THE problem of right living is largely a problem in usefulness. This problem is two-sided. It concerns not alone the ability of the one, but also the needs of the many, and no solution of it can be correct which ignores or exaggerates either of its parts. The good soldier gives good service by giving as careful heed to the demands of obedience and good order as to his individual equipment. He literally seeks his own in the common good, because he knows that he can find it nowhere else. If he ignore this fact by exaggerating his own importance, by depreciating his own service, or by yielding place to another's presumption, he robs both himself and his fellows, and may do incalculable mischief to their common interests.
Jesus' law of usefulness was simple and direct. "Occupy till I come." Pragmatenomai, here translated "occupy," means literally "to do business," or "to keep busy" Its corresponding noun signifies "the careful prosecuting of an affair or business, diligent study, hard work" (Liddell and Scott). These meanings are embraced in Jesus' command. To occupy a place is not alone to hold it, it is to fill it,—to meet its exactions, to grasp its opportunities, to safeguard its privileges, and to use it for the common good.
Jesus reward of advanced service was to those who made the most of their immediate opportunity for good to those who keep busy thinking and doing good. In numerous parables he reiterated this necessity for incessant work, combined with watchfulness and prayer. This is the law which Paul described as the "schoolmaster," —a law which seems harsh to those only who resist it, the mission of which is appreciated only from the vantage-ground of obedience, and of that consequent understanding and power which dissolves any sense of the law's restraint by lifting one's thought above either temptation or tendency to violate its rule.
