Spiritual construct Ion—I - Chambers, Oswald

Nehemiah 4:1–6

So we built the wall. (Nehemiah 4:6)

The first essential in spiritual construction is to clear away the rubbish. Nehemiah could not begin to build until the rubbish had been dealt with (see Nehemiah 4:2). Rubbish is waste matter, and there is the moral equivalent of rubbish which must be dealt with before we can begin to build a spiritual character. We do not start with a clean sheet, we start with a sheet that is like a palimpsest, a manuscript that has been written on twice, and if the right chemical is used, the first writing is seen. We all have hereditary writing in us which is so much rubbish to be removed.

1. Destruction by neglect

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, the which is idolatry. (colossians 3:5 RV)

In this passage Paul mentions things that are of the nature of rubbish, and he mentions them in their com- plete ugliness. They are the abortion of the stuff human nature is made of, and he says, mortify them, destroy them by neglect. Certain things can only be dealt with by ignoring them; if you face them you increase their power. It is absurd to say, pray about them; when once a thing is seen to be wrong, don’t pray about it, it fixes the mind on it; never for a second brood on it, destroy it by neglect. We have no business to harbour an emotion which we can see will end in any of the things Paul mentions. No man or woman on earth is immune, each one of us knows the things we should not think about, or pray about, but resolutely neglect. It is a great thing for our moral character to have something to ignore. It is because these things are not understood that there is so much inefficiency in spiritual life. What Christianity supplies is the expulsive power of a new affection. We cannot destroy sin by neglect; god deals with sin, and we can get the effective measure of his dealing with it in our actual life.

2. Direction by sacrifice

And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:2 rv)

Sacrifice is spoken of in the bible in its disciplinary, chastening aspect as well as in its worshiping aspect. The worshiping aspect means that i give back to god the best he has given me and in this way he makes it his and mine for ever. What is the best god has given me? My right to myself. Jesus Christ is always unyielding on one point, viz. , that i must give up my right to myself to him. He does not teach the annihilation of self, he shows how self can be rightly centered in personal passionate devotion to god. Self-sacrifice may be a disease; we are not to sacrifice for our own sake, or for the sake of anyone else, but for gods sake. Why should god make it that the natural had to be sacrificed to the spiritual? God did not: god intended the natural to be transformed into the spiritual by obe- dience; sin made it necessary to sacrifice the natural. It was gods permissive will, not his order. Sanctification means not only that we are delivered from sin, but that we start on a life of stern discipline. It is not a question of praying but of performing, of deliberately disciplining ourselves. There is no royal road there; we each have it entirely in our own hands. It is not wrong things that have to be sacrificed, but right things. The good is the enemy of the best, not the bad, but the good that is not good enough. The danger is to argue on the line of giving up only what is wrong; Jesus Christ selected things essential to a fullorbed life the right hand and the eye, these are not bad things, they are creations of god. Jesus Christ talked rugged unmitigated truth, he was never ambiguous, and he says it is better to be maimed than damned. There was never a saint yet who did not have to start with a maimed life. Anyone will give up wrong things if he knows how to, but will i give up the best i have for Jesus Christ? If i am only willing to give up wrong things, never let me talk about being in love with him! We say, why shouldn’t i do it, there is no harm in it? For pitys sake, go and do it, but remember that the construction of a spiritual character is doomed once you take that line.

3. Designed by desires

Delight thyself also in the lord , and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (psalm 37:4)

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. ( john 15:7 RV )

We have any number of instincts, but very few desires. Desire is what you determine in your mind and settle in your heart and set yourself towards as good, and that is the thing god will fulfill if you delight in him that is the condition. God deals with us on the line of character building ye shall ask what ye will, said Jesus, not what you like, but what your will is in; and we ask very few things. If our desires are distorted we are apt to say that god gave us a stone when we asked for bread, whereas god always hears our prayers, but he answers them according to his own nature.

The basis of spiritual construction is implicit faith in Jesus Christ. If i stake all on his astute mind i will find i have struck bedrock. The majority of us only believe in Jesus Christ as far as we can see by our own wits. If we really believed him what a mighty difference there would be in us! We would trust his mind instead of our own, we would stop being amateur Providences over other lives, and we would be fit to do our twenty-four hours work like no one else. Except ye . . . Become as little children simple- hearted, trusting and not being afraid. You can never become a christian by thinking,

You can only become a christian by receiving some- thing from god; but you must think after you are a christian. Some folks have a cowardly fear of intellect in spiritual matters. After the war the most energetic thinking will have to be done by Christians; we must think as we have never thought before, otherwise we will be outstripped by those who think on lines which ignore Jesus Christ and endeavor to prove that the redemption is not necessary.