Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
The government of God is not in giving orders; it is in seeing ahead. It is not heavy-handed or self-willed; it is gentle. But still, it knows. Jesus gives advice when men would make demands. And he reproves when men would praise.
Jesus once told his disciples that he had food to eat of which they knew nothing. Similarly, the saints of God are under a form of government the world knows nothing about and to which the world can never submit. “The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” And without that sweet government of the Spirit within us and among us, we who believe would be just like the world, swept along life’s sea by currents too powerful to resist, with no compass and no sail.
May God help us to see the beauty of His government and humble ourselves completely to it. “Oh, how I love thy law”, wrote young David, “it is my meditation all the day. Thou, with thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies.” When we love the way of the Spirit, we are made wise, because it is God’s law within us, and the Spirit knows the mind of God and communicates it to us.