'Ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you.' Those young Asiatic
Christians, that John had in his eye, had learned the secret and the
conditions of this strength; and not only in limb and sinew, or in
springy and elastic buoyancy of youthful, mental, and spiritual vigour
were they strong, but they were so because 'the Word of God abode in
them.' Now, there are two significations of that great expression, both
of them frequent in John's Gospel, and both of them, I think,
transferred to this Epistle, each of which may yield us a word of
counsel. By 'the Word of God,' as I take it, is meant--perhaps I ought
to say _both_, but, at all events, _either_--the revelation of God's
truth in Holy Scripture, or the personal revelation of the will and
nature of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Whichever of these two
meanings--and at bottom they come to be one--we attach to this
expression, we draw from them an exhortation. Let me put this very
briefly.
Let me say to you, then, if you want to be strong, let Scripture truth
occupy and fill and be always present to your mind. There are powers to
rule and to direct all conduct, motive powers of the strongest character
in these great truths of God's revelation. They are meant to influence a
man in all his doings, and it is for us to bring the greatest and
solemnest of them to bear on the smallest things of our daily life.
Suppose, now, that you go to your work, and some little difficulty
starts up in your path, or some trivial annoyance ruffles your temper,
or some lurking temptation is suddenly sprung upon you. Suppose your
mind and heart were saturated with God's truth, with the great thoughts
of His being, of His love, of His righteousness, of Christ's death for
you, of Christ's presence with you, of Christ's guardianship over you,
of Christ's present will that you should walk in His ways, of the bright
hopes of the future, and the solemn vision of that great White Throne
and the retribution that streams thence, do you think it would be
possible for you to fall into sin, to yield to temptation, to be annoyed
by any irritation or bother, or overweighted by any duty? No! Whosoever
lives with the thoughts that God has given us in His Word familiar to
His mind and within easy reach of His hand, has therein an armlet
against all possible temptation, a test that will unveil the hidden
corruption in the sweetest seductions, and a calming power that will
keep his heart still and collected in the midst of agitations. If the
Word of God in that lower sense of the principles involved in the gospel
of Jesus Christ, dwell in your hearts, the fangs are taken out of the
serpent. If you drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt you, and you
will 'be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.'
Bring the greatest truths you can find to bear on the smallest duties,
and the small duties will grow great to match the principles by which
they are done. Bring the laws of Jesus Christ down to the little things,
for, in the name of common sense, if our religion is not meant to
regulate trifles, what is it meant to regulate? Life is made up of
trifles. There are half a dozen crises in the course of your life, but
there are a thousand trivial things in the course of every day. It would
be a poor kind of regulating principle that controlled the crises, and
left us alone to manage with the trifles the best way we could.
But in order that there shall be this continual operation of the motives
and principles involved in the gospel upon our daily lives, we must have
them very near our hand, ready to be laid hold of. The soldier that
would march through an enemy's country, having left his gun in the hands
of some camp follower, would be very likely to be shot before he got his
gun. I remember going through the Red Sea; at the mouth of it where the
entrance is narrow, and the currents run strong, when the ship
approaches the dangerous place, the men take their stations at appointed
places, and the ponderous anchors are loosened and ready to be dropped
in an instant if the swirl of the current sweeps the ship into dangerous
proximity to the reef. It is no time to cut the lashings of the anchors
when the keel is grating on the coral rocks. And it is no time to have
to look about for our weapons when the sudden temptation leaps upon us
like a strong man armed. You must have them familiar to you by devout
meditation, by frequent reflection, prayer, study of God's Word, if they
are to be of any use to you at all. And I am afraid that about the last
book in the world that loads of young men and women think of sitting
down to read, systematically and connectedly, is the Bible. You will
read sermons and other religious books; you will read newspapers,
pamphlets, novels; but the Scripture, in its entirety, is a strange book
to myriads of men who call themselves Christians. And so they are weak.
If you want to be strong, 'let the Word of God abide in your hearts.'
And then if we take the other view, which at bottom is not another, of
the meaning of this phrase, and apply it rather to the personal word,
Jesus Christ Himself, that will yield us another exhortation, and that
is, let Jesus Christ into your hearts and keep Him there, and He will
make you strong. I believe that it is no piece of metaphor or an
exaggerated way of putting the continuance of the influence of Christ's
example and Christ's teaching upon men's hearts and minds, when He tells
us that 'if any man open the door He will come in and sup with him.' I
want to urge the one thought on you that it is possible, in simple
literal fact, for that Divine Saviour, who was 'in Heaven' whilst He
walked on earth, and walks on earth to-day when He has returned to His
native Heaven, to enter into my spirit and yours, and really to abide
within us, the life of our lives, 'the strength of our hearts, and our
portion for ever.' The rest of us can render help to one another by
strength ministered from without; Jesus Christ will come into your
hearts, if you let Him, in His very sweetness and omnipotence of power,
and will breathe His own grace into your weakness, strengthening you as
from within. Others can help you from without, as you put an iron band
round some over-weighted, crumbling brick pillar in order to prevent it
from collapsing, but He will pass into us as you may drive an iron rod
up through the centre of the column, and make it strong inside, and we
shall be strong if Jesus Christ dwells within us. Open the door, dear
young friends; let Christ come into your hearts, which He will do if you
do not hinder Him, and if you ask Him. Trust Him with simple reliance
upon Him for everything. Faith is 'the door'; the door is nothing of
itself, but when it is opened it admits the guest. So do you let that
Master come and abide, and you will hear Him say to you, as He said of
old, 'Child! My grace is sufficient.' How modest He is. Sufficient!--an
ocean _enough_ to fill a thimble! 'My grace is sufficient for thee; and
My strength is made perfect in weakness.'
III. Now, lastly, notice the field on which the strength is to be
exercised, and the victory which it secures. 'Ye have overcome the
wicked one.'
There is a battle for us all, on which I need not dwell, the conflict
with evil around and with evil within, and with the prince of the
embattled legions of the darkness, whom the New Testament has more
clearly revealed to us. You young people have many advantages in the
conflict; you have some special disadvantages as well. You have strong
passions, you have not much experience, you do not know how bitter the
dregs are of the cup whose foaming bubbles look so attractive, and whose
upper inch tastes so sweet. But on the other hand you have not yet
contracted habits that it is misery to indulge in, and, as it would
seem, impossible to break, and the world is yet before you.
You cannot begin too soon to choose your side. And here is the side on
which alone victory is possible for a man--the side of Jesus Christ, who
will teach your hands to war and your fingers to fight.
Notice that remarkable phrase, 'Ye have overcome the wicked one.' He is
talking to young Christians before whom the battle may seem to lie, and
yet He speaks of their conquest as an accomplished fact, and as a thing
behind them. What does that mean? It means this, that if you will take
service in Christ's army, and by His grace resolve to be His faithful
soldier till your life's end, that act of faith, which enrols you as
His, is itself the victory which guarantees, if it be continued, the
whole conquest in time.