The disciple is not above his Master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master
The disciple not above his master
This saying was already a proverb in the time of our Lord, or He made it a proverb by His frequent use of it Matthew 10:24-25; John 13:12-16; John 15:20).
On the occasion referred to by St. Luke, He uses it in its widest, its most general scope; for here He is speaking of any and every master, of any and every disciple. “No disciple,” He says, “while he remains a disciple, can reasonably expect to be wiser than his master, whoever his master may be.” On every other occasion our Lord limits the scope of the proverb by applying it to Himself and to the disciples who followed Him. Here it follows a parable with which it seems to many to have little connection, to some no connection at all although it is not easy to see how any attentive reader should have missed it. Surely the meaning of the entire passage, and its sequence of thought, are obvious enough. If a teacher be blind, if, that is, he lack intellectual or spiritual discernments, if he therefore frame partial and erroneous conclusions, what can be expected but that his disciples should fall into the very same errors, and fall into them all the more surely in proportion as they are faithful disciples? The disciple is not above his master; the learner is not wiser than the teacher. It is a question whether the disciple will ever rise to the level of his master. He will have done much if he do so much as that. From our Lord’s use of this proverb here we may infer some lessons of no small practical importance, and, in learning them, still further develop its meaning.
I. THE IMMENSE IMPORTANCE OF BOTH HAVING AND PRESENTING A TRUE AIM, A TRUE IDEAL, OF LIFE. What is our aim then? What should it be? The old catechism answer, rightly understood, is surely as good as any: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.” But it is of the last importance that we should set a single aim before us, and that the highest of which we are capable.
II. How HAPPY ARE WE, AND HOW GREATLY ASSISTED IN OUR PURSUIT OF IT, SHOULD THIS AIM, THIS ABSTRACT IDEAL, CLOTHE ITSELF IN FLESH AND BLOOD, AND STAND BEFORE US IN THE PERSON OF A MAN OF LIKE PASSIONS WITH OURSELVES! An embodied ideal, a realized and incarnate ideal, is worth a thousand pale abstractions. It is much to have a noble aim before us; but, oh, how much more to have it clothed in the loveliness of a perfect life. The lofty but abstract ideals of character which men have framed incarnate themselves, clothe themselves, with life and power and loveliness, in Christ, the Son of Man.
III. If it be important that we should have it for ourselves, it is also important that WE SHOULD PRESENT A TRUE IDEAL OF LIFE TO OTHERS. We may seek even the highest good selfishly; but, in proportion as we find it, we shall cease to be selfish: we shall seek to be good for the sake of others as well as for our own sake. Let us remember that if in any respect--national, commercial, intellectual, social, spiritual--we are above any of our neighbours, to them, without our permission being asked, we have become masters, i.e., teachers and examples. And therefore we should seek and strive for grace to set them a good example, that our influence may be stimulating and helpful to them. Above all, we should try so to follow Christ as that we may lead them to the Perfect Example, and make them disciples of the only Master who can never mislead them. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The force of example
This is true as an observation: men do grow up into the likeness of what they admire. It is seldom that any come quite up to it. Great philosophers, men of science, divines, soldiers, statesmen--these are taken as models, and each one has shaped the lives of many others. It is not always a conscious imitation. But we do grow like those we admire or love: even mere association shapes us. A man may be known by his associates. If he is not like them he soon will be. They are his masters in some degree, and he will be like them. We should take care, then, whom we imitate. In very many eases men forget to notice what was the end of those they admire. Statesmen have thought of Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, without considering their deaths, and the ruin they left behind them. Fame and power draw great men to seek them, and lead them into the ditch into which their masters fell before them. Our leaders are not generally people who have made a name in history, but some one not far off our own station in life, who has made himself a name, and “got on in the world.” It is a very good thing to have examples; we all want lifting, and want fresh thoughts to be given us. But before we give ourselves up to follow, we had better consider our masters as a whole. We may never come up to them, but we cannot hope to fare better than they. Are they exactly what we should like to be; did they end as we should like to end? Now, we find mostly some drawback, something we hope to avoid. We must remember that it began far back in their career. There is many a man of business who buys success at the cost of health and life, or of truth and honesty, Or of family and duty, or of eternity. If that is what he paid, he is no master for us to follow. There is nothing in the world that cannot be bought too dear. And of our masters in social life, pleasant companions, friends, clever fellows: look at them well--do we want to be like them? One and another of our old acquaintances are gone; what has become of them? Take the man who has gone farthest, and then you will see what the road leads to. If it leads to peace, and honour, and health--follow it. If it leads at last only to some filthy ditch--stop while you can. You say, “I can stop short”; do it then. It will not grow easier, it will cost you more every day. Many a man says, “I was a great fool to begin, but now I cannot help it.” It is always easiest to go downwards. It is not very difficult, if we deal honestly with ourselves, to see to what our mode of life has led, and we may feel sure we shall be no exception to the general law. But then there is another sense in which these same words were used; they are a comfort and support. We must not expect to be free from the losses, trials, difficulties, which have harassed those who went before us. No man ever grew without patient years of work. Our Lord told His disciples to look at Him, and not expect to be better treated. There has never been a time when there has been no undeserved ill-will. God does not make us perfect by always giving us what we wish for. Others have been tried, and where are they? Those who sought rest and pleasure, those who faced difficulty and kept right and truth--where are they? (John 16:33.) A good Christian is not known in the world by his good fortune, but by a hope that does not make ashamed. If we choose the highest model, even Christ, what must we expect? Troubles and difficulties enough, and after them-to be as our Master. Here, indeed, is a glorious future worth all the effort it costs. To be like God Himself in heaven! What other service can give such a reward as this? (Bishop E. Steere.)
The use of a great leader
During one of the campaigns in the American Civil War, when the winter weather was very severe, some of Stonewall Jackson’s men having crawled out in the morning from their snowladen blankets, half-frozen, began to curse him as the cause of their sufferings. He lay close by under a tree, also snowed under, and heard all this: but without noticing it, presently crawled out too, and, shaking off the snow, made some jocular remark to the nearest men, who had no idea he had ridden up in the night and lain down amongst them I The incident ran through the army in a few hours, and reconciled his followers to all the hardships of the expedition, and fully re-established his popularity. (Mackay.)
Perfect as the Master
The explanation of this verse seems to turn upon the word translated “perfect,” a word entirely different from that which is so translated in other passages, e.g., Matthew 5:48. The meaning is this: complete in discipline, finished or perfect in the sense in which we should speak of a piece of workmanship as perfect, when it has received the last touch of the workman’s hand. [R. V., “every one when he is perfected.”] So that when our Lord speaks of a man who is “perfect” being like his master, He means to describe the condition of a person who has received from his master, whoever that master may be, all the teaching and discipline which the master can give him, and He asserts that all that can be expected from such a finished disciple is that he shall be equal to his master; his master cannot raise him above himself; his master’s acquirements are (as it were), the limit towards which the growth of the disciple tends. If this be the meaning of our Lord’s words, we find in them an important warning not to His apostles only but to all teachers. The words show the necessity of those who would teach others growing in grace themselves; they must not expect that they can be worldly-minded and their disciples spiritual, that they can serve Mammon and their disciples serve God; and conversely, they may expect that as they grow more in the knowledge of their God and Saviour, their own growth in knowledge will reflect itself in their disciples, and tend to raise them to that point of spiritual life to which they themselves have already attained. (Bishop H. Goodwin.)