748
THE KING ’S BUSINESS
unheard. The words suggest, as other words o f our Lord already spoken in this memor ial discourse have suggested, the conditions o f prevailing prayer which John, in recol lection o f what Jesus said this night, has said in 1 John 3 :22. What a picture in these verses we have o f true discipleship. It is a life o f love, a life o f self-sacrifice,' a life o f friendship with Jesus, a life o f absolute obedience, a life o f boundless knowledge, a life o f fruit-bearing, a life o f constantly prevailing prayer, and look ing back to verse 11 we find it a life o f fullness o f joy. Friday, August 4 . John 15 : 18 - 2 1 . W e now pass from love to hate, from the love o f Christ and Christians to the hate o f Satan and the world. There is all the. more reason why believers love one another because they are all hated by the world. But if our hearts grow heavy .at the world’s hatred, we have this abundant and all-sufficient consolation that we are just sharing-what Jesus had. It hated Him before it hated us, indeed, it is because it hates Him that it hates us today. He has chosen the believer out -of the world and thus separated-him from-it. It is a blessed separation, but it has its penalty—the world hates the one whom Jesus.has separated from it. I f we were o f the world the’ world would love us, but it is because we are not o f the world and therefore our lives testify against the world that the “ world hates us (cf. ch. 7 :7 ). The world has many varied ways, some petty and some great, o f Showing its hatred o f disciples of Jesus. The real attitude o f the world toward real Christians never changes. There is a way to have the world love us, that is by being o f it and doing as the world does, but that price for the world’s love is far too great. ‘ The love o f the world is not worth what it costs. But why should w.e be troubled if the world does hate us, are we not servants o f the Lord Jesus and do We expect, or ought we to expect anything better than He received ? A la s! most of us do desire something better than He
received, and are full o f complainings when the world treats us as it did Him. But we ought rather to rejoice than to complain. They persecuted Him, we ought to be glad if they persecute us also. They disregard -all His word, why should we complain if they turn a deaf ear to ours. But in what ever they do against us we may comfort ourselves with the thought that they are doing it for His name’s sake, and because they know not the Father that sent Him. Saturday, August 5 . John 15 : 22 - 27 . Jesus’ words, words such as no other ever spoke, and Jesus’ works, works such as no other ever did, take away from the world all possible excuse for rejecting Him, and all cloak for their sin. If now, in the light o f what He said, and in the light of what He did, they reject Him, it simply reveals their hatred o f Him, and not of Him only, but o f the Father as well, £ Any I pne who has read the words o f Jesus and the record o f the works o f Jesus and still rejects Him, simply proves that the root o f all his difficulty is that he hates God. He may be a person o f outwardly fair con duct, but when his heart, his own will is supreme, and he is not willing to surrender that will to God, and hates the One who _ makes the demand, though he may not be definitely conscious o f the hatred. The world’s hatred of' Christ is wholly gratui tous, absolutely “without cause.” Is it not passing strange that the world should hate its greatest benefactor ? And yet the world did hate Him, even unto death, and the world hates Him still. Though it may make all kinds o f profession o f admiration for Him, when it comes to what He demands, an absolute surrender o f self to Himself, the world says no, and searches around for all manner o f means o f dis crediting Him. For example, by denying His Deity and thus make Him an impostor and blasphemer,- or even by ’ denying His virgin birth, and thus making -Him to bear the name o f most awful -disgrace that there is among men. Those who nailed Jesus to the cross, were not more cruel
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker