For he that hath, to him shall be given.
The law of increase
The good use of knowledge and grace draws down more: the ill use leads to blindness and hardness of heart. The one is an effect of grace itself; the other, an effect of a depraved will. A faithful soul has a great treasure. The riches which it heaps up have scarce any bounds, because it puts none to its fidelity. A base and slothful soul grows poorer every day, until it is stripped of all. Who can tell the prodigious stock which is acquired by an evangelical labourer, a zealous missionary, who crosses the seas on purpose to seek souls whom he may convert, and is intent on nothing but the salvation of sinners! The greater his grace is, the more it increases by labour. O how happy and holy is this usury of a faithful soul! (Quesnel.)
“Having” helps the “getting”
Having one language helps the gaining of another. Having mathematics helps the getting of science. Capital tends to gather more wealth. “Nothing succeeds like success.” One victory leads the way to another. The knowledge of one truth ever opens the mind for perception of another. Grace to do one good act opens the heart to admit grace to do another. If but a beginning is made, it is an immense assistance to attainment. If converted, do not undervalue the infinite importance of the beginning thus made. But remember, at the same time, that none can keep grace except on the condition that he employs it. Whatever knowledge of truth, whatever feeling, whatever power of obedience you possess, you will lose unless you employ it. (R. Glover.)
The duty of faithfully hearing the Word of God
What ye hear heed. Not without purpose our Lord spoke of hearing. All success on the part of the teacher depends upon attention on the part of the hearer. Though Noah, Moses, Paul, or even Jesus speak, no benefit to careless hearer. Whoso has a great truth to impart has a right to claim a hearing-how much more He who is the Truth. Consider-
I. The especial evils against which men must guard in hearing the Word are three:-
1. Losing the Word before faith has made it fruitful (Luke 8:11). The peril is, it may be lost before it is fruitful. It may be taken out of the heart.
2. A merely temporary faith.
3. Fruitlessness of Word through cares, deceit of riches, lust of other things (Mark 4:18-19; Luke 8:14).
II. The reward of faithful hearing (Mark 4:20-25; Luke 8:15). The lot of the seed describes the lot of him who receives it. “Let him that hath”-as the fruit of his using-this his own increase; “shall more be given”-this the Lord’s increase (cf. parable of talents). Every attainment of truth a condition of meetness to gain other and deeper truth. So in all study and acquisition. Truth grows to its perfection in the “good” “honest.”
III. Condemnation of him who heareth not to profit. “Him that hath not”-hath nothing more than was first given to him. From him shall even that be taken. Anyone can “have” what is given; only the diligent have more.
1. The condemnation assumes the form of a removal of truth (Matthew 13:13-15). It is naturally forgotten by him who does not use his understanding upon it. Disregarded truth (and duty) becomes disliked truth.
2. In carelessness he puts it away from him. His measure is small; he metes it to himself. The eye not trained to see beauties and harmonies of form fails to see them: so the ear music, and the hand skilfulness.
3. To hear is a duty; to neglect duty brings God’s condemnation.
4. He who does not receive the kingdom of heaven is ipso facto in the kingdom of evil. Continued departures from truth and duty leave the man farther from God, truth, heaven.
5. All truth is in parables. History the parable of Providence. Ordinances the parables of grace. The attentive see not only the parable, but the “things” also; the inattentive see only the parable, not the things (John 10:6).
6. Even Christ and His work and His gospel may be mere parables, outward things. Men seeing see not, their hearts being gross, their ears dull of hearing, and their eyes closed.
We see-
1. The terrible and to be dreaded consequence of not heeding the Word: it becomes a parable, a dark saying, a riddle.
2. But the mercifulness of Him who would hide truth in a beautiful parable, to tempt if possible the careless to inquire, that they may be saved. (Studies.)
The law and the gospel
The tendency of gifts, powers, possessions to accumulate in some hands and dwindle in others is a common fact of observation. And it often appears, too, that when accumulation begins it goes on by a momentum of its own; that the farther it goes the faster it goes; and on the other hand that losses follow the same law; disaster breeds disaster, and misfortune multiplies by a geometrical law.
I. We see the workings of this law in the conditions of our physical lives. Health and vigour have a tendency to increase. The food we eat builds up the body; active exercise confirms its strength; the cold increases its power of endurance; the summer heat nourishes its vitality. Nature brings constant revenues to the healthy man; all things work together for his good. On the other hand disease and physical feebleness have a tendency to increase. The food that ought to nourish the system irritates and oppresses it; exertion brings to the body fatigue and enervation; cold benumbs it; heat debilitates it; nature seems to be the foe of feebleness; all things work together to prevent the recovery of health when once it is lost; often it is only by the greatest vigilance and patience that it can be regained.
II. The law that we are considering is fulfilled in the facts of the social order. The man who has station or influence or wealth or reputation finds the current flowing in his favour; the man who has none of these things soon learns that he must stem the current. Popularity always follows this law. It is often remarkable how small a saying will awaken the enthusiasm of the crowd when spoken by a man who is a recognized favourite: and how many great and wise utterances fail of producing any effect whatever when he who speaks them is comparatively unknown. It is almost impossible for one who has gained the reputation of being a wit to say anything at which his auditory will not laugh. His most sober and commonplace speeches will often be greeted as great witticisms. On the other hand the purest wit and the choicest humour, if it happen to fall from the lips of a plain, matter-of-fact individual, will often be received with funereal gravity by all who hear it. Men are apt to bestow their help as well as their applause most freely on those who need it least. Those who have gifts to bestow often give them to those who do not want them, passing by those who are suffering for the lack of them. “The destruction of the poor,” the wise man says, “is his poverty.” Because he is poor he cannot get the credit, the privilege, the favour that he could get if he were rich. The narrowness of his resources cramps him. The church that has the rich people is likely to attract the rich people; the weak churches are often left to their own destruction, while those that are strong financially are strengthened by constant accessions. What is this law that we are studying? It is nothing else than what some philosophers call the law of natural selection-the law of the survival of the fittest; that is, in most cases, the strongest. When a tree is cut down in the forest a number of sprouts frequently spring up from the stump, and these grow together for a while until they begin to crowd one another. There is not room for a dozen trees on the ground where one tree stood; there is only room for one. But it is generally the case that one of these shoots growing from the root of the old tree is a little larger than the rest, and this one gradually overshadows the rest, takes from the air and the light more nourishment than they can get-takes that which belongs to them, so that they dwindle and die beneath its shadow while its roots reach out for a firmer footing in the soil and its branches stretch forth with loftier pride and ampler shade. Nature selects the strongest shoot for preservation, and destroys the others that it may live. We know that man adopts this method of selection in all his agricultural operations; in the cornfield and in the fruit nursery it is the likeliest growths that are chosen and cultivated; the others are weeded out to make room for them. But some of you are asking, “Is this law of natural selection God’s law?” To this question there is but one answer. If the law of natural selection is the law of nature, then it is God’s law. This law of natural selection is a natural law, and not a moral law. We speak of it as a law in the sense in which we speak of the law of heredity, or the law of gravitation, or the law of supply and demand. This law is announced by Christ but it is not enjoined by Him. “This,” He says, “is the way things are: this is the course things uniformly take.” This law of natural selection is a law of nature, ordained by God. It is the law under which rewards and penalties are administered; it is a retributive law, for the sanctions of the moral law are found in the natural order. But some of you are protesting that this cannot be true. “How is it,” you ask, “that the natural law of the survival of the strongest tends to the rewarding of the good or the punishing of the bad? By this law it is the strong, rather than the good that are rewarded. It is to those that have, rather than to those that deserve, that abundance is given.” True; but this is only an illustration of the fact that a dispensation of law always works hardship. Law makes nothing perfect; it hurts some that need help and it helps some that do not deserve it. Law must be uniform and inflexible; it cannot adapt itself to differing conditions and abilities. Gravitation is a good law, but it kills thousands of innocent people every year. Yet it would not do to have it less uniform and inflexible than it is. The universe is built on the basis of universal righteousness and health: its laws are all adapted to that condition of things, and they ought to be. If all men were good and wise and strong, then this law would only tend to increase the virtue and the wisdom and the vigour of all men. It would be seen, then, that this is a good law. But sin has entered to enfeeble and deprave many, and the result is that the law which ought to be a savour of life unto life to them becomes a savour of death unto death. The same forces that ought to build them up tend to destroy them. So it often is that when the law enters offences abound, and hardships are suffered; under its severe and inflexible rule more is given to those who have abundance already, while those who have but little are stripped of what they have. Thus we see that the natural law, which is the instrument of retribution, inflicts suffering and loss not only upon the sinful, but upon the weak, the unfortunate, the helpless; upon those who have fallen behind in the race of life. That is the way the law works. But remember also that there is something better and diviner then law in the tidings that He has brought us. What the law could not do He came to do. It was for the deliverance and the relief of those who are being pushed to the wall by the operation of these retributive forces that He came. His life proves this. He did not fall into that social order that we have seen prevailing. He did not bestow His praise upon the famous, nor His friendship on the popular, nor His benefactions on the rich. His words of applause greeted the saints who in obscurity tried to live virtuously; He was the Friend of publicans and sinners; He was the constant helper of the poor. It was not to those who had abundance that He gave, but to those who had nothing. “They that be whole,” He says, “need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Nature is against them; their own natures are infirm and corrupt; their appetites entice them; their selfish desires mislead them; but He assures them that by faith in Him they may be made partakers of the Divine nature, and thus be reinforced and invigorated for conflict with the evil. And, mark you, in doing all this He does not destroy but fulfils the law. And what Christ does is to give the real good of life, the moral strength and soundness which are the source of all life’s real good, to those who have nothing-who are so reduced in moral vigour that they are practically destitute; to restore to them that which they have lost, so that they shall have; and then this law is a minister of good to them as God meant it to be to all. Here is a vine that has fallen from its trellis, and that is being choked by the weeds that have overgrown it, as it lies prostrate on the earth. The law of nature, the law of vegetable growth, is only operating to destroy it so long as it remains in this condition; for the sun and the showers nourish the weeds, and they overshadow the vine more and more, preventing its growth, and drawing away the strength from the soil. But the gardener lifts up the vine and fastens it to the trellis, and pulls up the weeds that are stealing its nutriment, and than the laws of nature promote the growth of the vine; the same laws under which its life was being destroyed now configure its life and increase its growth. Some such service as this Christ renders to all those who are morally weak and helpless; by the communication to them of His own life He lifts them out of their helplessness into a condition in which all things that were working together against them shall work together for their good. It will be well for us all to remember that if we are Christians, we are co-workers with Christ, and that our business, therefore, is not to add force to the law whose severities bear so heavily upon many of our fellow men, but to counteract the severities of the law by ministries of sympathy and tenderness and help. (W. Gladden.)
Addition easy
And it is always easier to get the addition than it was to get the unit. When the current is fairly turned in our direction, the stream keeps running. It has been said that it is harder for a man to get his first thousand dollars, than any subsequent thousand. The more wealth a man has, the easier it is for him to increase it. So of knowledge; so of influence; so of affection. So also of spiritual gifts.