Luke 22:32

QUESTION: Explain Luke 22:32: "When thou are converted, strengthen thy brethren."

ANSWER: "Converted" literally means turned about. Peter was going the wrong way when he denied his Lord. The reproving look of Jesus broke his heart. He bewailed his sin, weeping bitterly. He was converted. He obeyed his Master's order, "Right about face."

— Steele's Answers p. 67.

Grace First, Then Knowledge

We are exhorted to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Some tell us that we find the true philosophy of Christian growth by reversing this order, and putting the knowledge of Christ first, as the means of increasing in grace. But the order of the apostle — grace first and knowledge second — is the most philosophical. We grow in the knowledge of Christ through the heart, and not through the head.

We do not know Jesus till we love him, and the more we love the more intimate our knowledge of him.

The more we familiarize ourselves with the perfect character of Jesus, the more we shall admire him, just as by studying the works of Angelo we come to admire him the more. But admiration is not love. It kindles no furnace-glow in the affections; it impels the soul onward through no losses and labors, self-denials and persecutions, to the martyr's stake. As the character of Christ folds its splendors beneath the long and earnest gaze of the student, he may be growing esthetically by familiarity with so many moral beauties, and he may become more perfectly grounded in his theological beliefs respecting the Divinity of the man of Nazareth, and yet he may, in his own heart, be refusing to receive and enthrone him as his rightful king.

— Love Enthroned, Chapter 18.

Why Did Jesus Not Know the Hour of His Return?

QUESTION: Explain Mark 13:22, "But of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, nor the Father."

ANSWER: It seems to have been a part of the humiliation of the Son of God while on the earth that there should be a limit to his knowledge, not of future events, but of the dates of certain great crises such as the destruction of Jerusalem and his own second coming to judge the world. Why? It has not been revealed. Perhaps it was to bring him into perfect sympathy with us who know that certain events are in the future, but we do not know when. No man, except condemned murderers, knows the date of his future death, though he is certain of the event.

— Steele's Answers p. 66.

John the Baptist's Asceticism

QUESTION: Explain Matt. 11:18, 19, "John came neither eating nor drinking," etc. "The son of man came eating and drinking" etc.

ANSWER: John was a rigid ascetic, practicing periodic fasting as specially meritorious, though of course he had to eat and drink to live. Jesus Christ did not periodically fast. He was not an ascetic, nor did he teach his disciples to fast, because it did no more harmonize with the Good News he proclaimed than would a patch of new cloth on an old garment or new wine in old and brittle wine-skins. His eating and drinking were natural, a model of temperance. Fasting is nowhere taught in the New Testament as a Chrisitan duty.

— Steele's Answers pp. 65, 66. 

How Do We Consecrate Our Possessions to the Lord?

How may I consecrate all to the Lord, and yet retain the control over all? How, for instance, can I surrender all my property to God and still retain some of it for life's uses?

The question is pertinent. No man can live without appropriating something to his own personality. Property is one of the great natural rights with which we have been invested by our Creator. We could not exist without it.

What are we to do when we consecrate possessions to the Lord? Not to shovel our money into the streets, or to pour it indiscriminately into the treasuries of the nearest institutions, but to become Christ's stewards for the faithful custody and expenditure of this property, making it accomplish the greatest possible good in the well-being of men and the glory of Christ. So much as we can spare from our business and the proper maintenance of our families we must make immediately productive for good in some department of Christ's service, for the Lord at all times condescends to use consecrated substance. But so much as is requisite for the conduct of our business and decent support of those dependent on us may be retained and administered solely for the glory of Him who gave himself for us. Here we must depend each on his own Judgment under the illumination of the word and the Spirit of God.

How may I know that I have laid all on the altar? Self generally rallies on some one point — defends itself in some last ditch. When that is surrendered, the struggle is felt to be over. We know that we have yielded and hung out the white flag, the token of our capitulation. Besides, with all honest souls God is under covenant to reveal to them the state of their hearts. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to hold up a mirror and to furnish a lamp with which we may see our exact visage.

— Love Enthroned, Chapter 17.

Sanctification and the Theory of Temptation

An exhaustive discussion of the relation of a completely sanctified soul to the possibility of sinning, involves the theory of temptation.

Some teach that sin enters the soul when the sensibilities are stirred by the cognition of the forbidden object by the intellect. We are not of that class. The activity of the emotional nature in the presence of its proper objects is just as inevitable as that of the perceptive faculties. An apple presented to the gaze of a hungry child necessarily awakens, not only a perception, but a desire. This desire is as innocent as the impression on the retina, or the cognition in the mind. Sin comes in when the will indulges the desire, or even fosters it against the remonstrance of conscience. Yet this state of excited sensibility in the presence of a forbidden object is full of peril, for here is where sin is conceived. "Lust when it is conceived bringeth forth sin."

Is Perfect Love a Special Charism?

We find in some honest minds a theoretical difficulty which constitutes a stone of stumbling in the way of their seeking full salvation. It is the notion that the grace of perfect love is of the nature of a charism, or special gift of the Holy Ghost, dispensed by the Father according to his own will, and hence not attainable by all believers.

Are there not instances in which the fullness of the Spirit, or perfect love, is dispensed in a sovereign manner without compliance with the usual conditions? We dare not say that there are not; for (1.) We read in the Scriptures of one who was to be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. (2.) We believe that the souls of infants, defiled by inborn depravity, are, without faith on their part, entirely cleansed before death by the blood of sprinkling because they are included in the new covenant which is ratified by that universal atonement which saves all souls which do not willfully reject it by unbelief. (3.) For the same reason we believe that all justified souls, all persevering believers in Jesus Christ, who, through imperfect apprehension of the "exceeding greatness of his power" to save to the uttermost," are painfully conscious that they are not cleansed from all inward unrighteousness, are, before death, entirely sanctified by the sovereign will of Him who stands pledged "to finish the good work which he has begun" in them, and "to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy "

Is Perfect Love a Requirement for Entering Heaven?

QUESTION: Should the experience of perfect love be taught as a requirement for entering heaven, or as a high privilege of the regenerate and as an especial equipment for a more devoted service for the Master?

ANSWER: We admire Wesley's advice to preach this great blessing by drawing, not by driving. It will do much harm to threaten true believers with hell fire, if they do not consciously receive their full heritage in Christ in this life. There are no such threatenings in the Word of God against the children of God. "If children, then we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." Perfect love is the preparation for the heaven to which the first degree of love gives the title. Every genuine Christian is a candidate for perfect love, if he perseveringly seeks it. No one can love God a little without desiring Him to love him with all his heart, and no one can love with all his might without desiring a larger capacity for loving. Says Faber:

"And they who love God cannot love him by measure, 

For their love is but thirst to love him still better."

The perfect love described by St. John is characterized by its fearlessness, which can arise only from its moral purity. This is the quality of the perfect love which Wesley preached. This is sooner or later the heritage of every persevering believer. From this point onward he is no longer dissatisfied, but he is forever afterwards in time and in eternity unsatisfied, crying with good Ambrose of old, "Ampliora Domine, ampliora" — More, Lord, more.

"Insatiate to this spring I fly;

I drink and yet am ever dry;

Ah! Who against thy charms is proof?

Ah! Who that loves, can love enough?"

— Steele's Answers pp. 64, 65.

Killing in Self-Defense

QUESTION: What proof is there in the Bible that it is right to kill in self-defense?

ANSWER: Such an act needs no justification by the Bible, because the instinct of self-preservation is divinely implanted for the very purpose of instantaneous resistance to violence which may cause the death of the assailant. The religion of Jesus Christ does not condemn the healthful action of any one of our primary instincts. He is discussing the lex talionis, the practice of personal retaliation, when he says, "resist not evil," in Matt. 5:39. In the case of the midnight burglar, killed in the act of breaking in, no guilt was incurred. Ex. 22:2, 3.

 — Steele's Answers pp. 63, 64.

When Shall We Shall Know Fully?

QUESTION: In 1 Cor. 13:9 what time is referred to in the clause, "When that which is perfect is come," and verse 12, "Then shall I know fully?"

ANSWER: After the believer's death. The exegetes all concur in this opinion, though there is no mention of death in this magnificent encomium of what Prof. Drummond styles "the greatest thing in the world." A very good man has written a book in proof of the idea that the perfection spoken of is that of perfect love and that the "then" in verse 12 is when this grace is experienced.

— Steele's Answers p. 63.