I’m sure most of us have come across that class of book that sets before us thumb-nail sketches of some of the men and women that God has used in the history of His church: Luther and Calvin, Bunyan and Spurgeon – and a host of others, too.
“Men of the Morning,” is one such book; “An Orchard of Pomegranates,” is another – “A Casket of Cameos,” “A Bunch of Everlastings,” and so forth. Such works do valuable service in giving us some broad facts concerning the Lord’s saints of old; and whether it is intentional or not on the part of the authors they are, in fact, following the pattern of the New Testament itself. Have you ever noticed how most of the New Testament epistles wind-up with “A Bunch of Everlastings,” etc.? Name, after name, after name, is set before us, with one or two remarks concerning the particular person named. Some of the people mentioned in these collections of saints are better known than others; some of them are hardly known at all – some of them are never mentioned again in the Word of God out with the epistle or book in which their name appears. But the Holy Spirit of God has seen fit to commit to everlasting memory the jobs they performed, or the persons they were, within the context of doing that job, or being that person to the glory of God and His everlasting gospel.
Take the closing chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians, for example. Who was Tychicus, when all is said and done? Who was Onesimus, for that matter? Who was Aristarchus? or Archippus? Or Epaphras? “Luke the beloved physician,” we might feel a bit more acquainted with, and John Mark, as well. But who was Nymphas? Or “Jesus which is called Justus?” or, indeed, Demas, when all is said and done? Demas looms large in our thoughts, not because of any full-blown life story written about him, but on account of one memorable word in the course of one of Paul’s epistles, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.” And when we begin to take note of the brief words written about so many of the men and women who go to make up these Biblical Caskets of Cameos, we are immediately confronted with one very clear thought – that our lives and our actions are ultimately and finally assessed in the light of how those lives have been lived to the glory of our God and His gospel. We are not to think of that kind of thing as only true in the life of an apostle Paul in Particular. It is true with regards to every saint of God who ever lived. And it ought to be to our encouragement that God takes note of apparently little things done for His glory and honour – so much so, that He even causes those kind of things to be indelibly recorded in his Word that shall never pass away.
In what way precisely Aquilla and Priscilla “laid down their own necks,” in order to save the life of the apostle Paul (Romans 16 verse 3 forward) we shall probably never know this side of eternity. But the deed stands written; and Paul says that not only is he to be thankful for that deed towards him, but “also all the churches of the Gentiles.” Who were Andronicus and Junia, in that same 16th chapter of Romans? For Paul tells us that they were not only “of note among the apostles,” and his “fellow-prisoners,” but they were also his “kinsman,” And they were “in Christ before me!” What a precious bit of revelation: that within the family-circle of that rampaging Saul of Tarsus there were already those who had professed the Lord of Glory while Paul was still in the blackness of his sin.
Rufus, Herodian, Tryphena and Tryphosa; Urbane, Mary, Julia, Appelles. Who were they all? So many of them unsung and unknown yet known fully to the Lord. And their almost unknown and, sometimes, apparently small, deeds, recorded by the Lord in His everlasting truth.
May our hearts be encouraged to do what the old hymn exhorts us to do – “Let the lower lights keep burning.” God takes note! If ever one lesson above all others was contained in the general closing remarks of the epistles of the Word of God, it would be that lesson. God takes note; our labour is not in vain in the Lord: “Ye did it unto me.” A whole collection of names, a whole bevvy of saints, a whole bunch of everlastings, a whole orchard of pomegranates bear testimony to the fact that God is no man’s debtor, and that He will honour them that honour Him. The Lord make us faithful.
Note – Within the podcast section of the online Wicket Gate Magazine you will find podcasts in which many “lower lights” were considered. The link is: -