I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you.... (Ephesians
3:1)
The measure of approximation to the fullness of
the revelation has always been accompanied by a relative cost. Every instrument
of the testimony has been laid under suspicion and reproach in a measure
commensurate with the degree of value to the Lord, and this has meant that,
humanly, they were limited to that extent. Many have withdrawn, fallen away,
held aloof, doubted, feared, and questioned. But as Paul could say "My
tribulations for you, which are your glory" (Eph. 3:13), or "The prisoner of
Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles" (Eph. 3:1), so the measure of limitation
in the Lord is the measure of enrichment in His people. The fuller the
revelation, the fewer those who apprehend, or the greater the number of those
who stand aloof. Revelation only comes through suffering and limitation, and to
have it experimentally means sharing the cost in some way. But this is God's way
of securing for Himself a spiritual seed plot....
All this may apply to individual lives in
relation to the Lord's testimony. There may often be a chafing against
limitation, confinement, and a restless hankering after what we would call
something wider or less restricted. If the Lord has willed us to the place where
we are, our acceptance of it in faith may prove that it becomes a far bigger
thing than any human reckoning can judge. I wonder if Paul had any idea that his
prison meant his continuous expansion of value to the Lord Jesus through
nineteen hundred years? What applies to individuals also applies to corporate
bodies, assemblies, or companies of the Lord's people scattered in the earth but
one in their fellowship in relation to the Lord's full testimony. May the Lord
be graciously pleased to cause the merely human aspect of prison walls to fall
away, and give the realization that, far from being limited by men and
circumstances, it is imprisonment in the Lord, and this means that all ages and
all realms are entered through that prison.