Christ's command ever includes His promise. Work done for Him is never
resultless. True, His most faithful servants have often to say, if
they look at their few sheaves with the eye of sense, 'I have spent
my strength for nought.' True, the Apostolic experience is, at the
best, but too exactly repeated, 'Some believed, and some believed not.'
Christ's Gospel always produces its twofold effect, being 'a savour of
life unto life, or of death unto death.' If the great Sower, when He
went forth to sow, expected but a fourth part of the seed to fall into
good ground, His servants need look for no larger results. But still
it remains true that honest, earnest work for Jesus, wisely planned
and prayerfully carried out with self-oblivion and self-surrender, will
not be unblessed. If our labour is 'in the Lord,' it will not be 'in
vain.' Just as pain is a danger signal, pointing to mischief at work
on the body, so failure in achieving the results of Christian service
is, for the most part, an indication of something wrong in method or
spirit.
But, if we are toiling in loving obedience to Christ's voice, and
seeking His direction as to sphere and manner of service, we may be
quite sure of this, that whether we get, immediately or no, the
outward and visible results which this incident promises to all who
fulfil the conditions, we shall get the results which were
symbolised in the second form of this miraculous draught of fishes.
For, if you remember, there was another incident at the end of
Christ's life, modelled upon this one, and equally significant,
though in a different fashion. On that occasion, when the disciples
had been toiling all the night, and saw, in the dim twilight of the
morning, the questionable figure standing on the shore there, they
were bidden to bring of the fish that they had caught, and when they
came to land they saw a fire of coals, and fish laid thereon, and
bread; and His voice said, 'Come, and eat!' Blessed are the workers
that work for the Master, for living they shall not be left without
His blessing, and dying, 'they rest from their labours'--by the side
of that mysterious fire, and Christ-provided food--'and their works
do follow them, in that they bring of the fish which they have
caught.