Daily Devotionals

Mornings and Evenings with Jesus

Devotional: October 2nd

A chosen generation. - 1 Peter 2:9.

IT is of Christians the apostle is here speaking. We allow there is an especial reference to the Jews as the commonwealth of Israel, and in an important sense the words may be exemplified in their privileges and prerogatives; they were indeed “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people.” But they were always designed to be typical of another, a nobler community. “For,” says the apostle, “if we are Christ’s then are we Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.’ We may observe, therefore, while there is a reference to the Jews, the representation is intended to be significant of real Christians who, as the apostle says, are “the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, and who have no confidence in the flesh.” We must not judge of persons by their outward rank, but by their spirituality.

The precious sons of Zion, says Jeremiah, “comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter.” But if they are afflicted they are comforted in all their affliction and distress. If they are poor in this world’s good, they are “rich in faith,” and rich towards God. If they are despised and rejected of men, they are “chosen of God and precious.” They are here described as a “chosen generation.” A generation is a duration of beings measured by an age. Hence it is said, “David served his generation according to the will of God;” that is, he served those who lived in his days. A generation means posterity, and it is used for offspring. Thus, it is written, “The generation of the upright shall be blessed.” They are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. Of the Messiah it is predicted, “He shall see his seed;” and again, “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.”

Mortality enters the church as well as the world. “Our fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?” Those who are partakers of divine grace “are not suffered to continue by reason of death.” But if they die, others rise up in their room, and thus the generation remain, and will remain to the end of time; and the “gates of hell”-that is, of death and the grave-“shall not prevail against them.” But they are a chosen generation.

It is absurd to suppose that God does any thing without design, or that he does what he does without choosing to do it. This choice regards, not, as some persons imagine, things only, but persons, and not only persons collectively, but individually; and not only has a regard to temporal, but a reference to eternal, concerns. And this choice was not only free and sovereign, but altogether gracious. Therefore, saith the apostle, as the ground of his argument, because “God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation, through the sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth,” they are “a chosen generation.”

Whosoever will be chief among you let him he your minister, even as the Son of man came not to he ministered unto but to minister. - Matthew 20:27-28.

WHEN a man rises above his fellow-creatures; when he ascends a little in the world, he is generally attended by a number of servants. The fact is this, man must be great, and as he is not so really, and cannot be so really, he must be so in appearance. It is worthy of observation that titles, and a thousand other things that are supposed to indicate greatness, are really and only founded on a want of it; for if men were sufficient without these, they would be unnecessary. But, alas, poor little man cannot get on without them, and thus the shadow of greatness is called in to supply the place of the reality.

But the Lord of all came not be ministered unto but to minister. And what is the proper use we ought to make of this fact? It would be an abuse of it if we were to run down in consequence of it the distinctions of life, for the Scripture always countenances these, and enforces the various duties arising from them; and not only the social welfare, but the individual welfare of man requires the maintenance of them. But there are two views to which we should apply these representations. The first is, To admire the Saviour’s condescension. Condescension must be viewed by the previous dignity of the being who stoops. What a stoop indeed! “Ye know,” says the Apostle, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”

The second is, To resemble him therein. God forbid that ever we should consider him as some do-a mere example. He is infinitely more than an example, yet “he that saith he abideth in him ought himself to walk even as he walked.” And herein is the advantage of our evangelical system-while we proclaim him to be our sacrifice our righteousness, our strength, our God, yet we are at liberty to speak of him as our Exemplar. We should look at him and learn how to bear and forbear, and to walk in love as he also hath loved us. This is what the Apostle enjoined upon the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” And what was this mind? We may learn from what goes immediately before, “Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory, but in lowliness of mind; let each esteem others better than himself. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” But we learn more from what follows: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.”

Alas, that there should be those who bear his name who are seeking great things for themselves and cherishing a fondness of distinction, and who refuse to condescend to men of lowly condition; who are haughty and disdainful in their deportment, refusing to perform an humble office for a fellow-creature or a fellow-Christian when Providence places an opportunity for this in their way. Alas, that there are those who, while they give a little of their substance, seldom, if ever, “visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction,” unlike him who came “not to be ministered unto but to minister.”