Direction of the will - Chambers, Oswald
John 7:17
(cf. john 5:19, 30)
The will to do
If any man willeth to do his will . . . (rv)
In john 7:17, our lord is not so much laying down the principle that obedience is the gateway to knowledge, as specifically stating that the only way to know whether or not his teaching is of god is conditioned by obedience. The only way to know is to will to do his will.
(a) think
The only way to progress in spiritual matters is to think voluntarily. A great amount of stuff we call thinking is not thinking, but merely reverie or meditation. Thinking is a voluntary effort, and in the initial stages it is never easy; voluntary effort must be made to keep the mind on some particular line. The teaching of some of the higher christian life movements7 is apt to put thinking out of it altogether. According to that teaching we have to be semi-swooning invalids in the power of god, letting the spirit of god take us as so much driftwood, and all our impulses and dreams are taken to be the will of god. When we become spiritual we have to exercise the power of thinking to a greater degree than ever before. We starve our mind as christians by not thinking. If we are going to succeed in the natural world we must think voluntarily about things, and it is the same in the spiritual world. In order to think we must stop wool-gathering, check our impulses and set the mind on one line.
(b) think habitually
Habit is a mechanical process of which we have ceased to become conscious. The basis of habit is always physical. A habit forms a pathway in the material stuff of the brain, and as we persist in think- ing along a certain line we hand over a tremendous amount to the machine and do things without thinking. Habit becomes second nature. Habit a second nature! Habit is ten times nature! (duke of welling- ton). For instance, when you begin to use a muscle in a particular way, it hurts badly, but if you keep on using that muscle judiciously it will get beyond hurting until you are able to use it with mechanical precision. The same thing is true in regard to thinking. It is a difficult matter to begin with. If thinking gives you a headache, it is a sign that you have brains. The brain is not ethereal or mystical, it is purely a machine. The thing that is not mechanical is the power of personality which we call thought. At first we find our brains do not work well, they go in jerks, we are bothered with associated ideas; but as we persist in thinking along a particular line our brain becomes the ally of our personality. Not only is our body capable of becoming our best friend, but the places where the body has become used to thinking become a strong assistance also. We infect the places we live in by our ruling habit. If we have made our body the ally of our personality, everything works together to aid our body wherever it is placed. People complain about their circumstances because they have not begun to make their body an ally.
(c) think habitually to do
Our lord says, in effect, that if any man will habitually think, he will come to know where his teaching comes from. The only way to prove spiritual truth is by experiment. Are we willing to set our mind determinedly to work out habitually what we think is gods will? We talk about justice and right and wrong, are we prepared to act according to what we think? Are we prepared to act according to the justice and the right which we believe to be the character of god? If we are, we shall have no difficulty in deciding whether or not the teaching of jesus christ comes from god.
The first moment of thinking alters our life. If for one moment we have discerned the truth, we can never be the same again; we may ignore it, or forget it, but it will not forget us. Truth once discerned goes down into the subconscious mind, but it will jump up in a most awkward way when we least expect it. In the matter of intercession, when we pray for another the spirit of god works in the unconscious domain of that ones being about which we know nothing, and about which the one we pray for knows noth- ing, and after a while the conscious life of the one prayed for begins to show signs of softening and unrest, of enquiry and a desire to know something. It seems stupid to think that if we pray all that will happen, but remember to whom we pray; we pray
To a being who understands the unconscious depths of a mans personality, and he has told us to pray. The great master of the human spirit said greater works than these shall he do. . . . And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will i do. This is true also in preaching the word. We may see no result in our congregation, but if we have presented the truth and anyone has seen it for one second, he can never be the same again, a new element has come into his life. It is essential to remember this and not to estimate the success of preaching by immediate results.
Our lord was always stern with disbelief, i. E. , scepticism, because there is always a moral twist about scepticism. Never place an agnostic in the same category as a sceptic. An agnostic is one who says, there is more than i know, but i have not found anyone who can tell me about it. Jesus is never stern with that attitude; but he is stern with the man who objects to a certain way of getting at the truth because he does not like that way. If a man refuses to try the way jesus christ puts before him, he ceases from that second to be an honest doubter; he must try it and put jesus christs teaching to the proof. A man cannot say he is an honest intellectual doubter if he refuses one way of getting at the truth; that is mental immorality.
The way to know
He shall know of the teaching . . . (rv )
If i find it hard to be a christian it is a sign that i need the awakening of new birth. Only a spiritually ignorant person tries to be a christian. Study the life of jesus christ and see what christianity means, and you will find you cannot be a christian by trying; you must be born into the life before you can live it. There are a great many people trying to be christians; they pray and long and fast and consecrate, but it is nothing but imitation, it has no life in it. Immediately we have life imparted to us by the holy spirit, we realise that it is the very life that was in jesus that is born into us; we are loosened from the old bondage and find that we can fulfil all the expectations of the life which has been imparted to us. It is a strenuous life of obedience to god, and god has given us bodies through which to work out the life, and circumstances to react against in order to prove its reality.
(a) intention
Beware of praying about an intention act. To pray about what we know we should do is to piously push the whole thing overboard and think no more about it. Every intention must be acted out now, not presently, otherwise it will be stamped out. When the intention of an honest soul is grasped by the spirit of god he will know whether the teaching jesus gives is of god or not. Am i going to think, and think habitually, and act on what i think, so that the will of god may be performed in me until i know who jesus is, and that his teaching is the teaching of god? To know that the teaching of jesus is of god means that it must be obeyed. It may be difficult to begin with, but the difficulty will become a joy.
(b) intention
And insight intentions are born of listening to others. Whenever we obey an intention, insight into either good or bad is sure to follow. If our intention is in agreement with god and we act on it, we get insight into who god is. The discernment of right and wrong intentions depends on how we think. There is a spasmodic type of life which comes from never really thinking about things, it is at the mercy of every stray intention. Someone makes an appeal for the hindoo or the chinese, and they say, oh yes, i will go and preach the gospel there, and they do it in intention. Then someone else says the best thing is to work in the slums, instantly their intention is to work there. Then another person says the best thing is to study in a bible school, and they do that in intention. They are creatures of impulse, there is no real thinking along gods line, no acting on their intention. If you are sufficiently strong-minded you can generate any number of intentions in people and make them think anything you like; if they are not in the habit of thinking for themselves you can always sway them. The power of an evangelist over men and women who do not think is a dangerous thing. That is why it is so perilous to tell people to yield. Dont yield! Keep as stiff a neck as ever you had, and yield to nothing and to no one, unless you know it is the lord jesus christ to whom you are yielding. Once you go on the yielding line, on the surrendering line and you do not know that it is the lord jesus who is calling for the yielding, you will be caught up by super natural powers that will wield you whether you like it or not. Woe be to you, if, when jesus has asked us to yield to him, you refuse; but be sure it is jesus christ to whom you yield, and his demands are tremendous.
The insight that relates us to god arises from purity of heart, not from clearness of intellect. All the education under heaven will never give a man insight into jesus christs teaching, only one thing will, and that is a pure heart, i. E. , intentions that go along the right line. Education and scholarship may enable a man to put things well, but they will never give him insight. Insight only comes from a pure-heartedness in working out the will of god. That is why the subject of divine guidance is so mysterious. Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, says paul, (that is what makes the thinker right), that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of god. You cannot teach another what is the will of god. A Knowledge of the will of god comes only by insight into god through acting on the right intention.
(c) intention and insight into instruction
Studying our lords teaching will not profit us unless we intend to obey what we know is the immediate present duty. As we listen to certain interpretations of jesus christs statements we do not feel warm to them, though we do not know what is wrong. Whenever the spirit of god works in our conscious life it is like an intuitioni dont know how i know, but i know. The holy spirit witnesses only to his own nature, not to our reason. Jesus said my sheep hear my voice, not because it is argued to them, but because they have his spirit. There are statements of jesus which mean nothing to us just now because we have not been brought into the place where we need to understand them. When we are brought there, the holy spirit will bring back a particular word, and as we intend to obey he gives us the insight into it. The spirit of god never allows us to face spiritual subjects by spiritual curiosity first. We cannot say, i am going to study the subject of sanctification or of the second coming, we shall make about as much headway as a steamer in a fog. Insight into the instruction of jesus depends upon our intention to obey what we know to be the will of god. If we have some doctrine or some end of our own to serve, we shall always find difficulty.
The weighing of doctrine
. . . Whether it be of god, or whether i speak from myself. (rv)
(a) discernment
The reason the incarnation and the atonement are not credible to some people is that their disposition is unregenerated. A man may adopt the dogma of the incarnation and the atonement upon a basis of authority while his heart is unchanged, with the result that sooner or later the accumulated pride of unregenerate years will rise in revolt and secretly pro- test that it is incredible. That was the case with the men to whom jesus is speaking here, and it is the case of hundreds who accept creeds but refuse to act on their belief; the consequence is they fling their creeds overboard and ignore the central test of christianity, viz. , who is jesus christ to me? The atonement of our lord never contradicts human reason, it contradicts the logic of human intellect that has never partaken of regeneration. The understanding of the atonement depends not on bible study, not on praying, but on spiritual growth. As we grow up into him in all things we get moral understanding of the mystery of redemption and understand why jesus said blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see god. The spirit of god brings a man to the place where he begins to discern with his heart, not with his head. Jesus says we shall know, i. E. , discern, whether his teaching is of god or not when we do what we know to be his will. We discern according to our disposition. There are moments in life when the little thing matters more than anything else, times when a critical situation depends upon our attitude of mind to another person. If a man is hesitating between obeying and not obeying god, the tiniest thing contrary to obedience is quite sufficient to swing the pendulum right away from the discernment of jesus christ and of god. If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee . . . First be reconciled. . . . Distempers of mind make all the difference in the discernment of jesus christs teaching. Have i a distempered view about any man or woman on earth? If i have, there is a great deal of jesus christs teaching i do not want to listen to, then i shall never discern his teaching. Once let me obey god and i shall discern that i have no right to an attitude of mind to anyone other than his attitude. If i am determined to know the teaching of jesus christ at all costs, i must act on the intention that is stirred in me to do gods will, how- ever humiliating it may be; and if i do, i shall discern.
(b) discernment of inspiration
Our lords teaching is god-breathed. What makes the difference between the attitude of a spiritual christian to the teaching of jesus and that of an unspiritual person? An unspiritual person takes the statements of jesus to pieces as he would a mans statements, he annulleth jesus (1 john 4:3 rv mg), dissolves him by analysis; a spiritual christian con- fesses that jesus christ is come in the flesh. The basis of membership in the early church was discernment of who jesus is by the revelation of god (see matthew 16:1718). All through the test is, do i know who jesus christ is; do i know that his teach- ing is of god? The mystery of the bible is that its inspiration was direct from god (2 peter 1:21). To believe our lords consciousness about himself commits me to accept him as gods last endless word. That does not mean that god is not still speaking, but it does mean that god is saying nothing different from the final word, jesus christ; all god says expounds that word.
(c) discernment of inspiration of christs teaching
Is jesus christs teaching god-breathed to me? There is an intention that seeks gods blessings with- out obeying jesus christs teaching. We are apt to say with sanctimonious piety, yes, jesus christs teach- ing is of god; but how do we measure up to it? Do we intend to think about it and act on it? Beware of Tampering with the springs of your life when it comes to the teaching of jesus. Purity of heart, not subtlety of intellect, is the place of understanding. The spirit of god alone understands the things of god, let him indwell, and slowly and surely the great revelation facts of the atonement begin to be comprehended. The mind of god as revealed in the incarnation becomes slowly and surely the mind of the spiritual christian.