Unity in Action

Unity in Action UNITY IN ACTION
By John Straiten

Unity in action is the ultimate end and design of all that has been said in the four panel discussions, of yesterday and today. Without a common objective much of our labor would be lost. What confusion arises when there is no common purpose in view! “Divide and conquer” has long been a principle in carnal warfare. When the enemy of all mankind was successful in dividing the followers of the Christ into sects and parties he delivered a fatal blow to the triumph of the gospel. Tins defeat will continue until unity is restored. When all who love the Lord are united in ideal and in action the great purpose of God in sending Christ into the world will begin to be accomplished.

Unity in action may be considered under three heads: first, a common objective; second, a common plan; and last, cooperation.

First then, what is the common objective towards which all Christians should work? We are not left to formulate a purpose for ourselves or to guess at that of the Lord’s. It is plainly and definitely stated by the Captain of our salvation. In that great intercessory prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, Jesus said that it was not for the apostles only that he prayed “but for them also that believe on me through their word; that they may all be one: even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou dids.t send me.” Our common objective then is to so present the claims of Jesus to the men and women of the world that they will believe that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Unity is essential to this. Belief in Jesus as, the Christ has a further end in view. Speaking of his gospel narrative, John said: “Many other signs did Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name.” Life to a sin-cursed and dying world—life in Christ— is the common objective towards which all Christians, must strive.

After his triumphant resurrection from the dead and on the eve of his return to the eternal glories, Jesus gave to his apostles, chosen and trained by him for that purpose, a statement of the great objective to which they were to direct their labors. As more accurately translated in the American Standard Version, it reads: “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,.” His life-work on earth was ended; the purpose for which he had come to this world was accomplished; it remained for his followers to complete the work which he had begun, the great work of making disciples of all nations. He received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. This gift he gave to the apos.tles on the first Pentecost after his ascension. They, being filled with the Spirit, began to accomplish the great objective which had been entrusted to them. Three thousand were convinced that the Jesus whom they had crucified was indeed the Christ, the Son of God. They became disciples. A disciple is one who receives the teaching of another; a scholar, a student, a learner. The word does not indicate any degree in attainment or any certain standard in knowledge. Discipleship is a condition of heart and mind. As soon as a person accepts another as his, guide and teacher he becomes a disciple of that one and as a faithful disciple he practices what he is taught. Our common objective is to make of all the nations disciples of the Lord Jesus, that they may have eternal life. For the success of a common objective a common plan is required. Just as the Bible gives the objective, it also gives the plan for its attainment. The method of making disciples is given in the commission as recorded by Mark: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” Two things are commanded: one is, preach. Common usage has accustomed us to the habit of using the word “preach” to cover every kind of religious public speaking: to exhort, to teach, to sermonize. It is not so used m the New Testament where it has a more limited and definite meaning. Six Greek words, are sometimes translated “preach.” To only two of these is it necessary to give attention now. The word used by Mark is “keerusso.” The root meaning of this word is: to herald, to publish, to proclaim. The leper healed by Jesus went out and began to publis.h it much (Mark 1:45). Of the gospel, Jesus said that it “must first be published among all nations” (Mark 13:10). And in Luke 12:3, “That which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the hous,e tops.” Publish and proclaim represent the word usually translated “preach.” The other word is familiar to us because it has been translated into English as “evan-gelize.” Its exact meaning is to tell as good news. Gabriel said to Zacharias, “I was sent ... to bring thee these good tidings” (Luke 1:19). And in Acts 13:32, “We bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers.” “Bring good tidings” is to preach the gospel. In the New Testament the word preach is, never applied to an address given to a group of Christians gathered for worship. Before you think you have found an exception to this statement consult the American Revised Version. The divine plan for the accomplishment of our ob-jective is to evangelize—to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation through faith in the Son of God. Many things in this life are interesting, useful, and important. Some of these are social reform, abolition of war, intellectual culture by the study of literature and art, a better economic system, and many other things. But none of them is God’s plan for the end he has in view; the salvation of man from the power of sin and Satan. The gospel, and the gospd only, is God’s power unto salvation. Therefore, preach the gospel. The Lord’s plan begins with a very definite command, “Go.” The Christian religion is an aggressive one. Go and compel them to come in. When we lose that aggressive spirit we lose that which is essential to success. In the World War of 1914-1918 the Germans swept like a flood across, Belgium and part of France. By-and-by they were stopped and began to dig themselves into trenches—the famed Hindenburg line. At that moment their defeat began. It was only a question of time till they were completely routed. When Christians dig themselves into their church buildings and are content to hold their own, they are defeated. It is, only a question of time till they, too, shall be routed. Nothing could stop the early Christians: neither perils of water nor perils of robbers, neither perils by the Jews nor perils by the heathen, neither perils in the city, nor perils in the wilderness, neither perils, in the sea nor perils among faolse brethren. On they went, everywhere preaching the word. Stoned, apparently to death, Paul rose to his feet, dusted his garments and proceeded next day to another city to preach the same gospel. Paul and the others went; we stay. It is well known that our Sunday evening meetings are attended by less than half of those who attend the morning services. At least this is true in most places. Of the number that do attend few, very few, are non-members. I wonder if the time has not come when we should close our church house doors on Sunday night and go out into the highways and hedges, the street corners, and public parks, where people are in the habit of resorting. The apostles went to the temple where the Jews were accustomed to gather; Paul went to the public market and talked to the folks whom he found there. Preaching the gospel—making disciples—is compared to fishing. When Jesus called Peter and Andrew, he said to them: “Follow me and I will make you fish ers of men.” The first rule in fishing is that the fisher must go where the fish are. No one ever caught a fish in a tubful of rainwater. I am afraid that some of us on Sunday night go fishing in a tubful of rainwater.

Unity in plan means obedience to these two commands: “Go” and “Preach.” The third and last point in this address is cooperation. This may be of two kinds: the cooperation of individuals and the cooperation of groups of in-dividuals called churches.

Cooperation began in the Garden of Eden and has continued throughout all time down to the present moment. When the Lord God made man he saw that it was not good that man should be alone; and so he made a helpmeet for him. These two co-operated together in all the work God had committed to their ca^e. No one liveth to himself. Each is dependent upon the other. Not only would civilization cease, but the world itself would come to an end if men did not co-operate. What is true in secular and material things is equally true in religious and spiritual. Passing by the many fine examples of co-operation which are given in the Old Testament, we come to the New. When Jesus sent out the twelve and the seventy, he sent them out two by two before his face. Why two by twro? Clearly for the help and encouragement which they would be able to give each other. In worship, as in work, there must be co-operation. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name,” s,aid Jesus, “there am I in the midst of them.” When, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the church at Antioch began a great missionary enterprise two men were selected and sent out. Time would fail to cite the many instances in the New Testament where two or more individuals co-operated in the Lord’s work. There is no reason why two or more brethren may not follow that example now and join together to do any Scriptural work. In the congregation cooperation is essential to growth and well-being. The church is compared to the human body in which every member and organ cooperates for a common end. “All the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16). What Paul so well states is confirmed by our own observation and knowledge. Where is, the congregation that has grown, that has proclaimed the gospel to the unsaved, that has ministered to the poor and distressed, that has sent once and again to the help of the missionary who has, gone to the distant places of the earth, which is not a co-operating church, one member with the other. But what of cooperation in those undertakings of greater size than a single congregation usually is able to care for? The religious bodies around us have found it necessary to create Presbyters, Synods, General Assemblies, Conferences, Conventions, and Boards of all kinds to care for these things. Are these necessary, or has the New Testament given us a plan whereby congregations can co-operate, or are we left to our own judgment to do what seems right in our own eyes? In the apostolic age each congregation or church (the words are synonyms) was complete in itself. There was, no superior organization greater than the congregation. In Christ, “each several building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also (the church at Ephesus) are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22). The supremacy of the church is seen in the law given in Matthew 18:15-18. The sinning and wayward brother who will not hear the church is to be treated as an heathen man and a publican. There is no appeal from the congregations to any higher court such as the religious denominations have. It is too clear to need any elaboration that in the New Testament each congregation was complete in itself. There existed no organization made up of two or more churches which was above the individual congregation. How then did the congregations co-operate? Or did they do anything that today would be called co-operative work?

There is in the New Testament one example which may give us some light and guidance in this, matter. The church in Jerusalem was in need of help. A famine left the brethren in a condition where they were unable to care for their own needy. Then the disciples at Antioch, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren that dw^elt in Judea: which also they did, sending it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. This case of co-operation is one church giving and another receiving, with no machinery except the two messengers who carried the money from one city to the other. I judge that there was no other way of transferring m,oney at that time. Some years later Paul organized a contribution on a much larger and wider scale. Many churches were included in it. Amongst others, the various congregations in the province of Galatia were contributors. With them were associated the churches in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia. Without attempting to list these churches it is evident that there were quite a number of them co-operating in this work. The raising of this fund covered a period of over a year, perhaps about two years. Several brethren were engaged in this work to remind the churches of their promises, to stir up an interest in the work, and to help collect the money. Paul exhorted Titus that as he had made a beginning so he would also complete in the Corinthians the taking up of this, contribution. With Titus, Paul sent a brother of excellent reputation, but whose name has not been given to us. Of him Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “And we have sent together with him (that is, Titus) the brother whose praise in the gospel is spread through all the churches; and not only so, but who was, also appointed by the churches to travel with us in the matter of this grace.” From this we learn that the churches appointed one to be associated with Paul in raising the money to take to Jerusalem. Not only these two, but a third brother was used in this good work. Of the third one Paul writes: “We have sent with them our brother, whom we have many times, proved earnest in many things.” I wonder what these things were? This group of three was sent by Paul to Corinth to assist in the collection for the poor at Jerusalem. A committee is a group of persons appointed to take action upon some matter. Would it be wrong to call this group a committee?

As, Paul went from place to place gathering this money, each church was asked to appoint some messengers to take the money to Jerusalem in company with the apostle himself. To the Corinthians he wrote: ‘“Whomsoever ye shall approve, them will I send with letters to carry your bounty to Jerusalem: and if it be meet for me to go also, they shall go with me.” As we follow him on his way to that city there are quite a number of brethren with him, no doubt on the same mission as the ones from Corinth, that is, to carry the bounty of the churches to Jerusalem. His was, a difficult task, and he felt the responsibility. He asked the Roman brethren that they would strive together with him in their prayers to God that his ministration which he had for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. In view of this, example of effective congregational cooperation is it not reasonable to assume that con-gregations of today may well use similar cooperation to the advancement of the kingdom of God? The Scriptures teach and furnish examples of co-operation. Why not practice it now in a Scriptural way?

These things are certain. God has made it clear that the objective of Christian unity is, to make disciples of all nations and that we are to do so by the preaching of the gospel. Let us then go forward in cooperation with faith in God and confidence in our plea for right is right and in the end will win.