Christ the Center of the Message
345
I give you.” But the self-righteous of that day and of this day feel
no need of having a new heart. Jesus passed by the scribes and the
Pharisees, for they felt no need of a Saviour. They were wedded to
forms and ceremonies. These services had been instituted by Christ;
they had been full of vitality and spiritual beauty; but the Jews had
lost the spiritual life from their ceremonies, and clung to the dead
forms after spiritual life was extinct among them. When they departed
from the requirements and commandments of God, they sought to
supply the place of that which they had lost, by multiplying their own
[387]
requirements, and making more rigorous demands than had God; and
the more rigid they grew, the less of the love and Spirit of God they
manifested. Christ said to the people: “The scribes and the Pharisees
sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that
observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do
not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay
them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with
one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men:
they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their
garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats
in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of
men, Rabbi, Rabbi.” “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the
weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought
ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (
Matthew 23:2-7,
23
).
The remnant church is called to go through an experience similar
to that of the Jews; and the True Witness, who walks up and down in
the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, has a solemn message to
bear to His people. He says, “I have somewhat against thee, because
thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art
fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee
quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou
repent” (
Revelation 2:4, 5
). The love of God has been waning in the
church, and as a result, the love of self has sprung up into new activity.
With the loss of love for God there has come the loss of love for the
brethren. The church may meet all the description that is given of the
Ephesian church, and yet fail in vital godliness. Of them Jesus said, “I
know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst