THE DISCERNING SCRIBE (MARK 12:28-34) By G.A. Chadwick

Gospel of Mark, 68 - THE DISCERNING SCRIBE (MARK 12:28-34)
By G.A. Chadwick


"And one of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together, and knowing that He had answered them well, asked Him, What commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto Him, Of a truth, Master, Thou hast well said that He is one; and there is none other but He: and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask Him any question." MARK 12:28-34 (R.V.)

THE praise which Jesus bestowed upon this lawyer is best understood when we take into account the circumstances, the pressure of assailants with ensnaring questions, the sullen disappointment or palpable exasperation of the party to which the scribe belonged. He had probably sympathized in their hostility; and had come expecting and desiring the discomfiture of Jesus. But if so, he was a candid enemy; and as each new attempt revealed more clearly the spiritual insight, the self-possession and balanced wisdom of Him Who had been represented as a dangerous fanatic, his unfriendly opinion began to waver. For he too was at issue with popular views: he had learned in the Scriptures that God desireth not sacrifice, that incense might be an abomination to Him, and new moons and sabbaths things to do away with. And so, perceiving that He had answered them well, the scribe asked, upon his own account, a very different question, not rarely debated in their schools, and often answered with grotesque frivolity, but which he felt to go down to the very root of things. Instead of challenging Christ's authority, he tries His wisdom. Instead of striving to entangle Him in dangerous politics, or to assail with shallow ridicule the problems of the life to come, he asks, What commandment is the first of all? And if we may accept as complete this abrupt statement of his interrogation, it would seem to have been drawn from him by a sudden impulse, or wrenched by an over-mastering desire, despite of reluctance and false shame.

The Lord answered him with great solemnity and emphasis. He might have quoted the commandment only. But He at once supported the precept itself and also His own view of its importance by including the majestic prologue, "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God, the Lord is one; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all they strength."

The unity of God, what a massive and reassuring thought! Amid the debasements of idolatry, with its deification of every impulse and every force, amid the distractions of chance and change, seemingly so capricious and even discordant, amid the complexities of the universe and its phenomena, there is wonderful strength and wisdom in the reflection that God is one. All changes obey His hand which holds the rein; by Him the worlds were made. The exiled patriarch was overwhelmed by the majesty of the revelation that his fathers' God was God in Bethel even as in Beer-sheba: it charmed away the bitter sense of isolation, it unsealed in him the fountains of worship and trust, and sent him forward with a new hope of protection and prosperity. 

The unity of God, really apprehended, is a basis for the human will to repose upon, and to become self-consistent and at peace. It was the parent of the fruitful doctrine of the unity of nature which underlies all the scientific victories of the modern world. In religion, St. Paul felt that it implies the equal treatment of all the human race, when he asked, "Is He the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also, if so be that God is one." (Rom. 3:29 R.V.). To be one, he seems to say, implies being universal also. And if it thus excludes the reprobation of races, it disproves equally that of individual souls, and all thought of such unequal and partial treatment as should inspire one with hope of indulgence in guilt, or with fear that his way is hid from the Lord.

But if this be true, if there be one fountain of all life and loveliness and joy, of all human tenderness and all moral glory, how are we bound to love Him. Every other affection should only deepen our adoring loyalty to Him Who gives it. No cold or formal service can meet His claim, Who gives us the power to serve. No, we must love Him. And as all our nature comes from Him, so must all be consecrated: that love must embrace all the affections of "heart and soul" panting after Him, as the hart after the waterbrooks; and all the deep and steady convictions of the "mind," musing on the work of His hand, able to give a reason for its faith; and all the practical homage of the "strength," living and dying to the Lord. How easy, then, would be the fulfillment of His commandments in detail, and how surely it would follow. All the precepts of the first table are clearly implied in this.

In such another commandment were summed up also the precepts which concerned our neighbor. When we love him as ourselves (neither exaggerating his claims beyond our own, nor allowing our own to trample upon his), then we shall work no ill to our neighbor, and so love shall fulfill the law. There is none other commandment greater than these.

The questioner saw all the nobility of this reply; and the disdain, the anger, and perhaps the persecution of his associates could not prevent him from an admiring and reverent repetition of the Savior's words, and an avowal that all the ceremonial observances of Judaism were as nothing compared with this.

While he was thus judging, he was being judged. As he knew that Jesus had answered well, so Jesus saw that he answered discreetly; and in view of his unprejudiced judgment, his spiritual insight, and his frank approval of One Who was then despised and rejected, He said, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. But he was not yet within it, and no man knows his fate.

Sad yet instructive it is to think that he may have won the approval of Christ, and heard His words, so full of discernment and of desire for his adherence, and yet never crossed the invisible and mysterious boundary which he then approached so nearly. But we also may know, and admire, and confess the greatness and goodness of Jesus, without forsaking all to follow Him.

His enemies had been defeated and put to shame, their murderous hate had been denounced, and the nets of their cunning had been rent like cobwebs; they had seen the heart of one of their own order kindled into open admiration, and they henceforth renounced as hopeless the attempt to conquer Jesus in debate. No man after that durst ask Him any questions.

He will now carry the war into their own country. It will be for them to answer Jesus.

"The Lord will give grace and glory" (Ps. lxxxiv. 11).

Days of Heaven Upon Earth






"The Lord will give grace and glory" (Ps. lxxxiv. 11).

The Lord will give grace and glory. This word glory is very difficult to translate, define and explain; but there is something in the spiritual consciousness of the quickened Christian that interprets it. It is the overflow of grace; it is the wine of life; it is the foretaste of heaven; it is a flash from the Throne and an inspiration from the heart of God which we may have and in which we may live. "The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them," the Master prayed for us. Let us take it and live in it. David used to say, "Wake up my glory." Ask God to wake up your glory and enable you to mount up with wings as eagles, to dwell on high and sit with Christ in the heavenly places.

Mounting up with wings as eagles,
Waiting on the Lord we rise,
Strength exchanging, life renewing,
How our spirit heavenward flies.
Then our springing feet returning,
Tread the pathway of the saint,
We shall run and not be weary,
We shall walk and never faint.

Rocks in a Jar

Howard Butt, Jr. of http://www.thehighcalling.org shares a story about the importance of priorities in our faith and work. 

TRANSCRIPT: A professor teaching on the subject of time set out a large wide-mouthed jar. Into the jar, he put a dozen fist-sized rocks. He asked, "Is this jar full?"

His class said, "Yes."

He poured and shook in gravel, filling in the spaces between the big rocks. Next, he dumped and shook in sand between the rocks and gravel. Finally, he poured water to the jar's brim.

Then he said, "If you don't put the big things in first, they'll never fit in."

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. The big rocks represent our big priorities. Unless they get first place, the smaller priorities will pour in, consume our time, and leave no room for what's most important—in the high calling of our daily work.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." -Matthew 6:33

The Lavishness of Jesus

George H. Morrison - Devotional Sermons





The Lavishness of Jesus

And they did all eat, and were filled. and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full--Mat 14:20

Love Never Asks How Little Can I Do

One of the characteristics of our Lord was a certain glorious lavishness, an uncalculating generosity that was impatient of the less or more. This made Him very lovable. It was one of the features of His grace. He exhibited that royal largeness which always captivates the human heart. For the miser is universally condemned, and the stingy person forever unattractive, nor does the niggard, though scrupulously just, ever really draw the hearts of men. There is a lavishness which is pure thoughtlessness, and which sooner or later issues in remorse. It is far easier for shallow natures to squander than to save. But the lavishness of Jesus struck its roots into His deepest being, and was the flower of uncalculating love. Love never asks how little can I do; love always asks how much. Love does not merely go the measured mile; love travels to the uttermost. Love never haggles, never bargains, with "nicely calculated less or more." It gives up to the point of prodigality.

The Lavishness of Jesus in His Actions

We find the lavishness of Christ in every sphere, and first let us note it in His actions. "Gather up the fragments that remain, and they gathered up twelve baskets full." Men find in that a lesson in economy. Christ was careful that not a crumb be lost. And it is well we should be taught that lesson--we are so apt to be careless with life's fragments. But surely a far deeper lesson, leading us to the inmost heart of Jesus, is that of His uncalculating lavishness. He took no nice and precise measurements of what that hungry multitude required. He did not think of the minimum of need; He thought of the maximum of love. He gave so lavishly that when every man was fed, and every little whimpering child was satisfied, there yet remained twelve baskets full. That was the manner in which Jesus gave, and in such a manner is He giving still. Men come for healing, and they get pardon also. They come for a shilling and they get a sovereign. I take it that is why so many people fail to see the answers to their prayers; they have asked for a sixpence, and they get a fortune.

The Lavishness of Jesus in His Parabolic Teaching

The same uncalculating lavishness of love is witnessed in the teaching of His parables. I do not think there is a single parable in which that divine element is wanting. The sower does not nicely measure things; he sows on the beaten path and on the rock. The employer of labour, at the eleventh hour, gives a full day's pay for an hour's work. The servant who was faithful with ten pounds finds himself the ruler of ten cities, no doubt to his own intense astonishment. Men quarrel with the doctrine of rewards. They say we ought to do good for its own sake. Christ, knowing human nature, never hesitates to introduce rewards. But then His rewards are so amazing, so utterly unproportioned to our merit, that they entirely lose the aspect of reward, and shine as gifts of undeserved grace. When the poor prodigal came home again, a bare forgiveness would have contented him. But it evidently did not content the overflowing heart of Jesus. The best robe must be given to him; there must be a ring on his finger and shoes upon his feet; there must be music and dancing in the house.

Jesus Noticed the Much Found in the Little

Again, we might think a moment of the kind of thing that Jesus loved. If we are to follow Him, and take His scale of values, it is imperative that we discover that. He did not love the narrowness of Pharisees, nor had He any tenderness for lengthy prayers. He felt no sympathy with the precise exactitude that tithes the mint and the anise and the cummin. But one day He saw a widow woman lavishing her little all for God, and that caught the tendrils of His heart. Again, another day there came a woman with an alabaster box of precious ointment. And she broke the box and poured that precious ointment on the dear feet of Him whom she loved. And men were indignant at this gross extravagance--to what purpose is this waste?--but to Jesus it was incomparably fine. It was not the squandering of hysteria. To Him it was the lavishness of love. It was love, despising calculation, and giving to the very uttermost. He caught in it a spark of that same flame that had lit up every moment of His life, and was now to shine in glory on the cross.

Was Christ's Death for All a Waste Since All Do Not Accept Him?

Jesus died on the cross for every man. He died for the sins of the whole world. There was virtue in that atoning death for all the guilty sinners of mankind. Now look around and tell me, are all men being saved? Are none going down into the glen of weeping? Are none heading for the outer darkness? If so, to what purpose is this waste? Why this lavish squandering of sacrifice in the agony and dereliction of the cross? The only answer is that God is love, and love never asks how little, but how much. Love does not calculate nor nicely measure; it gives as the woman with the alabaster box did. In that lavishness our Saviour lived. In that lavishness He fed the multitude. In that lavishness He died on Calvary.

Fools For Christ's Sake

Fools For Christ's Sake

By Samuel Logan Brengle


      To the natural heart and the unsanctified mind the commands of God are foolishness. 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee' (Gen. xii. 1), said God to Abraham. How foolish to leave home and wealth and greatness to go to a land that he knew not! But Abraham believed and obeyed and became heir of the world.

'I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt' (Exod. iii. 10), was God's word to Moses. What folly for this poor shepherd, who forty years before had fled from the face of Pharaoh a hunted murderer and vagabond, to seek to deliver a nation of slaves from the iron hand of the haughtiest, mightiest monarch of earth! But he believed and obeyed and the proud king was humbled to the dust and the nation of slaves was freed.

'I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me' (Acts xxvi. 16-18), said the Lord to Paul. Think of it! One lone man belonging to a conquered, despised, hated people, sent to the proud, idolatrous utterly godless nations with the message that a crucified Jew was the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and that there was no salvation except in His name.

What foolhardiness for this man without wealth, national prestige, political power or social favor to start out in the face of bitter religious hatred and contempt, and national and political antagonism, to convert a lost world to this new faith of a day! But he was 'not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.' He went and the Holy Ghost went with him. He went to unparalleled toils and sufferings, but he won unparalleled victories and heavenly joys and consolations.

They whipped him time and again; they stoned him; they thrust him into dark, loathsome dungeons, reeking with slime and filth; three times he suffered shipwreck, he made many long and tedious journeys when there were no ocean greyhounds and no lightning express trains with Pullman coaches and dining-cars. He was in perils from the water, from robbers, from his own countrymen, from the heathen, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, and, worst of all, among false brethren. He suffered from weariness and painfulness; from watchings often when it would have been death to him to go to sleep; from hunger and thirst, from fastings often when his spirit was so engaged with his tremendous labors and difficulties that his body refused food; from cold and nakedness, besides the care of all the churches with their young converts just saved from heathenism and continually beset by false teachers within, as well as suffering the most dreadful persecutions from without.

But none of these things moved him, and God helped him to do more to bring the world to God than any other man who ever lived.

Does your call to work for God seem foolish, unreasonable, impossible? 'Have faith in God' (Mark xi. 22). Obey like Abraham and Moses and Paul, and you will yet praise Him for all the way He led you and for the part He gave you to do in winning the world from Satan back to God.

An officer now by my side had been a soldier for some years; at last he felt he would some time have to go into the work. The call came while his hammer was lifted to strike a blow. He was not disobedient to the call of God. The blow was not struck, and before noon he had sold his kit of tools and for years he has been a successful officer and is daily increasing in the gifts and graces of those God calls to be leaders.

Does God call you? Be not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Stay not in the order of your going. Let nothing hinder you. Go and God will be with you as He was with Moses and Paul, and as the years speed by you will increasingly thank God that no business prospects, no fond friendships, no lust of power or love of secluded ease kept you from the battle's front with its burdens and bitter conflicts and fierce sorrows and soul-satisfying triumphs. One soul joining in the anthem of the redeemed ones around the Throne, saved from Hell through your labors, will pay you for all your toils; one look at the face of Jesus will reward you for all your privations. What care Peter and John and Paul now, if they did lose all to follow Jesus, and did suffer and die for the men they sought to save? And what will you care?

The Essential Vocation by T. Austin Sparks

The Essential Vocation by T. Austin Sparks

Ninety times in ‘Ezekiel’ the designation “Son of man” is used. Among the Prophets this is peculiar to Ezekiel. We know that the favourite title chosen by the Lord Jesus Himself was “The Son of man”. Only twice in the eighty-two times where it occurs was it used by others. There is a similarity and a difference. Ezekiel has no article: he is just “son of man”. Jesus always has the article “The Son of man”. The similarity is not in Person, but in Vocation. The infinite difference is in Person. The vocational similarity is found in the meaning of the title. It is that of identification with man; representation of man. The idea is a very large one; it brings into view God’s concern for mankind. Not Israel, but all mankind is God’s concern. Israel’s vocation was meant to be to all men. The Church’s vocation is to “all the world”. Christ is identified with and representative of man in the thought of God. This is the essential feature of the prophet’s ministry, which ministry is to reveal the Man, and to lead to Him. Anything that puts the minister in a separate class and marks him off as apart from other men is a violation of a principle of the Spirit’s way, and will, sooner or later, prove to be a limitation among men. Ezekiel said that he “sat where they sat”. That was not the condescending act of a superior, an official, one of a special class. No, it was a man amongst men, seeing with their eyes and feeling with their hearts, yet seeing with the eyes of God and feeling with the heart of God. Jesus adopted no garb, habit, tone of voice, or badge to mark Himself off as different or apart from others. There was ample prejudice, suspicion, criticism, and that kind of thing to question His authority, and He never tried to overcome this attitude or get any advantage by artificial, official, or formal means. Nothing was assumed, put on, or feigned to make an impression and gain acceptance. The Holy Spirit of anointing was His sole basis and source of authority. That was enough and the centuries testify to it. Note then again, the title chosen by Him and linked by Him with every phase of His life and history was not one that men would look upon with honour, respect and awe, but “the Son of man”. Different indeed, but in nature, not in anything external. At the same time remember who He was! He “emptied himself… and being found in fashion as a man…” (Phil. 2:7, 8). That is said of the One who, in His own right, was equal with God.

Without Axe or Hammer

Making the Most of Life: Chapter 13 - Without Axe or Hammer
By J.R. Miller


"Souls are built as temples are,--
Based on truth's eternal law,
Sure and steadfast, without flaw,
Through the sunshine, through the snows,
Up and on the building goes;
Every fair thing finds its place,
Every hard thing lends a grace,
Every hand may make or mar."

We read of the temple of Solomon, when it was in building, that it was built of stone made ready in the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it went up.

"No workman's steel, no ponderous axes rung;
Like some tall palm, the noiseless fabric sprung."

So it is that the great work of spiritual temple-building goes on continually in this world. We are all really silent builders. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. The divine Spirit works in silence, changing men's hearts, transforming lives, comforting sorrow, kindling hope in darkened bosoms, washing scarlet souls white as snow. The preacher may speak with the voice of a Boanerges, but the power that reaches hearts is not the preacher's noise; silently the divine voice whispers in the soul its secret of conviction, or of hope, or of strength. The Lord is not in the storm, in the earthquake, in the fire, but in the sound of gentleness, the spirit's whisper, that breathes through the soul.

Perhaps the best work any of us do in this world is that which we do without noise. Words give forth sound, but it is not the sounds that do good, that brighten sad faces as people listen, that change tears to laughter, that stimulate hope, that put courage into fainting hearts,--it is not the noise of our words, but the thoughts which the words carry. Words are but the chattering messengers that bear the sealed messages; and it is the messages that help and comfort. We may make noise as we work, but it is not our noise that builds up what we leave in beauty behind us. It is life that builds, and life is silent. The force that works in our homes is a silent force,--mother-love, father-love, patience, gentleness, prayer, truth, the influences of divine grace.

It is the same in the building up of personal character in each of us. There may be a great deal of noise all about us, but it is in silence that we grow from a thousand sources come the little blocks that are laid upon the walls,--the lessons we get from others, the influences friends exert upon us, the truths our reading puts into our minds, the impressions life leaves upon us, the inspirations we receive from the divine Spirit--ever the builders are at work on these characters of ours, but they work silently, without noise of hammer or axe.

There is another suggestion. Down in the dark quarries, under the city, the men wrought, cutting, hewing, polishing, the stones. They hung their little lamps on the walls, and with their hammers and chisels they hewed away at the great blocks. Months and years passed; then one day there was a grand dedication, and there in the glorious sunshine all the secret, obscure work of those years was seen in its final beauty, amid the joy of a nation. If the men who had wrought in the quarries were present that day, what a joy it must have been to them to think of their work in preparing the great stones for their place in the magnificent building!

Here is a parable. This world is the quarry. We are toiling away in the darkness. We cannot see what good is ever to come out of our lonely, painful, obscure toil. Yet some day our quarry-work will be manifested in the glory of heaven. We are preparing materials now and here for the temple of the great King, which in heaven is slowly rising through the ages. No noise of hammer or axe is heard in all that wondrous building, because the stones are all shaped and polished and made entirely ready in this world.