Let us talk of our relationship to the world about us as we press on with our work, having in mind both the mission field and the home-base countries. Here is the text: "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. 5:20.
An ambassador is not to represent his own personal ideas, but to be a representative of his government. He must speak for the authority that has sent him. He delivers messages from the governing body he represents to the people of another country. Just so, we come as ambassadors of Christ, from heaven, with a message from God to men, beseeching them to be reconciled to God. The position of ambassador is a responsible one. An ambassador for God should never forget that he represents something greater than himself.
I remember how, many years ago, the ambassador of a European power to the United States replied to a letter written him by a former citizen of the country he represented. The correspondent asked advice as to the issues of the political situation in his new country. And the ambassador answered the letter, advising the man in the way it seemed to him the best interests of humanity and the world might be served. That ambassador was recalled by his government because his country had not commissioned him to intervene in the local affairs of another country. An ambassador is never allowed to forget whom he represents.
Lord Cromer was one of Britain's great ambassadors. He once said that as an ambassador in the service of his sovereign, it was a man's highest privilege to hold his tongue. And they used to say of Lord Cromer, who was an Oriental linguist and a scholar, that he could keep silent in fourteen languages. He had the ambassadorial gift,—always relying on the power that sent him, and representing his sovereign rather than his own personal attitude and preferences.
As ambassadors for Christ we are sent into the world to represent the kingdom of heaven. When we go out into the fields abroad, we do not go out primarily as Europeans, or as Americans. We go out as ambassadors of heaven. We do not go out to mold things according to our own thoughts, and to introduce the customs and ways of our own native country. We are to represent the country of heaven and its spirit and customs as translated into human life and contact. That is the important thing.
In the first chapter of John it is said: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John." It is a good place to come from —from God to men—into the field of service. John was "sent from God." He was not sent as an ambassador from America or from Europe, but sent from God to represent His kingdom and the heavenly country. We are not called to erase from our hearts the love of native home and country, and although the memories of home scenes may comfort our hearts in far lands, we are really there as ambassadors for God, to represent the kingdom of heaven.
Paul was ready to count his natural advantages of birth and training as loss in order to save men of every nation. Phil. 3:4-7. Barbarian, Greek, Roman, or Jew—it was all the same. He lived close to the people, and counted himself as one of them. He tells us in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22:
"For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews ; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law ; to them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak : I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."
Paul's education was of the very highest; he had all the advantages of training that any scholarly Jewish boy could have. But he carried on his work with the common people in such a manner that they were not made to feel he was showing condescension in adapting himself to their situation. He lived with them and among them, just as Jesus had come in among men. Suppose Jesus had brought with Him from heaven a manner so high that it would have become apparent to the people that He was altogether different from them. That would have erected a barrier. But when Jesus came to earth, He took the form of a servant. He became like His brethren, but with a life that was ever lifting and refining. He was a good man among men, always approachable. The little children ran to Him. He could help the people, but the scribes and Pharisees, who held themselves aloof and apart, had little influence with them. As ambassadors of Christ, we are in the world to help people of every nation and tongue find their way to the kingdom of heaven.
Beware of National Pride
This matter of national pride is a troublesome thing. It is hard for us to overcome it, and it is sometimes hard, I think, for those of far lands, with different customs, to see us trying to overcome it. They are troubled, as well as we. I was in London for some years, about fifty years ago. Sometimes a missionary from America would come through on his way to a far land, and old England would be the first glimpse of a shore foreign to him. More than once we were embarrassed by the comments of such travelers on the differences first striking them. Of course, no two countries are alike. One may well observe and learn while in another country, but it is indiscreet to talk about matters of difference in a way that advertises one's own strangeness.
Once I was showing a passing traveler over London. She was a good sister, and did faithful missionary service in the far land to which she was traveling. I recall a morning when we were on the, city end of London Bridge, looking down on the Billingsgate market, watching the waterside activities and the roll of morning traffic. Forgetting our surroundings, our sister was intently drinking in the novelty of the scenes before us. "Oh, look, isn't that different ! Isn't that strange ! Isn't that funny !" I didn't tell her so, but in her enthusiastic remarks, the dear woman was calling attention to ourselves. We were the "strange" ones, the "funny" ones, on the old historic bridge.
When a missionary lands in a far country where everyday customs are different from those of his own home people, he would do well just to observe and keep fairly silent for a year or two, about ways that are different. After living quietly there for the first year, he would not be so inclined to comment during his second year. By the third year, one loses sight of many a difference, and learns that it is not helpful to stress things that really do not matter. We must remember that the people of other lands are not different from us any more than we are from them. In many lands we are curiosities, and we should be as quiet about it as we can, in order that we may not attract too much attention to our national peculiarities.
There is something more than customs and peculiarities that raises barriers. It is a spirit of pride in our ways. The London Fortnightly Review said some years ago that since the World War, and largely because of it, "The instinct of nationalism has been fiercely aroused." It is a fact. An exaggerated nationalism—pride of birth and culture—is leading the world toward the next war. In the advancement of mission work we are meeting more and more the difficulties that grow out of that spirit.
The psalmist wrote: "Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of God. I will make mention of Rahab [that is, Egypt] and Babylon to them that know me." Egypt was perhaps the mightiest empire before the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Then Babylon became the mightiest city of ancient times. It was a great thing to be an Egyptian, a great thing to be a Babylonian. "Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there." To have been "born there" made a man distinguished in his own estimation. But there was something more important: "And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her : and the Highest Himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this man was born there."
New Birth Chief Concern
Let us forget the pride of earthly birth, and remember that, after all, it is the second birth that really counts. Said Jesus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This second birth is the new birth from heaven above, the highest birth of all. The Lord counts, as He writes down the names of His people, that this or that man or woman was "born there." Above all, we must have settled in our hearts that we are children of the heavenly kingdom.
We are to be loyal to home ties and earthly country, true citizens in earthly, temporal relationships ; but the new birth from heaven takes away that pride of earthly birth that makes it difficult for us to help people of another culture. After all, Christianity was not cradled in the West, was it? It was cradled in Asia, with Asiatic surroundings. Just how would the people of Christ's time seem to us if we could be suddenly, miraculously transplanted to their time and place? I am afraid they would not please us. When Paul was in trouble in Jerusalem, the Roman captain asked, "Art not thou that Egyptian?" At first thought we might say he ought to have known Paul was not an Egyptian. But he must have looked so much like one that the Roman captain did not know. These apostles of ours were no doubt of strange appearance, according to our Western ideas. But they were the men whom Jesus gathered about Him to instruct them so that they might spread His gospel abroad over all the earth.
We should be careful about commenting upon the peculiarities of other people. It is possible for missionaries to write things for home papers that really do not make for a good feeling when read back in that far country. We do not talk about one another's peculiarities here, do we? We would be insufferable if we tried to describe the difference in appearance and manner of everybody about us. We take one another's peculiarities without comment. Let us put away the idea that Western ways are necessarily superior. An Asiatic said to a European in India: "Nothing is so offensive to us as your superiority." If we do feel superior, let us conceal it, because, after all, there is not much to be conceited about. Better yet, let the new birth change the natural heart, taking out the pride that separates man from his fellow men. The ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven may come from various lands, with varied backgrounds of training and ways of doing in temporal affairs, but all alike are men "sent from God" with the one glad message of salvation.
____ To be continued in June
* Chapel talk at S.D.A. Theological Seminary, January 20, 1938
