Sometimes it appears that the Church is being prostituted for purposes that were not given to it by its Lord. These may even be questionable ones, but most often they are good and things with which any Christian should concern himself. But Christ, the head of the Church, has given it a purpose which ought to occupy all its time. And any purposes other than the one only serve to divert its attention. It is true, there are various ways by which the Church’s aim can be served, but becoming involved in those things which have only a remote connection, if any, with the Church’s chief end must be avoided. There are many persons who consider themselves to be “working for the Church,” yet who have never thought of making disciples for Jesus Christ and teaching them all he has commanded. The reason may lie in the fact that there are so many names on the church roll who have no real conception of what it means to be a Church member, a part of the Body of Christ.
Making Disciples
It is the Church’s definite responsibility to make disciples and to teach them all the things that Jesus commanded. Is there any other agency, institution, or organization in this world charged with that responsibility? The truth is that it is the business of the Church to make new men, or rather to lend itself to the Lord so that he can make new men through it. Only new men can and will walk in the new ways of life that the Church ought to set before them. We must note that it is the “disciples” who are to be taught to obey Jesus’ commands, not men everywhere who probably do not know Jesus as Lord. We must remember that the Epistles were addressed to the Church, the society of the redeemed. And in one sense Christ’s parable of the wineskins applies here. How foolish it is to attempt to force a man to walk a new, more noble way of life when he is still a slave to sin. Such men cannot be made to do moral good by law or love their brethren by law. Now the Church is a society within a society. The Church is in the world, but is not to be of the world. Yet, if it remains true to its Lord, it can have a profound effect upon the world. Christians, living Christian lives, can be “light”; they can be “salt”; and their community will feel their presence. Society’s conduct will be influenced by them, indirectly if not directly.
We must confess, however, that the failure of members to live the life that the Church proclaims is a serious drawback to the work of extending the Kingdom. Evidently the mass of Church members do not yet realize they are Christ’s chief witness in the world. The Church is supposed to be made up of those who have been redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and whose lives have been transformed by his power. That the true (invisible) and the apparent (visible) church are not one and the same is sadly and only too obvious.
At present, the church, as an earthly organization, cannot decide what its mission in the world is. One of the mistakes that we have often made is that what the Church will do is determined largely by what is expected of it. Now, it is true that human institutions must often change as circumstances vary; in fact, their whole purposes may have to be altered due to external conditions. But this is not so with the Church. The Church is not a human institution governed by the laws and purposes of men. It has one head, one lawgiver, and one resolve. Now some men in the Church have appeared to assume these powers themselves, and this is unfortunate, even tragic. However, the fact that some will, out of vanity or ignorance, take these things into their hands in no wise affects the truth that they belong only in the hands of God.
What then constitutes the role of the Church as far as the serious problems that face our nation and world are concerned? Does it have a word to speak, a witness to give? And what is the manner in which it is going to perform these tasks? Many are the answers being put forward, both by those within the Church and those without; and this is the reason so many are so confused. Both conflicting leadership and a lack of understanding on the part of church members are obscuring the purpose which God has for his Church in this world.
We must note the fact, too, that the Church does not really belong to this world. Surely it is in the world, but not of the world. And just so far as the Church becomes a part of the world, so far does it cease to be the Church. This is true despite the urging of those who claim that the Church should be a part of the community. (There is indeed something anomalous in the very term “community church.”)
Speaking To The Times
Certainly the Church must put its message in the language of time and place if it is to reach people. It rightly offers temporal aids—the Church must deal with the whole man, and the soul can only be reached as it lives in the body. But in no way does this mean that its message can be altered or its purpose modified. The Church (and this means the members that make it up) needs to remember God’s admonition through Paul (as Phillips translates it): “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold …” Rom. 12:2a).
The “voice” of the Church is to remind the New Israel of its sins and to call God’s people to a life that becomes the followers of Jesus Christ. It is to remind them that their reconciliation with God depends upon a firm faith (not a shifting away) in the hope of the Gospel. And it is to bring to their attention constantly Jesus’ own words, “If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love” (John 15:10).
And while the “voice” of the Church calls its members, yea, insists that they follow Christ in their daily lives, the word to those outside can only be, and must be, “Come to Christ.” The Church must not forget nor forsake the revelation of God that the great need of all men is to come to Jesus Christ in surrender and to receive him as Saviour and Lord.
Three Pitfalls
In our day, and in any day for that matter, the Church must especially beware of three pitfalls: (1) Misleading men, or supporting those who do mislead people into thinking that the Church is an agency for securing certain rights or temporal benefits for men; (2) Lending itself as a pressure force upon the state to bring about reforms needed and even desirable from the Christian viewpoint; and (3) Confronting unregenerate men with a regenerate pattern of life and expecting them to walk in it.
Peril Of Misleading Men
The Church must beware lest it deceive or mislead men. In supporting the cause of minority or suppressed groups, the Church must take heed lest it attract those who see in it only a champion for their temporal rights. Christ was rejected because he insisted on holding true to his mission to free men from the tyranny of themselves rather than some external oppressor. Israel desired that God set them free from every form of earthly tyranny and oppression. But God had not freed Israel from Egypt simply that they might enjoy the “four freedoms.” The word of the Lord to Pharaoh was “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 8:1; 9:1; 3:19; 4:23; 5:1).
We must remember that Christ did not come offering to remove all of men’s troubles. Rather, he warns those who truly seek to follow him to expect trouble in this world. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus admonishes us to enter the narrow gate, to travel the hard way; it is the only one that leads to life (Matt. 7:13).
Now someone may remind us that on Jesus’ first appearance in public ministry (according to Luke), he said that the portion of Scripture he had read was fulfilled. This was the portion: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has appointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (4:18, 19). But who among us takes this to read in its literal sense? Certainly not all the blind were healed in Jesus’ day, nor all the slaves freed, nor all the poor enriched. And he did not mean this in its literal sense to be the purpose of his Church. Indeed, our Lord rebuked those who followed him with the hope of receiving temporal benefits. He made it clear that he offered men the Bread of Heaven and there was no place in his Kingdom for those who sought only earthly bread—after which most of those who had been following Jesus left him (John 6). Is the Church today afraid to speak the truth because its proclamation will turn many away?
Not A Power Lobby
With regard to the second pitfall mentioned above, the Church cannot lend itself as a power lobby to bring pressure on the state. There is grave danger that in joining human agencies to support actions in the community at large (which we must admit is composed mainly of unregenerate men, or certainly of men little concerned with the will of God), the Church will play false even to those it professes to help. People will thus receive a wrong conception of the Church’s true purpose according to Jesus Christ, and for man, this will be travesty and indeed tragedy.
Is not the declaration of the Confession of Faith still the best rule for the Church? Synods and councils are to handle or conclude nothing but that which is ecclesiastical; and are not to intermeddle with civil affairs which concern the commonwealth unless the way of humble petition in cases extraordinary; or by way of advice for satisfaction, if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate (Chap. 33, IV).
Diluting The Challenge
Furthermore, we may well ask that when the Church by its actions aligns itself with unregenerate “socializers,” no matter how good may seem their aims, is it not forgetting God’s warning about being unequally yoked together with unbelievers? Some may scoff at the thought that Paul’s admonition has any bearing here. But we must face his question: “What communion has light with darkness?” Can it be that the path by which the Church becomes “of the world” is that of aligning itself with secular and non-Christian agencies in the promotion of “good” causes?
Many may vociferously deny this, but even in participation in Brotherhood Week the Church has sometimes weakened its own witness. All men are not brothers in the most important sense. Surely Christians ought to be willing to associate and to cooperate with non-Christians. Christians must not look down upon others. But those who do not own Christ as Saviour and Lord are lost, and anything that we do to weaken our witness of this fact is unfair to our “brethren” who are not in Christ.
We have hereto covered the question of calling unregenerate men to walk in a regenerate pattern of conduct. But let the Church remember that its message to those outside Christ is the call to come to him in surrender of life and in accepting the difficulties of true Christian living for his sake. And let the Church remember that this is its message to all the unredeemed, oppressed and oppressor alike. Christ still says to men today, “Come to me … Take my yoke upon you … learn from me … You must be born again … Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.” Christ is the head, and the Church is his body.
Let The Church Be Herself
To be sure, the cry is raised that the Church must take its stand on issues facing our world today. But who says so?
During the last great war one wise churchman even suggested that even in time of war the Church has something more important to consider. Does not the Church have something more important to say and do today than become involved in the petty issues of the hour? (In the light of eternity, which of our disturbing issues is not petty?)
Surely Christian citizens as individuals must take the lead in seeing there is righteousness and justice in their governments, and as individuals exercise and fulfill their responsibility wherever it may fall. But who says the Church as such must do this? Does the Lord of the Church command it? And who or what is “the Church” that must do this? Who is to decide on which side the Church will take its stand? Do not the teachings of the Lord of the Church rather cut right across the issues and those who are in conflict over them?
A most important question for us is: Do we really believe that we today are wiser than the devoted Christians of yesterday? (The writer confesses he has met some who feel they have a better understanding of God’s will than had Peter or Paul, and much more than the writers of the Confession of Faith!) Of course, there are those with ready answers for all these questions. Perhaps we should respect their integrity and sincerity, but to accept their judgments and follow their lead is another matter. We must remember that even in these matters “there is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
Preacher In The Red
WHO’S WHO
We had been expecting a missionary from Colombia, a Latin-American whom none of us had seen before. So when he arrived, my wife ushered him into the parsonage of our Chinese church and called me in the church office on the extension phone.
Before I could reach home, a young man from our downtown metropolitan neighborhood, somewhat under the influence of alcohol, came to the door. Thinking that perhaps the missionary could help the man, my wife led him into the living room.
“Oh,” exclaimed the astonished missionary, looking from one person to the other and obviously expecting to greet the pastor. “How—how are you, my—my brother!”
My wife scarcely had time to clarify the situation when I burst into the house. Looking forward to meeting a missionary, I was taken aback at the swaggering figure who dominated the scene.
“Hello!” I gasped. “What can I do for you—and your friend?”
There were three red faces—that of the alcoholic, the missionary and also his confused host.
—The Rev. HONG C. SIT, Houston, Texas.
For each report by a minister of the Gospel of an embarrassing moment in his life, CHRISTIANITY TODAY will pay $5 (upon publication). To be acceptable, anecdotes must narrate factually a personal experience, and must be previously unpublished. Contributions should not exceed 250 words, should be typed double-spaced, and bear the writer’s name and address. Upon acceptance, such contributions become the property of CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Address letters to: Preacher in the Red, CHRISTIANITY TODAY, Suite 1014 Washington Building, Washington, D.C.
W. H. Beckmann is a native of Georgia and a graduate of Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur. He is Pastor of Red Bank Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
