"Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine [teaching]; continue in them:for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee" (1 Tim. 4:16).

This passage sets before the workman two deeply important, absolutely essential duties, to which he must give his diligent, constant, prayerful attention if he would be an efficient workman in the church of God_"a good minister of Jesus Christ." He must take heed to himself, and he must take heed to the teaching.

First, then, let us consider the solemn clause, "Take heed to thyself." No language can adequately set forth the importance of this thought. It is, of course, important for all Christians; for the workman, it is especially so, for to’ such it is here particularly addressed. He, above all, will need to take heed to himself. He must guard the state of his heart, the state of his conscience, his whole inward man. He must keep himself pure. His thoughts, his affections, his spirit, his temper, his tongue, must all be kept under the holy control of the Spirit and Word of God. He must be "girt about with truth" and have on "the breastplate of righteousness" (Eph. 6:14). His moral condition and his practical walk must answer to the truth ministered, else the enemy will, most assuredly, get an advantage over him. The teacher ought to be the living exponent of what he teaches. At least this should be his sincere, continuous aim. He should ever keep this holy standard before "the eyes of his heart." Sad to say, the best will fail and come short; but where the heart is true, the conscience tender, and the fear of God and the love of Christ have their due place, the workman will never be satisfied with anything short of the divine standard for his inward state and his outward walk. It will be his earnest desire, at all times, and in all places, to show the practical effect of his teaching; to be "an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in [love], in spirit, in faith, in purity" (1 Tim. 4:12).

Let it not be supposed, however, that the Lord’s servant should set himself up as a model for those to whom he ministers; or that he should make his own experience the standard of his ministry. An inspired apostle could say, "Be ye followers of me," but where is the preacher or teacher now, who could adopt such language? As to his ministry, he should ever be able to say, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake" (2 Cor. 4:5).

May it be, then, the deep-seated earnest purpose and aim of all those who minister in the Word and doctrine to feed upon the precious truth of God; to make it their own; to live and move and have their being in the very atmosphere of it; to have the inward man strengthened and formed by it; to have it dwelling richly in them that thus it may flow out in living power to others.

Now let us discuss the second point in our subject, namely, the doctrine, or teaching, for such is the true force of the Greek word. Oh, how much is involved in this! "Take heed to the teaching." What care is needed! What earnest, constant waiting upon God for the right thing to say, and the right way to say it. God alone knows the state and the need of souls. He knows their capacity. We do not. We may be offering "strong meat" to those who can only bear “milk,” and thus do only harm. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God" (1 Peter 4:11). He does not say, "according to the oracles of God." A man may rise and speak for an hour, in the assembly, and every word he says may be in strict accordance with the letter of Scripture, and yet he may not at all speak as an oracle of God_as God’s mouthpiece to the people. He may minister truth, but not the truth needed at the time.

We want to sit much at the Master’s feet, to drink deeply into His Spirit, to be in fellowship with His heart of love for the precious lambs and sheep of His flock. Then shall we be in a condition of soul to give the portion of meat in due season. It is not the truth which interests us, but the truth which the assembly needs, that should be given out. We should look simply and earnestly to Him, and say, "Lord, what wouldest Thou have me to say to Thy beloved people? Give me the suited message for them." Then He will use us as His channels, and the truth will flow down from His loving heart into our hearts, and forth from us, in the power of His Spirit, into the hearts of His people.

Oh, that it were thus with all who speak and write for the church of God. What results we might look for! What power! What growth! What manifest progress in the divine life! The true interests of the flock of Christ would then be thought of in all that was spoken or written. Nothing equivocal, nothing strange or startling would be sent forth. Nothing but what is sound and seasonable would flow from the lips or the pen.

“Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15, J.N.D. trans.).

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple" (Psalm 27:4).

We often hear the expression "heavenly." Well, no person can be "heavenly" unless he lives in heaven. The fact is, we all have too much of a tendency to put off heaven until we die. We think of it as the place where God is and where Christ is, and it is the resource for us when we leave this world, when we leave our bodies behind us. When we cannot live any longer here, we go to heaven. Or, it may be, if you advance a little upon that, when a person has everything blighted and ruined down here, and there is not a single thing left, then he turns to heaven. It is like a person taking refuge from the storm and, when the storm is over, coming out again to enjoy the things around. Is that the case with you and me, beloved friends? That is the natural tendency of our hearts. We have very poorly, if at all in our souls, the thought of continuously abiding in that wonderful place where God is free to express Himself in all the infinite fullness of His love to us. He does not express Himself to us here. He gives us His care, His sympathy, His help, His cheer, His solace; He takes us by the hand, and leads us along the way, every step of the journey:but He does not express Himself to us here. He does there_ that is the difference. That is what I feel we lack, every one of us, in these days_a more habitual dwelling in the house of the Lord.

You may depend upon it, we should be a different kind of people altogether if we dwelt there by faith. Dwelling is not visiting there, not running there for shelter out of the storm, but knowing it as home, with all the joys of home. Do you know what these joys are? Home! we are not driven there through sheer necessity, but drawn by its attractiveness. What do you know of the attractions of that blessed One who is up there? We have not a mere doctrine or theory, but a divine, living, adorable, blessed, transcendent Person for our affections. We know a Person who has an attractiveness peculiar to Himself and one who throws this attractiveness and blessedness and beauty connected with Himself around the affections of my heart. I am not, as I said, driven by mere necessity from all the things that are round about me here, but I am attracted by the beauties and blessedness and glories of that scene where Christ is everything to God, and where God delights to express Himself in all His fullness. There is the place I long more to dwell in, to live in, to abide in; that is the place I desire to know as my home, and that is the one thing the Psalmist speaks of here. To me, it is a beautiful instance of the expression of this divine life in a person_the life of God:"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."

Now I see all this in its perfection in Christ as a man. We get it in that beautiful passage, "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of Man" _ who was in heaven. Is that it? No. "[Who] is in heaven" (John 3:13). Take Him as a Man (He was the mighty God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, as well)_as the perfect Man, He who walked that magnificent, blessed, shining pathway that we have traced out for us in the gospels, and which, by the Holy Ghost, we can read and think over and delight in. Was it not this continuous, blessed, wonderful communion, with all that belonged to that blessed place from whence He came, that so marked His way? As He said, "I know whence I came, and whither I go." There was all that blessed distinctiveness and separateness about His walk here. Is there, in our measure, that about us? Are we like people who know where we are going? Is that the thing which day by day is telling itself out in your business, in your home, in your social life, in your families? What I am speaking of is a practical thing. It goes down into the most minute circumstances of our daily life. There is to be this blessed testimony stamped upon it, that "I dwell in the house of the Lord." What sort of people should we be if there were that distinctiveness? about us, and divine satisfaction and rest!

May that be true of us which is expressed in the lines of the hymn:

"We are but strangers here, we do not crave A home on earth which gave Thee but a grave; Thy cross has sever’d ties which bound us here, Thyself our treasure in a brighter sphere." This is the real truth:Christ our treasure in heaven, and only His cross on earth. The glory is the place of our treasure, and the cross defines our path on earth. May our hearts be encouraged to press on; it is only for a little while. The darkest moment is that immediately preceding the dawning of the day.

The need of balance in the area of reception and communication of receiving the truth of God and, in turn, giving it out to others has been on our mind a good deal lately. How easy it is to speak without having anything really to say! We ought to be very watchful of this. On the other hand, when we have received, and enjoyed, too, good and helpful things from the Scriptures, how prone we are to withhold it. We keep to ourselves for various reasons (all of which stem, we suggest, from unbelief) what has been given to us by the Spirit of God to share with others. In this last, we believe, lies the greater imbalance.

Peter exhorts us to "sanctify the Lord the Christ in your hearts, and be always prepared to give an answer to every one that asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear" (I Peter 3:15 JND). We should not wait however to be asked. Peter and John, in Acts 4, were commanded by the Jewish leaders "not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus." But their reply rings with the joy and energy of faith, of conviction in what they believed:"We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (vs. 18,20)! Oh, that we might be filled with this spirit!

On one occasion our Lord Jesus said, "Go your way, and tell . . . what things ye have seen and heard" (Luke 7:22). If we "have seen and heard" by faith of the rich and wonderful things of God in Scripture, we are not to be silent about them. "Go your way, and tell," should echo in our ears! If we "believe," let us be stirred up to "therefore speak" (2 Cor. 4:13):to speak as there is opportunity and as the Spirit of God would lead, at home, at our jobs, when gathered together with fellow believers in the assembly, and wherever there is opportunity! Forgetting self, our greatest hindrance, let that "faith which worketh by love" (Gal. 5:6) express itself in the conviction and energy that the Holy Spirit by the Word imparts to us. That which the Holy Spirit reveals to us from the Scriptures will, if properly understood, always lead us to a deeper, sweeter knowledge of the glorious Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. This will be retained in its living freshness only, we believe, as we share it with others. This is a strong assertion, but we are convinced it is true.

The Apostle Paul, in appealing terms, writes:"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another" (Col. 3:16). As brought out here, the Word of Christ, as another has put it, "is not only owned and bowed to, but dwells in the soul richly in all its fulness and blessedness; and this results in an ability to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. The truth which God has given, if it be really received, cannot be held simply as one’s own. We cannot but impart it. Truth that is not imparted can scarcely be enjoyed, and in the close contact in which God has brought us with one another, the interest that He has given us in each other, the relationship we bear to one another, it cannot but follow that we shall realize one another’s needs".

May the thoughts expressed in these reflections arouse and stimulate us all, that what we believe and what we speak may be more in balance. The Psalmist purposed, "My lips shall utter praise, when Thou hast taught me Thy statutes. My tongue shall speak of Thy Word:for all Thy commandments are righteousness" (Psalm 119:171,172).
"Just balances, just weights . .. shall ye have:I am the Lord your God" (Lev. 19:36).

BELIEVE

SPEAK

"Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul . . . speaking of them" (Deut. 11:18,19).

"It is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak" (2 Cor. 4:13).

"We, being many, are one body In Christ, and every one members one of another" (Rom. 12:5).

"One of another." Although we may all accept this as a part of Scripture teaching on Church truth, in fact, an awareness of it, practically, may be lacking, to a great extent, in our relations with and behavior toward one another. The following Scriptures are most pertinent and searching.

Since it is true, blessed be God, that we are members one of another (because we are of the one body, spiritually, of Christ), then it surely follows that "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1 John 4:11).

It is no less a consequence that we are to "By love serve one another" (Gal. 5:13).

Again, the effect of this truth will be to stimulate us to "Encourage one another, and build up each one the other" (1 Thess. 5:11 J.N.D. trans.).

Also, to "be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility" (1 Peter 5:5),

"Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any:even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye" (Col. 3:13).

And be "able also to admonish one another" (Rom. 15:14).

"Bear ye one another’s burdens" (Gal. 6:2).

"Use hospitality one to another without grudging" (1 Peter 4:9).

"Lie not one to another" (Col. 3:9).

“Speak not evil one of another” (Jas. 4:11).

The feature on Balance in this issue has to do with reading the Word and prayer_than which, perhaps, we may have no greater need. In the corruption that has practically overwhelmed Christendom now (which Jude, in his epistle, so thoroughly exposes) it is of first importance to be reminded of this:"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost" (Jude 20). The diligent study of the Scriptures (our "most holy faith") is not to be relaxed, nor is prayer (with its expressed dependence, suitably humbling us), in spite of all the pressures, the discouragements, weakness, and indifference which are so prevalent. Rather, there is need, greater than ever, for studying the Word and praying. It is in view of such times that the Spirit of God in Jude presses this upon us.

When evil strives to engulf us, when it may seem that God is not answering our prayers, that they are apparently ineffectual, we are to pray. It is instructive and impressive to notice that prayer, in Scripture, is associated with real labor:"earnestly," "more earnestly," "fervently," "with fasting," "continually," "with all perseverance and supplication." Then, in the verse quoted from Jude, we are to pray "in the Holy Ghost." What care and heart-searching is called for, that what we pray for be spiritually intelligent, according to the mind of God.

Let us not be discouraged. Be assured that prayer is a most powerful force. Let us have confidence that our God does hear and answer our prayers in His own perfectly wise time and way.
"Just balances, just weights . . . shall ye have:I am the Lord your God" (Lev. 19:36).

WORD PRAYER

"But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost" (Jude 20).

"But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6:4).

The first verse gives us the order for our personal growth and blessing. The second is the order in relation to others:for direction and power in service generally, and for the ministry of the Word. Both are inseparable for spiritual balance.