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Christ’s Object Lessons
others, and because this claim is not recognized, they are offended.
Did they bring into their work a loving, trusting spirit, they would
continue to be first; but their querulous, complaining disposition is un-
Christlike, and proves them to be untrustworthy. It reveals their desire
for self-advancement, their distrust of God, and their jealous, grudging
spirit toward their brethren. The Lord’s goodness and liberality is to
them only an occasion of murmuring. Thus they show that there is no
connection between their souls and God. They do not know the joy of
co-operation with the Master Worker.
There is nothing more offensive to God than this narrow, self-
caring spirit. He cannot work with any who manifest these attributes.
They are insensible to the working of His Spirit.
The Jews had been first called into the Lord’s vineyard, and because
of this they were proud and self-righteous. Their long years of service
they regarded as entitling them to receive a larger reward than others.
Nothing was more exasperating to them than an intimation that the
Gentiles were to be admitted to equal privileges with themselves in
the things of God.
Christ warned the disciples who had been first called to follow
Him, lest the same evil should be cherished among them. He saw
that the weakness, the curse of the church, would be a spirit of self-
righteousness. Men would think they could do something toward
earning a place in the kingdom of heaven. They would imagine that
when they had made certain advancement, the Lord would come in
to help them. Thus there would be an abundance of self and little
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of Jesus. Many who had made a little advancement would be puffed
up and think themselves superior to others. They would be eager for
flattery, jealous if not thought most important. Against this danger
Christ seeks to guard His disciples.
All boasting of merit in ourselves is out of place. “Let not the
wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his
might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth,
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the
Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”
Jeremiah 9:23,
24
.
The reward is not of works, lest any man should boast; but it is
all of grace. “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as