Musick-al Note # 276
The teaching of the Word of God brings great joy to the teacher but bitter sorrow often comes into his heart. These two extremes are so opposite that one would wonder that it could be possible that both could be in the same life, yet from the pages of inspiration comes the knowledge that it can happen. The apostle Paul felt these two extremes for great joy came to him to know the Lord and to teach many others the way of truth, yet he felt the bitter sorrow of the loss of his own people for he said in Romans 9:12, “I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart for them.”
There is great joy when we teach one in such a way that they obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. However when we teach with love and have encouraged someone to obey the gospel, then they turn away, it brings bitter sorrow to our hearts. There is great joy when we are able to encourage the erring brother or sister to return to the Lord and His church and they respond to begin anew. But there is heaviness and sorrow when they reject our pleas of encouragement and do not respond but continue to live in sin. There is great joy in our hearts when the young Christian desires to grow, studies the Word and begins to mature in Christ so that he can be depended upon to become a partner in the saving of souls. Yet there is bitter sorrow when the young Christian takes no interest in spiritual food or work and fails to grow so that we see him forgetting his Lord and Savior and eventually return to the life of sin and death. It brings great joy to our hearts when Christians continue to mature and they become concerned with the lost souls of the world and they become actively engaged in carrying out the great commission and in leading young Christians to increase in spiritual stature by teaching the Word of God to them. A bitter sorrow comes into our hearts when we observe seemingly mature Christians living lukewarm lives, unconcerned about the lost souls of their friends and loved ones and are indifferent toward the newborn babes in Christ. Living so selfishly that they cannot give of themselves to share the good news to the lost and cannot share a few hours with other Christians except for the pleasure of visiting them. There is great joy to be had when Christians love one another and work in harmony together but it is a trial of great magnitude and a bitter sorrow when cliques are formed and fostered among God’s people to exclude others to reject and cut them from fellowship. Such division in the body of Christ causes great harm to the Lord’s cause and ought not to be formed.
With every success in God’s work there is great joy, but at the same time the possibility of bitter sorrow is present when anyone fails to respond to the Lord Jesus Christ in obedience to His word or grow to maturity in Him.
Gordon Musick
Musick-al Notes 