As children of men we are known in this world; the world can point to us and say, " His father was so-and-so; and, according to our high or low connection in that way, honor or despise us.
As children of God we are not known, for the simple reason that our Father is unknown. Let any man in any circle, high or low, of this world's society be introduced as a child of God, and see what a blank astonishment will follow such an introduction. They know not God, therefore can they not appreciate such a relationship with Him. The man who is in that relationship, therefore, is, as such, a real stranger and foreigner in this world. His being born of God constitutes him that, and according to the degree in which he himself values this wonderful relationship, so will he realize his strangership among the very people where he, as a man, is so well known; so too will it practically separate him from their company, their object, their mode of life, their pleasures and pursuits.
But there is more. The way he has become a child of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, who, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," was "lifted up" on the cross, "that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This blessed Jesus, therefore, becomes now the object and delight of his heart. How else could it be? It is by His suffering upon that cross that his sins are forgiven,-by His stripes that he is healed. It is by His blood that he has " boldness to enter into the holiest,"-the very presence of that holy God before whom the seraphim angels have to vail themselves. It is by His death that he is set free from the guilt and the dominion of sin,-that he escapes the visitation of the angel of death at midnight, passes out of the land of bondage, and passes into the land flowing with milk and honey.
Jesus is now, therefore, the object of his heart. " We love Him because He first loved us." As the man who, out of love, "leaves his father and mother, and cleaves unto his wife," so Christ left His Father and home in glory, and out of love to us suffered as none ever suffered. But, in return, the wife clings to her husband, and follows him all through. So with us who love Him. If He is in heaven, our hearts follow Him there, and are at home only there. If He is still rejected and despised by this world, we want naught else from the world than what they give Him. We cannot endure to be received and honored where He is refused and despised. Nay, more -we cannot even feel at home with His professed friends who give Him but a back seat, and grieve Him by their ways.
One will readily see that this is not pretending to be holier and better than this or that, but a natural outcome of a love that is true. No true wife could be at home where the husband she loves is not given the place which belongs to him. So no lover of Christ can ever be at home in this world while " Christ" is a despised name in it. Nor can he be more comfortable among those who profess His name while they have among them that which wounds the Lord. Therefore when the world has crucified Christ and cast Him out, God said to His children, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (i Jno. 2:15).
He also foresaw what His professing people would do, and how things would turn out in the end, so He said again to His people, "In the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof:from such TURN AWAY " (2 Tim. 3:1-5).
Oh, beloved brethren ! children of the God of love !- oh, for such a measure of that devotedness of heart to our Lord as to make it morally impossible for us to abide with whatever dishonors Him, but will compel us to follow Him any where and at whatever cost! Thus, and only thus, shall we know the reality of our relationship with Him, even as He has said, "Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:17, 18). P.J.L.