'Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.'--Eph. v. 10.
These words are closely connected with those which precede them in the
8th verse--'Walk as children of light.' They further explain the mode by
which that commandment is to be fulfilled. They who, as children of
light, mindful of their obligations and penetrated by its brightness,
seek to conform their active life to the light to which they belong, are
to do so by making experiment of, or investigating and determining, what
is 'acceptable to the Lord.' It is the sum of all Christian duty, a
brief compendium of conduct, an all-sufficient directory of life.
There need only be two remarks made by way of explanation of my text.
One is that the expression rendered 'acceptable' is more accurately and
forcibly given, as in the Revised Version, by the plainer word
'well-pleasing.' And the other is that 'the Lord' here, as always in the
New Testament--unless the context distinctly forbids it--means Jesus
Christ. Here the context distinctly demands it. For only a sentence or
two before, the Apostle has been speaking about 'those who were sometime
darkness having been made light in the Lord'--which is obviously in
Jesus Christ.
And here, therefore, what pleases _Christ_ is the Christian's highest
duty, and the one prescription which is required to be obeyed in order
to walk in the light is, to do that which pleases Him.
I. So, then, in these brief words, so comprehensive, and going so deep
into the secrets of holy and noble living, I want you to notice that we
have, first, the only attitude which corresponds to our relations to
Christ.
How remarkable it is that this Apostle should go on the presumption that
our conduct affects Him, that it is possible for us to please, or to
displease Jesus Christ now. We often wonder whether the beloved dead are
cognisant of what we do; and whether any emotions of something like
either our earthly complacency or displeasure, can pass across the
undisturbed calm of their hearts, if they are aware of what their loved
ones here are doing. That question has to be left very much in the dark,
however our hearts may sometimes seek to enforce answers. But this we
know, that that loving Lord, not merely by the omniscience of His
divinity, but by the perpetual knowledge and sympathy of His perfect
manhood, is not only cognizant of, but is affected by, the conduct of
His professed followers here on earth. And since it is true that He now
is not swept away into some oblivious region where the dead are, but is
close beside us all, cognizant of every act, watching every thought, and
capable of having something like a shadow of a pang passing across the
Divine depth of His eternal joy and repose at the right hand of God,
then, surely, the only thing that corresponds to such a relationship as
at present subsists between the Christian soul and the Lord is that we
should take as our supreme and continual aim that, 'whether present or
absent, we should be well-pleasing to Him.' Nor does that demand rest
only upon the realities of our present relation to that Lord, but it
goes back to the past facts on which our present relation rests. And the
only fitting response to what He has been and done for us is that we
should, each of us, in the depth of our hearts, and in the widest
circumference of the surface of our lives, enthrone Him as absolute
Lord, and take His good pleasure as our supreme law. Jesus Christ is
King because He is Redeemer. The only adequate response to what He has
done for me is that I should absolutely submit myself to Him, and say to
Him, 'O Lord! truly I am Thy servant! Thou hast loosed my bonds.' The
one fitting return to make for that Cross and Passion is to enthrone His
will upon my will, and to set Him as absolute Monarch over the whole of
my nature. Thoughts, affections, purposes, efforts, and all should crown
Him King, because He has died for me. The conduct which corresponds to
the relations which we bear to Christ as the present Judge of our work,
and the Redeemer of our souls by His mighty deed in the past, is this of
my text, to make my one law His will, and to please Him that hath called
me to be His soldier.
The meaning of being a Christian is that, in return for the gift of a
whole Christ, I give my whole self to Him. 'Why call ye me Lord! Lord!
and do not the things which I say?' If He is what He assuredly is to
every one of us, nothing can be plainer than that we are thereby bound
by obligations which are not iron, but are more binding than if they
were, because they were woven out of the cords of love and the bands of
a man, bound to serve Him supremely, Him only, Him always, Him by the
suppression of self, and the making His pleasure our law.
II. Now, secondly, let me ask you to notice that we have here the
all-sufficient guide for practical life.
It sounds very mystical, and a trifle vague, to say, Do everything to
please Jesus Christ. It is all-comprehensive; it is mystical in the
sense that it goes down below the mere surface of prescriptions about
conduct. But it is not vague, and it is capable of immediate application
to every part, and to every act, of every man's life.
For what is it that pleases Jesus Christ? His own likeness; as,
according to the old figure--which is, I suppose, true to spiritual
facts, whether to external facts or not--the refiner knows that the
metal is ready to flow when he can see his own face in it. Jesus Christ
desires most that we should all be like Him. That we are to bear His
image is as comprehensive, and at the same time as specific, a way of
setting forth the sum of Christian duty, as are the words of my text.
The two phrases mean the same thing.
And what is the likeness to Jesus Christ which it is thus our supreme
obligation and our truest wisdom and perfection to bear? Well! we can
put it all into two words--self-suppression and continual consciousness
of obedience to the Divine will. The life of Jesus Christ, in its brief
records in Scripture, is felt by every thoughtful man to contain within
its narrow compass adequate direction for, and to set forth the ideal
of, human life. That is not because He went through all varieties of
earthly experience, for He did not. The life of a Jewish peasant
nineteen centuries ago was extremely unlike the life of a Manchester
merchant, of a college professor, of a successful barrister, of a
struggling mother, in this present day. But in the narrow compass of
that life there are set forth these two things, which are the basis of
all human perfection--the absolute annihilation of self-regard, and the
perpetual recognition of a Divine will. These are the things which every
Christian man and woman is bound by the power of Christ's Cross to
translate into the actions correspondent with their particular
circumstances. And so the student at his desk and the sailor on his
deck, the miner in his pit, the merchant on 'Change, the worker in
various handicrafts, may each be sure that they are doing what is
pleasing to Christ if, in their widely different ways, they seek to do
what they can do in all the varieties of life--crucify self, and commune
with God.
That is not easy. Whatever may be the objections to be brought against
this summary of Christian duty, the objection that it is vague is the
last that can be sustained. Try it, and you will find out that it is
anything but vague. It will grip tight enough, depend upon it. It will
go deep enough down into all the complexities of our varying
circumstances. If it has a fault (which it has not) it is in the
direction of too great stringency for unaided human nature. But the
stringency is not too great when we depend upon Him to help us, and an
impossible ideal is a certain prophet of its own fulfilment some day.
So, brethren, here is the sufficient guide, not because it cumbers us
with a mass of wretched little prescriptions such as a martinet might
give, about all sorts of details of conduct. That is left to profitless
casuists like the ancient rabbis. But the broad principles will
effloresce into all manner of perfectnesses and all fruits. He that has
in his heart these thoughts, that the definition of virtue is pleasing
Jesus Christ, that the concrete form of goodness is likeness to Him, and
that the elements of likeness to Him are these two, that I should never
think about myself, and always think about God, needs no other guide or
instructor to fill his life with 'whatsoever things are lovely and of
good report,' and to make his own all that the world calls virtue, and
all which the consciences of good men have conspired to praise.
But not only does this guide prove its sufficiency by reason of its
comprehensiveness, but also because there is no difficulty in
ascertaining what at each moment it prescribes. Of course, I know that
such a precept as this cannot contain in itself guidance in matters of
mere practical expediency. But, apart from these--which are to be
determined by the ordinary exercise of prudence and common sense--in
regard to the right and the wrong of our actions, I believe that if a
man wants to know Christ's will, and takes the way of knowing it which
Christ has appointed, he shall not be left in darkness, but shall have
the light of life.
For love has a strange power of divining love's wishes, as we all know,
and as many a sweetness in the hearts and lives of many of us has shown
us. If we cherish sympathy with Jesus Christ we shall look on things as
He looks on them, and we shall not be left without the knowledge of what
His pleasure is. If we keep near enough to Him the glance of His eye
will do for guidance, as the old psalm has it. They are rough animal
natures that do not understand how to go, unless their instructors be
the crack of the whip or the tug of the bridle. 'I will guide thee with
Mine eye.' A glance is enough where there are mutual understanding and
love. Two musical instruments in adjoining rooms, tuned to the same
pitch, have a singular affinity, and if a note be struck on the one the
other will vibrate to the sound. And so hearts here that love Jesus
Christ and keep in unison with Him, and are sympathetic with His
desires, will learn to know His will, and will re-echo the music that
comes from Him. And if our supreme desire is to know what pleases Jesus
Christ, depend upon it the desire will not be in vain, 'If any man wills
to do His will he shall know of the doctrine.' Ninety per cent. of all
our perplexities as to conduct come from our not having a pure and
simple wish to do what is right in His sight, clearly supreme above all
others. When we have that wish it is never left unsatisfied.
And even if sometimes we do make a mistake as to what is Christ's
pleasure, if our supreme wish and honest aim in the mistake have been to
do His pleasure, we may be sure that He will be pleased with the deed.
Even though its body is not that which He willed us to do, its spirit is
that which He does desire. And if we do a wrong thing, a thing in itself
displeasing to Him, whilst all the while we desired to please Him, we
shall please Him in the deed which would otherwise have displeased Him.
And so two Christian men, for instance, who take opposite sides in a
controversy, may both of them be doing what is well-pleasing in His
sight, whilst they are contradicting one another, if they are doing it
for His sake. And it is possible that the inquisitor and his victim may
both have been serving Christ. At all events, let us be sure of this,
that whensoever we desire to please Him, He will help us to do it, and
ordinarily will help us by making clear to us the path on which His
smile rests.
III. Again, notice that we have here an all-powerful motive for
Christian life.
The one thing which all other summaries of duty lack is motive power to
get themselves carried into practice. But we all know, from our own
happy human experience, that no motive which can be brought to bear upon
men is stronger, when there are loving hearts concerned, than this
simple one, 'Do it to please me.' And that is what Jesus Christ really
says. That is no piece of mere sentiment, brethren, nor of mere pulpit
rhetoric. That is the deepest thought of Christian morality, and is the
distinctive peculiarity which gives the morality of the New Testament
its clear supremacy over all other. There are precepts in it far nobler
and loftier than can be found elsewhere. The perspective of virtues and
graces in it is different from that which ordinarily prevails amongst
men. But I do not think that it is in the details of its precepts so
much as in the communication of power to obey them, and in the
suggestion of the motive which makes them all easy, that the difference
of Christ's ethics from all the teaching of the world beside is most
truly to be found.
And here lies the excellence thereof. It is a poor, cold thing to say to
a man, 'Do this because it is right.' It is a still more powerless thing
to say to him, 'Do this because it is expedient' 'Do this because, in
the long run, it leads to happiness.' It is all different when you say,
'Do this to please Jesus Christ, to please that Christ who pleased not
Himself but gave Himself for you.' That is the fire that melts the ore.
That is the heat that makes flexible the hard, stiff material. That is
the motive which makes duty delight, which makes 'the rough places
plain' and 'the crooked things straight.' It does not abolish natural
tastes, it does not supersede natural disinclinations, but it does
smooth and soften unwelcome and hard tasks, and it invests service with
a halo of glory, and changes the coldness of duty into rosy light; as
when the sunrise strikes on the peaks of the frozen mountains. The one
motive which impels men, and can be trusted to secure in them whatsoever
things are noble, is to please Him.
So we have the secret of blessedness in these words. For self-submission
and suppression are blessedness. Our miseries come from our unbridled
wills, far more than from our sensitive organisations. It is because we
do not accept providences that providences hurt. It is because we do not
accept the commandments that the commandments are burdensome. Those who
have no will, except as it is vitalised by God's will, have found the
secret of blessedness, and have entered into rest. In the measure in
which we approximate to that condition, our wills will be strengthened
as well as our hearts set at ease.
And blessedness comes, too, because the approbation of the Master, which
is the aim of the servant, is reflected in the satisfaction of an
approving conscience, which points onwards to the time when the Master's
approval shall be revealed in the servant's glory.
I was reading the other day about a religious reformer who arose in
Eastern lands a few years since, and gathered many disciples. He and his
principal follower were seized and about to be martyred. They were
suspended by cords from a gibbet, to be fired at by a platoon of
soldiers. And as they hung there, the disciple turned to his teacher,
and as his last word on earth said, 'Master! are you satisfied with me?'
His answer was a silent smile; and the next minute a bullet was in his
heart. Dear brethren, do you turn to Jesus Christ with the same
question, 'Master! art Thou satisfied with me?' and you will get His
smile here; and hereafter, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'