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I. WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF TWO WORLDS, A SEEN AND AN UNSEEN, as we ourselves are two selves, seen and unseen; the unseen showing itself in our countenance, and impressing some portion of our character upon it, still, for the most part, unseen except by God. And even our very soul is of a twofold character, belonging in part to the world of sense, in part to the unseen world; and belonging most to either according as the corrupt nature or the new life gains the mastery. And each of these worlds is real, in that each acts upon our soul and moulds it for heaven or hell. But to us that only is real which we realize. Our soul hangs between the two, and as it is drawn down or up, it loses sight of that from which it is withdrawn.

1. To fleshly persons this world is their all; they have no senses for the unseen which they love not. They lose the power to think of God. The truths relating to God become fainter and fainter, and in some dreadful cases God is thought of "as such an one as himself." The natural mind can think of God only as one with the world. Among the heathen this is seen most nakedly (Romans 1:28; 21-23). "The pure in heart shall see God;" the impure, then, cannot see Him. "In His light we shall see light;" they, then, who have it not in them must be blind (1 Corinthians 2:14).

2. In like way as men become spiritual, they, too, lose their power of discernment of the things of the flesh. They cannot understand the world, nor the world them. Having learned desire to be last, they cannot understand man's ambition to be first; nor covetousness, having learned that poverty with Christ is the true riches; nor pride, knowing the blessedness of humility. The sounds, maxims, and pursuits of the world are unreal to the Christian. All seems hollow: its merriment a heaviness; its eagerness a chasing of the wind; its show a painted mask; its laughter madness; its pleasures revolting (1 Corinthians 2:16; Luke 17:15).

II. SINCE, THEN, THE CHRISTIAN'S LIFE IS HID, HE MUST BE PREPARED FOR THE WORLD'S MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND OPPOSITION.

1. This naturally follows (1 John 3:1; John 1:10), and Christians should take it cheerfully. It is an eternal law that we understand those only to whom we are like. We have no power of judging except by the principles and standards we have made our own. We cannot see what is beyond our range of vision. So the world judging by its own standards cannot understand the Christian. It could not act on his principles, and so thinks him a dissembler or mad (Mark 3:21; Acts 26:24). The world must misjudge us, however careful we are to avoid offence; and God would teach us hereby to commit ourselves to His judgment (Psalm 37:5, 6).

2. The world misjudges because it knows nothing of the inner experiences of the Christian life. They who live amid the tumult of the outward cannot hear the secret whispers of His love by which God speaks to souls that seek Him. They cannot tell the secret thrill of joy in the hope that we are indeed God's, and shall be His for ever. They cannot tell the sweetness when the soul feels itself beloved.

III. SINCE OUR LIFE IS HID, WE MUST BEWARE HOW WE PREJUDGE ANYTHING THAT GOD SEES NECESSARY FOR THAT LIFE. We understand only so much as we, by acting, know. So we must not be prejudiced against what comes to us in the form of untried self-discipline and self-denial. One of the most frequent hindrances to a more excellent way is that men, instead of trying it, ask of what good it is. At every stage knowledge is the reward of obedience.

IV. SINCE OUR LIFE IS HID WE MUST NOT BE DOWNCAST IF WE HAVE NOT THE REFRESHMENT WE WOULD HAVE, NOR SEE AT ONCE THE END OF OUR ACTIONS AND OURSELVES (1 John 3:2). We are hidden from ourselves. We know not what we are. We see ourselves surrounded by death, and amidst this death have earnests of life (Romans 8:23); but since our love is imperfect, so is our life and our sense of life. Its source is our Lord hidden, streaming thence to us through the Comforter, discovering itself in holy aspirations, strength, victories; but since it is hidden we must not long for it as though revealed. Had we the fulness of that life it were heaven itself. Now we have at one time the brightness of His presence that we may be cheered onward; now it is veiled that we may be humbled.

V. IT WILL EVER BE THAT OF THIS HIDDEN LIFE, THE VERY HIGHEST DEGREES WILL BE WHAT WE LEAST UNDERSTAND. For it is of God. And since, being finite, we cannot grasp the infinite, our nearest approaches to Him will ever be what we can least grasp or analyze. When caught up into the third heaven what Paul heard were words unspeakable; his inward sense heard what words could not embody; and so in our degree, our highest bliss is what we can least represent or define, or reason upon; yet we know it to be real.

VI. AS THIS HIDDEN LIFE IS OBTAINED, SO IT IS TO BE MAINTAINED AND PERFECTED BY DEADNESS TO THE WORLD. Death to the world is life to God; the life in God deadens to the world. The less we live for things outward the stronger burns our inward life. The more we live amid the distractions of the world, the less vivid is the life of the soul. It matters not wherein we are employed or how. We may in the most sacred things forget God, or in the most common things serve Him. We may be promoting His truth, and ourselves be the unfruitful conduit through which it flows; or we may in the meanest things be living to His glory, and thereby promoting it. Self-denying duty, love, and contemplation together advance this life; but not either alone. Conclusion:

1. It is our office to see how, day by day, we may be more hidden from the world, that we may be more with God.

2. As this life is God's great gift, and our present duty is to cherish it, soft is our stay and support to know that it is hid, etc. (Isaiah 26:3; Psalm 27:5; 31:29). As evil reacheth Him not, nor losses affect Him, nor dispraise hurt Him, so not the Christian. And if so now, how much more hereafter (Romans 8:35-39).

(E B. Pusey, D. D.)

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KJV: For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

WEB: For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.