From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: I chose that hymn not because it happens to be the last meeting of the series, but because in addition, I think you will agree it is a most appropriate hymn as we come to deal with the verse that is before us this evening, which is the 13th verse in the 12th chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. Let me remind you again of the context of this injunction. Let's go back to the ninth verse and read on from there.

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.

Now, here we come to the last of these what I would call general injunctions. You may recall, most of you, that in our analysis of this section, I pointed out how most of the commentators seem to be agreed that there is very little evidence of the usual order which you have in the writings of the great apostle. I venture to differ from that and suggest that there is more order than they seem to have realized.

I suggested that there is a division here at the ninth verse, that the apostle, having dealt with the doctrine of the church as the body of Christ and having reminded us of how we should use the various gifts that he has given to us through the Spirit in the realm of the church, now goes on to deal with our general relationships to persons—first, particularly persons in the realm of the church, and then more generally.

Now, coming then to this subsection which starts at the ninth verse, we indicated that in the ninth verse he lays down the two great fundamental controlling principles, which are first, that we should always be governed by love, and secondly, that we should abominate and abhor that which is evil and cleave like glue to that which is good. And then, a general injunction again about our relationship to one another as believers—brotherly love.

Let your brotherly love, he says, manifest the same kind of affection that it does between brothers in a natural sense, between members of a family. And indeed, he says, help yourselves to do this by going ahead of one another in showing honor and respect to one another. Then you see, he comes to tell us how we should face our work. Never be slothful; in zeal, don't be slothful, he says, but rather be fervent in spirit, in the Spirit—the Holy Spirit—serving the Lord.

Then you see, in the 12th verse, he goes on to deal with us as we face trials and troubles and tribulations. We are to rejoice in hope—that's the key to it all. Patient then in the tribulations because we're ever keeping our eye on that hope, and in addition, praying without ceasing, instant in prayer. And here in this 13th verse, he comes to the end of what I call these general positive injunctions with regard to our conduct.

And this one follows directly from the previous one. You see the intimate connection, how his mind works and how it goes on. He's reminded us that we are subject to trials and troubles and tribulations, and that we must have a clear view of our life in this world; otherwise, we're going to be sadly disappointed and soon will be in trouble in our life of faith. Here they are; we are heirs of this in the world: you shall have tribulations.

Our Lord has warned us and prepared us, and he's told us there how we are to face our own personal tribulations. But immediately he goes on, he can't leave it at that. We are not the only ones who are subject to this. All our fellow believers also are subject to exactly the same conditions. And here he reminds us that we must realize our responsibility, therefore, with respect to them and how we should help them to deal with these self-same problems that confront us.

Now, that's what we have in this 13th verse. And here I suggest he does finish a subsection because from verse 14 onwards, he deals in reality with our reactions to other people and to what they do, whether it's unpleasant or pleasant. From here on, it's a question about our reaction to other people. So far, he's been looking at the thing positively and indicating to us what we have to do. Very well then, we come to the end of this little subsection.

Now, the first thing we've got to do here is to be clear about our actual exegesis of the particular words. Most important that we should do so. There are two statements here that we've got to balance, you notice. He's been doing that right the way through. And here the two parts are what is first, if you like, the first half he puts in terms of "distributing to the necessity of saints," then the balancing portion is "given to hospitality."

And the second is a kind of interpretation or elaboration of the first in the form of a principle. But now let's look at the terms. "Distributing," distributing to the necessity of saints. Now, this is a most interesting word and a most important one. Distributing, of course, is a part of the meaning, but it isn't enough. It's too weak. It doesn't bring out the fullness of the meaning that was conveyed by the word that was used by the great apostle.

What it really means is this: entering into fellowship with the necessity of the saints. That's the term that he actually used. You enter into fellowship with them as they have these necessities. It's the same word that is often used of a share. Indeed, it is the same essential word as you have in the apostolic benediction—the communion of the Holy Ghost. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship or the communion of the Holy Ghost.

That's the word. And here this is what he's saying. Not merely that you distribute to the necessities of the saints, but you enter into fellowship with them, you become partners with them, you share with them. In other words, you must feel that this is your burden. That's the meaning. That their burden is your burden, and that you're in them with them in this and that you really are feeling it yourself. You've entered into a kind of partnership with them in their position and in their predicament.

Very well, that's—you see, it's important that we should realize that because if we don't, we're going to miss a great deal of the particular teaching which he has here. But let's go on to the word "necessity." Now, necessity means needs. And needs means, well, bare necessities. Now, he's not saying that we should enter into partnership with our fellow believers in their desires or in their likes or in their wishes. He doesn't say that.

But we must enter into fellowship and partnership with them with regard to their needs. The distinction, of course, is an important one. It means this: there is all the difference in the world between our being in a position where we are short even of the necessities of life, and another position where we really are not short of the necessities, but we would like to have more. Now, the apostle's talking about needs.

He isn't saying that you should enter into partnership with people as they feel the need of luxuries. He isn't saying that. You enter into partnership with them when they're face to face with needs, when they really are in true difficulties and in trouble. Again, that is very important. We're all still in the flesh, you see, and there are some people who are not always quite clear as to the difference between absolute needs and necessities on the one hand, and luxuries of some sort on the other hand.

But here he's only talking about the needs. And again, you notice that he says entering into partnership with the needs of the "saints." Now, here's an interesting word. The saints are the holy ones, if you like. They're the ones who've been set apart. He isn't talking about everybody; he's talking about these people who have been set apart, and they've been set apart, of course, by God. Here is a thing which might very well detain us.

We won't allow it to do so this evening, but do let us remind ourselves that in the New Testament, every member of the church is regarded as a saint. In the seventh verse of the first chapter of this great epistle, he says that he's writing to those in Rome who have been called to be saints. And you find that expression, called saints or called to be saints, in most of these epistles. I think we need to remind ourselves of this in an age which is increasingly being governed in its thinking by Roman Catholic teaching.

Their teaching is, of course, that only some people are saints, only some Christians, I mean. The vast majority of church members and Christians to the Roman Catholics are not saints. The only people who are saints according to their teaching are the people whom they decide to canonize, as they call it, and they've got certain tests which people have got to pass before they're described as saints. Well, we must protest against this. We are all called saints because a saint, after all, is a man who's been set apart by God.

What makes a man a saint is not anything he does; it is what God has done to him. Separated unto the gospel. You'll notice this; it isn't confined to the Apostle Paul. Take, for instance, the Apostle Peter. He has exactly this same idea at the beginning of his first epistle. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered—and then he names the countries—but this is the description: elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

It's the same idea, sanctification of the Spirit. Now, that isn't the sanctification that follows justification; this is the sanctification that precedes even believing. And that means set apart, set apart by the Holy Spirit. No man can believe unless he's set apart by the Holy Spirit. He's elect according to the foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the Spirit. He's taken hold of, he's taken out of the world, he's set apart. God makes saints. No man makes himself a saint; no church makes a man a saint.

Saints are made by God. And all true Christians are saints. We've all been set apart by God, taken out of the world, put into this new kingdom, this new condition. We are God's people. And what he's telling us here is that we must enter into partnership and fellowship with all such people like ourselves who are suffering need. Very well, there's the first half of the statement. But come to the second half, which he puts, as I say, in the form of a more general principle.

And here it is: "given to hospitality." What is hospitality? Now, here's a word that we use very frequently, don't we? But the word used by the apostle is again much stronger than this word hospitality. We've debased this word as we tend to debase most words. This word really means loving strangers, stranger-loving. That's the word that the apostle uses. In other words, he says you must have fondness or affection for strangers.

You remember how he puts it; it's the same word exactly in the second verse of the 13th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews: be not forgetful to entertain strangers. It's the same word there as we've got here as hospitality. That's what it means. Show hospitality, you might translate that Hebrews 13:2 in this way: be not forgetful of hospitality. That's exactly how it could be translated if you adopted the same translation as we have here.

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, be not forgetful of hospitality. It is love of the stranger, a fondness or affection for strangers. Now, he says that we are to be given to hospitality. And here again, it's extraordinary how almost every word we're looking at this evening causes us to express a measure of criticism of the Authorized Version. The others are no better, but it's unfortunate that these words are much too weak. Given, given to hospitality.

What does it mean? Well, it really means to pursue hospitality. Pursue it, to seek after it. Now, let me give you some other examples of this same word translated in a better way. Take 1 Corinthians 14:1. You remember how after the great hymn of love in 1 Corinthians 13, the 14th chapter starts with these words: follow after charity. Follow after it. That's the idea. They don't translate it "given to charity"; "follow after it." It's the same word precisely.

And that's the meaning which we should attach to it here. But let me give you some still more striking examples out of the third chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians. And here we've got it three times. Take verse 6: "concerning zeal, persecuting the church." It's the same word, translated here "persecuting." Going after it. Persecuting, going after it in that sense of persecuting. Persecuting is the right translation here.

But you see, the whole idea is this pursuing, pursuing the church, going after the church in order that you might do harm to it. But it shows this eagerness and this keenness. Or take it again in verse 12: "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after." Not just given to these things; I follow after them. And then he elaborates that, you see, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended.

And later he elaborates it still more, but you've got it in the 14th verse once more. Verse 14, rather, I should have said: "I press toward the mark." That's it. I press toward the mark. Now, this is undoubtedly an inspired translation here in Philippians. You notice how they vary the terms and bring out the force, and you can do that by varying the actual expression. But all of them together give us this tremendous idea of zest and zeal and keenness and pursuing something.

Not just given to hospitality, but really going after it, going out for it, pursuing it, seeking it, following after it, pressing towards the mark, as it were, in this respect. Now, a very good way of enforcing this injunction is to show you the opposite of it. And here Peter is a help to us because in the first epistle of Peter and in the fourth chapter and the ninth verse, you get what is approaching the opposite or the negative of this injunction to pursue hospitality.

There Peter says, "Use hospitality one to another without grudging." Now, you see that's a man not exercising hospitality in the right way. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. Don't grudge as you're doing it. There were Christians who were doing that; they felt well, they'd got to do this, but they preferred not to do it, and they did it very grudgingly. They did it in a very bad way indeed. Now, Paul's saying the exact opposite to that. Don't do it grudgingly, he says.

Go all out, be after it, chase it, press after it, follow after it. Not half-heartedly, grudgingly, or against the grain, or doing it with an ill grace. The exact opposite. In other words, the kind of thing that he's exhorting us to do, you see, it isn't the same word, but it's the same principle that we've got in what Paul tells us about Onesiphorus. You remember in the second epistle to Timothy and the first chapter, at the end he says, "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me."

That's it. That's the idea. You seek them out, seek out the opportunity, buy up the opportunity, pursue this thing. So in this matter of stranger-loving, that is to be the way in which we are to do it. Well now, then, there we've looked at the actual words of this injunction. What have we got to say about them? Well now, nobody who knows the New Testament at all can fail to notice that the apostle here is teaching us something that is taught everywhere in the New Testament.

It's quite amazing when you come to look into it to notice the frequency of references to this in the New Testament. Let me just give you some hurried examples of this very thing. The apostle comes back again to it in the 15th chapter in verse 26: "For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem." And he was very pleased about that. It hath pleased them verily, and their debtors they are.

And then you've got it in several places in the form of positive injunctions. Take, for instance, Galatians 6:6 where he tells us that we are to not with eye-service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. And then he goes on to tell us later on to show this kind of—I was reading from Ephesians, I'm sorry. Here it is in Galatians: "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth." Communicate, that's the same idea.

That means to give to him, support him, help him. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Later on, he goes on and tells us to do good unto all men, especially them that are of the household of faith. You've got the same idea in Philippians 4:15: "Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only."

No church entered into partnership with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. And he commends them for this. You've got the same thing in 1 Timothy 6:18. You've got it again as I've reminded you in the Epistle to the Hebrews in the 13th chapter and not only in that second verse, but again in the 16th verse also of that chapter, it's put in these terms: "But to do good and to communicate." Keep your eye on that word "communicate."

Forget not: "for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Now, there is great attention therefore paid to this all along. You'll find in the qualifications of elders, presbyters, and so on, you'll find that this is a point that is made: "given to hospitality," we are told, that they must be people who are given to hospitality and people who enjoy exercising hospitality. These are some of the terms that are used with regard to such people. Well now, then, you can see that it obviously was a most important point in the early church.

And I think there was a special reason for that. There was a great deal of persecution. Christians were then being persecuted bitterly, and they might have to leave their home and their district and go elsewhere. Now, they were all alive to that. You've got to bear that in mind always as a background in your reading of the New Testament. If we don't know the historical circumstances, it's sometimes difficult to understand why such great emphasis is placed upon particular things, and this is one of those cases in which that is particularly important.

It was the persecution that led to this and the need of this. There was an absence, of course, of what we know as hotels and places to stay and things of that kind. So that naturally, in the life of the early church, it was something that Christian people needed to be reminded of very frequently. Now, what then is the general teaching for us? This is the application of it to ourselves and to our own day and generation.

Well, the first thing we've got to realize once more is that this is not just a general vague injunction for us to be kind to one another. I've pointed out with regard to all these injunctions that they're all the outcome of doctrine, and that they must all always be considered in the light of the doctrine. That's why we spent such time on the first and the second verses of this chapter. They are the key to the whole of Christian conduct.

Those two verses govern the whole of the rest of this epistle to the end of chapter 16. They are the two verses that really govern the whole conduct of the Christian. Don't forget that, therefore. "I beseech you therefore." If you ever find any of these injunctions are against the grain, it is because you've somewhere gone wrong in your doctrine, you've somehow not understood the full content of this "therefore." If we really grasp the teaching of the first 11 chapters, all these things should come naturally and almost inevitably to us.

But not only that, to understand these injunctions and this one in particular, we've got to realize also the full content of the teaching which we've had in verses 4 and 5 of this chapter. What is that? Well, here it is: "as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Now, it's because that is true that he tells us here to distribute to the necessity of the saints and to go out after hospitality.

You see, he's basing it all again on the doctrine of the church as the body of Christ. And we only see the relevance of this injunction and feel its force as we grasp that central teaching. And there's nothing more wonderful than this. Why should we do what he tells us here in this 13th verse? The answer is that all of us are these separated people. You remember how Peter puts it: "ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, as strangers and pilgrims, I beseech you."

It's the same—that's the appeal. Now, that's the background to this appeal. This is not a general injunction to Christian people to be generous to those who are in need. No, no, it's much more particular. It is to the saints, I say. And therefore, we must carry with us this previous teaching, especially that teaching there about the Christian as being a member of the body of Christ and all others in the same position. And also you've got to bear in mind the teaching of verses 9 and 10.

"Let your love be without dissimulation. In brotherly love be kindly affectioned one to another." This is one of the ways in which you do that. So you see, the teaching here assumes the teaching that has gone before. You can't understand the particular injunction except you take it in the light of the background of its own context. Very well, what he's saying is this: we're all the family of God. We're all brothers and sisters. And isn't this a marvelous thought, a wonderful thing?

You and I, my friends, we belong to the same family. Indeed, we are more closely related than we are by natural ties because we are here members of the family of God. And the moment you realize that, there's no difficulty about this injunction. If a member of your family is in trouble, you're there. Blood is thicker than water, you say. Well, I say the spirit is thicker than blood, because it's the Holy Spirit of God.

And so you see the thing is inevitable. You remember how Paul argues in the chapter 1 Corinthians 12 where he uses this analogy of the body. He says if any one member suffer, all the body suffers with it. That's the kind of thing he's saying. You see your brother in trouble; well, you're in it with him. You're in partnership with him. He puts it as an injunction, yes, but it's an injunction that comes out of a position that is there. Realize the relationship, he says; put it into practice, therefore.

Or another illustration of this which has always fascinated me and I've always enjoyed reading it: you remember what we are told in the 12th chapter of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, how Peter was arrested and put into prison. First of all, King Herod had taken James the brother of John and had killed him. And then because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

Then listen: "Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him." Only one of them was in prison, but they were all in the prison with him. Peter alone was literally in the prison, but every member of that church was in the prison with Peter. Prayer was made of the church without ceasing unto God for him. They were suffering with him. Why? Well, because he's one of the family, he's a brother. And nothing can happen to the brother except that we all feel it and are involved in it with him.

Or take the way the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews puts it again—let's go back to that 13th chapter; indeed, my difficulty tonight was to know what not to quote. "Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Listen: "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body." You see, you're bound with them.

You're in the same body with them. It means that. I know that it means you are also in a physical body and the same thing can happen to you, but it has the other meaning also. In other words, it is this solidarity, this identity. Nothing can happen to any one of you except that it happens to all you. That's the teaching. So you see, the doctrine is absolutely essential. If you do this grudgingly, what you're really showing is that you don't understand the doctrine of the church as the body of Christ and your own place and position in it.

So now then, this is what he's telling us. He says recognize Christians when you meet them. Here they were, you see, scattered abroad because of persecution, and some of them would arrive in Rome as Paul himself had done and as Priscilla and Aquila had done. He says distribute to the necessity of saints. Well, how do you know them? You've got to recognize them, haven't you? And this is a wonderful thing again.

Do you recognize Christians when you meet them for the first time? You should. Thank God one does. There are people here tonight whom I recognized the first time I saw them. Not members of this church at all; come a long way, some of them across the ocean. I recognized them the first time I saw them. And we recognize one another. But not only do you recognize them, you're glad to see them and you're most anxious to help them.

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Be eager to do this. Didn't you think that that second epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 8, which we read at the beginning, was wonderful? Listen to the apostle, how he puts it: "Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia." Listen to this: "How that in a great trial of affliction"—they were—that was their position.

They were in a great trial of affliction: "the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." You can't add to that, can you? It's like a mighty river, you see. The depth of the river: their deep poverty. Then if you want to know how deep the river is: the riches of their liberality. In a great trial of affliction, there's the depth again. The abundance of their joy—there's the height of it. Here's this tremendous stream flowing along between these banks.

Now, that's the sort of thing the apostle is exhorting us to here. "For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves; Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship," the partnership, "of the ministering to the saints." And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God, and so on. That whole chapter, as you notice, deals with this marvelous thing.

Now then, that is what we are to do. In other words, it comes to this: love thy neighbor as thyself. You love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself. Love your brother especially because he's your brother, and that is the way in which we do this. So that you see, this injunction we're looking at becomes a very good test of our whole position of ourselves as Christians.

As the hymn we've been singing just puts it: we test our love for thee and show our love for thee by loving one another. John argues that if a man doesn't love his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? This is how it works. So it's a very good test of our love to one another. But John puts this very strongly. People sometimes think, you know, that John is the loving apostle and much tenderer than the Apostle Paul.

I always find them the other way around. John frightens me much more than Paul does. John, with his bluntness. Listen to this: "Hereby perceive we the love of God"—I'm reading 1 John 3, verse 16—"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

Paul never said anything as severe as that. Paul is much the gentler of the two. John, with his bluntness, puts it like that. And what he writes, of course, is perfectly true. Paul puts it in a more general appeal. John puts it like this, quite simply. Don't talk about loving God, he says, if you shut up the bowels of your compassion to a brother that is in need. You mustn't talk about the love of God; you're a hypocrite.

John is the man who calls us liars if we say that we know him and live in sin. And there he puts this point, I say, very plainly and very bluntly to us. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren." Yes, but says John, you don't love the brethren in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. You must be ready to lay down your lives for the brethren as Christ laid down his life for you, if needs be.

In other words, you see what Paul is exhorting us to here is the kind of thing that we read of in the very beginning of the church in Acts 2 at the end of the chapter. You remember what we read? Here it is in verse 44 and 45: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need."

We read exactly the same thing again in chapter 4, verses 34 to 36, it's repeated: "Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." Now, Paul is here just calling us to that kind of life. There are one or two matters of interest which I must raise at this point.

I think this injunction of the apostle casts great light on those two portions I've read to you from the Book of Acts, Acts 2 and Acts 4. How does it cast light on that? Well, in this way: some people have thought that in Acts 2 and Acts 4, you are given a description of a kind of communist society, that it was a kind of attempt at some sort of communism which was later abandoned. Some would say that it was a mistake to have abandoned it, and so on.

Now, it seems quite clear to me from this injunction of the apostle and the other injunctions that I've already quoted to you in the New Testament that Christianity does not teach communism in that sense. What it does teach is this: not that we sell all that we have and give it into a public pool so that nobody has any private property or any private possessions at all. That isn't what it teaches. It teaches stewardship. You still have your possessions, but you are governed by this spirit of love so that you, if you see a brother in need, you give what you've got to him.

It was that equality that Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 8: nobody lacked, nobody had too much. It is according as the need arises in the brethren that the others contribute. Now, this is a most important point, of course, and I could have spent the whole evening on it. We can't do that, but let's put it like this: it is sometimes, I would say indeed always, easier to get rid of all you've got than to act as a steward. If you give all you've got and have got nothing left, well, you've got no problems, have you?

But if you still retain your possessions, but as a Christian you know that your brother has a right to it when he's in need, well, your responsibility is greater and your difficulties are greater. But that is the thing to which the New Testament calls you. You are a steward of all that you have, and you must feel that it belongs to your brother as much as it does to you if your brother is in need. Now, that isn't communism, you see.

Communism does it by act of law; it compels people to do it. It's the opposite of this. This is the law of love; this is an appeal which is made to men in the light of the doctrine. It's the exact opposite of communism, which simply levels everybody out. This doesn't do that. This tells us to level one another out in a spirit of love so that we're all always in a position where none of us is suffering from need. That's the teaching.

And therefore, it is good that we should know that when we meet people who talk about communism and either say that Christianity should be like it or that communism is superior to it. That's the answer to that argument. Secondly, the appeal the apostle makes to us here is not just a kind of general social appeal such as is being made very often at the present time in the Christian church. You know, it's happening at the present time over certain countries where there's a certain amount of starvation and need and so on, and a general appeal is made to relieve this suffering, and the church is, as it were, come into it.

That isn't what we've got here. Now, let's be careful about this. The primary call on the Christian is to his fellow Christians. Do good unto all men, especially them that are of the household of faith. They come first. Of course, if you're in a position to help others beyond that, do that also. But here, I feel again, is a very important thing for us at this present time. We as a church here and all other churches represented, I'm sure, have the same experience.

You get requests sent to you from various secular societies which are doing a lot of good, Red Cross, famine relief, and various others, and they send these appeals round to all the churches. Now, I'm arguing and indeed we put this into practice here that we are not involved in those general appeals in that way. It is our business to seek out the Christians in these needy countries and do what we can to help them. We put them first.

They have a priority. It doesn't mean we don't help the others if we're in a position to do so, but it does seem to me that Christian people should designate their gifts to their fellow Christians and not be just a part of some general vague secular philanthropy. Now, the appeal to us is particularly to the saints, and they are often the people who are most neglected. They come first with us, and we should always give them priority and deal with them before we deal with any others.

This isn't an appeal to indiscriminate giving. And I think the church should be more jealous of her prerogatives in this respect and not submit meekly and unintelligently at times to the general appeal. The man of the world says, "You Christians, of course, you are the people of all people who should be doing this." We say to him, "Now wait a minute. Do you know what a Christian is? A Christian is a separated man; a Christian is a saint. We are bound to certain people in certain countries more than we are to the generality of people in those countries.

And we're more interested in them in the first instance. Anything else we can do we will do readily and gladly as an act of charity and an act of compassion. But our first call is always the call that comes from the saints, our fellow believers in Christ." A third note: there are difficulties about carrying out this injunction. And one of the biggest difficulties is—I'm sorry to have to use such language, I'm doing it in order to save time—the "professional beggar."

And churches know something about the professional beggar, a church like this in particular, situated in a place like London like this. There are professional beggars, poor men and women who for various reasons have gone wrong—let's be sympathetic towards them—but you see, they have no right to become professional beggars, and especially at a time like this when the church makes provisions, when the state makes provision for such people. But they do. What they want, of course, poor things, is money for drink and so on. They don't say that, but it generally comes to that.

Now then, what do we do about them? You see, these professional beggars sometimes are a little bit arrogant, and they're ready to quote a verse like this. They don't know the words, but they'll quote what they think is the spirit of it. They think a church, now then, the church is an institution that gives to anybody who asks, anybody who is in need. And they almost demand it and they almost insist upon being given something. What about them?

Well, it's quite clear that the early church had exactly the same problem. Not only in this matter of giving, but there were people traveling about in those days. They'd arrive at a church and they'd announce that they were great preachers, and they wanted an opportunity for preaching. Well, what do you do with a man like that? Every man who thinks he's a great preacher is not, you know. In fact, most who think they are are certainly not.

But there were such people traveling round the early church. And they clearly had difficulty about this. So you see, they had to adopt a certain method, and you're told what it was at the beginning of the third chapter of the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. Listen: "Do we begin again to commend ourselves to you? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?" Letters of commendation. Because of the abuse of this exhortation and injunction that we are considering and the other application of it, the early church had to resort to that expedient.

When a brother said, for instance, that he'd got to go to Rome on business or something, he was given a letter, so that his words could be checked and his claims could be checked, a letter of recommendation or of commendation. And that is a very good thing to do. But what do you do if a man hasn't got a letter? Well now, this is where the whole question of discrimination comes in. And there is such a thing as the gift of discrimination. I mentioned it in passing: how do you recognize a Christian?

Well, there are various ways in which this can be done. And remember, it's a part of our stewardship. A steward is not a man who gives to the first man who asks him. He may be helping a man to continue in sin by doing that. You've got to assess your man. A steward is a man who can calculate and assess and make computations. It's a very simple thing indeed just to empty your pockets to the first man who comes along.

It can be very bad stewardship. It may mean that you're giving to a man who's unworthy of it, and then when the right man comes, you've got nothing to give. A steward is a man who's got to know what he's doing. And the way in which you test is to listen to men speaking; let them talk. I often have had to do it and still have to do it in my vestry at the close of services. And after you've done this for a number of years, you know you can generally tell the kind of person with which you're dealing.

They generally start with a kind of spiritual introduction and perhaps thank you very profusely for the sermon and so on. And yet you feel, well, if this man is a spiritual as this, why is he dressed as badly as he is? Why is he unwashed, why is he unkempt? Can a man who is as spiritual as this one seems to be from his speech and conversation really be what he's representing himself at? So you let him go on talking and you hurry him a little bit, and soon you'll get out from him that what he really wants is to ask you for money.

And then you have an opportunity of talking to him about his soul, and you try to show him the error of his ways, and you may give him something to help him in order to show that you're not condemning him, but you expose the sham and the hollowness and his pretense. And then you act with charity with respect to him. But we've all made mistakes; to use the phrase, we've all been "taken in." We have given to frauds and so on.

I trust that we've never refused a deserving case. But you need to pray for discrimination that you'll be able to recognize a true Christian and a truly worthy case. Well, there are some points which I thought I'd indicate in passing. My friends, bear with me a minute while I say just a word about how you actually put all this into practice. How do you do it? Well now, in a very wonderful way again, that 13th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews really tells us all about it.

And I'm just going to read the verses to you. Go back to that 13th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It talks about three kinds of love. First, "Let brotherly love continue." That's the first verse. Then in the second verse, as I say, it talks about this love of the stranger, which is translated here "be not forgetful to entertain strangers." You love your brother, you love this stranger. And you know the best way to do that?

Well, the best way to do that is to listen to what he says in verse 5: "Let your conversation be without covetousness." Now, a better translation of that would be something like this: let your manner of life be free from the love of money. If you want to love your brother and to love the stranger, be sure that you don't love money. For if you love money, you won't love your brother or the stranger. So there you've got it: two positives, one negative.

Start with the negative. Don't be a lover of money, and then you're well on the way to become a lover of your brother and a lover of the stranger. Let me give you some encouragements to the putting into practice of this great exhortation of the apostle. Distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. Why? Well, because as you do so, you can be quite sure you are always doing it unto him. Do you remember how he puts it at the end of the 25th chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew?

Talks about when the Son of man shall come in his glory and all the nations shall be gathered before him. He shall set the sheep on his right hand, the goats on the left. Then the King shall say unto them on his right hand, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me."

Then shall the righteous answer him saying, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?" And the King shall answer and say unto them, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Love your brethren, enter into fellowship and partnership with them in their needs and in their necessities. Love the stranger.

Why? Well, you're not only doing it for them, you're doing it unto him. He is the one you're pleasing, and he is the one you are serving. Let me give you a second exhortation. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Why? "for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." And there's no happier experience than that. You've taken a stranger in because you're following this injunction. There wasn't much to look at in this stranger, but you discover later that you've taken in an angel, you've entertained an angel unaware.

There are great stories in the literature of the church on this, in the biographies and in the books, of how a great saint was traveling and in need and so on and was taken in, and how his arrival turned to be the greatest blessing that had ever come to the family that obeyed the injunction of the Apostle Paul. But here is a third and a final argument for you. Think of the reward that will come to you.

There I've already given it you from Matthew 25. Think of the day when he'll say that unto you: "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of my brethren, you have done it unto me. Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord, enter into the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world." What a wonderful thing. But listen to our Lord himself urging us and exhorting us and encouraging us to do this very thing the apostle tells us to do.

Here it is in verse 16. It's the parable, you remember, of the unjust steward. "The lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." That means this: make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. It means this: make the right use of your money. Don't be a miser.

Help others. Use this mammon of unrighteousness, your money, to make friends for yourselves, so that when the day may come that you fail—and it will come when you die—they'll have gone before you and when you arrive on the other side, these will be the people in the front ranks waiting for you, welcoming you. When you fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. Let the Apostle Paul put it in his own way as he puts it to us in the first epistle to Timothy, chapter 6.

Indeed, this whole chapter in a sense deals with this one matter that we are looking at. He says there are certain people from whom we should withdraw. Who are they? Well, he says these are people who suppose that gain is godliness, or that they go in for godliness in order to get gain out of it. But he says godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is nothing that we can certainly carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root—is a root—of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness, etc.

But then listen to him at the end: "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life."

Exactly the same teaching as our Lord there in Luke 16. Teach them, he says, to use their money in such a way. Ready to distribute, willing to communicate, and teach them that as they're doing so what they're really doing is they're laying up in store for themselves in the world to come this great balance, as it were. They're doing it here, they'll reap the reward of it there. Give them this right view, this right perspective.

If they do this, tell them they will be laying hold of, a firm hold, a certain hold, they'll have absolute assurance of eternal life itself. And that is the great encouragement to all of us to implement this injunction of the apostle here in this 13th verse of the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Enter into fellowship with all saints who are in need. Pursue, seek after, this love of strangers, hospitality, kindness to others.

And as you do so, you will be pleasing your Lord and Master. You will be certain of having that final encomium from him, beyond which nothing can be more desirable: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." You'll have entertained many a stranger unawares even in this life, and you will have made certain of your eternal bliss in the glory everlasting, and will be welcomed into it, not only by the Lord, but by these others whom you helped when they were in this evil world, who have gone on before you and they will receive you into your everlasting habitation. Amen.