Eagles and Flies

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1 Thessalonians 2:9-12

For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable to any of you…

Says Manton on this text: "Live as kings, commanding your spirits, judging your souls to be above ordinary pursuits. It is not for eagles to catch flies. As of old it was said, 'Cogita te Caesarem esse — 'Remember that thou art Caesar' — so say we to each believer, 'Remember that thou shalt one day be a king with God in glory, and therefore walk becomingly.'" This is important teaching, and much needed in these days. Many who declare themselves to be eagles spend the most of their lives in hawking for flies; we even hear of professing Christians frequenting the theatre. Instead of acting like kings, many who claim to be the sons of God act as meanly as if they were scullions in the kitchen of Mammon. They do not judge themselves to be Caesars, but they demean themselves as if they were Caesar's slaves, living upon his smile, and asking his leave to move. What separation from the world, what brave holiness, what self-denial, what heavenly walking with God ought to be seen in those who are chosen to be a peculiar people, the representatives of God on earth, and courtiers of the new Jerusalem above! As the world waxes worse and worse, it becomes men of God to become better and better. If sinners stoop lower, saints must rise higher, and show them that a regenerate life cannot share in the general corruption. O Lord, I know that in Christ Jesus thou hast made me a king, help me, then, to live a right royal life. Lay home to my conscience that question, What manner of persons ought we to be? and may I so answer it that I may live worthy of my high calling.

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