PERFECTION

PERDITION

OR

and submission to any who were Scripturally qualified to lead, and this would be readily yielded by a believer to any

who manifested the mark of the true pastor. `They watch for your souls, as they that must give account'. The leader

who answers to this description has no sinecure. He has a position of utmost responsibility and is accountable to the

Lord. He must continually act in the light of this: `that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is

unprofitable for you'.

Some connect the words, `that they may do it', with the rendering of an account at the judgment seat of Christ.

Others connect the words with the present watching. Possibly the double thought is intended, for whatever is true

here has its counterpart when the account is given: `Look to yourselves, that ye destroy not the things which ye have

wrought, but that ye receive a full reward' (2 John 8, R.V. margin). This reference in 2 John 8 is followed by a

warning concerning the doctrine of Christ.

In Hebrews 13:8, immediately following the reference to the leaders, and immediately before the warning not to

be carried away with divers and strange doctrines, comes the glorious passage `Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and

today, and unto the ages'. The same truth lies at the threshold of the epistle: `They shall be changed, but Thou art

the same' (Heb. 1:11,12). Through all the changes in this creation, both past and future, the Lord remains

unchanged; throughout all changes in the dealings of God with men, the decaying and waning of the old Covenant,

as well as of the old creation, there is One Who remains the same. This is the bedrock of our faith. This was the

issue of the manner of life of the leaders whose faith was to be followed. It was the corrective against the divers and

strange doctrines which they were to avoid.

These words `yesterday and today and for the ages' are parallel with the titles `Alpha and Omega', or `Which

was and which is, and which is to come'. In the `yesterday' we know that Abraham saw the day of Christ; that

Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; in the `today' He is still the same.

He is still the one great counter-attraction that more than compensates for all reproach or loss, and this will remain

unalterably true throughout the ages.

The divers and strange doctrines that were likely to `carry these believers about' as by adverse currents, were

evidently closely connected with `meats', and these can but refer to all those things that had been left behind:

`Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him

that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers

washings (baptisms), and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation' (Heb. 9:9,10).

The glorious standing given to the believer in Christ by the gospel has no room for the shadowy sanctity

pertaining to `meats':

`But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse'

(1 Cor. 8:8).

These things of the past are on the same level as circumcision:

`Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God' (1 Cor. 7:19).

`For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in

these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men' (Rom. 14:17,18).

We have seen before that the thought of `acceptable service' runs through the closing chapter of Hebrews, and

this passage from Romans follows the same theme.

To us at the present time, this scruple regarding `meats' (food) seems to have no parallel. We are not concerned

about food having been offered to idols, neither are we under any law that divides foods into clean and unclean. At

the same time it will not take us long to discover that a great deal passes as `holiness' and `privilege', which rests

not upon Christ, but upon accessories that have their basis in the flesh. Let us have none of them. All such have

been buried in the tomb, and in the new creation they cannot exist:

`We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose

blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus

also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore