Growing up into Christ in All Things 2
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II. The means which God employs to bring us out of this childish state,namely, "speaking the truth in love." Now, how are we to be preserved from these dangers? If we remain always children, we shall not only be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, but run imminent hazard of being juggled into error by these dicers in religion, entrapped into some heresy by these crafty deceivers. A child playing with an experienced gambler has small chance of winning; an unstable soul arguing with a crafty heretic is more likely to be beaten than to beat. What, then, is our safeguard? To be "sincere in love." I adopt, you will perceive, the marginal reading. It is more literal, and throws more light upon the passage. We have not a word in our language to convey the exact meaning. If I might coin a word for a moment, I would render it "truthing it"; that is, being truthful throughout—not merely truthful in speech, but in heart and life. "To speak the truth" is but the fruit; to be truthful or sincere is to possess the root. Nor is it the truthful lip, but the truthful heart that preserves from the sleight of men and the cunning craftiness of unprincipled deceivers.
Sincerity lies at the root of all gracious profession. If a man be not sincere he is nothing. God makes a man sincere by planting His truth in his heart; and whenever God does make a man sincere, the truth which He has implanted will grow. Truth does not lie in a man's soul dead and motionless, like a stone in Gower Street; it is a living, active, expansive principle. If the truth be in the soul it will be ever pushing out error, because the two principles cannot exist together; and as Isaac thrust out Ishmael, and Jacob proved stronger than Esau, so will simplicity and godly sincerity be ever mightier than craft and deception. The truth of God in the heart will not wither and die, but will be shined upon by the sun of righteousness, and sunned into fruitfulness by the smiles of God; and as truth becomes day by day more and more precious, so will error and evil become day by day more and more hateful. A sincere soul stands "girt about with truth," and truth forms its shield and defense.
But how does this Christian 'sincerity' prove the soul's safeguard from error? By putting it ever on the watch tower, looking out and looking up for the teaching of God and the light of His countenance. A soul made spiritually sincere takes nothing upon trust, requires the seal of God on all it receives, and the witness of the Spirit to all that it feels. As a modest female is preserved by her modesty from the very approach of the seducer, her retiring sensitiveness forming her truest, her most impenetrable protection, so the very sincerity of an honest soul is its best safeguard from error. He who is sincere sees the rocks ahead, on which others concerning faith make shipwreck; and being well ballasted with temptations, afflictions and trials, he is not easily tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. His desire to be right keeps him right; his fear to be wrong preserves him from wrong.
Knowing the worth of his soul, he will not sit down with religious dicers and gamblers to stake it upon the throw of their loaded dice; and as he walks warily and cautiously, he is not easily bitten by the adder in the hedge, or caught by the cunning craftiness of those who lie in wait to deceive. The light of God in his soul makes him see; the life of God in his heart makes him feel; the fear of God in his conscience makes him honest; the love of God in his affections makes him love; and all this gives truth that firm place in him, that there is no room for error.
The Apostle adds, therefore, "IN LOVE." It is not enough to be "sincere"; we must be "sincere in love." Mark that. It is not receiving God's truth as a certain orderly system; it is not furnishing our heads with a sound doctrinal creed and compact Calvinistic scheme which will avail us in the trying hour; but it is to have the truth of God brought into our soul by a divine power, and realizing such unutterable sweetness in it as communicates a firm abiding love, both to the truth itself, and to Him of whom it testifies and from whom it comes. It is thus we are made "sincere in love." The fear of God creates the sincerity, the 'application of the truth with power' creates the love to it. And when we are thus made "sincere in love," we are brought out of the childish state in which we are carried about with every wind of doctrine, and in danger of being entrapped by the cunning craft of every deceiver. We know the truth, love the truth, and become established in the truth.
The soul's best, truest safeguard is love. The Apostle tells us why men "perish in all deceivableness of unrighteousness." It is because "they receive not the love of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:10). They fall into error because they never really loved the truth which they professed. The truth, when known by Divine teaching, makes free not only from guilt and bondage, but also from evil and error. Once love the truth, and error never more can have a place in your heart.
III. The end and result of these means—"That we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ." We have to grow up into Christ, and we cannot do this except we grow out of self. Self, sin, and the world are three deadly enemies to growth in Christ. Where self-righteousness or self-indulgence, self-conceit or self-dependence, or in whatever other form self may come, it is a deadly enemy to growth in grace!
There are two things we must ever be afraid of—error and evil. As the truth of God gets possession of your soul it displaces error and subdues evil. We learn to abhor them, and cannot willingly take such wretches into our bosom. Truth is like a person naturally clean and nice in his person, dress, and habits; he cannot endure anything that is filthy and detestable. Error and evil are like the filthy tramp, never so happy as in his dirt—he abhors scissors and soap. As then truth is loved, error is hated; as Christ is made precious, sin is abhorred. Thus, by the love of truth, the soul grows out of self in all its manifold forms, and becomes conformed, in its measure, to the image of its blessed Master.
He is now no more a child, tossed to and fro, but a man in Christ. He stands firm in the gospel of Christ, because he has received the 'love of the truth', and the truth has made him free. It has been applied to his heart with divine power. He has tasted, felt and handled its sweetness and blessedness. Self sinks; error is spurned; evil is abhorred; the world—at least as to its alluring charms—forsaken; an experimental knowledge is obtained of the Son of God—and thus he grows up into Christ in all things—in faith, in hope, in love, in union and communion, in obedience and in conformity.
Here we see the blessedness of a 'Gospel ministry'; for if you read the connection of the text you will clearly see that it is closely associated with the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the edifying of the body of Christ. Those, therefore, who despise a Gospel ministry, only write themselves down ignorant. No child of God who has ever been blessed under a Gospel ministry can despise it. It is, in the hands of God, a means of building up the Church, and by its instrumentality the Holy Spirit brings the saints out of their childish state into the maturity of the Christian life.
The great need of today is a 'Gospel ministry' of this nature. We need men who can preach the Gospel as it was preached in days of old, with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; and owing to this, in a measure, it is that many of God's dear saints are tossed to and fro all their days.
This growth we may view as threefold—
1. The growth of the mystical body of Christ considered as a whole. The body of Christ may be considered incomplete until all the members are brought out into their decreed position. "In Your book all My members were written when as yet there was none of them." The members were written in the book of life before one of them came into actual being; but until those who are lying in the 'womb of time' come forth into actual and spiritual manifestation, the body lacks a part of its full completion. The accession, therefore, of every regenerated soul to the Church of Christ is an accession to its growth. As a building grows by the addition of stone after stone, so the continual addition of living stones makes the spiritual building grow "unto a holy temple in the Lord."
2. Another growth is the growth of a Gospel church; and this growth is twofold—the growth from the outside, by the goodly addition of godly members; and the growth fromwithin, by the goodly increase of godly fruit. And these usually go together. A decaying church dies gradually in the 'branches'—from the necessary bereavements it sustains and the non-addition of godly members; and dies gradually at the same time at the 'root' by the decay of the life of God within. The two things go together. A church dying at the root pushes forth no fresh branches, and gradually becomes a withered trunk; while a church with life in the root is ever pushing forth living branches.
3. The third growth is of the believer individually, when he goes forth and grows up as a calf out of the stall.
Blessed is it when the body of Christ as a whole—a Gospel church as an integral part of that whole, and individual believers as members of Christ, are thus growing up into Him in all things—in knowledge, in faith, in love, in obedience, and in conformity to His image and example. Blessed is it when they grow in humility, godly fear, deadness to the world, submission to His Word and will, separation from evil, spirituality of mind, brokenness of heart, contrition of spirit, love and liberality to the saints, simplicity and godly sincerity, prayerfulness and watchfulness—in a word, in every Christian fruit and heavenly grace. To grow up into Christ in all things is the sum and substance of vital godliness.
I have spoken feebly and imperfectly, for there is a depth of truth in this passage which exhausts all my powers to speak of adequately. I have, therefore, merely given you a few fragmentary thoughts, though I have been purposely brief on the last head, as hoping to pursue the subject this evening. But may the Lord bless them to your souls, supply all my deficiency, and lead you into the truth for yourselves. Meditate upon these things. Pray that the Lord would establish them in your heart and conscience, that you may see the blessedness and beauty of them, and be led by the Spirit of God, who alone can lead you into all truth. May the Lord give His blessing, and crown what has been spoken in His Name, with His own heavenly dew and sacred unction!
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