The Weakest Servants, Yet Servants Still

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

John 17:6

We should notice, in John 17: 1-8, what a gracious account these verses contain of our Lord Jesus Christ's disciples. We find our Lord Himself saying of them, "they have kept thy word--they have known that all things whatsoever thou has given me are of thee--they have known surely that I came out from thee--they have believed that thou didst send me."

These are wonderful words when we consider the character of the eleven men to whom they were applied.  How weak was their faith!  How slender their knowledge!  How shallow their spiritual attainments!  How faint their hearts in the hour of danger!  Yet a very little time after Jesus spoke these words they all forsook Him and fled, and one of them denied Him three times with an oath.  No one, in short, can read the four Gospels with attention, and fail to see that never had a great master such weak servants as Jesus had in the eleven apostles.  Yet these very weak servants were the men of whom the gracious Head of the Church speaks here in high and honorable terms.

The lesson before us is full of comfort and instruction.  It is evident that Jesus sees far more in His believing people than they see in themselves, or than others see in them.  The least degree of faith is very precious in His sight.  Though it be no bigger than a grain of mustard seed, it is a plant of heavenly growth, and makes a boundless difference between the possessor of it and the man of the world.  Wherever the gracious Savior of sinners sees true faith in Himself, however feeble, He looks with compassion on many infirmities, and passes by many defects.  It was even so with the eleven apostles.  They were weak and unstable as water; but they believed and loved their Master when millions refused to own Him.  And the language of Him who declared that a cup of cold water given in the name of a disciple should not lose its reward, shows clearly that their loyalty was not forgotten.

We must carefully bear this in mind in forming our estimate of Christians. We must never forget that there are varieties in character, and that the grace of God does not cast all believers into one and the same mold. Admitting fully that the foundations of Christian character are always the same, and that all God's children repent, believe, are holy, prayerful, and Scripture-loving, we must make allowances for wide varieties in their temperaments and habits of mind. We must not undervalue others because they are not exactly like ourselves. The flowers in a garden may differ widely, and yet the gardener feels interest in all. The children of a family may be curiously unlike one another, and yet the parents care for all. It is just so with the Church of Christ. There are degrees of grace, and varieties of grace; but the least, the weakest, the feeblest disciples are all loved by the Lord Jesus. Then let no believer's heart fail because of his infirmities; and, above all, let no believer dare to despise and undervalue a brother.

The true servant of God should mark well the feature in Christ's character which is here brought out, and rest his soul upon it.  The best among us must often see in himself a vast amount of defects and infirmities, and must feel ashamed of his poor attainments in religion.  But can we say with sincerity and truth, as Peter said afterwards, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."  Then let us take comfort in the words of Christ before us, and not give way to despondency.  The Lord Jesus did not despise the eleven because of their feebleness, but bore with them and saved them to the end.  And He never changes.  What He did for them, He will do for us.

~J. C. Ryle