3 John 1:7-8 Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.… What distinguishing honour has God put upon His chosen that He not only makes them partakers of His grace, but instruments for communicating that grace to others? Not the intellectual and the learned alone, not the bishop and the priest alone, but the weak and the despised. I. THE PRECIOUS TREASURE CONFIDED TO THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. "The Truth." It is the Truth of God. Not merely as all truth may be said to be of God. It is not truth as gathered up from the works of God, it is not truth as wrought out by the efforts of human reason, it is not truth as discovered by investigating the mysterious page of providence, of which the apostle speaks, but it is the Truth revealed by God Himself. The Truth of God. Because "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God." The Truth of God: which He has authenticated by incontestable miracles, to which He has given the stamp and character of His own glory. The Truth of God: because, as God hath recorded it, so God conveys it to the believing mind and heart. It is written, "All thy children shall be taught of God." It is the Truth of God that is entrusted to us, and it is the truth touching eternity. Take away this simple word and you take from the world all its moral, spiritual, eternal light. It is, too, the truth unto salvation. It does not merely reveal our origin, our duty, our destiny; it does not merely unfold to us the law that we have transgressed; it does not merely thus reveal to man what will deepen his guilt and darken his doom; but it does all this to prepare the way for the disclosures of that unspeakable work — the redemption of lost mankind through the incarnation, death, and blood of God's own Son. II. WHAT IS THE DUTY OF THOSE TO WHOM GOD HAS CONFIDED SO UNTOLD A TREASURE? what is their duty towards that truth? "We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth." And first of all, it is clear, our duty is to "receive the truth in the love of it" for our own souls. What mean we to aid in building the ark if we ourselves do not enter it? But if we "receive the truth in the love of it," it is clear from the whole tendency of the gospel that we shall look upon that truth us a treasure confided to us us stewards, and "it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." The truth is evidently not designed for the few, but for the many; not for some one chosen nation, but for the whole world. There is no exclusiveness in the gospel. Then "the truth as it is in Jesus" cannot communicate itself. God has made no provision for the truth to be self-propagated. He hath not ordained that it should be so much spread abroad by the written hook as that it should be proclaimed principally by the living voice. It is dear, therefore, that the truth is confided to the Church, that the Church may be "fellow-helper to the truth," aiding it in its glorious career; giving it its chariot in which it may ride on "conquering and to conquer"; supplying, if we may so speak, the gale that is to spread the sails of the vessel, freighted with the "pearl of great price," that it may bear it round the world. III. HOW CAN WE DISCHARGE OURSELVES OF THIS RESPONSIBILITY? and how can the lowliest amongst us discharge his duty in this high matter? (H. Stowell, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.WEB: because for the sake of the Name they went out, taking nothing from the Gentiles. |
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