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).