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D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Forever in my great Taskmaster’s eye
[In Matthew, chapter 7] Jesus is enforcing again the all-importance of our remembering that we are walking under the Father’s eye. The particular subject He handles is one which is mainly concerned with our relationship with other people; but still the important thing to realize is that our relationship to God is the fundamental matter ... we are reminded all along that our life here is a journey and a pilgrimage, and that it is leading on to a final judgement, an ultimate assessment, and the determination and proclamation of our final and eternal destiny.
... Half our troubles are due to the fact that we live on the assumption that this is the only life and the only world. ... If we were questioned and asked whether we believe that we go on living after death, and that we shall have to face God in judgement, we would undoubtedly say ‘yes’. But as we live from hour to hour are we mindful of that? ... the thing that really differentiates God’s people from all others is that they have always been people who walk in the consciousness of their eternal destiny. The natural man does not care about his eternal future; to him this is the only world. It is the only world he thinks about; he lives for it and it controls him. But the Christian ... should walk through this life as conscious that it is but transient and passing, a kind of preparatory school. He should always know that he is walking in the presence of God, and that he is going on to meet God; and that thought should determine and control the whole of his life. We are undergoing a process of judgement the whole time, because we are being prepared for the final judgement ... we shall have to render an account.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 159–60
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