Spiritual construction—III - Chambers, Oswald

Do It!
John 13:13–18

We have to recognise that we are one half mechanical and one half mysterious; to live in either domain and ignore the other is to be a fool or a fanatic. The great supernatural work of gods grace is in the incalculable part of our nature; we have to work out in the mechanical realm what god works in in the mysterious realm. People accept creeds, but they will not accept the holy standards of Jesus Christs teaching. To build on the fundamental work of gods grace and ignore the fact that we have to work it out in a mechanical life produces humbugs, those who make a divorce between the mysterious life and the practical life. In john 13 the myste- rious and the mechanical are closely welded together.

1. The lordship of Jesus

Ye call me master and lord: and ye say well; for so i am. If i then, your lord and the master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one anothers feet. ( john 13:14)

Verse 13 refers to the spiritual mastery of Jesus over his disciples; verse 14 states how that mastery is to be expressed in the mechanical life. You cant wash any bodys feet mysteriously; it is a purely mechanical, matter-of-fact job; you cant do it by giving him devotional books or by praying for him; you can only, wash anybodys feet by doing something mechanical. Our lord did not tell the disciples how they were to do it: he simply says do it. He is not questioning whether or not they can do it; he is saying that they must do what the mastery of his ruling shows them they should do. Our bodily habits are purely mechanical, and the revolution caused in individual lives by our lords salvation is that he enables us to do what he commands us to do, if we will but practise the doing. Habits are built up, not by theory, but by practise. The one great problem in spiritual life is whether we are going to put gods grace into practise. God wont do the mechanical; he created us to do that; but we can only do it while we draw on the mysterious realm of his divine grace. If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. We have to remember that there is a domain of our life that is handed over to mechanism; god will not work it for us, but if we obey his spirit we shall find we can make this mechanism work out gods will exactly. Beware of any spiritual emotion that you do not work out mechanically; whenever in devotion before god his spirit gives a clear indication of what he wants you to do, do it. The way to examine whether we are doing what Jesus Christ wants us to do is to look at the habits of our life in three domains physical, emotional, and intellectual. The best scrutiny we can give ourselves is along this line: are my bodily habits chaste? Is my emotional nature inordinate? Is my intellectual life insubordinate? When we begin to work out what god has worked in, we are faced with the problem that this physical body, this mechanism, has been used by habit to obeying another rule called sin; when Jesus Christ delivers us from that rule, he does not give us a new body, he gives us power to break and then remould every habit formed while we were under the dominion of sin. Much of the misery in our christian life comes not because the devil tackles us, but because we have never understood the simple laws of our make-up. We have to treat the body as the servant of Jesus Christ: when the body says sit, and he says go, go! When the body says eat, and he says fast, fast! When the body says yawn, and he says pray, pray! Education is for the purpose of behaviour, and habits are the stuff out of which behaviour is formed. The difference between an educated and an uneducated person lies just here when an educated person is put into new circumstances, he always knows how to behave because his mind is stored with examples of right behaviour. When an uneducated person comes into a new situation he does not know what to do and behaves in an ignorant manner. Spiritual education and habit go together in this connection, that i learn to make my body act quickly along the line of educa- tion the holy spirit has given me, then when i find myself in new circumstances i shall not be helpless because i have educated myself according to the laws of gods grace.

2. The example of Jesus

For i have given you an example, that ye should do as i have done to you. ( john 13:15)

Jesus did not tell the disciples to imitate him in washing one anothers feet; the one thing he condemned was imitation before the life was there. For instance, when he set before them a little child and said except ye . . . Become as little children, he did not mean they were to act like babies; he was telling them to be as simple and artless in their relationship to god as a child is in relation to his father. If we try to imitate Jesus Christ we produce a mechanical

Exhibition of what we are ourselves, the life is not there, we are spiritual frauds, and everybody knows it. But our lords teaching is clear if i am your lord and master, it means you have received my spirit, then you will do what i do, and our habits are copies of the true indwelling spirit of Jesus. The disciples had not always been in the relation of disciples to Jesus, but now they are his disciples and as such he says to them, do as i have done to you. When you see a thing should be done, the command of Jesus is always do it. Beware of saying, i must go and tell Mrs. So-and-so to do that, she is just suited for it; it is for you to do. There must be a mechanical outlet for spiritual inspiration. You must do what you see, or become blind in that particular. In order to obey our lord we must accumulate all possible circumstances to reinforce the right motive. It is easy to sit in a drawing-room and think about the terrible condition of things in the world, and pray and senti mentalise over it to further orders; 16 but jesus says, i have given you an example, that you should go and do to others what i have done to you. If all Jesus Christ had done was to have sat before his fathers throne and prayed for us, we would have been exonerated for leaving things undone, but he has given us an example to follow. Never allow that your circumstances exonerate you from obeying any of the commands of Jesus. The lessons which have to be repeated are those we have not bothered our heads to learn.

3. The warning of Jesus

I speak not of you all: i know whom i have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, he that eateth my bread lifted up his heel against me. ( john 13:18 RV )

Any one of us can lift our heel, our mechanical life, against Jesus Christs dominion, and while eating his bread play the traitor to him in private. No one preaches more earnestly, talks more earnestly, than we do, we are absolutely sincere, but we are not real because we have never acted when the opportunity occurred along the line Jesus Christ wants us to. The thing the world is sick of to-day is sincerity that is not real. So much depends on a simple understanding of the mechanical laws of our nature. The only one who knows the mysterious, unfathomable depths of our personality is god; we have to deal with the practical part, and see that we have faith in god with regard to the mysterious part while we obey him in the practical domain. Jesus Christ lived the only sane life that ever was lived. In his life the mysterious and the mechanical were wrought into one wonderful unique personality, and it is his life that is to be manifested in our mortal flesh.