GOD has ordained the church to be an instrument and expression of His righteousness in the world. "From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency."—The Acts of the Apostles, p. 9. Christ was not speaking idle words when He said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." Salt is a preservative. Food spoils without it. The society in which we live is easily corrupted through indifference, greed, and lust, all of which lead to decay. There are forces of corruption that are not stayed unless some folks are salt. The ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah are vivid reminders that the salt had lost its savor. The church had little or no influence on the community; in fact the community did not know that the church was around.
In The Land and the Book, by William M. Thomson, there is an account of a merchant in Sidon who brought quantities of salt from the marshes of Cypress and hid it in houses on a remote mountain to avoid payment of taxes. The floors of the houses, however, were common earth, and soon the salt by that contact lost its saltiness. It was then used to make a hard surface on the road.
The Christian in his contact with the world will either redeem it or succumb to it. If he succumbs he loses his saltiness. If he loses his saltiness, he becomes but a hard roadway for the casual traffic of the world.
How, then, can the church be the salt of the earth? How can she be the light of the world? What is her moral responsibility to the community?
First, the church must accept into fellowship only the converted—those who believe in Christ and have confessed their sins; those who believe the system of truth, the doctrines of Christ which make the church.
Ralph G Turnbull writes: This is the time to stress the great tenets and dog mas of the Christian faith. For a number of decades people have been suspicious of dogmas and wistful for faith, but now we discover that true faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. . . . The church has been tempted to dilute the message by throwing over dogmatic preaching to substitute nebulous meanderings and pious uncertainties in a world in quest of certitude. All these excursions have left man in a maze of bewilderment and destitute of authority.—A Minister's Obstacles, p. 59. (Italics supplied.)
I mention doctrines of the church because I believe there is danger that we may neglect to present them in their true light.
There are two errors against which the children of God . . . especially need to guard. The first, . . . that of looking to their own works, trusting to any thing they can do, to bring themselves into harmony with God. He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. . . . The opposite and no less dangerous error is, that belief in Christ releases men from keeping the law of God; that since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our redemption.—Steps to Christ, pp. 59, 60. (Italics supplied.)
In the light of these two statements we must in all of our preaching pray that divine love will be implanted in the soul to the extent that people will want to hold high the standards of Christ in their lives, that they will want to be a living expression of God's will as revealed in the doctrines of Christ.
There is danger that we in our preaching-disassociate the morals of the kingdom from the gospel. Moral standards must be taught not in generalities but specifically. They should be thoroughly understood by all who are baptized into the church. Too often individuals are baptized who give no evidence of an experimental knowledge of the doctrines of Christ. Because they are not converted, they bring little or no strength to the church. "Unless persons embrace the message aright, and their hearts are prepared to receive it, they would better let it entirely alone."—Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 249.
The healthier the church spiritually, the more people will want to belong. A spiritually healthy church will make our soul-winning program tenfold easier. We should always place the emphasis upon a converted membership—a double portion of the Holy Spirit upon our membership is more important than doubling our membership. Much of our time could be spent winning souls to Christ did we not have to spend so much time with the unconverted members of the church. The community is best served by a sanctified church membership. Incidentally, this is also the best public relations. What glory and satisfaction is there in a membership that brings only reproach upon the cause of God?
I read in The Acts of the Apostles, page 601, "If the church will put on the robe of Christ's righteousness, withdrawing from all allegiance with the world, there is before her the dawn of a bright and glorious day. . . . Truth, passing by those who despise and reject it, will triumph. . . . Endowed with divine energy, it will cut its way through the strongest barriers, and triumph-over every obstacle."
There appeared an article in Time magazine, October 10, 1955, under the caption of "Religion," entitled "Last Train to Babylon." In this article a number of interesting statements by the Reverend Gibson Winter, of Brighton, Michigan, are quoted. They are as follows:
"The test of every parish enterprise is whether it will bring monetary and numerical progress. . . . American suburbs are growing so quickly, and suburbanites are joining the churches so fast that there is not enough time to indoctrinate new members as Christians. "Despite a nominal church background, this is an unconverted, untrained mass of people who make the problem of church membership comparable to what it was in the time of Constantine, when Christianity became a recognized institution of Roman society. . . . Moreover, they and their clergy are too busy to stop to hear the Gospel. . . . The captivity of the church is a national tragedy of the first order, for it occurs at a time when America's position of world leadership requires a prophetic church at home. . . . [It] may well be God's word of judgment upon us as His church. For our trespasses and complacency, we have been delivered to Babylon."
We can by-pass these words by saying they refer to Protestantism at large. But is the danger not very real that we as individuals can be made captive and be delivered to Babylon? Isn't it true that there are forces even within the church that militantly oppose righteousness? This is a time when the watchman on the wall of Zion must give a positive sound to the message. As pastors we should not get caught in the fallacious reasoning that reaching our church goals spells spiritual success for the church. One pastor is re ported to have said to another, "All you need to do to be in the good graces of the conference is to get the Ingathering goals, Sabbath school goals, baptize a few, and you are O.K.— you have nothing to worry about." Perhaps not more than that is necessary to be in good and regular stand ing with the conference administration. If, however, pleasing the conference officials or church members is my basic motive for being in the gospel ministry, then certainly I need to cry with the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner." If our purpose of working is no higher than that of pleas ing men, then we have lost our vision and become a negative influence, both in the church and in the community.
The messenger of the Lord says, "It is not the results we attain, but the motives from which we act, that weigh with God. He prizes goodness and faithfulness above all else."—Gospel Workers, p. 267.
Regarding those about to be baptized, we have definite instruction:
It is the duty of the pastor to have special meetings with them. Give them Bible readings, converse and pray with them, and plainly show the claims of the Lord upon them. Read to them the teaching of the Bible in regard to conversion. Show what is the fruit of conversion. ... It should be understood whether they are simply taking the name of Seventh-day Adventists, or whether they are taking their stand on the Lord's side, to come out from the world and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing.—Testimonies, vol. 6, p. 95.
The entrance to the church as well as the exit should call forth our sincere and diligent solicitude.
There are certain minimum standards that must be maintained. If the church does not continue to be the salt of the earth she is "thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men" (Matt. 5:13).
In all his writings the apostle Paul carried the banner of the church high, and he sounded the trumpet call to the Christian to climb the heights. He did this in spite of his knowledge of their shortcomings. The gospel of Christ is not an easy going philosophy. Jesus always exhibited a very deep sense of enmity between Him self and the world. He always held up a choice between Himself and the world.
Those who engage in the solemn work of bearing the third angel's message must move out decidedly, and in the Spirit and power of God fearlessly preach the truth and let it cut. They should elevate the standard of truth and urge the people to come up to it. It has too frequently been lowered to meet the people in their condition of darkness and sin. It is the pointed testimony that will bring them up to decide.—Ibid., vol. 1, p. 248.
Maintaining the standards of the church brings up the subject of dealing with members who do not live up to the minimum requirements. What should be the attitude toward dissenting members who are not willing to change their ways? If there are members who are consistently refusing to live up to the standards of the church, what shall be our procedure?
The Bible makes plain the steps to be followed when members fall into sin. In Matthew 18:15 we read, (1) "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." (2) Verse 16: "But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." (3) Verse 17: "And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."
G. Campbell Morgan, commenting on this text, uses some very significant statements, and I shall quote him rather extensively.
The purpose of our going to our brother is not that we compel him to confess the fault! . . . The purpose is the gaining of our brother. ... I am to go to my brother, not because my brother's sin has made me suffer, but because my brother's sin is harming my brother. Thou dost not go to thy brother to establish thine own right, to break his will, and bend his neck to own he was in the wrong, but to gain him. . . . But if he will not hear thee what then? "Take with thee one or two more" . . . trusted men, take men of the very spirit of the love which makes you go. And if he will not hear them, then tell it to the Church, . . . that called out, separated company of men bound together by the bond of the one life in Christ, impulsed by the one law of love, . . . tell it to them, that where you have failed they may gain this sinning man. And if he will not hear them, then "let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican." ... If he will persist in sin, . . . then he must be put outside the Church ... he must not be suffered to continue to make his fellowship in the Christian Church a garment under which he hides sin. The Church is not to afford sanctuary to any man who persistently, and in spite of every attempt of love, continues in sin. ... If your brother in this fellowship or in any fellowship has really sinned against you, because of his sin it is your duty to go and see him, and to deal with him. There is a false charity abroad within the fellowship of the Christian Church, which makes men say: "Oh, yes, this man wronged me, this man sinned against me; the thing he said was a sinful thing, the thing he did was a sinful thing; but I would rather not take any action." We have no right to say that, because there is no purely personal matter among Church members. The whole assembly is affected by the sin of one. The ties of the Church's life are weaker because one in the fellowship continues in sin. The Church's testimony to the neighborhood, to the city, to the nation, to the world, is feebler by reason of that fact. Thus not in the interests of the man alone, although that is always first, but finally in the interests of the fel lowship, we have no right to refuse to exercise the discipline of love in the case of anyone who has lagrantly sinned to our knowledge.—Westminster Pulpit, vol. 5, pp. 225-227.
The apostle Paul brings to our attention the important law of the leaven: "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" (1 Cor. 5:6). He states that the leaven is to be purged. Leaven communicates itself, spreads its own corrupting force wherever it goes. A little leaven, the influence of one man sinning and being permitted to re main within the vital fellowship, will spread, at first unconsciously and insidiously, but surely, throughout the whole church. The apostle gave definite instruction to "purge out therefore the old leaven" (1 Cor. 5:7). The persistent sinner was to be put out of the church. In this case the church did not measure up to her responsibility. Paul asked the church to re fuse membership to anyone who deliberately repudiated the minimum standards. The offender here was hiding in the shadow of an indifferent church. The church said in effect, "It matters not what you do, at least not enough to give us concern." Paul, on the other hand; said that it matters tremendously what the man is doing. The effect upon the man and upon the church is damaging, and this center of in fection must not be allowed to develop.
Paul did not step out of the role of a pas tor into the role of a judge. He was solicitous, as pastor, of the welfare of all his spir itual children, and the sinner was one of that company. He knew that the man's future would be served best by curing him of his moral sickness, and ostracism was the medicine he prescribed. Perhaps this was a man of wealth. Perhaps he was what we sometimes falsely call an influential man, a man of means and power. No matter what position or station in life a man may hold, sin in the "man of means" is as ugly as in the life of one who "doesn't count."
The one who is disfellowshiped, according to the Word of God, is to be counted as a heathen. One may ask, "By what authority?" Jesus gave the answer when He said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." The whole matter resolves itself into this: It is in the living presence of Christ that discipline is to be exercised. It seemed as though Paul said, "Hand him over to Satan." But the facts of the case are that the individual had already given him self over to Satan by his sin. It was then the responsibility of the church to deny him the shelter of their fellowship. Why? So that he may work out to finality his own willful and deliberate sin and his own chosen relation to Satan. The church is simply giving sin its opportunity to work itself out to finality. The church therefore creates circumstances for the man who persistently sins that will compel him to make his sin visible or turn back, from it that he may be delivered.
Paul's insistence to "deliver such an one unto Satan" occurs in the same epistle that says, "Charity [love] suffereth long, and is kind." Did Paul apply love in this case? Time and time again we are reminded (by those who feel that the church has treated them harshly) that David and Mary were great sinners and the Lord forgave them. They were not disfellowshiped from the church, so they say. They also tell us, "You don't exercise Christian love." Love, how ever, is a big word. There is no one definition to cover the gamut of emotions and relationships that the word "love" stands for. Certainly for Paul love did not mean the condoning of sin. If it did he would be favoring the sinner more than those against whom he had sinned. Christ loved. He loved very much. He loved greatly. Yet there are those who feel that the strong blistering words of Christ against the Pharisees is a blot upon His character and a lapse from the love He preached. But it must be remembered that Christ's interest was in changing wicked men into good men, that they might be saved eternally. His was a deep and genuine love. It consisted of more than sentimental feelings. Isn't it a fact that love is not genuine unless it desires good? Can an evil man be changed if he thinks that the one who loves him either does not perceive his wickedness or condones it? Isn't a father who chastens his child a loving father? How much help do we give members whose sins we condone?
(To be continued)
