Jim Elliot- Christian martyr in Ecuador

Jim Elliot

1927-1956

Christian martyr in Ecuador

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

by Rit Nosotro First Published:: 2003

( Last updated: 09/03/2010 05:37:32)

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These martyrs are known worldwide and continue to be an encouragement for many missionaries. After their deaths, there were many conversions to Christianity among the Indian tribes of Ecuador. After Jim Elliot's death, Elisabeth Elliot and her daughter Valerie continued working with the Quechua Indians and later moved to work with the Auca Indians. Forgiveness allowed them to have amazing success with the once murderous Indians.

Our movie review of "The End of the Spear" will be published soon. 


Death for nothing? Many people thought it was a tragic waste of a life when Jim Elliot died trying to contact the Aucas. Jim was a very dedicated man who was physically and spiritually ready to go the mission field of Ecuador. His life and death by the Aucas continues to inspire Christians. Yet, how many Christians would risk their life for an opportunity to share the gospel? Jim Elliot, a young modern martyr did.
Philip James Elliot was born on Oct. 8, 1927, in Portland, Oregon to Fred and Clara Elliot. He was born into a family of three siblings. His father was an itinerant non-sectarian evangelist in the Puget Sound area and his mother conducted a chiropractic practice. Growing up, many missionaries visited his home. This proved to be an important influence in his life. When Jim was eight years old, he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart.

Jim attended Benson Polytechnic High School, majoring in architectural drawing and participating in football. He was also such a talented actor that his teachers urged him to enter professional theater. Jim developed his talent of preaching during his high school years. In his senior year he was elected class president.

When Jim graduated from high school, his brother recommended Wheaton College which he entered in 1945. He and his roommate, Pete Fleming, devoted their lives to Christ. He was granted a scholarship but had to work part time to support his studies. He participated in the College wrestling team and made the varsity his first year there. A "missions" statistic that profoundly challenged him was, "There is one Christian worker for every 50,000 people in foreign lands, while there is one to every 500 in the United States." He preached in youth groups in the Wheaton area and one summer he visited Mexico where he stayed with a missionary family to learn Spanish for six weeks. Here, he felt his missionary call to South America.

During his college years, he went to two Inter Varsity mission conferences. In his junior and senior years in college, he started paying attention to a girl named Elizabeth who was a year ahead of him and also wanted to be a missionary. However, they did not yet feel a confirmation towards marriage at the time of Elisabeth's graduation. In her journal she wrote, "Agreeing…the matter was too big for us to handle, we decided to pray about it separately." They said their "good-byes", and wrote to each other. In one of his letters to Elisabeth he wrote, "There is within a hunger after God, given of God, filled by God. I can be happy when I am conscious that he is doing what He wills to do within." Jim went on a mission trip to Mexico and his interest began to grow quickly in Latin America.

In 1948, he was elected the president of Foreign Mission Fellowship and was part of the Gospel team during the summer. In one of his notebooks he wrote that year, "God, I pray Thee, light these idle sticks of my life and may I burn for Thee. Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus." He chose Greek as his major and graduated with highest honors in 1949. Jim returned home to live with his family to focus on Bible study and his relationship with the Lord. He worked at odd jobs and would preach wherever anyone would listen.

In June, 1950, Jim spent much time in Norman, OK where he worked with a former missionary to the Quechua Indians of Ecuador and first learned of the feared Auca Indian tribe. Immediately, Jim felt the call and after ten days of praying, he wrote a letter to Dr. Tidmarsh asking whether he could come help with the missionary work that they had going on there. Jim immediately applied for a passport after Dr. Tidmarsh agreed to receive him. However, Jim's decision to go to Ecuador was postponed a year while Tidmarsh went to England.

Jim joined Elizabeth in the linguistic school for a few months then continued his relationship with her through letters and visits. Jim worked with youth in Indiana and Illinois where Ed McCully and Pete Cathers helped him in working on a radio broadcast series called, "The March of Truth". Jim convinced his friend Ed McCully to leave law school and to start mission training. Pete Fleming and Jim started raising money and getting prayer support. Pete was for going to Ecuador right away. Ed wanted to stay and get married with Marilou. After some convincing from Pete, Jim was ready to go.

When Dr. Tidmarsh returned the three men readied for their trip to Ecuador. Elisabeth Howard also had been called to do missionary work in Ecuador. On February 4, 1952, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming sailed for Ecuador and arrived in Quito on the 21st. Pete and Jim stayed in Quito for six months with a missionary family that helped them learn Spanish accurately and quickly. In April of the same year Elisabeth arrived to study Spanish, tropical diseases, and medical work. Although she went to the opposite side of Ecuador to work with another tribe, Jim and Elizabeth stayed in contact by letters.

The men's plan was to locate themselves in an old oil station that was abandoned because it was considered too dangerous for oil personnel. It was close to the Auca tribe and had a small airstrip. In February 1953, Jim and Elisabeth met in Quito and made and agreement to be married. Jim and Elisabeth were married on October 8, 1953 by an official of the Registro Civil in Quito, Ecuador. The only witnesses were fellow missionaries Ed and Marilou McCully--and senior missionaries Dr. and Mrs. Wilfred Tidmarsh (who about that time returned to the States due to Mrs. Tidmarsh's poor health).

Of his first year of marriage he writes, "It has been the happiest and busiest year of my life." The Elliot's daughter, Valerie, was born February 27, 1955. Jim and Elisabeth worked together in translating the New Testament into the Quechua Indian language at the new mission station called Shell Mera.

To get to Shandia they had to take a plane to the nearest village. Their pilot was Nate Saint, a missionary pilot with another organization. Once they landed in the nearby village, they had to take a two hour hike through jungle and swamplands to get to Shandia.

At Shandia Pete and Jim made contact with the Quechua Indians. Ed and his wife Marilou joined Pete and Jim in Shandia after their six months of Spanish training in Quito. Nate Saint and his wife also joined them. Together they built a mission station, a small medical station, a few houses for the missionaries to live in, and a small airstrip, which all took about a year. After all that had been accomplished, the missionaries had their first Bible conference with the Quechua. During the rainy season, a flood came that wiped out everything that they had built during their first year.

While Jim was working in Shandia, he recalled in his linguistic training learning about the Auca tribe. One thing that he remembered was that they were a violent and murderous tribe and had never had any contact with the outer world. He wanted to bring the Gospel there, so he started a plan which was called Operation Auca. Besides him and his wife, his team consisted of Nate and his wife, Ed and his wife, Pete and his wife, Roger and his wife, another missionary couple who joined them from the States.

The men discovered the first Auca huts with the help of a missionary jungle pilot, Nate Saint. As the plans for contact with the Aucas continued, Roger Youderian, a young missionary was asked to join them. The men's first attempt to contact them was by airplane. Nate Saint would fly the men around the camp shouting friendship words in the Auca language through a loud speaker and dropping down gifts in a basket such as beads, cloths, machetes and a photograph of each man. The Aucas realized they were friendly and allowed them to land on an island they called Palm Beach. The Aucas responded by sending back up a parrot and feathered head dresses.

Encouraged by this progress, after three to four months of gift dropping, they decided to make a base on the Curray River, "Palm Beach”. Unexpectedly after a week, four Aucas came to Palm Beach. The five men gave them food and gifts as a sign of peace.

After a few days of transferring their equipment to their new campsite they started to set up shelter. After they had set up shelter they shouted Auca phrases into the jungle. The men were always ready for visits of the Auca and carried firearms, but made an agreement not to use them unless necessary. Four days later two Auca women and a man appeared on the other side of the river at the edge of the jungle. Stunned, the missionaries started frantically shouting out phrases in the Auca language. The man replied speaking in his own language and frequently pointing at one of the girls. Jim immediately jumped into the river and swam across.

Frightened and a bit surprised the Aucas backed up into the jungle. Finally after a little persuasion, they were able to convince the men to come into their camp. One of the men gave them knives that greatly pleased them. The younger Auca woman went up to the plane and started making motions with her hands at the plane. The man also moved toward the plane examining it intently. The missionaries promptly named the man "George" and the young girl "Delilah." By the signs that they made they understood that the Indians were interested in a ride, so Nate started up the engine and flew off the narrow strip with "George" in the back of the plane. Nate steered the plane in the direction of the village realizing his opportunity to use his passenger as propaganda. "George," who was wild with delight, was hanging out the plane window screaming Auca phrases to his fellow villagers.

When they got back to their campsite, the missionaries showed the Indians modern things such as rubber bands, balloons and balls. Then they had lunch of hamburgers with mustard. Toward the end of the visit, the Indians showed signs that they wanted to stay the night on the beach with them. The missionaries hospitably set up a hut and said that they could sleep there for the night. All of a sudden, Delilah gave a shrill cry and headed off toward the jungle with George following close behind. Soon after, the older woman left.
Encouraged by this visit, the men felt that it was time to go in and try to minister to them. On the morning of January 8th, after numerous songs of praise and considerable prayer, the men radioed their wives saying that they were going to go into the village and would radio them at about 4:30. "Operation Auca" was under way. He wrote to his father five days before his departure for "Palm Beach", …they have never had any contact with white man other than killing. They have no word for God in their language, only for devils and spirits. I know you will pray."

The next day, Nate and Ed were flying back to Shell Mera when they saw a group of twenty or thirty Aucas going toward Palm Beach. As soon as they saw that, they got very excited and turned around and landed at Palm Beach. They shouted, "Guys, the Aucas are coming!" As soon as the three others heard that, they flew into action straightening up their camp. Little did these five men know that this would be their last few hours of life. The last radio contact they made with Shell Mera was Jim calling his wife saying, "We'll call you back in three hours." As they lived their last minutes during the attack, they did not injure one Auca.

The women back at the base were praying the entire time for their husband's time with the Aucas and asking God to keep them safe. At 4:30 there was no reply, which immediately put the women in alarm. An hour later helicopters and planes from the Ecuadorian Air Force, the US Army, Air Force and Navy swarmed along the Curray River looking for any sight of the missionaries. Finally, one of the helicopters radioed in saying that they had found their bodies on the beach. Jim Elliot's body was found down stream with three others. Their bodies had been brutally pierced with spears and hacked by machetes. All of the plane's fabric had been ripped off as if they had tried to kill the plane. Nate Saint's watch had stopped a 3:12 p.m. So it was concluded that the Indians had attacked them at that time. Their wives received the news and replied, "The Lord has closed our hearts to grief and hysteria, and filled in with His perfect peace."

These martyrs are known worldwide and continue to be an encouragement for many missionaries. After their deaths, there were many conversions to Christianity among the Indian tribes of Ecuador. After Jim Elliot's death, Elisabeth Elliot and her daughter Valerie continued working with the Quechua Indians and later moved to work with the Auca Indians. Forgiveness allowed them to have amazing success with the once murderous Indians.

Jim Elliot's life was lived honorably and he was known to have looked for God in everything he did. Jim Elliot once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." He gave his all in faith to the Auca people, and he cannot lose in the Kingdom of Heaven.

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"Through Gates of Splendor" by Elisabeth Elliot contains discrepencies with the above account. E.g.,
-Quichua
-10 Indians walking toward Palm Beach
-Nate was alone in the plane
-Jim was the only one who wanted to go to the village and others talked him out of it
-Last contact was Nate talking to Marj saying that they will call back at 4:30, 4 hours later

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Bearing Fruit in every Good Work

'To walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory, unto all patience.'--Col. 1:10.

There is a difference between fruit and work. Fruit is that which comes spontaneously, without thought or will, the natural and necessary outcome of a healthy life. Work, on the contrary, is the product of effort guided by intelligent thought and will. In the Christian life we have the two elements in combination. All true work must be fruit, the growth and product of our inner life, the operation of God's Spirit within us. And yet all fruit must be work, the effect of our deliberate purpose and exertion. In the words, 'bearing fruit in every good work,' we have the practical summing up of the truth taught in some previous chapters. Because God works by His life in us, the work we do is fruit. Because, in the faith of His working, we have to will and to work, the fruit we bear is work. In the harmony between the perfect spontaneity that comes from God's life and Spirit animating us, and our co-operation with Him as His intelligent fellow-labourers, lies the secret of all true work.

In the words that precede our text, 'filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,' we have the human side, our need of knowledge and wisdom; in the words that follow, 'strengthened with all power, according to the might of His glory,' we have the Divine side. God teaching and strengthening, man learning to understand and patiently do His will; such is the double life that will be fruitful in every good work.
It has been said of the Christian life that the natural man must first become spiritual, and then again the spiritual man must become natural. As the whole natural life becomes truly spiritual, all our work will partake of the nature of fruit, the outgrowth of the life of God within us. And as the spiritual again becomes perfectly natural to us, a second nature in which we are wholly at home, all the fruit will bear the mark of true work, calling into full exercise every faculty of our being.

'Bearing fruit unto every good work.' The words, suggest again the great thought, that as an apple tree or a vine is planted solely for its fruit, so the great purpose of our redemption is that God may have us for His work and service. It has been well said: 'The end of man is an Action and not a Thought, though it were of the noblest.' It is in his work that the nobility of man's nature as ruler of the world is proved. It is for good works that we have been new created in Christ Jesus: It is when men see our good works that our Father in Heaven will be glorified and have the honor which is His due for His workmanship. In the parable of the vine our Lord insisted on this: 'He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit.' 'Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.' Nothing is more to the honor of a husbandman than to succeed in raising an abundant crop--much fruit is glory to God.

What need that every believer, even the feeblest branch of the Heavenly Vine, the man who has only one talent, be encouraged and helped, and even trained, to aim at the much fruit. A little strawberry plant may, in its measure, be bearing a more abundant crop than a large apple tree. The call to be fruitful in every good work is for every Christian without exception. The grace that fits for it, of which the prayer, in which our words are found, speaks, is for every one. Every branch fruitful in every good work--this is an essential part of God's Gospel.

'Bearing fruit in every good work.' Let us study to get a full impression of the two sides of this Divine truth. God's first creation of life was in the vegetable kingdom. There it was a life without anything of will or self-effort, all growth and fruit was simply His own direct work, the spontaneous outcome of His hidden working. In the creation of the animal kingdom there was an advance. A new element was introduced--thought and will and work. In man these two elements were united in perfect harmony.

 The absolute dependence of the grass and the lily on the God who clothes them with their beauty were to be the groundwork of our relationship--nature has nothing but what it receives from God. Our works are to be fruit, the product of a God-given power. But to this was added the true mark of our God likeness the power of will and independent action: all fruit is to be our own work. As we grasp this we shall see how the most absolute acknowledgment of our having nothing in ourselves is consistent with the deepest sense of obligation and the strongest will to exert our powers to the very utmost. We shall learn to study the prayer of our text as those who must seek all their wisdom and strength from God alone. And we shall boldly give ourselves, as those who are responsible for the use of that wisdom and strength, to the diligence and the sacrifice and the effort needed for a life bearing fruit in every good work.
 

1. Much depends, for quality and quantity, on the healthy life of the tree. The life of God, of Christ Jesus, of His Spirit, the Divine life in you, is strong and sure. 2. That life is love. Believe in it. Act it out. Have it replenished day by day out of the fulness there is in Christ.

3. Let all your work be fruit; let all your willing and working be inspired by the life of God. So will you walk worthily of the Lord with all pleasing.

-Taken from Andrew Murray's notes

A Doer that worketh shall be blessed in Doing

'Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. He that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in doing.'--Jas. 1:22, 25.

'God created us not to contemplate but to act. He created us in His own image, and in Him there is no Thought without simultaneous Action.' True action is born of contemplation. True contemplation, as a means to an end, always begets action. If sin had not entered there had never been a separation between knowing and doing. In nothing is the power of sin more clearly seen than this, that even in the believer there is such a gap between intellect and conduct. It is possible to delight in hearing, to be diligent in increasing our knowledge of God's word, to admire and approve the truth, even to be willing to do it, and yet to fail entirely in the actual performance. Hence the warning of James, not to delude ourselves with being hearers and not doers. Hence his pronouncing the doer who worketh blessed in his doing.

Blessed in doing.--The words are a summary of the teaching of our Lord Jesus at the close of the Sermon on the Mount: 'He that doeth the will of My Father shall enter the kingdom of heaven.' 'Every one that heareth My words, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man.' To the woman who spoke of the blessedness of her who was his mother: 'Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it.' To the disciples in the last night: 'If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.' It is one of the greatest dangers in religion that we rest content with the pleasure and approval which a beautiful representation of a truth calls forth, without the immediate performance of what it demands. It is only when conviction has been translated into conduct that we have proof that the truth is mastering us.

A doer that worketh shall be blessed in doing.--The doer is blessed. The doing is the victory that overcomes every obstacle it brings out and confirms the very image of God, the Great Worker; it removes every barrier to the enjoyment of all the blessing God has prepared. We are ever inclined to seek our blessedness in what God gives, in privilege and enjoyment. Christ placed it in what we do, because it is only in doing that we really prove and know and possess the life God has bestowed. When one said, 'Blessed is be that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God,' our Lord answered with the parable of the supper, 'Blessed is he that forsakes all to come to the supper.' The doer is blessed. As surely as it is only in doing that the painter or musician, the man of science or commerce, the discoverer or the conqueror find their blessedness, so, and much more, is it only in keeping the commandments and in doing the will of God that the believer enters fully into the truth and blessedness of deliverance from sin and fellowship with God. Doing is the very essence of blessedness, the highest manifestation, and therefore the fullest enjoyment of the life of God.

A doer that worketh shall be blessed in doing.--This was the blessedness of Abraham, of whom we read (Jas. 2:22): 'Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect.' He had no works without faith ; there was faith working with them and in them all. And he had no faith without works: through them his faith was exercised and strengthened and perfected. As his faith, so his blessedness was perfected in doing. It is in doing that the doer that worketh is blessed. The true insight into this, as a Divine revelation of the true nature of good works, in perfect harmony with all our experience in the world, will make us take every command, and every truth, and every opportunity to abound in good works as an integral part of the blessedness of the salvation Christ has brought us. Joy and work, work and joy, will become synonymous: we shall no longer be hearers but doers.

Let us put this truth into immediate practice. Let us live for others, to love and serve them. Let not the fact of our being unused to labors of love, or the sense of ignorance and unfitness, keep us back. Only begin. If you think you are not able to labor for souls, begin with the bodies. Only begin, and go on, and abound. Believe the word, It is more blessed to give than to receive. Pray for and depend on the promised grace. Give yourself to a ministry of love; in the very nature of things, in the example of Christ, in the promise of God you have the assurance: If you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Blessed is the doer!
 

-Taken from Andrew Murray's notes

 

That God may be Glorified

'If any man serveth, let him serve as of the strength which God supplieth: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.'--1 Pet. 4:11.

Work is not done for its own sake. Its value consists in the object it attains. The purpose of him who commands or performs the work gives it its real worth. And the clearer a man's insight into the purpose, the better fitted will he be to take charge of the higher parts of the work. In the erection of some splendid building, the purpose of the day-labourer may simply be as a hireling to earn his wages. The trained stone-cutter has a higher object: be thinks of the beauty and perfection of the work he does. The master mason has a wider range of thought: his aim is that all the masonry shall be true and good. The contractor for the whole building has a higher aim--that the whole building shall perfectly correspond to the plan he has to carry out.

The architect has had a still higher purpose--that the great principles of art and beauty might find their full expression in material shape. With the owner we find the final end--the use to which the grand structure is to be put when he, say, presents the building as a gift for the benefit of his townsmen. All who have worked upon the building honestly have done so with some true purpose. The deeper the insight and the keener the interest in the ultimate design, the more important the share in the work, and the greater the joy in carrying it out.

Peter tells us what our aim ought to be in all Christian service--'that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.' In the work of God, a work not to be done for wages but for love, the humblest laborer is admitted to a share in God's plans, and to an insight into the great purpose which God is working out. That purpose is nothing less than this: that God may be glorified. This is the one purpose of God, the great worker in heaven, the source and master of all work, that the glory of His love and power and blessing may be shown. This is the one purpose of Christ, the great worker on earth in human nature, the example and leader of all our work. This is the great purpose of the Holy Spirit, the power that worketh in us, or, as Peter says here, 'the strength that God supplieth.' As this becomes our deliberate, intelligent purpose, our work will rise to its true level, and lift us into living fellowship with God.

'That in all things God may be glorified.' What does this mean? The glory of God is this, that He alone is the Living One, who has life in Himself. Yet not for Himself alone, but, because His life is love, for the creatures as much as for Himself. This is the glory of God, that He is the alone and ever flowing fountain of all life and goodness and happiness, and that His creatures can have all this only as He gives it and works it in them. His working all in all, this is His glory. And the only glory His creature, His child, can give Him is this--receiving all He is willing to give, yielding to Him to let Him work, and then acknowledging that He has done it. Thus God Himself shows forth His glory in us; in our willing surrender to Him, and our joyful acknowledgment that He does all, we glorify Him. And so our life and work is glorified, as it has one purpose with all God's own work, 'that in all things God may be glorified, whose is the glory for ever and ever.'

See here now the spirit that ennobles and consecrates Christian service according to Peter: 'He that serveth (in ministering to the saints or the needy), let him serve as of the strength which God supplieth.' Let me cultivate a deep conviction that God's work, down into the details of daily life, can only be done in God's strength, 'by the power of the Spirit working in us.' Let me believe firmly and unceasingly that the Holy Spirit does dwell in me, as the power from on high, for all work to be done for on high. Let me in my Christian work fear nothing so much, as working in my own human will and strength, and so losing the one thing needful in my work, God working in me. Let me rejoice in the weakness that renders me so absolutely dependent upon such a God, and wait in prayer for His power to take full possession.

'Let him serve as of the strength which God supplieth, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.' The more you depend on God alone for your strength, the more will He be glorified. The more you seek to make God's purpose your purpose, the more will you be led to give way to His working and His strength and love. Oh! that every, the feeblest, worker might see what a nobility it gives to work, what a new glory to life, what a new urgency and joy in laboring for souls, when the one purpose has mastered us: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
 

1. The glory of God as Creator was seen in His making man in His own image. The glory of God as Redeemer is seen in the work He carries on for saving men, and bringing them to Himself. 2. This glory is the glory of His holy love, casting sin out of the heart, and dwelling there.
3. The only glory we can bring to God is to yield ourselves to His redeeming love to take possession of us, to fill us with love to others, and so through us to show forth His glory.
4. Let this be the one end of our lives--to glorify God; in living to work for Him, 'as of the strength which God supplieth'; and winning souls to know and live for His glory.
5. Lord! teach us to serve in the strength which God supplieth, that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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[1] This thought is very strikingly put in a penny tract, One by One, to be obtained from the author, Mr. Thomas Hogben, Welcome Mission, Portsmouth. [2] In the A. V. we find the words in all the seven epistles; according to R. V. they occur only five times. 

-Taken from Andrew Murray's notes

I Know thy Works

'To the angel of the church in Ephesus--in Thyatira--in Sardis--in Philadelphia--in Laodicea write: I know thy works.'[2]--Rev. 2-3.

'I know thy works.' These are the words of Him who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, and whose eyes are like a flame of fire. As He looks upon the churches, the first thing He sees and judges of is--the works. The works are the revelation of the life and character. If we are willing to bring our works into His holy presence, His words can teach us what our work ought to be.

To Ephesus He says: 'I know thy works, and thy toil and patience, and that thou canst not bear evil men, and thou hast patience and didst bear for My name's sake, and hast not grown weary. But I have this against thee, that thou hast left thy first love. Repent, and do the first works.' There was here much to praise--toil, and patience, and zeal that had never grown weary. But there was one thing lacking--the tenderness of the first love.

In His work for us Christ gave us before and above everything His love, the personal tender affection of His heart. In our work for Him He asks us nothing less. There is such a danger of work being carried on, and our even bearing much for Christ's sake, while the freshness of our love has passed away. And that is what Christ seeks. And that is what gives power. And that is what nothing can compensate for. Christ looks for the warm loving heart, the personal affection which ever keeps Him the center of our love and joy.
Christian workers, see that all your work be the work of love, of tender personal devotion to Christ Jesus.

To Thyatira: 'I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that the last works are more than the first. But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, and she teacheth and seduceth My servants.' Here again the works are enumerated and praised: the last had even been more than the first. But then there is one failure: a false toleration of what led to impurity and idolatry. And then He adds of His judgments: 'the churches shall know that I am He which searches the reins and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your works.'

Along with much of good works there may be some one form of error or evil tolerated which endangers the whole church. In Ephesus there was zeal for orthodoxy, but a lack of love; here love and faith, but a lack of faithfulness against error. If good works are to please our Lord, if our whole life must be in harmony with them, in entire separation from the world and its allurements, we must seek to be what He promised to make us, stablished in every good word and work. Our work will decide our estimate in His judgment.

To Sardis: 'I know thy works, that thou hast a name to live, and thou art dead. Be watchful and stablish the things that are ready to die: for I have found no works of thine fulfilled before My God.'

There may be all the forms of godliness without the power; all the activities of religious organization without the life. There may be many works, and yet He may say: I have found no work of thine fulfilled before My God, none that can stand the test and be really acceptable to God as a spiritual sacrifice. In Ephesus it was works lacking in love, in Thyatira works lacking in purity, in Sardis works lacking in life.

To Philadelphia: 'I know thy works, that thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word and didst not deny My name. Because thou didst keep My word, I also will keep thee.'
On earth Jesus had said: He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. If a man love Me, he will keep My word. and My Father will love him. Philadelphia, the church for which there is no reproof, had this mark: its chief work, and the law of all its work, was, it kept Christ's word, not in an orthodox creed only, but in practical obedience. Let nothing less, let this truly, be the mark and spirit of all our work: a keeping of the word of Christ. Full, loving conformity to His will will be rewarded.

To Laodicea: 'I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. Thou sayest, I am rich and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing.' There is not a church without its works, its religious activities.

And yet the two great marks of Laodicean religion, lukewarmness, and its natural accompaniment, self complacence, may rob them of their worth. It not only, like Ephesus, teaches us the need of a fresh and fervent love, but also the need of that poverty of spirit, that conscious weakness out of which the absolute dependence on Christ's strength for all our work will grow, and which will no longer leave Christ standing at the door, but enthrone Him in the Heart.

'I know thy works.' He who tested the works of the seven churches still lives and watches over us. He is ready in His love to discover what is lacking, to give timely warning and help, and to teach us the path in which our works can be fulfilled before His God. Let us learn from Ephesus the lesson of fervent love to Christ, from Thyatira that of purity and separation from all evil, from Sardis that of the need of true life to give worth to work, from Philadelphia that of keeping His word, and from Laodicea that of the poverty of spirit which possesses the kingdom of heaven, and gives Christ the throne of all! Workers! Let us live and work in Christ's presence. He will teach and correct and help us, and one day give the full reward of all our works because they were His own works in us.
 

-Taken from Andrew Murray's notes