We should never be content when we fail to display Christ before men: as Christ is righteousness for me before God, so is He the example and standard of righteousness before men: as Christ is for me before God, so ought I to be for Christ before men. This is the way for the Christian to judge of right. or wrong. We may be humbled because of failure, but we must not lower the standard.
Christ was content to be nothing, in a world where man was everything and God was shut out.
There is nothing more dangerous than to have the outward manifestation of power going beyond the inward association and communion of soul with God; the life within must be equal to the outward display of power.
Whatever produces a care in us, produces God's care for us; therefore "be careful for nothing," etc. (Phil. 4:6.)
Living to God inwardly is the only possible means of living to Him outwardly.
Christ is the centre of everything for the heart.
I am in Christ above, and this Christ is in me below; and there I find the principle of all my walk, and the power of it too.
If death is our deliverance from all sin, we must taste it for our deliverance practically. The bitter water of Marah must be tasted, when the salt waters of the Red Sea have delivered us from Egypt for ever and ever. Put the wood of the tree, the cross of Christ into our cross, and all will be sweet. J. N. D.