| The Christian Life | February 1944 |
Joys and Hopes Defined
Things Worth Fighting For
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.”—I Timothy 6:12
TO THE Christian who is endeavoring to “fight the good fight of faith” and to sincerely and fully carry out his covenant of sacrifice, there are certain definite things for which he considers worth fighting. He knows that there are obstacles to overcome and sufferings and sacrifices to endure to win this fight; but, like St. Paul in Romans 8:18, he says, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”
It has been said that a cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. But the Christian not only knows the price of suffering with Christ but also knows the value of the blessings which come to those who share in the cup of Jesus Christ. Like the merchant mentioned in Matthew 13:45,46, he has found the one pearl of great price. This pearl to him represents the privilege of sharing in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as His joint-heir. What is the price? He must “sell all that he has” to buy that pearl. He knows the price, but he also knows the value of the pearl. He therefore gladly pays the price of full consecration to God, and endeavors thereafter to carry out that consecration faithfully unto death.—Revelation 2:10
At a hospital one of the patients was presented with a very beautiful bouquet of flowers by a relative. He knew that it had cost quite a sum of money but he did not care for flowers. Their beauty and fragrance did not mean anything to him. He could not even see the love that prompted the gift and thought that it was all foolishness. Does not this aptly picture how the world is unable to see the “beauties of holiness”? (Psa. 110:3) Our hopes seem to them to be only visionary. They are not able to see the love of God and Jesus in providing us with these wonderful blessings pertaining to life and godliness. They think that we are wasting our time and paying too high a price for such imaginary blessings. But just as the patient next to him in the hospital could appreciate the flowers while he could not, even so we, as Christians, recognize the spiritual values as “things worth fighting for,” while the worldling considers them valueless and foolishness.—I Corinthians 2:14; Romans 8:6
Sometimes when the Lord takes us from the “hustle and bustle” of active life and puts us on a bed of sickness and we take the time to think more deeply and more slowly, we see that the doctrines and the proof-texts and the types are important and necessary, just as the shell is important to the nut. But we also see that the kernel—our relationship with God and the brethren and an active, sincere life of faith—is far more important. Through these doctrines and the proof-texts we are enabled to enjoy the kernel, the meat and substance of the nut, as it were.
Grace to Help
One of the worthwhile things is the Lord’s grace to help in time of need. When we have trials that hurt and almost overwhelm, how sweet it is to come to the Lord in prayer and thus obtain the strength to bear with a fortitude and resignation that is able to say, “Thank you, Lord, just what I need. What lesson do you want me to learn?” Instead of becoming embittered and resentful, we are mellowed into loving submission. This is His promise in Psalm 29:11: “The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.” Therefore if you have trials and temptations which you are able to overcome, and which are working out in your character patience, experience and love, rejoice that the Lord is fulfilling His promises of grace to help in your every time of need.
How often when we are going through some severe trial, we are greatly comforted by the words of Romans 8:28, especially the first three words which make the remainder of the text mean so much more to us: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” It does not say that we “think,” or that we “hope,” but we “know.”
Mr. Rickenbacker, the famous flyer, in his book, “Seven came Through,” gives the reason why they lost their way in the South Pacific Ocean and ran out of gasoline and, as a result, were lost at sea. He explains that when they started one of their planes was damaged by a poor start. When the navigation instruments were transferred from that plane to a second one, it was not noticed that one of these instruments had been knocked slightly out of line by its fall from the table. They, of course, did not have the aid of lighthouses and radio beams that they would have had in more inhabited places. They had to take their directions from the stars with these navigation instruments and lost their way because the slightly damaged octant did not give them accurate measurements. This was not discovered until it was too late.
What lesson can we learn from this? The Lord gives us little preliminary trials and if we fail to watch in these trials to see that we are keeping the spirit of obedience and love and cheerful endurance, our navigation instruments—our heart attitude to the Lord—may become damaged without our knowing it. If we allow a root of bitterness, or carelessness, or love of the world to grow in our hearts, it may not make much difference in some little trial, but when a severe trial comes along, such as an automobile accident or death or the loss of the friendship of some one that is dear to us, then we lose our way and become miserable failures. Oh, how we need to continually watch our hearts in the little trials! Then we will have no difficulties in holding the Lord’s hand in the larger ones.
God’s Tender Love
Another one of the things worth fighting for, is the realization of God’s tender love for us. The poet appreciated this so much that he was moved to write:
“Every day, every hour,
Let me feel Thy cleansing pow’r;
May Thy tender love to me,
Bind me closer, closer, Lord, to Thee.”
If we take the 23rd Psalm, and emphasize the words that are in the first person and read it as, our own personal testimony, expressing our own personal appreciation and gratitude to the Lord for His tender care and love for us, we cannot help but note how aptly the words express the things that are in our hearts.
In one of the churches in Los Angeles, is a window which portrays the Last Supper. It took six years to make it. Each figure is twice life size. It shows the apostles as men with dark features, but pictures Jesus as a blond with a very sweet, kind, loving expression on His face. And yet His features show that He was a man of character. At a lecture, this picture was explained to the audience. At one point in the lecture, the daylight was gradually shut off by shutters. When all the other figures had gradually faded out in the darkness, the kind, loving face of Jesus was still visible. It was the last to fade out.
We can draw a lesson from this. Sometimes we enter into a nighttime of trouble and sorrow, when the things that usually give us joy and happiness seem to fade away. But just as in the picture, the kind, loving face of Jesus was visible, when all the other figures were in the darkness, so even in such experiences, how precious it is to realize that the tender care of Jesus and the Father is still with us. This is what Brother Russell referred to in the Manna comment for June 16: “So dear are they to Him that in every affliction He is near with His grace to sustain and His presence to cheer; and the deepest shades of sorrow become memory’s most hallowed resting places, where the Day Star shines the brightest.”
Brotherly Love
Another one of the things that is worth fighting for, is the love of the brethren one for the other. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” (Psa. 133:1) It is a foretaste of the love that will exist between the members of the Christ body beyond the veil. Sometimes we realize the blessedness of this love more than at other times, such as when we are in a hospital on a bed of sickness and the brethren, by their visits and cards and letters and flowers and gifts, pour out their love on us, like Mary poured out the precious ointment on the head of Jesus. (Matt. 26:7) To those who can read these manifestations of the hearts of the brethren and see their love for God and their desire to have His spirit and disposition, there comes a very keen appreciation of this fellowship.
Another thing that is worth fighting for is our strong confidence in the dependability of hope. We know that God has planned restitution for the world of mankind, and this makes it so much easier for us to adjust ourselves to world conditions at the present time. In the fifth and sixth chapters of the Book of Hebrews, the apostle contrasts the Aaronic Priesthood with the Melchisedec Priesthood, and shows that Jesus is the High Priest of our order of Priesthood; that He was the Forerunner who went into the antitypical Holy and Most Holy and that we, as after-runners, will take the same course and find the realization of our hope in the antitypical Most Holy. This hope is an anchor to our souls in the storms of life. He also shows that this hope is connected with the promise made to Abraham, that in his seed all the families of the earth will be blessed. He further shows that God gave not only His word but also His oath, both for Abraham’s sake and that the members of the body of Christ may have a strong assurance of the dependability of their hope. Notice his words in Hebrews 6:17-20:
“Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”
How can we become Christian Warriors and enter into this fight of faith? We have to take the steps of faith which lead to full consecration. Just as the source of a great river may be small and not spectacular, so our Christian life may start out with some apparently small event, such as reading a certain Manna comment, or listening to a talk, or noting a remark in some casual conversation, or reading some article in The Dawn, etc. As the river continues on its course, it develops a current which is steady and deep. So from our small beginning in the narrow way, we develop a loyalty to God, such as is described in I Corinthians 15:58: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Our Enemies
Against whom do we fight? The world? No, not the world as people, but the spirit of the world. This spirit is one of selfishness and pride and ostentation. In the 16th chapter of Leviticus we are told that the high priest was to bring the fire from the brazen altar to the incense altar in a fire pan called a censer. The censer could illustrate the circumstances which bring us certain fiery trials. We are not to fight these “second causes” but to realize that God is the “first cause” who is supervising all of our experiences. Jesus did not say, “the cup which Judas hath poured,” but “The cup which My Father hath given Me.” No other lesson is more needed by the Lord’s followers than the one of willingness to drink the cup which the Father pours—a recognition that the Father is guiding and directing our affairs because we are His, as members of the body of the Anointed.
We are to fight not only the perverted tendencies of our flesh, but also to mortify the natural lawful desires of the flesh, whenever they interfere with the new creature carrying out his covenant of sacrifice. St. Paul refers to this in I Corinthians 9:27, saying, “I keep under my body, … lest … when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” Our bodies are only reckonedly dead and we need to be continually on guard to keep them under control.
When a soldier finishes his course, he is given an Honorable Discharge Certificate. When we finish our earthly course, we are looking for an honorable discharge from our covenant of sacrifice. May we then, like the Apostle Paul, be able to say, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”—II Tim. 4:6-8