The Church
In I. Corinthians 1: 2 are two phrases worthy of our study. All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus’ Christ our Lord,’ means that there is a church universal, including Christians on earth and in heaven, extending through time and eternity. “The church of God which is at Corinth,” means that there is a local church with special responsibilities, and the word “church” as used in the New Testament refers most frequently to the local church, as in “the churches throughout Galatia,” “the churches of Asia,” “the church at Ephesus.” While we thank God for the church universal and its millions of redeemed souls, Christ’s mystical body of which each one of us is a part, we should give the local church its place as an agency for evangelizing the world without exalting it to a saving institution.
A missionary in India distributed during an epidemic a quantity of “painkiller” which was very useful in healing the people. After a few weeks they sent him word that they had decided to give up their gods and worship his God. He, of course, rejoiced, but his joy turned to sorrow, when, on entering one of their houses, he found the empty bottles in a row on a shelf and the heathen bowing before them in worship. They looked upon the bottles that held the remedy as gods. So one may really worship the church, which is only the medium through which God carries blessing to the world. And yet the danger with most people who have grown up in an atmosphere of protest against ecclesiasticism is that they will fail to honor the church as they should, and some of them have many excuses for not joining the church at all.
Let us consider a few of these excuses.
1.” Unworthy people are in the church. Some of them are hypocrites, and, as I admire Unworthy J honest folks, I cannot join
People i]^Q church.” This objection is
a reason why you, if you are an honest believer, should unite with the church. The fact that you complain of bad people in the church proves that you regard the church as a good institutlon. And you are really not joining the bad people. Not one of the Apostles felt that he had joined Judas. The circulation of counterfeit coin should not prevent a man from using the genuine. The counterfeit is a compliment to the genuine.
2. “Churches are too exclusive.” That is true of some churches, but it is untrue of others. Some churches have dwindled Churches Too into mere religious clubs, and Exclusive they seek only the congenial for members. But there are scores of others which are full of sympathy for the poorest, as well as the richest, and will welcome into their memberhip the humblest man or woman. You can find a church that is not exclusive, and hence this objection has no force. And if you feel that you ought to join an exclusive church, God may use you as one of its members to make it more sympathetic with all classes. Be careful, however, that you watch against the pharisaical spirit which is a subtle and dangerous form of spiritual pride.
3. “As belonging to the church does not take one to heaven, there is really no need of joining.” Let us look at this objection in the light of patriotism. Apply it to citizens during a war. Suppose some one should say:” We are No Need good patriots; we love our counof Joining try, and we want to enjoy the
benefits of victory. We would like to be among those who, at the end of the war, shall shout * huzza ’ around the flag, but we do not propose to be organized into an army. We will stay at home, or engage in a sort of guerrilla warfare, but we do not care to march in the ranks.” What sort of patriotism would that be? And yet that is just the attitude this objector holds to the church. He wants to go to heaven and take part in the glorification, after the battles of the church have been won, while he stays here and takes little part in the conflict. Such a disposition, to put it mildly, is not great-hearted. 4. “The church requires me to surrender my personal liberty.” Liberty to do what.? Personal To commit sin? To be sure you
Liberty yq want liberty to do that.
“No, that is not what I mean,” you reply. “There are some things that I do not think are wrong which the church condemns, and I do not feel like joining the church and surrendering my liberty to do what seems to me to be right.” You are mistaken again. The church does not call upon you to surrender your liberty to do what you believe to be right. To your own master you stand or fall. There is, however, a higher liberty than the liberty of doing what we think to be right. Paul said, “I have a right to eat flesh offered to idols and to drink wine, but if eating flesh and drinking wine cause my brother to stumble, I will surrender my liberty.” The liberty to surrender liberty for the sake of a weaker brother, is a Christian privilege, and no one should stay out of the church because of some little difference of opinion on questions of causistry.
5. “I am too young.” This objection is not often made by the young themselves, but by parents and guardians, and it is i Am Too usually false. If such a parent Young or guardian should read these pages, I desire to make a plea for the child Christian. I beg of you never to say to a child that he is too young to become a Christian. Jesus said: “Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not.” He knew that there would be a disposition on the part of some to forbid them. The child who is old enough to know the nature of obedience to parents is old enough to know the nature of sin. A child old enough to trust a parent is old enough to trust Jesus Christ. And your telling him that he is too young and had better wait a while will set the child searching after something which may never come. Many a real believer has been lost for years to the church, because advised by parents to wait until he is old enough to know what he is about. I plead for the children. Children may have fewer temptations to deceive than older people, and the fact that one is a child, believing in Christ, is a reason why he should belong to the church, for we should give, not only our souls, but our whole lives to Jesus Christ.
6. “I am too old.” This is a pathetic reason, and it is sometimes given in all sincerity. I ^nj Well, you are too old to do much Too Old for the Lord, but if you have but a few days remaining, you had better spend them in the church, making all you can of the time and influence that is left. Try now to make up for lost time.
7. “I am not worthy.” We have reserved this for the last, because it is the real reason with scores and hundreds. They do not wish to join the church until they are good enough to reflect credit upon it. They love Christ and honor His church, and they would j kt *. not for the world bring reproach Worthy upon His cause. I sympathize with this motive, but it is not one which should keep a young Christian out of the church. The Pharisee in the temple felt very worthy. His fastings and giving tithes were to him signs of superiority, but the publican, who felt so unworthy that he could not lift his eyes, while he smote upon his breast saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” was really the better fitted for church membership. When you have joined the church, this feeling of unworthiness may increase, if, like Paul, you have a healthy growth in the grace of humility. If you have really accepted Christ as your Saviour from sin, and taken Him as your Master, you should join the church, and consider your feeling of unworthiness as the best preparation for it.
Permit me now to submit seven reasons why every young Christian should join the church:
1. Because the chunch needs you. Not yours, so much as you. It will not suffice to send your check. The river needs every drop of its water, the sun every beam of its light, and the church needs the presence and influence The Church f every believer in the world.
Needs You Those on the side of Satan
do not hide their darkness; let us not hide our light. A candle is not lighted to be put under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and joining the church is putting the light on a candlestick.
S. Because you need the church. There is inspiration in elbow touch. While the church You Need i primarily an army, marching
the Church £qjp conquest, it is also a training
school, and you should be among the disciples and learners. Association with them will do you good. Their sympathy, faith and hope will both strengthen and inspire you.
3. Because the church is an institution founded by Christ. “On this rock I will build Founded. ^J church,” are His own words, by Christ jf ^rg ag really spiritual stones, we have no right to be out of the walls of the temple. God has carved us into shape for a place in it, and the fact that Jesus Christ founded the church brings us under obligation to unite with it.
4. Because by union with others you really multiply your influence for good. Put fire to scattered grains of powder, and there is simply a flash and smoke. Put the Multiply grains together in a cartridge, Your Influence and they will help each other to send the bullet whistling through the air. Organization greatly increases power. “One shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight.” The union of two increases the power, not two-fold, but ten-fold.
5. Because a good man’s influence out of the church may count against Christ. I remember a gentleman in a former influence pastorate who was one of the Against Christ most cultured and moral men of the community. He took interest in religion, even taught a Sunday-school class, but his feeling of unworthiness kept him from uniting with the church. Now, do not be shocked when I say that this man did the church about as much harm as any two or three drunkards in the community. When I talked to young men about making a public confession of their faith in Christ, they would point to this gentleman, and remark that they were willing to take his chances for salvation. He did not see fit to join the church, and why should they.f He was better than one-half the church members. So that man’s morality, which he owed to the church, was a weapon wielded against the church, and the cause which he really loved he was injuring by refusing to unite with the church. If good men who believe in Christ would keep from doing immense harm, they must unite with the church.
6. Because joining the church is a public confession of allegiance. It is an act of obedience, and Christ has promised special blessing to those who
confess Him before men.
7. Because the church is “the pillar and ground of the truth.” God wants not only in-Pillars of dividual witnesses, but an organithe Truth zation to witness for Him. We, as individuals, may in a sense be pillars of the truth, but certainly our influence on the side of truth will be increased, if we are known to be members of the church.