3. Spiritual Preparation
The “Go” of Preparation
Matthew 5:23-24
Nerve us with patience, Lord, to toil or rest,
Toiling at rest on our allotted level,
Unsnared, unscared by world or flesh or devil,
Fulfilling the good will of Thy behest.
Not careful here to hoard, not here to revel,
But waiting for our treasure and our zest
Beyond the fading splendour of the west,
Beyond this deathstruck life and deadlier evil.
Not with the sparrow building here a house,
But with the swallow tabernacling, so
a still to poise alert, to rise and go
On eagle wings, with wing outspeeding wills,
Beyond earth’s gourds and past her almond boughs,—
past utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
Preparation is not something suddenly accomplished, but a process steadily maintained. It is easy to imagine that we get to a settled state of experience where we are complete and ready; but in work for God it is always preparation and preparation. Moral preparation comes before intellectual preparation, because moral integrity is of more practical value than any amount of mental insight.
1. Moral Preparation
In writing to the Philippians Paul mentions two “perfections”: “not as though I . . . were already perfect” (3:12); “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect . . .” (3:15). The first refers to the perfection of attainment; the second to the perfection of adjustment to God. When by the experience of sanctification we are in perfect adjustment to God, we can begin to live the perfect life, that is, we can begin to attain. A child is a perfect human being, so is a man; what is the difference? The one is not yet grown, the other is full grown. When we are sanctified, we are perfectly adjusted to God, but we have done nothing yet, we are simply perfectly fit to begin. The whole life is right, undeserving of censure in the sight of God††; now we can begin to attain in our bodily life, to prove that we are perfectly adjusted. Somewhere in the metropolis there exists what is probably a unique museum of broken materials used in engineering works. It is a splendidly organised testing laboratory wherein have been held many practical tests upon materials which have failed. The museum is used not only to discover the cause of the breakdown in the material, but also to test substances which it is proposed to employ in the construction of buildings and machinery. That is the purpose of such places as this Bible Training College—for testing the material to be used in God’s service. Remember, nothing and no one can detect us saving God. We are in the quarry now and God is hewing us out. God’s Spirit gathers and marks the stones, then they have to be blasted out of their holdings by the dynamite of the Holy Ghost, to be chiselled and shaped, and then lifted into the heavenly places. God grant that many may go through the quarrying and the chiselling and the placing. Think of the scrutiny of Jesus Christ that each one of us has to face! Think of His eyes fastening on us and pointing us out before God as He says—“Father, that is My work; that is the meaning of Gethsemane, that is the meaning of Calvary. I did all that man’s work in him, all that woman’s work in her; now You can use them.”
(a) Heroism and Sacrifice
If therefore thou art offering thy gift at the altar . . . (Matthew 5:23 rv)
The Jews were scrupulous over external purity, and if on the way to the Temple to offer his paschal lamb, a man should recollect that he had leaven in his house, he had to hasten back and remove the leaven; and then when he had purged his house, carry his offering to the altar.
The sense of the heroic appeals readily to a young Christian. Take Peter, for instance. Humanly speaking, Peter was attracted to Jesus by his sense of the heroic. When Jesus said “Follow Me,” Peter followed at once; it was no cross to him. It would have been a bigger cross not to follow, for the spell of Jesus Christ was on him. We are apt to under-estimate this enthusiastic sense of the heroic. It would be a terrible thing to be incapable of it, a terrible thing to be incapable of making such a declaration as Peter made—“I will lay down my life for Thy sake.”† Peter meant what he said, but he did not know himself. The scrutiny of our Lord’s words brings the tide of enthusiasm suddenly to the test. Many of us have come to the altar for service, but are we willing to bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar? The altar means fire—burning and purification and insulation for one purpose, to detach us to God. Along with the sense of the heroic, there is a base element of selfishness, a lurking desire to fix the scenery of our own martyrdom. We feel if only we could fix the place and the spectators, we could go all lengths. But God fixes the place.
The illustration Our Lord used in Matthew 5:21-22 is unfamiliar to us, but the application is familiar. He is illustrating the descending scale of wrong tempers of mind. An angry man was in danger of being brought before the rulers for judgment; a contemptuous, disdainful man was regarded in the same way as a blasphemer and was brought before the ruler of the Sanhedrin; the man who gave way to abuse was in danger of being classed with criminals and flung out on the scrap heaps where the fires burned up the rubbish.
(b) Hardship and Sensitiveness
and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee . . .
Not—“there you rake up by a morbid sensitiveness,” but—“there you remember,” the inference is that it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God. Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit in you when He is educating you down to the scruple. When we are first put right with God, it is the great general principles that are at work, then God begins to make the conscience sensitive here and there. Don’t quench the Spirit. His checks are so tiny that common sense cannot detect them. If there is a sense of being out of touch with God, then at the peril of your soul you go and ask someone else what you have done wrong, you must go direct to God. The other soul is never so keen as the Spirit of God. When He checks, never debate, but obey at once. It is not a question of having had the law of God put in front of our mind: “This is what you must do and that is what you must not do,” and then deliberate disobedience on our part. It is more an instinct of the spirit, an instantaneous feeling, a still small voice which we can easily quench; but if we do quench it, we become soiled, and every time the check comes and we do not heed it, the soiling is deepened. “Grieve not the . . . Spirit.” He does not come with a voice like thunder, with strong emphatic utterance—that may come ultimately; but at the beginning His voice is as gentle as a zephyr. At the same time it carries an imperative compulsion—we know the voice must be obeyed.
The “go” of preparation is to let the word of God scrutinise. We are full of the sense of heroic sacrifice, and it seems hard to be reminded of things that happened in the past; but the thing that the Holy Spirit is detecting is that disposition in us that will never work in His service.
Over and over again men have gone into work for God in order to evade concentration on God on these lines. The note of false enthusiasm is the condition of the heathen. The need is made the call; but it is an artificial enthusiasm. No enthusiasm for humanity will ever stand the strain that Jesus Christ will put on His workers. Only one thing will stand the strain, and that is the personal relationship to Jesus of a man or woman who has gone through the mill of God’s spring-cleaning until there is one purpose only—“I am here for God to use me as He wills.”
2. Mental Preparation
(a) Direction by First Impulse
Leave there thy gift before the altar . . .
When God shows you there is something to do, don’t be sulky with God; and don’t say—“Oh well, I suppose after all God does not want me.” Don’t affect a heaviness of soul because other missionaries are not what they ought to be; don’t criticise the missionary society you belong to. Our Lord’s instruction is that you leave your gift and go; take your direction from the conviction He gave you when you first offered yourself to Him. Have nothing to hide from God. If you have, then let God riddle you with His light. If there is sin, confess it, not admit it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master in this particular, no matter what the humiliation may be to your right to yourself?
(b) Departure to the Former Condition
And go thy way . . .
Our Lord’s direction is simple—Go back the way you came, and put that thing right. Never put a thing aside because it is insignificant. If you trace it down, the insignificant thing has at the back of it the disposition of my right to myself. Trace a scruple to its base and you find a pyramid; if you deal with the scruple, God will deal with the pyramid. The thing itself may be a detail, it is the disposition behind that is wrong, the refusal to give up your right to yourself—the thing God intends us to do if we are ever going to be disciples. Never discard a conviction; if it is important enough for the Spirit of God to have brought it to your mind, that is the thing He is detecting. You were looking for a great big thing to do, and God is telling you of some tiny thing; but at the back of the tiny thing is the central citadel of obstinacy. “Do you think I am going to humiliate myself? Besides, if I do this thing, it will cause others to stumble.” No one will ever stumble because of us if we do what is right and obey what God indicates. Never remain true to a former confession of faith when God’s Spirit indicates there is something else for you to do. Go the way indicated by the conviction given you at the altar. It is marvellous what God detects in us for His spring-cleaning!
3. Spiritual Preparation
(a) The Unblameable Attitude in Human Life
first be reconciled to thy brother . . .
“Unblameable” does not mean faultless, but undeserving of censure††. Jesus is saying—Have an attitude of mind and temper of spirit to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural and as easy as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person. He says—you go. There is no question of rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus. That is the temper of soul to be in all through, unblameable in our attitude towards one another. Our Lord demands that there be not a trace of resentment even suppressed. A wrong temper of mind is the most blameworthy thing there is. It is not only what we say but what we think that tells.
(b) The Unblameable Attitude in Divine Life
. . . and then come and offer thy gift.
The process is clearly marked by Our Lord: first, the heroic spirit of sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit; the stoppage at the point of conviction, and the going in obedience to God’s word; constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom we were wrong, and then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of our gift to God.