Luke 6:40

LIKE UNTO THE MASTER

‘The disciple is not above his Master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his Master.’

Luke 6:40

There are two applications of this saying in respect to Christ and His disciples; first to that which is without, to the treatment they must expect from others; next to that which is within, to their character.

I. In outward condition.—The disciple, being no greater than his Master, cannot expect his outward condition to be better than his Master’s. If the world persecuted Christ, it would also persecute His disciples; if it refused to receive His doctrine, so would it refuse to receive theirs. But I think we may carry this lesson still further. Our Master was not a Man of glory, but a Man of sorrows. And can we, His disciples, expect to lead happy lives? Have we any reason to grumble at our poverty when He was not rich? Shall we refuse to bear sickness patiently when we know how much He suffered at the last? Shall we be discontented if our friends are unfaithful, if we are slandered, if men are unjust to us, when we consider all He endured?

II. In character.—We must be like Him in the humility of our actions; we must follow His example in what He did. As He washed His disciples’ feet, so must we be ready to wash each other’s feet. As He gave Himself up for us, so must we give ourselves up for each other. The whole life of Christ was a life of unselfishness. And if Christ thus laboured for us, should we refuse to labour for each other? Should we think it right to be selfish, to consider ourselves first, our own comfort, our own enjoyment, our own ease, and when we have provided for these, then perhaps to do some small thing for each other?

There is a great and glorious possession to look forward to. Every disciple that is perfect should be as His Master. The highest point to which you can attain is being like to Christ, holy as He is.

—Bishop Lord Alwyne Compton.

Illustration

‘Surely that is true which the Church speaks to us in our hours of sickness, when she says, “There should be no greater comfort to Christian persons than to be made like unto Christ by suffering patiently adversities, troubles, and sicknesses. For He Himself went not up to joy, but first He suffered pain; He entered not into His glory before He was crucified. So truly our way to eternal joy is to suffer here with Christ, and our door to enter into eternal life is gladly to die with Christ, that we may rise again from death, and dwell with Him in everlasting life.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE FINISHED CHRISTIAN

The word used for ‘perfect’ here is by no means a common one, and is quite a different word from those by which perfection is commonly expressed. It might be rendered fairly well by a word that is very frequently applied both to things and to people. ‘Finished’ is the word I mean. We all know what ‘the finished gentleman’ is; and the language of the text justifies us in transferring these ideas to the higher level of the Christian life. ‘The [finished] Christian shall be as His Master.’

I. The finished Christian.—It is a beautiful and helpful thought, whether you look at it from the point of view of the raw material, or the means employed, or the skill of the Great Worker, or the intrinsic beauty of the finished product. I never see a man tread the upward path, I never see a man growing simply better and more loving as life goes on, without feeling very sure of an influence to which I can give no better name than the power of the Three in One—a merciful Father, a Saviour human and Divine, a Spirit—God’s gift within the man. The man draws nearer and nearer to the finished beauty of the Christian character, which is a thing easier to illustrate than to describe.

(a) No one, I think, can read the First Epistle of St. Peter without the picture of the finished Christian rising to his mind. There is a calmness, there is a resignation, there is a gentleness about it which is indeed a very different thing from the impulsive enthusiasm of St. Peter’s early days. Passion has died down, violence has vanished from the life. It is just a calm and quiet insight into the wisdom of God’s ways, which is just a calm benignity, which is just the steady sunlight of a bright evening, which is the sober judgment of a happy old age.

(b) And think, too, of the Epistles of John. Again it is the voice of a finished Christian. It is the quiet simplicity of the mind of Christ. It is a return to the spotless innocence of childhood. It is the matured sweetness of experience and tenderness and love, so changed from the temper which would call down fire on the inhospitable village of the Samaritans, which would forbid a man from casting out devils who did not follow the twelve, and so different from the ambitious eagerness that asked for a place on the right hand and the left in Christ’s Kingdom.

(c) Here and there we meet it even among ourselves; more often, I believe, among the old than among the young; more often, perhaps, in old-fashioned people than in new-fashioned people; more often in those whose path through life has been rough than in those whose lives have been easy and smooth; more often in those who have been called to suffer than in those who have not; more often—I say it with hesitation—but I think more often among the poor than among the rich.

II. Two practical thoughts.—(a) We must not expect in the unfinished condition that which belongs especially to the complete. (b) We must remember how the Gospel deals with the one broad point of likeness to Christ. ‘Judge not,’ etc. It is, after all, in connection with this that the finished Christian shall be even as his Lord. It is in this—this mercy like the Father’s mercy, this slowness to judge, this unwillingness to condemn, this readiness to pardon, this joy that delights to give—it is in this, I say, more than in anything else, that the beauty of finish, the calm beauty of the completed likeness of the disciple to his Master, would seem to rest.

—Bishop H. L. Paget.