By J.R. Miller
Some people wish they could see Christ. If they could look upon Him, they say, it would be easy to love Him and to do His will. But if only we will remember that Christ always sees us--we shall have a still stronger impulse and motive to faithfulness and beautiful life. He knows us through and through. He reads our deepest thoughts. We cannot deceive Him. We may make men think we are good, when we are not--but we cannot pass in Christ's sight for anything but what we really are.
In a series of New Year's resolutions this is one, "To be filial to God as a son, loyal to Jesus Christ as a disciple, brotherly to my fellows as one born of a common parentage to a common heritage, and true to myself, that I be not a hypocrite in the sanctuary of my soul." To such a resolve this truth of the all-seeing eye of Christ should lead us--never to be a hypocrite in the sanctuary of our soul.
Our Lord condemned no other sin in such unsparing words--as He condemned hypocrisy. It is a pitiful play to be professing to serve God and honor Him--while the heart is full of worldliness and sin. We should give careful heed to our inner life. He with whom we have to do, sees not as men see. Men look on the outer life; Christ looks into the heart. That is what loyalty and love mean. What kind of faithfulness in friendship, is that which does in a friend's absence--what would not be done if the friend were present? Besides, we know that a dearer Friend than any merely human loved one does indeed see and know all. Let us do nothing that we would not do--if we saw our Master standing beside us!
There is special encouragement and inspiration also, in this truth of the omniscience of Christ. He knows all that is in us, the truth, the love, the faith, the desire to be faithful and to live worthily--the good as well as the evil. We know, too, that Christ ever looks for the good there is in us, not for that which is wrong. He sees us with optimistic vision. It is not always so with men. Too many people always look for faults, weaknesses, failures, sins, in others. Some seem even to find delight in discovering wrong things in those with whom they mingle. But that is not Christ's way of looking at our lives. He is always watching for the good in us.
It is thus that our Master feels toward us. He is quick to commend us for the good we do, for our obedience, our service--but He is reluctant and slow to set down evil against us. He would infinitely rather find good in us, than evil. He considers our weakness, He knows how frail we are. He remembers that we are dust. He beseeches us to repent and be forgiven--that our sins be not charged to our account--and waits to be gracious.
Christ looks with compassion upon our lives. He knows all the imperfections of our work--but He is infinitely patient with us in our mistakes and failures. This was shown in the way He dealt with His disciples. Their progress was very slow--but He never chided them. He was the Son of God and the Son of man. There was not the least flaw in His life. He did all His work perfectly. It is sometimes the tendency with very good people, those who know themselves to be very good, to be impatient toward those who are imperfect and are always making mistakes, to be intolerant of their slips and failures. But Jesus was not impatient with His disciples. They learned very slowly. They were all the time blundering and stumbling. Yet we never hear from their Master a word which tells of vexed or hurt feeling or of chiding because of their dullness or slowness or because of their many failures.
Christ is very patient also with us. He asks for our best. He sets before us the loftiest ideals. He says, "Be perfect." He desires implicit obedience. He calls us to the best service we can render. He wants us to do our work well. Yet He is pitiful toward our weakness, tolerant of our frailties and failures. He does not cast us off when we sin--but forgives us, not seven times only--but seventy times seven. He bears with our faulty work. He remembers His own human life, its struggles, its trials, its weariness and pain, and sympathizes with us in all that is hard in our lot. He has not forgotten the days of hard toil and how unfair men were in their demands. The blessing of the carpenter-shop at Nazareth where He worked, has come down through the centuries, making the Carpenter dearer to men in their task-work and assuring them of divine sympathy with them in all their work.
Christ knows also--all the hard and painful things of our lives. Life for some people has much in it that is very discouraging. Burdens are heavy, comforts are few. Men suffer much. Those who scarcely ever know a care or have a hard day or are called to endure even the smallest need, have little conception of what some other people have to endure. There is not one of us, however, who may not some time be called to pass through experiences of suffering, hardship, or pain. Let us remember that Christ knows all. Let us set this truth before our minds in such clear light that it shall shine in the darkness of suffering, pain, or want in days to come, like a star in the sky. If any time in the future we come into a place of gloom, when we cannot understand, when we cannot know what to do, when we can see no help in sight, no relief--then we may remember that Jesus knows.
Christ knows us and all our life, and therefore makes no mistakes in dealing with us. In a private letter the writer says, "I sometimes wonder if my Master really knows how things in my life have become tangled, and if He really cares that I shall get out again into a way of peace." Yes; He knows all--and He cares. There is nothing in any of our lives, that He does not see. He is not indifferent to our happiness or to our good. Remember that He is the Master of the whole world--He overcame the world. There is no power that He left unconquered. There is nothing lawless, therefore, or out of His control, in all this world. There is no suffering of ours, no pain, no distress, which he could not instantly send away. The hard things that stay in our experience, are there for our good and for His glory. Nothing sore or trying touches us--but by His will. It Is because He loves us--that He lets us suffer.
Let no one ever for a moment, in any time of suffering or sorrow, ask, "Does Jesus really know? Does He care?" He knows, He cares, He loves. We are in His hands. He is doing the very best for us! Browning voices a beautiful trust, "God's in His heaven--all is right with the world."
That is true, "God's in His heaven." But it is only part of the truth. God is in His world, too. We have no absentee God; He is with us, closer than our closest friend. In His hands--are all our affairs. He is shaping our life for us. When we think he does not know, He is leading us through suffering to blessedness. We may trust Him in the darkest hour, in the time of sorest pain, in the experience of keenest sorrow.
