with a view to Him. This is nothing more and nothing less than the Christ-controlled life. This is not living for things. That is something which hits us rather hard, for I have discovered in this country a great desire for things; most certainly we need things. There are necessary things in our daily experience, but God forbid that we should ever be content to live for things, no matter how good they may be. Living for things — when the Lord Jesus Christ said, “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth.” Departmentalized Living It is a tragedy when man begins to live for things, but thousands of believers are doing just that very thing. They seemingly know noth ing of the Christ-mastered life be cause they are running their lives on the basis of a department store. They have a department for educa tion, a department for business, a department for recreation, a depart ment for their Christianity, and the Lord Jesus Christ is crowded off into that small department. The testimony of the Book is that it is the Lord’s desire and right to run the department store of the believ er’s life. He wants to be the man ager of the recreation, of the educa tion, of the business; every area of life is to be under His control. He is to be the Lord of all, or as it has been well said, He is not Lord at all! You do not catch the full signif icance of the statement when you read it in the King James version or in the American Standard ver sion. But when you are reading along in the Greek New Testament, it really hits you between the eyes. “To me to live Christ.” You don’t even find that little word “is” there. “To me to live. . . .” Yes, what does it mean to live? Christ! That means the whole horizon of life is filled with Him. He is the one who is the captain, the master, the superin tendent, the manager, the engineer, the director. Would to God that were true of every believer! Think of the tre mendous difference it would make in our church life and all of our connections, if Jesus Christ were actually controlling the lives of
LIVING IS CHRIST continued molding power of his life. What are you living for? “To me to live is Christ,” said Paul. One can elimi nate that word “Christ” and put in some other word, but exactly what word would you put in so as to indicate the goal of your life? What does it mean for you to be living as a believer? Why are you here? What is your great purpose in life? What is your goal? What is your aim? You certainly should not be living the same way that you were before you were saved. Two Ways of Living There is a great verse in 2 Corin thians 5. I wish to draw it to your attention because it emphasizes the two ways of living, the two possi bilities for the believer. There is only one way of living for the un saved person but two ways •*-*- two possibilities — for the believer. “And that he died for all, that they which live . . .” (2 Cor. 5: 15). Here is a reference to those who have been made alive through Him as they rest their faith in His finished work at Calvary. The verse goes on to say, “they . . . should not henceforth. . . .” Now, that word “henceforth” is a time word and I have discovered that the time words in Scripture are pregnant with meaning. This word “henceforth” marks the point of time when they began to live in Christ, “ . . . he died for all, that they which live [those made alive through Christ] should not hence forth [from that point of time when Jesus Christ became their life and they passed from death into life] live unto themselves . . . [they should no longer live as they used to live].” Livinq unto Self But how did they live? They lived unto themselves. That is the only way the unsaved person can live. That is the way I lived, and that is the way you lived before you were saved. We lived unto ourselves. We lived with a view to our own interests, our own ambi tions, our own ideas, our own prin ciples, our own concepts, our own
dynamics. We lived with a view to ourselves. Our experience was in this area of self. Self was the center, and of necessity self was the cir cumference. The radius of your life always depends upon its center and with self at the center you will find ultimately there will be self at the circumference. Living unto Christ But now Paul is saying, “I have changed my center; I have passed from death into life. No longer do I live unto self. I am through with that way of living. Now I have changed my center, and because I have changed my center, I have changed my circumference. The radius of my life is different now. I live not unto self but unto the Saviour, unto the one who died for me and rose again.” How very clear it is! Before we were saved all that we ever did was to live with a view to self. No mat ter how humanitarian we thought ourselves to be, God’s Word says we were self-centered. But then there came a point in our experi ence where life became our prize possession — we received Jesus Christ, our Saviour. And with Him came life. We began to live. And
1 h e seed o f strife is in selfish seeking fo r glory. — T. C. Horton
from that point on, life should be lived with a view to Him. Now think of that for a moment. This is not living for a program. Thousands of people are doing that. This is not living for a principle. This is living for a Person — living with a view to Him! His interests are your interests. His objectives become y o u r o b j e c t i v e s . Hi s thoughts become your thoughts. His loves become your loves. His wish, your wish. You are living
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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