Your ShelfYour Projects

And We Know

6%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Sep 8, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 36.

Read the full edition

“And We Know”

By A. E. Place

Work Together

(Concluded)
A. E. PLACE
Many are kept from the blessedness of our text by a misunderstanding of the expression previously used, and they say, “Yes, I believe that in the end, when all things have been rounded up, it will be found that all things taken as a whole have worked, etc. But each circumstance as it comes along can not be the meaning of the text. Just think of this experience through which I am passing. I tell you, you can not appreciate what I have to endure. I know this is not for my good.” Some even go so far as to say that if God really loved them as he says he does, this or that would never have been allowed to come to them.
Should we admit this “round-up” theory, we should still be held to the truth that whether this present “terrible circumstance” is or is not for your good, depends altogether upon whether or not you truly love God. If you love God, it certainly will; for, “We know.” If you do not love God, it may not work for your good, or it may later be demonstratedto you that it was one of the greatest blessings that God ever permitted to come to you, though in disguise.
But note that the text does not say that all things taken as a whole have worked, etc.; but it does say, “All things work.” We lose the great preciousness of God’s word by failing to discern the present truth in its present personal application in our daily experience. “All things work” is present truth, not future, and the more fully we recognize it and apply it, the more fully we know the truthfulness of our text, and hence that all things that come to us are for us, and for us.
It may be impossible for us to know how this can be. It may not be God’s design that we should understand the “how” at present, and possibly never; but he wants us to know the fact, and patiently wait his time to reveal the “why” and the “how.”
Gray-haired Jacob, with tears of anguish, cried at one time, “Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.” Just a few years later Joseph said to those same brethren, “God did send me before you to preserve life.” For years the old patriarch, in the land of Goshen, had an opportunity to prove that those things which he once knew so well were all against him, were all for him, and for his children. He learned that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” “Lord, increase our faith.”

Paul’s Experience

Some seem to think that the apostle Paul did not hold well to this text, as he says much about his trials and his sufferings. Let all who think this way study carefully just what Paul does say about his personal experiences, and why he says it.
First, as to his rights to an exemption from “hard times,” from the standpoint of his position and ability. He says, “I speak concerning reproach. . . . Are they Hebrews? so am I. . . . Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.” “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, . . . brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law,” “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee.” These statements might at first sight be regarded as boastful; but note carefully his words: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, . . . that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
Probably no apostle or Christian ever worked more humbly, more uncomplainingly, than did the apostle Paul. His ability and advantages, though far above many other men, were never used as a basis for better wages, a better field, or exemption from any of the hard and unpleasant things of life. His glory was centered in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, and his resurrection. He was ready not only for Macedonia, but for “Rome also,” and for the knife of Nero.
Second, as to his attitude in the matter of afflictions and persecutions. “I speak as concerning reproach, . . . in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” There is no boasting, no murmuring, in these statements, as we shall clearly see. His conclusion is stated in these words: “If I must needs glory, I will glory in the things which concern mine infirmities.” Why does he glory in those things? “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake.”
Again he says, “We are troubled on every side, . . . we are perplexed, . . . persecuted, . . . cast down; . . . always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus [that we may murmur or boast about it?—No.], that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor [fragrance] of his knowledge by us in every place.” Are all things against us? Is anything against the Christian?—Nay, verily. “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.”
In the following words, this apostle and Christian describes and condenses the great sum of all his troubles of life: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
This man, Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ, emptied of boasting, criticizing, and murmuring, is the man who after long years of trial penned the wonderful words, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” He wrote them because he knew. The great thing he knew was Christ, and to know Christ is Christianity. May God give to each one of us the burning desire and the patience and fortitude necessary to “know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Then we shall daily see the words of David being fulfilled: “He winnoweth my path.” We shall be able to see the kind and loving Lord going before us with his fan of divine providence in his hand, taking out of our way everything he does not wish us to meet. We shall know that all he leaves in our way is for our good because we love him. If we stumble, we shall endeavor to arise and uncomplainingly press forward, giving thanks to the Lord for the experience, “that the power of Christ may rest upon us.”