The Man Born Blind (13)

The strife for the man that is born blind is intensifying. Really, what does it mean to have strife? Strife means to experience opposition. Strife is an activity. It takes two to have strife. By the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, this strife is recorded between the man born blind and the unbelieving Pharisees. Notice that right away from the pages of the Bible a specific strife is mentioned. This is the strife about God and His work, the strife of Christ and His people.

How much strife is there for our work that must include God. The Pharisees are so busy trying to diffuse the wonder of divine characteristics. They strive for it, to prove our work goes best if we can add God to it, but the hypocrites will be uncovered!

The healed man has strife because of God’s work in him; he is framed to be a hypocrite, but God is going to honor His own work in him. What a lesson reveals itself here! How necessary that you and I need to examine our strife. Many are satisfied in their strife with a text and psalter line that fits the need. It was sweet and right on time, but, dear reader, if it maintains your honor, if it maintains your view-point, if it maintains yourself, it is nothing but yourself at work. Then you are adding God to your work. It will be uncovered sooner or later. In our days the Bible and Psalter book have become a bucket of nails at the hardware store. You just take as much as you need to maintain yourself. The strife is soon plastered with untempered mortar. Struggling one, who hears beautiful psalter lines and reads beautiful promises but cannot self-apply, here is instruction and encouragement that shows the Lord will remember His poor Zion. Oh, I read here that they reviled him for His portion in Christ. Striving one, examine it; is your strife already considered your portion in Christ? Then the Bible says you will lose everything.

The actions and words of Pharisees are described here. They are wise men, careful in their actions, nice in their prayers, fluent in their speech, but with not an ounce of the true fear of God. How cold when these men speak, how bitter cold when these men are left to call on God’s name. The Pharisees were reviling, but their strife? That is for themselves, seeking to include themselves and maintain themselves. Do you also become jealous of that healed man? He is a friend and companion of all them that truly fear the Lord—not in his religious talk and “holier than thou” actions but in the fruit of godliness which is manifesting itself in true strife. Dear struggling ones, the fruit of godliness is His work, and that will become the object of the enmity of the religious Pharisees. Those Pharisees exist today just as they did then. You do not have to find them in the world; they are in the church.

The healed man does not waste words. He is not going to tell the Pharisees again what has happened. The reason is clear; “Ye did not hear.” Literally, it means, “I said it once and you did not believe it. Will I now speak of the Godglorifying wonder another time so that you may continue to strive about whether it is true or not?” He lays it before them in a remarkable way: “Will ye also be His disciple?” He reveals what they also need to be, namely, “His disciple.” This man delivers a short but powerful application to his testimony of Christ’s healing. It awakens the rage; it awakens the bitterness of these self-righteous Pharisees.

What pity can, at times, fill the heart of the true striver, for such who are carried away with their strife in which God needs to be added to their work. The Lord knows how they grieve in secret about the hardness of their enemies’ hearts and their unwillingness to bow and acknowledge the divine hand of God in an evident work of His power. No, these people do not stand high; these people are not in it for themselves; they are upright. Their heart, at times, is filled with love for their enemies. This love is like coals of fire on their head because the Bible says, “Then they reviled him.”

Yet, the strife of the healed man about his portion in Christ is progressing. The progress is revealed by the enemies. They make a statement in verse 28, “Thou art His disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples.” This is a confirmation for the healed man. Have you learned to thank your enemies? Were they not the instruments to confirm you in your strife? Notice, dear reader, God has not said a word! There is an inheritance upon earth for whom the Bible is not personally applied so often but who in their strife are confirmed by their enemies of their portion in Christ.

Notice it is not Christ—this man cannot die with what men said to him; this man cannot die with confirmations; this man needs Jesus Christ in His Person. John 9 is such a beautiful portion of the Bible. It is the strife of His true people; it is the way of true strivers; it declares their life in the strife! It confirms that they must enter through many tribulations. The Lord Jesus has made more room for the glorious confirmation and revelation of His Person.

(To be continued)

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