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July / 115 love our enemies, for he loves his enemies. This exhortation of our Lord's would of course lose all its point if God did not love
__ his enemies. No more tremendous assertion of God's universal | love to all mankind, even to those who are his enemies, is made throughout the whole Bible than is incidentally contained in this passage. I am to love my enemies because God loves his. If he does not love his enemies, then I need not love mine. It is as clear as daylight. But this is only incidental. The point of the passage is, that if I would be perfect in my measure, as God is in his, I must love. Love is the sign-manual and the test.
What shall we say, then: That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law.
(Rom 9:30-31) Everyone realizes that righteousness is absolutely vital to the spiritual life, not only on Sundays, but on each day of the week as well. But, like the Israelites of whom our text speaks, how many there are who do not attain to it and whose souls cry out in bitter questioning, "Why?"
Let the scriptures answer their cry. "Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works." No answer could be clearer than this. Faith is the law of spiritual righteousness, and righteousness is to be attained in no other way. No amount of works, however religious, can bring about true holiness. Outward actions can never take the soul into the inner sanctuary of the righteousness of God. The reason for this is evident. God's righteousness is a righteousness of nature or being, and outward actions can never create inward life; they can only reveal it. God is not righteous because he does righteous deeds, but he does righteous deeds because he is righteous. This is the essential difference between the righteousness of faith and the righteousness of works. The last is a righteousness put on from the outside; the first springs up from within. The one is works; the other is fruit.
116 / Daily He Leads Me 6 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: "This people honors me with their lips, / but their heart is far from me; / in vain do they worship me, /teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." (Mt 15:7-9)
It is all "in vain" for us to think that any righteousness which is only outside can be acceptable to God or of any worth to ourselves. Nothing was more universally condemned by our
Lord, and nothing was more despised by the Apostles. If ever any man had reason to glory in his outward righteousness, it was
Paul. He had been zealous and faithful in all that his religion demanded of him, and could even say of himself that "touching the righteousness that is in the law' he had been blameless; and yet, in the face of the reality of true inward righteousness in Christ, he counted all this outward righteousness to be but dung, that he might "win Christ and be found in him, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (see Phil 3:4-9).
Paul had learned that only the "righteousness which is of God by faith" could satisfy the longings of his awakened spiritual nature. Every child of God must learn the same lesson. Our souls cry out for something that is real. We go through all the faithful rounds of outward activities; we give up this; we consent to that; we perform every known duty; we are obedient to all requirements; and yet we are not satisfied. We feel, as our
Lord himself has said, that the righteousness that belongs to the kingdom of God must "exceed" this outward righteousness, just as the inward reality always exceeds the outward show; and we cannot be satisfied short of it.
Tie For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified. (Rom 10:4) Christ is the end of all our self-efforts after righteousness, not "at the end," as I used to think, but the actual ending of them. For he is our righteousness. That is, the life of Christ in our souls is a
July / 117 righteous life, which produces all right outward actions by the power of its inward workings. Therefore, in the very nature of things, it puts an end to any need for establishing our own righteousness. Instead of our efforts to take possession of righteousness, the life of Christ in our souls makes righteousness take possession of us. We are controlled from within and not from without.
She seeks wool and flax, / and works with willing hands.
(Prv 31:13) When men and women first began to toil, not their fall, but their salvation, was begun.
When a man cleared his first field of thistles, and in his work his sweat fell heavy on the rescued soil, his joy and not his sorrow began; for labor ends in delight, and is the only mother of true rest; and it is by what a thing ends in, and not by what it is while it is being done, that we judge the thing. Out of the noble pains of labor, struggling with all the reluctant elements of nature, have streamed into humanity all the blessings it has loved and rejoiced in—all knowledge, all discovery, the interests which awake and kindle us, poetry and art, law, civil order, the gentleness and greatness of life, the high conceptions of the imagination, and all our grasp of nature. Little would we care to go on were it not for the difficulties; little would we care for the results if we had not won them with trouble; little would we care for rest if it were not filled with the exulting memories of our work.
For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still. (Is 30:7, KJV) There is immense power in stillness. All of God's greatest creative works are done in silence. All the vital functions of our bodies are silently performed. The moment they make a noise, we are sure they are out of order. If I can hear the beating of my
118 / Daily He Leads Me heart, I know at once that something is wrong. If my brain makes a buzzing noise in my ears, I am afraid that something is greatly wrong.
This is far more true of spiritual forces. Their work is always done in the stillness. Faith, that mightiest of all spiritual powers, makes no noise in its inward exercise. The new birth is silently accomplished. The Spirit of God works noiselessly within our hearts and effects all its mighty transformations in deepest stillness. The "creature" in us may accompany all these processes with noise and bustle, but as to the process itself, we must all recognize that it is silently wrought.
I 0 "In returning and rest you shall be saved; / in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." / And you would not, but you said, / "No! We will speed upon horses." (Is 30:15)
The Israelites of old, like Christians now, could not believe that quietness and rest were the way of strength and deliverance; they tried instead to "speed upon horses," just as we now try to find our deliverance by earthly means and by creaturely activities. It is as useless for us as for them. The truth is, the silent way is the only victorious way. A great student of Christian philosophy once said to me, "All things come to him who knows how to trust and be silent." The words are pregnant with meaning. A knowledge of this fact would immensely change our ways of working. Instead of the restless and wearying struggles of our present methods, we would rest inwardly before the Lord, in "quietness and trust," and would let the divine forces of his spirit work out in silence the ends to which we aspire. You may not see or feel the operations of this silent force, but be assured it is always working mightily and will work for you, if only you can get your spirit still enough to be carried along by the currents of its power.
I And Moses said to the people, "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again." (Ex 14:13)
July / 119 Only when we "stand firm" can we see the salvation of the Lord. Another translation says, "stand still." While full of bustle and hurry, we have no eyes to spare for God's work; our own work absorbs all our interest. Moreover, our creaturely activity, instead of helping, really hinders his working. Spiritual forces cannot have full flow when carnal forces usurp their place. To see God's salvation fully worked out, we must let his power accomplish it all, and must not permit our own "carnal" working to interfere.
I ws When a woman is in travail she has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she is delivered of the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. (Jn 16:21-22) If we want a 'joy that no one can take from us," we must find it in something no one can disturb. No element of joy that is subject to human fluctuations can be in the least depended on.
The only lasting joy is to be found in the everlasting God. In God alone, I mean, apart from all else; apart from his gifts, apart from his blessings, apart from all that can by any possibility change or alter. He alone is unchangeable; he is the same good, loving tender God "yesterday, today, and forever", and we can rejoice in him always, whether we are able to rejoice in his gifts and his promises or not. We rejoice in a baby just because it is, not because of anything it has done or can do for us; and something like this, only infinitely deeper and wider, does it mean to rejoice in God.
7, 3 He makes me lie down in green pastures. / He leads me beside still waters; / he restores my soul. (Ps 23:2)
The role of the sheep is very simple. It is only to trust and to follow. The Shepherd does all the rest. He leads the sheep by the right way. He chooses their paths for them and sees that those paths are paths where the sheep can walk in safety. When he
120 / Daily He Leads Me puts forth his sheep, he goes before them. The sheep have none of the planning to do, none of the decisions to make, none of the forethought or wisdom to exercise; they have absolutely nothing to do but to trust themselves entirely to the care of the good Shepherd, and to follow him wherever he leads. It is very simple. There is nothing complicated in trusting when the One we are called upon to trust is absolutely trustworthy, and nothing complicated in obedience when we have perfect confidence in the power we are obeying.
I 4 Behold, I am doing a new thing; / now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? / 1 will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Is 43:19)
Thousands of the flock of Christ can testify that when they have put themselves absolutely into his hands, he has quieted the raging tempest, and has turned their deserts into blossoming gardens. I do not mean that there will be no more outward trouble or care or suffering; but these very places will become green pastures, and still waters inwardly to the soul. The Shepherd knows what pastures are best for his sheep, and they must not question nor doubt but must trustingly follow him.
Perhaps he sees that the best pastures for some of us are to be found in the midst of opposition or of earthly trials. If he leads you there, you may be sure they are green pastures for you, and that you will grow and be made strong by feeding in them.
I 5 Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. (Mt 23:9) One of the most illuminating names of God is the one especially revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ: the name of Father.
I say especially revealed by Christ, because, while God had been called throughout the ages by many other names, expressing other aspects of his character, Christ alone has revealed him to us under the all-inclusive name of Father. This is a name that holds within itself all other names of wisdom and power, and
July / 121 above all of love and goodness, a name that embodies for us a perfect supply for all our needs. Christ, who was the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, was the only one who could reveal this name, for he alone knew the Father.
I I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou has hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes. (Lk 10:21)
In the Old Testament, God was revealed as a great warrior fighting for his people, or as a mighty king ruling over them and caring for them. The name of Father is only given to him a very few times there, six or seven at the most; while in the New Testament it is given between two and three hundred times.
Christ, who knew him, was the only one who could reveal him.
"No man," he said, "knows who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the son will reveal him."
The vital question that confronts each of us is whether we individually understand that Christ speaks to us of the Father.
We know he uses the word Father continually, but do we in the least understand what the word means? Have we even an inkling of who the Father is?
I Our Father who art in heaven, / Hallowed be thy name.
(Mt 6:9) When our Lord was teaching his disciples how to pray, the only name by which he taught them to address God was "Our
Father who art in heaven." This surely meant that we were to think of him only in this light. Millions upon millions of times, during all the centuries since, this name has been uttered by the children of God everywhere; and yet how much has it been understood? Had all who used the name known what is meant, it would have been impossible for misrepresentations of his character and doubts of his love and care to have crept in.
Tyranny, and unkindness, and neglect, might perhaps be attributed to a God whose name was only king, or judge, or
122 / Daily He Leads Me lawgiver. But no such thing could be believed of a God, who is before all else a Father, and, of necessity, since he is God, a good
Father. Moreover, since he is an "everlasting Father," he must in the very nature of things act, always and under all circumstances, as a good father ought to act, and never in any other way. It is inconceivable that a good father could forget or neglect or be unfair to his children. A savage father might, or a wicked father, but a good father never! And in calling our God by the blessed name of Father, we ought to know that his fatherhood must be the highest ideal of fatherhood of which we can conceive. It is a fatherhood that combines both father and mother in one, in our highest ideals of both, and comprises all the love, and all the tenderness, and all the compassion, and all the yearning, and all the self-sacrifice, that we cannot but recognize to be the inmost soul of parentage, even though we may not always see it carried out by all earthly parents.
I Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. (Jos 1:2)
That Moses could not enter the promised land seems to me to indicate that the law can have nothing to do with the soul that is
"seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Moses was in a very special way the representative of the law, as we are told in the Gospel of John: "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." To make the picture complete, we may well believe that Moses must die before Joshua could lead the people in. The very opening of the Book of Joshua implies this.
It may seem strange to insist upon a perfect obedience to the law and then to talk about the law being dead. But it is a fact in experience that complete surrender to any law always makes the soul free from that law. The law-abiding citizen who has no thought of breaking the laws of his country is as free from those laws as though there were none. The law is dead as far as he is
July / 123 concerned, because it demands only that which he himself thinks is best and right, and which therefore he wants to give; and for him in effect there is no law.
I Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
(1 Jn 3:2-3) Notice how invariably all the exhortations to holiness are based upon an assured knowledge of our position as the children of God.
We are not called upon to forgive one another in order to induce Christ to forgive us, but we are to forgive others, because we first know that he has already forgiven us. We are not commanded to be followers of God in order to become his children, but because we know we are his children.
A man cannot act like a king unless he knows that he is a king; and similarly we cannot act like the sons and daughters unless we know that we belong to him. In fact, the knowledge of our position and standing is the essential foundation of everything else in the Christian life.
20 Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread. {Lk 11:2-3) Good commonsense must tell us that our souls need daily food just as much as our bodies. If it is a law in physical life that we must eat to live, it is also equally a law in spiritual life.
"Give us each day our daily bread," is a prayer that includes the soul as well as the body, and unless the religion of Christ contains this necessary food for our weekday lives, as well as for our Sunday lives, it is a grievous failure. But this it does. It is full of principles that fit into human life, as it is in its ordinary commonplace aspects; and the soul that would grow strong
124 / Daily He Leads Me must feed itself on these, as well as on the more dainty fare of sermons and services and weekly celebrations.
It is also of vital importance that we choose the right sort of spiritual food upon which to feed. If unwholesome physical food injures physical health, so also must unwholesome mental food injure spiritual health. There is such a thing as spiritual indigestion, just as there is physical indigestion. The laws of spiritual hygiene are as real and as inexorable as the laws of physical hygiene, and it is of vital importance to our soul's health that we should realize this.
» They tested God in their heart / by demanding the food they craved...
. Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath. (Ps 78:18, 21) The "wrath of God" is only another name for the inevitable results of our own bad actions. God's wrath is never, as human wrath generally is, an arbitrary condition of the mind, resulting from displeasure at being crossed; but it is simply the necessary result of a broken law, the inevitable reaping of that which has been sown. If a man eats unsuitable food, he will have indigestion. An untaught savage might say that it was the wrath of God that had brought the indigestion upon him, but we, who understand the laws of health, know that his indigestion is simply the necessary result of the unsuitable food he has eaten.
Similarly the sickly spiritual condition of so many Christians is not, as they sometimes think, a direct infliction of God's displeasure, but simply and only the necessary consequence of the unsuitable and indigestible spiritual food upon which they have been feeding.
W: I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shal] never thirst.
(Jn 6:35) To many people this is a very mysterious passage, and I do not at all feel competent to explain it theologically. But it has a commonsense side as well, which has a very practical applica-
July / 125 __ tion to one's everyday life, and it is of this side I want to speak.
Very few persons realize the effect of thought upon the condition of the soul, that it is in fact its food, the substance
_ from which it evolves its strength and health and beauty, or | upon which it may become weak and unhealthy and deformed.
_ The things we think about are the things we feed upon. If we think low and corrupt thoughts, we bring diseases upon our soul, just as truly as we bring sickness upon our body by eating corrupt and improper food. The man who thinks about self and feeds on self, may at last become puffed up with self and suffer from the dreadful disease of self-conceit and self-importance.
On the other hand, if we think of Christ, we feed on Christ; we eat his flesh and blood practically, by filling our souls with believing thoughts of him.
The Jews said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" A great many people say the same today. I think my suggestions will show one way at least in which he can give it; and 1 know that any who try this plan of filling their souls with believing thoughts of Christ will find practically that they do feed upon him, to the joy and delight of their hearts. wd Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Phil 4:8)
The things we think about are the things that feed our souls.
If we think about pure and lovely things, we shall grow pure and lovely like them; and the converse is equally true. Very few people realize this. Consequently, there is a great deal of carelessness, even with careful people, in regard to their thoughts. They guard their words and actions with the utmost care, but their thoughts, the very spring and root of everything in character and life, they neglect entirely. So long as it is not put into spoken words, it seems of no consequence at all what goes on within the mind. No one hears or knows, and therefore they imagine that the vagrant thoughts that come and go as they
126 / Daily He Leads Me please, do no harm. Hence, from carelessness about the books they read or the company they keep, they may be continually imbibing as their soul's food the objectionable ideas of the unbeliever, or the sensualist, or the worldly-minded, or the agnostic, or the Pharisee. It is not possible to carry this on for any length of time without inducing soul-diseases. Gradually all delicate distinctions between faith and unfaith, good and evil, purity and impurity, are more and more obliterated. The soul feeds itself on doubt instead of faith, or on coarseness instead of refinement, and becomes correspondingly bewildered. wy) They said to him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
(Jn 6:34) If we join in the disciples' prayer, Jesus can only reply to us as he did to them, "Here I am: I am the bread of life; come to me, believe in me, feed your souls with faith in me and with my thoughts." We must do with him as we would with any great master in art or science, whose spirit we wished to assimilate, and whose works we wished to copy. We must study his life, and try to understand his spirit, and imbue ourselves with his ideas.
We must, in short, make him our constant mental companion; we must abide with him and in him, and let him abide in us. We must let the underlying thoughts of our heart, at the bottom of all other thoughts, be of the Lord and of all his goodness and his love; and all we do and all we think must be founded on these thoughts concerning him.
Ws I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. (2 Tm 1:12)
Paul knew Jesus, and therefore Paul could trust him; and if we would trust him as Paul did, we must know him as intimately. I am afraid a great many people are so taken up with Christian doctrines and dogmas, and are so convinced that their salvation is secured because their "views" are sound and orthodox, that
July / 127 they have never yet come to a personal acquaintance with Christ himself. While knowing a great deal about him, they do not know him personally at all. They have a sort of religion that will do for church going or for Sunday work, but they have nothing that will do for their weekday living: "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hos 6:6). id Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is}... Who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:13, 15)
This question is of vital importance to each one of us. It becomes a question that each one can and must answer personally and individually for himself. If it were doctrines only that were in question, we might find it necessary to appeal to the creeds and dogmas of our own particular sect or denomination in order to find out just what we do believe, or at least ought to believe. But when it is our personal estimate of our Lord and Master that is in question, we can surely, each one of us, discover very easily what our individual thoughts about him are; what is our own opinion of his character and his ways; what sort of a person, in short, we really think him to be. Is he kind and loving, or is he harsh and severe? Is he trustworthy? Is he sympathetic? Is he true to his promises? Is he faithful? Is he self-sacrificing? Is he full of compassion, or is he full of condemnation? Is he our tender brother, or is he our hard taskmaster? Does he care most about himself, or about us? Is he on our side, or against us? It is by our answers to questions like these that we shall reveal what our real estimate of Christ is.
D Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him;/1 will protect him, because he knows my name. (Ps 91:14)
To "know his name" does not mean to know that he was called Christ or Jesus, but it means to know his character. God's namings always mean character. They are never arbitrary, as our
128 / Daily He Leads Me namings are, having no connection with the work or character of the one named. They are always revelations. They tell us what the person is or what he does. "You shall call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins'; Jesus means Savior.
Continually we find the Lord calling upon the people not to profane his name, that is, not to live and act and talk in sucha way as to give others a false idea of his character and his works.
And continually we find the saints of all ages calling upon the people to "praise his name," which is evidently equivalent to praising God himself. "Both young men and maidens; old men and children; let them praise the name of the Lord; for His name is excellent."
I will be their God,/ and they shall be my people./ And they shall not teach every one his fellow / or every one his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," / for all shall know me, / from the least of them to the greatest. (Heb 8:10-11)
Anessential part of the new covenant is that "all should know him from the least to the greatest." God's part is to reveal himself; our part is to believe his revelations. It is very simple.
He tells us he is the Good Shepherd; we are to believe that he actually is, and are to accept him as our Shepherd. He tells us he is the Savior who saves here and now, and we are to believe that it is really true, and are to accept his salvation. Of every revelation he has made of himself in the Bible, we are to say,
"This is true." We are simply to lay aside all our own preconceived ideas, and are to accept God's ideas instead. We are to answer the question, "What do you think of Christ?" by replying,
"I think of him what the Bible tells me to think, and I think absolutely nothing else." wi Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. (Rom 6:13}
July / 129 To yield anything means simply to make over that thing to the care and keeping of another. To yield ourselves to the Lord, therefore, is to make ourselves over to him, give him the entire possession and control of our whole being. It means to abandon ourselves, to take hands off of ourselves. The word consecration is often used to express this yielding, but I hardly think it is a good substitute. With many people, to consecrate themselves seems to convey the idea of doing something very selfsacrificing, and very good and grand; and it therefore admits of a subtle form of self-glorification. But "yielding" conveys a far
_ more humbling idea; it implies helplessness and weakness, and the glorification of another rather than of ourselves.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, / whose trust is the Lord. / He is like a tree planted by water, / that sends out its roots by the stream. (Jer 17:7-8)
I might multiply passages concerning trust indefinitely, for the Bible is simply full of them. The word believe is often used instead of the word trust, but the idea is the same. In the New
Testament, especially, the word believe is the one generally used; but this does not mean believing in doctrines or believing in history, but, rather, believing in a person, or, in other words, trusting that person. Christ always said, "Believe in me," not,
"Believe this or that about me," but "Believe in me, in me as a Savior who can save." You cannot very well trust in "doctrines" or "plans," no matter how much you may believe in them, but you can always trust in the Lord, whether or not you understand his plans or the doctrines concerning him.
5] They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering over deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Heb 11:37-38)
130 / Daily He Leads Me The next time we are tempted, let us remember that those "of whom the world was not worthy" were tempted also, and we shall not be so discouraged. Discouragement is the very worst thing with which to meet temptation. If we are afraid of falling, we are almost sure to fall. A very wise writer on Christian experience once said that in order to overcome temptation a cheerful confidence that we shall overcome is the first thing, and the second thing, and the third thing, and the thing all the way through. The power of temptation lies largely in the fainting of our own hearts. The children of Israel were continually warned against this. No matter how terrible their enemies seemed, God's word always was, "Dread not, neither be afraid of them." And the reason given was invariably the same, "The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace" (see Ex
14:12-14; Dt 1:20-30).
The Lord fights for us now just as he fought for the Israelites then; and we have no more business to be discouraged about our enemies than they had. We see clearly that it was no sin for them to have enemies to fight, and we ought to see as clearly that it is no sin for us. Temptation, therefore, is under no circumstances to be regarded as a sin.
August Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. (2 Cor 13:5) No subject connected with the Christian life has been the cause of more discomfort and suffering to tender consciences than has this subject of self-examination. It has been so constantly impressed upon us that it is our duty to examine ourselves, that the eyes of most of us are continually turned inward, and our gaze is fixed on our own interior states and feelings to such an extent, that self, and not Christ, has come at last to fill the whole horizon.
We ask ourselves an endless number of questions. Am I earnest enough? Have I repented enough? Have I the right sort of feelings? Are my prayers fervent enough? Is my interest in religious things as great as it ought to be? Do I love God with enough fervor? Is the Bible as much of a delight to me as it is to others? All these, anda hundred more questions about ourselves
132 / Daily He Leads Me and our experiences, fill up all our thoughts, and sometimes our little self-examination books as well; and day and night we think of the personal pronouns "I," "me," "my," to the utter exclusion of any thought concerning Christ, or any word concerning "he," "him," "his."
When Paul exhorts the Corinthians to examine themselves, he is addressing people guilty of backsliding, telling them to settle definitely whether or not they are still belivers. Paul does not say examine whether you have the right feelings, or whether you motives are pure, but simply and only whether you are
"holding to your faith." In short, do you believe in Christ or do you not? A simple question that requires only a simple straightforward answer, yes or no. This is what it meant for the Corinthians, then, and it is what it means for us now.
Watch therefore—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. (Mk 13:35) What are the servants to watch for? Themselves? No, they are to watch for him. We can imagine a servant, instead of watching for the return of his master, spending his time morbidly analyzing his own past conduct, trying to discover whether he had been faithful enough, and becoming so absorbed in selfexamination that he lets the master's call go unheeded, and the master's return unnoted. It is the same with the Christian who has formed the mistaken habit of watching and looking at self, instead of watching and looking at Christ.
God says, "Look to me, and you shall be saved," but the self-analyzing soul says, "I must look to myself, if 1 am to have any hope of being saved. It must be by getting myself right that salvation comes." The phrase "looking to Jesus" is generally acknowledged as one of the watchwords of Christianity. But, after saying this, how many of us go on our old way of selfintrospection, trying to find some salvation in ourselves, our feelings, our works of righteousness, and are continually plunged into despair because we never find it?