“The Moral Foundations of Life” (xlii.) {Week 6, Day 7, Saturday, August 24th} A Series of Talks on the Ethical Principles of the Christian Life by Oswald Chambers “Behaviour” 1 Thessalonians 2:10: “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe:” The Fit Reactions of Personality There is no reception without a reaction, and no impression without a corresponding expression. The great law regarding impressions and emotions is that if an emotion is not carried out on its own level, it will react on a lower level. The only test as to whether to allow an impression or emotion is to ask, What will this emotion lead to if I let it have its way? Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, grip it on the threshold of your mind as in a vice and allow it no more way. But if it is an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God, at the peril of your soul you refuse to act it out, because if you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level; whereas if you act an emotion out on its right level, you lift your whole life on to God’s platform. Paul mentions gross immorality in close connection with sanctification† because every devotional emotion not worked out on its own level will react on an immoral level secretly. This accounts for the fact that men and women whose private life is exceedingly wrong often show an amazing liking for devotional literature, for the writings of the saints, for the stirring of abstruse emotions. That is the way sentimentalists are made. Every emotion must express itself, and if it is not expressed on the right level, it will react on a lower level; and the higher the emotion, the more degraded the level on which it will react. A saint is a bundle of specially qualified reactions. For every possible circumstance in life there is a line of behaviour marked out in advance for us; it is not stated in black and white, we have to be so familiar with God’s Book that when we come to a crisis the Spirit of God brings back to our memory the things we had read but never understood, and we see what we should do. God is making characters, not mechanisms. We have to get our bodily mechanism into line with what God has worked in. The mighty work of God is done by His sovereign grace, then we have to work it out in our behaviour. “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblameably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:10 rv). “Unblameable” does not mean faultless, it means a blameless disposition, undeserving of censure: that is, undeserving of censure† in the sight of God Who sees everything. “Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy” (Jude 24 rv). TOMORROW: Attention ________________________________________ Continuity of Study To Be Continued Daily for the next 7 weeks….
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 21:47:43 +0000
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