There is much said of the blessing to the overcomer. What is the meaning of an overcomer? He is not a person who is standing fast when things are all in order. Take Adam in the garden; had he to overcome in anything? No. Then, when overcoming becomes necessary, what is the cause? Things have gotten into disorder; the mass has turned aside. Now when things are so, the overcomer has to stand fast for Christ, and he is the very one to whom Christ’s heart is drawn out in a way that could not have been when the whole body was going on well.
It was in the dark day of Israel’s ruin that Elijah and Elisha were sustained; there were no such men in the prosperous days of Solomon. The faith that carried Elijah through such days of ruin for God was answered by his being taken to heaven in a chariot of fire!
The overcomer was one who, when he found that the people of God were drifting away from a state suited to Him, was opposing the stream. If you ever swam against a stream, you know what would come of your missing a single stroke and where it might land you. It is one thing, beloved friends, to have gained a firm foothold, and another to keep it — one thing to have the intelligence of a divine place, and another altogether to maintain it in power.
The Seven Churches
In the messages to the seven churches you get no individual directions as to what to do. You get rewards promised the overcomer, but you are not told how to overcome. Many say, Look at all the evil that is in the seven churches and the like, and the Lord does not direct His people to leave them! The reason is you have in them only a single direction as to what you are to do. That is: “Hear what the Spirit says.” Then you find the blessing promised “to him that overcometh.”
The Calling
In Ephesians 4 I find a calling to what we have to do. “I . . . beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit” (vss. 14). There is a difference between the calling (vocation) here named and that of Hebrews (ch. 3:1). In Hebrews it is individual; here in Ephesians it is connected with the corporate calling of the church — “one body” — a “habitation of God through the Spirit.” He exhorts them to walk worthy of it. Still I must know my calling, before I can do so. Here it is plain enough. I might as well say my salvation is of no consequence, as say that the pathway of my calling is of no consequences as a member of Christ. Both rest simply and immutably on the Word of God. If I accept one, I am bound to accept the other. I dare not say, Christians have failed to follow what has been given, and this exonerates me. Such reasoning would not stand before the Lord for a moment. If I say that things are in hopeless confusion, though it is true, putting the blame on others will not exonerate me.
Has the Holy Spirit left the church? Has the divine fact that “there is one body, and one Spirit” changed? No. He is here and maintains the unity of Christ’s body on earth as truly as ever. The simple question is, Has He failed? Some may say, But it is all scattered; how can I set things right? Though this is true, I must begin with myself and set myself right. This is the first thing. Just as Jeremiah did in his day: The word of God digested in his soul isolated him, but not for long, for he was to be God’s mouth to separate the precious from the vile.
We find, then, in Ephesians 4 that the Holy Spirit has maintained intact this unity, no matter how men have externally broken up the church of God. Thus we find something definite to guide us; we can come together to the name of the Lord, when we have individually cleared ourselves from evil and falseness. Even the feeblest few may find that “one body, and one Spirit” abides.
The Unity of the Spirit
This “unity of the Spirit” embraces all members of Christ who are not under discipline, and even Christ Himself as chief of it. It is a basis which embraces and contemplates the whole church of God, and yet in its character is suited to Christ. It is not merely the unity of Christians; it is comparatively easy to have this. It is easy to say, Let us put aside differences and be together, and then attach Christ’s name to it and call it unity. The fashion of the day is to make a union and attach Christ to it nominally. The Spirit of God, on the contrary, attaches unity to Christ.
People reason, Are not all believers, however they walk, members of the body of Christ? Yes, they are members of the “one body,” and the Spirit of God maintains its unity. But when I come to practice, I cannot own that all are “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.” I speak of practice, diligently seeking to realize by the power of the Spirit that unity in which we have been formed.
What God commends us to is that unity which embraces all members of Christ and yet allows of nothing that is unsuited to the Chief of this unity, who is Christ Himself! There is a marked difference between being in the “one body,” and the observance of this practically.
The House of God
Let us examine what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2. He sees the house of God in ruin when he writes this letter to his beloved son in the faith. In his first epistle we find the orderings of things when things were in order; in the second, the path of the saint when things were in disorder.
In 2 Timothy 2:19, he says, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let everyone that nameth the name of [the Lord] depart from iniquity.”
We cannot say, The whole thing is in ruin; we are delivered to this corruption. No, fundamental truth has not changed, and although the ruin cannot be remedied, we are responsible for our action in it. The Lord sees a great mass of profession and says, I know them that are Mine in it. Then we have the responsibility of those who name His name: They are to “depart from iniquity.” This is very clear. I need not say another word as to it. Then he takes up the analogy of a great house, with vessels to honor and dishonor. The man of God has to purge himself from these that he may be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, like Jeremiah, and meet for his Master’s use. He cannot go on with what is untrue, nor can he set things right, but he can be an “overcomer.” This must be his path in the scene around.
Standing Fast in an Evil Day
Overcoming is not standing fast as when things are in order, but it is getting back to divine principles when things are in disorder.
God makes all our path so plain for us, that we need not have difficulty in an evil day. It is an evil day, but the very evil makes the path the more plain for the single eye.
The Lord give us in full measure, then, to know what it is to overcome. We each and all have something to do, and the great thing for each is to do that for which we have been left here by Christ. We have to seek His mind and not argue for expediency and what we think is right.
God delights to view and guide the one who looks upon Him with a single eye. When our eye is single, the whole body is full of light, having no part dark, and the heart walks peacefully with God. It is due to Christ that so it should be. Do I love Him? Then let me keep His commandments. We need personal devotedness to Him, and it is humbling that we find so little of it in days when He has imparted such light to our souls. We need the purpose of heart that bows to His will in the most trivial thing, and it brings its own joy from Him who has said to us, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.”
F. G. Patterson, adapted
from The Church of God