CONDITIONED TO ENDURE
2 Tim. 2:3
Morning Meditation 8/4/2015
Verse 3 says, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
Tozer said, “In our eagerness to make converts I am afraid we have lately been guilty of using the technique of modern salesmanship, which is of course to present only the desirable qualities in a product and ignore the rest. We go to men and offer them a cozy home on the sunny side of the brae (hill). If they will accept Christ He will give them peace of mind, solve their problems, prosper their business, protect their families and keep them happy all day long. They believe us and come, and the first cold wind sends them shivering to some counselor to find out what has gone wrong; and that is the last we hear of many of them.”
I continue to quote Tozer: “The teachings of Christ reveal Him to be a realist in the finest meaning of that word. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find anything visionary or over optimistic. He told His hearers the whole truth and let them make up their minds. He might grieve over the retreating form of an inquirer who could not face up to the truth, but He never ran after him to try to win him with rosy promises. He would have men follow Him, knowing the cost, or He would let them go their ways.”
“All this is but to say that Christ is honest. We can trust Him. He knows that He will never be popular among the sons of Adam and He knows that His followers need not expect to be. The wind that blows in His face will be felt by all who travel with Him, and we are not intellectually honest when we try to hide that face from them.”
Jesus conditioned His followers to endure. We should do no less. There is that temptation to soften by our presentation the harsh reality of “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” We who believe the gospel love the lost and desire their conversion and know if they truly experience it, they will be able to see things from our viewpoint. Salvation does bring a new power of perception of spiritual things. But in stark reality the change that brings about this change cannot take place unless the candidate has been told the naked truth without any softening of the message. Jesus was not a modern psychologist who had figured out a way to slip in the Sword without pain. The message of the cross offends the natural man (Gal. 5:11). The Bible is a Two Edged Sword: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). A friend of mine told about a lady who had wandered out of an alley screaming for help. She had her insides in her hands and said, “I’ve been gutted. Someone call for help.” Well, when the Word of God penetrates deeper than anything has ever been you are brought by it to the brink of the abyss and you are given the opportunity to accept or reject God’s remedy. Jesus always gave those with whom He dealt the opportunity to say no without begging for a change of mind. Now to the over zealous, this will be offensive. Just remember this. “He that is persuaded against his will is of the same persuasion still.”
I believe the churches are being filled with people who have never repented and have been told that they can have all of this down here and heaven too. “God wants you to be prosperous. God does not want you to be sick. Send me your money and I’ll pray for you, etc., etc.”
This is not what the Bible teaches. Jesus had a tough message for the present life. He informed His disciples that they would be persecuted. Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.”
Jesus is clear in His message. He is conditioning them to endure. He does this by telling them, “IF the world hate you (and it will), ye know that it hated me before it hated you.” Jesus is telling them in advance that becoming my disciples has put you at odds with the world around you. The world hates me and since I am going to relive my life through you after I am gone they are going to hate you as they hate me. They are going to express that hatred toward you in the same way they have expressed it toward me.
Then He gives the reason why the world can’t cope with Me or you: “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you..” I want to ask you. How would you feel, if in the next few minutes, a UFO from some foreign planet were to light in your front yard and these little green men got out and came up to your door and said we would like to come in for a visit and tell you how you can become like us and become citizens of the world from which we come. And someday you can go there and live forever. Most of us wouldn’t like that very well. In fact, we would probably run out of our shoes on the way to the phone to dial 911. And the conversation would go something like this: “these little green men are at our door presently. They want to come in and tell us how to become like them and go to their world some day and live forever.” There is silence on the other end of the line for a moment. Then a voice that is on the edge of laughter comes back and says, “Would you please repeat what you just said?” Well, you repeat what you just said. And the person on the other end of the line says, “We are sending you help. Just be calm. Stay on the line while the two psychiatrists and three psychologists are on their way! They will be there shortly.” Well, what would you tell them? We are nut cases to the world around us. They didn’t understand Jesus and they won’t understand us.
Jesus conditioned His disciples for endurance. He places a high price on endurance. “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Pet. 1:6-8).
We need to ask ourselves, “What would it take to stop us?” Millions of Christians have literally died during the ages because they had in them the Spirit of martyrdom from the Lord and would not compromise. I confess, I am not of this world. My hope and primary enjoyment is not of this world. I would rather spend time with Jesus than anyone in this world. And I look forward to the time when I will go to meet Him as Enoch did and leave this earthly scene so that I will no longer be a pilgrim. I am already a registered citizen of that heavenly city and I will be no stranger there.
May the Lord bless each of you.
In Christ
Bro. White
