A Word on the Carnality of Strife and Division amongst the Saints of God
"Finally brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Greet one another with an holy kiss. All the saints salute you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen" (2_Corinthians_13:11-14).
It is not pleasant to dwell upon failure and sin, and yet we should feel these things, yea, deeply feel them, and confess them before God, for only as we do so shall we have ears to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches (Revelation_2:3). And while we feel the failure we learn at the same time how perfect and changeless is the grace of God. How beautifully this shines out in Paul's first letter to Corinth, and what emphasis he seems to lay upon what grace had made them, when he says: "Ye are God's tillage, ye are God's building" (3:9). Ye are the temple of God" (v. 16). "Ye are Christ's" (v. 23). "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost" (6:19). "Ye are bought with a price" (v. 20). "Ye are the body of Christ" (12:27). This causeless and changeless grace was the one hope in the Apostle's heart for them: it is our hope today.
How it charms our hearts — for these things are true of us who believe, even as of them. What mingled feelings it produces in our souls: it makes us sorrow even to tears, because of the carnality that in us has brought forth strife and divisions in the assemblies of God; but it also makes us rejoice, even to shouting, at the grace that is unchanged by our failure, until we are like those ancient Jews who, when the foundation of their restored temple was laid, wept because of the folly that had destroyed the first, but rejoiced at the mercy that gave them a second, so that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people (Ezra_3:13).
But what practical effect shall this grace have upon us? Can we be careless as to what suits our God whose habitation we are? Dare we, or shall we desire to cause or maintain strife and confusion when He has said, "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God"? Are our own feelings, views, and reputations of more importance to us than His will? and shall these exhortations lie unheeded upon the sacred page of Scripture? God forbid! How can we who are the children of the God of peace live any longer in strife and confusion?
Be assured that no exhortation is ever given in the Word of God that may not be carried out by the saints of God in the new life by the power of the Holy Ghost; and no exhortation is ever given that has not found its living exemplification in our Lord Jesus Christ. Every thought of God as to what His children should be has been lived in this world by the Lord Jesus, and such is the power of the Holy Ghost, who dwells within us, that we may reproduce that which has already been produced: the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal bodies (2_Corinthians_4:11).
The first great necessity is the condemnation of the flesh; God has exposed its perverseness and folly, and no flesh shall glory in His presence. The cross of Christ is its condemnation: on the one hand it thought the Lord of glory worthy of that shame, and it viewed Him there in that weakness and degradation with utter contempt. On the other hand, the flesh was ended for God in righteous judgment there that we might stand in it before Him no more. The grace of God has enlightened our souls, and we have received the Spirit of God, and Christ crucified is to us the power of God and the wisdom of God, and in the presence of that cross we turn from the flesh with loathing.
"My
richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all
my pride."
The hatefulness of that proud and cruel flesh that is utterly indifferent to everything but its own advancement stands rebuked in the presence of the One whose love led Him even to the death of the cross. The Corinthians to some extent had reached this point in their exercises, for godly sorrow working repentance to salvation was produced within them (2_Corinthians_7), and as a consequence their vision was cleared and the Apostle was able to direct their gaze to the Lord in glory.
The exhortations of Scripture are fulfilled by us without effort as our thoughts are upon Him, for beholding the Lord's glory, we are transformed into the same image (chap._3:18). And what an object is He for our contemplation, the One who was here on earth in lowliness and subjection to God, who never strove with men for His rights, who was gentle to all, so gentle that He would not quench the smoking flax nor break the bruised reed, and who came not to be ministered unto but to minister and give His life a ransom for many. He is the same today as He was then, but now He is crowned with God's approval in the glory. It is as we contemplate Him that we shall be comforted and carry out these exhortations, and the God of love and peace shall be with us.
What a portion is this — "THE GOD OF LOVE AND PEACE SHALL BE WITH YOU"! "Foolish," "weak," "base," and nothing in the eyes of the world we may be; it is right that we should be so, for such hath God chosen, that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord. But what dignity, what power, what joy, if the God of love and peace be with us; what more than this could heart, renewed by grace, desire on earth? May this be our happy lot.
There is one other matter about which watchfulness is needed: the men who cause division and strife, contrary to the doctrine which we have learned, are often looked up to as heroes and put in the place of leaders, another evidence of the carnality of themselves and those who treat them thus; we are exhorted in the Word to mark such and treat them as we would a pestilential carcase. Withdraw from them, avoid them (Romans_16:17; 1_Timothy_5:6). In obedience lies the path of blessing.
"The grace of The Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen."