1. Affliction says, "Love not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. If any man love the world [referring to the world system, not
the people of the world] the love of the Father is not in him." (I
John 2:15).
2. Affliction says, "Take
heed and beware of covetousness"
(Luke 12:15). Riches cannot help, neither earthly comfort avail us in the hour
of grief. They cannot dry up tears, nor reunite broken bonds. ... It is then we
find that we need a "treasure in the heaven that fails not."...
3. Affliction says, "abstain from all appearance of evil" (I
Thess. 5:22). "Hate even the garments spotted by the flesh."... It is
not merely abstain from evil, but from
all appearance of evil. Suffering teaches us to
shrink from sin -- even from the
remotest and most indirect connection with it. It says, "Oh, do not that
abominable thing which I hate!"
4 Affliction says, "Do not grumble against one another." (James 5:9). Let there be no halfhearted affection in
the family of God. Let there be no envy, no jealousy, no misunderstandings
among the brethren. Why should we be less than friends who are both
fellow-sufferers and fellow-soldiers here? ... Yet oftentimes it needs
affliction to teach us this, to remove our jealousies, and to draw us together
as brethren in sympathy and love.
5. Affliction says, "Keep yourselves from idols"
(I John 5:21). If there be one remaining idol, break it in pieces and spare it
not. Nothing is so fruitful a cause of suffering as idolatry. Nothing so
forcibly displays the vanity of our idols as suffering. ...
Church of the living God! Be warned. Please not yourself, even as Jesus pleased not Himself. Live for Him, not for yourself, for Him, not for the world. Walk worthy of your name and calling, worthy of Him who bought you as His bride, worthy of your everlasting inheritance.
