Jottings

by Miller, J. | Category: Jottings | Nov 1957

When we reach the time in which Peter wrote his second epistle, the sad days, which Paul foresaw and spake about to the elders of Ephesus, had arrived.

He said, "I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among

you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them" (Acts 20.29, 30). Believers in Christ have suffered ever since from this apostasy which occurred toward the end of the first century of this dispensation. Since then believers have been scattered in almost every sect professing the name of Christ.

Peter says that "there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Peter 2.1). Many were to follow their lascivious doings, and the result of all this mischief was that "the way of truth" would be evil spoken of. The witness of the Lord to the world was to suffer. Instead of there being a united witness which, like the lighthouse, would have thrown its light all around to guide the mariners in earth's dark night to heaven, the haven of eternal rest, there at length was no united witness, and souls were lost in the gloom and ran on the rocks of destruction. There were here and there men who stood on the shore with the torch of truth and guided some to the Saviour and to rest and salvation in Him; those men were few and often sorely persecuted. Yet we say of them with James, "We call them blessed that endured." Peter cites various evidences of God's displeasure with those that departed from His way of truth for them. He refers to the angels that sinned, whom God cast down to the torments of Tartarus; to Noah's day when men turned wickedly from God and perished in the flood; to the cities of the plain, Sodom and the rest; and to the deliverance of righteous Lot. Here is outlined by Peter a state in which, so it seems to me, there is no dividing line between the true believer and the mere religious professor, a state of things which is most deplorable, a state in which only God knows who are His and who are not. It is a sad day when the saint and the world go hand in hand. Not that the world can ever come up to the plane on which the saint should live and walk, but the saint can give up his separation and descend to the level of the world. Mas ! how often the conduct of Jehoshaphat is repeated! "And it came to pass in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king came down to the king of Israel" (1 Kings 22.2).

Jehoshaphat could go down to Samaria, but Ahab neither could nor would go up to Jerusalem. The believer can go down to the world, hut the world can never rise to where the believer should live, and walk, and work. But for divine mercy Jehoshaphat would have lost his life. If the believer is going to walk with his Lord he must live in the truth the Lord has taught him. He must never compromise with the world or the worldly-minded believer. He cannot play with his conscience as to right and wrong. God has a "right way" (2 Peter 2.15), and he must not on any account forsake that. If he does he is on the way to rest in the congregation of the dead. Indeed Peter says, " It were better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered unto them" (verse 21).

It is evident that God puts great value on the restoring of His saints who are going astray. In the matter of one brother sinning against another, if the sinning brother hears the brother whom he has sinned against, it is said by the Lord, " Thou hast gained thy brother" (Matthew 18.15).

The brother has enriched himself by making his brother his gain, for, if he refused to listen, he might be lost, and the brother would be the poorer if he were lost. Often we think of our enrichment as being that which we have for ourselves, in which no other has a part, but we are truly enriched in the measure we are enriched by, and in the measure we may invest in, each other. Persons in this world are enriched by trading, whether their trading is in selling their labour, or things material or mental. Professors and teachers communicate their knowledge, the man of business sells his wares, and others in all departments of collective life benefit by mutual intercourse. In the measure in which this is curtailed, or cut off, persons become the poorer. The same principle pertains in the commercial intercourse of nations.

It is similar in the matter of the fellowship of saints. Unless there is communion there is no enrichment. We must share together in spiritual things, and in material things also, when the need arises. Even faith cannot be demonstrated and grow apart from this. Think of how Philemon showed his love and his faith to the Lord Jesus and toward the saints (Philemon 5), of how the tender inward feelings of the saints were refreshed by him. (Verse 7.)

If a brother is lost he is cut off in his sin, this fellowship, this spiritual intercourse, will cease. He will lose and others also will lose. Some saints may be problem-saints, as some children in a family may be problem-children. But the problem-child needs more care. It may be that the child when he grows up may not do well for all the care bestowed upon him, and it may be even so with a saint. He may, as John says, go out from us and be lost. But this loss will ever be a sorrow, not a joy, not a relief. It might have been otherwise even though others may not know how.

At the close of his epistle James speaks of this matter of recovering the erring. He says, My brethren, if any among you do err from the truth, and one convert him; let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins " (James 5.19, 20). Erring here is erring by the seduction of another. It may be rendered, "If any among you be seduced from the truth." Here is the opposite of making one's brother one's gain, but is the case that Peter outlines of certain in his day who enticed others, promising them liberty while they themselves were bondservants of corruption, "Of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also brought into bondage" (2 Peter 2.17.22). If anyone is being so led away from the truth, and one convert him, that is, he has that grace given to him of God to be the saviour of this brother from the error of his way, then he is to know that he has saved a soul from death and shall cover a multitude of sins, sins many of which are uncommitted, but which inevitably would be committed if the erring brother continued in the error of his way. We may be saviours or we may be destroyers. John speaks of one brother seeing another sinning a sin unto death, and of God giving him life for such as sin not unto death. But alas, there is sin unto death for which there is no hope in this life.

Miller, J. | Nov 1957
Jottings