logical or reasonable service goes so far as to include the presentation of

our bodies as living sacrifices, an aspect of truth not by any means

'reasonable' in the eyes of the unsaved.  This warns us that 'logic' moves on

certain planes.  What is logically true of man, as such, is not necessarily

true of God; for example, man cannot be in two places at once, whereas the

Lord cannot be so limited.

Again, Paul not only 'beseeches', but he says 'present' or 'yield'.

Reasonable service of the redeemed cannot be forced, it must be free, and

finds its typical expression in those 'freewill offerings' which the law

allowed, and about which the Psalmist prayed:

'Accept, I beseech Thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord'

(Psa. 119:108).

Pursuing the theme that the service of the believer must be reasonable

and free, we turn to the words of Christ, uttered in the day of His

rejection: 'Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me' (Matt. 11:29).

We hope, in this study, to indicate some of the necessary conditions

for learning the truth.  Mere reading, even of the Scriptures, is by no means

sufficient.  'Learning' does not necessarily lead to 'a knowledge of the

truth', as the solemn passage in 2 Timothy 3:7 makes plain.  If we were asked

to prepare a list of the paraphernalia associated with 'learning', how many

of us would include a 'yoke'?  A yoke suggests service and fellowship.  To

work yoked with another necessitates keeping step, walking in the same path,

pursuing the same goal, serving the same Master.  Here we have another of

those interrelations of doctrine and practice that it is so necessary to

There is, moreover, a very pointed mention of the state of heart of

those who would engage in this yoked service.  The Lord said: 'I am meek and

lowly in heart'.  This special attribute of Christ and its intimate

connection with 'learning' is found in the prophecy of Isaiah:

'The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should

know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He wakeneth morning

by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.  The Lord God hath

opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back' (Isa.

Another very essential preparation of heart that must precede all true

learning is repentance.  Just as we should not naturally include a yoke among

the necessary equipment of the learner, so we should most likely enumerate a

number of spiritual qualifications before we thought of repentance.  The

passage that teaches its necessity is 2 Timothy 2:25:

'In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God

peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the

Without this repentance, one may be 'ever learning, and never able to

come to the knowledge of the truth' (2 Tim. 3:7).  While we desire to keep in

mind that we are not here dealing with the doctrinal issues of Scriptural

passages, yet, owing to a very prevalent misconception of the meaning of