Work
“My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” — JOHN v. 17. “Working together with Him.” — 2 Cor. vi. I.
THIs is now the fourth of this series of discourses on the simple things of the Christian life. Life, health, growth, work: that is the true order. It is impossible intelligently to speak of Christian work save as we have first considered the subjects mentioned. As in the material world, so also in the spiritual, death accomplishes nothing, disease weakens effort, dwarfhood is incompetent. To state that threefold principle from the positive side, life is always expressed in toil, health is the condition for victorious effort, and growth is increasing capacity for work.
We must tarry by way of introduction, to 78 emphasise the importance of these preliminary matters, for a great deal of the weakness and inefficiency of Christian service is due to the fact of their neglect. First, there can be no real work with God or for God unless there be in the soul the life of God. This may be stated in other ways, which perhaps to some will be more forceful. How can I persuade men to crown Him King, while I am still in rebellion against Him? How can it ever be possible for me to co-operate with Him in His work of bringing purity into human life, while I cherish impurity in my own heart? Or, to go back again to the figure which we are following in this series, how can a man who is dead co-operate with the living Lord?
That principle has been accepted and acted upon in certain departments of Christian activity, and neglected in others. For instance, I presume no one would think that any man was really fit to preach the Gospel of the Son of God who had not himself obeyed it. We should all be prepared to safeguard the pulpits of the Christian Church against the man who did not in his own heart and soul know the life of God. Here there is no difference of opinion; but we have not been quite so particular in other departments. We have not always been sufficiently careful in the matter of those appointed to teach in our Sunday Schools. The great essential in the instruction of children in the things of God is that their spiritual welfare should never be entrusted to one who knows nothing of spiritual life. Again, no persons should be put to lead the singing in a Christian church simply because they are musical. No man should touch the sacred work of the Christian faith at any point, save as he has received the life of God by the communication of the Spirit of God. To attempt Christian service in order to obtain life is utterly unreasonable and useless. Yet how often is this being done. How continually people come to those of us who are entrusted with oversight, and say they wish to take up some Christian work. And the first inquiry is, or ought-to be, whether they belong to Christ. Sometimes the answer is given in the negative, and the hope is expressed that they will become His by working for Him. That can never be! In the name of God do not take up that work until you are born of God. For your own sake, for the sake of the work, for the sake of God, let none ever lay hands to Christian toil who is not a sharer of the Christ-life. Death, I repeat, can accomplish nothing.
To take the second point for emphasis. Our Christian service is always weakened when our spirituality is atrophied at any point. If there be no holiness of life, then service is always feeble. If I regard iniquity in my heart, even though I be a child of God, the Lord will not hear me; for if I thus put myself out of loving touch and fellowship with God, how can my service be accepted by Him, or be acceptable to Him? Herein is the heinousness of sin in the believer — sin permitted, excused, condoned — not merely that it injures the life of that particular soul, but that it paralyses the power of service. Every child of God is more than a treasure won for the heart of God. In His economy every child received is another soldier added to the ranks, another builder to help in rearing the great building. For battle and for building the Master came; and I can neither help Him in His fight, nor in His building, if my spiritual forces are weakened by the presence of anything in my life which is unholy, whether things of the flesh or of the mind, yea, even of the spirit. Does not this self-same apostle in this very connection urge us to “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord”? If there be an arrest in the spiritual development, there is also an arrest in the power for service.
This truth is so self-evident that it scarcely needs demonstrating. Here is a person who joined the Christian Church, shall we say, ten years ago? In those early days of Christian experience the vision was clear, and the love was intense and warm and passionate — “first ed Work 83
love,” as Jesus calls it. But gradually, through some evil thing permitted, the fire of enthusiasm: has cooled, until hardly a spark is burning on the altar, and the old compassion has gone, until there is hardly any pitying love for the lost and undone. What is the inevitable result for the backslider as to his Christian service? He will either withdraw from it altogether, ceasing to offer the gift which he knows cannot be accepted, or he will maintain its outward form, observe its routine, and obey its ritual; but the constraining love, the personal devotion to his Lord and His interests, the peace and joy and blessing that he used to experience, are all wanting, and the service is lifeless and worthless. The arrest of development was at the same time arrest in the power of service. Consequently, I repeat, we can never intelligently speak of service save as we bear in mind the fact that there must first be life and health and growth.
If these things be granted, let me ask you to notice the Scriptures at the beginning of this study, as revealing the nature and power of Christian activity. Let us first take them separately and look at them in their relation to the context.
“My Father worketh until now, and I work.” These words occur in connection with the story of the healing of the man who had been in the grip of infirmity for thirty-eight years. When Jesus had healed him, the rulers met and challenged him, demanding how he dared carry his bed on the Sabbath day. And the man, who did not know Jesus, did not know who He was, answered, with splendid artlessness and simplicity, “He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk.” Presently the rulers found Jesus, and sought to persecute Him, and to slay Him, because He had violated the Sabbath. It was in answer to that charge that our Lord thus spoke. To these critics of His action who were carping about the external, and had no sympathy with the deep, underlying meaning of love, He said, “My Father worketh until
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now, and L work.’ Will you let me put the inner meaning of that answer of Jesus into quite other words? It is as though He had said, God has no Sabbath, He has no rest. “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” It is as though He told them how man by his sin broke Sabbath for God, and how God can never find His rest until He has dealt with sin and put it away. “My Father worketh.” There is fine irony in the answer, and splendid satire upon the pettiness of men who will let a crippled man lie unhealed in the porches rather than have the externality of the Sabbath violated. In effect, Jesus said to them as they criticised His action: I healed this man; it is My work, and My work is God’s work, and We are both at work on the Sabbath because of sin. That man lying there in his infirmity is one of the evidences of the presence of sin in the world, and God cannot rest while man suffers as a result of his own sin. “My Father worketh even until now, and T work.”
Thus we may deduce from this answer of Christ these meanings. It is His great declaration of the fact — and I pause for words, for to me it is one of the deepest and sublimest facts, and I hardly know how to express it — of God’s restlessness in the presence of man’s unrest. It is a sublime unveiling of the fact that God in His heaven cannot be at rest while the man He has made in His own image and likeness, the man who is His offspring by creation, is restless on account of sin. “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.”
It is moreover, and therefore, a declaration of God’s ceaseless activity toward the removal of the cause of man’s unrest. What had Jesus done on that Sabbath day? Had He really broken the Sabbath? No, He had made Sabbath-keeping possible for a man. He had not broken in upon rest. He had created the opportunity for rest. He had not violated the great law that demands that man shall find opportunity for quietness and peace. Supposing Jesus had not passed that way on that nm Work 87
Sabbath day, or, passing, had passed on, and had left that man in his limitation, there would have been added to his tale of years another Sabbath without rest. How many he had had! Thirty-eight years, and perhaps in all of them no real Sabbath, nothing but pain and weariness, nothing but restlesness, nothing but the sickness of heart that comes from hope deferred; a poor, lone, bruised, broken man, without Sabbath. Jesus stands out as the revelation of God, as He says in effect, To give that man rest I lose My rest. To restore to him the living beauty of one golden Sabbath day I will heal him now and let him carry home his bed. He kept Sabbath that day. Every man knows that the activity of Jesus was activity toward the removal of the cause of human unrest. In Christ’s activity I have a revelation of God’s activity. Working, ever working, through processes which to our hurried, transient life seem very slow, but always working, restless in the presence of man’s unrest, and for evermore striving
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toward the removal of the cause of man’s unrest. That is God’s work.
Then notice that Jesus brings Himself, in the simple affirmation of the text, and more wonderfully in the discourse which follows, into union with God in that work. “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” Jesus did not speak of a work which God had done, and which He then took up and carried on. He did not affirm that He continued God’s work at a point where God left it. That would be misinterpretation of the words of Jesus. What He does affirm is His perfect unity with God. “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” We are both working. We are working in perfect co-operation. There is a splendid suggestion in that present tense of Jesus. He Who said of Himself, “I am,” said of Himself, “I work.” Not, I worked, or, I will work, or, I am working for the moment, but “I work.” He declares His harmony with God. It is the co-ordination of toil which is here declared. God and Christ as Work 89
are one in Their restlessness in the presence of human unrest. They are one in Their ceaseless activity to remove its cause.
Let us now turn to the phrase in the Corinthian epistle. I am not often given to taking words out of their context, neither do I intend to do so now in spirit. This phrase is very suggestive. “Working together with Him.” The apostle has been defending and explaining the Christian ministry; and incidentally and inferentially he gathers into his great argument the thought of all such as are in fellowship with God in life and service. If you go back to the verses preceding you will find that the apostle declares what God’s work is. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” He then proceeds, “We are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.” “Working together with Him.” It is only a phrase; but it is lit with glory, and charged with power. It declares this man’s realisation that he also is in the holy partnership, that he also has a share to take in the work of God. “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” ‘“Working together with Him.”
The work of the Christian man in the world begins with unceasing restlessness because of man’s unrest. You are a Christian. Are you content in the world with the world as you see it? Tell me what you say when you look at evil, and I will tell you whether you are a Christ-man or not. Is there a Divine discontent burning in your heart, that drives you out into active service? Then you are working together with Him. Can you be perfectly at rest’in this great city, with all its sin and sorrow and sighing and restlessness? Then you know nothing of His life in your soul. God cannot rest while men are restless. Can your
This unrest expresses itself in unceasing conflict with sin. I thank God that He has never made peace with sin. I thank God that “Work ot
He has never signed a truce with it in this poor heart of mine. How I have tried to persuade Him to! How, ever and anon in the years that have gone, I have tried to excuse some darling sin, but He has never made peace with it. I have known it, and have hidden it. I have had to say with the Psalmist, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long; for day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me.” Thank God for His heavy hand wherever sin abides in the life. And so the man of God is filled with anger in the presence of sin. It is told of Hannibal that when he came in utter amazement and grief into the presence of his father, crucified by the Romans, he lifted his hand in the presence of that Roman cross, and swore by all his gods that he would fight to the death the power that had crucified his father. The Christian man is a man who has been to the Cross, and he has seen what sin has wrought for his God, and he lifts his hand in the presence of that Cross, and swears to fight sin to the death, in his own heart, in his home, in his city, in the world. My Father worketh against sin in ceaseless activity, and I work. We also are the sworn foes of sin, even as God is. Why is God the foe of sin? In order that He may save the sinner. I love that word save. Do not let us drop it out of our speech in these days. It is not a narrow word, shallow and meaningless. It is a great word. God is the foe of sin in order that He may save men. Why does God hate sin in me? Why has He never made peace with it? Because He knows that it harms me, and all the fiery fierceness of His wrath is fed by the fuel of His infinite love for the sinner. So, if we are workers together with Him, the purpose of our conflict with sin is that we may make Sabbath for the man who has none, that we may lead the restless into rest, the wounded into healing, the wearied home, and the lost back again to the heart of God.
Let us pass to the second thought, as to the power of Christian activity. “Working with i Work 93
Him.” “Working with” is one word in the Greek. The Greek preposition indicates the closest union possible. It is not one that can be translated “among,” nor “by the side of.” It must be translated “with,” and even that “with” does not convey its full force. If we go back to Mark’s Gospel (xvi. 20), where we have the picture of the disciples as they first went out to do the work which Christ had commanded them, we read, “the Lord working with them.” It is exactly the same word as Paul uses when he says, “working together with Him.” As the Lord wrought with them, so they wrought with the Lord. Mark the closeness of the union.
If this be so, see what it means for us who take up this sacred toil. Our toil is in the power of God. This power is always irresistible, and leads always to some issue. No man escapes it. It may issue in redemption or condemnation. The which depends wholly upon the response of the man who comes within its sphere. This message will be “a savour from death unto death,” or ‘‘a savour from life unto life.” Every message of God to men is a message of release or bondage, of salvation or condemnation, of life or death. No man can resist the power of God. If a man in his unutterable folly, instead of hiding in the heart of God, fling himself against the strength of His righteousness, he must inevitably work his own destruction. No man can escape His power,
Yet remember that while that is fearfully true and never to be forgotten, it is also true that the power of God is always beneficent in intention, and is always acting toward the reconciliation of man to Himself. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” Alienation from God will be through abuse of the power that was intended for restoration. The purpose of God is toward the reconciliation of man, and the healing of his wounds, and the restoration of His Sabbath; and if any should miss the way, and find himself at last unreconciled, it will be of his own choice.
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Doom and desttuction will be by the power of God, but by the choice of man.
What, then, is our power as we work with God? Every piece of work done for God, by Christian souls in life and health, is God-energised. What is its purpose? The gathering of men back to God. What is its limitation? The measure of response in those among whom we work. I cannot compel any man to yield to God. God does not compel any man to yield to Him. He gives his will freedom of choice, which it never had until Jesus Christ came to create it for him. The man without Christ will have to say, ““When I would do good, evil is present,” and he is mastered. Jesus Christ comes with the dynamic of redemption, which is mightier than the forces which master man, so that now when he would do good he can say, “I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.” Christ sets my will free for action. He never compels it to that action.
My young brothers in the Christian faith, I would to God that I might help you to see the glory of Christian service. There are some, perhaps, who are a little weary and tired. You teach in the Sunday School, and you wonder whether the toil and the drudgery are worth while. Lift your service and look at it in the light of these great words: “My Father worketh even until now, and I work.” “Working together with Him.” Therein is the glory of service, and except for that blessed assurance I think it could not be continued, but that the burden of it would crush out the very heart and life. But when I know that this little life of mine, with all its uncertainty of duration, in the comparative insignificance of its sphere, can yet be a life co-operative with God, then I am conscious of the dignity and the glory of my service, and I know that the weariness and the toil are abundantly worth while, and the scars of battle seem glorious. He was wounded. Then thank God for any wounding that has come to me in such service.
“Working together with Him.” That is the story of what you are doing, dear, tired heart. It is not just a class in the Sunday School. Do not speak of your work that way. Someone will meet you to-morrow, perhaps, and ask you what part you take in the church’s work. Do not say that you only take a class. Say that you work with God. If you can so work through all the years as to get one childheart and teach it to trust, you have done work that angels might envy. If I can make one Sabbath day for one broken heart, it is God’s work, and Christ’s work. Why should I want rest? Talk not to me of your Sabbaths. “My Father worketh,” said Christ, ‘and I work’; and one apostle took up the word and said “working together with Him.” You and I may be in the same great and gracious and glorious succession.
I return, in conclusion, to the things with which I commenced. ‘The place of work in my personal life, what is it? I must have life. I cannot work with God unless I have the life of God. And growth ceases if toil ceases, just as toil will cease if growth ceases. These things are reflexive in their activity. To neglect service is to stop growth, to permit disease to destroy life ultimately. Dr. Alexander Maclaren once said in my hearing: “No man lighteth a candle, and putteth it under a bushel. But supposing he should put it under a bushel, what will happen? Either the bushel will put the light out, or the light will set the bushel on fire.” That is the whole philosophy of the truths we have been study-. Ing,.
Finally, what is the value of my work in the economy of God? Only by toil and travail can God’s Kingdom come. God could not enter into the redeemed Kingdom but through the processes of redemption’s passion. Christ could not take the kingdoms of the world by any other method than that of co-operation with His Father in the passion. He must tread the via dolorosa to its end. So, if Iam to be a worker together with Him, I must also “bear in my body the marks of Jesus.” I also a Work 99
must have wound-prints in my hands. I speak it solemnly. I speak it with a sense of shame at the easiness of my service. We have no part with Him until we suffer with Him. It is by travail that life begins. It is through passion that compassion becomes powerful. And yet if it be true that only thus the King-: dom comes, it is also true that surely thus it comes. If the Cross is accomplished, then the crowning must issue. We are not fighting the central battle. We are simply doing the skirmishing of administration. Armageddon was won on Calvary. Think of it, dear heart, and remember it sometimes. The conflict is fierce enough to-day, but it is nothing in fierceness to that supreme hour in which God in Christ took hold upon the things that spoiled, and spoiled them; when He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. By the cross the crown. By your suffering and your toil, something of His Kingdom. By co-operation with Him in the power of His might, and in fellowship with His suffering,
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something of the infinite glory. One of the old prophets, who saw far ahead, was singing of the victory that has not yet come, and as he sang, he borrowed the figure of motherhood to express the truth about God. It was Zephaniah, the man of fierce speech, and lightning denunciation, who suddenly merged into the sweetest song in the Old Testament. “He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.” Mark it, God singing. Singing over what? Singing over a ransomed and redeemed people. He will rest one day. He will enter into perfect rest when He can sing over the perfect work of redemption. If I would enter into His rest and join in His song, I must enter into His travail, and have fellowship with Him in the day of His unrest and sorrow.