John 13:1-19 - The Biblical Illustrator

Now before the feast of the Passover.

A three-fold marvel

I. A MARVELLOUS LOVE: that of Christ for His own. Marvellous in respect of

1. Its time.

(1) Before the feast of the Passover, when His thoughts might have been occupied with its memories.

(2) Before His departure, when He might have been absorbed in the contemplation of death or the heaven beyond.

(3) Before His exaltation, when the vision of the coming glory might have fixed His Spirit’s eye.

2. Its intensity--“unto the end.”

(1) To the uttermost, or in the highest degree, with a love passing knowledge (Ephesians 3:19), which many waters (of affliction) could not quench, nor floods (of sorrow) drown (Song of Solomon 8:9).

(2) To the latest moment of His life, with a love which, as it had been without beginning, so also would it be without end (Jeremiah 31:8).

(3) At the last, surpassing every previous demonstration and stooping even unto death for its objects (Joh 15:13; 1 John 3:16; Romans 5:8).

3. Its reason. While He was departing from, they were remaining in the world, exposed to the enmity and evil He was escaping. The thought of their feebleness and defencelessness, and their sufferings and imperfections, added fuel to the fire of His affection (Hebrews 4:15).

II. A MARVELLOUS DEED (John 13:5). An act of

1. Amazing condescension, considering

(1) Its nature--the work of a slave (1 Samuel 25:41).

(2) His dignity--the Incarnate Son, conscious of His heavenly origin and destiny (John 13:3), on the eve of grasping the sceptre of the universe Matthew 28:18).

(3) The objects--frail and erring men and one of them a traitor. Had Christ been only man He would have spurned Judas: being God, He loved him and even washed his feet.

2. Sublime significance. Symbolic

(1) Of Christ’s self-abasement who, in order to effect the spiritual cleansing of His people, laid aside the form of God, assumed the garment of humanity, and poured His purifying blood from the cross (Philippians 2:7-8; 1 John 1:7).

(2) Of the working of regeneration through which sin’s defilement is removed (Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5).

(3) Of the daily cleansing which the renewed need (Psalms 51:7; 1 John 1:9).

III. A MARVELLOUS OBLIGATION (verses 14, 15). Christ’s example calls His disciples to

1. Personal humility. If the Lord and Master could stoop and wash the feet of a Judas, it ill became them to be puffed up with thoughts of their own greatness (Romans 12:3; Luke 22:27; Matthew 9:29; 1 Peter 5:5).

2. Loving service. Not that Christ instituted a new religious service. The Pope is Christ’s ape rather than His imitator. Christ’s example is to be followed spiritually in ministering to necessity and practising Christian kindness (John 15:17; Matthew 25:34-40; Romans 12:9-10, Galatians 5:13-14, Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 5:2; 1 Timothy 5:10).

3. Brotherly forgiveness. Christ had washed and therefore forgiven them; they were to practise the charity which covers a multitude of sins Matthew 6:12; Mark 11:28; Luke 17:3-4; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 3:13).

Learn

1. The supreme Divinity of Christ.

2. The diabolical depravity of the fallen heart.

3. The imperfections of even Christ’s followers.

4. The absolute necessity of Christ as a Saviour.

5. Christ’s perfect knowledge of men.

6. The duty of taking Christ as our example.

7. Obedience the royal road to happiness. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

Jesus knew that His hour was come

Christ’s knowledge

I. Its FULNESS.

II. Its SOURCES.

III. Its USES. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

Christ’s hour

I. SO LONG CONTEMPLATED.

II. SO FULL OF SUFFERINGS.

III. SO FULL OF RESPONSIBILITY. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

Christ’s death

I. HE HAD A DIVINE PRESENTIMENT OF THE EXACT TIME OF HIS DEATH. “When Jesus knew” etc. All men know that they must die sooner or later. This throws a shade v on the whole path of life, but the exact time is in mercy hidden from us. But Christ knew His hour from the first, and instead of endeavouring to avoid it comes forth to meet it. What mere man would have done this? And with such heroic calmness!

II. HE HAD A GLORIOUS VIEW OF THE NATURE OF HIS DEATH.

1. It was a departure from this world. With the exception of the beauties and blessings of the earth, everything in the world must have been repugnant to Him. It was a world of rebels against the government of His Father, of enemies against Himself. To Him it must have been what the cell is to the prisoner or the lazaretto to the healthy. To leave such a scene could not have been a matter for regret, but rather of desire. May not every good man look on death thus? What is there in the human world to interest him?

2. It was a going to the Father, where

(1) He would get the highest approbation of His work.

(2) He would enjoy the sublimest fellowship. So with the Christian.

III. HE HAD A SUBLIME MOTIVE FOR MEETING WITH HIS DEATH. Love for His own, i.e., all who in every land and age consecrate themselves to God, whose they are. This love continues

1. To the end of every man’s existence.

2. To the end of the mediatorial system. Nay, will it ever have an end? Never in essence, but in achievement. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

A great and solemn hour

1. It was the hour of His departure. “Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto His Father.” Such was His death, even though it was the death of the Cross, “a departure.”

2. It was the hour of His love. If He rejoiced in the thought of departing to be with the Father, there was also a strain upon His heart at the thought of leaving His disciples, whom, “having loved as His own in the world, He loved to the end,” that is, “to the uttermost.”

3. It was the hour of His betrayal. What a frightful contrast is here l In this hour, when His Divine heart was swelling nigh unto bursting with the intensity and vehemence of His love, there was one of their number whose heart was filled with a devilish purpose of betrayal.

4. It was the hour of His supreme and sublime self-consciousness--“Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and was going back to God.”

5. The hour of His lowly service to His disciples. (G. F. Pentecost.)

That He should depart out of this world unto the Father.--He came from God, and yet not leaving Him, and He goeth to God not leaving us. (St. Bernard.)

Having loved His own which were in the world

The Divine love

1. It is not strange that the hour of departure should be the hour of quickened affection. When the child leaves home, father and mother seem more dear than before. And had this been the Saviour’s home, and those around Him His relations, it would not have been strange that He should have felt more strongly for them than at any previous time.

2. On the other hand, when for purposes of health, business, or pleasure one has long been an exile, and the day comes for return, although he has made pleasant acquaintances, yet the thought of home swallows up every other. Applying this, who can imagine the vision that arose before Jesus at this hour? The infinitude of His power was to be restored, and the companionships He had known from eternity. Yet at this hour it is said that “having loved,” etc.

3. This is wonderful. For consider what the disciples were. If Christ had dwelt in the accomplishments of the heavenly land, what must they have seemed to Him? Not one had any extraordinary endowment except John, and none save he and Peter and James have left any record except their names. Had Christ selected heroes like Luther, Melanchthon, Hampden, Sidney, Washington, or geniuses like Dante, Shakespeare, or Goethe, we can imagine how, surrounded by the greatest natures, He should have suffered at parting from them. But these were men with not only no royalty of endowment, but selfish, prejudiced, ambitious, and mean. And yet taking them with all their imperfections which the glory to which He was departing threw into bolder relief, having loved them He loved them unto the end.

4. It is plain that Divine love includes other elements than those usually imagined. It is not strange that God loves loveliness. We do that. But who of us loves that which is unlovely? This is what God does. But it does not follow that this love is not more qualified with growing excellency than without it. It is that kind of love which a parent feels toward children who are not in themselves attractive. Parental love, however it may grow, is what we feel by reason of what is in us, not of what is in our children. The newborn babe has neither thought, love, nor power of expression; and yet there is in the mother that which loves it with an intensity which is like life itself. So there is in the Divine nature a power of sympathizing with things at the lowest and poorest.

5. In this simple thought we find the world’s hope and comfort. You may dismiss from your minds, if you can, all who are not your near relations; but I cannot. It is a burden on my soul what becomes of the vast multitudes of Africa, Asia, and of our great cities who crawl like vermin in and out of dens of vice and poverty. The only light on this problem comes from the fact that there is a God who loves things that are not lovable.

6. This universality of the Divine sympathy interprets the declaration, “God so loved the world,” etc. His affection for a world lying in brutality and wickedness was such that He gave what was most precious to Him to redeem it. Men think that this obliterates the motives to right. Not so. Is there any feeling in the parent’s mind stronger than this: that the beloved child shall grow out of nothingness into largeness and beauty? And God aims to purify and exalt and enrich human nature. He loves men without reason in them, but with infinite reason in Himself. His love is not simply good nature. It is intensely earnest and just, and suffering flows from it. There is nothing lovable in us at first, but under the fructifying influence of the Divine soul working on ours, germ after germ begins to develop into something lovable; and the Divine complacency takes hold of us as we rise to higher love and perfection.

7. What a consolation this representation presents to those who are battling with their imperfections. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christ’s love to His own

I. THE LOVE OF CHRIST IS A PERSONAL LOVE.

1. This personal love is not to be contrasted with, although it is to be distinguished from, His love of the whole world. Without supposing the universal love that pities misery everywhere, we cannot make our way to a personal love. You cannot be sure of a love that passes by great multitudes.

2. This personal love is just the application of the general love to the person. It is not merely that the individual believes in that general love and appropriates just so much to himself as he needs, but that in that very appropriation he practically increases the love of Christ to himself. His love to Christ makes Christ’s love to him a love of complacency and friendship.

3. The belief of this is the turning point of life. When a man can say, “He loved me and gave Himself for me,” he has passed or is passing from darkness into light. His destiny is solved. Not to believe that assurance so solemnly and affectingly given, is to be without the comfort of the blessed gospel, to abide under wrath.

4. It is either wrath or love. There is no explaining it away or shading it off. Come to Christ, believe the gospel, you are in love. Stay away from Him, distrust His gospel, leave it lying there unopened, untouched, as you would some printed circular you don’t care to be troubled with, and the whole world is full of wrath. It darkens and embitters your whole life. Just say this and believe it, for it is true, “He loved me,” etc.; and then you are out of wrath into love, you leave the ranks of His enemies, you enter among “His own.”

II. CHRIST LOVES HIS OWN UNTO THE END, i.e., to the end of His own life. In proof of which, here at the very end is a most thoughtful, touching instance of His intense desire to do them a good that would last long after He was away.

1. He was going into great suffering. No agitation, no depression, no entering into the sorrow before the time; but this calm, beautiful action of feet washing which they might recall forever as an overwhelming proof of the endurance of His love to His own.

2. He was going into great glory. Work all done. Suffering nearly finished. Home now to God! What then? A great elation of spirit and a corresponding forgetfulness of these common persons and these inferior things? No; but the washing of the disciples’ feet! A yearning, enfolding love of “His own” unto the end. No trial of love could be more searching, more complete, than is furnished by those two great things, both so near--the suffering and the glory.

Application

1. You who are “His own,” it concerns you much to believe that He will “love you unto the end.” Why should He not?

(1) Even His own great suffering could not cast a shade between the loving Master and the trembling disciple when He was here. And now there is no suffering to come between you and Him.

(2) And as to the glory of His heavenly life, even now when throned and crowned and worshipped by ten thousand times ten thousand, the joy that is dearer to Him than all this is that which He wins yet down here when He seeks and finds the sheep that was lost. We think poorly of Him if we suffer ourselves to think of Him as enjoying heaven yonder while we suffer and die.

(3) And as for your unworthiness, you were unworthy when He began to deal with you, and you have been unworthy every day since, and you are now, and He knows all this. Having loved His own with an unbought, uncaused love from the beginning, and thus far along their individual histories, He will love them so, and no otherwise, unto the end. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Christ’s love for His own

I. THE RELATION--“His own.” This relation is formed by Himself. “To them gave He power to become the sons of God.” It is not, therefore, from a mere profession of religion. “Ye are clean; but not all.” There were persons endued with miraculous powers who nevertheless were not “His own,” and to whom Christ will say, “I never knew you.”

II. THE POSITION “in the world.” It is one of

1. Trial. You are exposed to a position of sorrow, and struggling, and conflict. Here is something that will try you. What influence has the world had on your spirit and conduct? If you are called on to suffer, is there the language of Eli: “It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth good unto Him”? or obstinacy and rebellion?

2. Danger. You are exposed

(1) To innumerable adversaries. “Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about,” etc.

(2) To great temptations. How many run well for a time and afterwards fall short!

III. THE AFFECTION--“having loved.” If your position is to be a test of your affection for Christ, what a proof it will be of His affection for you! What evidence of love will you ask at His hands? What can He do more than He has done? “Greater love hath no man than this,” etc.

IV. THE ADHESION--“unto the end.” Can you say this of any human affection? Can the child calculate on the affection of the parent, the most durable of all, to the end? “Can a woman forget her sucking child?…Yea, she may forget; yet will I not forget.” There is no unchangeable love but His because there is no unchangeable being but God. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love,” etc. (W. Bengo Collyer, D. D.)

Christ’s love of His own

The Saviour has a treasure of immortal spirits who are not in the world. Angels and spirits of the just made perfect are all His own--a multitude which no man can number. This verse, however, shows the relationship of Jesus to His faithful followers who “are in the world.” The disciples were no monopolists of Christ’s love. The lapse of time may change the tense, but it does not change the sense of this gracious text.

I. THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS ARE CALLED BY A PECULIARLY ENDEARING NAME--‘‘His own.” All things are His own. “All souls are Mine,” even the rebellious and unthankful. Here, however, the words imply a relationship of the dearest and closest kind. A true mother has a sympathy for all children; but there is a singular depth in her words, as she looks into the eyes of the darling of her heart, and says, “My own!” The gift in the hand of a child is enhanced when it is understood to be his “very own.” With such intense affection and delight does Christ regard His people. He constantly challenges them as “My brethren,” “My sheep,” “My friends,” and emphatically, “Mine.” They are His own

1. As the purchase of His blood. They had sold themselves for nought, were sold under sin. Christ was their Redeemer. He gave His life a ransom for them, and they are become His purchased possession. “He justly claims us for ‘His own,’” etc.

2. By willing personal surrender. This is an all-essential endorsement of His claim. The price of his freedom may be proffered to the slave, but if he will not accept it he is still in bonds. Christ hath purchased all souls. Yet it needs the assent of their understanding, and the consent of their will, in order to bind them to Him by the special tie and to make them peculiarly His own.

3. They bear the name, seal, and image of the Saviour.

4. As the gift of the Father, the reward of His mediatorial work. In chap. 17, we see how the Saviour gathered strength and comfort from the thought of their prospective possession. “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me.”

II. THE TEMPORARY POSITION OF CHRIST’S OWN! “In the world.” When a sinner is converted and all is safe for heaven, how desirable it seems that he should be removed out of the world. Let him be taken away from the evil to come that he may never run the hazard of losing so rich a prize. Amid the troubles of life the Christian pilgrim is often tempted to say, “Oh that I had the wings of a dove,” etc. But the Lord keeps “His own” in the world

1. For their own sake. Eternal life is the gift of God unmerited and free; yet the Christian’s future will be largely influenced by the tone and character of his life on earth. According to his spiritual growth, his moral victories, his love and sacrifice and service, will be the fulness of the glory which shall be revealed.

2. For the Saviour’s sake. The world holds Him in dishonour, and gives His glory to another. Christians are in the world to represent the Saviour! “The glory which Thou hast given Me! have given them, that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me.”

3. For the world’s sake. The world cannot spare them. Its only hope lies in the element of godliness which is slowly leavening it more and more. “Ye are the salt of the earth.”

III. THE SAVIOUR’S UNCHANGING LOVE FOR HIS OWN. “He loved them to the end.” These disciples of His, from the day He called them, had been the objects of tenderest regard. They were full of faults and failings, were sadly slow of heart to receive the truth; yet in and through all He loved them. Now that the time is at hand when the bitter cup shall be lifted to His lips, His anxiety for their well-being is the foremost feeling of His heart. He pours into their ears the richest strains of comfort and consolation. “Let not your hearts be troubled,” etc. He promises them a Comforter, and bids them “be of good cheer.” In the garden, His gentle forbearance to the unwatchful three reveals the fixity and depth of His love. When the officers came, He wards His trembling disciples from the threatening crowd. Their desertion was a sharper pang than any made by jailer’s scourge or soldier’s spear. And yet it was quenchless love that “looked” on Peter. When He left the tomb, He gave the angel watchers a kindly message for His flock, and mentioned the penitent denier by name. And when at last they gathered round Him on the hill of Bethany, His latest movement was to lift His hands and bless them; His latest word a promise to be with them even to the end of the world; when a cloud received Him out of their sight, two angels stood before them to tell them that as they had seen Him ascend, so should He again descend, that He might receive them unto Himself! Afterwards, when seated at the right hand of God, Stephen’s cry for help brought Him to His feet! Do you wonder that when the aged apostle called up each look, tone, deed, and word that marked his Saviour’s later days, that with a gush of unrestrained devotion he should write, “Having loved His own,” etc.? Conclusion:

1. Believer, you are in the holy and the privileged succession.

(1) Christ loves you with an abiding love. Your memory bears grateful witness. Many an Ebenezer stands out and tells how His love came in the hour of your sorest need. Your backslidings have been many; your imperfections more, but His love hath endured through all. Be of good cheer. He will love you to the end, and draw closer and nearer as the end draws nigh.

(2) Seek a closer, more perfect union with your Saviour. Be “His own” entirely.

2. Sinner! you are not in this saving sense “His own.” Then whose are you? You are a servant of the devil, whose wages is death! Yet the Saviour loves you! Give Him your heart, then you shall be “His own.” (J. JacksonWray.)

Jesus loving His own that were in the world

For the inspired Evangelist not only specifies the precise date--“Before the feast of the Passover”--but he also mentions a particular fact of a moral nature, of the utmost importance, as giving us an insight into the Saviour’s mind: “When Jesus knew”--or Jesus knowing--“that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,” etc. The idea plainly is, that just because He knew--not merely although, but just because He knew--that His hour was come, that He should leave this world, and that, consequently, His disciples would be left alone in it--as He had always previously loved them, so He now manifested His love in a very peculiar manner, corresponding to their necessities; and this, too, under the most affecting circumstances, and to the utmost extent.

I. The OBJECTS of this love are described, in the first instance, more generally as being “His own.” It is true, indeed, that, in one sense, all things are His own, as being their Creator and Preserver--all things, from the highest archangel to the meanest insect that crawls upon the ground. But His people are His own in a sense peculiar to themselves. But the objects of this love are described not only as His own, but more particularly as His own that were in the world. Jesus had many of “His own” that were now in glory; and doubtless these were objects of peculiar complacency and delight. Oh! see them in their white robes, as they shine so bright! But still the precious truth for us is, that it was His own that were in the world that He is here said to have loved. And why were they singled out from the rest? Why, but because of the peculiar difficulties and dangers to which they were exposed. Ask that tender-hearted mother, which of her many children recurs oftenest to her memory--those of them who are safe at home under the parental roof, or the one that is far away at sea? Jesus was now to depart out of the world, but they were to be left in it; and therefore His heart turned in love towards them. But without dwelling further on this idea here, is it not a most delightful and encouraging truth, that, though Jesus is now in glory, yet He still regards His own that are in the world with peculiar care suited to their circumstances and necessities? But methinks I hear someone say, “Alas! I feel that I am in the world, not only because of the sins of others, but because I sin myself; because I have ‘a body of death’ within me, and often it breaks out in word and action.” Yes, indeed, but Jesus loves His own that are in the world still; He sees and knows all the sin and imperfection, that you have to contend against, and yet He loves His own notwithstanding. “But, oh!” says someone, “my case is of a different kind still: I have come hither today, burdened with a heavy heart.” It may be that it is some dear relative that is sick, and apparently near to death. All this proves that you are still in a world of sorrow. But then Jesus loves His own still, and looks down upon them with ever watchful eye.

II. But I come now, in the second place, to mention SOME OF THOSE WAYS IN WHICH JESUS HAD ALWAYS PREVIOUSLY MANIFESTED HIS LOVE TO THEM.

1. See, for example, how having once chosen them in His love, He ever afterwards proved His love by continual companionship with them.

2. See, too, how tenderly, how graciously He instructed them. His instructions were always very simple, because He loved them so well. His love was stronger than their unbelief and ignorance.

3. See, moreover, how ready He was to sympathize with them, and to render them every kind of assistance. Whenever they were in trouble, He was their willing and able Friend.

4. And, oh, with what patience did He bear with them in all their weakness and infirmities!

III. But what I wish you specially to notice now is THE STEADFASTNESS OF THIS LOVE--ITS UNFAILING AND UNFLINCHING FAITHFULNESS, AS IN LIFE

SO ALSO IN DEATH. “He loved them unto the end”--not only to the end of life, but to the utmost extent, and under the most affecting circumstances. And if He thus loved them, in the view of the agonies of Gethsemane and the death of Calvary, think you does He now forget them--now that He has passed within the veil? Ah! no, it is impossible. But I must also add, if Jesus Christ loved His own unto the end, then surely they ought to persevere in their love to Him. But I have this also to say in closing, what misery must it be to be without such a Saviour! (C. Ross.)

Christ’s love unto the end

I. THERE WAS NOT MUCH IN THEM TO LOVE--YET HE LOVED THEM. I have no wish to disparage these early disciples. Everything betokens that most of them were what the narrative tells us--unlearned Galilean fishermen, who had been nurtured in the flee, clear air of Nature, and so they had to the end a sort of frankness about them which was very enjoyable. I think that was something in them which Jesus Christ appreciated. It must not be forgotten that there was also in them an unselfish readiness to endure sacrifice in the cause of Him who had charmed their hearts and excited the questioning wonder of their minds. Yet in spite of all this, what was there particularly in these men that one like Christ should find to love? I think of the sensitiveness of His nature, the gentleness of His disposition, the purity of His thought, the utter unselfishness of His purposes, the grandeur and sweep of His ideas, His conceptions of nature, of man, of God. What was there that Christ could perceive in these rude, uncultured, somewhat coarse men, men most limited in their thoughts, who had little of what we call spirituality in them to attract Him towards them? Yet He gave them His very heart; He loved them with a love that is simply matchless and astounding. Ah! doubtless He saw more in them to love than common eyes could possibly see. For the greatest natures always do discover beauties of character in the humblest which escape the observation of ordinary people. But look at the Divine side. See Him as the Incarnate Son of God, the Holy One, the Perfect, the Divine One, and how the wonder grows that He should have humbled Himself to associate on terms of generous love with the disciples! Why has Christ loved you--your heart, mind, soul? It is a fact; that you know. Why is it? Ah! that you cannot answer, I cannot answer, except we say, It is the nature of God to love, and the more weak, feeble, helpless, unworthy we are, the more compassionately does He bend to pour the fulness of His heart into our sinning lives.

II. THERE WAS MUCH IN THEM THAT TESTED HIS LOVE--YET HE LOVED THEM. It is not necessary to speak much of the trial that Christ’s first disciples were to Him over and over again. Quarrelling, petulance, scepticism, blindness of thought, cowardliness, treachery have no power to destroy that supreme love. How often we have stumbled at the revelations He has made, and, through a doubting spirit which we have encouraged, have asked foolish sceptical questions simply for the sake of asking them! How we have prayed for more light and clearer visions of God, when close at our side, all around us, have been manifestations of the Father! How, when asked to watch with and for Christ, we have pleaded weariness and slept!

III. THERE WAS A CONTINUOUS NEED OF HIS LOVE AND HE LOVED THEM UNTO THE END. Thus His life was a discipline of love to them, His death a sacrifice of love for them. (W. Braden.)

The great love of Christ for His own

as shown

I. IN THE DIVERSIONS IT HELD AT BAY.

1. The consciousness that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world. And knowing the fact, He also knew all the particulars of the tragic exode. The actual endurance could not be much worse than such a distinct anticipation of it as He had. And yet the tremendous pressure of this foresight did not divert Him from the most tender and considerate attention to those whom He was about to leave.

2. The consciousness that He was about to return to God. There was a joy set before Him for which He endured the cross, despising the shame. Yet such was His affection for His disciples, that not all the glories of heaven in the act of opening to receive Him, could for a moment disturb His warm and compassionate attentions to them.

II. IN THE REPULSIONS IT SURMOUNTED. There was much unworthiness and carnal crudeness in these men to repel the Saviour’s affection. They did not so love Him. A few hours and they all had deserted Him. That same night, one of the most devoted of them denied Him. Another of them was harbouring at the time the Satanic instigation to betray Him. And in the hearts of all of them worked a most unseemly jealousy and contention Luke 22:24). The Saviour had given them lesson after lesson on this point, and yet their miserable pride and selfishness had not been cured. How painful the contemplation I How disheartening and repellant to Him who had so loved them. And yet, the more unworthy they were of His love, the more intensely did it flame forth.

III. IS THE CONDESCENSION IT INDUCED. He into whose hands the Father had given all things, stooped to employ those hands in washing a traitor’s feet! Nor did He only take the menial’s attire and work, but, when Peter objected, Jesus set Himself to new efforts to meet new manifestations of disease. And even Judas, with all His known treachery, was not relinquished without the most faithful and tender endeavours to bring him to himself. And when the washing was finished, the Lord preached still another sermon on humility and the true Christian spirit.

IV. IN THE SACRAMENT IT ORDAINED. Though not given in the text, the other Evangelists have stated it in full (Matthew 26:26-28). Herein is the great love of Christ manifest toward His own, that, on the very eve of His great passion, He appointed and left to them and us this perpetual legacy and memorial of His affection, in which He continually administers to all believing celebrants of this holy sacrament the very manna and bread of heaven, and incorporates His living Self with us as our salvation and our eternal life. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)

The Method by which we become Christ’s own

His redemption is not a mere breaking of bonds in which we were enthralled. It is not as when one comes upon a wild animal caught in a snare, and undoes the snare, and lets the panting, struggling thing return to its wild liberty again; it is rather as if one not only delivered it from the snare, but likewise attached it to himself, and tamed it to His will, so that it becomes his own. (J. Culross, D. D.)

Christ’s transcendent love

The experiences of love are such sometimes, even in this life as to be an earnest, a blessed interpretation, of something more glorious yet to come. There is one thing which the New Testament is always in labour with, and which is never born, and that is, the conception of the greatness of the love of Christ to our souls. When all language is exhausted, when every one of its variations of figures and illustrations has been employed to set it forth, still it is never finished. Like music that transcends the scale of the instrument, it leaves the strain always unexpressed. The apostle, first in one key and then in another, tries all the melodies and harmonies of this Divine theme; but, after all, the love of Christ has never been told. The apostle declares that it is past understanding, and so it is; but there are elements of experience that teach us something of it; and there are moments in which we put these elements together, and get some sense of it. (H. W. Beecher.)

The love of the departing Christ

The text should perhaps read “to the uttermost”--expressing the depth and degree rather than the permanence of our Lord’s love. It is much to know that the emotions of these last moments did not interrupt Christ’s love. It is even more to know that in some sense they perfected it. So understood, the words explain for us the foot washing, the marvellous discourses, and the climax of all that High-Priestly prayer.

I. Look at that love as A LOVE WHICH, WAS NOT INTERRUPTED, BUT PERFECTED BY THE PROSPECT OF SEPARATION.

1. “He knew that His hour was come.” All His life was passed under the consciousness of a Divine necessity laid upon Him, to which He cheerfully yielded Himself. On His lips there are no words more significant, and few more frequent, than “I must!” And all through His life He declares Himself conscious of the hours which mark the several crises of His mission. No external power can coerce Him to any act till the hour come, or hinder Him from the act when it comes. And thus, at the last and supreme moment, to Him it dawned unquestionable and irrevocable. How did He meet it? “Father! save Me from this hour Yet for this cause came I unto this hour.” There is a strange, triumphant joy that blends with the shrinking that the decisive hour is at last come.

2. Mark, too, the form which the consciousness took. The agony, the shame, the mysterious burden of a world’s sins that were to be laid upon Him; all these elements are submerged in the one thought of leaving behind all the limitations, humiliations, and compelled association with evil which, like a burning brand laid upon a tender skin, was an hourly agony to Him, and soaring above them all, unto His own calm home, His habitation from eternity with the Father.

3. This marvellous consciousness is set forth here as the basis and the reason for a special tenderness, as He thought of the impending separation.

(1) Does this not help us to realize how truly flesh of our flesh, and bearing a heart thrilling with all innocent human emotions that Divine Saviour was? We, too, have known what it is to feel, because of approaching separation from dear ones, the need for a tenderer tenderness. At such moments the masks of use and wont drop away, and we are eager to find some word, to put our whole souls into some look, our whole strength into one clinging embrace that may express all our love, and may be a joy to two hearts forever after to remember. The Master knew that longing, and felt the pain of separation; and He, too, yielded to the human impulse which makes the thought of parting the key to unlock the hidden chambers of the most jealously-guarded heart, and let the shyest of its emotions come out for once into the daylight. So, “knowing that His hour was come, He loved them then unto the uttermost.”

(2) But amidst all the parting scenes that the world’s literature has enshrined, there are none that can be set by the side of this supreme and unique instance of self-oblivion. This Man who was susceptible of all human affections, and loved us with a love like our own human affection, had also more than a man’s heart to give, and gave us more, when, that He might comfort and sustain, He crushed down Himself and went to the Cross with words of tenderness and consolation and encouragement for others upon His lips.

(3) And if the prospect only sharpened and perfected His love, the reality has no power to do aught else. In the glory, when He reached it, He poured out the same loving heart; and today He looks down upon us with the same face that bent over that table, and the same love flows to us. “Knowing that He goes to the Father, He loves to the uttermost,” and being with the A LOVE WHICH IS FAITHFUL TO THE OBLIGATIONS OF ITS OWN PAST Father, He still so loves.

II. HAVING LOVED, HE LOVES. That is an argument that implies Divinity. About nothing human can we say because it has been therefore it shall be. Alas! we have to say the converse, because it has been, therefore it will cease to be. They tell us that the great sun itself, pouring out its rays exhausts its warmth, and were it not continually replenished must gradually, and even though continually replenished, will one day be a dead, cold mass of ashes. But this heart of Christ, which is the Sun of the World, shall endure after the sun is cold. He pours it out and there is none the less to give. “Thy mercy endureth forever.”

III. A LOVE WHICH HAS SPECIAL TENDERNESS TOWARDS ITS OWN. These poor men, who, with all their errors, did cleave to Him; who, in some dim way, understood somewhat of His greatness and His sweetness--and do you and I do more?--were they to have no special place in His heart because in that heart the whole world lay? Surely, because the sun shines down upon dunghills and all impurities, that is no reason why it should not lie with special brightness on the polished mirror that reflects its lustre. Surely, because Christ loves the outcasts and the sinners, that is no reason why He should not bend with special tenderness over those who, loving Him, try to serve Him, and have set their whole hopes upon Him. The rainbow strides across the sky, but there is a rainbow in every little dew drop that hangs glistening on the blades of grass. And there is nothing sectional, narrow in the proclamation of a special tenderness of Christ towards His own, when you accompany with that truth this other, that all men are besought by Him to come into that circle of “His own,” and that only they themselves shut any men out therefrom. The whole world dwells in His love. But there is an inner chamber in which He discovers all His heart to those who find in that heart their heaven and their all. “He came to His own,” in the wider sense of the word, and “His own received Him not;” but also, “having loved His own He loved them unto the end.” There are textures and lines which can only absorb some of the rays of light in the spectrum; some that are only capable of taking, so to speak, the violet rays of judgment and of wrath, and some who open their hearts for the ruddy brightness at the other end of the line.

IV. A LOVE MADE SPECIALLY TENDER BY THE NECESSITIES AND THE DANGERS OF ITS FRIENDS. “Which were in the world.” We have, running through the discourses which follow, many allusions to His leaving His followers in circumstances of peculiar peril. “I come unto Thee, and am no more in the world, but these are in the world. Keep them through Thine own name.” The same contrast between the certain security of the Shepherd and the troubles of the flock seems to be in the text, and suggests a reason for the special tenderness with which He looked upon them. As a dying father on his deathbed may yearn over orphans that he is leaving defenceless, so Christ here is represented as conscious of an accession even to the tender longings of His heart when He thought of the loneliness and the dangers to which His followers were to be exposed. It seems a strange contrast between the emperor, sitting throned there between the purple curtains, and the poor athletes wrestling in the arena below. It seems strange to think that a loving Master has gone up into the mountain, and has left His disciples to toil in rowing on the stormy sea of life; but the contrast is only apparent. For you and I, if we love and trust Him, are with Him in the heavenly places even whilst we toil here, and He is with us, working with us even whilst He sitteth at the right hand of God. We may be sure of this, that that love ever increases its manifestations according to our deepening necessities. The darker the night the more lustrous the stars. The deeper, the narrower, the savager, the Alpine gorge, usually the fuller and the swifter the stream that runs through it. And the mere enemies and fears gather round about us the sweeter will be the accents of our Comforter’s voice, and the fuller will be the gifts of tenderness and grace with which He draws near to us. Our sorrows, dangers, necessities, are doors through which His love can come nigh. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The constancy of Christ’s love

A short time previous to the death of the Marchioness of Tavistock, and when she was preparing to go to Lisbon for the recovery of her health, a consultation of physicians was held at Bedford House; and one of the gentlemen present requested, while he felt her pulse, that she would open her hand. Her frequent refusals occasioned him to take the liberty of gently forcing the fingers asunder; when he perceived that she had kept her hand closed to conceal the miniature picture of the marquis. “Oh madam!” observed the physician, “my prescriptions must be useless, if your ladyship is determined to keep before your eyes an object which, although deservedly dear to you, serves only to confirm the violence of your illness.” The marchioness replied, “I have kept the picture, either in my bosom or my hand, ever since the death of my lamented lord; and thus I am determined to preserve it till I fortunately drop after him into the grave.” (Percy.)

The perfection of Christ’s love

The mother, wan and pale with incessant vigils by the bedside of a sick child; the fireman, maimed for life in bravely rescuing the inmates of a blazing house; the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae; Howard, dying of fever caught in dungeons where he was fulfilling his noble purpose of succouring the oppressed and remembering the forgotten; the Moravian missionaries, who voluntarily incarcerated themselves in an African leper house (from which regress into the healthy world was impossible, and escape only to be effected through the gates of death) in order that they might preach the glad tidings to the lepers,--all these, and many other glorious instances of self-devotion, do but faintly shadow forth the love of Him who laid aside divine glory, and humbled himself to the death of the cross. (W. Baxendale.)

Christ’s an unchanging love

A noble rolling river has been flowing on for six thousand years watering the fields and slaking the thirst of a hundred generations, yet shows no signs of waste. The sun has melted the snows of so many winters, renewed the verdure of so many springs, painted the flowers of so many summers, and ripened the golden harvests of so many autumns, yet shines as brilliant as ever, his floods of light none the less full for centuries of boundless profusion. Yet these are but faint images of Christ’s love. For when the judgment flames have licked up that flowing stream and the light of that glorious sun shall be quenched in darkness, His love shall flow on throughout eternity. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Love in the face of discouragement

I know a mother who has an idiot child. For it she gave up all society, almost everything, and devoted her whole life to it. “And now,” said she, “for fourteen years I have tended it and loved it and it does not even know me.” Amid all discouragements Christ’s love is patient and unwearying. (D. L. Moody.)

The changeless love of Christ

Earthly love is a brief and penurious stream, which only flows in spring, with a long summer drought. The change from a burning desert, treeless, springless, drear, to green fields and blooming orchards in June, is slight in comparison with that from the desert of this world’s affection to the garden of God, where there is perpetual, tropical luxuriance of blessed love. (H. W. Beecher.)

Uncertain friendship

Henry the Eighth used to come up the Thames to Chelsea to Sir Thomas More’s house, drop in to dinner, and walk afterwards in the garden, his arms about More’s neck. More’s son-in-law, Roper, records it with delight. But More knew just what all this was worth, and that his head would count with the king for nothing against a French city or citadel, say. It is not so with Christ. “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end.”

The Divine love does not fail when man fails

Mr. Slosh said: “A father teaching his child about the unchanging piety and love of God, said: ‘I knew a little boy who received a canary from a friend as a present. The bird seemed to fill that boy’s heart. He was intensely fond of it, and every morning he was delighted to listen to its singing. One morning no note proceeded from the cage. The bird was standing panting upon its perch, its feathers all ruffled. The little boy sat upon his chair and sobbed as if his heart would break.’ The lesson taught the little child was this--Do you think he loved the bird any less that morning when he could not sing? No, he loved it when it was joyfully singing on its perch, but he loved it that morning when it could not sing. When it sang it filled him with joy and delight, but when it was ill he loved it all the more though its condition caused him pain.” So, too, God loved us at all times.

The changeless Friend

So long as there is blossom on the trees, and boney in the blossom, the bees will frequent them in crowds, and fill the place with music; but when the blossom is over, and the honey is gone, the bees too will disappear. The same happens in the world with men. In the abode of fortune and pleasure friends will be found in plenty; but when fortune flies, they fly along with it. For this reason, let good men be advised to fly to Christ crucified, who never forsakes, in their distress, those who truly seek Him. (Gotthold.)

The faithfulness of Jesus

Consider these words

I. IN THEIR RELATION TO THE APOSTLES. The words “having loved His own,” are a brief but complete summary of the Saviour’s conduct. He loved them with a love of pity when He saw their lost estate, and He called them out of it to be His disciples; touched with a feeling of their infirmities He loved them with a tender and prudent affection, and sought to train and educate them, that they might be good soldiers of His cross; He loved them with a love of complacency as He walked and talked with them and found solace in their company. Even when He rebuked them He loved. On Tabor or in Gethsemane He loved His own; alone or in the crowd, in life and in death. Our Saviour’s faithfulness was

1. Most remarkable. He had selected persons who must have been but poor companions for one of so gigantic a mind and so large a heart.

(1) He must have been greatly shocked at their worldliness. He was thinking of the baptism wherewith He was to be baptized, but they were disputing which should be the greatest. When He warned them of an evil leaven, they thought of the loaves. Earthworms are miserable company for angels, moles but unhappy company for eagles, yet love made our great Master endure the society of His ignorant and carnal followers.

(2) Worse was the apparent impossibility of lifting them out of that low condition; for though never man spake as He spake, how little did they understand! “Have I been so long time with you,” etc. No teacher here could have had patience with such heavy intellects, but our Lord’s love remained, notwithstanding.

(3) When we love a person, we expect him to have some little sympathy in the great design and aim of our life; yet our Lord loved disciples who could not be brought to enter at all into the spirit which governed Him. Had they dared, they would rather have thwarted than assisted Him in His self-sacrificing mission. Still, this could not prevent Him from loving them unto the end.

(4) On one or two occasions certain of them were even guilty of impertinence. Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him. But after rebuking a temptation which was evidently Satanic, His affection to Peter remained unabated.

(3) That was a stern trial, too, when at a later period “all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” Carrying the text beyond its original position, Christ, who had loved His own, loved them to the end.

2. Christ proved His love

(1) By His continual companionship. You would not expect a master to find rest in the society of his scholars; and yet herein was love, that Jesus, passing by angels, and kings, and sages, chose for His companions unlettered men and women.

(2) By being always ready to instruct them, and His love is shown as clearly in what He kept back from them as in what He revealed. How loving to dwell so often upon the simpler truths, and the more practical precepts; it was as though a senior wrangler should sit down in the family and teach boys and girls their alphabet day after day.

(3) By rendering every kind of assistance. Whensoever they were in trouble, He was their willing and able friend--when the sea roared; when Peter’s wife’s mother was sick; when one of His dearest friends was dead and buried.

(4) By comforting them when He foresaw that they would be cast down; especially was this true at the period before His passion--when one would have thought He might have sought for comfort, He was busy distributing it.

(5) By constantly pleading for them. Ere the poison was injected by the old serpent, the antidote was at hand. “Satan hath desired,” etc.

(6) By washing their feet.

II. IN THEIR RELATION TO ALL HIS SAINTS. We read that our Lord “Came unto His own,” etc.

the word is neuter--his own things; but in this instance it is masculine--his own persons. A man may part with his own things; sell his own house, cattle, merchandise; but a man cannot part with his own when it relates to persons, his own child, wife, father. Our own relatives are real property, perpetual possession. Jesus has just such a property in His own people--they are forever near of kin to Him. These He “loved to the end.” The text opens three windows.

1. As to the past. He has loved His own people from of old; eternally. This everlasting love has a speciality about it. Our Lord has a general love of benevolence towards all His creatures; but He has a special place in His heart for His own peculiar ones.

(1) Jesus loved His people with a foresight of what they would be. He knew that “His own” would fall in Adam; that they would be hard to reclaim and difficult to retain; and yet He loved His own over the head of all their sins. On their highest Tabors He loves them, but equally as well in their Gethsemanes; when they wander, and when they come back.

(2) This love is more than a passion, it is a settled principle, not subject to changes like terrestrial things.

(3) This love has been attested by many deeds. By the fact that He stood surety for us when the covenant was made, and entered into stipulations on our behalf that He would fulfil the broken law, and offer satisfaction to the justice of God. In the fulness of time he took upon Himself our nature, lived a life of blameless service, died a death into which all the weight of Divine vengeance for sin was compressed. Now that He lives exalted in the highest heaven, He is still His people’s servant, interceding for them, representing them, preparing a place for them, and by His Spirit fetching them out from mankind, and preparing them for the place which He has prepared.

2. The second window looks out upon the present. “Which were in the world.” It does not seem an extraordinary thing that Jesus should love His own who are in heaven. Well may Jesus love them, for there is much beauty in them. But Jesus loves you working men that have to work with so many bad fellows, you tradesmen who have to go in among many who shock you, you good work girls, who meet with so many tempters. He sees your imperfection, He knows what you have to struggle with, and He loves you notwithstanding all. Again, as the sparks fly upwards, so were we born to trouble. But Jesus loves His own which are in this dolorous world: this is the balm of our griefs.

3. The third window looks out to the future. “Unto the end.”

(1) To the utmost end of their unloveliness. Their sinfulness cannot travel so far but His love will travel beyond it; their unbelief even shall not be extended to so great a length but His faithfulness shall still be wider and broader than their unfaithfulness.

(2) To the end of all their needs. They may need more than this world can hold, and all that heaven can give, but Jesus will go to the end of all their necessities, and even beyond them, for He is “able to save to the uttermost.”

(3) To the end of their lives.

(4) To the end of His own life. Until the eternal God shall die, His love shall never depart from any one of His beloved. Conclusion: If Jesus Christ thus loves to the end

1. How ought we to persevere in our love to Him.

2. Let us not indulge the wicked thought that He will forsake us.

3. What a misery it must be to be without such a Saviour! (C. H.Spurgeon.)

And supper being ended.--The translation should probably be, “And it now becoming supper time.” As a matter of fact the supper was not ended (John 13:12; John 13:26); but they had already reclined, and were, as we say, ready for supper. (Archdeacon Watkins.)

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands

The great gift

A gift

I. FROM THE SOVEREIGN OF ALL.

II. INCLUDING ALL THINGS.

III. TO THE SAVIOUR OF ALL. (S. S. Times.)

I. THE GIVER.

II. THE GIFT.

III. THE RECIPIENT. (S. S. Times.)

And that He was come from God and went to God

Extremes in Christ’s life

This sublime declaration is but the preface to what follows, and nothing more startling at first sight can be found in all literature.

I. CHRIST POSSESSED ALL THINGS, and yet He washed His disciples’ feet. What has the possession of boundless wealth to do with such menial service? We could imagine a Rothschild sweeping His own room, but would it occur to us to connect with that act, as a reason, the fact of his immense riches? The explanation lies in what this feet washing meant--the pardon and sanctification of Christ’s disciples through His atonement. To this “all things” were necessary, and the absence of one Divine prerogative would have marred the work. Christ required all wisdom, all justice, all power, all love, and all influence over the widest reach of human souls.

II. CHRIST CAME FROM GOD, and yet He washed His disciples’ feet--as wonderful a conjunction as the previous one. We could imagine an ambassador of the highest rank relieving his lacquey of some humble duty and discharging it himself--but we should hardly refer to his office for a reason. But Christ’s mission was expressly to do what the feet washing meant. His one motive for visiting this world was to cleanse and sanctify His disciples’ souls.

III. CHRIST WAS GOING TO GOD, and yet He washed His disciples’ feet--an equally strange conjunction. We can imagine a sovereign, just before his return from some distant province, rendering some humble but kindly service to a peasant, but we should never dream of saying that he did this because he was going to his capital. But Christ went to heaven because He had done that which was symbolized by the feet washing. He came for that purpose; that purpose being accomplished, there was no further reason for Him to stay. And in going He went to His rest and His reward. Lessons:

1. Christ’s work is an individual work, and shows the value of individual souls. Christ had all things, He came, He went for every man’s cleansing--for mine.

2. What is true of Christ is in a sense true of every disciple. God has given us all we have, time, talents, money, influence, etc.; we have come from God; we shall go to God--what for? The salvation of men. God has endowed us with ability for it, has sent us to do it, will hold us accountable for it at the great day.

3. The “knowledge” of all this should beget a due sense of the blessedness, dignity, and responsibility of Christian discipleship. (J. W. Burn.)

Christ’s mission

I. ITS ORIGIN--“from God.”

II. ITS QUALIFICATIONS--“all things.”

III. ITS DESTINY--“to God.” (J. W. Burn.)

He riseth from supper.--The minuteness with which every action of our Lord is related here is very Striking. No less than seven distinct things are named--rising, laying aside garments, taking a towel, girding Himself, pouring water into a bason, washing and wiping. This very particularity stamps the whole transaction with reality, and is the natural language of an astonished and admiring eyewitness. St. John saw the whole transaction. (Bp. Ryle.)

He poureth water into a bason and began to wash the disciples’ feet.

Jesus teaching humility

Christ taught humility by precept--“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted;” by metaphor, as in the parable of the Pharisee and Publican; by illustration, as when he set a little child in the midst; and, as here, by his own most blessed example. Note

I. HUMILITY IN ITS CHARACTERISTIC UNSELFISHNESS. Pride is essentially selfish; humility “seeketh not its own, but another’s good.” Where shall we find a more beautiful or touching example than that introduced by John 13:1?

II. THE DEEPEST HUMILITY IS CONSISTENT WITH THE HIGHEST STAGE OF CHRISTIAN ASSURANCE. Many Christians regard full assurance of salvation as having a tendency to spiritual pride. They are afraid to say “Jesus is mine, and I am His,” lest it should savour of presumption. There is a false assurance which founds itself upon feeling, or imagined revelations, rather than upon the testimony of the word of God, and which by its blatant self-assertion has tended to bring assurance into contempt. But where assurance is the result of a simple faith in the promises, it produces in the soul the fruits of genuine humility. Just when Jesus was at the zenith of spiritual exaltation (John 13:3), He bowed Himself to His lowly task.

III. TRUE HUMILITY EXPRESSES ITSELF NOT IN WORDS, BUT IN DEEDS. Our Lord uses no words of self-abasement. In majestic silence He proceeds with His lowly but loving task. There is a form of so-called humility which expends itself in words of idle self-depreciation. This never becomes so clamorous as when any humble service is to be rendered or any modest testimony borne. They are not presumptuous enough to make a public confession of Christ, to teach a Sabbath school class, to visit a family in poverty, etc. It is easy to see that this is a thin veil for self-indulgence and pride. True humility expresses itself not in unfavourable comparisons of ourselves with others, but in whole-hearted devotion to the interests of others. This was the humility of Him who, “though He was in the form of God,” etc.

IV. THE SERVICE WHICH TRUE HUMILITY RENDERS IS NOT SPECTACULAR AND SCENIC, BUT UNOBTRUSIVE AND HELPFUL. The simple rite of hospitality observed by our Lord became the occasion of many a splendid pageant in later days. But let him who would follow our Lord’s example not imagine that he can do so by a literal observance of a rite that, through change of customs, has lost its utility and therefore its significance. He now truly “washes the disciples’ feet” whose own feet are swift to bear to them messages of kindness, and whose hands are ready for any humble service.

V. THE PARTICULAR SERVICE RENDERED BY OUR LORD, THOUGH NOT SPECTACULAR, WAS SYMBOLIC of inward purification, and distinguishes between the first and radical purification which takes place once for all in regeneration, and that daily purging from the infirmities that cling to us as we pass through the world (John 13:10). As one coming up fresh from the bath needs only to wash off the dust” that clings to his feet and does not affect the purity of his person, so the believer by the bath of his first regeneration is kept pure till he enters his Father’s house on high, whilst a daily application of the Spirit in sanctification is needed to remove the impurities that come from daily contact with earth and earthly things. (T. D.Witherspoon, D. D.)

Jesus teaching humility

I. The DIRECT TEACHING contained in our Saviour’s washing of the disciples’ feet. That our relation to Christ is

1. Personal, as is also His relation to us. There is no such fact as a general relationship to Christ. We are either His personal followers, or personally estranged. There is no religion but personal religion. Christ knelt before each of the twelve in turn.

2. Cleansing. Christ came to save the world from sin. But only those cleansed by the blood receive eternal life.

3. Needs to be continually renewed. It is a daily relation. He pointed to his daily cleansing, the washing of the basin, in distinction from the bathing in the fountain.

4. Practical. Our service is to be

(1) Personal. We have no general ministry, either of clergy or laity. It is the personal work we do which builds up the kingdom of God. The lost are found one by one. All organization that amounts to anything is association in some form for hand-to-hand work.

(2) Lowly. Jesus took the form of a servant. Look upon Him as He kneels at thy feet. So humble thyself to serve.

(3) With the basin and towel. We are to aid each other to be clean Christians.

II. The INDIRECT TEACHING.

1. That the first act of discipleship is self-surrender (John 13:8-9). We must do just as the Saviour says, or we can have no part with Him. We must waive all objections. The objection of Peter arose from tenderness of conscience. We may feel unworthy of the grace of God. But some say, “We need no cleansing; we are satisfied with our way of life.” There is nothing for these but self-surrender. How can you help it, looking upon Jesus, kneeling and waiting before you?

2. The value of one soul in God’s sight. Jesus felt a personal love for each, even for Judas! What a tender touch He put upon those feet, which no mere washing could cleanse!

3. That bathing precedes washing (John 13:10); the atonement, the baptism of the Spirit; pardon, sanctification. As Peter, having been bathed, needed not save to wash his feet, so Judas, not having been bathed, needed the cleansing of you see that He was quite conscious of His dignity when He did it? He did not forget Himself; and that is put down there that you may know that the deepest act of humility is not inconsistent with dignity. He, knowing that He came from God, and that He was just about to go back to God, would do this, the humblest of all acts. He would show us before He went up to the throne of the universe what He is who is sitting on the throne; because if He had not done this who was with God from all eternity, dwelling with Him in unapproachable light, we should not have been able to think that there was such humility on the throne. But now we shall know forever and ever what He is that is sitting upon the throne. Let us learn another thing--what it is that goes to God. It is humility that goes to God as well as comes from God. We must be humble, then; we must go on humbling ourselves more and more to the very last, so that at the last, when we at last go, we shall go with nothing but humility--prepared to be just nothing before the throne. When we are nothing God gives us all, and God will not give us His all till we are nothing in our own estimation.

There are two or three reflections, which shall close our subject.

1. The first is--let us write it upon our hearts--that our Christ in glory is as humble now, and will be as humble to all eternity, as He was in that supper room before His disciples. He changeth not.

2. Another reflection is, that as the devil and his angels lost their heaven through their self-importance, through pride, we may lose our heaven as they did through pride.

3. The next reflection is, that there is a spurious grandeur of humility which we must avoid. We are reminded of this by Peter. When Peter’s turn came to be washed, he said, O no, never, never! My Lord wash my feet? Never! How humble that seems; and yet it was not humility, but a spurious, affected grandeur of humility, in which there is no humility at all. No; I will tell you what humility is. Humility before God is exactly that simple willingness to be served which the babe has to be waited on by its mother. The baby does not object to it. The baby does not say, “I am nothing but a poor little baby.” No; but it takes it for granted. Now, we must allow God to do with us whatever He will in the same artless, simple spirit.

4. Another thought--that Satan put something into Judas’s heart that put him off from Christ and heaven. That is in the connection too. Judas was among the twelve, but Satan was putting something into his heart. What was it? The love of this present evil world, and the love of the means by which this present evil world can be enjoyed--the love of what he had in the bag, and the love of putting something more into the bag and increasing it by any means. The devil was putting that into his heart. (J. Pulsford.)

Humility illustrated

I. IN THE CAREER OF THE LORD.

1. Taking our nature (John 1:14; Romans 1:3).

2. Assuming our infirmities (Matthew 8:17; Hebrews 4:15).

3. Born in lowliness (Luke 2:7; Luke 2:12; Luke 2:16).

4. Becoming a servant (Luke 22:27; Philippians 2:6-7).

5. Associating with the lowly (Matthew 9:10; Luke 15:1-2).

6. Submitting to toil (Mark 6:3; John 4:6).

7. Enduring poverty (Matthew 17:27; Luke 9:58).

8. Obeying the law (Matthew 3:13-15; Galatians 4:4).

9. Refusing honours (John 5:41; John 6:15).

10. Dying on the cross (Philippians 2:8; Hebrews 12:2).

II. IN THE CAREER OF BELIEVERS.

1. Abraham before the Lord (Genesis 18:27; Genesis 18:30; Genesis 18:32).

2. Jacob before God (Genesis 32:9-10).

3. Moses in Midian (Exodus 3:11; Exodus 4:1; Exodus 4:10).

4. Joshua before Ai (Joshua 7:6-9).

5. Gideon when appointed to save Israel (Judges 6:15).

6. David at the great offering (1 Chronicles 29:14).

7. John the Baptist (Matthew 3:14; John 3:29-30).

8. The Roman centurion (Matthew 8:8).

9. Peter (Luke 5:8; John 13:6-8).

10. Paul (Acts 18:1-3; Acts 20:33-34).

Conclusion: Pauline commendation of humility (Philippians 2:5-11). (S. S. Times.)

The importance of humility

St. Augustine makes humility bear to religion the same essential relation which, according to Demosthenes, action bears to eloquence. “As the Athenian orator,” says he, “being asked, What is the first precept in oratory? answered, Action; and What the second? answered, Action; and What the third? answered, Action; so, if you ask me in regard to the precepts of the Christian religion, I answer, first, second, third, Humility.” (T. D. Witherspoon, D. D.)

Christ washing the feet of His disciples

Christ appears here as a dramatical teacher. Every act is significant. The old prophets taught in this way. Jeremiah’s potters vessel; Ezekiel’s scales, knife, and razor, are amongst the numerous examples. Christ taught here

I. THAT TRUE GREATNESS CONSISTS IN MINISTERING TO THE GOOD OF INFERIORS. We learn from Luke 22:24, that there was a dispute as to who should be greatest, and that Evangelist records what our Lord said. John records what Christ did. This idea of greatness

1. Condemns the general conduct of mankind. The world regards men great who receive most service, and mix least with inferiors.

2. Agrees with the moral reason of mankind. The greatness of Christ, who made Himself of no reputation, and the greatness of Paul, is that which commends itself to the unsophisticated reason of the world. He who humbles himself to do good gets exalted in the estimation of universal conscience. Disinterestedness is the soul of true greatness.

II. THAT SPIRITUAL CLEANSING IS THE GREAT WANT OF THE RACE (verse 8).

1. That this is so appears from two facts.

(1) Divine fellowship is essential to human happiness. In God’s presence is fulness of joy, and nowhere else.

(2) Spiritual purity is essential to Divine fellowship. “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” Hence God’s command, “Wash you and make you clean;” and man’s prayer, “Purge me with hyssop,” etc.

2. This cleansing is preeminently the work of Christ. “If I wash thee not,” etc. His blood cleanseth from all sin. “Unto Him that loved us,” etc.

3. It extends to the whole life of man (verse 10). Though regenerated, a man is not perfect. Every day brings its defilements and requires its purifications.

Conclusion: At the table were three types of character.

1. The perfectly clean--Christ.

2. The partially clean--the disciples.

3. The entirely unclean--Judas. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Washing the disciples’ feet

I. IT IS THE QUALITY OF AN UNFETTERED SPIRIT. The possession of an unfettered spirit is the gift of humility, a possession which can be yours and mine only as we rid ourselves of those fetters with which society and business and fashions of the day would bind us, and go out in the strength of a loyal affection to Jesus Christ to walk in the footsteps of the Master, bind up the broken-hearted, to visit those who are in prison, to wash the disciples’ feet, and thus by our very humility illustrate a strength and power for the manifestation of which the world is longing today, as never before, with a great longing.

II. IN SUCH A CHRISTIAN HUMILITY THERE IS ALWAYS MAJESTIC POWER. There is a vast difference between muscular strength and moral strength. Atlas could carry the world upon his shoulders, but it required Christ to carry the world upon his heart. Go back into that valley of Elah in Old Testament times and see the difference between the strength of muscle and the strength of morals. Here comes the Philistine giant out from his camp. Behind him all are boasting of his power and of his prowess; in just a little Israel will be overthrown and the Philistine’s god will be triumphant. And out from the camp of Israel comes that boy armed only with his sling and his five smooth stones. If you will follow the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will find that ever and always the strength of His life was a strength of moral purpose put over against the other strength that the world had to offer.

III. THE WASTE OF A LIFE WHICH IS UNPOSSESSED OF THIS SPIRIT OF HUMILITY. This is a corollary from those last words of the text: “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them;” because there is always great disaster which comes to an immortal soul when knowledge is not the spur which drives it. There is always something lost in a human life when that life knows more about Christ than it does for the sake of Christ. It is not that there may not be the manifestation of this lovely virtue or of that attractive trait apart from the spirit of humility; but there is a great waste in the life still, because it retains a possession which has not been transmuted into action, because it has not been entirely permeated by the spirit of love. You find a person, for example, who has been living far away among the hills, perhaps in a beautiful home, with everything that pertains to comfort and to luxury about him, but never having gone beyond the borders of the little town in which he has been dwelling. You have had the advantage of a larger acquaintance and of a larger fellowship, and as you speak with that circumscribed life you cannot help confessing to yourself that, although there is very much that is beautiful about it and within it, still there is a great lack there somewhere; there is a waste because that life has not gone out to see what there is to be seen in this world of ours. But just so soon as the Lord opened the eyes of Peter’s impulsive soul, just so soon as He permitted him to look out upon vistas which he had never seen before, and upon a Divine landscape which had never before fallen beneath his ken, at that moment Peter called out in a great yearning and in a great soul-desire, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” (Nehemiah Boynton.)

Jesus washing His disciples’ feet

Here is

I. MATTER FOR INQUIRY. Is there anything in the conduct of Christ now analogous to His washing Peter’s feet when on earth? Yes.

1. When He watches over the temporal affairs of His people. When Jesus looks to your family troubles, and bears your household cares, saying unto you, “Cast all your care on Me for I care for you,” is He not in effect doing for you what He did for Peter, caring for your lowest part, and minding the poor dust-stained body?

2. When He puts away from us our daily infirmities and sins. It is a great act of love when Christ once for all absolves the sinner, and puts him into the family of God; but what long suffering there is when the Saviour bears the follies of the recipient of so much mercy hour by hour, putting away the constant sin of the erring but yet beloved child. To blot out the whole of sin like a thick cloud, this is a great and matchless power, as well as grace; but to remove the mist of every morning and the damps of every night--this is condescension well imaged in the washing of Peter’s feet.

3. When He cleanses our prayers. They are the feet of our soul, since with them we climb to heaven and run after God. It is oftentimes easier to do a thing over at once anew than it is to patch up a work which has been badly done by others. There are His own prayers for me--I thank Him for them, but I cannot help also blessing Him that He should take my prayers, and put them into the censer, and offer them before His Father’s face; for I am certain that before they can have been fit to offer they must have experienced a deal of washing.

4. When He makes our works acceptable. These may be compared to the soul’s feet. It is by the feet that a man expresses his activity. We have heard of someone who made sugar out of old rags; but the manufacture cost more than the goods were worth; and this is something like our works. Jesus Christ makes sweetness out of the poor rags of our good works; they cost Him more in the manufacturing than ever the raw material could have been worth, or the finished works themselves are worth, except in His esteem.

5. When He is content to suffer in His people’s sufferings. Not a pang shoots through you but Jesus knows and feels it.

II. MATTER FOR ADMIRATION. When we consider

1. The freeness of the deed. “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?” It is perfectly wonderful that He should, for we have scarcely desired the mercy. You do not find that Peter asked Christ to do it. No, it was unsolicited, unexpected. It is great goodness on Christ’s part to hear our prayers when we really feel our need; but if Christ did no more for us than we ask Him to do, we should perish; for nine out of ten of the things which He gives us we never asked for, and three out of four of them we scarcely know that we want, Have there not been many nights on which you have gone to bed without any particular sense of guilt, and without any special intercession for cleansing? You have forgotten to ask, but He has never forgotten to give. You have risen in the morning; you were not aware that any special danger would come to you, and you did not pray for special protection, but yet He knew it; and unasked and unsought for He has kept you from danger.

2. The glory of the Person. Lord! Master! God! Dost thou wash my feet? He whom the angels worship takes a towel and girds Himself. What a stoop is here!

3. The lowliness of the office. “My feet.” To wash my head, to purge my mind, to cleanse my hands and my heart, is very condescending; but He does a slave’s work, takes the meanest part of me and washes that.

4. The unworthiness of the object of this washing. “My feet?”

5. The completeness of the washing. When things are washed by careless servants, they want washing again; but when they are washed by the loving hands of Jesus, they cannot be badly done.

III. MATTER FOR GRATITUDE, that having once washed head and hands and feet with blood, He still doth daily wash my feet with water.

IV. MATTER FOR IMITATION. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The teaching of the foot washing

I. THE TYPE OF OUR LORD’S CONTINUOUS LOVE TO US.

1. Christ still acts as the host of His people. How much the life of Christ with His people lay in intense familiarity with them! He began His ministry at a feast, and again and again we find Him eating with His disciples; and the last thing He did was to sit at supper with them. He still saith to His Church, “If any man open to Me,” etc.; and His own figure for the opening of the new dispensation is “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Now Jesus is the host of His Church, providing the gospel supper and entertaining us right royally. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. “He satisfies our mouth with good things,” etc. And the Lord is a host who leaves nothing incomplete, and entertains us, not as paupers but as guests, as friends, as distinguished persons who shall not sit among mean men, but shall have their portion among princes.

2. Christ cares for our minor matters with a personal interest. That He should ease their weary hearts, enlighten their clouded brains, I can understand; but that He should wash their feet is wonderful. A little soil on their ankles; He will attend to that, and personally, too. He might have left them to wash one another’s feet. Surely He had but to suggest it and they would have cheerfully waited on each other. Take your little things to Christ, those trials of which your heart says, “They are too trifling for prayer.” Not so; the Lord loves us to trust Him thoroughly.

3. Christ provides refreshment for His people. What an intense pleasure it is in extremely hot countries to have the feet washed upon coming in after a weary walk. Our Lord washed His disciples’ feet, not only because cleansing was desirable, but also for their pleasure and solace. He takes great pleasure in giving joy to His followers. When doth the Lord give us these refreshments?

(1) Often after a journey--after a severe trial.

(2) Sometimes before the trial, for these disciples were now about to enter upon a very rough road.

(3) When we are in the house of God, when the Word has been preached, some joyful hymn borne us to heaven; or, best of all, at the communion table.

(4) In our own quiet chambers, and in the night watches.

4. Christ continues to guard the purity of His Church. From the occasion it is clear that He would have us seek the special purifying power of His presence during religious ordinances. We need our feet washed before we come to His table--“Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread,” while we are at His table, for there is sin in our holiest things. When we come away from worship we have need to get alone, and cry, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” This frequent washing is

(1) Absolutely necessary. Ye that follow in His footsteps, walk with clean feet. His ministers especially need this or the people will never cry, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.”

(2) Spiritual: no external form will suffice. Christ washed the feet of Judas with water.

(3) Very readily given.

II. THE MODEL OF HIS OWN LOVE IN HIS PEOPLE. We learn

1. That there will always be need of service in the Church, and always need of service in the particular direction of promoting purity. The apostles were twelve strong men, yet they could not do without a servant; and therefore their Lord supplied the vacant place. And now that the Lord is gone His Church still needs servants, and will never be so clean that it will have no need of foot washing.

2. That we are not to advocate the abrogation of such service. The Stoic would say, “What need of washing a man’s feet? If he needs it, let him wash them himself. The first law of nature is self-love. Let him mind his own business.” That is anti-Christianity: but Christianity says, “I am willing that others should help me to be holy, and I am also willing to help others to the same end.” Sometimes it is more humbling to have your own feet washed than to wash other people’s, and hence sometimes our naughty pride says, “Thou shalt never wash my feet.” Yet it must be so, and pride must sit still like a child and be both washed and wiped.

3. That such service should be done very cheerfully. Nobody asked the Master to bring the basin: no one would have thought of such a thing: it was His own heart of love that made Him do it. Let us be also ready to perform any office for our brethren, however lowly. Covet humble work, and when you get it be content to continue in it.

4. That such service should be done thoroughly. How well our Lord took up the servant’s place. Give your Lord zealous and earnest service; strip to your shirt sleeves, if need be. Do not attempt to play the fine gentleman; is it not far nobler to be a real Christian? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Reminiscences of the foot washing

In the Epistles of Peter, written many years after this, we find subtle traces of the impression it left upon his mind. There still seemed to rise before him the form of the King taking off His upper garment, tying a towel round His waist, and then, with marvellous self-abasement, washing the disciples’ feet. Hence the intensely picturesque expression of His charge--“Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another, for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” Literally, “Tie on humility like a dress fastened with strings.” It is plain that he understood the required imitation of what Christ did when washing the feet of His company, to consist not in copying the outward act, at the same time wearing an outward garment like that which He wore at the time, but in copying the spirit of the act and wearing humility itself. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

Parody of the foot washing

A great authority declares that “Peter lives today in the person of the Pope.” Then he has changed his conviction on the present subject, if we can accept the Rev. Newman Hall’s account of the ceremonies of “Maundy Thursday.” “Thirteen persons personated the apostles. They were dressed in white flannel, and were seated on an elevated platform in the south transept, which had been arranged for the ceremony, with galleries of ascending seats for lady spectators, who came in the prescribed costume. Descending from his throne after the benediction, the Pope was divested of his gorgeous outer vestments, and appeared as if in a very large flannel dressing gown, fastened with a cord round the waist; a towel of fine cloth, trimmed with lace, having been tied on him, he walked slowly to the nearest apostle, whose right foot, evidently well washed beforehand was already bare. The stocking had been previously cut so as, without any trouble or delay, to be removed sufficiently for the purpose at the precise moment. Everything was done to facilitate his Holiness in the arduous duty which now awaited him. The apostles were seated at such a convenient elevation that He was under no necessity of stooping. A sub-deacon on his right raised the apostle’s foot, over the instep of which a second attendant poured a little water, which fell into a silver-gilt basin, held by a third; while a fourth, carrying thirteen towels in a silver basin, handed one of them to his Holiness, who passed it over the foot, which he then kissed. Another officer in waiting was a bearer of nosegays, one of which he then handed to the Pope, who presented it to the apostle, together with two medals from a purse of crimson velvet fringed with gold, borne by the Papal treasurer. The rest were then similarly served; and the whole was done so expeditiously, that in a very few minutes the immense crowd were rushing off to be present at the next ceremony. So does the Pope fulfil what has been called the proudest of titles, “Servus servorum Dei.” Not only at Rome, however, has this act of our Lord been regarded as the institution of a religious rite rather than the display of an example to be followed spiritually. Many humble Christian societies have adopted this view, and still we find that some devout people are earnest for it. Such worthies, in making the mere sign a resting place of thought, remind us of the case feigned by an old British sage, of a belated and weary traveller, who, on coming up to an hostelry, ready to die for want of a night’s lodging, took no notice of the inn, but “embraced the signpost.” (C. Stanford, D. D.)

The strangeness of our Lord’s procedure

To provide a guest with water to wash his feet is a common act of hospitality among the Hindoos. It is also considered a privilege and duty for disciples to wash the feet of any celebrated gooroo, or religious guide. But for a gooroo to wash the feet of his disciples would be diametrically opposed to a Hindoo’s ideas of propriety. “Suppose,” I said to my pundit, the other day, “a celebrated gooroo were to attempt to wash the feet of his disciples, would they allow it?” “Never,” he replied; “if he were to make the attempt, they would refuse to allow him; would rush out of his presence; and would think he was gone mad. Such an idea is entirely opposed to the reverence which a disciple has for his teacher, and would not be tolerated for a moment. To permit it would bring reproach upon both teacher and disciple.” With these ideas in his mind it is easy to understand how Peter should be startled and astonished when Jesus drew near to wash his feet. “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?” Such an act had never been heard of; was contrary to the customs of the country; contrary to every idea of propriety; and calculated to bring reproach upon his teacher. (J. L. Nye.)

What I do thou knowest not now

The inscrutable character of the Divine dispensations

I. THE CONDUCT OF GOD IS IN GENERAL CONCEALED FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS PEOPLE.

1. It may be the result of necessity. The conduct of God will appear, on the least consideration, too vast and complicated ever to be comprehended by man. Not only is our knowledge limited in reference to nature, but in reference to many sublime truths of revelation. We know not what attainments the mind will make in its disembodied and exalted state, but we seem fully confident that in the present condition there is a limit to its discoveries.

2. It may be the result of design. That He could have stated the reason of chastisement when the rod was inflicted, that He could have made known His design when the suffering was felt, there can be no doubt. But it is intentionally concealed, that the discovery may add to our felicity in a world of greater purity and light and love.

II. THERE IS A PERIOD WHEN THE CONDUCT AND PURPOSES OF GOD WILL BE FULLY AND SATISFACTORILY EXPLAINED.

1. The conduct of God may be partially disclosed in time. Time is necessary for the development of many things. The seed lies in the ground and seems to rot, but if we have patience to wait we shall see the germ, and at a subsequent period a tall and stately tree. Hence, that which once seemed useless and rotten becomes in process of time useful both in blossom and fruit--the one enchanting to the eye, and the other grateful to the palate. Now if it be requisite to wait that we may trace the opening beauties of nature, equally necessary is it to wait that we may trace the conduct of Providence. The singular and diversified history of Joseph may be cited as a proof of these observations. Permit me to observe, before I pass on, that we are not always required to wait so long for the developments of Divine Providence as in a moment of unbelief we are apt to imagine. Disclosures are sometimes speedily made and unexpectedly enjoyed. Peter had merely to wait the utterance of another sentence before he perceived the symbolical character of our Lord’s conduct. But though, as an antidote to despondency and a stimulus to hope, the disclosure may be made, we are not warranted to look for it with unwavering certainty.

2. That it will be fully revealed in eternity.

III. THIS CONCEALMENT OF THE CONDUCT OF GOD OUGHT NOT TO LEAD TO ANY DISCOURAGEMENT OR UNBELIEF IN THE MINDS OF HIS PEOPLE. Notice

1. The equity of the Divine government. In the administrations of His laws, and in the distribution of His favours, God appears in a two-fold character--as a benefactor and a judge. In the former character, favours unmeritedand unsought are graciously bestowed, and it is this that endears Him to the Christian, and entitles Him to honour, homage, and praise. As a judge He never fails to do that which is right.

2. The parental character of the Divine discipline. (The Evangelist.)

I. THE PROPOSITION. “What I do thou knowest not now.”

1. As to the intent. God’s people know the general end of His dealings with them--His own glory and their good; but the particulars they are not able to guess--as Joseph when his brethren sold him into Egypt Genesis 50:20).

2. As to the extent and effect. We see things sometimes in their beginnings but not in their close; because of

(1) Their intricacy (Psalms 78:19; Romans 11:13; Isaiah 55:8-9; Job 5:9).

(2) Our understandings, which at best are short-sighted, on account both of the dimness of natural reason and the imperfection of supernatural illumination.

(3) A special Divine dispensation. God makes His ways dark to His servants

(a) Because they are not capable of or fit to receive a revelation of John 16:12; Hebrews 5:12).

(b) That their faith may be thereby strengthened, and their dependence on God encouraged (John 20:19).

(c) That God’s sovereignty and liberty may be preserved Deuteronomy 29:29).

(d) For their discipline--to correct or prevent some miscarriage in them, whether pride, security, or carnal confidence (2 Corinthians 12:7).

II. THE QUALIFICATION. “Thou shall know,” etc.

1. The discovery. He will make known

(1) The justice of His ways, and show that He has done no more than equal (Jeremiah 12:1; Habakkuk 2:13; Ezekiel 18:29).

(2) Their truth, and manifest His faithfulness (Psalms 77:8; Joshua 23:14).

(3) Their efficacy, and so manifest His power (Psalms 78:19).

(4) Their unchangeableness, and so show His constancy (Job 1:17).

(5) Their wisdom, and so justify them to all (Job 12:6; 2Co 1:25).

(6) Their goodness, and so make known His kindness (Romans 8:1-39).

2. The manner of this discovery.

(1) By illumination, so that we may see.

(2) By experience, so that we may feel.

3. The time.

(1) Perhaps in this life. Many Christians have left the world justifying God’s proceedings.

(2) Certainly in the life to come. “In Thy light we shall see light.” (T. Horten, D. D.)

“What I do.”

That act of Christ’s did seem strange, and Peter’s bewilderment is not to be wondered at. Let us see how the Master dealt with it.

I. “WHAT I DO.” What a wealth of meaning is stored in these three words. No angel mind can grasp them. He is the great Doer; always doing. “My Father worketh,” etc. There is nothing anywhere, or at any time, that He does not perform, permit, or control, in mind or matter, heaven or earth.

II. “THOU KNOWEST NOT.” Put the two pronouns side by side. “I” stands for the Deity, “thou” for the mortal. Oh, the folly and pride that criticises and objects to His providential rule! I could not worship a God whose work I could comprehend. How wicked to rebel because our poor capacity cannot gauge the Divine intention. If an architect were to ask you to explain the lines on which Chichester Cathedral is built as you were flashing by it in the express to Portsmouth, you would smile at his unreason, but you are moving across the field of God’s matters more rapidly than that. You cannot pour the ocean into a pond, crowd the light of the sun into a lantern, compress the mind of an archangel into the brain of a schoolboy. Then, again, your affairs are mixed up with the rest of His matters, and what He does you know not, because you are only the smallest cog, and the scope of the machine is beyond your ken; because you are only one thread in the vast loom at which He is weaving, and the pattern and purpose cannot be scanned by mortal eyes. What, then, is the attitude we ought to take? One of implicit obedience and unflinching trust. Though we know not what He does we need never be at a loss to know what He would have us do. But if you set up a will of your own you must suffer. Loyally enter the train of His providence, make its movements yours, and you shall be carried safely to the terminus; but oppose it, and collision will come and eternal wreck--witness the cases of Pharaoh, Israel in the wilderness, Saul, Jerusalem.

III. “THOU SHALT KNOW HEREAFTER.’’ In Peter’s case the revelation followed close upon the mystery. It often does. It did to Joseph in Egypt, Esther in Persia, Luther in Wartburg. But whether here or not heaven will be the land of revelations. Amongst the many mansions there will be the Interpreter’s house, where we shall look upon the picture of life as it was, and read the translations too. “There shall be no night there.” (J. JacksonWray.)

Ignorance and knowledge

What we do not know does not lessen or impair the value of what we do know. (H. H. Dobney.)

Existing ignorance and approaching knowledge

I. THE EXISTING IGNORANCE OF THE GOOD. There is much that the best man does not know.

1. In nature. How little does the most scientific man know of the substances, lives, laws, operations, extent of the universe. How deeply did Newton feel his ignorance.

2. In moral government. The reasons for the introduction of sin, the suffering of innocence, the prosperity of the wicked, the tardy march of Christianity, are wrapt in obscurity.

3. The Divine revelation. What Peter said of Paul’s epistles we feel to be true of the whole book--difficulties we cannot remove, doctrines that transcend our intelligence.

4. In his own experience. Why should he be dealt with as he is? Why such alternations of joy and sorrow, friendship and bereavement, health and sickness? Why such conflicting elements in his nature?

II. THE APPROACHING KNOWLEDGE OF THE GOOD. Christ’s words imply that there is a hereafter, and that this hereafter will be a sphere of knowledge.

1. There will be sufficient time for knowing. What ages of study await us!

2. Sufficient facilities for knowing. All existing obstructions removed, and the immeasurable field of truth wide open under a never clouded or setting sun. (Homilist.)

Present ignorance and future illumination

We view the text as containing

I. A STATEMENT OF PRESENT IGNORANCE. We propose

1. To illustrate the fact of this present ignorance. God has been pleased to assist the human mind, by the gift of His own inspired word, and has imparted the influences of His Holy Spirit, by whose agency its meaning--which, to the carnal mind, is frequently obscure--is more fully unfolded. Yet, at the same time, there is a vast sphere over which, as yet, ignorance casts her shadow. “We know but in part,” etc. For example:

(1) The construction of your bodies; the constitution of your minds; the mode of their primeval union; of their present cooperation, and of their final separation--how much of mystery is here!

(2) Angels. Their residence, occupations, enjoyments.

(3) God, the trinity of persons in unity of essence, the perfections of His nature and the process by which He operates in the creation.

(4) Providential dispensations.

(5) The scheme of redemption.

(6) Eternity.

2. To assign its reasons.

(1) The limitation of our intellectual faculties, arising partly from their inherent constitution, and partly from their being now identified with material bodies.

(2) The pollution of our moral nature.

(3) The positive design of God, in order to continue our fitness for the ordinary associations and duties of life; to mature and to perfect the graces of the Christian character; to create and continue within us a vivid anticipation of the eventual possession of another and a better world.

II. A PROMISE OF FUTURE ILLUMINATION. Observe that the future state

1. Is one of vast and expanded knowledge.

(1) All obstructions will be removed.

(2) Men are there to be brought into direct and immediate contact with objects, the very existence of which they now know only upon testimony and through faith.

2. The vast and expanded knowledge of the future state is identified with the highest interests of our being.

(1) There is much of difficulty in studying, and oftentimes much of pain in acquisition, and its results. There is also much which directly tends to pollute. Ask the philosopher over his midnight lamp; the statesman amid the intricacies of his cabinet; the man of observation amid the buffeting and temptations of the world--one result will invariably be pronounced, “All is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

(2) Now against all this the knowledge of the celestial state is associated

(a) With our holiness. Not that the knowledge of heaven is an efficient cause of purity; but it will be an instrument for preserving it. Possessing such a knowledge, with such objects from such a source, and from such causes, it is impossible for the inhabitants of heaven to fall.

(b) With our happiness; for holiness is inseparable from happiness. And what must be the result of those contemplations which the heavenly world fully and absolutely reveals to our view of providence and of redemption?

Conclusion: Cherish

1. Faith.

2. Desire.

3. Evangelical preparation. (J. Parsons.)

Rectified knowledge in the future state

It is very interesting to consider ourselves here as only in the childhood of our being, our full manhood being reserved for another and higher state of existence. When a man reviews the ideas, imaginations, and pursuits of his youth, he discovers a number of wild notions which he now would be ashamed to entertain, of false theories which a riper judgment has long ago exposed, and of worthless objects which have long ceased to attract his regards. He finds, moreover, that much which seemed inexplicable has become very plain, and that things at which he used to wonder present no longer any cause for surprise. Thus shalt it be with us hereafter. We shall look back upon riches, and honour, and property--things which now seem to us of great worth and importance--we shall look back upon them as so many toys with which it is wonderful we could ever have been pleased. Many of our present notions and opinions, though framed with care and maintained with pertinacity, will appear to us like the dreams and fancies of boyhood, which fade before the light of riper years; and the dispensations of Providence at which we now wonder, and beneath which we are too often impatient, will become as simple to us and as worthy of our gratitude as the discipline and correction we have received from earthly parents, which, whilst we were young, may have appeared to us harsh and unaccountable, but of which in later days we see all the reasons and feel all the worth. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

At best our knowledge of God’s designs is fragmentary

If we could know as much as we desire it would probably make us insane. We have seen gardeners pull down the awnings in their greenhouses. Plants may sometimes have too much sun, and so may we. (T. Adams.)

A clear view of life’s mysteries

A traveller, as he passed through a large and thick wood, saw a part of a huge oak which appeared misshapen, and seemed to spoil the scenery. “If,” said he, “I was the owner I would cut down that tree.” But when he had ascended the hill and taken a full view of the forest this same tree appeared the most beautiful part of the landscape. One day we are to have clearer vision of life’s mysteries.

The present obscure because unfinished

You go into the workshop of the artist who is framing a great structure. You see here a stone of a peculiar colour; there a stone of another colour; here one of this, and there one of that angle. You would not say to the artist, “You had better take this stone or that stone next;” you would submit to his superior wisdom. He sees the whole of the structure as it stands complete before his mind. What do you know of the whole plan? These few stones that you see can give you but the most imperfect conception of the cathedral in which they are to be placed. In God’s providence I submit to the superior wisdom of the Great Architect. He takes from the earth one man and leaves another. We are amazed; we cannot understand it; we know not the plan that lies in God’s mind. (W. Hamma, D. D.)

Hereafter, not now

Christ’s “hereafter” has a large scope. In this case it might mean

1. Presently--as soon as He had taken His garments and was set down again (John 13:12-15).

2. The later life of the apostle--when the Holy Spirit had led him into all truth, and he began to see in this act an epitome of all Christ’s life, work, and teaching.

3. That haven of everlasting repose, where every mystery shall be read aright in the sunshine of the Saviour’s presence. Let us now apply the text to

I. CHRISTIAN ORDINANCES.

1. Which of us has not asked himself, in taking part in the services of the Church, What is the meaning, hope, use of this entering a particular building, kneeling at certain rails, hearing and uttering of sounds, eating bread, drinking wine, sprinkling of a little child with water?

2. We can answer these questions most satisfactorily in these words of Christ. The operation of the Holy Spirit is observed not in the agency, but in the effect. It is mere impatience to say, Because I cannot see which way the Spirit came or went, I will not believe. Or, because I cannot see the connection between this word of God and my soul--because I cannot understand how my poor voice can make its way into the Eternal Presence, etc.--therefore I will forsake the assembling of Christians together, and trust that grace, the only real thing, will come to me all the same in solitude.

3. We hope that the hereafter thus promised is the nearest of the three. If a man will earnestly set himself to use the ordinances of the gospel, we trust that he will be enabled very soon to know what Christ does in them. And certainly, if we never find any good from any of them, we have cause for anxiety and self-suspicion. Every service ought to send us home saying, Lord, it was good for us to be there; it has enabled me to hold converse with Thee, and to go on my way rejoicing.

II. That which is true of ordinances is no less true of DOCTRINES.

1. There are many things which Christ teaches, and which the teaching of Christ presupposes as already communicated that we know not. We receive them; they lie on the surface of the intellect--unharmonized particulars--but they do not enter into our thoughts and feelings as truths grasped and realized. When we re-examine them they are each time as difficult as before, and we despair of ever fitting them into our plan of truth. There are some which we could wish away; the doctrines, e.g., of grace and freewill, of the existence of evil, of the atonement, of the Spirit.

2. In regard to all this “hereafter” is nearer and a more distant.

(1) The first sound of these difficulties is daunting, yet, when we look into them we see a ray of light soon. Few, if any, are created by the gospel. Most certainly the existence of evil had place before, and would have place without, the gospel. Each, when tried not by the intellect but by the heart, diminishes almost into nothing, and is qualified by such accompaniments, that practically its force is almost nothing, as regards piety and life. It may be a hard saying, “Whom He will He hardeneth;” but if along with that there stands the promise, “Ask, and ye shall have--If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me and drink,” we see at once that the object of the doctrine is rather attraction than repulsion.

(2) And what I know not now I shall know hereafter. Life is troubled and confused; its opportunities of Divine study are rare and brief, its distractions many, the illusions of its sight and thought powerful, the gaze of the intellect into God’s heaven dim and unsteady. But eternity will be free from all these interruptions: and when God Himself, revealed in open vision, becomes the instructor, we shall advance apace in that science of sciences, which is “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

III. The text is no less true of PROVIDENCES. There are many things in the conduct of this world, whether in the affairs of empires or individuals, which are difficult to make consistent with the truth of a Divine Ruler. We make, some of us, too free a use of the word mysterious in our judgments upon Providence. There is nothing mysterious in the removal of a good man to his paradise, even though it leave a neighbourhood sad and a family fatherless, nor in any event which instructs the living or makes heaven more real to us, reflection easier, or repentance more resolved. The mysterious thing is, when evil is allowed to spread unchecked; when souls are lost in sin for which Christ died; when unprepared men are hurried to judgment without a moment for thought; when the Gospel of Christ seems to make so little progress. It is concerning these things that we have to say, “What I do,” etc. And though we must not call affliction in its commoner forms a mystery, yet there is a sense in which even to it may be applied these words, and the Christian mourner, or watcher, or wrestler, with indwelling corruption, may be bidden to look up, and say, The time is at hand, for my Master tells me so, when I shall know why I was so buffeted and tempted. Even in the near hereafter I may be able to say, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; in the great boundless hereafter I shall certainly read all clearly, and be satisfied when I awake in His likeness.” (Dean Vaughan.)

Present mysteries, future solutions

“God’s providences,” says the godly Flavel, “like the Hebrew letters, are often to be read backward.”

1. Sense doubts, while faith trusts.

2. The one questions while the other obeys.

3. The one must reason out all mysteries, all God’s ways, while the other can take them on trust. “Though no affliction for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, afterwards,” etc. (Homiletic Monthly.)

The patient waiting and obedience of faith

The subject suggests

I. A CAUTION AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF HASTY DOGMATISM.

1. Respecting the Divine procedure. Peter was over hasty in judging Christ’s action, for he was ignorant. Had he waited Christ would have made it clear. We, too, are incompetent to comprehend the Divine procedure.

(1) When we consider the Doer it is not surprising that there should be much that is mysterious in His varied action in the universe. A man may do and say many things confounding to the intellect of his child; much more the infinite God.

(2) No wonder that in a system so vast and complex there should be many things that appear to our limited view to conflict with Divine goodness, wisdom, and power; but the wise man will not conclude that the conflict is real; He will rather wait. Ignorance should be modest in its judgments.

2. Respecting the difficulties of Divine revelation. Because you fancy you see some contradictions in the Bible, or something opposed to science, do not rush to the conclusion that therefore the Bible is false. Wait! There may be a mistake somewhere outside the Bible. That which contradicts it may be mere hypothesis, or that in it which contradicts may be your own mistaken interpretation. A little more light may remove the difficulty.

II. THAT WHATEVER DIFFICULTIES THERE MAY BE SURROUNDING OTHER THINGS, AND HOWEVER IGNORANT WE MAY BE RESPECTING THEM, THERE IS AT LEAST ONE THING PLAIN--THE PATH OF DUTY. Peter’s duty was plain, it was to obey Christ. No matter whether he saw the reason or not. The Scriptures, if they do not resolve your difficulties, yet do light up the path in which you should walk. If they do not supply all desirable light for the head, they do supply all needful light for the feet.

III. THAT OBEDIENCE IS THE CONDITION OF KNOWLEDGE. Christ did not impart knowledge, and then tell Peter to submit. Do what Christ enjoins and you will the better learn of Him. “If any man will do His will,” etc. Patient acquiescence and trustful submission are the best guarantee of our knowledge of Divine things. The light becomes clearer and fuller as we follow it. Turn your back on it, and you shall go deeper and deeper into gloom. (A. Bell, B. A.)

The next life an interpreter of this

This life is like a bale of silk on a loom, that winds itself up as fast as it is woven. You do not know what the figure is until it has been taken off and unrolled; then you begin to see what it is. This life weaves; the other life reveals. No man that is doing these great things can tell that he is the cause of the effect. Nobody can tell what he has done. A man’s real life is not in his body; it is that celestial life within himself that has no external exponent. (H. W. Beecher.)

The unknown ways of love

I. IN OUR LORD’S DOINGS THERE IS MUCH WHICH WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND. We may know the external part of what He does, but there is more in His actions than any of us can conceive. The work of Jesus is lower than thy fall, higher than thy desire. Even His acts of loving condescension we do not fully understand; how can we (John 13:3-4)?

1. Was anything that Jesus did understood while He was doing it! He is born a babe in Bethlehem, but to the mass of mankind He was unknown. He lived the life of a mechanic’s son; a life the most august in all human history, but “the world knew Him not.” He came forward to preach; did they know who it was that spake as never man spake? or comprehend what He spake? At last He laid aside the life He had so strangely taken; who knew the reasons of His death upon the cross? He could say even to His own disciples, of all that He had done, “What I do thou knowest not now.”

2. This is true too of every separate gift which our Lord’s love has given to His people. You have been justified, but do you fully know the wondrous righteousness with which justification has endowed you? You are accepted in the beloved, but did any one of you ever realize the full sweetness of its meaning? You are one with Christ, and joint heirs with Him. He is betrothed unto you in an everlasting marriage, know you what all that means?

3. Our Lord is doing great things by way of preparing us for a higher state of existence. We know that they are being done, but we cannot as yet see their course and ultimate issues. The instrument does not comprehend the tuner; the tuner fetches harsh sounds from those disordered strings, but all those jarring notes are necessary to the harmonious condition which he is aiming to produce. If the discords were not discovered now, the music of the future would be marred.

II. OUR WANT OF UNDERSTANDING DOES NOT PREVENT THE EFFICACY OF OUR LORD’S WORK. The Master washes just as clean whether Peter understands it or not. A mother is washing her little child’s face: the child does not like the water, and it cries, but it is washed all the same; the mother waits not for the child to know what she is doing, but completes her work of love. So is the Lord often exercising Divine arts upon us, and we do not appreciate them; perhaps we even strive against them, but for all that He perseveres. Does the tree understand pruning, the land comprehend ploughing? yet pruning and ploughing produce their good results. The physician gives medicine which is unpalatable, and which causes the patient to feel worse; this the sufferer cannot understand, and therefore he draws unhappy conclusions; but the power of the medicine does not depend upon the patient’s understanding. If a fool eats his dinner, it will satisfy his hunger as much as if he were a philosopher, and understood the processes of digestion. It is not necessary for a man to be learned in the nature of caloric in order to be warmed. A man may be ignorant of the laws of light, and yet be able to see; he may know nothing of acoustics, and yet be quick of hearing. A passenger who does not know a valve from a wheel, enters a carriage at the station, and he will be drawn to his journey’s end by the engine as well as if he were learned in mechanics. It is the same in the spiritual world. We think it so essential that we should form a judgment of what the Lord is doing. It is better to trust, to submit, to obey, to love, than to know. Let the Lord alone; He is doing rightly enough, be sure of that.

III. OUR NOT BEING ABLE TO KNOW WHAT THE LORD DOETH SHOULD NEVER SHAKE OUR CONFIDENCE IN HIM. Some things which the Lord has done bear upon their very forefront the impress of His love, but I hope you know enough of Him to be able to believe that where there are no traces of love apparent His love is as surely there. This washing of the feet was the act of the Lord Himself. Now, when the Master and Lord is the actor, who wants to raise a question or to suggest inquiry? Do you know Christ? Then you are sure that He will never act unkindly, unbecomingly, or unwisely.

IV. OUR WANT OF UNDERSTANDING AS TO WHAT OUR LORD DOES GENERALLY SHOWS ITSELF MOST IN REFERENCE TO HIS PERSONAL DEALINGS WITH OURSELVES. We are too close home to see clearly. The looker-on sees more than the player. We generally form a better opinion of another than we do concerning ourselves. So we must not expect when Christ is personally dealing with us that we should be able to understand. Besides, if He be afflicting us we are generally in an unfavourable state of mind for forming a judgment. When a patient is under the knife he is a poor judge of the necessity of the operation or the skill of the surgeon. In after days, when the wound has healed, he will judge better. Judge nothing before the time.

1. I do not wonder that Peter could not understand, for it is always a hard thing for an active and energetic mind to see the wisdom of being compelled to do nothing. It is hard to be put on the shelf among the cracked crockery, while yet you feel you could be useful if you had but strength to leave your chamber.

2. Then, what is worse, Peter not only cannot do anything, but must be waited on by his Master, whom he loved to serve. He would say, “Cannot I do it myself? I am not used to be waited on.” It is very unpleasant to an active man to be dependent upon others. To stand in need of anxious prayers, and to arouse pitying thoughts, seems strange to those who have been accustomed to do rather than to suffer. We become inquisitive, but the Saviour says, “What I do thou knowest not now.”

3. All the while there is in our mind a sense of insignificance and unworthiness, which makes our receipt of favours the more perplexing. “What,” says Peter, “Shall I be washed by the Lord Jesus Christ?” So it seems to us unworthy sinners.

4. Yet, if our eyes are opened, the Lord’s afflicting dealings are not so wonderfully mysterious after all, for we need purging and cleansing even as Peter needed foot washing.

5. There was a needs be of fellowship. “If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me.” You cannot have fellowship with Christ except He does this or that for you, nay, especially except He tries you; for how shall you know the suffering Saviour except you suffer yourself?

6. There was a needs be yet again to learn the lesson of washing their brethren’s feet by seeing the Lord wash theirs. No man can rightly wash another’s feet till his own feet have been washed by his Saviour.

V. UPON THIS POINT AND MANY OTHERS WE SHALL ONE DAY BE INFORMED.

1. That “hereafter” may be very soon. Peter knew within a few minutes what Jesus meant. A child is in an ill temper because there has been a rule made by the father and not explained, and so it thinks of some unkind motive on the father’s part. In a minute or two after it understands it all, and has to eat its own words.

2. Peter understood his Master’s washing His feet better after his sad fall and threefold denial. When he perceived how sadly he needed washing, he would prize the token which his Lord had given him. At a certain point of your experience you will possibly discover the explanation of your present adversity.

3. After the Lord had said to him, “Feed My sheep,” and “Feed My lambs,” another method of explanation was open to him. Often does our work for Jesus unfold the work of Jesus.

4. Yonder in heaven, best of all, Peter understands, for he sings, “Unto Him that loved us,” etc. All things will be clear when we once pass into the region of light. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God’s work in our behalf

I. GOD IS DOING SOMETHING FOR US. Every life is a little Bible--a revelation of God. Everything is from God. Life’s meaning is God.

II. WE KNOW NOT WHAT IT IS. We misinterpret the events of life--like Job’s friends. It were better not to know. Yet we do “know in part”--have blind hints of the Divine meaning in our lives.

III. WE SHALL KNOW HEREAFTER. The end explains all. “Face to face,” “eye to eye.” God, at last, will make plain all His providences. (George Elliot.)

Reasons for submission

I. THE SAVIOUR’S WISDOM. As St. Peter emphasises “Thou,” our Lord lays stress upon “I.” All My past intercourse should teach you to submit to what I think best for you in My wisdom (Isaiah 28:29).

II. THE DISCIPLES IGNORANCE. Equally does our Lord emphasize “Thou.” The ways of God baffle us, and that idle boast, “We shall soon lay bare the throne itself of the Eternal,” is but the mere froth of human vanity. The ignorance of Joseph and Job of the reasons of their trials is illustrative of ours.

III. THE PROMISED EXPLANATION.

1. It came soon in part (verses 8-10, 13-17).

2. More fully at Pentecost.

3. Clearer still in heaven.

4. Completely at the Second Advent. (Family Churchman.)

The night-flowering cereus; or, the beauty of unfolding providences

“I was walking with Wilberforce in his verandah,” says a friend, “watching for the opening of a night-flowering cereus.” As we stood by in expectation, it suddenly burst wide open before us. “It reminds me,” said he, as we admired its beauty, “of the dispensations of Divine Providence first breaking on the glorified eye, when they shall fully unfold to the view, and appear as beautiful as they are complete.”

Thou shalt never wash My feet

Washing the disciples’ feet

Learn

1. That they who, like Peter, refuse to believe in or conform to requirements of the Master which they do not fully understand or sympathize with are in danger of getting where they have no part with Him.

2. That if we submit to His will we shall in due time understand the significance of His treatment.

3. It is good to be zealously desirous of abundant blessing, a generous supply of grace. But it is sometimes necessary also to “wait patiently for the Lord,” to learn of Him, perchance slowly, and “one thing at a time.”

4. That in the kingdom of Jesus Christ the crown bearer is the feet-washer.

5. That our knowledge of Christian duty becomes a blessing in proportion as it is transmuted into practice. Sentimental admiration of humility and lowly helpfulness is one thing, being humble and helpful is another.

6. The passage affords us, as Bruce has well shown, an excellent intimation of what constitutes the perfection of obedience. “It lies in letting the Lord change places with us, and, if it seem good to Him, humble Himself to be our servant. Our true humility is not to object to Christ’s humiliation, but, on the contrary, to recognize its necessity in order to our deliverance from sin. They honour not God who deny the Incarnation and the redeeming death of the eternal Son as unworthy of Him. Rather do they doubly dishonour the Divine Being; first, by misconceiving wherein His glory lies, and, next, by ignoring their own need of redemption. The only genuine piety is that which owns man’s moral defilement and leaves God to remove it in His own way.” (Boston Homilies.)

The washing of Peter’s feet

I. THE MIXTURE OF EVIL IN THE EXPERIENCE OF THE GOOD. Peter on the whole was a good man, and his language here expresses something that was really good, just that sense of Christ’s greatness and his own unworthiness as appears in Luke 5:8. “Thy condescension overwhelms me.” But associated with this is Peter’s want of reflection, of ready acquiescence and his characteristic impulsiveness. He should have felt such unbounded confidence in Christ as to submit without resistance or reluctance. This shows the necessity

1. For self-scrutiny. “Who can understand his errors.”

2. For Divine cleansing, “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

3. The advantages of death. With the good all imperfections are left this side of Jordan. Yonder is unmixed good.

II. THE DANGER OF A RIGHT FEELING LEADING TO EVIL. Peter’s humility was right, but it led him to oppose Christ. A sense of our own unworthiness and of God’s greatness, right in itself, may lead to wrong results.

1. To the rejection of Christ’s mediation. How can the Maker of the universe have sent His Son to die for this little world of rebellious worms.

2. To the rejection of God’s personal providence. God is too great and man too little for such a thing.

3. To the rejection of Christian consolation.

III. THE RAPIDITY WITH WHICH THE SOUL CAN PASS INTO OPPOSITE SPIRITUAL MOODS (verses 7, 8). This power indicates

1. The greatness of human nature. We know of no other creature that can pass through such changes. All irrational creatures move in a rut, which they cannot leave. Man has power to defy time and space, to live in the future, and to revel in the distant.

2. The necessity for reflection. Without this men will ever be at the mercy of external influences. Thoughtless men of impulse are like feathers on the wind--the sport of circumstances.

IV. THE DEPENDENCE OF PERFECTION IN CHARACTER UPON AN INCREASE OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE (verses 7, 12-14). (Homilist.)

Christian purity

I. ITS NATURE.

1. The evil from which we are to be cleansed. Christ evidently had Judas’s sin in view (John 13:2; John 13:11). And in John 13:8, He manifestly implies that the sin of the betrayer was the sin into which they would fall unless purified by Him. This is the root and ground of every other sin. Every man has the Judas nature in him. Consider what that sin was. Avarice was only the last form which it assumed. Go deeper and we shall discover its spirit and essence in intensely carnal selfishness. Look at any form of this and you will see that its natural development is the Judas sin--all things sold for its own gratification. Its laws of growth are all there. It shuts out Divine influences, creates unbelief, hardens the heart, and reaches its consummation in the sale of Christian principle. The world for eighteen centuries has cast stones at Judas, but the thoughtful Christian will be constrained almost to stand by his side and say, “Had it not been for God’s grace, this tendency to sin in me would have led to that consummation, and I had sold the Christ too.” This, then, is the evil from which we need cleansing.

2. Whence comes the purifying power? The answer to this we find expressed in the symbol. The highest stooping to the lowest, that He might purify them from sin … Connect with that the words, “Having loved His own, He loved them unto the end,” and you will reach the power in Christ which purifies the soul. This is the power which shatters the idols of the heart; which makes the life a sacrifice. In the hours of fiercest trial, only let us feel, “He became a servant for me,” and this will bind the heart as with golden chains to Christ as its Master and Lord.

II. ITS PERFECTION. How are we to be wholly cleansed from this dark temptation? Now, mark, they needed not a special purifying; but to let that power pervade their whole natures they needed to wash their feet. Two thoughts are involved here.

1. The purifying must pervade the lowest powers of life. The feet, as representing the least, lowest actions and energies of life, those which come into actual contact with the world. The most trifling outward act has a power to corrupt the spiritual life. One evil deed leaves its scar; one such impedes prayer, because the dark nature within you will find an outlet there. You are encircled by foes; leave no portal unguarded. You are surrounded by a torrent; leave no break in the dyke.

2. The purifying must advance with advancing life. The feet again, as representing the progress of life. Past purification will leave the advanced life untouched If a man tries to live always on the power of the first grace given, he will fall. We must go to the Cross daily. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me

Spiritual washing

I. BY THE LORD PERSONALLY.

II. OF THE SINNER INDIVIDUALLY.

III. FOR THE SUBMISSIVE EXCLUSIVELY.

IV. FOR HIS SALVATION ETERNALLY. (S. S. Times.)

Spiritual washings

I. BY WHAT?

II. IN WHAT?

III. ON WHAT CONDITIONS?

IV. WITH WHAT RESULTS? (S. S. Times.)

Spiritual bathing

Humboldt tells us that, after bathing among the noctilucae in the phosphorescent water of the Pacific, his skin was luminous for hours after. In a spiritual sense is it not true that when we bathe, so to speak, mind and heart in the truths and influences of Christianity, allowing, seeking their appropriate effect upon us, the whole character shines with heaven-given light and beauty, that we can hear about with us into the common scenes and daily duties of life? But the means need to be repeatedly used if we would have the effect continued. Let then our devoutness be habitual. Let thought and love find their home in the “truth as it is in Jesus,” and our profiting will appear unto all. (Homiletic Monthly.)

The sine qua non

I. THE GREAT OBJECT OF OUR DESIRE.

1. To have a part in Christ.

(1) In the merit of His righteousness.

(2) In His death.

(3) In His resurrection.

(4) In His ascension.

(5) In His intercession.

(6) In His kingdom.

(7) In His second advent.

2. I hope most of us know what it is to have a part in Christ. But if we do, the blessed fact is altogether due to grace, and it could never have been so if we had not first been washed. If we do not then this is a blessing worthy of the utmost intensity of desire, and one which we must obtain or sink down to destruction, since to be without Christ is to be without hope.

II. THE ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATION FOR OBTAINING AND ENJOYING A PART WITH CHRIST--being washed by Him. Then, the qualification is not one of merit on our part, but one of mercy on His. If He had said, “Except ye obtain a superior degree of holiness, ye have no part in Me,” we might have despaired; but the very chief of sinners may find comfort in such a word as this. But what is meant by this washing?

1. No man has any part in Christ who does not receive the first all-essential washing in the precious blood, by which all sin is once and forever put away. The moment a sinner believes in Jesus Christ, his iniquities are seen as laid on Christ the Substitute, and the believer himself is free from sin. But without faith in the atonement thou canst have no part in Christ.

2. There follows a second cleansing, viz., daily pardon for sin through faith in Jesus. As day by day we fall into sin, we are taught to pray each day, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us;” and there is provision made in Christ Jesus for this daily pardon, since besides being the Paschal Lamb, our Lord is the morning and evening Lamb for daily guilt. The priest of God, when consecrated first, was washed from head to foot, and so baptized into the service of the sanctuary; but each time he went to offer sacrifice he washed his feet and his hands in the brazen laver. No need to give the complete immersion on each occasion; but accidental defilement, incident to everyday life, had to be cleansed away, not to make the man a priest, but to keep him in proper condition for the discharge of his office. The leper, once purged under the law, was clean, and might go into the congregation of the Lord’s house; yet as a clean man, he had the ordinary need to wash which was incidental to every Israelite.

3. Another thing included is the continual sanctification which faith in Jesus Christ carries on within by the Holy Spirit. If a man profess to be a Christian, and is not in his walk and conversation holier than other men, that man’s profession is vain. If Jesus wash not your tongue, and cleanse away those angry, or idle, or filthy words; that baud, and render it impossible for it to perform a dishonest or unchaste act; that foot, and render it impossible it should carry you to the haunts of vice and criminal amusement, you have no part in Him.

4. The daily communion which the true Christian has with Christ.

III. WHY THIS WASHING IS SO ESSENTIAL. Because of

1. The claims of Christ. Suppose a man shall say, “I have no need of washing,” brethren, it is clear that he has no part in Christ, because Christ came on purpose to cleanse His people from their sins. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You have no part in Christ, then, however much you applaud Him, unless you are washed by Him, for you have rejected that for which He lived and died.

2. Christ is Himself so infinitely pure that we must first be cleansed by Him before He can enter into fellowship with us. There is a fellowship with us as sinners which He graciously adopts, for He receiveth sinners and eateth with them; but into fellowship with His deep thoughts, His blessed purposes, and His Divine nature. He brings no man till first He has washed him in His blood.

3. The blessings which are in Christ are so spiritual that till we are cleansed we cannot enjoy them. Who can see God but those who are first made pure in heart? Who can have peace with God but those who are justified by faith?

4. Man’s nature is such that it is impossible for him to have part with Christ without washing.

IV. SOME THINGS WHICH HAVE BEEN PUT FORWARD AS SUBSTITUTES FOR BEING WASHED BY JESUS CHRIST.

1. Peter had such love and admiration for his Master that he very humbly said, “Dost Thou wash my feet?” Humility will not save you.

2. Peter had performed distinguished service for his Master. Though any of us should possess tongues of men and of angels, and give our bodies to be burned, yet if Christ wash us not, we have no part in Him.

3. Peter had enjoyed very remarkable views of Christ’s glory. I hear men boasting of the “coming glory”; but it is not as glorified that Jesus puts away sin. Though a man bathe day after day in the very light of the Millennium, yet if Jesus wash him not it profiteth him nothing.

4. Peter had walked the water once and found it marble beneath his feet. If thou hadst faith to remove mountains, yet if thou hadst not this washing, thou wouldst have no part in Christ.

5. Peter had received deep instruction! Ay, but though you possessed all knowledge, and could interpret all mysteries, yet if Jesus wash you not, you have no part in Him.

6. Peter was full of zealous enthusiasm, but the greatest imaginable zeal does not prove a man to have a part in Christ if he be not truly washed.

V. LESSONS OF WISDOM.

1. Let no supposed humility keep any of you from believing in Jesus Christ.

2. As you must not let a supposed humility, so let no other kind of feeling keep you from Christ.

3. Remember what you are if you remain unwashed, and what you will be if you are washed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The connection between a sinner having a part with Christ and being washed by Him

I. A SINNER HAVING PART WITH CHRIST. This includes

1. His being of Christ’s mystical body through union with Him (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 in contrast with 1 John 5:19; see 2 Corinthians 6:17).

2. His having communion with Christ in His saving benefits (1 John 1:3).

II. A SINNER BEING WASHED BY CHRIST.

1. There is a filthiness in sin whereby the soul is polluted and defiled before the Lord (Ezekiel 36:25; Jeremiah 44:4; Isaiah 4:4). This consists in its contrariety to the holiness of God (Exodus 15:11). Hence

(1) It makes the sinner loathsome before God (Zechariah 11:8; Habbakuk 1:13; Psalms 5:4).

(2) It fills the soul with shame before God (Ezekiel 16:60-61; Genesis 3:10).

2. Christ has them all to wash who get part in Him (Revelation 1:5; 1 John 1:7).

(1) There are two things in Christ’s blood which make it cleansing.

(a) An infinite value and dignity (Acts 20:28).

(b) An infinite energy and efficacy (Hebrews 10:20).

(2) In all washing there are two things to be distinguished.

(a) The loosing of the filth of sin sticking to the soul--as pitch sticks to men’s fingers (1 Corinthians 15:56). This is done in our justification.

(b) Its removal from the soul--as water takes filth right away. This is done in sanctification (Hebrews 9:14; Revelation 7:14).

(3) This cleansing lies in three things.

(a) The putting away of former loathsomeness, so that God can look on the soul with complacency (Revelation 1:5-6).

(b) The making of the soul fair and clean before God (Song of Solomon 4:7).

(c) The removal of legal shame.

(4) Faith is the instrumental course of this cleansing (Acts 15:9; Romans 3:25).

III. THE INSEPARABLENESS OF THE TWO.

1. In respect of their subject. He that has the one has the other.

2. In respect of time. They are simultaneous. (T. Boston, D. D.)

Communion with the Saviour inseparable from holiness

Let us consider that purification, without which all our hope of an interest in Christ is vain.

I. The CONDITION “If I wash thee not.” This reminds us that sin is of a defiling quality. Man may palliate the evil, but in the view of the Supreme Judge it is unspeakably vile and hateful. And when the sinner himself is convinced of sin he sees it in the same light. He “loathes himself for all his abominations.” This enables us to determine what our Saviour means by washing us. As water removes defilement and restores to purity, so the influences of Divine grace deliver us from sin and make us truly holy. We do not indeed mean to intimate that real Christians are entirely freed from all sin here. Unmixed purity is the privilege of heaven. But let us remember, that though this work is completed in eternity, it is begun in time.

II. The DREADFULNESS OF THE EXCLUSION--“Thou hast no part with Me.” Hear how the apostle Paul speaks of a privilege from which you are excluded. “But what things were gain to me,” etc. But you say, you do not thus value Him; you prefer a thousand objects to an interest in Him--and therefore to you there seems nothing so very dreadful in this threatening. But the question is--whether your judgment be a righteous one. A pearl is not the less precious because the swine tramples it under foot. A toy is not more valuable than a title to an estate because an infant or an idiot may give it the preference. And the question also is, whether you will always remain in the same opinion. Will the day of judgment operate no change in your sentiments? Will not the approach of death alter your convictions? If our Saviour was an unimportant character, your exclusion from Him would not be so fatal--but the fact is, that everything you need is found in Him, and to be derived only from Him. No being in the universe can fill His place, and do for us what He is able to do. And therefore, if He will have nothing to do with us, our case is indeed miserable and hopeless. We are wanderers without a guide: dying patients without a remedy: exposed to the deluge, and have no ark. It matters not to whom else we belong. “Neither is there salvation in any other,” etc. To have no communion with Him in whose favour is life; to hear Him say, I have a family, but you are no part of it--you are not a child, nor even a servant; to bear Him say, I have a plantation, but you are not in it, I have in reserve for my followers, thrones of glory, rivers of pleasure, fulness of joy--but as for you--you--have “neither part nor lot in the matter,”--if this be not dreadful,nothing can be dreadful. Especially when we add that there is but one alternative--If you have no part with Christ and His people, you must have your portion with hypocrites and unbelievers, with the devil and his angels! You have already fixed your destiny.

III. The CERTAINTY OF THIS EXCLUSION. There are two ways of proving this.

1. By testimony. “If you receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater.” And, says not our Lord, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me”? “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”

2. Reasoning from principles.

(1) Christ is pure and holy; His person, kingdom, joy, service are pure. If therefore we are not made pure, we have no likeness in Him.

(2) If Christ is the head, and Christians are the body, let us remember that the head and the body partake of the same nature: and that if Christ be the vine, and Christians the branches, the vine and the branches partake of the very same qualities.

(3) What intercourse can there be where nothing prevails but a contrariety of inclination and an opposition of interest? “How can two walk together except they be agreed?” “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?”

(4) Without this renovation we should be wholly incapable of deriving happiness from our connection with Him. Our being forever in His presence would only render us miserable. Wherever he may be placed, while he has sin in him, man has hell with him. Conclusion:

1. How exceedingly those misunderstand the gospel, and delude their own souls, who expect to be “made partakers of Christ,” while they seek not to be sanctified by Him. “He was manifested to take away our sin.”

2. We may congratulate those who are made free from sin. You have “an inheritance among them that are sanctified.” You have part with Christ! you partake of His safety and His dignity.

(1) Can you be poor? Having nothing, you possess all things. “For all things are yours,” etc.

(2) Can you be miserable? “Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, rejoice.” And if you have part with Him in His glory, can you be unwilling to share with Him in His reproach? If you are to “live with Him,” cannot you “die with him”? (W. Jay.)

But is clean every whit; and ye are clean but not all; for He knew who should betray Him.--The expressions used by the Evangelist with reference to the traitor show the development and progress of the treasonable thought.

1. He that was about to betray (John 6:71).

2. He that should betray (John 6:64).

3. He that is betraying (text).

4. He that betrayed (John 18:2; cf. Matthew 26:48). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

Clean every whit

These words teach two different and yet most closely connected truths.

I. The completeness and abidingness of the Divine forgiveness. He who is washed is clean every whit.

II. The second is, that after we have got this complete, abiding forgiveness, we still require, while we remain on earth, daily, hourly forgiveness; we still need to wash our feet. This accords with our daily experience; the emblem, as is always the case with Christ’s figures, exactly accords with fact. But there is a more striking illustration in the book of Exodus. The Lord there tells Moses to consecrate Aaron and his sons as priests. In doing this their bodies were wholly washed with water. This was the consecration washing, and this was never to be repeated. But in the next chapter, Moses is commanded to make a laver, or large basin of brass, and put it between the brazen altar and the tabernacle, and fill it with pure water. In this the priests, who had been fully washed, once for all, were yet required to wash their feet and hands every time they entered the tabernacle. I believe the Lord referred to this when He uttered the words of this verse. It is as if He had said, “When you come as sinners, and believe on Me, I wash you, bathe you, once for all, in My blood. I make you priests unto God; I perfect you forever, in as far as concerns acceptance and approach to the Lord. But, like the typical priests, you will still require, so long as you sojourn and minister on earth, to wash your feet, to seek, and get, forgiveness for your daily, hourly errors and shortcomings. Such seems to be the import of the Lord’s words. We cannot but feel that there is more intended here than the washing with water. We are lifted into a loftier region; we stand on high and holy ground, and are dealing with that blood of the Lamb of God wherewith He washed and sanctified His Church unto Himself, “Clean every whit.” I fear that many never get full hold of this blessed truth; they never realize the difference between law and gospel. The law made nothing perfect; the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin forever; it only procured a respite, a reprieve, “a renewal of the bill,” as men of business would say. The blood which the Jewish high priest took into the holiest of all, and sprinkled there on the mercy seat, only covered Israel’s sin for a year; it had to be annually renewed. But the blood which Christ, our High Priest, has taken into the heavenly tabernacle, and sprinkled on the mercy seat there, covers the sins of His believing people forever and ever. There needs no more sacrifice for sin, for by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified; that is, those who are washed and set apart for God. Oh, it is blessed when this truth gets full possession of the heart and conscience! It brings in peace, assurance, hope, joy, holiness, humility. It makes our service one of freedom, gladness, light. But now comes the subordinate truth; the forgiven man still needs to wash his feet. We can easily understand this. God’s forgiven people are still on earth; still in the flesh; and so liable to many sins and shortcomings. What are we to do? We have an advocate; we have a propitiation. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive,” etc. This will keep up a close, intimate, happy fellowship with God (1 John 1:7). I suppose this is very much what is meant when it is said (Revelation 7:14-15). They had once been washed, and washed forever; but then they continued all their days resorting to the fountain, to wash away the sin and infirmity of life and lip and heart. (John Milne.)

Know ye what I have done unto you?

What

I. IN ITS ETERNAL FORMS.

II. IN ITS INTRINSIC WORTH.

III. IN ITS EXEMPLARY FORCE. (S. S. Times.)

What Christ requires of His disciples

I. INTELLIGENCE--“Know ye.” Sometimes the actions of men have no meaning: they are impulsive and purposeless. Sometimes they have a bad meaning: they have selfish and sensual aims. Sometimes they have a good meaning: they are benevolent and pure in their motives. Christ’s actions always had a meaning, holy and beneficent, and it is the duty of His disciples to find it out. Two classes of professed Christians act wrongly in this respect.

1. Those who attach no meaning to Christ’s works.

2. Those who attach a wrong meaning to them. What absurd and even blasphemous ideas are current about many of them! Let the real Christian, then, “prove all things.”

II. Consistency (John 13:14). There should be perfect harmony between what they profess to be and what they are. Creed and conduct should agree. The discrepancy between the two is the greatest crime and curse of Christendom. Christ denounces war, worldliness, selfishness, and subjection to the flesh, yet His followers practise them.

III. CHRISTLINESS (John 13:15). To do in spirit as Christ did is to follow His example, and not the mere copying of the form. Were we to do all that Christ did we might still be out of harmony--aye, and in antagonism with His spirit. The way for a student artist to become like a great painter, is not to copy most accurately all the strokes and shadings of his model, but to catch the genius that inspired the master. Christ’s Spirit is the genius of all works of moral beauty and excellence, and if we catch that, we shall be “fruitful unto all good works.”

IV. HAPPINESS (John 13:16-17).

1. Christ desires the happiness of His disciples. Those who profess His name and are gloomy and discontented are not His.

2. The doing in love the things of His loving heart ensures true happiness. The labour of love is the music of life. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Ye call Me Master and Lord

Christ a Master

I. WE ALL URGENTLY NEED A GOOD MASTER FOR THE REGULATION AND CONTROL OF OUR LIVES.

1. Even in matters secular there is no such thing as absolute independence. We are the subjects of the sovereign, who in turn is subject to national law, private advisers, or public opinion.

2. But, especially, in matters spiritual. It is the misery of the ungodly, that they are subject to no law but that of their own folly and passions. What a mercy that we have been placed under the management of Him whose regulations form “the perfect law of liberty!” That man is the slave whose master is himself; and he alone is the freeman whose master is Christ.

II. CHRIST IS OUR MASTER IN THE TRUE AND STRICT SENSE OF THE TERM--not one who is to be saluted with the name, merely in a spirit of courtesy. His mastership is that of a sovereign, whom his subjects must obey, for whom they must fight, and to whom they must pay tribute (1 Corinthians 9:21).

III. CHRIST HAS BEEN CONSTITUTED OUR MASTER BY THE DECREE OF HIS FATHER (Psalms 2:6; Acts 5:31). So that the devout man’s satisfaction is, that, when he does homage to Christ as His Lord, he does homage to the Father, as honouring His appointment (Philippians 2:9-11). So far, then, is the worship of Christ from robbing of the Father of His honour, that it is an act which we honour both at once (John 5:19-23).

IV. THE FATHER’S ORDINATION OF CHRIST TO BE OUR MASTER PROCEEDS ON A PRINCIPLE OF EQUITY, and is not an act of mere arbitrary sovereignty. The Father (Hebrews 1:2; John 1:3) commissioned the Son, in His state of unincarnated glory, to create us, and in His state of incarnated mercy to redeem us (Revelation 5:12; 2 Corinthians 5:14). Since Christ died to save our lives, these lives are most lawfully His, to be consecrated to His service; should we deny Him which service we shall be condemnable, not only for a want of gratitude, but a violation of the law of equity.

V. CHRIST, AS OUR MASTER, IS ENTITLED TO, AND DEMANDS OF US, ABSOLUTE, UNIVERSAL OBEDIENCE; such as is commensurate with our entire being, and the whole economy of our lives, in our works, words, meditations; not only on the Sabbath, but on all clays; not only at the stated hours of devotion, but in the management of business, etc.; as a citizen in your political conduct, and in your domestic relations, etc. (Colossians 3:17). Does this seem oppressive? Do you feel as if He should be satisfied with only a partial control, and act accordingly? Then

1. How foolish you are; as if there were any part of the economy of your being which could be safely entrusted to the management of yourself.

2. How corrupt you are; since it appears there is some part of your life which will not bear His inspection.

3. How ungrateful you are; grudging the subjection of any part of your life to Him who gave Himself from the manger to the cross for you!

4. How unjust you are; robbing the Redeemer of part of His pain-bought inheritance! If with purpose of heart you can coolly reason that there is one hour of life for the manner of spending which you are under no obligation to consult with Him--then all is wrong, you are still “in your sins.”

VI. CHRIST IS OPEN AND FREE TO THE APPLICATION OF ALL HIS SERVANTS FOR AID IN PERFORMING THE WORK WHICH HE PRESCRIBES THEM. How many masters act unreasonably and unjustly by their servants in this respect! They starve them so as to enfeeble them, and refuse to furnish them with proper implements for their work. How different the Christian’s Master! All His commandments are reasonable; and to an unperverted disposition would be easy. And He looks at the subjective weakness and incapacity of our hearts, and sympathises with our infirmity, and communicates strength (2 Corinthians 12:9).

VII. Perfect though Christ’s rights be, and free and ample the help which He vouchsafes, so that all disobedience is without excuse, yet is CHRIST A MASTER MOST FORBEARING WITH THE FAULTS AND FAILURES OF HIS SERVANTS. Had we treated any other master as we have treated Him, long ere this we would have been dismissed from his service. A principal explanation of this forbearance is found in the circumstance that He was once a servant Himself (Hebrews 5:8); and in our own nature, amid the same scenes of trial through which we pass. And although He stood the trial, yet He does not make this a reason for condemning His weak brethren. But rather, remembering the force of temptation, and how much fortitude it required of Himself to withstand it, He apologizes to Himself for their failures, and easily forgives them.

VIII. AS A MASTER CHRIST REWARDS HIS SERVANTS WITH EXUBERANT LIBERALITY. As if He had done nothing for us as yet, at all, He encourages us to diligence and activity by the assurance of a “great recompense of reward.” (W. Anderson, LL. D.)

The helpfulness of Christ as Master

Who teaches like Christ? By His Spirit He pours light into the soul, applies His word to the conscience, and draws the heart gently, yet powerfully, to faith, love, and holy obedience. Five minutes’ instruction in Christ’s school is worth more than ten thousand sermons. We have seen a child make a drawing from a picture set before him; and as the work grows under his pencil, he is delighted with his own performance, and does not perceive its many defects. The master looks at the work, and surprises the pupil by pointing out deficiencies hitherto unsuspected; he then takes the pencil into his hand, and by a bold touch here, and a stroke there, he produces a new effect; so that the pupil is at once astonished and humbled. Thus a touch or so from the Spirit of Jesus in the heart is more effectual than all the wisdom of the schools, and all the learning of the ancients. Let us inquire, Have we so learned Christ? Devout Mr. Herbert, when He mentioned the name of Christ, used to add, “my Master”; and thus expresses himself concerning it in one of his poems: “How sweetly doth ‘my Master’ sound, ‘my Master!’ As ambergris leaves a rich scent unto the taster, so do these words a sweet content, an oriental fragrancy; ‘my Master.’” (J. M. Randall.)

Christ our Master and Lord

“Who went about doing good.” This is the shortest and noblest eulogium ever pronounced. I will not “give flattering titles unto man.” Yet the practice is too common. But now, as to the Lord Jesus, whatever we say of Him that is noble and glorious, we say well, for so He is. Some of this good was mediatorial; some of it miraculous; some of it corporeal; some of it spiritual; and some of it exemplary--as here.

I. THE TITLE. As the Master and the Lord of His people. They learn in His school and serve in His house. In both these titles the main idea is authority. He is Lord

1. By the claims of creation. As He is our Maker, He has an infinitely greater property in us than a creature can have. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. If, therefore, He were to call into His presence a monarch or a philosopher, and say, “Take that thine own is,” what could either of them take? Not even his existence.

2. By the claims of redemption. “Ye are not your own.” This gives Him a greater claim than even creation, for redemption delivers us from greater evils, advances us to greater blessings, and is accomplished by a much more expensive process than creation.

3. By their own choice and submission. Once He bare not rule over them; they were not called by His name. But He made them willing in the day of His power. And the glory of His dominion is here--that He does not govern only by external rule, but by internal influence. He illuminates our understanding, and displays to their view His loveliness. And thus we run after Him; for He draws with the cords of a man and with the bands of love.

II. THE OBLIGATION. “If I am your Master and Lord”

1. You ought to renounce connection with every other; for “no man can serve two masters.” But His dominion does not interfere with the relations subsisting between man and man. Your rendering unto God the things that are God’s does not prevent your rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. But even this service is regulated by His authority too. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right in the Lord.” He said, “Call no man master.” Thus He releases His subjects from all authority as to conscience but His own. But said He also, “Be not ye called masters.” There are those, who refuse dominion, who are ready enough to require it.

2. You ought to obey My commandments. There cannot be a better evidence of sincerity than this. “If ye love Me,” etc. For a knowledge of His orders, you must repair to the Scriptures, and to these only. You must shun all that He forbids, and pursue all that He enjoins.

3. You ought to submit to My appointments. As He gives us our work, so He must determine when, and where, and how we shall labour and serve Him. “Here I am; let Him do what seemeth Him good.” You must not, therefore, complain if He restrains you, tries you, bereaves you. He has a right to determine your connections, the bounds of your habitations, the way in which you are to glorify Him; and He never exercises this right but for your own welfare. Some at His bidding cross over land and sea; they also serve Him that wait, and they also serve that suffer.

4. You ought to imitate Me. “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.” You see this specified here.

5. You should esteem all you have as Mine, and use it accordingly. “Occupy till I come.” If you have no title to yourselves, how is it possible that you can have a title to anything that you now call your own?

(1) Do you think that your time is your own, that you may lie as long in bed as you please, or that you may lounge as much in the day as you choose? You will soon appear before Him who has said, “Redeem the time.”

(2) Can you suppose that your tongues are your own? You will soon be in His presence who said, “For every idle word that men shall speak,” etc.

(3) Do you think that your substance is your own, that you may either hoard it or spend it as you like? You will soon be in His presence who has told you, “To do good and to communicate, forget not,” etc.

6. You should be willing to partake with Me in all My estates. If you are to reign with Him hereafter you must suffer with Him now.

7. You may depend upon Me for all the advantages of the relation. “Ye shall receive the reward of your inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ.” It is impossible for you to serve Him for nought.

Conclusion:

1. Entertain proper apprehensions of Christ. He is not only a Saviour, but He is a Lord and Master: Is Christ divided?

2. Beware of hypocrisy and inconsistency. Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?

3. Some have other lords; some love idols, and after them they will go. (W. Jay.)

The universality of Christ’s Mastership

In the high-toned sanctities of our Christian worship, on the lower plane of domestic life, with its secret cares, and silent griefs, and angry frets, Christ is our Lord. On the crested wave of business, with its glittering spray and argosies of wealth, and along its turbid and choking shallows, Christ is our Lord. In all the undress and innocent relaxations of life--on the heathery hills, or placid ocean, or in the crowded city--still Christ is our Lord. In the retreat of the counting house or the perilous whirlpool of the public exchange, in the obscurest nook and corner of your life, Christ is your Master and Lord. You have chosen Him as such. Your faith, your profession, affirm Him as such, and He responds to that profession. He is Lord of your spirit, in what it thinks, and feels, and is; of your wealth, and time, and influence; of your pursuits, and pleasures, and possessions; of the most hidden, germinal, and unbetrayed proclivities of the soul; of the totalized aggregate man--Christ is “Lord of all.” And you are His servants, put in trust with His goods, stewards of His wealth, factors in His household; and He, the Lord and Master, is even now on His return journey, to call each to his account, and to assign his position and award. But what a weight of responsibility does this assumption of the regal sovereignty of Christ entail upon its subjects! What a solemnity does it lend to the ongoings of human life, and what a tragic interest does it give to the dismission of each occupant from his trust! “What manner of persons,” in view of all this, “ought ye to be?” (John Burton.)

The Christian a servant

Dr. Muhlenburg gave a beautiful illustration of obedience to his Master when he once took up a tray of dishes in St. Luke’s Hospital and carried them down to the kitchen. Some one meeting him, and protesting against his doing such menial work, he quickly said, “What am I, but a waiter in the Lord’s hotel?”

If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another’s feet

The sign of the feet washing

Let us look at this act

I. AS REQUIRING THE CROSS FOR ITS INTERPRETATION. Short as this evening was, it was the most memorable on which the sun ever went down, and the eve of the most memorable day that ever dawned. First came the feet washing, then the holy supper, then the discourse, then the prayer. But all that passed within that ante-chamber of the passion had reference to the morrow.

1. “Thou shalt know hereafter” intimated that the mystery of the whole strange scene would be explained when the Servant of God, and the Minister of man’s redemption, would reach the lowest point of His submission, and offer His final oblation of humility. “He riseth and laid aside His garments,” etc.; even so He left the Father’s bosom, and emptied Himself. “He poured water into a basin”--but this water is once again changed, not now into wine, but into blood--and washed His disciples’ feet.

2. Notice some of the specific points of this exhibition.

(1) It was voluntary service rendered in the consciousness of Divine power (John 13:3). To the ransom of His life He Himself freely gave. “I have power to lay down My life,” etc. Had it not been so, His death could not have been redemption.

(2) It was as our Lord that He bought us with His blood. “Ye call me,” etc. The submission to death was a Divine victory over the cause of death.

(3) The redeeming act is fully available only for “His own.” The symbol did, indeed, teach that that Christ washed away the sins of the race; that He made atonement for John and Judas alike. So effectual has been that washing that no one is condemned eternally for his original stain or contracted defilement, and baptism is the pledge of that. But as we look at our Great Servant going round with the basin, and washing each one, and saying, “Ye are clean, but not all”; when we hear Him telling Simon, “If I wash thee not,” etc., we cannot help seeing that Christ may wash in vain, or man may refuse the benefit of His washing. We may hope that these are as few in comparison of the innumerable multitude as Judas in comparison of the eleven. But the saved are personally saved, and none have fellowship with Christ whose souls have not been cleansed in His blood.

II. AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE BELIEVERS’ FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST, the bond of union between Christ and His cleansed people.

1. Our Minister in heaven makes provision for the forgiveness of our sins and the renewal of our nature. He came to give His life a ransom for many; He is gone to give His spirit for His people’s redemption. Thus we are washed by pardon and the bestowal of the renewing Spirit. The two washings, distinguished as acts, are united in their effect; and He who “came by water and blood” makes both symbols one in those who have “part in Him.”

2. Christ makes provision for the cleansing of that defilement which may be daily contracted by a renewed believer save to wash His feet. Two opposite perversions of this gracious act must be guarded against.

(1) It gives us the perfect ideal of the Christian life; but it may be exhibited so as to throw many into despondency. Christ does not say more than that He who is once washed needeth not that washing again. He does not go on to say, “Nor shall he who has lost his first washing ever be washed anew.” Our heavenly Minister fainteth not, neither is weary.

(2) But this saying must not be perverted in the interests of a nature only too tolerant of evil. It does not say that those whom Christ has once washed He will and must wash unto the end. Those who make it say so forget the terrible denunciation uttered on those who “sin that grace may abound.”

III. AS OUR EXAMPLE. “If I, your Lord,” etc.

1. The mind of Christ in His self-renunciation is the standard of the true Christian spirit. Between the Pattern and the imitators there is infinite disparity; but of the Spirit we are all commanded to partake. This was the solitary principle in Himself, that He or His apostles proposed for our imitation. To know no self apart from the will of God and the service of man is Christ’s example and the perfection of the Christian spirit.

2. In some sense, also, He gives us here the pattern of our act as well as of our spirit. His service left no ministry incomplete, whether to our bodies or our souls. He chose here an emblem that was well adapted to illustrate those deeds which minister to our brethren’s needs of every kind. Conclusion: Our Lord closes the scene by a warning and a benediction (verse 17). (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

Great principles and small duties

A soul occupied with great ideas best performs small duties; the Divinest views of life penetrate most clearly into the merest emergencies. Let us apply this principle to

I. INTELLECTUAL CULTURE. The ripest knowledge is best qualified to instruct the most complete ignorance. It is a mistake to suppose that the master, who is but a stage before the pupil, can, as well as another, show him the way. However accurately the recently initiated may give out his new stores, he will rigidly follow the method by which he made them his own, and will want that command of several paths of access to a truth which are given by a thorough survey of the whole field on which he stands. The instructor also needs to have a full perception of the internal contents of the truths he unfolds. The sense of proportion between the different parts and stages of a subject, the appreciation of every step at its true value, the foresight of the section that remains in its real magnitude and direction, are qualities so essential, that without them all instruction is but an insult to the learner’s understanding. And in virtue of these it is that the most cultivated minds are the most patient, clear, progressive. Neglect and depreciation of intellectual minutiae are characteristic of the ill-informed. And, above all, there is the indefinable power which a superior mind always puts forth on an inferior. In the task of instruction no amount of wisdom is superfluous, and even a child’s elementary teaching would be best conducted by omniscience itself.

II. SOCIAL LIFE. It is an error to suppose that homely minds are the best administrators of small duties. How often the daily troubles prove too much for the generalship of feeble minds, and a petty and scrupulous anxiety in defending some almost invisible point of frugality, surrenders the greater unobserved! How often, too, a rough and unmellowed sagacity rules, indeed, but creates a constant friction. But where, in the presiding genius of a home, taste and sympathy unite, with what ease, mastery, and graceful disposition do the seeming trivialities of existence fall into order and drop a blessing as they take their place. This is realized, not by microscopic solicitude of spirit, but by comprehension of mind and enlargement of heart; by that breadth and nicety of moral view which discerns everything in due proportion, and, in avoiding an intense elaboration of trifles, has energy to spare for what is great; in short, by a perception akin to that of God, whose providing frugality is on an infinite scale, whose art colours a universe with beauty, and touches with its pencil the petals of a flower. A soul thus pure and large disowns the paltry rules of dignity, and will discharge many an office from which lesser beings would shrink as ignoble. Offices the most menial cease to be menial the moment they are wrought in love.

III. HIGH RELIGIOUS FAITH. In the management of daily disappointments and small vexations only a devout mind attains any real success. How wonderfully the mere insect cares that are ever on the wing in the noonday heat of life have power to sting even the giant minds around which they sport! It may be absurd and immoral to be teased by trifles; but while you remain in the dust it will annoy you, and there is no help for it but to retire into a higher and grassier region, where the sultry load is visible from afar. We must go in contemplation out of life, ere we can see how its troubles are lost, like evanescent waves, in the deeps of eternity and the immensity of God. How welcome to many a child of anxiety and toll to be transferred from the heat and din of the city to the midnight garden or mountain top. And like refreshment does a high faith, with its infinite prospects, open to the worn and weary: no laborious travels are needed for the devout mind, for it carries within it Alpine heights and starlit skies, which it may reach at a moment’s notice.

IV. THE SERVICES OF BENEVOLENCE. The humblest form of this receives its moat powerful motive from the sublimest truth--immortality. It might have been thought that no love would be so faithful as that which believed at the deathbed of a friend that the absolute farewell was drawing nigh. The vivid expectation of futurity, which has so often led the believer to ascetic contempt, would appear only consistent if it passed by in equal scorn the bodily miseries of others. But it is not so. In this, as in all other instances, truths the most divine are the greatest servitors of wants the most humiliating. The immortal element imparts a species of sanctity to the mortal: just as the worshipper feels that the very stones of the temple are sacred. Conclusion: Let us revere the great sentiments of religion not as an occasional solace to a weakly dignity, but as truths which penetrate the very heart of life’s activity. Nothing less than the majesty of God and the powers of the world to come can maintain the peace and sanctity of our homes and hearts. (J. Martineau, LL. D.)

Christian service should be rendered lovingly

Preaching on this text, Mr. Finlayson, of Helmsdale, observed, “One way in which disciples wash one another’s feet is by reproving one another. But the reproof must not be couched in angry words, so as to destroy the effect; nor in tame, so as to fail of effect. Just as in washing a brother’s feet, you must not use boiling water to scald, nor frozen water to freeze them.”

Christian service should be rendered constantly

Christian charity is too often like a large banknote which may be flourished on occasion to excite the wonder of bystanders, but which is never broken up into small change to meet everyday occasions. Little labours are the small change into which true charity is willing to be turned for life’s common needs. Do not be content with merely discharging your charity by large professions of liberality, but prove it by those little deeds of pity and grace for which you may get no popular applause. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)

I have given you an example

The example of Christ

Among those rules for his daily conduct which the pious, though visionary Lavater, suspended in his study, and seriously read every night and morning, the following is far from being the least important:--“I will not do nor design anything which I would omit if Jesus Christ were standing visibly before me, or which I suppose He would not perform if He were in my situation. I will, with the assistance of God, accustom myself to do everything in the name of Jesus Christ; and, as His disciple, to sigh every hour to God for the blessing of the Holy Ghost, and be always disposed to prayer.” Happy the believer who acts in this manner!

I. THAT IT IS OUR DUTY TO IMITATE THE EXAMPLE OF THE REDEEMER IS EASILY PROVED.

1. For what reason was the history of His life written? Not that it might gratify an idle curiosity; not that it might amuse us by its wonderful events, and produce a barren admiration; not that it might afford scenes on which we might carelessly gaze, and subjects on which we might coldly converse. They recorded the actions and the words of Jesus, that a living, lustrous, obligatory rule of conduct; that a visible commentary on God’s law might be presented for our imitation; that a light, unerring as the pillar of fire and cloud that led the Israelites, might be given to us to conduct us through this wilderness to the promised land that is on high.

2. In your Scriptures you are constantly and unequivocally commanded to imitate the Redeemer. “Learn of Me”; “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.” “Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ” is the admonition of Paul (Philippians 2:5). Do they exhort us to holiness? As He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (1 Peter 1:15). Do they incite us to charity? “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us” (Ephesians 5:2); “This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Would they arm us with patience? “We must consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest we be weary and faint in our minds” Hebrews 12:3). Would they teach us to condescend to our neighbour for his benefit? “Let everyone please his neighbour for his good to edification, for even Christ pleased not Himself” (Romans 15:2). Do they urge us to forgiveness? “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Colossians 3:13).

3. The sacred vows that are upon us, the tender and solemn relations that we sustain to Jesus, enforce this duty.

4. A regard to the best interests of our fellow men should induce us to follow the example of the holy Jesus, Oh! let us be careful not to alienate them: let us imitate Jesus, and then perhaps we will draw them to the Saviour, or if not, we shall be “pure from their blood.”

5. A regard to our own spiritual improvement and salvation should induce us to study and imitate the example of Jesus. There is no other example so comprehensive: from that wonderful union of greatness and humiliation. Other lives afford instruction to men in particular circumstances and relations; though they are burning and shining lights, they dissipate the gloom but for comparatively a short distance around them: but He, like the sun, is set in a higher orb, and with an everlasting and uncircumscribed light illumines the universe. Other lives may be excellent examples of some particular virtues: as Job, of patience; Moses, of meekness; Paul, of zeal. But in Jesus there is a beautiful and attractive harmony of all the virtues. Other examples present us with only a short period of time, reaching merely from the birth to the death of those who exhibit them. We are taught by Him not only when He tabernacled in flesh, but also when He first raised the hopes of fallen man: when He appeared to the patriarchs and prophets; when He comforted His martyrs, and cheered His children in every age; when He now sheds down into the souls of His followers joys unspeakable. Other examples communicate no quickening influence. Other examples are of persons who are not united to us by such endearing bonds as is Immanuel. Other examples bear the slump of imperfection. Let us remember that a conformity in our internal principles of conduct forms the first step of this imitation. Hence we are exhorted by Paul to “have the same mind which Christ had” (Philippians 2:5). We must, then, in order to imitate Jesus, be animated by the same Holy Spirit that He possessed. We must also receive the same systems of Divine truths, otherwise our obedience will spring from different motives.

But in what particular instances must we take Jesus as our model, and conform ourselves to His example?

1. Imitate Him in His piety towards God. It was constant and unwearied. In no single instant did His heart cease to glow with affection to His Father. Ye who “did run well for a season,” blush when you contemplate the steady path of Jesus, and return from your wanderings. His piety was zealous. He does not coldly and heartlessly engage in the duties of religion. His piety was attended with frequent prayer.

2. He is an example to us in His benevolence. This is exhibited in all His conduct, as it breathed in all its discourses. On the wings of charity He descended from heaven, and His whole life proved that He had lain from eternity in the bosom of everlasting love.

3. He is an example to us in His humility. Never were such endowments as He possessed; yet, with celestial wisdom, He never was assuming.

4. He is an example to us of superiority to the world. He might have enjoyed all that the world idolizes; His renunciation of it was voluntary.

5. He is an example to us in His patience and forgiveness.

6. He is an example to us in tolerance and forbearance. Though zealous, His zeal was never cruel and malignant; though perfectly innocent, He tenderly compassionated the errors and the follies of men. Though His censures were faithful, they were ever meek and gentle. (H. Kollock, D. D.)

Christ our example

God is set before us as our example in the Scriptures; but Christ, being man, subject to our infirmities and temptations, brings before us not merely Divine but human perfection as a model for our imitation. We should imitate Christ

I. IN HIS DEVOTION TO GOD. His constant

1. Reference to God’s glory.

2. Confidence in His promise.

3. Obedience to His commands.

4. Submission to His will.

5. Fulfilment of all righteousness.

II. IN HIS DISINTERESTED SERVICE TO MAN. He sought not His own. He went about doing good. Neither His own honour nor advantage was the end He pursued. Let your governing principle be what His was.

III. IN HIS MANNER OF RESISTING TEMPTATION.

1. He never placed Himself in danger. He refused to tempt God.

2. He resisted the first suggestions of evil.

3. He appealed to the authority of the Scriptures, and used them as the sword of the Spirit.

IV. IN HIS ENDURANCE OF INJURES. Never was such ingratitude and scorn heaped on any other head. Yet

1. There was no resentfulness. He did good for evil, and prayed for those who shed His blood.

2. He did not threaten. In this there is a strong contrast between Him and many of the martyrs.

V. IN HIS REBUKING OF SINNERS.

1. His censures were expressive of His hatred of sin.

2. It was impartial.

3. With authority.

4. Loving and tender, except where there was manifest hypocrisy.

VI. IN HIS PUBLIC WORK. As a teacher He

1. Adapted His instruction to the state of His hearers.

2. He seized every occasion, and gave His lesson a special application.

3. He spoke as a witness.

VII. IN HIS SUFFERINGS.

1. He did not manifest stoical indifference.

2. He was meek and resigned.

3. He looked to the glory which should follow. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

Christ our example not our model

The two are different. You copy the outline of a model; you imitate the spirit of an example. You might copy the life of Christ, and make Him a model in every act, and yet you might be not one whir more of a Christian than before. You might wash the feet of poor fishermen as He did, live a wandering life with nowhere to lay your head. You might go about teaching, and never use any words but His, never express a truth except in Bible language, have no home, and mix with publican’s and harlots. Then Christ would be your model; and you would have copied His life like a picture, line for line, and shadow for shadow; and yet you might not be Christ-like. On the other hand, you might imitate Christ, get His spirit, breathe the atmosphere of thought He breathed, do not one single act which He did, but every act in His spirit. You might be rich, whereas He was poor; never teach, whereas He was teaching always; lead a life in all outward particulars the very opposite of His, and yet the spirit of His self-devotion might have saturated your whole being, and penetrated into the life of every act and the essence of every thought. Then Christ would have become your example, for we can only imitate that of which we have caught the spirit. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The perfection of Christ’s example

The reference of all the world tells us that Christ’s example was perfect. The admissions of enemies tell us; our own hearts and consciences tell us; but did you ever think how strange it is that these four little tracts, telling us such fragmentary stories, and of so brief a period of a life, in which there was a conspicuous absence of very many of the important circumstances of that life, should have been accepted by all the centuries, and by all sorts and conditions of men, women, and children, wise and foolish, learned and ignorant, bond and free, happy and sad, as an all-sufficient guide for them, and that these little stories should he felt by us all to contain an adequate guide and rule for our conduct? It is not enough to say, “Men’s circumstances change, but the essentials of their duty are very few, and you can put them into two or three words and they will be enough.” That is quite true, and we thank God for it. It is a great thing instead of a whole host of precepts to have got two or three fruitful principles. We have got the Divine example in human form, and the stimulus of His deeds, when pondered, opens out into majesty and greatness; and what a blessed thing it is instead of being handed over to a mere law--Do that and thou shalt live; Be this, and so forth--to be told, “Do as I do”; and still more blessed, “Do as I do, because I love you, and you love Me.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Christ the supreme example

We were examining Guido’s “Aurora” in the summerhouse of the Rospigliosi Palace, and as we sat behind the row of artists busily copying the celebrated painting, we could not help noticing how they differed from each other as well as from the immortal fresco. After a time we called the attention of our guide to the fact that each of the painters had a different colour for the horses, and that no two copies were at all alike. With an expressive gesture he replied, “Don’t look at them! Look only at the original!” (W. Baxendale.)

Christ an all-round example

The character of our Lord was such that no one virtue had undue predominance. Take Peter, and there is a prominent feature peculiar to himself; one quality attracts you. Take John, and there is a lovely trait in his character which at once chains you, and his other graces are unobserved. But take the life of Jesus, and it shall perplex you to discover what virtue shines with purest radiance. His character is like the lovely countenance of a classic beauty, in which every single feature is so in exact harmony with all the rest, that when you have gazed upon it, you are struck with a sense of general beauty, but you do not remark upon the flashing eye, or chiselled nose, or coral lips; an undivided impression of harmony remains upon your mind. Such a character should each of us strive after--a mingling of perfections to make up one perfection; a combining of all the sweet spices to make up a rare perfume, such as only God’s Holy Spirit Himself can make, but such as God accepts wherever He discovers it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The union in Christ of precept and example

If He recommended active benevolence He went about doing good; if He preached forgiveness of injuries He prayed for His murderers; if He inculcated self-denial, He voluntarily subjected Himself to penury, persecution, and death; if He prescribed piety towards God, He passed days and nights in prayer; if He enjoined resignation to the Divine will, He freely drank the cup which His Father gave to His lips. In these respects our Lord presented a marked contrast to the example, often pernicious, always imperfect of other teachers, and by exemplifying His own laws He has rendered no small service to virtue, since, in addition to His instructions, He has embodied a living pattern of that new cast and description of character, of those original and distinctive excellencies, which He has prescribed to His followers. (G. Chandler, LL. D.)

Sceptical testimony to Christ’s example

When Christ’s preeminent genius is combined with the qualities of probably the greatest moral reformer and martyr to that mission who ever lived, religion cannot be said to have made a bad choice in pitching upon this man as the ideal representative and guide of humanity; nor even now would it be easy even for an unbeliever to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete than the endeavour so to live that Christ would approve our life. (J. S. Mill.)

Christ’s example gradually imitated

The Christian, in his striving after perfection, is like the sculptor Fiamingo with his image, of which the elder D’Israeli tells us. He kept polishing and polishing, till his friend exclaimed impatiently, “What perfection would you have?” “Alas!” was the answer, “the original I am labouring to come up to is in my head, but not yet, in my hand.” (W. Baxendale.)

Self-propagating power of example

Example is like the press: a thing done is the thought printed; it may be repeated if it cannot be recalled; it has gone forth with a self-propagating power, and may run to the ends of the earth, and descend from generation to generation. (H. Melvill.)

Influence of example

When in the Mexican war the troops were wavering, a general rose in his stirrups and dashed into the enemy’s lines, shouting, “Men, follow!” They, seeing his courage and disposition, dashed on after him and gained the victory. What men want to rally them for God is an example to lead them. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

The imitation of Christ

Man is observed to be a creature naturally given to imitation; examples have a great deal more influence on him than laws and precepts. This being the case, he is concerned to set before him the best examples. And because this is a thing wherein men generally fail, here the loving Jesus directs them to the worthiest object of their imitation!

I. WHEREIN ARE WE TO IMITATE CHRIST. As there are some duties that the gospel commands us, which yet Christ was not capable of, as repentance, etc., so, likewise, there are some actions of Christ which it would be folly in us to endeavour to imitate.

1. Negatively. We are not to imitate Christ in

(1) Those actions which He did by His extraordinary and Divine power. The poets relate that Salmoneus strove to imitate Jove’s thunder, and was slain with a real thunderbolt. Such may be expected to be the recompense of our presumptuous emulating the miraculous undertakings of Christ. And to these I may add those actions of His, which were arbitrary and absolute, as He was Lord of the world.

(2) In His actions as Redeemer He both did and suffered many things thus, which were peculiar to Him, and above our imitation; and yet in some sense we are to make Him our pattern, even as to those. His nativity must be copied out in our spiritual birth; His cross bearing, crucifixion Galatians 2:20; Galatians 6:14), death (Romans 6:8; Colossians 2:20; 2 Timothy 2:11), sacrifice (Romans 12:1) by ours. He was buried, and we must (Romans 6:4) find a grave for our sins. He was raised and we must rise (Colossians 3:1; Romans 6:4). And, as Christ was exalted, so God exalts us in Him (Ephesians 2:6).

(3) In some actions which He did in His peculiar state and condition, e.g., we are not authorized by His example to choose a life of poverty; for we are not in the same circumstances with Him.

(4) In those acts He did only to signify and teach some greater thing, as the feet washing--e.g., the apostles, it is true, washed one another’s feet, in imitation of their Lord’s example, yet this only the custom of that country. In this country it would only be apish imitation, and like those who wore sandals, preached on the house tops, and saluted no man by the way, etc.

2. Positively. Imitate Christ in

(1) His humility and condescension. How this appears in His birth, subjection to His parents, trade, choice of companions, and object of ministry! And, as He was humble Himself, so he reproved pride and haughtiness of spirit in others (Matthew 18:2-4; Luke 22:24, etc.; Matthew 20:27). And under Christ’s humility I may reckon His obedience to the government He lived under (Matthew 17:27). “Render unto Caesar,” etc. And as Christ’s whole life so His death was an amazing act of condescension (Philippians 2:6-8).

(2) In His self-denial and mortification. These He eminently showed in divers emergencies of His life; in despising the world’s

(a) Honour and applause. He obscured even His Divinity itself for many years, and sometimes when He wrought miracles He would not lot them take air (John 8:50).

(b) Riches (Matthew 8:20).

(c) Pleasures.

(d) In His entire resigning Himself to God’s will (John 5:30; John 6:38).

(e) In that He was pleased to bear with the infirmities and frailties of Romans 15:1-3).

(3) In His extensive love and exact justice towards men. I join these because be that acts charitably gives men their due, and he that acts justly proves kind. None was a greater observer of honest dealing than our Lord Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:21). And that He was also charitable, everything that He did was a proof (Acts 10:38). As He lived so He died a most compassionate lover of souls. Still He propounds Himself as a pattern to us. Being a loving Saviour, He calls on us to love one another John 13:35).

(4) In His religious and devout converse with God. In His love for and attendance at God’s house. In His private converse with God (Luke 6:12, Luke 22:44; Hebrews 5:7). His meditation, etc. In these things let our Lord be our pattern, leaving behind us the noise and business of the world.

(5) In His patient and undaunted deportment under His extraordinary sufferings (Hebrews 12:1-3).

(6) In His constant beating down of sin and vice, and His encouraging and promoting of holiness, by all that He said or did. Was there ever a more eminent reprover of sin than our Lord?

II. THE REASONS WHY WE ARE TO IMITATE CHRIST.

1. Because His example is the exactest that we can follow.

(1) Some examples of virtue are counterfeit. The Papists impiously take St. Francois to be the exact image of Christ. And you may read in their legends of other persons who were canonized for the prodigious holiness of their lives. But Christ’s example is no fiction.

(2) The examples of those saints that are true and real are very imperfect, and often mixed with sinful miscarriages, and therefore not the fittest to be followed by us. Christ alone is an unblemished pattern (2 Peter 2:22).

(3) The examples of the best of men are only so far imitable by us, as they are conformable to the example of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

2. It was the design of God in sending His Son into the world, that He should be an example to us.

3. This is the great character of Christianity, and the main thing whereby we are able to demonstrate ourselves to be true Christians (1 John 2:6).

4. Christ’s own command.

5. This is it which brings repute to Christianity, and renders it honourable and praiseworthy.

6. This is that which yields us solid comfort, and gives us certain hopes of eternal happiness.

III. THE APPLICATION.

1. Ask yourselves seriously whether you have set Christ’s example before you, and have endeavoured to imitate it.

2. Lament both in ourselves and others our neglect of taking Christ for our example.

3. Let this grief and shame lead us to our duty.

(1) Make use of Christ’s example to repel the temptation that you are under. As when you are tempted to pride, think how humble a Saviour you had. When you are tempted to deal unjustly, consider how upright He was. When you find yourselves allured by pleasure allay your extravagant desires by calling to mind what a severe observer of temperance the Holy Jesus was.

(2) Set this before you when you are to enterprise any virtuous action.

4. Often peruse the holy life and dough of Jesus.

5. Be convinced of the matchless excellency and beauty of Christ. (John Edwards, D. D.)

Christ our example

There were in Greece certain fields called Palaestrae, where young men exercised themselves in wrestling. In these were set up statues of some valiant champions, that the young wrestlers might fix their eyes upon them and so be encouraged. Can we choose a better champion than Christ to eye and imitate. (J. Trapp.)

Imitation of Christ in sacrifice

Are you not trying to build your nests high, and to feather them with down? Are you not trying to provide for the future, so that you shall escape trouble and care? Has the idea entered into your mind that suffering is the baptism of holiness? that it brings you into the likeness of Christ, and that it is to be, not suffering for your own sake, but suffering that other men may be wiser and purer, and truer and juster? Is this the foundation upon which you are building your activity? Can we be saviours of the world, and none of us be willing to suffer, and all of us be fierce for vengeance? Can we be saviours of the world, and all of us carry the whip of justice, and none of us carry the sweet incense and perfume of love? Shall all pulpits, all papers, all Churches, all Christians of every name, clamour for justice, justice, justice, and not one speak of that crowned Sufferer who stood silent and meek, though the world thundered about Him and rolled in upon Him, and overwhelmed Him even unto death? Go! go! ye sons of Zebedee, that want to stand high, but do not want to take the cup or the baptism! But if any man would follow Christ, let him be silent in the presence of that most august spectacle of time--the Saviour crowned with thorns! (H. W. Beecher.)

The family likeness

A little boy had lost his sister. There was no portrait of her. It was before the days of photographs. He begged his parents to get a painter to make a picture of his sister, Remonstrance did not silence him, and finally he was sent to visit friends in Boston, and was told that he might see if he could find a painter who would undertake to make a picture of his sister. The friends humoured him, and took him to the studios of several artists; but they all shook their heads. At last one young artist said: “Come with me, and see if you can find any faces that look like your sister’s.” He took the little boy to a large gallery of portraits. Soon one picture attracted the child’s attention. “That’s like her eyes,” he said. Then another--“that’s like her mouth.” Another had “her hair,” another “her forehead,” and so on. The artist put all these features together, and succeeded in making a good portrait of the boy’s sister. In the same way we can supply the likeness of Christ. We do not find all His portrait in any one person. But pick it out, feature by feature, among the different members of His family, and we can make it into one harmonious whole. (New Testament Anecdotes.)

If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them

Knowing and doing

I. KNOWLEDGE.

1. In order to do anything, anywhere, we must know. This is so in the natural world. The laws of nature are determinate over her whole empire, and the triumphs of science are but the discoveries of occult law. It is so also in the moral universe. There law is supreme and intelligent, whether revealed in Scripture or written on the heart. This we must know to obey, for where there is no knowledge of it there is no transgression. There are some who think that religion is a thing of emotion, and has nothing to do with the intellect, and herein those old systems, which so long swayed the spirits of men, were essentially defective. Christianity appeals to the whole man. Ignorance is not the mother of devotion, but of squalor and crime. Christ came that whosoever believed in Him should not “walk in darkness,” etc.

2. This knowledge must be clear and certain. A confused or contradictory or partial revelation would either bewilder us, drive us to despair, or paralyse our efforts. There must be a revelation

(1) Of God.

(a) In His nature, that we may avoid impiety in our worship.

(b) In His character, that we may grow up into His likeness.

(c) In His will, that we may neither cumber ourselves with needless restrictions, nor indulge in unworthy compromises.

(2) Of man.

(a) In His capacity, that we may know that we are not overtasked.

(b) In His fall, that we may taste the bitterness of the wormwood.

(c) In His helplessness that we may be humbled from our pride, and driven to rely on the succours of another.

(3) Of Christ, whose atonement is life from the dead.

(4) Of immortality that we may feel the importance of our stewardship.

3. God has provided for this knowledge in

(1) The Bible.

(2) The interpreting Spirit.

(3) A living ministry. Ignorance, therefore, is not misfortune but guilt.

II. OBEDIENCE, without which knowledge is an aggravation of transgression, and for the sake of which knowledge is given. This obedience

1. Is the essence of religion--“Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.”

2. Is a test of affection towards Christ. “If ye love Me keep My commandments.”

3. Is not meritorious, but simply dutiful.

4. Must have respect to the fixed rule of Divine law and the whole of it. We must not lower the standard of right either for fashion, affection, or persecution.

5. Must be whole-hearted. We must not pick and choose.

6. Must regard the spirit as well as the letter of the command.

7. Must have as its motive power not fear but love.

8. Must be constant; not strict on Sunday and lax during the week; not dependent on feelings or associations, but on principle.

9. Must endure to the end.

III. HAPPINESS. The result in which this knowledge and obedience will issue. The satisfaction

1. Of understood and discharged duty.

2. Of God’s consequent and manifested favour.

3. Of the hope of reward in heaven. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)

Knowing and doing

I. WE SHOULD STRIVE TO KNOW OUR DUTY.

1. What kind of knowledge?

(1) Clear and distinct (1 Peter 3:15).

(2) Scriptural (John 5:39; Isaiah 1:12).

(3) Effectual.

(4) Universal (Psalms 119:6).

(5) Growing (2 Peter 3:18).

2. What duties?

(1) Toward God.

(a) Repentance (Matthew 4:17).

(b) Faith (John 14:1).

(c) Love (Matthew 22:37).

(2) To man.

(a) Love (Matthew 5:44).

(b) Justice (Matthew 7:12; Matthew 22:21).

(c) Mercy (Luke 6:36).

(d) Humility (John 13:4-8).

3. Why should we know our duty.

(1) Because the law and gospel were both written for this end John 20:31).

(2) To know a duty is itself a duty commanded (1 Peter 3:18).

(3) We can perform no duty without we first know it (Romans 10:1).

4. Labour then to know your duty, Consider

(1) Ignorance is the cause of all error (Matthew 22:29).

(2) You have all means requisite for this knowledge in the Scriptures.

(3) It is then your own fault if you know not how to serve God (Hos 42:9).

(4) Hence you will be inexcusable at the day of judgment, and have greater condemnation (John 3:19).

II. WE SHOULD DO WHAT WE KNOW.

1. How should we perform all the commands of Christ?

(1) From such principles as Christ commands.

(a) Love (Galatians 5:6).

(b) A desire to please God (1 Thessalonians 4:1).

(2) In a right manner.

(a) Understandingly (1 Corinthians 14:15).

(b) Willingly (Psalms 110:3).

(c) Cheerfully (Romans 12:8; Psalms 40:8).

(d) Believingly (Romans 14:23; Hebrews 13:6).

(e) With all our might (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

(f) Humbly (James 4:6), so as never to think we can do enough Luke 17:10), nor merit anything (Galatians 2:16), but that our best duties are full of infirmities (Isaiah 64:6).

(3) To a right end

(a) Not for vain glory (Matthew 6:1) or temporal interest; but

(b) for God’s glory (Matthew 5:16; 1 Corinthians 10:31), and in order to our own salvation (1 Corinthians 9:27).

2. Why should we perform all the commands of Christ?

(1) This was His end in commanding them.

(2) The only way whereby to manifest ourselves to be His disciples (chap. 14:15).

(3) He deserves this after all He has done for us.

(4) Our baptism and subsequent vows pledge us to this.

III. THEY THAT DO GOD’S COMMANDS ARE HAPPY

1. In this life.

(1) We shall not fear the curses of the law (Malachi 2:2), nor the wrath of God (Psalms 7:11.

(2) Our consciences will be clear (2 Corinthians 1:12).

(3) Our souls will be kept in right order (Isaiah 57:20-21).

(4) We shall have the assistance and communion of the Holy Ghost John 16:7).

(5) God will be present with us (Isaiah 41:10; Isaiah 43:2).

(6) He will direct us (Proverbs 3:6; Psalms 25:12).

(7) Make all things work together for our good (Romans 8:28).

(8) Discover His special love to us and ours to Him (1 John 5:3), and that we are His children (John 1:12).

(9) Have a title to everlasting life (Matthew 19:16-17).

2. In the world to come.

(1) In our freedom from pain (Revelation 21:4), and sin Ephesians 5:27).

(2) In our company--saints, angels, God.

(3) In our employments--perfect service, perfect praise.

(4) In our privileges--admission to God’s presence, sight of His glory, fruition of desire.

(5) In our enjoyments.

(a) Perfection of soul and body (Philippians 3:21; Hebrews 12:23).

(b) The infinite love and favour of God.

(c) All the pleasures that our natures are capable of (Psalms 16:11; Psalms 17:15), forever (Matthew 25:46). (Bp. Beveridge.)

Knowing and doing

I. THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THOSE WHO KNOW.

II. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO KNOW AND DO.

III. THE CULPABILITY OF THOSE WHO KNOW AND DO NOT.

IV. THE DESTITUTION OF THOSE WHO KNOW NOT. (S. S. Times.)

The reciprocal relations and blessedness of knowing and doing

We must not think that we have then obtained to the right knowledge of the truth when we have broken through the outward shell of words and phrases that house it up; or when, by logical analysis, we have found out the dependencies and coherences of them one with another, or when, like stout champions of it, having well guarded it with the invincible strength of our demonstration, we dare stand out in the face of the world and challenge the field of all those who pretend to be our rivals. We have many grave and reverend idolaters that worship truth only in the image of their own wits; that could never adore it so much as they may seem to do, were it anything else but such a form of belief as their wandering speculations had at last met together in; were it not that they find their own image and superscription on it. There is a knowing of “the truth as it is in Jesus”--as it is in a Christ-like nature, as it is in that sweet, mild, humble, and loving spirit of Jesus, which spreads itself, like a morning sun, upon the souls of good men, full of light and life. There is an inward beauty, life and loveliness in Divine truth, which cannot be known but when it is digested into life and practice. (John Smith, M. A.)

Knowledge and practice necessary in religion

Two things make up religion, the knowledge and the practice of it; and the first is wholly in order to the second. God hath not revealed to us the knowledge of Himself and His will, merely for the improvement of our understanding, but for the bettering of our hearts and lives. Our Saviour, in the text, from a particular instance, settles this general conclusion.

I. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S WILL AND OUR DUTY IS NECESSARY, IN ORDER TO THE PRACTICE OF IT. Rome teaches that “ignorance is the mother of devotion,” and locks up from the people the great storehouse of Divine knowledge. In justification of this, it is pretended that knowledge is apt to puff men up, to make them disobedient, and heretical. For answer to this pretence, consider

1. That, unless this be the necessary effect of knowledge in religion, and of the free use of the Holy Scriptures, there is no force in this reason, for that which is useful ought not to be taken away, because it is liable to be abused. If it ought, then all knowledge ought to be suppressed; light, and liberty, and reason, yea, life itself ought to be taken away. But if the knowledge of religion is of its own nature pernicious, then the blame of all this would fall upon our Saviour for revealing, and upon His apostles for publishing, it in a known tongue to all mankind.

2. But this is only accidental and through men’s abuse of it, for which the thing itself ought not to be taken away. If any man abuse the Holy Scriptures he does it at his peril. We must not hinder men from being Christians, to preserve them from being heretics, and put out men’s eyes, for fear they should dispute their way with their guides. St. Paul (1 Corinthians 8:1) takes notice of this accidental inconvenience, but the remedy which he prescribes (1 Corinthians 14:1-40) is that the service of God be so performed as may be for the edification of the people; and that charity shall govern knowledge and help to make right use of it (1 Corinthians 14:20). There is nothing in the Christian religion, but what is fit for every man to know, for it is all designed to promote holiness. Men, therefore, ought not to be debarred of it.

3. The proper effects of ignorance are equally pernicious, and much more certain than those which are accidentally occasioned by knowledge; for so far as a man is ignorant of his duty, it is impossible he should do it. He that hath the knowledge of religion may be a bad Christian; but he that is destitute of it can be none at all (Proverbs 19:2). Because nothing is religious that is not a reasonable service, and no service can be reasonable that is not directed by our understanding. The end of prayers, e.g., is to testify of our own wants, and of our dependence upon God for supply; it is impossible, therefore, that any man should be said to pray who does not understand what he asks; and the saying over so many pater nosters by one that does not understand them is no more a prayer than the repeating over so many verses in Virgil. And if men must not be permitted to know so much as they can in religion, for fear they should grow troublesome, then the best way to maintain peace would be to let the people know nothing in religion, and to keep the priests as ignorant as the people, but then the mischief would be, that, out of a fondness to maintain peace in the Church, there would be no Church, nor no Christianity; which would be the same wise contrivance, as if a prince should destroy his subjects to keep his kingdom quiet.

4. If this reason be good, it is much stronger for withholding the Scriptures from the priests and the learned than from the people, for most of the famous heresies have their names from some learned man. The ancient fathers frequently prescribe to the people the constant and careful reading of the Scriptures as the surest antidote against the poison of dangerous errors. And if the word of God be so improper a means to this end, one would think that the teachings of men should be much less effectual; so that men must either be left in their ignorance, or they must be permitted to learn from the word of truth.

5. This danger was as great in the age of the apostles as now; and yet they took a quite contrary course.

II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR DUTY, AND THE PRACTICE OF IT, MAY, AND OFTEN ARE, SEPARATED. Our Saviour, elsewhere, supposes that many know their Master’s will, who do not do it; and He compares those that hear His sayings, and do them not, to a foolish man that built his house upon the sand. And St. James speaks of some who are “hearers of the word only, but not doers of it;” and for that reason fall short of happiness. There are three sorts of persons in whom the knowledge of religion is more remarkably separated from the practice of it.

1. The speculative Christian, who makes religion only a science, and studies it as a piece of learning. He hath no design to practise it, but he is loth to be ignorant of it, because the knowledge of it is a good ornament of conversation, and will serve for discourse and entertainment. And because he does not intend to practise it, he passeth over those things which are easy to be understood, and applies himself chiefly to the consideration of those which will afford matter of controversy. Of the same rank usually are the leaders of factions in religion, who, by endless disputes about things, commonly of no great moment, hinder themselves and others from minding the practice of the great and substantial duties of a good life.

2. The formal Christian, who takes up religion for a fashion. Such think they are very good Christians if they can give an account of the articles of their faith, profess their belief in God and Christ, and declare that they hope to be saved by Him, though they take no care to keep His commandments. These are they of whom our Saviour speaks in Luke 6:46.

3. Hypocritical Christians, who make an interest of religion, and serve some worldly design by it (2Ti 3:21.)

III. THE PRACTICE OF RELIGION IS THE ONLY WAY TO HAPPINESS.

1. The gospel makes the practice of religion a necessary condition of our happiness. Our Saviour, in His first sermon, where He repeats the promise of blessedness so often, makes no promise of it to the mere knowledge of religion, but to the habit and practice of Christian graces (Matthew 7:22-24; Romans 2:13; James 1:22-26; Hebrews 12:14).

2. As God hath made the practice of religion a necessary condition of our happiness, so the very nature and reason of the thing make it a necessary qualification for it. It is necessary that we become like to God, in order to the enjoyment of Him; and nothing makes us like to God but the practice of holiness and goodness (1 John 3:3). Conclusion:

1. The great end of all our knowledge in religion is to practice what we 1 John 2:8; 1 John 2:4).

2. Practice is the best way to increase and perfect our knowledge (John 7:17).

3. Without the practice of religion our knowledge is vain. (Abp. Tillotson.)

All light good

It is very sad to fail in duty from ignorance. And when that ignorance is very gross, the failure is generally so complete and so visible, that it is sure to meet with its appropriate punishment. The utter worthlessness into which men can sink who have never been taught any portion of the truth is a visible proof to us how much we owe to the light which has been shed over our own lives. Their condition clearly tells us what education does for us: what we gain from mere unassisted light. Mere light of intellect, without any direct consciousness of God or of Heaven, or of Christ, or of conscience, does a great and visible work. It sets a man free from many temptations, so that without making him, as far as we can see, at all a better man, it puts him in a better position. There are many gross sins which lose all their power over him, simply because other attractions are presented which are still more powerful. But this is not all, though this is much. Light of any kind invariably throws light upon duty, and if we know anything we are sure to have thereby a clearer knowledge of right from wrong. The mere awakening of the understanding must awaken the conscience in some degree. You cannot gain more intellectual power without also gaining moral light. Just as the coming of the daylight shows you the beauty of nature at the same moment that it shows you the position of surrounding objects, so, too, even the merest science must reveal in some slight degree the beauty of the Will of God. (Bishop Temple.)

Knowledge and obedience

I. KNOWLEDGE IS GOOD

1. In its nature.

2. In its contents.

3. It is an evil thing to be without it.

II. OBEDIENCE IS BETTER.

1. More rare.

2. More difficult.

3. Implies a better disposition of heart.

4. Produces far better effects.

III. HAPPINESS RESULTS FROM THEIR UNITED INFLUENCE. The real Christian is happy in

1. The real safety of his state.

2. In the approbation of conscience.

3. In the special favour of God.

4. In the earnest and hope of heaven.

Learn

1. The character of a true Christian.

2. The wise ordination of the gospel.

3. The necessity of the influence of the Holy Spirit. (T. Kidd.)

The comfort of duty

Rain falls on the Highland hills. Slipping down the bare sides, trickling along the roots of the heather, soaking through the bogs, past all obstacles, the waters make their way into the glen. They are not stopped there by the fallen trees, or the big boulders which impede their progress. On and on they traverse every barrier till they fall into the sea, out of which they came, and to which they ever tend. Thus, too, does comfort from doing that which duty demands meet with many an opposition, but it will surely sweep past them all, and shed into waiting hearts the consciousness that obligation fulfilled is associated with blessedness according to eternal law. (D. G. Watt, M. A.)

The blessedness of duty

Have you heard of that pious monk in the middle ages? He intensely desired to have one look at the Saviour’s bodily form, one gaze on His blessed and holy countenance. And one day as he was praying and meditating in his cell, “suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven,” and raising his eyes he beheld in the cloud of light one like unto the Son of God. But just as he was going to fix his eyes on the celestial vision, the monastery bell rang calling him to his duty. What did he do? Did he postpone his duties and stop to feast his soul on the sacred sight? No; the little monk immediately started to his feet, went out of his cell, took his turn at the outer gate, distributed charity to the necessitous that flocked to the monastery for much-needed help. Having completed his task, be returned to his apartment, sorry to think he had missed the vision for which he had been praying all his monastic life through. But, to his astonishment, there shone the Shekinah brighter than ever, and in the glowing radiance he beheld One, no longer like unto the Son of God, but “like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle,” and out of the ineffable Brightness came a voice, saying, “Hadst thou remained here to the neglect of duty I should have departed; but seeing thou preferrest duty to ease, come and see;” and thereupon He showed to the poor monk His hands and His feet. The conscientious Christian was filled with unspeakable delight, not unmixed with holy awe. You see the lesson: to taste the joy of religion you must perform its duties; to enter the inner court of sweet communion with God you must penetrate through the outer court of outward service. Through Judaism the world attained Christianity; and through duty shall we arrive at solid pleasure. (J. G. Jones, D. D.)

The secret of a happy life

I. HAPPINESS IS NOT ONLY A PRIVILEGE BUT A DUTY, because

1. It adorns religion. Christians are a book which everyone reads, and a happy face is a beautiful illustration in that book which is sure to attract the reader.

2. A happy mind is the cradle of all usefulness. Everyone does everything best when he is happy.

3. We are to be like God, and our God is a happy God.

4. We are rehearsing our eternity, and that is a happy heaven.

5. An unhappy man wrongs the Father,--for what father is not grieved if his child is not happy? He wrongs the Son--for what has not the Son done to make us happy? He wrongs the Holy Ghost, the “Spirit of joy?” So unhappiness is not so much a weakness to be pitied as a sin to be condemned and overcome?

II. WHAT, THEN, IS THE SECRET OF A HAPPY LIFE? To turn knowledge into practice, first to “know” and then to “do.” But then is not happiness the cause of a good life? Yes, the two act and re-act forever. I believe that Christ died for me, that my debt is paid, and I free. In that belief all happiness begins before I do a single work, and makes me do it? But then how is this consistent with our Lord’s words, “Know” what? “Do” what? I know that Christ has borne my punishment, and that I am saved. What I am to do with that knowledge is to turn it into faith. I have the knowledge of salvation through faith, and my believing it is the doing.

1. I come, then, to the first principle of a happy life, that sense of freedom which springs from a sense of pardon. A man may be called a happy man; he may be a merry man; but how can he be really happy with unforgiven sins, with dark retrospects, and awful visions of the future scaring him.

2. What Christ appears to have had specially in His mind here--love and humility. It is pride which stands in the way of most persons’ happiness. Personal pride--of beauty, or intellect, never getting what they expect from it, and therefore always mortified; pride of wealth and grandeur; spiritual pride. The man who has now chosen the lower ground will

(1) Always have Jesus at his side. He carries with him “the Light of Life.” Therefore he walks in the sunshine.

(2) Have a secret communion going on with God.

(3) And walking with frequent converse with Him, we gradually take something of the mind of God, our judgment unites itself to God’s judgment--our will to God’s will--without which there never can be a happy life. Until that, all life is a conflict between man and God.

(4) And so we arrive at a strange independence of this present world. We may have and enjoy human friendships; we are independent of them. And the trials and sorrows prove only evidences that we are the children of God; that our education is for home.

(5) And every true child of God has some work which he is doing for Him. And work for God is happiness. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The good practitioner

I. KNOWLEDGE ALONE IN THE MYSTERIES OF RELIGION WILL NOT MAKE A MAN HAPPY (Matthew 7:21; Luke 6:46). His knowledge might make a man admired, but not blessed. I would not disparage knowledge: knowledge is the pilot to guide us in our obedience; if zeal be not according to knowledge, it is will-worship, the setting up an altar to an unknown God. Knowledge is the elder sister, but here the elder must serve the younger: knowledge may put us into the way of happiness, but it is only practice brings us thither.

1. Knowledge alone doth not make a man better, therefore it cannot make him happy; it informs, not transforms: a man may receive the truth in the light of it, not in the love of it (2 Thessalonians 2:10 : Romans 2:20). Knowledge alone makes men monsters in religion; they are all head but no feet (Colossians 2:6). A man may have knowledge and be neglective of his duty; and have a clear head, and a foul heart, as the sun may shine on a dirty way.

2. Knowledge alone will not save, therefore it will not make a man happy. Hell is full of learned heads.

3. Knowledge alone makes a man’s case worse, therefore it cannot make him happy.

(1) It takes away all excuse and apology (John 15:22).

(2) It adds to a man’s torment (Luke 12:47). If a king cause his proclamation to be published, the subject knows it, but obeys not, this doth the more incense the king against him. Better be ignorant than knowingly disobedient.

4. Use. Get knowledge, but do not rest in it (Ecclesiastes 1:18). To know only to know is like one that knows certain countries by the map, and can discourse of them, but never travelled into them, nor tasted the sweet spices of those countries. So the gnostic in religion hath heard and read much of the beauty of holiness, but never travelled into religion, nor tasted how good the Lord is; what is it the better to have the Bible in our heads if not in our hearts? You do not call him an handicraftsman who doth not work in his trade: so it is improper to call him a Christian who hath knowledge, but no practice.

II. IT IS THE PRACTICAL PART OF RELIGION MAKES A MAN HAPPY.

1. There must be practice, because it is only that which answers God’s end in giving us His Word both written and preached (Leviticus 18:4; Deuteronomy 26:16). If you speak to your children, it is not only that they may know your mind, but do it. God gives us His Word not only as a picture to look upon, but as a copy to write after. The master gives his servant a candle, not to gaze on, but to work by; and so David calls the Word of God, not a lamp to his eyes, but a lantern to his feet.

2. It is only the practice of religion that makes a man happy. It appears by Scripture (James 1:25; Acts 7:22; Matthew 25:34-35; Revelation 22:12). By reason, happiness is not attainable but in the use of means; and the use of means implies practice (Philippians 2:12). There can be no crown without running, no recompense without diligence.

(1) If it be only the doing part of religion makes men happy, then it sharply reproves them who know much, yet do nothing. It is better to practice one truth than to know all. But why do so few come up to the practical part of religion? Surely it is

(a) For want of humility.

(b) Want of faith (Isaiah 53:1).

(c) The difficulty of it. It is easy to hear a truth, to make a profession of it; but to digest it into practice, men are loath to put themselves to too much trouble (Proverbs 19:15). But it costs many a sinner more labour in toiling about his lusts than it costs a saint in serving his God.

(d) The world comes between and hinders.

(2) It exhorts all to become practitioners in religion. Note the following:

(a) Obedience is an evidence of sincerity (John 10:25).

(b) Practice will both honour religion and propagate it.

(c) Thus we show our love to Christ (John 14:21).

(d) Without practice you will come short of them who have come short of heaven (Mark 6:20).

(e) What unspeakable comfort will obedience yield both in life and death.

(f) What is the end of all God’s administrations, promises, threatenings, but obedience (Deuteronomy 11:28).

(g) Consider what a sin disobedience is, against reason (1 Corinthians 10:22), against equity, against conscience (Malachi 1:6); against kindness, against nature, since every creature in its kind obeys God; against self-preservation (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8).

(h) The benefit of obedience (Psalms 19:11). So saith the text. If this argument will not prevail, what will?

(3) Some rules to help Christians in their obedience. Obedience must be

(a) Cordial (Deuteronomy 26:16; Romans 6:17). The heart is the seat of love, and it is love perfumes every duty. The heart makes service a free will offering, else it is but a tax.

(b) Extensive--it must reach to all God’s commandments (1 Kings 9:4; Luke 1:6).

(c) Believing (Hebrews 11:6; Romans 16:26).

(d) Constant (Revelation if. 26). Faith must lead the van, and perseverance must bring up the rear. (T. Watson.)

Religion essentially practical

The object of religion is conduct; and conduct is really, however men may overlay it with philosophical disquisitions, the simplest thing in the world as far as understanding is concerned: as regards doing, the hardest. Here is the difficulty--to do what we very well know ought to be done. This difficulty is great enough to satisfy the most voracious appetite for difficulties. It extends to rightness in the whole range of what we call conduct; in three-fourths, therefore, at the lowest computation, of human life. The only doubt is whether we ought not to make the range of conduct wider still, and say it is four-fifths of human life, or five-sixths. Now, certainly we need not go far about to prove that conduct is in a special manner the object of Bible religion Isaiah 1:16-17, Isaiah 56:1; Psalms 4:5; Psalms 97:10, Psalms 50:23; 2 Timothy 2:19). But instantly there will be raised the objection that this is morality and not religion which, some people suppose is identical with speculative theology. Religion, however, means simply either a binding to righteousness, or else a serious attention to righteousness and dwelling upon it; the antithesis between ethical and religious is thus quite a false one. Ethical means practical, it relates to conduct passing into habit or disposition. Religious also means practical, only in a still higher degree: if we follow the intention of human thought and language in the use of the word, it is ethics heightened, enkindled, lit up by feeling. The passage from religion to morality is when to morality is applied emotion. And the true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion. And this new elevation and inspiration of morality is well marked by the word “righteousness.” Conduct is the word of common life, morality of philosophical disquisition, righteousness of religion. (Matthew Arnold.)