The Apostle strikes a solemn note, which was always sounding through his
life, when he points to that great Day of Christ as the time when his
work was to be tested. The thought of that gave earnestness to all his
service, and in conjunction with the joyful thought that, however his
work might be marred by failures and flaws, he himself was 'accepted in
the beloved,' was the impulse which carried him on through a life than
which none of Christ's servants have dared, and done, and suffered more
for Him. Paul believed that, according to the results of that test, his
position would in some sort be determined. Of course he does not here
contradict the foundation principle of his whole Gospel, that salvation
is not the result of our own works, or virtues, but is the free
unmerited gift of Christ's grace. But while that is true, it is none the
less true, that the degree in which believers receive that gift depends
on their Christian character, both in their life on earth and in the day
of Christ. One element in that character is faithful work for Jesus.
Faithful work indeed is not necessarily successful work, and many who
are welcomed by Jesus, the judge, will have the memory of many
disappointments and few harvested grains. It was not a reaper, 'bringing
his sheaves with him,' who stayed himself against the experience of
failure, by the assurance, 'Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be
glorious in the eyes of the Lord.' If our want of success, and others'
lapse, and apostasy or coldness has not been occasioned by any fault of
ours, there will be no diminution of our reward. But we can so seldom be
sure of that, and even then there will be an absence of what might have
added to gladness.
We need not do more than note that the text plainly implies, that at
that testing time men's knowledge of all that they did, and the results
of it, will be complete. Marvellous as it seems to us, with our
fragmentary memories, and the great tracts of our lives through which we
have passed mechanically, and which seem to have left no trace on the
mirror of our consciousness, we still, all of us, have experiences which
make that all-recovering memory credible. Some passing association, a
look, a touch, an odour, a sun-set sky, a chord of music will bring
before us some trivial long-forgotten incident or emotion, as the chance
thrust of a boat-hook will draw to the surface by its hair, a
long-drowned corpse. If we are, as assuredly we are, writing with
invisible ink our whole life's history on the pages of our own minds,
and if we shall have to read them all over again one day, is it not
tragic that most of us scribble the pages so hastily and carelessly, and
forget that, 'what I have written I have written,' and what I have
written I must read.
But there is another way of looking at Paul's words as being an
indication of his warm love for the Philippians. Even among the glories,
he would feel his heart filled with new gladness when he found them
there. The hunger for the good of others which cannot bear to think even
of heaven without their presence has been a master note of all true
Christian teachers, and without it there will be little of the toil, of
which Paul speaks in the context, 'running and labouring.' He that would
win men's hearts for any great cause must give his heart to them.
That Paul should have felt warranted in using such a motive with the
Philippians tells how surely he reckoned on their true and deep love. He
believes that they care enough for him to feel the power as a motive
with them, that their faithfulness will make Paul more blessed amidst
the blessings of heaven. Oh! if such love knit together all Christian
teachers and their hearers in this time, and if the 'Day of Christ'
burned before them, as it did before him, and if the vision stirred to
such running and labouring as his, teachers and taught would oftener
have to say, 'We are your rejoicing, even as ye are also ours in the Day
of our Lord Jesus.' The voice of the man who is in the true 'Apostolic
Succession' will dare to make the appeal, knowing that it will call
forth an abundant answer, 'Look to yourselves that we lose not the
things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.'