"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
"Who endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself."—Heb. 12:3.
What endurance was this! Perfect truth in the midst of
error; perfect love in the midst of ingratitude and coldness; perfect
rectitude in the midst of perjury, violence, fraud; perfect constancy in the
midst of ridicule and desertion; perfect innocence, confronting every debased
form of depravity and guilt; perfect patience, encountering every species of
gross provocation—"oppressed and afflicted, He opened not His mouth!" "For my
love" (in return for my love,) "they are my adversaries; but" (see His
endurance!—the only species of revenge of which His sinless nature was
capable) "I give myself unto prayer!" (Ps. 109:4.)
Reader! "let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus!" The greatest test of an earthly soldier's courage is patient
endurance! The noblest trait of the spiritual soldier is the same. "Having
done all to stand," "He endured, as seeing Him who is
invisible!" Beware of the angry recrimination, the hasty ebullition of temper.
Amid unkind insinuations—when motives are misrepresented, and reputation
assailed; when good deeds are ridiculed, kind intentions coldly thwarted and
repulsed, chilling reproach manifested where you expected nothing but
friendship—what a triumph over natural impulse to manifest a spirit of meek
endurance!—like a rainbow, radiant with the hues of heaven, resting peacefully
amid the storms of derision and "the floods of ungodly men." What an
opportunity of magnifying the "sustaining grace of God!" "It is a small thing
for me to be judged of you, or of man's judgment; He that judges me is the
Lord." "The Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man can do unto me."
"Blessed is the man that endures." "He that endures to the end,
the same shall be saved."
If faithful to our God, we must expect to encounter
contradiction in the same form which Jesus did—"the contradiction of
sinners." It has been well said, "There is no cross of nails and wood
erected now for the Christian, but there is one of words and looks which is
never taken down." If believers are set as lights in the earth, lamps in the
"city of destruction," we know that "he that does evil hates the
light." "Marvel not my brethren, if the world hates you!"
Weary and faint ones, exposed to the shafts of calumny and
scorn because of your fidelity to your God—encountering, it may be, the
coldness and estrangement of those dear to you, who cannot, perhaps,
sympathize in the holiness of your walk and the loftiness of your aims,
"consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself, lest you be weary and faint in your minds!" What is your
"contradiction" to His? Soon your cross, whatever it be, will have
an end. "The seat of the scorner" has no place in yonder glorious heaven,
where all will be peace—no jarring note to disturb its blissful harmonies!
Look forward to the great coronation-day of the Church triumphant—the day of
your divine Lord's appearing, when motives and aims, now misunderstood, will
be vindicated, wrongs redressed, calumnies and aspersions wiped away.
Meanwhile, "rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer shame for His name."