First Evangelists
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Jesus continues: As you confess Me before men, so I will confess
you before God and the holy angels. You are to be My witnesses upon
earth, channels through which My grace can flow for the healing of the
world. So I will be your representative in heaven. The Father beholds
not your faulty character, but He sees you as clothed in My perfection.
I am the medium through which Heaven’s blessings shall come to you.
And everyone who confesses Me by sharing My sacrifice for the lost
shall be confessed as a sharer in the glory and joy of the redeemed.
He who would confess Christ must have Christ abiding in him. He
cannot communicate that which he has not received. The disciples
might speak fluently on doctrines, they might repeat the words of
Christ Himself; but unless they possessed Christlike meekness and
love, they were not confessing Him. A spirit contrary to the spirit
of Christ would deny Him, whatever the profession. Men may deny
Christ by evilspeaking, by foolish talking, by words that are untruthful
or unkind. They may deny Him by shunning life’s burdens, by the
pursuit of sinful pleasure. They may deny Him by conforming to the
world, by uncourteous behavior, by the love of their own opinions, by
justifying self, by cherishing doubt, borrowing trouble, and dwelling
in darkness. In all these ways they declare that Christ is not in them.
And “whosoever shall deny Me before men,” He says, “him will I also
deny before My Father which is in heaven.”
The Saviour bade His disciples not to hope that the world’s enmity
to the gospel would be overcome, and that after a time its opposition
would cease. He said, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” This
creating of strife is not the effect of the gospel, but the result of op-
position to it. Of all persecution the hardest to bear is variance in the
home, the estrangement of dearest earthly friends. But Jesus declares,
“He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me:
and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy
of Me.”
The mission of Christ’s servants is a high honor, and a sacred
trust. “He that receiveth you,” He says, “receiveth Me, and he that
receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me.” No act of kindness shown to
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them in His name will fail to be recognized and rewarded. And in the
same tender recognition He includes the feeblest and lowliest of the
family of God: “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little