(Concluded from p. 44)

The Corinthians to whom Paul wrote the two Epistles were a company of saved people, members of the Body of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, yet who were walking as men, acting and feeling in a measure like the world around them. They had allowed the old nature within them, to have sway; had insensibly drifted into the spirit of the world. Everything about Christianity was new to them, and they did not seem to realize what they were doing, or what they had lost. But whenever any single believer, or company, or companies, of believers get into the state described in 1 Cor. 3:1-4, they need the grace and power of God to rest upon them in a special way to deliver them from their wrong state. For Christians to walk as men is to lose the Christian's joy and peace, to lose the power of witnessing for God and glorifying Him; it is suffering eternal loss.

The Corinthians were "God's husbandry," that is, they were God's farm; and what kind of crops were they producing? What did Israel produce for God? Read Isa. 5:1-7, and see. Also see how entirely different the way God dealt with Israel from the way He dealt with the Corinthians. When you see a farm with poor crops, stunted, sickly-looking, what do you think of the farmer who cares for them? What sort of a reputation were these carnal Corinthians giving to their neighbors for the One who had saved them, given them all the gifts and blessings which were theirs? Let God's people realize that they are His farm, and think what kind of crops they are bearing in the sight of the world, what sort of a reputation they are giving the Christ who has saved them. Think of the vast difference between the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh in Gal. S:19-24. If real believers bear the crop, "works of the flesh," is it not a false testimony to the power of Christ and His salvation?

Take a company, or companies, of believers who manifest the "fruit of the Spirit." Do they not show to the world the power of Christ to save?-show the grace and the reality of God's salvation? But what do companies of Christians who produce "the works of the flesh" show? And what will be the eternal consequences of bearing such a testimony? The fire is going to try every one's work. The farm that produces trash, or worse, will see its crop burned up, not the farm but the bad crop. And that will be an eternal loss. But a crop that is like "gold, silver, precious stones," will be eternal treasure (1 Cor. 3:10-15). Each individual in a company of believers is bearing some kind of a crop. Doubtless in the case of most it is a mixed crop, but how does Christ regard it? And what does the world see? The fruit that the Holy Spirit produces of "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance?"

For the believer to be shown his needs is the first step to having them supplied, and God is most abundantly able to supply whatever any one may need. If we are conscious that we are not bearing the fruit of the Spirit as we should, then it is for us to be asking and looking for the needed grace and the Spirit's supply in all things. The believer's life is one of asking, and receiving, and praising. Pray, receive, thank and praise. That means a walk with God. It means faith in Him. Why should we not ask for what is our own? Read over the last three verses of 1 Cor. 3, and see what abundance belongs to the Christian. Christ has all things ready for us. We have to ask for them, because we should have ever before us that all things good are His gifts. If they did not come by way of asking, we might think they came from our own goodness, that they were something of self. No; they are wholly of and from Christ, the fruit of His work and sacrificial death on the cross.
It is as each person in a company of believers walks with God, that the assembly walks with Him. It is for the poorest, the weakest, the least, to walk with Him, as well as for all the others. And as each one does this, the walk of the whole will be-with Him. If a company of believers is in bad shape it is because the individuals are thus. So, in a Spirit-filled company, each member is filled with the Spirit. It is well to often read and think of Gal. 5:22, 23, what the fruit of the Spirit is. For that fruit is most precious in the sight of God, of His people, and even of the world. They know a real-Christian, and such are those who show love, joy, peace, and the rest of the list, in their lives and in their faces.

When Christians gather to Christ for worship and thanksgiving, their faces will show that they are enjoying the fruit of the Spirit, if that is true. Joy and peace show in the face, as do fear, care, and worry. Love" shows in every way of the believer, if he is walking in love, and one of the greatest of God's gifts is love (1 Cor. 13:13). We need have no worries, for God will do all the worrying for us; that is, His care banishes all the worry, when it is realized by faith. "Casting all your care upon Him." Why? Because "He careth for you." What fearing, worrying Christians need is faith to lay hold on what God has for them. No one can say he has any trial too great for God to take care of. Why, then, not let Him take the care of it? Perhaps He has made the burden too heavy for you that you may cast it on Him. Be it great or little, He wants you to give Him charge of it. Limiting God is a fruit of unbelief; it is acting the part of a carnal Christian who is a partial stranger to the love and power of God. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" J. W. Newton