September 23

Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. - Colossians 3:23-24.

IT is impossible a Christian can ever serve God for nought. Even Satan admitted the principle that “godliness is great gain,” although he attributed a mercenary Spirit to the patriarch, “Doth Job serve God for nought?” In this insinuation falsehood and fact were strikingly blended. “Verily there is a reward for the righteous.”

Oh, say some, but it is a reward of grace. Who would deny this? This renders it the surer and the sweeter-this renders it the greater. This enables us, since it is a reward of grace, to believe in its greatness. “Great is your reward in heaven.” But there is not only a recompense after the service, but even in it: “In keeping his commandments there is great reward.” If the Queen of Sheba envied Solomon’s domestics and said, “Happy are these thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom,” how much more should we hail those servants of the King of kings and Lord of lords, “who dwell in his house,” and” are still praising “ him, each of whom can say with David, “On thee do I wait all the day.”

Oh, as surely as he is our Lord and Master, he will support us; he, like a wise and good master, will consider all the injuries done to us as done to himself; he will not lay more upon us as his servants than he will enable us to bear. He will make our strength equal to our day. His grace shall be sufficient for us. He will not “cast us off in the time of old age, nor forsake us when our strength faileth.” No; he regards the “hoary head as a crown of glory when found in the way of righteousness.” And he beholds such with pleasure, and says, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth.”

Yes, in eternity, in time, in life, in death, in prosperity, in adversity, in all lively frames, and in all gloomy ones even, every servant of the Lord Jesus will be able to say, “Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord.”