Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: February 22nd

This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. - 1 John 5:4.

“BE of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Thus did our Lord assure to his disciples the victory over the world, as if he had said, I have found it from the beginning to be an enemy, but it has not conquered me and it shall not conquer you; I have overcome it for you, and, because I have overcome, you shall overcome also; and, “because I live, ye shall live also.” But what is the Christian’s victory now over the world? It is not fleeing from the world,-fleeing is not fighting,-but it is their abiding in the situation and calling in which they are placed by God; discharging with diligence and zeal the duties pertaining to them; bearing with patience, and firmness, and privation, the trials incident to them; avoiding the snares and the corruptions that are inherent in them; resisting the temptations belonging to them, and using all the opportunities afforded them to “do good as they have opportunity unto all men,” and to “serve their generation according to the will of God.”

It is to be undismayed by the frowns of their adversaries, and to pursue their work however they may oppose, or threaten, or persecute. It is to be unseduced by their smiles, by their allurements, by their promises. It is to act independently of them, from conviction and disposition. It is not to be “conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind.” It is to dare to be singular, like Noah, in an ungodly world. It is to be able to say, with David, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I will keep the commandments of my God,” or with Joshua, “Choose this day whom ye will serve; but, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The man who thus lives overcomes the world; the man who thus lives, though he is in the world, is not of it; he is in the world as the soul is in the body,-in it, indeed, but not of it,-in it, but of another quality. And however busy this man may be, however much he may be engaged in the things and with the men of the world, yet such a man as this is not carried away by what the apostle calls “the cares of this world,” and he is not acted upon by what he calls “the spirit of the world.” He has received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.

But now let us notice how the victory is achieved:- “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,” and by no other means is it possible to overcome. It is only by faith that the secret is manifested to the conscience that “the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God.” It is faith that with a trumpet-voice says to the man, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world.” It is faith alone that can loosen him from the dominion of things seen and temporal, by revealing to him the things that are not seen and eternal. It is this faith that not only brings heavenly grace within his view, but within his reach; and it enables him to say, “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever,”-when he can say, “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.”

“When I can say my God is mine,

When I can feel his glories shine,

I tread the world beneath my feet,

And all that earth calls good or great.”

He became poor. - 2 Corinthians 8:9.

FROM the Saviour’s greatness let us pass to His humiliation. We are not to suppose from hence that he ceased to be what he had been, or that he divested himself of the prerogatives of Deity. This was impossible; but he veiled them. The first degree of his humiliation was his assuming our nature. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” It would have been a low stoop in him if he had taken upon him the nature of angels; but he stooped much lower. “Because the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.”

The next degree in his humiliation was the manner in which he became incarnate. Jesus appeared in no worldly grandeur; nothing could be more obscure, abased, abject, than the circumstances attending his birth: born in a stable and laid in a manger. His mother acknowledged to God the “low estate of his handmaiden.” Nor was he exempted from the weakness of infancy. He tottered before he could walk, lisped before he could speak; he passed from ignorance to knowledge; he increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. He was brought up at no university, and was not trained at the feet of any Gamaliel. Therefore the people said, “Whence hath this man knowledge? seeing he was never taught.” He was poor in accommodation. He said himself, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” He was poor in reputation. He was “a worm, and no man.” He was called “a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, and the friend of publicans and sinners;” a Samaritan, an enemy of Cæsar, and a blasphemer of Moses. He was poor in sympathy. The feelings of persons struggling with hardships, or under sorrow, are often relieved when they excite commiseration and notice; for it is natural for the sufferer to exclaim, “Pity me, pity me, oh ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.” “I looked,” said he, in his agony, “for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” Where is the multitude he fed with the loaves and fishes? Where are the blind whose eyes he opened? And his disciples, where are they all? They have forsaken him, and fled. Angels who ministered to him in the wilderness, where are ye? Almighty God, where art thou? “My God, my God,” he cries, “why hast thou forsaken me?”