But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent on behalf of your souls.
— 2 Corinthians 12:15
I am concerned that in some places the saints have forgotten how to raise up young ones. Instead of merely keeping or maintaining the young believers, we should fight for those under our care so that they grow to the full stature of what the Lord has measured them. We should not raise up all the saints in the same way or with the same expectation. Some elders seem to do their best to bring all the saints to the same low standard. In their view, if the saints can make it to the Lord’s Day meeting, that is good enough. Brothers, such care will never produce real growth. We must work, fight, pay the price, and struggle so that our spiritual children can be raised up with hope. The saints with us should be raised up so that they become useful to the Lord according to all that He intends for them.
Adapted from The Reality of the Divine Stream, page 48.
Tomorrow: “Riches We Can Never Exhaust”