Lecture IX · Conversation becoming the Gospel

The word ‘conversation, as employed in modern English, designates one element of our social life, the interchange of thought by speech; but at the time our version of the Bible as made, it meant ‘a course of life or conduct’ generally ; und wherever it occurs in the Bible, which it does often, his is its meaning. The line of thought will in most cases lead readers of any intelligence instinctively to give the Ὅ something like its correct force; except perhaps in 2 Pet. ii. 7, where, in the statement that ‘just Lot was _ vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked,’ there may be a risk of its being taken in the modern sense, which covers only a portion of the meaning. In the _ passage now before us the word employed in the original is not that usually rendered ‘conversation, but one which gives an

interesting peculiarity of colouring to the general idea of ‘course of life.’ It denotes specifically ‘life as citizens.” ‘Our citizenship is in heaven,’ says the apostle further on in the Epistle (111. 20),—for such is his statement, the word there translated ‘conversation’ being a sister form of that which occurs here ; and his present injunction is that his readers should, even whilst as yet out in the wilderness, or at least at a distance from the centre of the city, where the King’s palace stands, remember ever their privileges and responsibilities, and live as ‘children of Zion’—persons enrolled among the citizens of the city of God. This thought has evidently a special fitness and force in a letter addressed to the Christians of Philippi,— who, living in a Roman colony, saw everywhere pride in the possession of the most illustrious earthly citizenship, and had themselves witnessed the assertion of its privileges by Paul and Silas, when Paul said to the serjeants and the jailor, ‘ They have beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily ; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.’

The gospel being the charter of the sublime citizenship enjoyed by Christians, the apostle calls on his readers to discharge the functions connected with their privilege in a manner such as ‘ becometh the gospel of Christ,—as elsewhere he calls on us to ‘walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called,’ to ‘walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,’ to ‘walk worthy of God who hath called us unto His kingdom and glory.’ A glance at the prominent features of the gospel will enable us at once to see the outlines of the character which ‘ becometh’ those who believe it.

lement of our being, which ought to be subject, not sovereign, we think little about our souls. We dislike reflection, because we find it to awaken doubts and fears. Thus we are in great measure strangers to ourselves. Now Christ, whilst offering salvation for the whole man, offers it through the moral nature. The body follows the condition of the soul. Hence the tone ringing through all the instructions and promises of the gospel is, ‘What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?’ Accordingly, a life becoming this gospel will certainly be one ‘in which, at all times, the soul’s interests are regarded and treated as of foremost moment. Alas, then, dear brethren, how very wzbecoming the gospel the lives of many who call themselves Christians are! Might not one reasonably suppose a forgetfulness of the interests of the soul to be the key to very much of their affections and conduct? Let us think how the case stands with ourselves.

Again, the gospel is a divine message of grace; and therefore a conversation becoming it will be one in which happiness and gratitude are manifested. ‘Good tidings of great joy,— trustworthy news of forgiveness for sinners, free and full,—this is the gospel. Now what will accord with the belief of this? The heart will be lightened of a heavy burden, will it not? The eye, bright with joy and thankfulness, will see a new beauty shed over the whole world. ‘

Sweet as home to pilgrim weary,

Light to newly opened eyes, Water-springs in deserts dreary, Is the rest the cross supplies.’

Further,—the gospel reveals an open way of access to God; and hence a conversation becoming it will be a life of child-— like reliance on God, and communion with Him. The root of all sin is the desire to be independent of God: ‘ Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.’ Every unconverted man acts as if he were independent, and, under one disguise or another to his own mind of the monstrous folly, tries to believe himself independent. In regard to” outward things, however, the delusion of independence often — fails. In seasons of sudden distress, when the soul is stirred to its depths by mortal fear or by bitter sorrow, the sense of impotence and dependence forces itself on the heart, and out of these depths comes a cry to God. The careless, sin-loving sailor drops, in the darkness of night, from the slippery shrouds into a stormy sea ; the slumbering landsman who went prayerless to rest, is roused from his dreams to fin his house on fire, and the flames roaring around him even i a ἶν. —_ “a the bed-chamber: ah! brethren, in times like these, when the truest and deepest nature will have her own, then comes forth an agonized appeal to the mercy of God. When Jonah’s heathen mariners were afraid, because the Lord had sent out a great tempest into the sea, they ‘cried every man unto his _ god;’ and the shipmaster said unto Jonah, ‘What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.’ With the unbeliever, however, this sense of dependence is only occasional, and of partial reference. In the Christian it is habitual, and universal in its sweep. The gospel, as we have seen, exhibits the interests of the soul as of supreme importance ; and in regard to its welfare the Christian feels his dependence on God to be as absolute as with reference to outward safety and comfort. He feels his need of the influences of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten and quicken, sanctify and comfort. He sees that Jesus has rent the veil, and opened a way by which through faith he may enter into the Most Holy Place, and with acceptance hold fellowship with God. He enters, and asks, and receives. He finds it ineffably sweet to pour out his heart before his Father ; and thus, as his knowledge and faith of the gospel grow, prayer becomes increasingly habitual to him, until it may be said of him that ‘he dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, _ abiding under the shadow of the Almighty.’ To speak of a prayerless Christian is to say that which is self-contradictory, as _ if one spoke of a dutiful and affectionate child who habitually _ shunned his father.

and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself,—then, looking in upon our hearts, and round upon our lives, and comparing them with God’s standard, we cannot but cry, “ Unclean, unclean ;’ for ‘we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.’ When He leads us to think of the misery of the world, too,—of pestilence and war, of sickness and pain, of bereavement and disappointment and remorse, of the mysteriousness and frequent agony of death, and of the revealed and anticipated torments of hell,—and shows us that all these are the direct and legitimate results of sin, we feel the lesson to be a most impressive one. Yet, brethren, weighty as these teachings are, the man who with candour and intelligence and faith considers the gospel of Jesus Christ, contemplates His life of lowliness and hardship, sees His agony and bloody sweat, hears His cry of desolation, ‘ My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ and knows all this to be because of sin,—will feel that no other lesson on the reality of sin, and its hatefulness in God’s sight, can even compare with this. What ‘ conversation,’ then, will ‘ become’ belief in this gospel? Surely, through the blessed influences of the gracious Spirit, shed forth abundantly by the exalted Saviour, the matchless love of Bethlehem, and Gethsemane, and Calvary will ‘ constrain’ the believer to shun sin and follow holiness.. He will be pure in feelings and in life. He will be sober-minded, remembering that ‘the fashion of this world passeth away,’ and therefore not allowing his affections to be exclusively engrossed by any earthly good, but ‘setting them’ supremely ‘ on the things that — are above.’ He will be characterized by a superiority of soul to everything low and sensual, to everything selfish and mean,— by a freedom from petty views and sinister ends,—by a relish and love of everything really great and good. In his intercourse with the world there will be no envy or malignity in his spirit, but love, sincere and wise and active. He will doubtless

not be perfect here below, for ‘ the law of sin in the members will still war with the law of the mind;’ but he will keep absolute holiness before him as the goal of his effort and the subject of his fervent prayers ; and in his heart and life the power of the new nature over the old will grow stronger and stronger, so that he will be ever a more legible and impressive ‘epistle of Christ.’

Yet once more,—the gospel of Jesus Christ is needed by, and intended for, the world; and hence a conversation becoming it will be one distinguished by zeal for its diffusion. At every point we find the universality of the destiny of the gospel set forth. It was because ‘ God so loved the world/d, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Accordingly, Jesus is declared to be the ‘ propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Exalted to God’s right hand, He has received ‘all power over σὰ flesh, to quicken whom He will.’ And His commission to His servants is to ‘ go into a// the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. The leaves of the tree of life are ‘for the healing of the nations.’ To every son of the first Adam, who fell and lost paradise for us, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, offers Himself as the guide to a more glorious paradise above,—where there shall be no fall, for they that have once through His grace entered in, ‘go no more out.’ Now the work of making the gospel known to those for whom thus it is adapted and intended, has been confided to Christians. Still, indeed, the Saviour Himself, who ‘began both to do and to teach,’ when He was on earth, carries on His work of grace, now that He is at the Fathers right hand; but this chiefly through stimulating and blessing the labours of His servants. As we have seen, ‘Go ye and preach the gospel’ is the commission ; which, whilst having doubtless a special force for ministers, is yet, in its spirit, addressed to all Christians. ‘Let him that heareth’—every one who knows of the refuge provided for the labouring and heavy laden—‘ say, Come.’ The silent

influence of a holy life, whereby the Christian ‘shines as a light in the world, holding forth the word of life,’ is in itself a very great evangelistic power. But more than this is due to the Saviour. Andrew finding his brother Simon, Philip finding his friend Nathanael, and saying to him, ‘We have found the Messiah,’—these exhibit the working -of the true Christian spirit, and are models for all time. The believer is called to definite effort, according to his opportunities, for the deepening and broadening of religious life in his brethren, and for the Instruction of ‘them that are ignorant, and out of the way.’ According to the measure of his faith he will delight in this work, and will grow wise in winning souls. He will give, too, as God has prospered him, liberally and gladly, to help forward the great cause. Thus, hearing his Father say, ‘Son, go work to-day in my vineyard,’ he will obey.

Such then, brethren, an examination of the prominent features of the gospel of Christ, the charter of citizenship in the city of God, shows to be the kind of ‘ conversation,’ or life, which ‘becometh’ a person who has by faith accepted that gospel as his charter, as ‘ the power of God unto salvation’ for him. He will regard the interests of the soul as of chief importance,—he will be full of thankfulness and peace,—he will walk with God in filial fellowship,—he will grow ever liker Christ in holy beauty and holy energy,—and by effort and liberality he will show his oneness of will with the Saviour, whose desire and work it is to overthrow sin and wretchedness, and establish everywhere the kingdom of peace and truth and righteousness.

The apostle, you observe, introduces his great comprehensive precept by the word ‘ov/y,’ thus setting forth its importance, and, at the same time, linking it on to the statements which have preceded. ‘I have told you of a struggle in my mind between the desire to live and the desire to die. I have told you that, on the whole, looking at the condition of the church and of the world, my desire is to live ; and my expec-