NO. 3391
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 29TH, 1914.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.” — 1 Corinthians 11:28.
“Let a Man examine himself.” That is, any man every man who intends to eat of that bread and drink of that cup. The word is indefinite that it may be understood to be universal. No man is to come to that table, no woman is to draw near, without the previous self-examination. No age will excuse us, for there have been aged hypocrites, as well as young deceivers. No office will exonerate us from this examination, for there was a Judas even among the apostles. The highest degree in the Church of God may consist with the most rotten formality. We are to examine ourselves each time we come. Each man is to do so. No one is to shirk the personal duty. Everyone is to undertake it as in the sight of God. Brethren and sisters, you members of the church, about to come around this table, give ye heed to the mandate of the Holy Ghost, by the inspired apostle, “Let each one here examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread.”
“Let a man examine himself.” The word is forcible. Let him make inquisition into his own soul, as to whether all be right or not. Let him search diligently, tracing out every symptom that looks unfavourable, if perhaps that symptom may reveal the truth. Let him dwell upon every dark side or ill-looking spot, if peradventure those dark signs should mean more than is apparent on the surface. We are not to trifle with ourselves by making a superficial survey. Let a man examine himself as doth the dealer in precious metals when he thrusts the ore into the fire, knowing that only the gold will come out, while the dross will be consumed. Put yourself into a crucible. Heat the furnace of examination seven times hotter than its wont, for since your heart will, if possible, escape from knowing the truth, be resolved that it shall know it, and the worst of it, too. Let a man review test, prove, search, try. In all the strongest words that I could find that mean the fullest scrutiny would I put the language of the apostle, “Let a man examine himself.”
“Let a man examine himself.” He need not be so particular to examine those that surround him. If there should be unworthy communicants at the table, his communing will not thereby be damaged. Though some may have intruded where they ought not to be, yet if your heart and mind shall come near to Christ in actual fellowship, we shall not have the less indulgence from our Lord because a Judas happened to be there. “Let a man examine himself.” Let it be personal work. I know there is an examination through which the church-member among us passes, when such as are experienced in the faith ask, “What knowest thou of these things? What is thy faith touching this and that? Hast thou believed? Hast thou repented?” Such an examination, however, must never content you. I pray you never feel that it is any certificate of genuine discipleship to have been seen by the elders, or to have had the pastor satisfied of your conversion. We are poor fallible creatures; we cannot profess to search the heart; nay, we never did profess it. It is but your outward life, and your profession, that we are called upon to judge at all You must not go by our examination, but “Let a man examine himself.” You are to look into your own heart, with your own eyes only and ask to have them enlightened by the Holy Spirit. You are to hold the balance yourselves, and weigh your soul therein. You are not to be satisfied with a second-hand judgment, or with another man’s search. Take the candle yourself, man. Go through every corner and every crevice. Sweep out the old leaven, and so keep the feast in simplicity of heart. “Let a man examine himself.”
“And so,” saith the apostle, “let him eat of that bread.” That is to say, the examination is to be seasonable. It is to come always at the time of the eating of the bread and the drinking off the wine. It should always be the prelude to communion. Examination should preface enjoyment. You should see whether you ought to be there, and have a right to be there, and that ascertained, then you should come but not till then. Is it not a very significant circumstance that the very first time our Lord took the bread and break it, and instituted this Supper, there was at that very time a self-examination going on, and they then made an appeal to the Lord himself at the conclusion, for each one said, when the question was asked as to who it was that should betray him, “Lord, is it I?” “Lord, is it I?” — not at all an unsuitable question to be passed round to-night, when we shall break bread, and hear it said, “One of you will betray me.” Ah! brethren, I fear there are many more than one here among professors who will betray him. Perhaps there be scores, if not hundreds, among so large a mass of professing Christians who will not prove, after all, to be genuine. Then let the question, though it stir the anguish of your souls, pass round among you, “Lord, is it I?” “Lord, is it I?” nor let any man eat of this bread, or drink of this cup, till he hath humbly in his soul sought to put it to his conscience, that he may investigate this matter whether he is Christ’s or not.
Now, dear brethren, for a few minutes only, we shall look at the matter about which we are to examine ourselves; and then we shall press upon you this examination, by giving you a few reasons for it. May God grant us a blessing in this searching business.
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I. Concerning What We Are To Examine.
You will observe that the text does not tell us, “Let a man examine himself as to this or that particular, and so let him eat.” He is to examine himself; but the apostle does not say about what. The inference is that he is to examine himself about this Supper; he is to examine himself as to whether he has a right to eat of this bread and to drink of this wine. The Supper gives us the clue, then, as to what we are to examine ourselves upon. I shall see before me presently broken bread and the wine cup filled with the red wine. These two things are the emblems — the bread of the body of Christ, which was bruised and made to suffer for our sake — the wine of that precious blood of Christ by which sin is pardoned and souls are redeemed.
I have no right to touch these emblems unless in my soul I believe the facts that they represent. Shall I not begin to question myself then? Do I accept as a certain fact that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us? Do I believe that God descended from the highest throne of glory, and became a man of woman born? Do I believe that he suffered in human flesh, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God? Do I believe that in his blood, which was “shed for many,” there is a virtue for the putting away of sin and making atonement to Almighty God, and that so sinners may be accepted in the beloved? Unless I believe these things I am clearly a hypocrite, a terrible hypocrite, if I dare to come to this table at all I am perverse among the perverse to thrust myself in to touch the emblems when I do not accept the facts which those emblems set forth. Now, every man here can easily examine himself by that test, but I hope the most of us here would say, “We do believe those facts.” Yes, but do you believe them as facts that are forcible in themselves and fraught with consequences? Do you apprehend them in their amazing weight and their stupendous bearing upon the judgment of God and the destiny of men. God made flesh — God incarnate — Jesus, Immanuel suffering to put away the sins of his people — The Christ of God presenting salvation to every soul that trusteth in him! Why, this is news such as never stirred even Paradise itself before. It is the best and highest, and most wondrous news that angels ever heard. We ought so to hear and so to accept these facts in that same spirit that characterized them when they transpired, in order duly to discern their importance, or we have no right to come here.
Furthermore, brethren. Every man who eats of the bread and drinks of the wine sets forth in emblem by the eating of the bread that the flesh of Christ is his, and by the drinking of the wine that the blood of Christ is his. Because he has possession of these things, he, therefore, comes to eat as men eat their own bread, or to drink as men drink their own wine. Now, dear hearer, the question asked of thee is this — Hast thou an interest in the body and the blood of Christ? “How can I know my interest therein,” saith one? Thou mayest know it thus — Dost thou fully and alone rely upon Jesus Christ for thy salvation? Dost thou implicitly trust the merits of his agonies? Dost thou, without any other confidence, cast thyself fully upon the great atoning sacrifice and transactions of Calvary? If so, that faith gives thee Christ; it is the evidence that Christ is thine; thou needest not be afraid to come and take the wine when thou so manifestly hast the thing that is signified thereby. Thou mayest come; thou art invited to come; thou canst not stay away without sin if Christ indeed be thine.
The question may assume another form. This Supper was instituted that we might remember Christ in it. Query, then, for each one — Can you remember Christ? Will coming here help you to remember Jesus Christ? If not, you must not come. But, how can you remember what you do not know, and how shall you remember at all aright, one in whom you have no part nor lot? To remember Christ as a mere personage in history is of no more use than to remember Julius C3/4sar or Napoleon Buonaparte. To remember Christ, who loved you and gave himself for you — this is the choice remembrance that will be beneficial to your spirits. Beloved, I am quite certain that sometimes in what is called the Sacrament there is little or no recollection of Christ. Men and women come to it with no idea of remembering him. They think that there is something in the thing itself; some holiness in eating the bread and drinking the wine; some grace bestowed by the priestly hands that administer the emblems of the Passion. But oh! it is not so. This is not to receive the Lord’s Supper; this is but Popish idolatry; this is not the true worship of the child of God. You come to the table to remember him, and only so far as those signs help you to remember him; to trust him, to love him, only so far do they become a means of grace to you. There is no latent moral virtue in material substances; no regeneration lurks in water; no confirmation in grace streams from prelatic hands. There is no sanctity in lawn sleeves; there is no holiness in bread, and nothing devout in wine. These are just outward and visible signs. The holiness, the sanctity, the grace, must lie in your own hearts as you lovingly receive these symbols, and draw nigh with true spirits to the Lord, who bought you with his blood. Ask yourselves, then — do you remember him? Would these things help you to remember him? If not, you have no business here.
It may be that some child of God here to-night is not fit to come to the table. You may be startled, perhaps, at that remark, but I venture to suppose such a thing possible, and if it should happen to turn out to be the case, I pray that brother or sister to take the admonition home. Is there any brother whom you have offended, whose forgiveness you have not sought, or is there anyone who has offended you, to whom you have not rendered forgiveness? I do think that what our Lord said about coming to the altar, and leaving the gift before the altar until first we have been reconciled to our brother — though this is no altar at all — may be with all righteousness supposed concerning this table. How canst thou expect fellowship with Christ with an unforgiving heart? How canst thou love God, whom thou hast not seen, if thou dost not love thy brother, whom thou hast seen? If it be so hard for you to forgive, how hard will it be for you to be forgiven? An unforgiving spirit shuts you out of heaven. Why, man, you cannot even perform the lowliest act; you cannot pray; you cannot say, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us”; and if you cannot pray, much less can you commune. Oh! see to that, and let each man examine himself upon that.
In pressing this subject upon you, may I be permitted to say, very earnestly, that the right way to examine ourselves before coming to this table is by the rule which is laid down in Scripture. Examine yourselves by the tests and proofs of the Spirit which are spoken of in God’s Word. Just as you would examine another, impartially: —
“Nothing extenuate,
Nor aught set down in malice,”
so must you examine yourselves. Alas! we have one rule for others and another rule for ourselves. How mistakenly quick-sighted are we to discover the imperfections and infirmities of others of God’s people, while our own glaring sins scarcely give our conscience twinge. We go about with great beams in our eyes, all the while wondering why our brethren cannot see the mote that is in theirs. Judge yourselves, judge yourselves, and let the severity of your judgment upon your fellow-Christians be now turned upon yourselves; it will be much more to your profit, and much more according to the rules of Christian charity. God grant we may none of us be afraid of the strictest rules of Scripture in their sternest form. Alas! brethren, we often stop short in our examinations just when they might be of use to us, like the patient who tears off the plaister just when it begins to work, or ceases to receive the medicine precisely when it has reached a point in which it would be useful to him. Press home, press home, the grave questions and anxieties that lurk within you. Never be afraid to be probed to the quick, and to be cut to the core. Make no provision for self-deception. Ask the Lord to lay bare your hearts, right bare, before his omniscient eye; and as you are thus examining do not flinch, do not mince matters; do not trifle, do not be, partial, but judge yourselves truly and thoroughly, lest, after all, you should be mistaken; and lest, after coming to this table, you should be banished from the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
Thus much upon the points which are in debate, about which we are to examine our fitness to come to this table. Suffer me now, as best I can: —
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II. To Press This Very Important Subject Upon You, With Some Reasons Why There Should Be Such A Self-Examination.
I might say, brethren, that such an examination should be used because self-knowledge is always valuable. The old Greeks, whose wonderful sayings often verged upon inspiration, used to say, “Man, know thyself!” It is ill for a man to be acquainted with foreign countries, and to know nothing of his own, to understand other men’s farms, and to let his own run to waste; to be conversant with other men’s health, and to be dying of a secret disease himself; to study other men’s characters, but to suffer his own character to be obnoxious in the sight of God. Know yourselves. Nothing will pay you better than to search your own hearts, and to know yourselves. Of all stocktaking, this is one of the most beneficial. It will often be the death of pride when a man finds out what, he really is. Self-righteousness will fly before such a searching, as owls fly before the rising sun. Know yourself, and you are on the road to knowing Christ, for the knowledge of self will humble you, will make you feel your need of Jesus; and may, in the hands of God the Holy Spirit, lead you to the finding of the Savior. Oh! men and women, how is it that you have so many acquaintances, such a large circle of friends, and yet do not make acquaintance with yourselves? while you will read much of literature, you read not your own hearts; you commune with others, yet you commune not with yourselves, and do not know yourselves. I pray you examine yourselves, if for nothing else because such lore is among the most precious that a man can gain.
Examine yourselves, again, you professed Christians, because it is a marvellously easy thing for us to be deceived, and to continue to be deceived. Of course, every man likes to be flattered. Whether he believes it is so or not, this is a universal truth, and any man — I care not who he may be — is very easily to be persuaded that all is right with him. Satan, too, will help your natural tendencies, your partiality to yourselves. He only wishes to lull you to sleep, and to rock you in the cradle of delusion. All things around a man conspire to help him to delude himself. The notion of grace which is commonly entertained, the popularity of religion, the ease with which a man can join a church, the littleness of persecution in these days — all these things help to make it a very easy passage by which a man may glide along, until even when he dies he may still believe that he is on the road to heaven, while all the while he has been going post-haste to hell. Oh! since it is so easy to be deceived, and it is your soul that is in jeopardy, I beseech you examine yourselves.
Besides, my dear friends, you know how some are deceived. Charge your memories a minute. Do you not know some among your own acquaintance that are deceived? Ah! you readily remember them! But do you know that there were persons sitting in other parts of the Tabernacle who were thinking of you while you were thinking of them! You said of such a one, “Ah! I have watched her at home; I know that noisy tongue of her’s; she is no Christian.” And that very woman was just whispering to herself, “Ah! I know him; I have traded at his shop; I know those short weights of his; he is no Christian.” Ah! you do not want God to condemn you; if you were only allowed to speak, you would condemn yourselves. But if such be the case, that we so readily can find out that others are deceived, is not the question one that is worth the asking, “May we not be deceived ourselves?” Oh! let it come home. May not the preacher be deceived? May not elders and deacons, who have been in honor these many years, be, nevertheless, rotten at heart? May not members of this church, who have been at this table from the very beginning, almost from their childhood, have, after all, had but a superficial godliness that will not stand the fire that shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is? Therefore, I beseech you, since many are deceived, examine yourselves, and so come to this table.
Further, remember that it is important for professing Christians to do this beyond all others, because, perhaps, there is no greater bar to the reception of grace in all this world than the belief that you have grace already. It were a mercy if some here present had never joined the church. Sad that I should say it, but it is so. It were a mercy to themselves that they had never professed to be Christians, because now, if we preach repentance, they say, “I repented years ago”; if we talk of faith in the Savior, they say, “I have faith; I joined the church, and avowed my faith”; if we speak of Christian knowledge — they have Christian knowledge — though it is the knowledge that puffeth up. They have the imitation of all the graces, and, as it is sometimes very difficult to know which is the real gem and which is the paste gem that imitates it, so these people live so much like Christians, in many respects, that it is hard even for themselves to discover that they are not rich and increased in goods, but are naked, and poor, and miserable. If I were out of Christ, I would wish to be out of the church. If I had no faith in him, would that I had no profession of him! If there is any soul in any place that is least likely to be saved, it is an unregenerate soul inside the church, participating in Christian ordinances, and dead while it liveth. Search yourselves, then on this account.
And let me add another solemn word. Search yourselves because within a short time, at the very longest, you will be upon the bed of death, and there, if not before, there will be deep searchings of heart. When the outward man decayeth, and the flesh is melting away, you will want something more than profession to lean on. Sacraments, and going to places of worship will prove but poor things to bear you up in the midst of the billows of death. How must a man feel when he puts out on that dread sea with his life-belt, and finds it will not bear his weight; when he leaps into his lifeboat that he had hoped would hear him safely to the haven, and finds that every timber is strained, and that it leaks, and he sinks into the flood. Oh! find out your mistakes while yet there is time to rectify them! I conjure you by the living God, whose face of fire you shall soon see, prepare yourselves for his judgment, as well as for the judgment of your own conscience in the hour of death, for every man must be weighed in the balance. No mere pretender shall pass the gates of bliss. Destitute of faith, it matters not how bright your profession, you shall be banished from his presence. If it is not grace-work and heart-work you may have eaten or drunk in his presence, and he may have taught in your streets, he will never know you. If you have never confessed your sins in secret to the great High Priest, if you have never laid your hand upon that precious head that bore the sin of his elect, if you have never seen in solemn transfer your iniquities passed over to him, and if your faith has never recognized that transaction and rejoiced in it, oh! beware, beware, beware, for in the last tremendous day your professions shall be but a painted pageantry for you to go to hell in — aye, worse than that, among the faggots of your burning that shall flash most furiously with devouring fire, will be the faggots of your base profession, your bastard godliness, your counterfeit graces, your glitter that was not golden, your profession that was not based upon possession.
Oh! dear brethren for these reasons let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread.
But now, supposing this to be all done, and we have come to this answer, “I am not in Christ; I am not a Christian; I have not believed.” Then, away, away, away from this table! But whither shall I send thee? I will send thee to the cross. Though thou mayest not come to the table, thou mayest come to Jesus.
But suppose thy answer should be, “I am very unworthy and sinful, but still I have believed in Jesus, though I yet see much in myself that is evil.” Dear brethren, that is not the question. Preparation for the Lord’s Supper does not lie in perfect sanctification, but in true faith in Jesus. If, then, thou hast made sure of this, have done with the examination — I mean for tonight — because after thou hast examined thyself, it does not then say, “Keep on,” but “So let him eat,” and I do not like that examination to stick in the throat so that you cannot digest the dainty morsels of the Savior’s precious body. It is done; you have examined, and you know him; you have believed in him, and trusted that he is able to keep you. Now, then, take care that you eat, I mean not merely eat with the mouth and drink with the throat, but now take care to pray that you may have real fellowship with the Incarnate God, gratefully magnifying the grace that has made you to differ, and cheerfully accepting the precious Person who is the ground of your reliance, of the life of your soul.
God grant you now, having passed the door and shown your entrance ticket as true Christians, to sit and eat bread in the Kingdom of God!
EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON.
MATTHEW 6:1-24. 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-16.
Verse 1. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
The motive which leads a man to give, will form the true estimate of what he does. If he gives to be seen of men then when he is seen of men he has the reward he sought for, and he will never have any other. Let us never do our alms before men, to be seen of them.
2-5. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
I have heard very great commendation give to certain Easterns, because at the hour of the rising of the sun, or the hour when the sound is heard from the summit of the mosque, wherever they may be, they put themselves in the posture of prayer. God forbid I should rob them of any credit they deserve, but far be it from us ever to imitate them. We are not to be ashamed of our prayers, but they are not things for the public street. They are intended for God’s eye, and God’s ear.
6, 7, But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou hast. shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking.
It is not very easy to repeat the same words often without it becoming a vain repetition. A repetition, however, is not forbidden, but a “vain” repetition. And how greatly do they err who measure prayers by the yard. They think they have prayed so much because they have prayed so long, whereas it is the work of the heart — the true pouring out of the desire before God — that is the thing to be looked at. Quality not quantity: truth, not length. Oftentimes the shortest prayers have the most prayer in them.
8, 9. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what thing. ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye:
And then he gives us a model of prayer, which never can be excelled, containing all the parts of devotion. They do well who model their prayers upon this.
9-13 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Our Savior now makes a remark upon this prayer, and on one particular part of it which has stumbled a great many.
14, 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
There are some who have altered this, and pray in this fashion, “Forgive us our debts as we desire to forgive our debtors.” It will not do. You will have to desire God to forgive you, and desire in vain, if you pray in that fashion. It must come to this point of literal immediate, completed forgiveness of every offense committed against you if you expect God to forgive you. There is no wriggling out of it. The man who refuses to forgive, refuses to be forgiven. God grant that we may, none of us, tolerate malice in our hearts. Anger glances in the bosom of wise men: it only burns in the heart of the foolish. May we quench it, and feel that we do freely, and fully, and heartily forgive, knowing that we are forgiven.
16. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Simpletons praise them — think much of them, and they plume themselves thereon, and think themselves the very best of men. They have their reward.
17, 18. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face: That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Yet have I heard persons speak of certain emaciated ecclesiastics as being such wonderfully holy men. “How they must have fasted! They look like it. You can see it in their faces.” Probably produced by a fault in their digestion much more likely, than by anything else and if not — if we are to suppose that the spareness of a man a person is to be the token of his holiness — then the living skeleton was a saint to perfection. But we are not beguiled by such follies as these. The Christian man fasts but he takes care that no one shall know it. He wears no ring or token even when his heart is heavy. Full often he puts on a cheerful air, lest by any means he should communicate unnecessary sorrow to others, and he will be cheerful and happy, apparently, in the midst of company, to prevent their being sad, for it is enough for him to be sad himself, and sad before his Father’s face.
19-21. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
There is many a way of sending your treasure before you to heaven. God’s pour are his money-boxes — his exchequer. You can pass your treasure over to heaven by their means. And the work of evangelizing the world by the labors of God’s servants in the ministry of the gospel — you can help this also. There is much need ye should. Thus also ye can pass your treasure over into the King’s exchequer, and your heart will follow it. I have heard of one who said his religion did not cost him a shilling a year, and it was remarked that very probably it would have been expensive at the price. You will find people form a pretty accurate estimate of the value of their own religion by the proportion which they are prepared to sacrifice for it.
22. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single,
If thy motive be single — if thou hast only one motive, and that a right one — the master one of glorifying God — if thy eye be single.
22, 23. Thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness!
When a man’s highest motive is himself, what a dark and selfish nature he has; but when his highest motive is his God, what brightness of light will shine upon all.
24. No man can serve two masters:
He can serve two persons very readily. For the matter of that, he can serve twenty, but not two masters. There cannot be two master principles in a man’s heart, or master passions in a man’s soul. “No man can serve two masters.”
24. For either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and dispise. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Though some men’s lives are a long experiment of how far they can serve the two.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-16.
Verse 1. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
The church at Corinth consisted of persons of large education and great abilities. It was one of those churches that had given up the one-man system, where everybody talked as he liked — a very knowing church, and a church of Christians, too; but for all that. Christian babies. And though they thought themselves to be so great, yet the apostle says that he never spoke to them as to spiritual: he kept to the simple elements regarding the carnal part as being too much in them as yet, to be able to drink down spiritual things.
2. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto: ye were not able to hear it, neither yet now are ye able.
How grateful we ought to be that there is milk, and that this milk does feed the soul — that the simplest truths of Christianity contain in them all that the soul wants, just as milk is a diet upon which the body could be sustained, without anything else. Yet how we ought to desire to grow that we may not always be upon milk diet but that we may be able to digest the strong meat — the high doctrine of the deep things of God. These are for men, not for babes. Let the babes be thankful for the milk, but let us aspire to be strong men that we may feed on meat.
3. For ye are yet carnal: for where as there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?
A united church, you may conclude, is a growing church — perhaps a grown church; but a disunited church, split up into factions where every man is seeking position and trying to be noted such a church is a church of babes. They are carnal, and walk as men.
4. For while one saith, I am of Paul: and another, I am of Apollo; are ye not carnal?
Instead of that, they should all have striven together for the defense of the common faith of Jesus Christ No greater symptom of mere infancy in true religion than the setting up of the names of leaders or the preference for this or that peculiar form of doctrine, instead of endeavoring to grasp the whole of truth wherever one can find it.
5, 6. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollo, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase.
Let God, then, have all the glory. Be grateful for the planter, and grateful for the waterer, ay, and grateful to them as well; but, still, let the stress of your gratitude be given to him without whom watering and planting would be in vain.
7, 8. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one:
They are pursuing the same design; and Apollos and Paul were one in heart. They were true servants of one master.
8, 9. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
The church is built up. God is he who builds it up — the master of the work, but he employs his ministers under him to be builders.
10-13. According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
Very easy to build up a church quickly. Very easy to make a great excitement in religion, and become very famous as a soul-winner. Very easy. But time tries everything. If there were no other fire than the mere fire of time, it would suffice to test a man’s work. And when a church crumbles away almost as soon as it is got together when a church declines from the doctrines which it professed to hold, when the teaching of the eminent teacher is proved, after all, to have been fallacious and to have been erroneous in practical results, then what he has built comes to nothing! Oh! dear friends, what little we do we ought to aspire to do for eternity. If you shall never lay the brush to the canvas but once, make an indelible stroke with it. If only one work of sort, shall come from the statuary’s workshop, let it be something that will live all down the ages. But we are in such a mighty hurry: we make a lot of things that die with us ephemeral — results. We are not careful enough as to what we build with. May God grant that this truth may sink into our minds. Let us remember that, if it is hard building with gold and silver, and harder still building with precious stones, yet what is built will stand the fire. It is easy building with wood, and easier still with hay and stubble, but then there will be only a handful of ashes left of a whole lifework, if we build with these.
14-15. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
If he meant right — if he did endeavor to serve God as a worker, though he may have uttered many errors and have been mistaken — (and which of us has not been?) — he shall be saved, though his work must be burnt.
16. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Do you know it? He says, “Know ye not?” but I might leave out the “not” and say, “Know ye that ye are the temple of God?” What a wonderful fact it is! Within the body of the saint, God dwells, as in a temple. How do some men injure their bodies or utterly despise them, though they would not so do if they understood that they are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in them.