Confidence Among Brethren: Concluded

CONFIDENCE is like a four-legged stool, and if one of the legs is taken away, confidence is weakened or broken down completely. The four "legs" upon which true Christian confidence is built are the fear of God, love for the brethren, trust, and understanding. If in our hearts there is the fear of God, if there is love for the brethren, if there is trust, and if there is understanding, then it follows, as day the night, that there will be confidence.

The Fear of God

"In the fear of the Lord," the wise man says, "is strong confidence" (Prov. 14:26). There is a close relationship between the fear of God and Christian confidence. In fact, there can be no true Christian confi­dence where the fear of God is missing from the heart.

The Lord's messenger expands this thought. "When men cease to depend upon men, when they make God their ef­ficiency, then there will be more confidence manifested one in another. Our faith in God is altogether too feeble and our confi­dence in one another altogether too mea­ger."—Testimonies to Ministers, p. 214. When we fear God, when we make Him our efficiency, then "there will be more confidence manifested one in another."

Christian confidence is based upon the fear of God. If we truly love the Lord we shall have confidence in the brethren. If we fear Him, our confidence in His sons and daughters will be strong. We cannot truly fear God and have suspicion in our hearts toward our brethren. It is usually when we become separated from the Lord that we become separated from the breth­ren.

When we begin to lose faith in fellow members or in fellow workers, if we ex­amine our hearts honestly, we may discover that our faith in God is also slipping. The fine edge of our love for God has been dulled. Almost imperceptibly, love for our fellow men diminishes. How much we need to keep the fires of first love burning brightly in these hearts of ours! True con­fidence is built solidly upon the fear of the Lord. Having Jesus in the heart more than anything else will beget and inspire faith and trust in one another.

Love for the Brethren

The second leg of this stool of confi­dence is love for the brethren. In Paul's day there was a lack of mutual trust among the church members in Corinth. So he wrote a message. Included in his letter is the confidence-begetting thirteenth chap­ter of first Corinthians. In this Epistle the apostle gave the Corinthian church an antedote for suspicion and mistrust. In es­sence he said, "What you believers need is the love of Christ for one another."

I love to read this blessed chapter over and over again in the various versions of the New Testament. One of my favorites for inspirational reading is the J. B. Phil­lips translation. Note the trust-inspiring words in the following:

"This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience—it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is nei­ther anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.

"Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.

"Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen" (1 Cor. 13:4-8).*

The church at Corinth needed love to remove mistrust and to restore confidence.

The remnant church needs love to keep from her midst the insidious lack of confi­dence that prevails among the leaders of nations in so many parts of the world to­day. Confidence and love go out the back door of the church when Satan brings sus­picion and mistrust in the front or the side doors of the sanctuary.

Getting at the very core of declining confidence the apostle says bluntly, Love "does not keep account of evil" (verse 5). Another translation says, "Love . . . does not keep statistics of evil." Pause and think this through for a moment. Love does not keep statistics of evil. Declining confidence usually has its beginning right here. The carnal heart filled with evil sur-misings begins to keep account of all the real or supposed wrongs done against it. Like a canker this baneful influence eats away confidence in the object of its venom. Love, true love, the love of Christ, expels such thoughts from the mind. Love and evil surmisings cannot exist in the same heart.

When we find ourselves keeping statis­tics of evil—keeping account of the short­comings of fellow workers—we need to pray God that He will flood our souls with the sweet influence of His love before con­fidence is broken down. Love, the love of Christ, is a great confidence builder.

Trust

The third leg supporting this stool of confidence is trust. Our English word trust is derived from the old Norse traust, mean­ing confidence of security. It is impossible to create confidence when trust is lacking. Noah Webster defines "trust" as "assured reliance on another's integrity, veracity, and justice." When we have confidence in a person we trust him, we believe in his sincerity, we trust his integritv, his veracity, his justice. Trust and suspicion cannot live in the same heart.

In the heart of the apostle Paul, trust was manifest toward the believers in Thes-salonica. "We have confidence in the Lord touching you," he wrote in 2 Thessaloni-ans 3:4. The Thessalonian believers like­wise trusted Paul. They had confidence in him. Trust inspires trust. It is good for us to sincerely express this confidence we have in one another. The expression of trust has a salutary effect on human relations. It inspires mutual confidence and good will.

"If you are in communion with Christ," the servant of the Lord writes, "you will place His estimate upon every human be­ing. You will feel for others the same deep love that Christ has felt for you. Then you will be able to win, not drive, to attract, not repulse, those for whom He died."— Christ's Object Lessons, p. 197.

When we feel a deep love for those with whom we associate, when we manifest trust in them, and when we sincerely express our confidence in them, love and trust and faith will flow back to us in enriched meas­ure. Expressions of trust and confidence are not for deathbed comfort. They will smooth the rough paths and cheer the bur­dened hearts of those with whom we associ­ate in our everyday service for the King.

Understanding

The fourth leg of the confidence stool is understanding—the happy ability to put oneself in the other fellow's shoes. The American Indians had a definition of this blessed knack. They called it walking in the other man's moccasins. To put it in up-to-date language we need to frequently sit on the other side of the desk from those we work with, to project ourselves into their situations, to feel as they must feel in their branch of the work.

A few months ago I was worshiping with our European believers in the Nairobi, Kenya, church. An enthusiastic home mis­sionary leader was seeking to inspire the members to go out that afternoon and se­cure Bible school enrollments. I am ashamed to admit it, but as soon as the plan was suggested I felt a headache com­ing on. I thought of the late committee work I would be engaged in that night. The trying schedule of the coming week haunted me.

"Anyway," I said to myself, "they don't expect me to go out too!" You know how we feel sometimes when we are asked to "do the other fellow's work," don't you? Well, I had just about convinced myself that I could with impunity spend the after­noon resting in my hotel room.

And then, fortunately, I had second thoughts. How could I understand the feel­ings and problems of these good workers unless I walked in their shoes? How happy I am that I went out with them that after­noon! It was a most pleasant and reward­ing experience. Knocking at the doors, tell­ing the people about the Voice of Proph-ecy and praying with them, was a blessing to my own soul. I am sure, too, that this little experience helped to build up a bit more confidence in the hearts of the peo­ple in one of their leaders. Understanding helps to build up confidence.

In Confidence Is Our Strength

The gospel prophet reminds us, "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isa. 30:15). "When men will show confidence in their fellow men they will come much nearer to possessing the mind of Christ."—Testimonies to Minis­ters, p. 189.

"Let us not put on garments of heavi­ness, and cherish doubts and a lack of confidence in our brethren. We should not hurt our souls by gathering the thistles and the thorns, but instead we should gather the roses and the lilies and the pinks, and express their fragrance in our words and acts."—Ibid., p. 502.

May God draw us as workers closer and closer together, with hearts filled with love and confidence in one another. Then God's servant says "there will be propor­tionate force and power in our work."— Ibid., p. 188. Then, too, the benediction and blessing of God will rest upon us, and His work will soon be finished.

* From The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips. Copyright 1958, by J. B. Phillips. Used by permis­sion of The Macmillan Company.