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Colossians 3:23:
23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men....
In His Word God absolutely forbids every inclination and every attempt to break up your life into two parts, the one part for yourself and the other part for Him. There must be no cleavage, no division. Not six week days for you and Sunday for God. Not an unconsecrated life interspersed with consecrated moments. Not an unhallowed existence into which at intervals a holy thread is woven. Not a life outside of religion sprinkled in parts with godliness. No, on this point the claim of Scripture is as inclusive as possible; and, though it may sound strangely to our ears, the obligation is imposed upon you that you shall pray without ceasing, that in everything you shall give thanks, that you must always rejoice in your God, and so also that whatsoever ye do, you shall do it heartily as unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23).
To the Thessalonians (I Thessalonians 5:16) Paul writes: "Pray without ceasing. Rejoice evermore. In everything give thanks." To the Philippians (4:4), "Rejoice in the Lord always." And to those at Colosse: "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord."
You are never given a respite. Never an agreement is made with you. Never with less than your whole life does God take pleasure. Where faith becomes the rule of your life, it wills its rule to be absolute. No excuses, no half measures will do. He who as child of God, as servant of Christ, as inspired by the Holy Ghost, lives his life in this world must in everything be led and carried by his faith. He who divides and makes distinctions, robs God of a part that belongs to Him alone. If you are to love your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your powers, every avenue of escape is closed against you, and the all-claiming and exigent character of the faith is founded in love itself.
Every division works harm in your life and in your religion.
He who divides and then undertakes too much in behalf of his religion, neglects his family or his calling. And he who divides, without being godly, gives the lion's share to the world, and skimps with a stingy heart what he professes to set apart for God in strength, time and money.
He who would choose to be near unto God and go through life in close fellowship with Him is not permitted to practice this fellowship at one time and to neglect it at another. With him in everything he doeth God must be known, God must be the end and aim, God must be prayed unto, and God must be thanked. Not formally with closing of eyes and folding of hands and muttering of words, but in that innermost part of his heart and in that hidden recess of his self-consciousness in which are the issues of his life as well as of his prayer.
This reacts against the idea that a clergyman can, and a merchant can not make this fellowship with God a constant reality in his life; that the man or woman who works zealously for missions, for philanthropy or evangelization, but not the father and the mother in the family are engaged in holy service in the eyes of their God.
What a clergyman, or missionary, or nurse does, is then called consecrated labor, and what the gardener, or merchant or seamstress or servant performs is then said to lie within the pale of unconsecrated ground; and it is just this false representation of the matter that works so much harm to the godly life and to vital godliness.
Of course there is no denying that he who directly ministers in the sanctuary is necessarily more busy with holy things, and herewith enjoys an uncommon privilege for which he shall give account before God. And equally little can it be denied that at the Exchange and in the shop and office, it takes far more effort and overcoming of self to always remain in everything near unto God. This takes the more effort, in connection with which God knows of what we are made, mindful that we are but dust.
But weighing against this stands the fact that the ministry in the sanctuary brings with it, in no small measure, the danger of becoming too much accustomed to holy things and of handling the same more and more with unholy hands; and, by sinning in and against the sacred calling, faces so much heavier a judgment. Ever and anon, in the best church and in the most excellent mission, the evil times have come back when priests and priestesses in the sanctuary have profaned themselves, and that not from among them but from among the humble patrons and working people and shop-keepers and merchants, the action arose which restored holy things to honor.
A godly pastor, a devout missionary, a consecrated nurse, and so, too, a truly godly warden, elder or deacon, represent a glorious power; but one makes a mistake when he thinks that of itself the office or the more sacred calling brings true godliness with it. Especially, young clergymen who have tender consciences are bound, again and again, to acknowledge to themselves that the godliness of many an ordinary member of their congregation puts their own religiousness to shame.
Likewise it must be granted that in our extremely defective condition, a certain intentional, a certain special consecration of a part of our life, of our strength and of our money, to religious works and interests appears necessary.
You cannot so serve your God all the days of your life, but the day of rest continues to retain its higher significance. You cannot so be near your God in everything you do, but the special seasons for direct prayer, for the worship in the Word, and for thanksgiving in spoken praises, remain for you a need of the heart. And you can not so practice justice and mercy in everything, but the setting apart of intentional gifts for the service of the Lord, is felt by you to be a blessed duty.
In the Jerusalem above this duality also shall fall away. The Church Triumphant above shall not stand in nor alongside of the life of glory, but shall be that life itself. Father-house and triumphant Church before God's Throne are one.
But it is not so here. Here it can not be otherwise than that the duality maintains itself. Your Church is something else than your family or your workshop. The mighty contrast between the things of this world and the things of the kingdom demands this.
But this should never bring it about that your religion, your godliness, should so concentrate itself within this sacred domain that it should give rise to a churchly life with godliness, alongside of a life without godliness.
Godliness may find a more exalted expression within the sacred domain and may strengthen you for daily life, but if your godliness shall be of the true and genuine type it must be a golden thread that maintains its glistening brightness throughout your whole life.
All this depends on whether you truly believe that your God is the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. Thus also whether you believe and consider that every material which you elaborate is His creature; that every article of food and drink on your table is His creature and His gift; that your body and all your senses are His embroidery, and that He maintains the workings of them; that every power of nature wherewith you have to do is His omnipresent working; that every circumstance you encounter has been assigned to you by Him; that every relation in which you are placed by blood, by marriage, by appointment or from choice has come to you under and by His providential plan; that every exigency and difficulty in which you find yourself has been put by Him in your way; that every task or duty to which you are called comes to you for His sake and has a definite significance in His government; that you can not think of anything so high or so low on earth but it all forms a link, great or small, in the chain of His disposal; that no joy is tasted and no suffering endured but He measures it out to you; or, briefly, that nothing is conceivable in heaven or earth, and nothing can exist, but that God Who created heaven and earth maintains and governs it, has His holy purpose in it all, is in everything the Lord Who disposes and ordains it, and Who in all things uses His people— which includes you—to carry out His counsel to completion.
To except from this anything whatsoever, is unbelief.
When therefore the Apostle says: "Whatsoever ye do" in words or works, "do it all heartily as to the Lord," he says nothing but what directly flows from your profession, that you believe in God the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. Then there is neither in your personal life, nor in your family life, neither in your study and labor, nor in anything that you do, anything that you can think of that should separate you from God, and that should not rather, provided it is rightly interpreted, lead you to Him.
Sin, yes, that you cannot do as to the Lord. That separates, that breaks up the fellowship and throws you back upon yourself.
But for the rest, whether you stand behind the counter or work at your trade; whether you sit in your office; whether you lose yourself in study or devote yourself to art; whether you are at home with your family or other company—it can and must be all one working, one activity, with strength imparted to you of God, in things created by God, for a purpose that God has ordained with respect to it.
It is thus but the question whether your faith—not now in the mysteries of salvation, no—but your faith first of all in God as the Creator of heaven and earth floats upon your soul as a drop of oil upon the waters, or whether it enters into the whole of your life and is applied by you to everything.
If it is the latter, then there is no division anywhere. Then the man who plows and sows, the carpenter at the bench or the stone-mason, the mother who cares for her children and her home, in brief, no man or woman in whatever position in life is ever to do a work without God, but always as in His service.
Then to be near unto God, then the fellowship with the Eternal, the hidden walk with Him Who knoweth the heart is no sweet-smelling savor alongside of life, but the breath of life itself that breathes forth from your entire life its grateful savor into your nostrils.
In everything then you rejoice, because from everything and in everything the Majesty and the grace of God breathe forth upon you.
In everything then you pray, not with the lips but with the heart, because in whatever you do you feel your deep dependence upon His Almighty power.
In everything then you give thanks, because every success is the fruit of His grace, and every adversity is intended to stimulate you, with the assistance of ever more grace, to greater exertion of strength.
Yea, then you do everything heartily, not mechanically, not slavishly, not from necessity, but willingly and gladly, because you are permitted to do it thus in His service.
And so you come to a level of existence where godliness and fulfillment of duty are one, because in quiet and restful nearness to God whatever you do, you are permitted to do as to the Lord.
* * * * * * *This devotional classic offers 110 meditations on a single thought from Psalm 73: "As for me, it is good to be near to God." The author states, "The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality ... it must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
The meditations reflect the blending of spiritual vigor with doctrinal loyalty so consistently expressed in the life of Abraham Kuyper. These are devotions with true substance, avoiding the extremes about which Kuyper adds a word of caution: "Stress in creedal confession, without drinking from the Living Fountain, runs dry in barren orthodoxy, just as truly as spiritual emotion, without clearness in confessional standards, makes one sink in the bog of sickly mysticism."
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) was a Dutch political leader and Calvinist theologian. Elected to parliament in 1874, he became Prime Minister in 1901 and served in that capacity until 1905. As a theologian, he revived a systematic, orthodox Calvinism. He founded the Free Reformed Church and the Free University of Amsterdam. His other works include Principles of Sacred Theology, Lectures on Calvinism, and The Work of the Holy Spirit
Further information about Abraham Kuyper's life can be seen in the translator's "Biographical Note"; further information about To Be Near Unto God can be Abraham Kuyper's "Preface" to that book.
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