Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1692
Delivered at the Thursday Evening Lecture
“I would have you without carefulness.” 1 Corinthians 7:32.
In that capacity, Paul’s words are, by no means, to be despised. I had far rather follow the uninspired advice of Paul than that of any other man. In mental clearness none ever excelled that consecrated man. But he spoke under Inspiration, beyond all question, when he gave this as his reason for desiring that they would remain unmarried—“I would have you without carefulness,” or as the Revised Version reads it, “I would have you to be free from cares.” This is the mind of the Holy Spirit as well as the mind of the Apostle Paul. This is a text, not for Paul’s time, alone, but for our time and for all time.
The general principle in our text I will endeavor to open up before you. We who have believed are the servants of Christ and are no longer at our own disposal. We are not our own, for we are bought with a price. If you look back in the chapter, at the 23rd verse, you find a statement to that effect. Hence our business in life is to serve Him who has redeemed us. This one occupation should entirely absorb and engross us. Everything, therefore, which helps us better serve the Lord Jesus is a good thing—and everything which hampers and hinders us in the main business of our life, though it may be good enough for others, is bad for us. The chief work of the Christian is to glorify God and, to this chief work everything must be subordinated. If a thing is lawful to me, and yet, while lawful, it hinders me in the service of God, it is not expedient and, therefore, I am to renounce it.
No man ever succeeds in anything who does not give himself wholly to it—it matters not what it is—concentration is essential to perfection in any pursuit. He who would be eminent in any one direction must forego a great many other things which are perfectly allowable. These he must renounce for the sake of his one objective. He will not succeed unless he sacrifices all other things for the one chief thing. So must it be with the Christian. The rule of his life is to be, “This I will not do, this I will not enjoy, this I will not allow for myself because I could not serve God as well with it, and my business is to keep myself in the best possible form for doing my Master’s work.” We are to labor as much as we can for our Lord and all other results of life must be to us as chaff to the wheat.
It is with us, Paul tells us, as with a soldier. A soldier is a man who must not open shop, or become a banker or a farmer. He must not think of settling quietly in the town where, for a while, he is billeted. Why not? The reason is clear—even if there is no war at the present time, yet no man that wars, entangles himself with the things of this life if he would please him who has called him to be a soldier. Soldiering requires the man to be altogether a soldier and it cannot afford to let him be a tradesman or a farmer—he must not hamper himself with that which would hold him to the spot and prevent his hastening to the field. The nation requires that its army be ready for any and every emergency, so that when the trumpet blows, the regiment marches, the troopship steams across the sea, and the foe is promptly confronted. It is necessary that the soldier keep himself in marching condition and the less luggage he has to carry, the better.
So it is with the Christian—he is to aim at a condition best adapted for his holy warfare. He is not to be satisfied when he has said to himself, “Is this right, or is this wrong?” He is to go further. I hope that many of us have long passed beyond that stage, for we have a judgment and discernment which tell us at once what is right and what is wrong—we now ask a still higher question—“Will this help me to glorify God, or will it not?” This is the enquiry of the higher life and a godly man is careful in the answering of it. The best thing is bad if it hinders our vocation. Though the garment were made of silk, bespangled with jewels and made with golden thread, yet must we, as racers, lay it aside if it would entangle us in our running.
Though the burden were a bag of pearls and every pearl were a king’s ransom, yet if we are to run—and none can win but those that run—we must leave that bag of pearls in another’s keeping, for our business is with the crown before us! We must lay aside every weight and the vesture of sin which does so easily entangle us, that we may run with patience the race that is set before us. At this time the Apostle says to us—“I would have you without carefulness as to earthly things,” and this because he would have us full of carefulness as to heavenly things! He wants us to be free from cares, that all our thought, anxiety, meditation, suggestiveness, inventiveness and burden-bearing may go towards the service of our Divine Lord. We have only a certain measure of mind and he wants all of it for the Lord Jesus, that we may walk worthy of our high calling.