As is my wont, I was reading in my Bible recently and came across this verse in 2 John:
Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
I read that and continued reading… till I was suddenly arrested with the awareness that God was speaking to me. I turned back and read it again.
Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
I knew what this word of warning from the Lord my keeper was about. I’m 75 now. On the home stretch. Not much time left. It’s ironic, then, that being more or less a shut-in, I find myself with a lot of time on my hands.
I remember from years ago a man who used to come up from the U.S. to Canada from time to time and minister in our midst. He was an older man who had retired from his job and now had time to travel, and one time he told us that when he retired he knew he faced a temptation, and had earnestly prayed, “Lord, keep me from pottering around the house.” Translated into my own life and circumstances, and heeding the word of my Lord to me, my own earnest watchcare and prayer is, “Lord, keep me from pottering around the internet.” I must continue to be vigilant, alert, lest, so close to the finish line, I am stumbled, and lose out on the reward of the things I have wrought. So I am thankful for my Lord’s loving warning, which resulted in some earnest heart searching.
I’m thankful for the internet—the wealth of spiritual help it has opened up, the wealth of friends I’ve made but never met face to face apart from Zoom gatherings. But the internet has its deadly dangers. You may not even be looking for it when suddenly pornography is right in your face. One must ever be on the alert. It’s the second look that takes the bait and catches the foot in the snare. One of my friends has told the story not once or twice of something he saw years ago in a National Geographic presentation. It showed a large snake lying as still as a stick, and a little chipmunk scampering back and forth along it, each time getting closer and closer to its jaws… when suddenly the snake pounced and that was the end of the chipmunk. Let us beware, brethren, of the peril in seeing how close we can get to the jaws of a snake without being caught and consumed.
But, while not outright pornography, there are countless things seemingly harmless on the internet that invite viewing and serve no other purpose than to rob us of our precious time. It’s this that the Lord was speaking to me about. And I don’t want to forget that Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…” (Jn 10:10). I don’t want to forget the order there—the end that the Thief has in mind when he is robbing me of my time while I am contentedly frittering away the precious minutes of my mortal life on things that do not profit the Lord or His people, or myself. Especially when in my old age the grains of sand in the glass are about run out.
George Fox of the early Friends warned that the young people were “going into the world.” An ever-present peril in our day as well. He also warned that the old people were “going into the earth.” They weren’t going on with Christ, they were in idle. In their old age they were contenting themselves with earthly things, unaware they were gradually losing the bloom known only by those who are in continual communion with the living Christ.
As I was considering these things a passage from Hosea came to mind:
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. (Hos 7:8,9)
Strangers have devoured his strength… Is not this what happened to the mighty Samson? What was his strength but his nazarite vow of holiness? Yet here he is intermingling himself with the unholy… and the next thing, he is in chains and his eyes are put out and he is grinding grain for the Philistines. We are told that he “wist not [was not aware] that the LORD had departed from him.” That took place suddenly. But how he got there didn’t happen in a moment. It was so gradual that he wasn’t aware he was in serious trouble.
That, apparently, is what happened to Ephraim. Something was gradually happening to him, and he wasn’t aware of it. He was mingling with the unholy, and they devoured his strength. And he didn’t know it. He was getting weak, and didn’t know it.
He was growing old… and didn’t know it. “Ephraim… gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not.” Gray hairs… oldness. But Hosea, how can anyone prevent aging? But this is the voice of prophecy speaking of those who would come to know the new birth in Christ, in whom we may have the ever-youthful raven-black hair of the beloved in the Song of Solomon. What’s that about? Surely it speaks of a new way of thinking, a mind in which there is nothing of the old man, but rather knows a continual renewing, the inner man being renewed day by day in spite of the outer man going the way of all the earth.
And so, Allan, there is no excuse for growing old when you grow old, as happened to Ephraim, unawares to himself. Where was his watchfulness? “Ephraim is a cake not turned.” Overdone on one side, underdone on the other. One side hard, the other side doughy. Hardly the fragrant bread of God’s table. How could this happen if the baker were attentive to the baking? The whole picture is one of a failure of daily watchfulness to maintain present-ness with God.
Words of assurance, words of warning
There is abundant provision in God at the throne of grace for us to maintain this present-ness and continue steadfast and faithful unto the end. God will always be faithfully speaking so as to keep us safe from all evil—if for my part I am hearing and heeding His leadings. If not, this is an indication of dullness on my part. If so I must be chastened. I must be stirred. I must be awakened. Hence, the many loving warnings of Scripture.
Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
It is a serious error in doctrine when we “doctrinalize” statements like this as not pertaining to the truly regenerate. The promises of God are real. The warnings accompany the promises because the possibility of falling short is also real.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. (1 Cor 10:12)
Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness. (2 Pt 3:17)
The word beware… it means be aware of. Be mindful that it is possible for the righteous to be led away with the error of the wicked. Peter follows with words of comforting encouragement:
But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (2 Pt 3:18)
In his first epistle also Peter combines these two—the warning and the comfort:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Pt 5:8-11)
I lay these words of Peter to heart, coming as they do from one who missed it badly because he had failed to lay to heart His Lord’s exhortation to “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41).
About the same time I “happened upon” the warning in 2 John, I was reading by “coincidence” a book by A.B. Simpson called Joshua and The Land of Promise. (It’s actually a combination of two books by those titles.) In the chapters toward the end of the second he sets forth side by side words of assurance, and words of warning.
In closing, here are excerpts from those chapters. I found them convicting.
From a chapter called Inheriting:
Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed. (Josh 13:1)
And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you? (Josh 18:3)
The word slack implies they were indolent, and quite satisfied with their present condition. There was a lack of holy energy and aspiration after the inheritance promised. They were taking things easy. They were little concerned about failure and sin…. They were breathing the atmosphere of the enchanted ground. Have you never, perhaps even while on your knees, had such an influence thrown over you—the very anodyne of Satan, who would thus lull your spiritual senses to sleep? How it has made you shrink from the pain of holy inspiration, and made you willing to fall back into a passive contentment. God is calling you to press forward, to “lay aside every weight,” and “be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Is this your spiritual state, beloved? If not, ask the Lord to awaken you out of your sleep. There may come a very terrible awakening some day if you do not.
*****
The day will soon come when you, too, will be old and stricken in years. Time is rushing by; God has not given you a day too many. They are going fast. Suppose they should stop tomorrow, and you never have another opportunity to gain a victory for Him. You would give all the world for a chance to resist temptation, or for another hard place in which to glorify God as you had before dishonored Him. The days once gone can never come back. You will not pass this way again.
There will be no chance in heaven to learn holiness, to have patience with unholy people, or to love your enemies….
If you find difficulties in your homes, or enemies in your own heart, or trouble anywhere in your life, God has given them to you as opportunities for victory. There you will find the crown of glory and the land of promise. It is always the place where God plants His paradises. Eden is always in the midst of a wilderness….
When He wanted a capital, He sent David to take a hill so difficult to capture that its inhabitants laughed at him, and defended it with the blind and lame. Yet David conquered it, and it became the Zion of the Lord, the holiest, dearest place in all the world forever.
From a chapter called The Danger of Declension:
Therefore we find the New Testament epistles, where they speak of the highest possibilities of Christian experience, most urgently warning the believer against the danger of backsliding, calling us to ceaseless vigilance and constant obedience. Even where God’s eternal faithfulness is most securely pledged to keep us, we are called upon all the more to exercise a spirit of watchfulness and constant dependence on HIs all-sufficient grace.
Hence, we find John saying in one breath, “The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you,” and yet in the next, “Now, little children, abide in Him.” We find Jude pointing us to Him that is able to keep us from falling, and yet enjoining us to “keep ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
We find Peter saying, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations,” but adding in the same epistle, “Beloved, beware lest ye also be led away with the error of the wicked and fall from your own steadfastness,” and again assuring us that “His divine power hath give us all things that pertain to life and godliness,” but also charging us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure, “for if we do these things we shall never fail.”
And while Paul can exclaim, in the language of the sublimest confidence, “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him against that day;” yet he also charges Timothy in the same epistle, “That good thing that was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost that dwelleth in thee.” “Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
And to the Corinthians:
“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” But lest this should be too strong it is followed by the word of assurance, “God is faithful and will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” And then the balance is made complete by the final word of gentle warning, “Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.” There is no discouragement, but there is no presumption; the danger is real, but the security is ample; not, however, for blind, presuming rashness, but for watchful, humble, holy, and persevering obedience.
The Bible is no system of cast-iron dogmas, but the wise, firm and gentle hand of a loving teacher and guide, adjusting its message to our situation and condition, whether of depression or false security. If in an attitude of wilful disobedience, it has no absolute promise of unconditional security, but words of stern and terrible awakening and warning; but for humble trust and watchful obedience it has nothing but encouragement and the assurance of God’s everlasting faithfulness and love.
There is, then, real danger of declension, even on the part of a consecrated Christian, should he for one moment become separated from Christ, or relax His vigilance and constant dependence. Sanctification is not a state of infallible holiness, but a place of dependence upon Christ and abiding communion with Him. “He that abideth in Him sinneth not,” but “apart from Me ye can do nothing.” And the strongest saint will, like Simon Peter, make the most desperate failure whenever he trusts his own strength, or attempts to stand alone.
Indeed, we are never truly safe till, like Peter, we have learned our constant danger and our need of Jesus every moment. Nor let us forget that declension after consecration would be for us a fearful thing. The most terrific declensions of the world’s history have usually originated with those who have had much light before. And failure, after all that the Lord has brought us into, would be utterly sad and unutterably disastrous.
Beloved, let us abide in Him, let us put on the whole armour of God, that we may stand against the wiles of the Devil, let us adhere faithfully to His holy Word, and walk in obedience to all His commandments, and above all, let us depend implicitly upon His keeping, fearing to take one step alone. We fear not while He holds our hand and leads us safely in the most difficult paths, and makes us “walk upon our high places.”
A Mending Feast 
Thank you Allan for this word of exhortation. How wonderful that, although our outer man, undoubtedly is perishing, our inner man is being renewed day by day, as we walk with Him, who renews our strength! Arriving at my 73rd birthday today, I’m reminded of a quote of Eric Liddell, “It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals”. I’m so thankful the finishing post is not old age, nor official retirement age but we are called to run with endurance the race, until we attain to the resurrection from the dead. May we kindle and rekindle again the flame of Christ’s love on the mean altars of our hearts!
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Thank you, Bill. Happy birthday!
I’m glad too that the finishing post is not old age.
Good quote from Eric Liddell, one of my heroes.
Yes, let us continue to kindle and rekindle again the flame of Christ’s love on the mean altars of our hearts, as Wesley wrote, exhorting one another daily while it is called today!
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A clear and very present danger to the people of God! Thanks for speaking out, Allan.
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Thank you, Erroll. I think it can be said that some of the trials that Christians find themselves in are more difficult than outright persecution, in which the enemy of Christ openly reveals himself. But the wiles of the Devil are such that he hides himself so as not to be discovered, yet is just as active in his deadly work as in open persecution. How many he has defeated by his wiles! Let us be ever on the alert.
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oh love fills your words. another print of a fine article to ponder in my time with
Jesus. ok now the nasty. 75? oh my..10 years behind u bro..Jesus and me ..through deaths doorstep many times, wheelchair, walker..now walking!!
i keep up with the young in my workplace; through CHRIST MY LORD!!!
so no more grains through the hour glass crap. OK ?. nasty over.
Joshua 14:10-11 yes thanks bro and Lord God bring a moose to my brothers
back yard so He can ride it like the warrior that He is. Time is such a precious
gift,yes indeed i have used it for “good”..Lord do give us the strength to use
the good time for your Glory!!
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Thank you, dear brother Allen. So good to hear from you; I’ve been wondering how you’re doing.
Sounds like you have been through a lot, Allen. It’s encouraging to hear that the Lord has preserved you at “death’s doorstep many times,” and that you continue to press on in Him for His glory’s sake.
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thank you Brother !! always blessed to read what the Lord has given you.
Always lifitng you and Canada before the throne. Thank you for tolerating the words of a sibling ,my fellow sibling. Did the moose show
up? Much heart felt love to you, family and Canada.
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Thanks again, Allen. Yes, the moose showed up but I couldn’t get it to stand still long enough to put the saddle on, so wasn’t able to ride it! 😉 We’ll stay young together, brother!
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oh kind of you to print. i love you Bro and always lifting you up. We can do this..and appreciate the article and all responses.
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Thank you, Allen.
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In case anyone is interested in the quote from George Fox that Allan referred to, it is from Vol. 2, page 352 of the Works of Fox. I am copying below the text of what Fox had to say:
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Thanks, Ellis. Well worth reading and heeding the full quote.
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The following comment was sent to me by someone whose circumstances mean he must remain anonymous:
Mr. Halton,
Thank you for your latest post ‘A Loving Warning’.
I read your post including the eight replies of which all together had an unexpected profound affect on me. As I read it all I knew that every word was true but I was sure that I had never strayed very far away from the plumbline of this particular word.
You write that you are homebound, and that the Internet is… (this is MY INTERPRETATION of what you said)… a medium that is always at your disposal to use whenever you need or want it. Your main concern seems to be the amount of time you spend on it and also that uncleanness can popup anytime without warning and without invitation.
I would like to share with you what has happened to me since reading your post. I am not as old as you are but am still very limited to what I can do physically. This limitation in my life also gives me plenty of time and opportunity to be on the internet a disproportionate amount of time.
I am not in any way into pornography and turn away at the slightest unexpected intrusion of it into my space. I only watch good stuff. The good stuff I am referring to is a group of four or five families with YouTube channels that are independent of one another but in relationship/friendship with each other. Combined they have a couple million subscribers. I’m sure they have so many followers simply because of the way they treat one another and how they enjoy one another. The catch is that to a large degree there is strong Mormonism in many of their backgrounds. I must emphasize that there is no promotion whatsoever of Mormonism in their videos. I am sure that the Mormon religion (at least in this small group) is where they learned how to be kind one to another. I believe that is why they have so many followers, there are so many that long to have the life that these people have. I have no desire to be a Mormon but I have to admit I am one of them that desire such camaraderie as they have in my life but sadly have known much more strife and division than I have of the love of the brethren. One time on the way to a fellowship meeting that we attended my wife pointed out to me a certain thing I did every time at the same place along the way. She said I breathed out a large sigh every time, a sigh of foreboding. I wasn’t even conscious of it.
Mr. Halton, I believe that the Lord had you write ‘A loving warning’ at this precise time because many of us are in need of conviction for sins that are outside the norm and perhaps we are not even aware of. In my heart I had an accusation against many in the Body of Christ, that we don’t even measure up to some of the Mormons. I made room for the thought that even though they don’t have Bible ‘fervent love for one another’ they seem to have a more abundant life than myself as well as many others in the Church.
Then this morning conviction for all this came upon me when in our devotions our reading included 2nd Chronicles 34:25. “Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense unto other gods…”
God seemed to liken my taking my eyes off Him and admiring a work in others that was not of Him and doubting the completed work of Christ at the cross and what He has prepared for them that love Him unto ‘burning incense unto other gods’. I can assure you that my conviction was real, and my repentance is real. I see the error of my ways and will not be visiting those sites again.
Thanks again for your latest post.
Anonymous
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Dear Anonymous:
Thank you for taking the time to share this with us. I’m blessed that you have the kind of sensitivity that could hear God like this. It speaks of the very high expectations He has of those whom He loves, and who love Him in return. He doesn’t want us to fall short, and we ourselves don’t want to fall short.
It is indeed along this line that I received the warning from 2 John about being mindful not to lose “the things we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.” It is His great desire that we receive the full reward, not a lesser reward that could have been full but was not because we were negligent to walk the kind of holy walk that pleases Him in all things.
And it is a form of idolatry, actually. In another message I listened to the other day, a brother gave his definition of idolatry as “giving to something else the love that is to be for God alone.”
Thanks again for sharing, dear brother. May we continue to exhort one another in this late hour.
Allan
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“It’s the second look that takes the bait and catches the foot in the snare.” Very well put brother, and so very true.
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Thanks, Alex, yes. We must ever be on the alert.
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Hats off, Allan, what an honest and gripping article! ⭐
Isn’t it wonderful that God lets us hear His voice, even though He warns us at times? 🙄 But as you said, it was a loving warning. Having just read T. Austin-Sparks’ daily devotional, I started to delve into the related article as well. Perhaps, you can relate to this excerpt from his writing, too. TAS said,
“I believe, beloved, if we come to the place where our objective is the Lord, where He is our goal; where it is true that “My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace, nor even blessing, but Himself my God,” we are in the way of life. But it is the creeping in of these other considerations and influences from our natural life that spoil it all. You see that this issue is a very clear one.
“For us, the way of life demands that we shall get before the Lord again, and say, ‘Lord, though all my earthly prospects fade, though all my ambitions are disappointed, it is You I want. You are my ambition, my goal. If I have You, these other things will count for much less.’ I believe that, as we can get there – and not many of us have got a long way on that road – but as we can get there, we find the secret of life, of joy, of release.”
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/000904.html
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Hi Susanne, and thank you. T. Austin-Sparks’ message is indeed an echo of what I wrote. I don’t know if there is ever a time for a disciple of Jesus to pursue earthly things, but it is certain that those of us who are longer of tooth than we used to be ought to be giving ourselves to “one thing,” instead of wasting what time we have left on “other things.”
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“One thing is needful…”
I WISH YOU JESUS
Songwriter: Scott Wesley Brown
I could wish you joy and peace
To last a whole life long,
I could wish you sunshine,
Or a cheerful little song,
Or wish you all the happiness
That this life could bring
But I wish you Jesus,
But I wish you Jesus,
But I wish you Jesus,
More than anything.
I could wish you leaves of gold,
And may your path be smooth,
I could wish you treasures,
Or that all your dreams come true,
And I could wish you paradise,
That ev’ry day be spring,
But I wish you Jesus,
But I wish you Jesus,
But I wish you Jesus,
Cause when I wish you Jesus,
I’ve wished you ev’rything.
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So, this brings us to the question of What does it mean to sit down in heavenly places in Christ Jesus? as in Ephesians 2:6. Also how is one to get to the state of sitting down in heavenly places in Christ Jesus? In Vol. 8, pp. 26-27 of the Works of George Fox, Fox had/has this to say about how this is done: “The outward Jews did eat of the manna in the wilderness, and disobeyed and perished; but they that eat of the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood, have life everlasting; and this gives an eternal life, by which they come to an eternal possession, and to the land of the living, as the outward Jews came to possess the land of Canaan. And so you that are heirs of Christ, the heavenly man, and are come to possess him, (whom he hath made alive,) stand fast, now is your time to stand ; stand in the life, which was before death, or the king of it was ; stand in the light, which was before darkness, or the prince of it was; and stand in the power of God, which was before the devil was; and sit down in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, who was set up from everlasting to everlasting.”
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It is interesting to note that you have to stand in order to sit! You could also say that you have to love the life of Christ more than you love other things. You have to love the light even though it reproves you; indeed love those reproofs for they are the work of God to bring you into conformity with Christ. Love the power of God more than the power of mankind, more than the power of my achievements or intellect. Fox often wrote and spoke about the cross, the power of God. Loving the power of God, you are loving the cross that brings you to your true place as creature with whom the Creator speaks. The power of God brings us to true humility. So stand in and love and prize above all else these things: the life of Christ, the light of Christ; and cross of Christ the power of God. Here we come to sit with Christ in heavenly places. This is the work of God and he does not fail to accomplish it.
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Ellis, you wrote, “You could also say that you have to love the life of Christ more than you love other things.” This reminded me of Jesus’ words concerning the seed that fell among thorns. “And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful” (Mk 4:18,19) For “lusts of other things” put “love of other things,” which, given a seemingly harmless place, will grow and choke out the plantings of the Lord in our life.
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