WHO IS YOUR MASTER? by H. A. St. John

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 1, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 44.

WHO IS YOUR MASTER?

By H. A. St. John

BY H. A. ST. JOHN.

WHOM do you serve? There are two, and only two, great masters. We have the power to choose which of the two we will serve, and in this respect we are free moral agents. But we are not free to refuse allegiance to both. We are the servants of God or Satan, and one or the other we will and must obey. We may choose which, but right there our power of choice ends. It is then obedience of sin unto death, or of righteousness unto life. We are henceforth led by the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, or we are led by the Spirit of God, and hence are the children of God.

If we put our wills on the Lord's side, and say we will serve God, then every day and continually, we choose to do His will, not ours, in all things. If we deliberately and knowingly choose our own way in anything, then by that we show that we are the servants of sin unto death, instead of the servants of righteousness unto life. He who has truly chosen the Lord for his master, will ever feel to say and to pray, Lord, not my will, but Thine, be done by me, at all times and in all things.

He who is a servant of God in very truth, only needs to know the will of God, and it is performed in love and with delight. As we become acquainted with God through His works, His Word, and His beloved Son, we will love Him more and more. God's love for us will beget and awaken love in us, and this is the only way that we can lovingly obey Him. Love is of God, for "God is love." The love that God plants in the soul, that is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, is far higher, purer, and holier, than any love possessed by the servants of Satan. They love those only that love them. This is not self-renouncing love but selfish love. The great master spirit of evil possesses this kind of love. It is sensual, selfish, devilish, when standing alone.

God loves this world, filled tho it be with rebellious sinners. He loved us when we were enemies, servants of Satan. He so loved us that He gave Jesus, His beloved Son, to die, that we might have a choice to love and serve Him unto everlasting life.

The love of God toward man, and for man, was continually unfolding in the life of Christ on the earth. His example was one of continual love-service to His Father and to man.

The law of life for the universe is, By love serve God, and by love serve one another. When a human soul has attained this condition, then the power of God comes in to change the vile body and fashion it like unto Christ's glorious body. Then will the Lord Jesus have completed His good work in man's behalf, and there He will behold the travail of His soul, and be satisfied.

Reader, is this divine love yours, in actual possession? By it, are you being daily transformed into the divine image? Have you chosen the God of love for your master? and are you choosing to do His will, His good pleasure, in all your works and ways? When He whom you have chosen to serve says, "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault, between thee and him alone," thus earnestly praying and seeking to gain thy brother, do you at once choose to obey Him whose servant you claim to be? Do you choose to pray for those who despitefully use you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil of you? When your enemy hungers, do you feed him? When he thirsts, do you give him drink? Do you watch for every opportunity to do good for evil, and by so doing heap coals of fire on the head of your enemy that you may gain him as your loving brother? Or do you call the Lord your master, and yet do not the things He commands? Do not forget that you are ever reckoned as the servant of him whom you obey. Obedience is the highest form of worship, and obedience in love is true worship.

If we choose to serve God, and put our wills wholly on His side, He will ever work in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. In this way we have our own way, and at the same time, it is the Lord's way. Happy servant is he who in such a posture is found when the Lord, our Master, comes to reward His servants. To all such He will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." And with everlasting joy upon their heads, they will enter the place prepared for them.