Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. JohnMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries; Bible. Epistle of John, 1st -- Commentaries; Bible. Peter -- Commentaries
Not less surely will the recognition that the form and amount of the
grace of God, which is possessed by each, is determined by the faith of
each, lead to tolerance of the diversity of gifts. We have received our
own proper gift of God, that which the strength and purity of our faith
is capable of possessing, and it is not for us to carp at our brethren,
either at those in advance of us or at those behind us. We have to
remember that as it takes all sorts of people to make up a world, so it
takes all varieties of Christian character to make a church. It is the
body and not the individual members which represents Christ to the
world. The firmest adherence to our own form of the universal gift will
combine with the widest toleration of the gifts of others. The white
light appears when red, green, and blue blend together, not when each
tries to be the other. 'Every man hath his own proper gift of God, one
after this fashion and another after that,' and we shall be true to the
boundlessness of the gift and to the limitations of our own possession
of it, in the measure of which we combine obedience to the light which
shines in us, with thankful recognition of that which is granted to
others.
The contrast between these two must be kept vivid if we would live in
the freedom of the hope of the glory of God, for in the contrast lies
the assurance of endless growth. A process is begun in every Christian
soul of which the only natural end is the full possession of God in
Christ, and that full possession can never be reached by a finite
creature, but that does not mean that the ideal mocks us and retreats
before us like the pot of gold, which the children fancy is at the end
of the rainbow. Rather it means a continuous succession of our
realisations of the ideal in ever fuller and more blessed reality. In
this life we may, on condition of our growth in faith, grow in the
possession of the fulness of God, and yet at each moment that possession
will be greater, though at all moments we may be filled. In the
Christian life to-morrow may be safely reckoned as destined to be 'as
yesterday and much more abundant,' and when we pass from the
imperfections of the most perfect earthly life, there will still remain
ever before us the glory, which, according to the measure of our
capacity, is also in us, and we shall draw nearer and nearer to it, and
be for ever receiving into our expanding spirits more and more of the
infinite fulness of God.
THE GOAL OF PROGRESS
'Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 13
(R.V.).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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