Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: August 27th

When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. - 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

DO we thus receive the Scriptures? What have we realized of God in them? and what do we owe to these Scriptures in a way of duty? Surely, in the first place, we owe nothing less than to peruse them. David said, “The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver;” and the celebrated Robert Boyle said, “I would prefer a single twig of the tree of life to all the riches of the world.”

Secondly, We should believe them. The Scriptures will not profit unless they are mixed with faith in them that hear and read them. Are not many practical unbelievers? Could those trifle with its hallowed pages as sometimes they do, making them only a subject of curiosity, if they really believed the Scriptures?

Thirdly, And what less can this duty be than to understand them? It is a sad thing that many professors of religion are so shamefully ignorant of the Scriptures, in consequence of which they are so liable to err,-so liable to be led away with the error of the wicked, and carried away by every wind of doctrine, so as not to know the way wherein they should walk, or the things which they should do. Let us then “search the Scriptures,” and seek after more acquaintance with “Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Fourthly, We should practise what the Scriptures teach. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” We shall never regard the Scriptures properly till we find them a “light unto our feet and a lamp unto our path.” There is nothing in the Bible but has a practical aim and tendency. Its “doctrines are according to godliness;” its exceeding great and precious promises are given us, that “by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption of the world through lust.”

Fifthly, This duty cannot include less than our distributing them. The Scriptures were designed for all; they have not reached their end when they reached only us. As we have become possessors, we are also to become dispensers of them. The Scriptures are not given us as a legacy only to enjoy, but as a talent also to employ. We have them not for ourselves only, but also for others; therefore, as the apostle says, “Their debtors ye are.” And those professors are dishonest who withhold from them their rights, and embezzle what was only intrusted to them for the sake of others.

And there are diversities of operations; but it is the same God which worketh all in all. - 1 Corinthians 12:6.

IF we take a comprehensive view of the whole human family, we shall find existing among them numberless and striking differences. They differ in their country, their condition, their complexion, in their stature, in their speech, in their apparel, and in their manners. Yet there is also a great resemblance among them. They all walk erect; they all reach maturity by degrees; they all eat, and drink, and sleep; they all decay and die. And we should observe that the things in which they agree are far more important than those in which they differ. The resemblance regards what is essential in human nature. The variety is what is accidental only. That which makes us rich or poor, European or African, is far inferior to that which constitutes us men.

This may be considered an image of the Church of God. Let Christians differ in their opinions, in their speculations, in their discipline, in their various religious usages, in their forms and ceremonies-these are only the dress of religion; the body is essentially the same. God has promised “I will give them one heart and one way.” And he has ever since been fulfilling this in every age of the world.

Under every dispensation and in every grade of society, his people have been the same; their wants the same; their dependence the same; their tastes the same; and their principles the same. Hence the prayers and praises of those who lived very remote from us, both as to time and place, furnish mediums for the expression of our own desires and complaint. Whatever differences may characterise them, they can all adopt as their own the language of David, when he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me;” or the language of Jeremiah, when he says, “Heal me, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; or the language of Nehemiah, when he says, “Remember me, O my God, for good.”