Chapter 13 – Enjoying God’s Best (part 2)
Enjoying God’s Best, Part 3
March, 1948
Having shown at some length in the preceding articles that the Old and New Testament alike teach there is such a thing as entering into and enjoying God’s best—that if we meet His just requirements, He will make our way prosperous—we must turn now to the darker side of the subject, and face the fact that it is sadly possible to miss God’s best and bring down upon ourselves adversity. God has not only promised “no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11)—but He has also plainly informed us, “Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withheld good things from you” (Jeremiah 5:25). Upon which John Gill (1697-1771) said, “These mercies were kept back from them in order to humble them, and to bring them to a sense of their sins, and an acknowledgment of them.”
Adversities do not come upon us at haphazard—but from the hand of God; nor does He appoint them arbitrarily—but righteously. God will no more wink at the sins of His people—than He will at those of the worldlings: were He to do so, He would not maintain the honor of his house. As Thomas Manton (1620- 1677) also pointed out on Jeremiah 5:25, “If there be any restraint of God’s blessing—it is because of man’s sin.” “The way of transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15): while no doubt the primary reference there is unto the wicked, yet the principle expressed applies unmistakably to the redeemed as well.
If, on the one hand, in keeping God’s commandments there is “great reward,” on the other hand, the breaking of them involves great loss. If it be true that Wisdom’s “ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Proverbs 3:17), certain it is that if we turn from her ways, we shall be made to smart for it. Alas, how often we choke the current of God’s favors. It is not only an “evil thing,” but a “bitter” one to forsake the “LORD our God” (Jeremiah 2:19). That is why sin is so often termed “folly,” for it is not only a crime against God—but madness toward ourselves! Many are the mischiefs caused by our sinning, the chief of which is that we obstruct the flow of God’s blessings. Sin costs us dear, for it not only immediately takes from us—but it prevents our future receiving of divine bounties. In other words, willful sinning prevents our receiving God’s best for us.
“Believe in the LORD your God, so shall you be established; believe his prophets, so shall you prosper” (2 Chronicles 20:20) states the principle clearly enough. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and your souls shall be settled in peace and joy; receive with submission every discovery of His will through His Word and servants, and His providential smile shall be your portion. But, conversely, lean unto your own understanding and allow unbelief to prevail—and assurance and tranquility of soul will wane and vanish; let self-will and self-pleasing dominate, and His providences will frown upon you.
The connection between conduct and its consequences, cannot be broken. Walk in the way of faith and holiness—and God is pleased, and will evidence His pleasure toward us; enter the paths of unrighteousness, and God is provoked, and will visit His displeasure upon us. When Israel’s land was laid waste and their cities were burned, they were told, “Have you not procured this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?” (Jeremiah 2:17). Upon which Matthew Henry (1662-1714) said, “Whatever trouble we are in at any time—we may thank ourselves for it, for we bring it upon our own heads by our forsaking of God.”
Missing God’s best is true of the unsaved. As long as unbelievers are left in this world, opportunity is given them of escaping from the wrath to come. Therefore they are exhorted—in the Scriptures, if not from the pulpit, “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). For the same reason, there is a door represented as being open to them, which the Master of the house will one day rise up and shut to (Luke 13:24-25).
Nothing could more clearly express the danger of delay than the language used in such passages. Nor is there anything in them which at all clashes with the divine decrees. As one has pointed out, “All allow that men have opportunity in natural things to do what they do not, and to obtain what they obtain not; and if that is consistent with a universal providence which performs all things that are appointed for us (Job 23:14), why cannot the other consist with the purpose of Him who does nothing without a plan—but ‘works all things after the counsel of his own will’ (Eph 1:11).”
Slothfulness is no excuse in those who refuse to improve their lot; nor is intemperance any extenuation for a man’s bringing upon himself physical, financial, and moral disaster. Still less does either prejudice or indolence release any from his accountability to accept the free offer of the Gospel. “Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he has no heart to it?” (Proverbs 17:16). The “price in the hand” signifies the means and opportunity. “Wisdom” may be understood both naturally and spiritually. The “fool” is the one who fails to obtain what he might well and should procure. The reason he does not is simply that he lacks “a heart” or desire and determination. As Matthew Henry said, “He has set his heart upon other things, so that he has no heart to do his duty, or to the great concerns of this soul.”
Such fools the world is full of—they prefer sin to holiness, this world rather than heaven. “He who in his bargains exchanges precious things for trifles—is a fool. Thus do men sell their time which is their money given for eternity, and they sell it for unsatisfying things, they sell themselves for nothing.” Thomas Goodwin (1600- 1680); and thereby they miss God’s best.
“Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he has no heart to it?” (Proverbs 17:16). God provides the non-elect with spiritual means and opportunities to enforce their responsibility, so that their blood shall be upon their own heads, that the blame is theirs for missing His best.
But it is the Christian’s doing so that we have chiefly in mind. Sad indeed is it to behold so many of them living more under the frown of God—than His smile; and sadder still that so few of them have been taught why it is so with them, and how to recover themselves. The New Testament makes it clear that many of the primitive saints “ran well” for a time, and then something hindered them. Observation shows that the majority of believers “follow the Lord fully” (Num 14:24) at the outset—but soon leave their “first love” (Rev 2:4).
At the beginning, they respond readily to the promptings of the Spirit and adjust their lives to the requirements of the Word—until some demand is made upon them, some self-denying duty is met with—and then they balk. Then the Holy Spirit is grieved, His enabling power is withheld, their peace and joy wane, and a spiritual decline sets in. Unless they put right with God what is wrong—repent of and contritely confess their sad failure—the rod of chastisement falls upon them; but instead of being “exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11) some fatalistically accept it as “their appointed lot,” and are nothing bettered thereby. Now the Lord has plainly warned His people that if they meet not His just requirements, so far from enjoying His best, adversity will be their portion. “So be very careful to love the Lord your God. “But if you turn away and ally yourselves with the survivors of these nations that remain among you and if you intermarry with them and associate with them—then you may be sure that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become snares and traps for you, whips on your backs and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land, which the Lord your God has given you. (Joshua 23:11-13).
The Jews held Canaan by the tenure of their obedience, and so do those who belong to “the Israel of God’ (Gal 6:16) now possess and enjoy their spiritual Canaan in proportion to their obedience. But as God has forewarned, “If his sons forsake my law and do not follow my statutes, if they violate my decrees and fail to keep my commands—then I will punish their sin with the rod, their iniquity with flogging; but I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness.” (Psalm 89:30-33). That passage makes it unmistakably clear that while the chastenings from our Father proceed from both His faithfulness and holy love, yet they are also marks of His displeasure; and that while they are designed for our good—the recovery of us from our backsliding—yet they have been provoked by our own waywardness.
The Father’s rod is not wielded by an arbitrary sovereignty—but by righteousness. It is expressly declared, “For he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (Lam 3:33)—but only as we give Him occasion to do so. That important statement has not received the attention it deserves, especially by those who have so focused their thoughts upon God’s eternal decrees as to quite lose sight of his governmental ways. Hence the tragic thing is that when chastisement becomes their portion, they know of nothing better than to “bow to God’s sovereign will,” which is very little different in principle from the world’s policy of “seeking to make the best of a bad job,” or “we must grit our teeth and endure it.” Such a fatalistic and supine attitude ill becomes a regenerate soul; instead, he is required to be “exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11).
Only too often such “bowing to the will of God” is so far from being a mark of spirituality; it rather evinces a sluggish conscience. God bids His people, “Hear the rod” (Mic 6:9). It has a message for the heart—but we profit nothing unless we ascertain what the rod is saying to us—why it is that God is now smiting us! In order to discover its message, we need to humbly ask the Lord, “Show me why you contend with me” (Job 10:2); “cause me to understand wherein I have erred” (Job 6:24); reveal to me wherein I have displeased You, that I may contritely acknowledge my offence and be more on my guard against a repetition of it.
The holiness of God will not tolerate sin in the saints, and when they go on in the same unrepentingly, then He declares, “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns!” (Hos 2:6). Note well “your way”—not “my way.” God sets the briars of trials and the sharp thorns of afflictions in the path of His disobedient children. If that does not suffice to bring them to their senses, then he adds, “And make a wall, that she shall not find her paths” (Hos 2:6)—His providences block the realization of their carnal and covetous desires. “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. “If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:11-16).
When we meet with a passage like this, our first duty is to receive it with meekness, and not to inquire, How is it to be harmonized with the invincibility of the divine decrees? Our second duty is to prayerfully endeavor to understand its sense, and not to explain away its terms. We must not draw inferences from it which contradict other declarations of Holy Writ—either concerning the accomplishment of God’s purpose or His dealing with us according to our conduct. Instead of reasoning about their teaching, we need to turn these verses into earnest petition begging God to preserve us from such sinful folly as marked Israel on this occasion.
There is nothing in those verses which should occasion any difficulty for the Calvinist, for they treat not of the eternal foreordinations of God—but of His governmental ways with men in this life. For the same reason, there is nothing in them which in any wise supports the Arminian delusion that, having created men free moral agents, God is unable to do for them and with them what He desires without reducing them to mere machines. We should, then, proceed on that which is obvious in them, and not confuse ourselves by reading into them anything obscure.
The key to them is found in verses 11-12: Israel walked contrary to God’s will—not His decretive—but His preceptive. They acted not according to the divine commandments—but in their self-will and self-pleasing, determined to have their own way; and in consequence, they forfeited God’s best for them. Instead of His subduing their enemies, He allowed the heathen to vanquish them. Instead of providing abundant harvests, He sent them famines (2 Samuel 21:1). Instead of giving them pastors after His own heart, He allowed them to be deceived by false prophets (compare 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11). “O that you had hearkened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea” (Isaiah 48:18). On which even John Gill said, “Their prosperity, temporal and spiritual, would have been abundant, and would always have continued, have been increasing and everflowing.”
Failure to walk in the paths of God’s precepts deprives us of many a blessing. J. C. Philpot (1802-1869) said, “If I pay no reverence to such a word as this, ‘Be not overcome of evil—but overcome evil with good’ (Romans 12:21), I shall fall into bondage, and find my prayer shut out. It will prove a hindrance to my approaches to God, for ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me’ (Psalm 66:18)…If you attend not to the word of exhortation, you will find no end of misery, and the sensible lack of the Lord’s presence; you will have no communion with His people, no blessing of God upon the work of your hands.”
After describing the sore judgments of God which were about to fall upon the wayward children of Israel, His faithful servant told them plainly, “Your way and your doings have procured these things unto you; this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reaches unto your heart” (Jeremiah 4:18). Upon which J. Gill said, “Those calamities coming upon them, they had none to blame but themselves; it was their own sinful ways and works whereby that this ruin and destruction came on them.”
Consider also this passage: “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.” (Haggai 1:9-10). How many a Christian today might trace God’s “blowing upon” his temporal affairs unto his putting his carnal interests before the Lord’s!
Consider now some individual examples. Do not the closing incidents recorded in the life of Lot make plain demonstration that he “missed God’s best”? Witness his being forcibly conducted out of Sodom by the angels, where all his earthly possessions, his sons, and his sons-in-law perished; and when his wife was turned into a pillar of salt for her defiance. Behold his intemperance in the cave, then unwittingly committing incest with his own daughters—the last thing chronicled of him! But “was there not a cause”? Go back and mark him separating from godly Abraham, coveting the plain of Jordan, “pitching his tent toward Sodom” (Gen 13:12). Though “the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly” (Gen 13:13), yet Lot settled in their midst, and even “sat in the gate of Sodom” (Gen 19:1)—that is held office there!
Is it not equally evident that Jacob too missed God’s best? Hear his own sad confession near the close of his career: “Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been” (Gen 47:9). And is the explanation far to seek? Read his history, and it should at once be apparent that he was made to reap exactly as he had sown.
The chequered life of David supplies us with more than one or two illustrations of the same principle. Few men have experienced such sore social and domestic trials as he did. Not only was David caused much trouble by political traitors in his kingdom—but, what was far more painful, the members of his own family brought down heavy sorrows upon him. The second book of Samuel records one calamity after another. His favorite wife turned against him (2Sam 6:20-22), his daughter Tamar was raped by her half-brother (2Sam 13:14), and his son Amnon was murdered (2Sam 13:28-29). His favorite son, Absalom, sought to wrest the kingdom from him, and then met with an ignominious end (2Sam 18:14). Before David’s death, yet another of his sons sought to obtain the throne (1 Kings 1:5), and he too was murdered (1 Kings 2:24-25).
Since the Lord afflicts not willingly—but only as our sins give occasion, it behooves us to attend closely to what led up to and brought upon David those great afflictions. Nor have we far to seek. Read 2 Samuel 3:2-5, and note his six wives: he gave way to the lusts of the flesh, and from the flesh he “reaped corruption” (Gal 6:8)! Painful though it is for us to dwell upon the failings and falls of the sweet Psalmist of Israel, especially since in so many respects, he puts both writer and reader to shame; yet it must be remembered that “for whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning” (Romans 15:4)—that we might heed such warnings, and be preserved from similar backslidings.
His grievous offence against Uriah and Bathsheba is prefaced by the fact that he was indulging in slothful ease, instead of performing his duty (2 Samuel 11:1-2)—observe well the ominous “But” at the close of verse 1! Though David sincerely and bitterly repented of those sins and obtained the Lord’s forgiveness, yet by them he missed His best; and for the rest of his days, lived under more or less adverse providences, and the “sword” never departed from his house (2 Samuel 12:10).
Nothing could more plainly evince that a holy God takes notice of our actions and deals with us accordingly, or make it manifest that it is our own folly which brings down the rod of God upon us. We read the historical portions of Scripture to little purpose or profit, unless their practical lessons are taken to heart by us. Our consciences require to be searched by these narratives far more than our minds to be informed by them!
Enjoying God’s Best, Part 4
April, 1948
Let us now point out that the same principle holds good in connection with the divine government under the new covenant, as obtained under the old covenant. “And he did not many mighty works there—because of their unbelief ” (Mat 13:58). What place has such a statement as that in the theology of hyper-Calvinists? None whatever. Yet it should have; otherwise, why has it been placed upon record if it has no analogy today? As Matthew Henry (1662-1714) rightly insisted, “Unbelief is the great obstacle to Christ’s favor…The Gospel is ‘the power of God unto salvation,’ but then it is ‘to every one that believes’ (Romans 1:16). So that if mighty works be not wrought in us, it is not for lack of power or grace in Christ—but lack of faith in us.” That was putting the emphasis where it must be placed, if human responsibility is to be enforced. It was nothing but hardness of heart which precluded them from sharing the benefits of Christ’s benevolence.
When the father whose son was possessed by the demon that the disciples had failed to expel, said unto the great Physician, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us,” He at once turned the “if” back upon him, saying, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes” (Mark 9:22-23).
That we are the losers by our folly, and that we bring trouble down upon ourselves by unbelief is illustrated in the case of the father of John the Baptist. When the angel of the Lord appeared unto him during the discharge of his priestly office in the temple, and announced that his prayer was answered and his wife should bear a son, instead of expressing gratitude at the good news and bursting forth in thanksgiving unto God, Zacharias voiced his doubts, saying, “How shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years” (Luke 1:18). Whereupon the angel declared, “Behold, you shall be mute, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because you did not believe my words” (Luke 1:20), upon which John Gill (1697-1771) said, “He was stricken with deafness because he hearkened not to the angel’s words, and muteness because from the unbelief of his heart, he objected to them. We learn from hence, what an evil unbelief is, and how much resented by God, and how much it becomes us to heed that it prevails not in us.” To which he might well have added: and how God manifests His resentment against such conduct by sending adverse providences upon us!
Should it be said that the above incident occurred before the day of Pentecost—a pointless objection— then let us call attention to the fact that at a very early date after the establishment of Christianity, God, in an extraordinary manner, visited with temporal judgments those who displeased and provoked Him. A clear case in point is the visible manner in which He dealt with Ananias and Sapphira (Act 5).
So, too, when Herod gratefully accepted the idolatrous adulations of the populace, instead of rebuking their sinful flattery, we are told, “Immediately, because Herod did not give the glory to God—an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” (Act 12:23).
God does suit His governmental ways according to the conduct of men, be they unbelievers or believers. Not always so plainly or so promptly as in the examples just adduced, yet with sufficient clearness and frequency that all impartial and discerning observers may perceive that nothing happens by chance or mere accident—but is traceable to an antecedent cause or occasion; that His providences are regulated by righteousness.
“For though I am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already decided about the one who has done this thing as though I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus with my spirit and with the power of our Lord Jesus, turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 5:3-5). A member of the Corinthian assembly had committed a grave offence, which was known publicly. For the same, he was dealt with drastically: something more than a bare act of ex-communication or being “disfellowshiped” being meant in the above verses. The guilty one was committed unto Satan for him to severely afflict his body—which is evidently meant by “the flesh” being here contrasted with “the spirit.” That Satan has the power of afflicting the body we know from Job 2:7; Luke 13:16, etc. And that the apostles, in the early days of Christianity, were endowed with the authority to deliver erring ones unto Satan to be disciplined by him, is evident from 2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10; 1 Timothy 1:20.
Thus we see how a Christian was here visited with some painful disease because of his sins. It is sadly possible for Christians to miss God’s best through failure in their home life. This is evident from 1 Peter 3:7, “Likewise, you husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” Incidentally, that verse inculcates family worship, the husband and wife praying together. Further, it teaches that their treatment of one another will have at close bearing upon their joint supplications, for if domestic harmony does not rule—what unity of spirit can there be when they come together before the Throne of Grace?
By necessary implication that also shows how essential it is that they be equally “yoked together” for “what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14). What joint act of worship is possible between a child of God—and a child of the devil, between a regenerate soul—and a worldling? Yet even where both the husband and the wife are true Christians, they are required to regulate their individual conduct by the precepts which God has given unto each of them: the wife that she be “in subjection to” her husband and diligent in cultivating “a meek and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:1-6): the husband that he heeds the injunctions here given; otherwise their petitions will be “hindered,” and God’s best forfeited.
First, the husband is to act according to his knowledge that his wife is “the weaker vessel,” which is not said in disparagement of her gender. As one has pointed out, “It is no insult to the vine to say that it is weaker than the tree to which it clings, or to the rose to say it is weaker than the bush that bears it. The strongest things are not always therefore the best—either the most beautiful or the most useful.”
Second, as such he is to “give honor her”—that is, his superior strength is to be engaged for her defense and welfare, rendering all possible assistance in lightening her burdens. Her very weakness is to serve as a constant appeal for a patient tenderness and forbearance toward her infirmities.
Furthermore, he is ever to act in accordance with her spiritual equality, that they are “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). Not only should the love which he has for her make him diligent in promoting her well-being—but the grace of which he has been made a partaker should operate in seeking the good of her soul and furthering her spiritual interests: discussing together the things of God, reading edifying literature to her when she is relaxing, pouring out together their thanksgivings unto God and making known their requests at the family altar.
Then it is, when those divine requirements are met by both wife and husband, that they may plead that promise, “That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask—it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 18:19). That agreement is far more than verbal or even mental: it is a spiritual one. The Greek word is sumphoneo, and literally signifies “to sound together.” It is a musical term, as when two different notes or instruments make a harmonious sound. Thus, there must be oneness of heart, unity of spirit, concord of soul, in order for two Christians to “agree” before the Throne of Grace, for their joint petitions to be harmonious and melodious unto the Lord. It is music in the ear of their Father—when the spiritual chords of a Christian husband and a Christian wife vibrate in unison at the family altar. But that can only obtain as they singly and mutually conduct themselves as “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7), their home life being ordered by the Word of God; everything in it done for His glory—the wife acting toward her husband as the Church is required to do as the Lamb’s Wife; the husband treating her as Christ loves and cherishes His Church.
Contrariwise, if the wife rebels against the position which God has assigned her and refuses to own her husband as her head and lord, yielding obedience to him in everything which is not contrary to the divine statutes—then friction and strife will soon obtain, for a godly husband must not yield to the compromising plea of “peace at any price.” Equally so, if the husband takes unlawful advantage of his headship and be tyrannical, then, though the wife bears it meekly, her spirit is crushed, and love is chilled. If he treats her more like a servant or slave than a wife, the Spirit will be grieved, and he will be made to smart. If he is selfishly forgetful of her infirmities—especially those involved in childbearing—if he is not increasingly diligent in seeking to lighten her load and brighten her lot as the family grows, if he exercises little concern and care for her health and comfort, then she will feel and grieve over such callousness, and harmony of spirit will be gone. In such a case, their prayers will be “hindered,” or, as the Greek word signifies, “cut off “—the very opposite of “agree” in Matthew 18:19! By domestic discord, the heart is discomposed for supplication, and thus, God’s best is missed.
From the second and third chapters of the Revelation, we learn that the Lord treats with local churches on the same principles as He does with individuals: that they too enter into or miss His best according to their own wisdom or folly. Thus, to the pastor of the Ephesian assembly, He declared, “I have something against you, because you have left your first love. Remember therefore from whence you are fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto you quickly, and will remove your candlestick out of his place, except you repent” (Rev 2:4-5)—how many such a “candlestick” has thus been removed!
To the careless and compromising ones at Pergamos, who then allowed in their midst those who held doctrine which He hated, the Lord solemnly threatened, “Repent; or else I will come unto you quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (Rev 2:14-16)—those churches which are slack in maintaining holy discipline, invite divine judgment.
While to the boastful and worldly Laodiceans, the Lord declared, “I will spue you out of my mouth” (Rev 3:16)—I will no longer own you as My witness. Writing on the need of members of a local church having “the same care one for another” (1 Corinthians 12:25) and pointing out how that James 2:1-4 supplies an example of a company of saints where the opposite practice obtained, one wrote: “Instead of having the same care, when we make a difference between him ‘with a gold ring, in goodly apparel’ and him or her with poor clothing, we are being ‘partial’… Do not be deceived with the thought that God does not behold such partiality: He will not prosper that church—but the members of the whole body will be made to suffer from this lack of ‘the same care one for another.'” And we would point out that this brief quotation is not taken from any Arminian publication—but from a recent issue of a magazine by the most hyper-Calvinist body we know of in the U.S.A.
What we would particularly direct attention to in it is that when such a carnal church is “made to suffer” because of the pride and selfishness of some of its officers or members, then it has missed God’s best. How many such churches are there in Christendom today!
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). Here is a clear case in point where many Christians missed God’s best, and brought down upon themselves His temporal judgments because of their own misconduct. “For this cause” refers to their having eaten of the Lord’s supper “unworthily” —see verses 20 and 21. When numerous cases of sickness and death occur in a Christian assembly, they are not to be regarded as a matter of course—but made the subject of a searching examination before God and a humbling inquiring of Him. God was not dealing with these Corinthian saints in mere sovereignty—but in governmental righteousness, disciplining them for a grave offence. He was manifesting His displeasure at them because of their sins, afflicting them with bodily sickness— which in many instances ended fatally—on account of their irreverence and intemperance, as the “For this cause” unmistakably shows.
This, too, has been recorded for our instruction—warning us to avoid sin in every form, and signifying that the commission of it will expose us to the divine displeasure, even though we be God’s dear children. Here, too, we are shown that our entering into or missing of God’s best has a real influence upon the health of our bodies! That same passage goes on to inform us how we may avert such disciplinary affliction! “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged” (1 Corinthians 11:31). There is a divine judgment to which the saints are amenable, a judgment pertaining to this life, which is exercised by Christ as the Judge of His people (1 Peter 4:17). To Him each local church is accountable; unto Him each individual believer is responsible for his thoughts, words, and deeds.
As such, He walks “in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks” (Rev 2:1). Nothing escapes His notice, for “his eyes were as a flame of fire” (Rev 19:12), and before Him “all things are naked and opened” (Hebrews 4:13). Not that He is strict to impute every iniquity, or rigorous to punish—for who then could stand before Him? The Lord is in no haste to correct His redeemed—but is slow to anger and loathe to chasten. Nevertheless, He is holy, and will maintain the honor of His own house; and therefore does He call upon His erring ones to repent under threat of judgment, if they fail to do so. Not that He ever imposes any penal inflictions for their sins, for He personally suffered and atoned for them; but out of the love He bears them, He makes known how they may avoid His governmental corrections.
“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” There are some of the Lord’s people who—when they be overtaken in a fault—expect immediate chastisement at His hands; and through fear of it, their knees are feeble and their hands hang down. But that is going to the opposite extreme from careless indifference—both of which are condemned by the above verse. It is a law of Christ’s judgment that “if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” That is, if we make conscience of having offended, and go directly to the Judge, unsparingly condemning ourselves and contritely confessing the fault to Him—He will pardon and pass it by.
Though they are far from parallel, yet we may illustrate by the case of Nineveh under the preaching of Jonah. When the prophet announced, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jon 3:4), more was intended than was expressed. He was not there proclaiming God’s inexorable fiat—but was sounding an alarm to operate as a means of moral awakening. That “forty days” opened a door of hope for them, and was tantamount to saying, Upon genuine repentance and true reformation of conduct, a reprieve will be granted. That is no mere inference of ours—but a fact clearly attested in the immediate sequel.
“So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth” (Jon 3:5); while the king published a decree to his subjects: “Cry mightily unto God: yes, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?” And we are told, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jon 3:5-10). God’s “repenting” here means that He altered in His bearing toward them because their conduct had changed for the better, thereby averting the judgment with which He had threatened them.
Now if God dealt thus with a heathen people upon their repentance and reformation, how much more will Christ turn away the rod of chastisement from His redeemed when they truly repent of their sins and humble themselves before Him! For them there is no mere “who can tell if God will turn and repent,” but the definite and blessed assurance that “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” O what tenderness and divine longsufferance breathe in those words! That even when we have erred—yes, sinned—grievously, a way is opened for us whereby we may escape the rod. Ah—but what divine wisdom and righteousness are also evinced by them! “If we would judge ourselves,” we should escape the disciplinary consequences of our sins. And why so? Because the rod is no longer needed by us. Why not? Because in such a case, the desired effect has been wrought in us without the use of it! What is God’s design in chastisement? To bring the refractory one to his senses, to make him realize he has erred and displeased the Lord, to cause him to right what is wrong by repentance, confession, and reformation. When those fruits are borne, then we have heard “the rod” (Mic 6:9), and it has accomplished its intended work.
Very well then, if we truly, unsparingly, and contritely “judge” ourselves before God for our sins, then the rod is not required. Having condemned himself, turned back into the way of holiness, sought and obtained cleansing from all unrighteousness, he is brought to the very point—only more quickly and easily!—to which chastening would bring him!
“For if we would judge ourselves”: those very words seem to imply there is both a slowness and a reluctance in the saints so to do—a thought which is confirmed in the next verse. Alas, many of those who have left their first love are in such a backslidden and sickly case spiritually that they are incapable of judging themselves. Their conscience has become so dull through the frequent excusing of what they deemed trifling things, their walk is so careless, that they offend their Judge and are virtually unaware of doing so. “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not: yes, gray hairs [the mark of decline and decay] are here and there upon him, yet he knows not” (Hos 7:9). Since, then, they are not exercised over their sins, the rod must awaken them; for their holy Lord will not tolerate unconfessed sins in His own. But others, who have not deteriorated to such a sad degree, are conscious of their faults, yet nevertheless do not judge themselves for the same.
Why? What causes such reluctance to humble themselves before God? What—but accursed pride! In such case, His mighty hand will bring them down, and hence it follows: “But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). Such was the case with the Corinthians. They sinned again and again in different ways, and were unexercised. They were “carnal,” and among them were envying and strife—yet they judged not themselves. The Lord gave them space for repentance—but they repented not; until, in the profanation of His holy supper, He was obliged to act, visiting them with bodily sickness and death. Thus, from the words, “when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord,” the conclusion is unescapable: we have failed to condemn ourselves.
As it is a rule of Christ’s kingdom that when His people own their offences and turn from the same, He spares the rod; so it is equally a rule in His kingdom that when they sin and confess it not—but continue in the same, then He chastens them. And there is infinite mercy in that, for it is that they “should not be condemned with the world.” His own wayward children are chastised here in this world—but the ungodly will bear the full punishment of their sins forever and ever in Hell! Sin must be “condemned”: either by us, or by the righteous Judge—here, or hereafter. How much better to judge ourselves, and thereby escape His judgment!
