December 3

As the truth is in Jesus. - Ephesians 4:21.

THINGS may be equally true and yet not equally valuable. We are commanded to buy the truth, but we would give much more for some truths than others, as we could turn them into much more account in the Spiritual merchandise. If many of our modern notions were as true as they are erroneous, they would not deserve our most earnest attention. What are they in importance compared with the “excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord,” for the possession of which the Apostle would submit to the loss of all things? What truth can be of so much personal importance as “repentance toward God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.”

If we “abound in all knowledge and in all judgment, and approve of the things that are excellent,” we shall discriminate and distinguish things that are diverse; not only between the true and the false, but between the true and the true. There is a great deal of truth in the world, of physical truth, of historical truth, of moral truth, but we may lay our hand upon the Bible, and say, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” This is the truth emphatically, the “truth as it is in Jesus,” truth the most honourable to God, for it brings “glory to God in the highest,” while it proclaims “peace on earth and goodwill toward men;” truth the most suited to man, the most adapted to his state of existence.

He is enslaved, and it brings him relief; he is guilty, and it brings him the righteousness of Christ; he is perishing for want, and it brings him the bread and water of life; he is poor, having nothing, and it brings him the unsearchable riches of Christ. Truth the most influential, reaching the heart as well as the ear; not only convincing and informing, but also sanctifying, dedicating the man entirely to the service of God by its influence. We know that the ancient philosophers, whatever celebrity they had acquired, could not bring over the inhabitants of a single village to live according to their maxims and rules. But at Corinth, at Philippi, at Thessalonica, and other places, after the fishermen of Galilee had been there, how many were there of whom the Apostle could say, but “ye are washed and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God?”

It is the same now, where the truth is received in the love of it. There we find the swearer learns to fear an oath, the Sabbath-breaker learns to calls the Sabbath a delight, the careless become prayerful, the profligate is made moral, the proud humble, the avaricious liberal; they who minded earthly things have their conversation in heaven. Blessed be God, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen. This truth is the most excellent, the most beneficent truth. Solomon says, “In much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” But David says, “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.”

If we possess this knowledge we shall be happy, happy in social intercourse, happy in solitude, happy in trouble, and happy even in death. It turns death into an everlasting gain, and enables us to rejoice in the prospect of eternal life. Here is truth that deserves the name, and we do not wonder the Apostle should prize it so as to say, “Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.”