Deeds Done In The Body
By H. B. Taylor, Sr.There is a good deal of talk abroad in the land now-a-days about remembering Christ in your will. If we understand the Scriptures, all such teaching is contrary to the plain teachings of the Word of God. The plain command of the Lord Jesus Christ was for men not to lay up for themselves treasures on earth. This teaching (to remember Christ in your will) encourages men not only to disobey God in laying up treasures for themselves; but also to hoard their treasures for themselves just as long as they hold on to life. This teaching disobeys and dishonors the Lord Jesus in another way. His Word commends David because he served his own generation by the will of God. That is what men, who are stewards of God's money ought to be taught everywhere, namely, that it is their business to use their money themselves, while they live, to serve their own generation according to the will of God. Every Christian business man should make money, if God will let him; but he should give it away himself, not leave it for the next generation; make it serve the generation in which he lives, according to the will of God. Let the next generation make their own money according to God's will and then use it to serve that generation as God wills.
But plainer than either of these is the text which says that when the Lord Jesus comes again, men are to be judged by Him, "according to the deeds done in the body." If that means anything, it means that post-mortem gifts will get no word of approval, no commendation, no regard from the Master. God's stewards must do their own giving if they would have any rewards. If you simply direct someone else to give your money away, after you can use it no longer, then somebody else will take thy crown and receive thy reward. That is both Scriptural and just. If men will not give their money themselves, but hold to it for self as long as they live, and direct that after they have to turn it loose, some of it be given away, the one into whose possession it comes ought to have the reward for the giving; for he does the real giving, in that he turns loose what is in his possession without his hold on it being loosed by death. He is the one who is serving God with that which is in his possession, not the man who made it; for the man who made it does not serve God or his generation with it, if he holds to it until his icy fingers can grasp it no more. Remember, beloved, that you will be rewarded only for "deeds done in the body." Post-mortem bequests bring neither praise nor reward from the Judge of all the earth.
============ [From H. Boyce Taylor, editor, "News & Truths." Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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