5.20.2013 COST OF DISCIPLESHIP 5

MATTHEW 6 - OF THE HIDDEN CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE excerpts from chapters 15-7

CHAPTER 15 THE HIDDENNESS OF PRAYER

and when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites:
for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men.
verily i say unto you,
they have received their reward.
but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber,
and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall recompense thee.
and in praying use not vain repetitions, as the gentiles do;
for they think that they shall be heard for their
much speaking.
be not therefore like unto them:
for your Father knoweth what things ye hath need of,
before ye ask Him. matt. 6.5-8

Jesus teaches His disciples to pray.
what does this mean?
it means that prayer is by no means an obvious or natural activity.
it is the expression of a universal human instinct,
but that does not justify it in the sight of God.
even where prayer is cultivated with discipline and perseverance
it can still be profitless and void of God's blessing.
the disciples are permitted to pray because
Jesus tells them they may
-and He knows the Father.
He promises that God will hear them.
that is to say, the disciples pray only because they are
followers of Christ and have fellowship with Him.
only those who, like them, adhere to Jesus have access to
the Father through Him.
all christian prayer is directed to god through a Mediator,
and not even prayer affords direct access to the Father.
only through Jesus Christ can we find the Father in prayer.
christian prayer presupposes faith, that is, adherence to Christ.
He is the one and only mediator of our prayers.
we pray at His command,
and to that word christian prayer is always bound.

we pray to God because we believe in Him through Jesus Christ;
that is to say, our prayer can never be an entreaty to God,
for we have no need to come before Him in that way.
we are privileged to know that he knows our needs
before we ask Him.
this is what gives Christian prayer its boundless
confidence and its joyous certainty.
it matters little what form of prayer we adopt or
how many words we use,
what matters is the faith which lays hold on God
and touches the heart of the Father
who knew us long before we came to Him.

genuine prayer is never 'good works',
an exercise or a pious attitude,
but it is always the prayer of a child to a Father.
hence it is never given to self display,
whether before God, ourselves or other people.
if god were ignorant of our needs,
we should have to think out beforehand how we
should tell Him about them,
what we should tell Him
and whether we should tell Him or not.
thus faith, which is the mainspring of christian prayer,
excludes all reflection and premeditation.

prayer is the supreme instance of the hidden character
of the christian life.
ti is the antithesis of self display.
when men pray, they have ceased to know themselves
and know only god whom they call upon.
prayer does not aim at any direct effect on the world;
it is addressed to God alone,
and therefore the perfect example of undemonstrative action.

of course there is a danger even here.
prayer of this kind can seek  self display,
it can seek to bring to light that which is hidden.
this may happen in public prayer...

..i can lay on a very nice show for myself
even in the privacy of my own room.
that is the extent to which we can distort the word of Jesus.
the publicity which i am looking for is then provided
by the fact that i am the one who at the same time prays
and looks on.
i am listening to my own prayer and thus i am answering
my own prayer.
not being content to wait for god to answer our prayer
and show us in His own time that He has heard us,
we provide our own answer.
we take note that we have prayed suitably well
and this substitutes the satisfaction of answered prayer.
we have our reward.
since we have heard ourselves, God will not hear us.
having contrived our own reward of publicity,
we cannot expect God to reward us any further.

...true prayer does not depend either on the individual
or the whole body or the faithful,
but solely upon the knowledge that our heavenly Father
knows our needs.
that makes god the sole object of our prayers,
and frees us from a false confidence in our own prayerful efforts.


after this manner therefore pray ye:
our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.
give us this day our daily bread.
and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.
and bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
for if ye forgive not men their trespasses
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses matt. 6.9-15

Jesus tole His disciples not only how to pray, but also what to pray.
the Lord's prayer is not merely the pattern prayer,
it is the way christians MUST  pray.
if they pray this prayer, God will certainly hear them.
the Lord's prayer is the quintessence of prayer.
a disciple's prayer is founded on and circumscribed by it....

..God's name, God's kingdom, God's will
must be the primary object of christian prayer.
of course it is not as if God needed our prayers,
but they are the means by which the disciples become partakers
in the heavenly treasure for which they pray...

..forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
every day Christ's followers must acknowledge and bewail their guilt.
living as they do in fellowship with Him, they ought to be sinless,
but in practiced their life is marred daily with all manner of unbelief,
sloth in prayer, lack of bodily discipline, self indulgence of every kind,
envy, hatred and ambition.
no wonder that they must pray daily for God's forgiveness.
but God will only forgive them if they forgive one another
with readiness and brotherly affection.
thus they bring all their guilt before God
and pray as a body for forgiveness.
God forgive not merely me my debts, but us ours.

CHAPTER 16  THE HIDDENNESS OF THE DEVOUT LIFE

moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance:
for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast.
verily i say unto you, they have received their reward.
but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face;
that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father which is in secret:
and they Father, which seeth in secret, shall recompense thee. matt. 6.16-8

Jesus takes it for granted that his disciples will observe the pious custom
of fasting.
 strict exercise of self control is an essential feature of the christian's life.
such customs have only one purpose
-to make the disciples more ready and cheerful to
accomplish those things which God would have done.
fasting helps to discipline the self indulgent and slothful will
which is so reluctant to serve the Lord,
and it helps to humiliate and chasten the flesh.
by practising abstemiousness we show the world how different
the christian life is from its own.
if there is no element of asceticism in our lives,
of we give free rein to the desires of the flesh
(taking care of course to keep within the limits  of what seems permissible
to the world),
we shall find it hard to train for the service of Christ.
when the flesh is satisfied  it is hard to pray with cheerfulness
or to devote oneself to a life of service which calls for much self renunciation.

so the christian needs to observe a strict exterior discipline.
but we are not to imagine that that alone will crush the will of the flesh,
or that there is any way of mortifying our old man than by faith in Jesus.

the real difference in the believer who follows Christ,
and has mortified his will and died after the old man in Christ,
is that he is more clearly aware than other men of
the rebelliousness and perennial pride of the flesh,
he is conscious of his sloth and self indulgence
and knows that his arrogance must be eradicated.
hence there is a need for daily self discipline.
it is always true of the disciple that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak,
and he must therefore 'watch and pray'.
the spirit knows the right way and desires to follow it,
but the flesh lacks courage and finds it too hard,
too hazardous and wearisome,
and so it stifles the voice of the spirit.
the spirit assents when Jesus bids us love our enemies,
but flesh and blood are too strong and prevent our carrying it out.
therefore we have to practise strictest daily discipline:
only so can the flesh learn the painful lesson that it has ho right of its own.
regular daily prayer is a great help here
and so is daily MEDITATION on the word of God
and every kind of bodily discipline and asceticism.

the flesh resists this daily humiliation,
first by a frontal attack,
and later by hiding itself under the words of the spirit
(ie. in the name of 'evangelical liberty').
we claim liberty from all legal compulsion,
from self martyrdom and mortification,
and play this off against the proper evangelical
use of discipline and asceticism;
we thus excuse our self indulgence and irregularity in prayer,
in meditation and in our bodily life.
but the contrast between our behaviour and the word of Jesus
is all too painfully evident.
we forget that discipleship means estrangement from the world
and we forget the real joy and freedom which are the outcome
of a devout rule of life.
as soon as a christian recognizes that he has failed in his service,
that his readiness has become feeble,
and that he has sinned against another's life
and become guilty of another's guilt,
that all his joy in God has vanished
and that his capacity for prayer has quite gone,
it is high time for him to launch an assault upon the flesh
and prepare or better service by fasting and prayer
..any objection that asceticism is wrong,
and that all we need is faith,
is quite beside the point;
it is cruel to suggest such a thing and it is of no help to us at all.
when all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing
if not an unending struggle of the spirit
with every available weapon
against the flesh.
 how is it possible to live the life of faith
when we grow weary of prayer,
when we lose our taste for reading the bible
and when sleep, food and sensuality deprive us of the joy of
communion with God?

asceticism means voluntary suffering:
it is passio active rather than passiva,
and it is just there that the danger lies.
there is always a danger that in our asceticism we shall
be tempted to imitate the sufferings of Christ.
this is a pious but godless ambition,
for beneath it there always lurks the notion that
it is possible for us to step into Christ's shoes and
suffer as he did and kill the old adam.
we are then presuming to undertake that bitter work of
eternal redemption which Christ Himself wrought for us.
the motive of asceticism was more limited
-to equip us for better service and deeper humiliation.
but it can only do that so long as it takes the sufferings of Christ as its basis;
it not, it degenerates into a dreadful parody of our Lords own passion.
our whole motive now becomes a desire for ostentation.
we want other people o see our achievements
and to be put to shame.
our asceticism has now become the way to salvation.
such publicity gives it the reward it seeks.

CHAPTER 17   THE SIMPLICITY OF THE CAREFREE LIFE

lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth,
where moth and rust doth consume,
and where thieves beak through and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth consume,
and where thieves do not break though nor steal:
for where thy treasure is, thee will thy heat be also.
the lamp of the body is the eye:
if therefore Thine eye be single,
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 the darkness! no man can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one and love the other;
or else he will hold o one, and despise the other.
ye cannot serve God and mammon. matthew 6.19-24

...(Jesus) was man, He ate and drank like His disciples
and thereby sanctified the good things of lie.
these necessities, which are consumed in use
and which meet the legitimate requirements of the body,
are to be used by the disciple with thankfulness.

..earthly GOODS are given to be USED,
NOT to be COLLECTED.
in the wilderness God gave israel the manna every day,
and they had no need to worry about food and drink.
indeed, if they dept any of the manna over until the next day,
it went bad.
in the same way,
the disciple
must receive
his portion
from God
every day.
if he stores it up
as a permanent possession,
he spoils not only the gift,
but himself as well,
for he sets his heart on his accumulated wealth,
and makes it a barrier between himself and God.
where our treasure is
there is our trust,
our security, our consolation
and our god.
(foot: it is not accident that the catalogues of vices in the pauline epistles
associate fornication with covetousness,
and designate both as idolatry.)
HOARDING IS IDOLATRY.

but where are we to draw the line between legitimate use and
unlawful accumulation?
let us reverse the word of Jesus and our question is answered:
'where thy heart is, thee shall thy treasure be also.'
our treasure may of course be small and inconspicuous,
but its size is immaterial;
it all depends on the heart, on ourselves.
and if we ask how we are to know where our hearts are,
the answer is simple
-everything which hinders us from loving God above all things
and acts as a barrier between ourselves and our obedience to Jesus
is our treasure,
and the place where our heart is.

but Jesus knows that the heart of man hankers after a treasure
and so it is His will that he should have one

(foot: it is to be observed that Jesus does not deprive he human heart
of its instinctive needs -treasure, glory and praise.
but He gives it higher objects
-the glory of God (john 5.44),
the glorying in the cross (gal. 6.14)
and the treasure of heaven.)

but this treasure is to be sought in heaven, not on earth.


...surely these treasures can be none other than the 'extraordinary',
the hidden character of the christian life,
none other than the fruits of the passion of Jesus Christ
which sustains the live of His followers.

if our hearts are entirely given to God,
it is clear that we CANNOT serve two masters;
it is simply impossible
-at any rate all the time we are following Christ.
it would of course be tempting
to show how far we had advanced in the christian life
by endeavouring to serve two masters
and giving each his due, both God and Mammon.
why should we not be happy children of the world
just because we are the children of God?
after all, do we not rejoice in His good gifts
and do we not receive our treasures as a blessing from him?
no, God and the world, God and its goods are incompatible,
because the world and its goods make a bid for our hearts,
and only when they have won them do they become
what they really are.
that is how they thrive and that is why they are incompatible
with allegiance to God.
our hearts have room only for one all embracing devotion
and we can only cleave to one Lord.
every competitor to that devotion must be hated.
as Jesus says, there is no alternative
-either we love God  or we hate him.
we are confronted by an 'either-or':
either we love God or we love earthly goods.
if we love God, we hate the world
and if we love the world, we hate God.
it makes no difference whether that love be conscious
and deliberate or not;
in fact it is morally certain that it will be neither,
and that our conscious and deliberate desire
will be to serve two masters,
to love God AND the good things of life.
we shall indignantly repudiate the suggestion that we hate God,
and will be firmly convinced that we love Him,
whereas by trying to combine love for Him with love for the world,
we are turning our love for Him into hatred.
and then we have lost the single eye
and our heart is no longer in fellowship with Jesus.
our deliberate intentions make no difference to the inevitable result:
ye cannot serve two masters, if ye be followers of Jesus Christ.

therefore I say unto you,
be not anxious for your life,
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink;
nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
is not the life more than the food and the body than the raiment?
behold the birds of the heaven,
that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns;
and your heavenly Father feedeth them.
are not ye of much more value than they?
and which of you by being anxious can add one cubit
unto his stature?
and why are ye anxious concerning raiment?
consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they toil not, neither do they spin:
yet I say unto you, that even solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
but if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, \
shall he not much more clothe you, o ye of little faith?
 be not therefore anxious saying, what shall we eat? or
what shall we drink?
or wherewithal shall we be clothed?
for after all these things do the gentiles seek;
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things.
but seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you.
be not therefore anxious for the morrow:
for the morrow will be anxious for itself.
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. matt. 6.25-34

be not anxious!
earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us
into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety.
yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety.
if our hearts are set on them, our reward is an anxiety
whose burden is intolerable.
anxiety creates its own treasures and they in turn  beget further care.
when we seek for security in possessions we are trying
to drive out care with care,
and the net result is the precise opposite of our anticipations.
the fetters which bind us to our possessions prove to be
cares themselves.

THE WAY TO MISUSE OUR POSSESSIONS
IS TO USE THEM AS AN INSURANCE AGAINST THE MORROW.
anxiety is always directed to the morrow,
whereas goods are in the strictest sense meant to be used
only for today.
by trying to ensure for the next day
we are only creating uncertainty today.
sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
the only way to win assurance is
by leaving tomorrow entirely in the hands of God
and by receiving from Him all we need for today.
if instead of receiving God's gifts for today
we worry about tomorrow,
we find ourselves helpless victims of infinite anxiety.
'be not anxious for the morrow'
either that is cruel mockery for the poor and wretched,
the very people Jesus is talking to who,
humanly speaking, really will starve if
they do not make provision today.
either it is an intolerable law,
which men will reject with indignation;
or it is the unique proclamation of the gospel of
the glorious liberty of the children of God,
who have a Father in heaven,
a Father who has given His beloved Son.
how shall not God with Him also freely give us all things?


'BE NOT ANXIOUS FOR THE MORROW.'
this is not to be taken as a philosophy of life or a moral law:
IT IS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST,
and so only can it be understood.
only those who follow Him and know Him
can receive this word as a promise of the love of his Father
and as a deliverance from the thraldom of material things.
it is not care that frees the disciples from care,
but their faith in Jesus Christ.
only they know that they cannot be anxious (v27).
the coming day, even the coming hour, are placed beyond our control.
it is senseless to pretend that we can make provision
because we cannot alter the circumstances of this world.
only God can take care, for it is He who rules the world.
since we CANNOT take care,
since we are so completely powerless,
we OUGHT not to do it either.
if ewe do, we are dethroning God
and presuming to rule the world ourselves.

but the christian also knows that he not only cannot
and dare not be anxious,
but that there is also no need for him to be so.
neither anxiety nor work can secure his daily bread,
for bread is the gift of the Father.
the birds and lilies neither toil nor spin,
yet both are fed and clothed
and receive their daily portion without being anxious for them.
they need earthly goods only for their daily sustenance,
and they do not lay up a store for the future.
this is the way they glorify their Creator,
not by their industry, toil or car,
but by a daily unquestioning acceptance of His gifts.
birds and lilies then are an example for the followers of Christ.
'man in revot' imagines that there is a relation of cause and effect
between work and sustenance,
but Jesus explodes that illusion.
according to Him, bread is not to be valued as a reward for work;
He speaks instead of the carefree simplicity of the man
who walks with Him
and accepts everything as it comes from God.

 'now mark ye, no beast worketh for his sustenance,
but each hath his proper function, according to which
he seeketh and findeth his own food.
the bird doth fly and sing, she maketh nests and beareth young.
that is her work, but yet she doth not nourish herself thereby.
oxen plough, horses draw carts and fight,
sheep give wool, milk and cheese, for it is their function so to do.
but they do not nurture themselves thereby.
nay, the earth bringeth forth grass, and nurtureth them
through God's blessing.
likewise it is man's bounden duty to work and do things
and yet withal to know that it is Another who nurtureth him:
it is not his own work, but the bounteous blessing of God.
it is true that the bird doth neither sow nor reap,
yet would she die of hunger if she flew not in search of food.
but that she findeth the same is not her work,
but the goodness of God.
for who put the food there, that she might find it?
for where God hath put nought, none findeth,
even though the whole world were to work itself to death in search thereof'. Luther
but if the Creator thus sustains the birds and lilies,
should He not much more as a Father nourish His own children,
who daily pray to Him?
should He not be able to grant them the necessities of life,
when all earthly goods belong to Him,
and when He can distribute them according to His pleasure?

God the Father grant to me
all my daily needs.
why should i not unto Him flee,
when all the birds He feeds?   claudius

anxiety is characteristic of the gentiles,
for they rely on their own strength and work
instead of relying on God.
they do not know that the Father
knows that we have need of all these things,
ans so they try to do for themselves
what they do not expect from God.
but the disciples know that the rule is
'seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you.'
ANXIETY FOR FOOD AND CLOTHING
IS CLEARLY NOT THE SAME THING
AS ANXIETY FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD,
however much we should like to persuade ourselves
that when we are working
for our families and concerning ourselves with bread and houses
we are thereby building the kingdom, as though the kingdom
could be realized only through our worldly cares.
the kingdom is none other than the righteousness of matt. 5 and 6,
the righteousness of the cross and following Christ beneath that cross..
fellowship with Jesus and obedience to His commandment come first,
and all else follows.
worldly cares are not a part of our discipleship,
but distinct and subordinate concerns.
before we start taking thought for our life,
our food and clothing, our work and families,
we must seek the righteousness of Christ.
this is no more than an ultimate summing up of
all that has been said before.
again we have here either a crushing burden,
which holds out no hope for the poor and wretched,
or else it is the quintessence of the gospel,
which brings the promise of freedom and perfect joy.
Jesus does not tell us what we ought to do but cannot;
He tells us what God has given us and promises still to give.
if Christ has been given us, if we are called to His discipleship
we are given all things, literally all things.
he will see to it that they are added unto us.
if we follow Jesus and look only to His righteousness,
we are in His hands and under the protection of Him and His Father.
and if we are in communion with the Father,
nought can harm us.
we shall always be assured that He can feed His children
and will not suffer them to hunger.
God will help us in the hour of need,
and He knows our needs.

after he has been following Christ for a long time,
the disciple of Jesus will be asked
'lacked ye anything?
and he will answer
'nothing, Lord.'
how could he when he knows that despite
hunger and nakedness, persecution and danger,
the Lord is always at his side?