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THE
NEW LIFE by
John Marshall
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Chapter
17 • GOOD WORKS
As
children of God we cannot remain heedless of suffering either
in the Household or in the world: what we give in help or
in money may be little more than the widow's mite compared
with the vast amount of need that exists, but it must be given
because this is our Father's wish; it is our faith, our fruit
of the spirit, our love. Our Father has so abundantly blessed
us that it should be the most natural (or spiritual) reaction
to wish to share these blessings with others. All that we
have is on loan from Him: they are His, and He wishes us to
use them to the greatest spiritual advantage.
There is no great spiritual virtue in caring for one's own
in family or ecclesial life; this is expected of us. "For
if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not
even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren
only, what do ye more than others? Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." What
is virtuous is generosity of service to those who hate us,
who may taunt us, and who may readily do anything to harm
us: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give
him drink." To persist in good works to such is properly
to manifest the generosity of the Father to all, for as Paul
says, "In so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his
head."
It is by being involved in the relief of the vast suffering
that surrounds us, by being steadfast in our devotion to the
Word of God that saves us, and by being preachers of the Christ
who died for us, that we shall be prepared for the days of
our immortality (if we are so blessed); so we shall be able
to understand the problems of the peoples of the Kingdom and
be of help to them with hands strengthened by the power of
an endless life.
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References
Matt 5v46-48, Rom 12v20
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Chapter
18 • BIBLE STUDY
We cannot recapture the joy that the disciples must have felt when
they saw, not a pain-racked body on a cross, but the immortalized
Christ invested with all authority in heaven and in earth; and it
would have been with unbounded delight that they awaited each reappearance
of their Lord.
All too soon he was to leave them, promising that he would always
be with them "even unto the end of the world". In the
meantime he appeared to them "by the space of forty days, speaking
of the things concerning the kingdom of God . . ." In his Gospel
account Luke records of this period: "Then opened he their
understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and he
said unto them, Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to
suffer, and to rise from the dead . . "
The disciples would have known their Scriptures (that is, the Old
Testament writings) far better than we do: their first lessons in
the synagogue "school", their first attempts at reading,
their first efforts at memorizing long passages would have been
from the Scriptures. But knowing the writings by heart and interpreting
them are different matters and many things that are now clear to
us, as the result of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus,
would have puzzled them.
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References
Matt 28v20, Acts 1v3 RV, Luke 24v45-6
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