The precepts of God's
Word
by J. C. Philpot
Some ministers neglect the precept almost as if it
did not form as much a part of God's revealed word as the promise; and
others legalize it. But precept and promise are alike gospel, when the soul
is under the sweet and blessed operations and influences of the Holy Spirit.
Without his divine, and sanctifying, and softening influences, what is
promise, or what is precept? The first distills no sweetness; the last
constrains to no holy obedience. The first little touches the heart; the
last little moves the conscience. Each, indeed, remains the same in the word
of truth; the one, still full of grace, the other still full of direction;
the one pointing to the life of Jesus above, the other to the life of Jesus
below; the one tending to produce fruit within, the other to produce fruit
without; the one encouraging us to believe, and the other to obey. They are
not dissociated in the word of God; nor are they ever separated in
experience.
When we feel the sweetness of the promise, we feel the
power of the precept; when we love we can obey. And when our obedience to
the precept flows from gospel motives, under divine influences, and towards
heavenly ends, then and then only do we obey the precept aright. All other
obedience ends in self-righteousness. How careful, then, should ministers be
to handle the precept aright! And this they only can do when they themselves
are under the influences of the Holy Spirit, filling their souls with
humility and love, softening and melting their hearts into a conformity to
the image of Christ, and breathing into them the tenderest affection for the
people of God.
But to take the precepts and make them up into a scourge,
to flog therewith bleeding consciences, will never bring glory to God. It
may produce a monkish obedience, a fleshly holiness; but it will never raise
up the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Good men sometimes have erred
here. Seeing the low state of the churches and the carnal lives of many
professors, they have been stirred up as with holy zeal to scourge them into
obedience by the precepts. But they have usually toiled in vain; carnal
professors will remain carnal still. Chaff was never yet threshed into
wheat, nor goats beaten into sheep; and while every stroke tells upon tender
consciences, it falls upon seared ones like the snow-flake or the eiderdown.
But admitting that the children of God can be forced into
obedience, thereby, is that obedience acceptable? Does Jesus want the
service of the slave, or the obedience of the son; the duty of the servant,
or the affection of the bride? "If you love me, keep my commandments." "The
love of Christ constrains us." "Put on, as the elect of God, holy and
beloved, affections of mercy." Promise and precept, love and obedience,
grace and its fruits, a believing heart and a holy life, affections in
heaven and separation from the world, the fear of God and a departing from
evil—are all blended in the word, as they should ever be in the heart, lips,
and life of every Christian minister.