Charity and Its Fruits (continued)
temporal suffering that we have not a spirit to undergo for Christ, then there is something that we do not forsake for him. For example, if we are not willing to suffer reproach for Christ, then we are not willing to forsake honor for him. And so if we are not willing to suffer poverty, pain, and death for his sake, then we are not willing to forsake wealth, ease, and life for him. But Christ is abundant in teaching us, that we must be willing to forsake all that we have for him, if duty requires it, or we cannot be his disciples (Luke 14:26 , etc.)
6. Without this spirit we cannot be said to deny ourselves in the sense in which the Scriptures require us to do it. — The Scriptures teach us, that it is absolutely necessary to deny ourselves in order to our being the disciples of Christ. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me; for whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it" (Mat. 16:24 , 25 ). These expressions, as here used, signify as much as a man's renouncing himself. And the man who acts according to them in his practice, lives as though he disowned himself for Christ. He puts himself to difficulty or suffering, as though he did not own himself. As the children of Levi were said not to know or acknowledge their own relatives and friends, when they put them to the sword for their sin in making the golden calf, so Christians are said not to acknowledge, but to deny themselves, when they crucify the flesh, and undergo great sufferings for Christ, as though they had no mercy on themselves. Those that will do contrary to the will of Christ and his glory, for the sake of avoiding suffering, deny Christ instead of denying themselves. Those that dare not confess Christ before persecutors, do in fact deny him before men, and are of the number of whom Christ says, that he will deny them before his Father in heaven (Mat. 10:33 ); and as to whom the apostle says, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us" (2 Tim. 2:12 ).