The Horizon of Divine Purpose - Part 3 — T. Austin-Sparks

We ask that there may come into this very time in which we abide together a literal experience of what we have just sitting at thy feet. There would we be, there would we listen to have that blessed voice of the Lord by the Holy Spirit.

The Letter to the Philippians and the Love of Paul

This morning at least, dear friends, turning aside from the main theme of the conference led by the Lord, something which of that continuity is nevertheless of very great importance. I would ask your attention to the letter to the Philippians, the letter to the Philippians chapter four, beloved and longed, my joy and fast should God have come to have a very great regard, a very high for that beloved, feel that we, and that what he says, it represents the mind, speaks of the mind of the Lord, and he himself, the mind like these we have just read.

This is not only of these longed, my joy, my crown, a wonderful, a wonderful thing for the Lord to be able to speak like that. If Paul, happy people, if so great a servant for whom we had so good say that, of Paul for the churches, in all his letters to them, exception, unfamed and unmistakable love, variety of expression, reduce that word, that idea so often to a single conception, we have just one thought.

Corrective Love in the Corinthian Church

But when we come to this love in the New Testament, we find that it is a many side, a love with many aspects, to point out to you some of these aspects of this same love, it is always the same, though it seems at times to change, take for instance in the first place the letters to the Corinthians, and there is no question whatever of Paul's love for the Corinthian believers.

Let that be settled, be reminded of how much in those letters you are not seeing his love, and of course it is in the first letters of the Corinthians that we have a match with chapter 13. I say that for the Corinthians there is no question or doubt whatever as to Paul's love, and yet, when that is said and recognized, you listen, you hear, just as unmistakably, the marks of sadness in his face, maybe the expression, it is the note articulately, love unmistakable, it is a poor love that never corrects, indeed it is not divine love at all, it is merely human sentimentality, secretly supine, that will not even take the rod of correction and use it.

Shall I come to you as the Apostle, it is never kindness just to give an anodyne for some malady without the malady to clear it up, probably it is only going to be worse a little later on, things over, in love, what you call love, and make nothing of it, and hide it, cover it, and put the plaster on, and do that sort of thing, that is not love, that is not love, whose love was genuine divine love, went right deep down, cut right at the root of the malady, of cursing, and plaguing, and working like a cancer, amongst the saints, yes, divine love has a corrective aspect, and remember love in that way that our true Christian character, and measure, and caliber will be found out.

I am so glad that Corinthians survived this use of the rod, Paul did have to say to them that he had to speak to them as children, and not as full grown, but they seemed to grow up under the chastening very quickly, the second letter, you know, is a big change, they have survived the correction of love, and seem to have grown tremendously very quickly between the two letters, a great test to them, you read, you see, discern, as you read the first letter, you discern Paul's feelings, and Paul survived the test, because this kind of love always finds us out, it always finds us out, you see, if we are going just to remain as little children, and you know what happens to little children, they become sulky if they are corrected, they become resentful if they are corrected, they carry a grievance, children always do that, I knew somebody, even, not in childhood, but in youth, was so pissed at his mother, she was always talking about him, and what a wonderful fellow he was, whenever you met, the one subject was this son of hers, and came home in the evening world, she just fussed him about, and all that, I've lived to know in after life, never any correction, to believe that he is always right, always right, cannot be wrong, that isn't love, dear friend, that is not love, Paul said to these Corinthians, because I tell you the truth, am I become your enemy, made me your enemy, you regard me as your enemy, because I did not been faithful with you, frank with you, the second letter, it's a good thing, it's a good thing for love to be corrected, a wonderful letter the second letter is, and it's a fruitful dealings, though they were tough, hard to bear, and test, there was not the right reaction, I must not stay further with that, I pass you on to the letter to the Galatians, where we find love, is it not love, there is plenty, plenty of love in the letter to the Galatians, my little children, says the apostle, my little children, for whom I am again in travail, is that love, for the Galatians, the apostle undoubtedly loved the Galatian believers, or the believers in Galatia, but when we read this letter to the churches in Galatia, we can discern that deep undertone of love, we find that love here, mercy and wrath had so much in it, anything like, we say is that love, let's again get corrected in our ideas of love, the idea that largeness of mind, largeness of mind is often and only another term for compromise and weakness, very dangerous, let us be careful, where love cannot be weak, too much is at stake for even love to be, it is necessary for love to take on this aspect, what is it, well you see the whole point in Galatia was this point of compromise, compromise for something less than the full revelation that had come through this apostle, he had given them a wonderful unveiling of the Lord Jesus, there is no doubt about that, he could never have stood up to them as he did if they didn't know, he could never have spoken like this if they were iniquitous, they knew, but they were in danger of letting go something of what the Lord had given and shown, compromising perhaps for popularity, for what they would call influence, for standing well, for not having difficulties with others, and desiring to be in the good books of everybody and keeping in the middle of the road safety, call it by its true name, it's compromise, and if ever there was a man on this earth who apart from the Lord Jesus would never tolerate compromise and the church's inheritance if that man was the apostle Paul, and here we have him blazing and flaming in jealousy, wanted his people to have when it seemed to be threatened and in danger, it's love to be like that you see, the same love, there is no love at all, not for this only, God forbid that this should be the only time, but there is need for this to have a place, whatever it means and costs and however involved we are going to be with others, we are not going to let down one whit of all that which the Lord has revealed to us, we are not going to sacrifice one iota, we are not going to compromise on any point under any consideration, I pass hurriedly to the letter to the Ephesians, don't worry I'm not going to keep you more than a few minutes, we come to the letter to the Ephesians and if any reaches dimensions, magnitudes, it's here, I bet you go back and just read it through and you can read the whole thing through in twenty minutes, read it through again, but is it not in this very letter that we have those incomparable and matchless words about love that you being rooted and grounded in love may be strong to apprehend with all the things what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the knowledge surpassing love of God, and more than that there is no doubt about love, perception of and expression of love, but many people are afraid of the letter to the Ephesians, they are afraid of it, perhaps they are tired of it, afraid because it's so big, it defeats us, it's too deep, it carries us so far out of our depth, that is quite true, that is quite, I'm saying to fifty years or more than fifty years of reading and studying this letter, I don't feel that I have got anywhere with it yet, my one longing has been for a long time past that I could have a group of people to whom I could just get down with this letter alone, that's by the way I'm saying it's so big, but because it is like that, many are afraid of it, and their reaction is, oh let us have something more simple, something that we can understand and grasp, this is beyond love, you see that is just the setting of love here, the meaning of love, here in this letter the apostle is abandoning himself, and that's not too strong a word, to give his fullness to the church, all through that long course he has been gathering and gathering knowledge, spiritual knowledge, coming to see more and more of the vast ranges and profound depths of Jesus Christ, at last taken away from all the outward activities of church responsibility and travel and what not, he's shut up and he has the opportunity to pour in what he's got, so doing he's just overwhelming us and crushing us and beating us and breaking us, but what is the interpretation of love in that, love is never going if it is true love to allow us to settle down into the smallness and narrowness and little, our natures want that, we want that, we don't like to be stretched, we don't like to be expanded, we don't like to be pulled out of our depths, we don't like a big demands lady, we do not think it's very kind and very loving to make such demands upon us, to call upon us to rise to such, but love does that, the love of God is never going to leave us with less than all that he meant us to have, stretching, even exacting if it seems like that, his love wants us drawn to the full dimension, length and the height, this letter is a letter of immense expanses of Christ, the church has got to know by the spirit of revelation what those expanses are, and if we sometimes feel overwhelmed, broken, stand back and say I can't rise to that, I can't answer to that, love is not going to let us off, it's going to work and work beyond what is natural, capacity is an important thing when it comes to the end isn't it, I hurry to the end then, back to Philippines, oh here is love in another aspect, here is love, love overflowing, love with an unshadowed smile on it, love, love, this letter just at one point is so wrapped up in love and kindness that you hardly feel, no fiery jealous, real joy, glad that it can be like that, there are some peculiar factors which make it possible for love to be like that, why this aspect, it is an aspect, good to God that it were more possible for love, the love of the Lord to be like this always with us, but there are some things you see that make it possible and I can only just put my finger on one or two, point them out and leave them, it comes out so clearly in the letter, you read it again, the very true and real evaluation, that's what occurs quite a number of times of the gospel, of the ministry and of the vessel who had carried for them, such an evaluation born out of suffering, you never value anything unless you suffer for it, you only value a thing, you have entered into suffering for it, these people undoubtedly had to pay a heavy price in suffering, in suffering, for the gospel, for what they had received, we know the history of Philippi don't we, we know it started in suffering, with the messengers lash, Philippians had entered into that sort of thing, and they had suffered the truth, they had come through suffering to recognize that this thing was no cheap, infinite costly, it has cost Paul everything, that's what's in this letter, he emptied himself, and Paul says all the things that were gained to me I have counted lost, it was costly and they had in spirit entered into the cost and costliness of what had come to them, and they had a deep evaluation, and when it's life comes into the Lord's place, these people have recognized that what has come to them has not come easily, not come cheaply, a costly thing and they have entered into it in their own hearts and in their own lives and experiences, they have suffered, it is given to you, listen, it is given to you in the behalf of Christ not only to believe but also to say hell no wonder the apostles, no wonder the heart of the Lord like this, my brethren beloved, longed for, back where we started, do we want the Lord to be able to speak of us like that, it will be on this ground, but note this, the practical aspects of love of Philippi, there's nothing sentimental, it's very practical, they lived with him in his sufferings and sent to him for the amelioration of his sufferings, they ministered, he had to say that the Corinthians hadn't done that, they hadn't done that, they were so self-centred, Philippians, there's Paul far, far away there in Rome, he must be having a difficult time, he must be having a hard time, he must be in need of help, of financial help, he must be sometimes hungry and cold, let's do something about it, they cared, they showed concern, and they sent even unto Satan, and longed for, this attitude of the Lord taught us, this standing in the compass of his love like this, his joyful love, is set in very practical suffering.