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and in humility reflect the love of God in our dealings with them.
"Love the
brotherhood" Paul echoes the sentiment when he writes:
"As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto men
who are of the household of faith" (Gal. 6: 10).
When one thinks of the love of God for all those who are His children there must be
even greater overshadowing concern for some who are faithful under special difficulties.
We may be ministering to or alas failing to support unknowingly such a chosen vessel.
"Fear God", the proverb (9: 10) says "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom".
note that fear is allied to reverence and it is only the beginning of wisdom. The degree of
awe and respect we offer God may well be in proportion to our faith, for at the other
extreme it is written "The fool has said in his heart there is no God" (Psalms 14: 1 and
53: 1).
No.5.
2: 18 - 3: 2.
pp. 59, 60
The remaining verses of this chapter touch on the sublime behaviour expected by the
Father from His children, namely the patient endurance of undeserved evil of varying
degrees from others and moreover loving concern offered to the offender rather than evil
for evil. This is a hard lesson to learn yet our blessed Lord gave us an outstanding
example to emulate and follow:
"When He was reviled He did not revile in return; when He suffered He did not
threaten; but He trusted to Him Who judges justly. He Himself bore our sins in His body
on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness" (2: 23-25, R.S.V.).
This quotation is from Isa. 53: 5. This chapter of Isaiah has only 12 verses and it
would be a good thing if we often read it and pondered on all the hurtful things He had to
endure from His own people, quite apart from the physical torment of His last hours.
Despised, rejected, esteemed or thought to be smitten by God, oppressed, yet with all this
it is recorded "He opened not His mouth in rebuke". Was there ever such an example to
us? Paul also declared how God has demonstrated His love towards us:
"God commended His love towards us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us" (Rom. 5: 13).
It is in this spirit we are to meet all the unfair buffets of the world and being on the
alert for such a moment of testing we may witness to the quality of our life in Christ,
causing, we trust, our offender to pause and consider our unworldly response. See the
gospels where Christ taught this lesson and gave the new spiritual recipe for the O.T. law
`an eye for an eye'. When we really consider the amazing example our Lord set us on the
cross, shall we hesitate to make a little gracious gesture when we think we are ill-used?