was the sight of Thy dear cross

First weaned my soul from earthly things,

And taught me to esteem as dross

The mirth of fools and pomp of kings."

The worldly-minded believer is seldom found at Calvary. Earthly things and the mirth of fools are more to his liking. But the heavenly-minded believer will often be found entering into the meaning and experience of the words-

"To Calvary, Lord, in spirit oft

Our weary souls repair,

To dwell upon Christ's dying love,

And taste its sweetness there."

It is in His presence we truly learn to hate sin. It was sin that brought the Redeemer low. It was sin that held Him to the tree or iron ne'er had bound Him.

Think again of the words of James. "Sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death." The lion's cub at length becomes the lion, and the savage, brutal nature which was ever there will do its work. Sin will kill the sinner. What seemed his fondest friend will become his most deadly enemy. What nestled in his bosom will at length rend him assunder. Sin cannot be reconciled or tamed. The sentence of God upon it is the only just one, "the wages of sin is death."

Sin will so act to the sinner, but what of the effect of sin on fellow-believers and others? Ah, here we see its baneful influence. The testimony of a believer is blighted by its power and influence Others see the results; some may groan, others may scoff, and to others it may be a sweet morsel of scandal to pass on in the general tittle-tattle of daily gossip. The Spirit is grieved, God is saddened, and the Devil is given abundant material to continue his evil work as the accuser of the brethren. "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

God forbid"!

J. Miller | Aug 1944
Jottings