5.28.2013 COST OF DISCIPLESHIP 6

MATTHEW 7  THE SEPARATION OF THE DISCIPLE COMMUNITY

CHAPTER 18  THE DISCIPLE AND UNBELIEVERS

judge not, that ye be not judged.
for with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged:
and with what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured unto you.
and why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
or how wilt thou say to they brother,
let me cast out the mote out of thine eye;
and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?
thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote
out of thy brother's eye.

give not that which is holy unto the dogs,
neither cast your pearls before the swine,
lest haply they trample them under their feet
and turn and rend you.

ask and it shall be given you:
seek, and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be opened unto you:
for everyone that asketh receiveth;
and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
or what man is there of you, who,
if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone;
of if he shall ask for a fish, will give him a serpent?
if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give
good things to them who ask them?
all things therefore whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them:
for this is the law and the prophets. matt. 7.1-12

there is a continuous thread running through chapters 5 and 6;
it passes through these verses, and on to the grand finale
of the sermon on the mount.
chapter 5 dealt with the extraordinary quality
of the christian life,
perissov,
and chapter 6 with the hidden single hearted righteousness
of the disciples
haplUs.
in both its aspects, discipleship betokened
the separation of the disciples from all their old ties
and an exclusive adherence to Jesus Christ.
the frontier between the old life and the new
was clearly drawn.
but this raises the question of the relation
between the christians and their non christian neighbours.
does their separation from the rest of society confer on them
special rights and privileges?
do christians enjoy power, gifts and standards of judgement
which qualify them to exert a peculiar authority over others?
how easy it would have been for the disciples to adopt a superior attitude,
to pass unqualified condemnation on the rest of the world,
and to persuade themselves that this was the will of God!
that is why Jesus has to make it clear beyond all doubt
that such misunderstandings would seriously imperil their discipleship.
the disciples are not to judge.
if they do so,
they will themselves be judged by God.
the sword wherewith they judge their brethren
will fall upon their own heads.
instead of cutting themselves off from their brother
as the just from the unjust,
they find themselves cut off from Jesus.

why should this be so?
the source of the disciple's life lies exclusively in
his fellowship  with Jesus Christ.
he possesses his righeousness only within that association,
never outside it.
that is why his righteousness can never become
an objective criterion to be applied at will.

he is a disciple not because he possesses such a new standard,
but only because of Jesus Christ,
the mediator and very Son of God.
that is to say, his righteousness is hidden from himself
in fellowship with Jesus.
he cannot, as he could once, be a detached observer of himself
and judge himself,
for he can only see Jesus and be seen by Him,
judged by Him and reprieved by Him.
it is not an approved standard of righteous living that separates
a follower of Christ
from an unbeliever,
but it is Christ who stands between them.
christians always see other men as brethren
to whom Christ comes;
they meet them only by going to them with Jesus.
disciple and non disciple can never encounter each other
as free men,
directly exchanging their views and judging one another
by objective criteria.
no, the disciple can meet the nondisciple only as a man
to whom Jesus comes.
here alone Christ's fight for the soul of the unbeliever,
His call, His love His grace and His judgement
comes into its own.
discipleship does not afford us a point of vantage
from which to attack others;
we come to them with an unconditional offer of fellowship,
with the single mindedness of the love of Jesus.

when we judge other people we confront them in
a spirit of detachment,
observing and reflecting as it were from the outside.
but love has neither time nor opportunity for this.
if we love, we can never observe the other person with detachment,
for he is always and at every moment a living claim
to our love and service. 
but does not the evil in the other person make me condemn him
just for his own good,
for the sake of love?
here we see the depth of the dividing line.
any misguided love for the sinner is ominously close
to the love of sin.
but the love of Christ for the sinner in itself is the condemnation
of sin,
is His expression of extreme hatred of sin.
the disciples of Christ  are to love unconditionally.
thus they may effect what their own divided and judiciously
and conditionally offered love never could achieve,
namely the radical condemnation of sin.

if the disciples make judgements of their own,
they set up standards of good and evil.
but Jesus Christ is not a standard which i can apply to others
He is judge of myself, revealing my own virtues to me
as something altogether evil.
thus is am not permitted to apply to the other person what
does not apply to me.
for, with my judgement according to good and evil,
i only affirm the other person's evil,
for he does exactly the same.
but he does not know of the hidden iniquity of the good
but seeks his justification in it.
if i condemn his evil actions i thereby confirm him
in his apparently good actions which are yet
never the good commended by Christ.
thus we remove him from the judgement of Christ
and subject him to human judgement.
but i bring God's judgement upon my head,
for i then do not live any more on and out of the grace
of Jesus Christ,
but out of my knowledge of good and evil
which i hold on to.
to everyone God is the kind of God he believes in.

judgement is the forbidden objectivization of the other person
which destroys single minded love.
i am not forbidden to have my own thoughts about the
other person,
to realize his shortcoming,
but only to the extent that it offers to me an occasion for
forgiveness and unconditional love,
as Jesus proves to me....

judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.
by judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil
and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
but in the love of Christ we know all about every conceivable
sin and guilt;
for we know how Jesus suffered
and how all men have been forgiven at the foot of the cross.
christian love sees the fellow man under the cross
and therefore sees with clarity.
if when we judged others, our real motive was to destroy evil,
we should look for evil where it is certain to be found, 
and that is in our own hearts.
but if we are on the look out for evil in others,
our real motive is obviously to justify ourselves,
for we are seeking to escape punishment for our own sins
by passing judgment on others and are assuming by implication
that the word of God applies to ourselves in one way
and to others in another.
all this is highly dangerous and misleading.
we are trying to claim for ourselves as special privilege
which we deny to others.
but Christ's disciples have no rights of their own or
standards of right and wrong
which they could enforce with other people;
they have received nothing by Christ's fellowship.
therefore the disciple is not to sit in judgement
over his fellow man because he would wrongly
usurp the jurisdiction.

but the christian is not only forbidden to judge other men;
even the word of salvation has its limits.
he has neither power  nor right to force it on other men
in season and out of season.
every attempt to impose the gospel by force,
to run after people and proselytize them,
to use our own resources to advance the salvation of other people,
is both futile and dangerous.
it is futile, because the swine do not recognize the pearls
that are cast before them,
and dangerous, because it profanes the word of forgiveness,
by causing those we fain would serve to sin against
that which is holy.
worse still, we shall only meet with the blind rage
of hardened and darkened hearts,
and that will be useless and harmful.
our easy trafficking with the word of cheap grace
simply bores the world to disgust,
so that in the end it turns against those who
try to force on it what it does not want.
thus a strict limit is placed upon the activities of the disciples,
just as in matthew 10 they are told
to shake the dust off their feet where the word of peace
is refused a healing.
their restless energy which refuses to recognize
any limit to their activity,
the zeal which refuses to take note of resistance,
springs from a confusion of the gospel with
a victorious ideology.
an ideology requires fanatics, who neither know nor notice
opposition
and it is certainly a potent force.
but the word of God in its weakness takes the risk of
meeting the scorn of men and being reflected.
there are hearts which are hardened and doors
which are closed to the word.
the word recognizes opposition when it meets it
and is prepared to suffer it.
it is a hard lesson, but a true one,
that the gospel, unlike an ideology, reckons with impossibilities.
the word is weaker than any ideology
and this means that with only the gospel at their command
the witnesses are weaker than the propagandists of an opinion.
but although they are weak,
they are ready to suffer with the word
and so are free from that morbid restlessness
which is so characteristic of fanaticism.

the disciples can even yield their ground and run away,
provided  they do so with the word,
and provided they do not leave the word in the lurch in their flight.
they are simply the servants and instruments of the word;
they have no wish to be strong where the word
chooses to be weak.
to try and force the word on the wold by hook or by crook
is to make the living word of God into a mere idea
and the world would be perfectly justified in refusing
to listen to an idea for which it had no use.
but at other times, the disciples must stick to their guns
and refuse to run away,
though of course only when the word so wills.
if they do not realize this weakness of the word,
they have failed to perceive the mystery of the divine humility.
the same weak word which is content to endure
the gainsaying of sinners
is also the might word of mercy which can convert
the hearts of sinners.
its strength  is veiled in weakness;
if it came in power that would mean that the day of judgement
had arrived.
the great task of the disciples is to recognize the limits of
their commission.
but if they use the word amiss it will certainly turn against them.

what are the disciples to do when they encounter opposition
and cannot penetrate the hearts of men?
they must admit that in no circumstances do they possess
any rights or powers over others,
and that they have no direct access to them.
the only way to reach others is through Him in whose hands
they are themselves like all other men...
the disciples are taught to pray
and so they learn that the only way to reach others is by
praying to God.
judgement and forgiveness are always in the hands of God.
He closes and He opens.
but the disciples must ask, they must seek and knock
and then God will hear them.
they have to learn that
THEIR ANXIETY AND CONCERN FOR OTHERS
MUST DRIVE THEM TO INTERCESSION.
the promise Christ gives to their prayer is
the doughtiest (steadfastly courageous and resolute)
weapon in their armoury.

the difference between the disciples' seeking
and the gentiles' quest for God
is that the disciples know what they are looking for.
we can only seek God when we know Him already.
how can you look for something or find it
if you do not know what you are looking for?
the disciples seek a God whom they have found in the promise
they have received from Jesus. 

to sum up: it is clear from the foregoing that the disciple
has no special privilege or power of his own
in all his intercourse with others.
the mainspring of his life and work is the strength
which comes form fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus offers His disciples a simple rule of thumb
which will enable even the least sophisticated of them
to tell whether his intercourse with others is on
the right lines or not.
all he need do is to say 'i' instead of 'thou',
and put himself in the other man's place.
'all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you,
even so do ye also unto them:
for this is the law and the prophets'.
the moment he does that,
the disciple forfeits all advantage over other men
and can no longer excuse in himself what he condemns in others.
he is as strict in condemning evil in himself
as he was before with others
and as lenient with the evil in others
as he was before to himself.
the evil in the other person is exactly the same evil as in ourselves.
there is only one judgement, one law and one grace.
henceforth the disciple will look upon other men as forgiven sinners
who owe their live to the love of God.
'this is the law and the prophets'
-for this is none other than the supreme commandment:
to love God above all things and our neighbours as ourselves.

CHAPTER 19   THE GREAT DIVIDE

enter ye in by the narrow gate:
for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction
and many be they that enter in thereby.
for narrow is the gate and straitened the way,
that leadeth unto life and few be they that find it.

beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly are ravening wolves.
by their fruits ye shall know them.
do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth god fruit.
every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire.
therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the ill of My Father which is in heaven.
many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy mane cast out devils,
and by Thy name do many mighty works?
and then will I profess unto them,
I never knew you:
depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. matthew 7.13-23

the church of Jesus cannot arbitrarily break off all contact with
those who refuse His call.
it is called to follow the Lord by promise and commandment.
that must suffice.
all judgement of others and separation from them
must be left to Him who chose the church
according to His good purpose,
and not for any merit or achievement of its own.
the separation of church and world is not effected by the church itself,
but by the word of its calling.

a little band of men, the followers of Christ,
are separated from the rest of the world.
the disciples are few in number and will always be few.
this saying of Jesus forestalls all exaggerated hopes of success.
never let a disciple of Jesus pin his hopes on large numbers.
'few there be...'
the rest of the world are many and will aways be many.
but they are on the road to perdition.
the only comfort the disciples have in face of this prospect
is the promise of life and eternal fellowship with Jesus.

the path of discipleship is narrow
and it is fatally easy to miss one's way
and stray from the path,
even after years of discipleship.
and it is hard to find.
on either side of the narrow path deep chasms yawn.
to be called to life of extraordinary quality,
to live up to it,
and yet be unconscious of it 
is indeed a narrow way.
to confess and testify to the truth as is is in Jesus,
and at the same time to love the enemies of that truth,
His enemies and ours,
and to love them with the infinite love of Jesus Christ,
is indeed a narrow way.
to believe the promise of Jesus that His followers shall
possess the earth
and at the same time to face our enemies unarmed and defenceless,
preferring to incur injustice rather than do wrong ourselves
is indeed a narrow way. to see the weakness and wrong in others
and at the same time refrain from judging them;
to deliver the gospel message without casting pearls before swine,
is indeed a narrow way.
THE WAY IS UNUTTERABLY HARD
AND AT EVERY MOMENT WE ARE IN DANGER OF
STRAYING FROM IT.
if we regard this way as one we follow in obedience to an
external command,
if we are afraid of ourselves all the time,
it is indeed an impossible way.
but if we behold Jesus Christ going on before step by step,
we shall not go astray.
but if we worry about the dangers that beset us,
if we gaze at eh road instead of at Him who goes before,
we are already straying from the path.
for He is Himself is the way, the narrow way and the strait gate.
He and He alone, is our fourney's end.
when we know that, we are able to proveed along the narrow way
through the strait gate of the cross and on to eternal life,
and the very narrowness of the road will increase our certainty.
the way which the Son of God trod on earth
and the way which we too must tread as citizens of two worlds
on the razor edge between
 this world and the kingdom of heaven,
could hardly be a broad way.
the narrow way is bound to be right.

vs 15-20 the separation of church and world is now complete.
but the word of Jesus forces its way into the church herself,
bringing judgement and decision.
the separation is never permanently assured;
it must be constantly renewed.
the disciples of Jesus must not fondly imagine
that they can simply run away from the world and huddle together
in a little band.
false prophets will rise up among them and amid the ensuing confusion
they will feel more isolated than ever.
there is someone standing by my side,
who looks just like a member of the church.
he is a prophet and a preacher.
he looks like a christian,
he talks and acts like one.
but dark powers are mysteriously at work;
it was these who sent him into our midst.
inwardly he is a ravening wold:
his words are lies and his works are full of deceit.
he knows only too well how to keep his dark secret dark
and go ahead with his work.
it is not faith in Jesus Christ which made him one of us, but the devil.
maybe he hopes his intellectual ability or his success as a prophet
will bring him power and influence, money and fame.
his ambitions are set on the world, not on Jesus Christ.
knowing that christians are credulous people,
he conceals his dark purpose beneath the cloak of
christian piety,
hoping that his innocuous disguise will avert detection.
he knows that christians are forbidden to judge
and he will remind them of it at the appropriate time.
after all, other men's hearts are always a closed book.
thus he succeeds in seducing many from the right way.
he may even be unconscious himself of what he is doing.
the devil can give him every encouragement
and at the same time keep him in the dark about
his own motives.

such a pronouncement of Christ's could cause his disciples great anxiety.
who knows his neighbour?
who knows whether the outward appearance of a christian conceals
falsehood and deception undedrneath?
no wonder if mistrust, suspicion and censoriousness crept into the church.
and no wonder if every brother who falls into sin
incurred the uncharitable criticism of his brethren,
now that Jesus has said this.
all this distrust would ruin the church
but for the word of Jesus which assures us that the bad tree
will bring forth bad fruit.
it is bound to give itself away sooner or later.
there is no need to go about prying into the hearts of others.
all we need do is to wait until the tree bears fruit
and we shall not have to wait long.
this is not to say that we must draw a distinction
between the words of the prophet and his deeds:
the real distinction is that between appearance and reality.
Jesus tells us that men cannot keep up appearances for long.
the time of vintage is sure to come
and then we shall be able to sift the good from the bad.
sooner or later we shall find out where a man stands.
it is no use the tree refusing to bear any fruit,
for the fruit comes of its own accord.
any day the time may come to decide for the world
or for the church.
we may have to decide, not in some spectacular matter,
but in quite trivial, everyday affairs.
and then we shall see and discern the good from the bad.
in that day the reality will stand the test, not appearances.

in such times as these, Jesus requires His disciples
to distinguish between appearance and reality,
between themselves and pseudo christians.
they will then rise abouve all inquisitive examination
of others, but they will need a sincere determination
to recognize the verdict of God when it comes.
at any moment the nominal christians
may be separated from the real ones.
we may even find that we are nominal christians ourselves.
HERE IS A CHALLENGE TO CLOSER FELLOWSHIP
WITH JESUS AND TO A MORE LOYAL DISCIPLESHIP.
the bad tree is cut down and cast into the fire.
all its display of finery proves ultimately to be of no avail.

vs 21 the separation which the call of Jesus creates goes
deeper still.
after the division between church and world
between nominal christians and real ones,
the division now enters into the very heart of the confessional body.
st. paul says: 'no man can say, Jesus is Lord,
but in the Holy Spirit.' I cor. 12.3
 it is impossible to surrender our lives to Jesus
or call Him Lord of our own free will.
st. paul is deliberately reckoning with the possibility
that men may call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit, that is,
without having received the call.
iot was harder to understand this in days
when it brought no earthly gain to be a christian
and when christianity was a dangerous profession.
'not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter the kingdom of heaven...'
'Lord, Lord' is the church's confession of faith.
but not everyone who makes this confession
will enter the kingdom of heaven.
the dividing line will run right through the confessing church.
even if we make the confession of faith,
it gives us no title to any special claim upon Jesus.
we can never appeal to our confession or
be saved simply on the ground that we have made it.
neither is the fact that we are members of a church
which has a right confession a claim tgo God's favour.
to think thus is to fall into the sin of israel,
which thought the grace of God's call gave it a special privilege in His sight.
that would be a sin against God's gracious call.
God will not ask us in that day whether we were good protestants,
but whether we have done His will.
we shall be asked the same question as everybody els.
the church is marked off from the world not be a special 193down