Ourselves: I; Me; Mine - Chambers, Oswald
Chapter XIV Ourselves: I; Me; Mine
Ourselves as “Known.” “Me”
1. The sensuous me (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
(a) my body (Romans 12:1)
(b) my bounty (Hebrews 13:15)
(c) my blessings (Romans 12:13)
2. The social me (Ecclesiastes 7:29)
(a) my success (Matthew 5:1316)
(b) my sociability ( john 5:4044)
(c) my satisfaction (Matthew 10:1722)
3. The spiritual me (Ephesians 2:6)
(a) my mind (Romans 12:2)
(b) my morals (Matthew 5:20)
(c) my mysticism (colossi ans 2:2023)
The sensuous me. By sensuous we mean bodily, material consciousness. My body represents one aspect of me. Under the heading of my bounty, we shall consider our flesh and blood relations, and under the heading of my blessings, our home, property, and wealth.
The social me. Under the social me we shall consider all that my set means: if you insult my set, you insult me. It is important to impress upon ourselves that god recognises that this is the way he has made us. Our lord insists on the social aspect of our lives: he shows very distinctly that we cannot further ourselves alone.
The spiritual me. This means my religious convictionsmy mind, my morals, and my mysticism.
To go back to our first statement. If my body is hurt, i look upon it as a personal hurt; if my home or my people are insulted, it is a personal insult; if my set and my society are hurt, i consider it a personal hurt; and if my religious convictions are hurt or upset or scandalised, i consider myself as being hurt and scandalised.
The normal me, from the scriptural standpoint, is not the average man. Normal means regular, exact, perpendicular, everything according to rule. Abnormal means irregular, away from the perpendicular; and super-normal means that which goes beyond regular experience, not contradicting it, but transcending it. Our lord represents the supernor- mal. Through the salvation of Jesus Christ we par- take of the normal, regular, upright; apart from his salvation we are abnormal.
We mean by the term me the sum total of all that a man calls his. That means there is no real practical distinction between me and mine. My personality identifies mine with my self so completely that it is not necessary to make a distinction between me and mine.
1. The sensuous me
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear god, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
This verse is the conclusion from the point of view of human and divine wisdom as to what is the whole end of life, viz. , to fear god, and keep his commandments.
Sensuous means that which is affected through our senses, or that which we get at through our senses. The first thing we get at through our senses is the body. The bible has a great deal to tell us about our bodies. The main point to emphasis is that the bible reveals that our body is the medium through which we develop our spiritual life. In the middle ages the body was looked upon as a clog, a hindrance, an annoyance, something that kept us back and upset our higher call- ing; something which had sin in the very corpuscles of its blood, in the cells of its make-up. The bible entirely disproves this view; it tells us that our body is the temple of the holy ghost, not a thing to be despised. The bible gives the body a very high place indeed.
(a) My body
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of god, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1)
The apostle does not say, present your all; the higher life 12 hymns do that, consequently they are unsatisfactory for you can never know when you have given your all. Look at it in the light of the last chapter, if our personality is too big for us to under- stand, how are we to know when we have presented our all? The bible never says any thing so vague as present your all, but present your bodies. There is nothing ambiguous or indefinite about that statement, it is definite and clear. The body means only one thing to us all, viz. , this flesh and blood body.
Ask yourself this practical question: who is the ruling person that is manifested through my body, through my hands, through my tongue, through my eyes, through my thinking and loving? Is it a self- realising person, or a Christ-realising person? Our body is to be the temple of the holy ghost, the medium for manifesting the marvellous disposition of Jesus Christ all through. Instead of our body being a hindrance to our development, it is only through our body that we are developed. We express our character through our body: you cannot express a character without a body. When we speak of character, we think of a flesh and blood thing; when we speak of disposition, we think of something that is not flesh and blood. Through the atonement god gives us the right disposition; that disposition is inside our body, and we have to manifest it in character through our body and by means of our body. The meaning of bodily control is that the body is the obedient medium for expressing the right disposition. The bible, instead of ignoring the fact that we have a body, exalts it. What, know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy ghost which is in you? If any man defile the temple of god, him shall god destroy. Instead of the bible belittling the laws of health and bodily uprightness and cleanliness, it insists on these by implication far more than modern science does by explicit statement. Go back again to our first subject, viz. , the making of man, and you will recall that the chief glory of man is not that he is in the image of god spiritually, but that he is made of the earth, earthy. This is not mans humiliation but his glory, because through his mortal body is to be manifested the wonderful life and disposition of Jesus Christ. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
(b) My bounty
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to god continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)
This verse comes in a chapter which is intensely practical, and which deals with our relationship to strangers as well as our relationships in the most intimate and practical matters of life. The next relationship of my body is my blood relations, my father and mother, my sister and brother, my wife, etc. Have you ever noticed that these are the relationships jesus christ refers to most often? Over and over again when our lord tells about discipleship, that is the sphere he deals with; he puts the relationships in this sphere as crucial. Read Luke 14:2627, 33, there our lord places our love for himself away beyond our love for father and mother; in fact, he uses a tremendous word: if any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, . . . He cannot be my disciple. That word hate appears to be a stumbling-block to a great number of people. It is quite conceivable that many persons have such a slight regard for their fathers and mothers that it is nothing to them to separate from them; but the word hate shows by contrast the kind of love we ought to have for our parents, an intense love; yet, says Jesus, our love for him is to be so intense that every other relationship is hatred in comparison if it should conflict with his claims.
Love for the lord is not an ethereal, intellectual, dream-like thing; it is the intensest, the most vital, the most passionate love of which the human heart is capable. The realisation of such a fathomless love is rarely conscious, saving in some supreme crisis akin to martyrdom. In the generality of our days our love for god is too deeply imbedded to be conscious; it is neither joy nor peace, it is me obsessed by god in the unconscious domain. Love, to be love, is deeper than i am conscious of, and is only revealed by crises. This intense personal love is the only kind of love there is, not divine and human love. Jesus preached his first sermon in Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and he told his
Disciples they were to begin in Jerusalem. Did Jesus Christ have such great success in Nazareth where he was known? No, he had exactly the opposite. When they heard him speak they were so filled with wrath that they broke up the service and tried to kill him. Our lord insists that we begin at Jerusalem for the sake of our own character, and our Jerusalem is unquestionably among the bounties of our own particular flesh and blood relations. It is infinitely easier to offer the sacrifice of praise before strangers than amongst our own flesh and blood. That is where the sacrifice of praise comes in, and that is what young converts want to skip. It is by testifying to our own flesh and blood that we are confirmed in our own character and in our relationship to Jesus Christ. It is recorded in Luke 4:2327, that Jesus spoke words which maddened his own people; he said, in effect, it is gods way to send his message through strangers before that message is accepted. They would not accept it from him. Why? Because they knew him, and if we look into that statement we shall find that it revolutionises a great many of our conceptions. We should naturally have said that if Jesus had testified amongst his own people, they would have gladly received him: the only place in which they did not receive him, the place in which he could not do many mighty works, was the place where he was brought up. The place in which Jesus tells us as his disciples to begin our work is amongst our own flesh and blood, that is our Jerusalem; there we shall get consolidated and know where the true basis of our life lies. We do not often put together the words sacrifice and praise. Sacrifice means giving the best we have, and it embraces an element of cost. Our own flesh and blood relationships have to be the scene of the sacrifice of praise on our part, whether it is accepted or not. That is where the sacrifice of praise comes in.
(c) my blessings
By blessings we mean our homes and our property.
Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. (Romans 12:13)
The bible has a great deal to say about hospitality and entertaining strangers. God recognises the enormous importance of our immediate circle. The term blessings includes my home and my property, all that i distinctly look upon as mine, and i have to use it with this outlook of hospitality, and immediately i do, i find how personal it is. If any stranger finds fault with my home or insults it, my resentment is intense. My home is guarded in exactly the same way as my body is guarded. It is mine, therefore it is part of the very make-up of my personality, and god will not allow me to be exclusive over it, i must keep it open, be given to hospitality. In the east they know a great deal more about hospitality than we do. By home we mean what we Britishers specially think of when we mention the word, viz. , the most intimate relationships; that is the scene where we are to be given to hospitality. The point is that we are to be given to hospitality from gods stand- point; not because other people deserve it, but because god commands it. This principle runs all through our lords teaching. My body, my blood relationships, my home i have to keep all these intimate and right, recognising the first duty in each one. My body is the temple of the holy ghost, not for me to disport myself in or to realise myself. My blood relationships unquestionably have to be recognised, but they are to be held in subjection; my first duty in them is to god; and my home is to be given to hospitality. Have you ever noticed how gods grace comes to those who are given to hospitality, if they are his children? Prosperity in home, in business, and in every way comes from following gods instructions in each detail.
2. The social me
Lo, this only have i found, that god hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. (Ecclesiastes 7:29)
The word inventions is a quaint one. It means devices arising from mans self-love. God made man upright, normal, perpendicular, regular; but he has sought out many devices, many ingenious twistings away from the normal. The social me means recognition by my set, and this is a wonderful influence with us all. For instance, a boy who is good and mild to his father and mother at home may swear like a trooper when he is with the other set, not because he is bad or evil, but because he wants to be recognised by his set. This is true all through life, and the spirit of god recognises the principle and regenerates it. We must be moulded by the set to which we belong whether we like it or not, and god may often alter our special set- ting. We may affect any amount of individuality, but it remains true that we either grovel or strut, according to our realisation of how we are recognised by the set to which we belong. The book of god is insistent on this; we cannot develop a holy life alone, it would be a selfish life, without god in it and wrong. Jesus Christ was charged with being a man gluttonous, and a wine bibber because he lived so sociably amongst men; and in his high-priestly prayer, he prays . . . Not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. The first place to which Jesus Christ led his disciples after he had said follow me, was to a marriage feast. We will come unto him, and make our abode with him, fellowship with the trinity, that is the set 188 biblical psychology
The christian is placed in. Therefore our concern is to see that we live according to the recognition of that set, and do those things which please god.
(a) my success (Matthew 5:1316)
Success means to end with advantage. What is the christian standard of success? Jesus Christ distinctly recognises that we have to succeed, and he indicates the kind of success we must have. The advantage with which we are to end is that we become preserving salt and shining lights; not losing our savour but preserving health, and not covering our light with a bushel but letting it shine. If salt gets into a wound, it hurts, and if gods children get amongst those who are raw towards god every immoral person is an open wound towards god, their presence hurts. The sun, which is a benediction to eyes that are strong, is an agony of distress to eyes that are sore. The illustration holds with regard to the man who is not right with god; he is like an open wound, and when salt has got into it, the pain stirs him first to annoyance and distress, and then to spite and hatred. That is why Jesus Christ was hated; he was a continual annoy- ance. Again, nothing is cleaner or grander or sweeter than light. Light cannot be soiled; a sunbeam may shine into the dirtiest puddle, but it is never soiled. A sheet of white paper can be soiled, so can almost any white substance, but you cannot soil light. Men and women who are rightly related to god can go and work in the most degraded slums of the cities, or in the vilest parts of heathendom where all kinds of immorality are practised, without being defiled because god keeps them like the light, unsullied.
(b) my sociability sociability
Means good fellowship. How insistent god is that we keep together in fellowship! In the natural world it is only by mixing with other people that we get the corners rubbed off. It is the way we are made naturally, and god takes this principle and transfigures it. Not forsaking the assembling of our- selves together is a scriptural injunction.
In john 5:4044 our lord distinctly indicates that he can have nothing to do with a certain class of men, viz. , with the men who receive honour one of another. He says, in effect, it is a moral impossibility for that man to believe in me. Our lord is exceedingly good company to the saints where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am i in the midst. Beware of isolation; beware of the idea that you have to develop a holy life alone. It is impossible to develop a holy life alone, you will develop into an oddity and a peculiarism, into something utterly unlike what god wants you to be. The only way to develop spiritually is to go into the society of gods own children, and you will soon find how god alters your set. God does not contradict our social instincts, he alters them. Jesus said, leap for joy when they shall separate you from their company and cast out your name as evil, for the son of mans sake, not for some crotchety notion or faddy idea of your own, or for some principle you have wedded yourself to, but, for my sake. When we are true to Jesus Christ, our sociability is lifted to a different sphere. And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (ephe- sians 2:6). We are not raised up alone, but together. All through the social instinct is god-given. From the bible standpoint, whenever a man gets alone, it is always in order to fit him for society. Getting alone with god is such a dangerous business that god rarely allows it unless it means that we come into closer contact with people afterwards. It is con- tact with one another that keeps us fullorbed and well-balanced, not only naturally but spiritually.
(c) my satisfaction
These things are applicable in the natural and the spiritual world alike. Satisfaction means comfort- able gratification. There are people who say that if you like a particular thing you must not have it, they think that any satisfaction is a sin. Satisfaction, comfortable gratification, is a good thing, but it must be satisfaction in the highest. Jesus said: blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled, i. E. , satisfied.
Matthew 10:1722 may seem an extraordinary passage to be taken in this connection. The reason it is taken is that it indicates the only place where satisfac- tion is found, viz. , in doing gods will. These verses are often applied to methods people adopt when they speak at meetings. I remember hearing a man say, i have not had much time to prepare for this morn- ings address, so i am going to give you what the holy spirit gives me; i hope to be better prepared this evening, and he used this very passage as his justification. When we seek satisfaction from god in the world of men, we shall come in contact with open wounds, and Jesus says men will hate you, systematically vex and persecute you for my sake. You will be put in all kinds of difficult places, but don’t be alarmed, the spirit of god will bring to your remembrance in those moments what you should say.
So we end where we began, that the social setting of our lives is the highest. In secret or in public the one set we are anxious to please is god the father, god the son, and god the holy spirit; and the only ones with whom we have real communion are those who have the same dominant note in their life. Whosoever shall do the will of my father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
3). The spiritual me
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in christ jesus. (ephesians 2:6)
This verse refers to now, not to hereafter.
(a) my mind
my mind means my particular cast of thought and feeling; if you ridicule that, you hurt me. Whenever a certain type of thought is ridiculed, someone is hurt. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye trans- formed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect, will of god (Romans 12:2). A wonderful thing in our spiritual experience is the way god alters and develops our sensitiveness. At one time we were amazingly sensitive to what certain people thought; then god altered that and made us indifferent to what they thought but amazingly sensitive to what other people thought, and finally we are sensitive only to what god thinks. But with me it is a very small thing that i should be judged of you, or of mans judgement: yea, i judge not mine own self. . . . But he that judgeth me is the lord (1 Corinthians 4:34). We have to be renewed in the spirit of our minds for one pur- pose, viz. , that we may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of god.
(b) my morals
my morals, i. E. , my standard of moral conduct.
Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:20)
The practical outcome of these words is astonishing; it means that my standard of moral conduct must exceed the standard of the most moral, upright man i know who lives apart from the grace of god. Think of the most upright man, the most worthy person you know who has had no experience whatever of receiving the spirit of god, Jesus Christ says, in effect, that we have to exceed his rectitude. Instead of our lord lowering the standard of moral conduct, he pushes it to a tremendous extreme. We have not only to do right things, but our motives have to be right, the springs of our thinking have to be right; we have to be so unblameable that god himself can see nothing to censure in us. That is the standard of moral conduct when we are born again of the spirit of god and are obeying him. What is my standard of moral conduct? Is it gods standard, or the modern one? The modern standard is summed up in one phrase, self-realisation. The two are diametrically opposed to one another, there is no point of reconciliation between them.
(c) my mysticism (colossi ans 2:2023)
My mysticism means my direct and immediate communion with god.
Everyone, whether he is religious or not, has something of this sort whereby he goes directly to god. Mysticism is a natural ingredient in every bodys make-up, whether they call themselves atheist, or agnostic, or christian. God does not alter the need of our nature, he fulfills the need on a totally different line. We are so mysterious in personality, there are so many forces at work in and about us which we cannot calculate or cope with, that if we refuse to take the guidance of Jesus Christ, we may, and probably shall be, deluded by supernatural forces far greater than ourselves. Jesus Christs way exalts everything about us, it exalts our bodies, exalts our flesh and blood relationships, exalts our homes, exalts our social standing, exalts all the inner part of our life, our mind and morals and mysticism, until we have atonement with god in them all.