Daily Devotionals

Charles Spurgeon's "Morning & Evening"

Devotional: March 30th

Morning

“Fear God. Honour the king.”

1 Peter 2:13-25

1 Peter 2:13 , 1 Peter 2:14

True religion is always the friend of order, as well as of liberty. The gospel is no doctrine of anarchy, and the Christian is no fomenter of strife,

1 Peter 2:13 , 1 Peter 2:14

Civil government is necessary for the well-being of mankind, and those who delight in the law of the Lord are among the last to wish to see its power weakened, or its executive despised. We had sooner suffer wrong, than see our country the prey of lawless mobs.

1 Peter 2:15

Men are ready enough to speak against our holy faith, and in Peter’s day the charge was laid against Christians that they were the enemies of social order; the habitual obedience of Christians to the laws of the countries in which they were scattered was the most conclusive answer to the calumny.

1 Peter 2:16

Believers are the freest of men, but they know the difference between liberty and license. As servants of the Lord, they submit for peace sake to man’s laws, because their Great Lawgiver so commands.

1 Peter 2:17

This is quite as much our duty as to honour the king. Manhood deserves honour, not wealth, dress, rank, and so on, but man, as our own flesh and blood; for however poor or obscure a man may be, he is a man for all that, and as such must not be treated as if he were a beast.

1 Peter 2:17

Four precepts which are meant to balance one another. There should be a blending of them all in our lives.

1 Peter 2:17

fear or respect

1 Peter 2:19 , 1 Peter 2:20

Ordinary people can do that, but Christians are extraordinary men, and must rise to the highest style of virtue;

1 Peter 2:19 , 1 Peter 2:20

but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Many will say, “If I had deserved it, I should not have cared about it.” But it is evident that were we guilty we ought to care all the more. If we are wise, we shall feel that if we do not deserve a rebuke, we can bear it patiently, and thank God for the grace which enables us to rejoice amidst it all.

1 Peter 2:23

What an example! May the Holy Spirit enable us to imitate it. He was the paragon of patience, the mirror of endurance. He was absolutely perfect, and yet was infinitely a sufferer, but he never complained, or resented wrong. Master of Patience, teach thy disciples.

1 Peter 2:25

Let us then follow our Shepherd wherever he leads the way. Especially in the paths of sacred patience and forbearance, let us walk in close attendance upon him. For this we need thy grace, O Spirit of love!

My dear Redeemer and my Lord,

I read my duty in thy word;

But in thy life the law appears

Drawn out in living characters.

Such was thy truth, and such thy zeal,

Such deference to thy Father’s will,

Such love, and meekness so divine,

I would transcribe and make them mine.

Be thou my pattern; make me bear

More of thy gracious image here;

Then God, the Judge, shall own my name

Amongst the followers of the Lamb.

Evening

“So shall we ever be with the Lord.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 , 1 Thessalonians 5:1-10

1 Thessalonians 4:13

We may sorrow, but with measure and limit. We know that the souls of departed believers are safe, and that their bodies will rise from the grave: wherefore, then, should we weep and lament as the heathen and the unbelieving do?

1 Thessalonians 4:14

Note the words, “sleep in Jesus.” Death does not break the union between Jesus and his saints. We are one with him eternally; and therefore as surely as Jesus rose, so surely must all the members of his mystical body rise also.

1 Thessalonians 4:15

Lord shall not prevent anticipate or take precedence of

We shall in no respect fare better. To sleep in Jesus is no dishonour to saints, and it shall not place them in a second class. They shall be in all things equal to those who survive till the Lord comes. We need not therefore dread death, nor feel any overweening desire to live till the second advent. That the Lord shall come is our confidence; that we shall escape death by his coming is but a poor subject for congratulation. It will give us no gain over the sacred dead.

1 Thessalonians 4:16

So that, in order, those who have died will have the preference. Their glory is reached first:

1 Thessalonians 4:17

The resurrection first, then the rapture, and the eternal abode with Jesus. Fairest of hopes, art thou ours?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-10

1 Thessalonians 4:2

Unexpectedly to those who have slighted the warnings of prophecy.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

Certainly, suddenly, irresistibly. Turn which way they will they shall find no safety, no deliverance.

1 Thessalonians 4:4

Unrevealed though the time be, your faith stands on the watch, and you are prepared.

1 Thessalonians 4:5 , 1 Thessalonians 4:6

Privilege involves responsibility. Are we children of the light? Then we are bound to be awake. The sons of darkness may legitimately slumber, but we must not, or we shall be unpardonably inconsistent.

1 Thessalonians 4:7

Drunkenness in those days had not grown so brazen-faced as now, men who were given to intoxication reserved their revels for the darkness which would veil them. It would ill become us who have heavenly light to fall into the vices of nature’s midnight.

1 Thessalonians 4:8-10

Jesus’ great love can only fitly be acknowledged by the entire consecration of our redeemed manhood to him, at all times and in all places. Spirit of holiness, work in us communion with Jesus and conformity to him. Amen.

Hear what the voice from heaven proclaims

For all the pious dead,

Sweet is the savour of their names,

And soft their sleeping bed.

They die in Jesus, and are bless’d;

How kind their slumbers are!

From sufferings and from sins released,

And freed from every snare.