1906 159 This, with a special emphasis on the "who," is a question sometimes raised by persons who dislike the isolation of a separate path, which the Lord's claims impose on such as would walk in obedience to His holy word; and to avoid which it is pretended they are laying claim to a greater sanctity than others who are not treading the same narrow pathway. My fellow believer, I would beseech you earnestly to brush aside this question and substitute for it Paul's questions in the Acts (Acts 22:8-10), "Who art Thou, Lord? and "What shall I do, Lord" as infinitely more profitable than a self occupation which would lead to a denial of His rights, either individually, or in association, and of our duty in relation thereto.
As to "who are we?" Well, we "are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours" (1 Cor 1:2). Nothing can be more inclusive for every true believer, for all time, and everywhere, now and until they are called to meet the Lord in the air; and remember, as Peter says in his First Epistle, we are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:2). This then is the character of our obedience, not mere law servitude, but His who could say "I delight to do thy will, O my God."
Dark and trying times can furnish no excuse Godward for the absence of such obedience, but on the contrary are the very seasons which call for its display, and this we shall find ever to have been the case, whether we turn for an illustration to the Old or to the New Testament. In the Old, we read in Deuteronomy (Deut. 25:17-19), "Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, [even] all [that were] feeble behind thee, when thou [roast] faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be when Jehovah thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance to possess it, [that] thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven: thou shalt not forget." Now when Saul is inducted into the kingdom, Samuel, speaking in the name of Jehovah of hosts, says to him, "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (1 Sam. 15:3). What follows? "Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all [that was] good, and would not utterly destroy them; but everything [that was] vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly" (1 Sam. 15:9). Who are we? Saul might have said; and he did say to Samuel, "the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto Jehovah thy God." As king, of course, he ought not to have allowed it, and hence he is told, "Jehovah hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. 15:22). Has this no voice to us, beloved? Was not the elect lady warned against an evil association thus, "Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward;" and "if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds" (2 John 8-11). How weak such a question, "who are we?" appears, in view of loss so personal, and a fellowship of evil so profound!
It is refreshing, however, to turn to the dark days of Esther, when it might have been pleaded that they wore not in the land, but only poor captives under a foreign despot, and in an alien clime; and that consequently the injunction of the last few verses of Deuteronomy no longer applied! We read however (Esther 3:1-2), "After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that [were] with him. And all the king's servants that [were] in the king's gate bowed and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him: but Mordecai bowed not, nor did [him] reverence." And this exile who would carry out God's word, as far as he was able, and would not compromise His truth by a bow of the head, was enabled through his faithfulness to execute His word altogether, and to hang Haman and his ten sons. Thus according to his times was Mordecai's blessing. He did not stop to ask "who are we?" but knowing there was a vast difference between a true child of Abraham however poor, and a descendant of the royal house of Amalek however exalted, he acted in a simple-hearted faith that was pleasing to God.
Come we now to the New Testament, and we find the apostle Paul speaking of himself as "the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (1 Cor. 15:9). And again," who am less than the least of all saints" (Eph. 3:8). Further, in 2 Cor. 12:11 he says, "though I be nothing." "Who are we?" indeed! He evidently did not think much of himself! But did this true lowliness, which we may seek to cultivate, hinder him from standing up for the rights of the Lord in relation to the gospel? Look at the same man in Galatians 1 and you will find no want of firmness there, nor of true love either, which ever seeks the good of its object. "To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." And again, "But of those who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me; God accepteth no man's person." How truly refreshing! God brought in; the instrument forgotten; save to carry out this truth; and of others justly valued as "seeming to be pillars," one, the chief "apostle of the circumcision," afterwards withstood to the face, "because he was to be blamed!"
The Lord give us grace then (apart from all questions of "who are we?"), since the days are so bad, "to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints," and which, despite all length of time, has not lost its virtue; and "building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (Jude 3, 20, 21); We are told to "buy the truth and sell it not" (Prov. 23:23). W.N.T.