'I charge thee before God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus
Christ, that thou keep the commandment without spot.' The 'commandment,'
of course, may be used in a specific sense, referring to what has just
been enjoined, but more probably we are to regard the same thing which,
considered in its relation to Jesus Christ, is His testimony, as being,
in its relation to us, His commandment. For all Christ's gospel of
revelation that He has made of Himself to the world, is meant to
influence, not only belief and feeling, but conduct and character as
well. All the New Testament, in so far as it is a record of what Christ
is, and thereby a declaration of what God is, is also for us an
injunction as to what we ought to be. The whole Gospel is law, and the
testimony is commandment, and we have to keep it, as well as to confess
it. Let me put the few things that I have to say, under this last
division of my subject, the practical issue, into the shape of three
exhortations, not for the sake of seeming to arrogate any kind of
superiority, but for the sake of point and emphasis.
Let the life bear witness to the confession. What is the use of
Timothy's standing there, and professing himself a Christian before many
witnesses if, when he goes out into the world, his conduct gives the lie
to his creed, and he lives like the men that are not Christians? Back up
your confession by your conduct, and when you say 'I believe in Jesus
Christ,' let your life be as true an echo of His life as your confession
is of His testimony. Else we shall come under the condemnation, 'Nothing
but leaves,' and shall fall under the punishment of the continuance of
unfruitfulness, which is our crime as well as our punishment. There is a
great deal more done by consistent living for, and by inconsistent
living against, the truth of the Gospel, than by all the words of all
the preachers in the world. Your faults go further, and tell more, than
my sermons, and your Christian characters will go further than all the
eloquence of the most devoted preachers. 'There is no voice nor
language, where their sound is not heard. Their line is gone out into
all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.'
Again, let the thought of the Great Witness stimulate us. He, too, took
His place by our sides, though with the differences that I have pointed
out, yet with resemblances which bring Him very near us. He, too; knew
what it was to stand amongst those who shrugged their shoulders, and
knit their brows at His utterances, and turned away from Him, calling
Him sometimes 'dreamer,' sometimes 'revolutionary,' sometimes
'blasphemer,' and now and then a messenger of good tidings and a
preacher of the gospel of peace. He knows all our hesitations, all our
weaknesses, all our temptations. He was the first of the martyrs, in the
narrower sense of the word. He is the leader of the great band of
witnesses for God. Let us stand by His side, and be like Him in our
bearing witness in this world.
Again, let the thought of the great tribunal stimulate us. 'I give thee
charge before God, who quickeneth all things--and who therefore will
quicken you--and before Jesus Christ, that thou keep this commandment.'
Jesus, who witnessed to the truth, witnesses, in the sense of beholding
and watching, us, knowing our weakness and ready to help us. 'The
faithful witness, and the first begotten from the dead, and the Prince
of the kings of the earth,' is by us, as we witness for Him. And so,
though we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, the
saints in the past who have witnessed for God, and been witnessed to by
Him, we have to turn away from them, and 'look off' from all others,
'unto Jesus.' And we may, like the first of the noble army of martyrs,
see the heavens opened, and Jesus 'standing'--started to His feet, to
see and to help Stephen--'at the right hand of God.'
Brethren, let us listen to His witness, let us accept it, setting to our
seals that God is true. Then let us try to echo it back by word, and to
attest our confession by our conduct, and then we may comfort ourselves
with the great word, 'He that confesseth Me before men, Him will I also
confess before My Father which is in Heaven.'