What a man possesses v.What possesses a man - Chambers, Oswald
For a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke 12:15
This statement of our lords needs careful consideration because we dislike it strongly. The whole teaching of Jesus is opposed to the idea of civilisation, viz. , possessing things for myself this is mine. The sense of property is connected, not with the lasting element of our personality, but with that which has to do with sin; it is the sense of property that makes me want to gratify myself. Jesus Christ had no sense of property, there was never any attempt to gratify himself by possessing things for himself the son of man hath not where to lay his head. What was his, he gave i lay down my life. . . . I lay it down of myself. The thing that leads me wrong always and every time is what i am persuaded i possess. The thing that is mine is the thing i have with the power to give it. All that i want to possess without the power to give, is of the nature of sin. God has no possessions, consequently i cannot rob god of any- thing, but i rob myself of god every time i stick to what i possess. Immediately i abandon to god i get that which possesses me but has no possessions with it, there is nothing to keep. Being possessed by god means an untrammelled5 human life. God seems careless of his children from the standpoint of time; when we get to the eternal side of gods providence we find he does not estimate a man by what he possesses; the only thing he is after is union with himself, and he will obliterate all our possessions until he leaves only himself. As long as i have something from god which i possess, i have not got god. God gives us possessions in order to draw us to himself, and when we get god we are no longer conscious of our possessions, but conscious only of god. What possesses me in a yielded life to god is god himself.
According to Jesus Christ a mans life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses not only in the way of goods and chattels, but in the way of a good name, a virtuous character; these things are a mans inheritance, but not his life. When the holy spirit begins to try and break into the house of our possessions in order to grant us the real life of god, we look on him as a robber, as a disturber of our peace, because when he comes he reveals the things which are not of god and must go; and they are the things which constituted our life before he came in, our golden affections were carefully nested in them. The thing that hurts shows where we live. If god hurts it is because we are not living rightly related to him, and if we say the devil instead of god, it is evidence that we are living a sequestered life of our own apart from god. Watch the opportunities of filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.
When i am possessed by god it is not that he gives me power to love like he does, but that the very nature of god loves through me, just as he put up with the things in me which were not of him, so he puts up with the things which are not of him in others through me, and what is manifested is the love of god, the love that suffers long and is kind, the love that does Not take account of evil, the love that never fails. Just as my lord was made broken bread and poured-out wine for me, so i must be made broken bread and poured-out wine in his hands for others. What is meant by in his hands is seen in the kind of things that bruise metyrannic powers, misunderstanding people, things that ordinarily i would have resented and said, no, i cant allow that. Is there being produced in me, through the crushing of his disguised feet, the wine that is a real quickening of other lives? A yielded life to god becomes a doormat for men. He leaves us here to be trampled on.