It is 'the fruit that increaseth to your account.' Fruit, which as it
were is put to their credit in the account-book of heaven, but it is
called by Paul by a sacreder name as being an odour of a sweet smell, a
sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God, in which metaphor all the
sacred ideas of yielding up precious things to God and of the sacred
fire that consumed the offering or brought to bear on the prosaic
material gift.
The principle which the Apostle here lays down in reference to a money
gift has, of course, a much wider application, and is as true about all
Christian acts. We need not be staggered at the emphasis with which Paul
states the truths of their acceptableness and rewardableness, but in
order fully to understand the ground of his assurance we must remember
that in his view the root of all such fruit increasing to our account,
and of everything which can claim to be an odour of a sweet smell well
pleasing to God, is love to Christ, and the renewal of our nature by the
spirit of God dwelling in us. In us there dwells no good thing. It is
only as we abide in Him and His words abide in us that we bear much
fruit. Separate from Him we can do nothing. If our works are ever to
smell sweet to God, they must be done for Christ, and in a very profound
and real sense, done by Him.
The essential character of all work which has the right to be called
good, and which is acceptable to God, is sacrifice. The one exhortation
which takes the place and more than fills the place of all other
commandments, and is enforced by the motive which takes the place, and
more than takes the place of all other motives, is, 'I beseech you by
the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice.' It is
works which in the intention of the doer are offered to Him, and in
which therefore there is a surrender of our own wills, or tastes, or
inclinations, or passions, or possessions, that yield to Him an odour of
a sweet smell. The old condition which touched the chivalrous heart of
David has to be repeated by us in regard to any work which we can ever
hope to make well pleasing to God; 'I will not offer burnt offerings
unto the Lord my God which cost me nothing.'
There is a spurious humility which treats all the works of good men as
filthy rags, but such a false depreciation is contradicted by Christ's
'Well done, good and faithful servant.' It is true that all our deeds
are stained and imperfect, but if they are offered on the altar which He
provides, it will sanctify the giver and the gift. He is the great Aaron
who makes atonement for the iniquity of our holy things. And whilst we
are stricken silent with thankfulness for the wonderful mercy of His
gracious allowance, we may humbly hope that His 'Well done' will be
spoken of us, and may labour, not without a foretaste that we do not
labour in vain, that 'whether present or absent we may be well pleasing
to Him.'
The fruit is here supposed to be growing, that is, of course, in another
life. We need not insist that the service and sacrifice and work of
earth, if the motive be right, tell in a man's condition after death. It
is not all the same how Christian men live; some gain ten talents, some
five, and some two, and the difference between them is not always as the
parable represents it, a difference in the original endowment. An
entrance may be given into the eternal kingdom, and yet it may not be an
abundant entrance.