Business Life of a Christian Citizen

Business Life of a Christian Citizen THE BUSINESS LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN CITIZEN
By Cled E. Wallace The subject assigned me for discussion this morning is as important as President Morris indicated in his introductory remarks. I shall introduce it by reading a passage of scripture which has been used a number of times in this series of discussions: “Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself” (Php_3:17-21). In that time many walked as enemies of the cross of Christ, and many now walk in the same manner. They mind "earthly things,” and their service is wholly given over to the demands of the flesh. In view of the end that awaits all such, it is a matter for tears. Since we are all in the flesh and some of the demands of the flesh are imperative, it is well enough that we study and reatudy our relationships. In spite of the recurrent cries against marking brethren, all Christians have a mark on them that can be clearly read by informed and intelligent brethren. I am a marked man. Everybody who knows me has me marked for what I am or for what he thinks I am. Every individual I know, or have any particular inteiv est in, I have classified in my own mind as to his ability, his loyalty to the truth, his characteristics both good and bad, and every Christian ought to be satisfied to be marked for what he is. Any effort on the part of a public teacher to conceal the mark that truly identifies him should be branded as an indefensible act of hypocrisy. Responsible teachers should take a definite stand on questions that have a vital connection with the welfare of the cause of Christ and be willing to meet all the consequences of such a stand. A Christian presents the anomaly of a dual citizen-ship. He has experienced two births, one of nature and one of grace, one of the flesh and one of the spirit. Nicodemus, the brilliant Jewish ruler, was well informed on matters of nature but ignorant and confused where principles of the kingdom of grace were involved. The announcement of Jesus to the effect that a man must be bom anew to see the kingdom of God amazed him. “Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . . Except one be bom of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:3-5). This intelligent Jew could not understand how this could be, and many today are likewise confused regarding the matter. The fleshly birth in which we had no choice does not entitle us to any of the blessings of the kingdom of heaven. “That which is bom of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” When a sinner accepts the gospel and becomes a Christian, the fact that he is a Christian with a heavenly citizenship does not cancel out the fact that he is a human being living in the world. He still lives in the flesh, and there are some earthly demands upon him which must be met. He has a celestial relationship, but he is yet on earth, and some of these earthly demands are both essential and practical. This heavenly citzenship is supreme, and is the Chris-tian’s chief concern. Flesh is subordinate to spirit, and men have been crowned with eternal glory for forsaking houses and lands, making enemies of fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters, and even surrendering their lives in loyalty to him whose throne is in heaven and whose rule extends to the earth. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me. He that fmdeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it’' (Matthew 10:37-39). Jesus warned his disciples that they could not serve both God and mammon and must not allow earthly existence to blind them to their heavenly treasures as others did. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures in heaven. * * * But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you.” He startled the men of his time by telling them that they should not work for the meat that perishes, but for that which abides unto eternal life. Man is human and needs material food, but he cannot live by such food alone. There is a part of him which must be nourished by the word of God or a degeneration lands him in perdition. Fat, healthy men can go to hell. The rich man who found himself engulfed in anguish after death was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day while on earth.

It is not difficult to figure out in the light of the Scriptures why a man loses everything if he neglects his soul. The kingdom of heaven has more to offer its citizens than any earthly government can offer. I am a patriotic American citizen. I love this government of ours and believe it to be the best in the world even svith its recognized faults. Such a patriotism is in no sense hostile to the privileges and obligations I enjoy as a Christian. There are certain so-called inalienable rights which a model government guarantees its citizens. All such blessings are temporary and are of a strictly limited nature. The right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is confined strictly to earth and material relationships. No earthly government presumes to go beyond the grave with its blessings. It cannot even guarantee long life, freedom from disease or exemption from economic ruin. Compare this with the objects of the Christian’s hope which are transcendent and glorious. When his outward man is decaying, his inward man is renewed day by day. He looks forward to a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, when mortality shall be swallowed up of life. He is to be released from the burdens and groanings incident to life in the flesh and enjoy eternal life in heaven in a resurrected body fashioned after that of the Lord’s own glorious body. Earthly governments serve a good purpose in regulating human relationships, but it is none of their affair to groom human beings for eternal life. They themselves are temporal and deal with temporal things. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world, is wholly unlike any other kingdom that ever existed or ever will be established; yet its citizens are in the world and must associate and do business with the world. There is a dual danger here. Some may be too greatly influenced by the world, and warnings against; this are numerous. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever” (1 John 2:15-17). “Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). On the other hand, others may feel constrained to withdraw from the world to a degree that amounts to asceticism. We often hear remarks from the extremely devout to the effect that a Christian’s associations should be confined largely to fellow-citizens of heaven. Paul has some decisive things to say on this question. He wrote to the brethren in Corinth not to keep company with idolaters, fornicators, murderers, sorcerers, drunkards, and the like. For fear they might understand him and run to fanatical extremes he explained that such was a disciplinary measure against brethren who were guilty of such conduct and was not intended to mean that we must not keep company with men of that sort in the world, for in such a case we would simply have to get out of the world. We are in the world and cannot escape association with some pretty rough characters who also live here. The ideal of a Christian demands that he mingle with, do business with, the world, even enjoy the social life of the world, and at the same time maintain the standards of conduct the King demands. How else, in-deed, can he be the light of the world and the salt of the earth? Paul instructed Christians that they might accept an invitation to a feast given by an unbeliever, in that case probably a pagan, and eat what was set before them and otherwise act in a decorous manner. Christians cannot be the light of the world by shunuing unbelievers. They must contact them, Jesus was found in the busy marts of trade and other places where people congregated. He was criticized by the devout for associating, even eating, with publicans and sinners. A follower of the Lord is unequally yoked with unbelievers only when he enters into an alliance that compromises his loyalty to Christ or puts him at a dis-advantage in the discharge of his duties as a Christian.

Some practically minded men have charged that Christianity is impractical. They are victims of an illusion. They opine that the gospel is a nebulous theory of metaphysics fitted only to occupy the minds of that portion of humanity who have nothing much to do except think about going to heaven. Some wag many years ago started the gag that religion is all right for “long-haired preachers and short-haired women” but men of business with serious affairs to look after could not afford to bother with it. I am seriously maintaining that the gospel is the most practical system in the world. It is assumed that men have the right to marry, rear families, provide for their needs and comforts and engage in legitimate business. It is admitted that the Bible is not a handbook designed to supply the details of how to breed cattle, build a city or run a farm. For all that a knowledge of the Bible and even a partial acceptance of its teaching has resulted in better homes, better government, wider liberties, more abundant economic life and other material blessings for the human race. Its fruit is invariably good. The Bible is responsible for hospitals, schools and many types of advancement it does not specifically mention or describe in detail. God is specific in matters of doctrine and worship. If a man would become a Christian he must do exactly what the Lord says he must do to become a Christian. No man can know what God wants in the way of worship except what he says about it. He is not at liberty to alter specific revelations regarding these things. General principles control many other activities and they must be applied to various situations as devout hearts and enlightened minds may be able to apply them. The Golden Rule which requires that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us, would settle much of the world’s strife and resolve it into a reign of peace should it be generally accepted and applied. It would abolish war and others of the world’s greatest evils.

One day recently, I went out to the golf course in Austin where I live, at least I live there when I am not somewhere else. I play golf, spend some time and money at it, keep in good health and also in a much better humor than some of my critics do. Some preachers take too little exercise, eat too much, get too fat, die too early, and somebody is supposed to advance the explanation that they wore themselves out in the service of the Lord. A Christian citizen should not lie. Well, I went out to the golf course and saw some men digging holes under a big tree. My curiosity was aroused and I asked Tom Penick, the Pro out there, what the idea was. He said: “Why, preacher, they are feeding that tree.” They put stuff down in those holes that the roots of the tree took up into the trunk and branches of the tree to increase its size and health. He showed me other fine trees which had similarly been rescued from a scraggly, half-dead state, and transformed into things of beauty. Christianity puts principles into the character, into the heart, into the life of a man that will make him a good business man, make him what he ought to be in his family and all other relationships. A knowledge of the contents of the Bible is calculated to immeasurably benefit every business and professional man. Its worth is only vaguely appreciated by many who suffer and lack much ljccause of their ignorance of it and do not know what is the matter with them. To illustrate just how practical true religion is in commonplace affairs I cite a few specific references in the Scriptures. Paul preached the gospel in Thessalonica and turned many people from idols to God. He wrote them a letter when they were little more than babes in Christ and gave them some elementary in-struction in right living. Among other things, he said: “But we exhort you, brethren, that ye abound more and more; and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your hands, even as we charged you; that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without, and may have need of nothing” (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12). We may call this business life of a Christian “every-day religion.” Nothing has ever been thought of more practical than this. All Christians have a business relationship in those things that pertain to their physical and material welfare. The teaching of the scriptures reaches out to men in the office, on the farm, in the school room and to the woman in her kitchen, nursery or parlor. What, then, about a man who says he does not have time to be a Christian? This is a common excuse and I think I have heard all of them during the years of my work as a preacher. There are no new ones. They have all been offered and they are all rotten with fallacy and misunderstanding of the true issue. If a man should say he could not see the city for the people and the houses, or could not see a forest for the trees, you would know that he needed some information as to what a city or a forest is. If he thinks he does not have time to be a Christian, he needs some information about what Christianity is. He possibly has an idea that it is an intellectual diversion of some sort, like digging into some antique philosophy. Nothing is further from the truth. Somebody is reported to have asked Lord Tennyson one time to define a living- poet. He is reported to have said that “a poet is a reed (a musical instrument) through which all things blow into music.” Somebody paraphrased that language to read that “a Christian is a reed through which all things blow into religion.” All that a Christian does should be right and the righteousness of God should be seen in it. “I have been crucified with Christ,” said Paul, “and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me.” A true Christian in business is doing the sort of business that Christ endorses.

Paul left Titus in Crete to “set in order the things that were wanting,” Here is a bit of inspired advice Titus was authorized to pass on to the disciples, “Faithful is the saying, and concerning these .things I desire that thou affirm confidently, to the end that they who have believed God may be careful to maintain good works” (Titus 3:8). He adds that “These things are good and profitable unto men.” The idea is that Christians should profess honest occupations and lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and gravity. This is pleasing to God. A man who has a legitimate business, attends to it, is thrifty, industrious, liberal, pure in his life, and thus exhibits a becoming walk toward them that are without, makes a valuable contribution to the dignity and honor of the church of the Lord into which he was inducted by a spiritual birth. Idleness, fussiness and excitability are things that hinder and detract.

There were some in the early church who evidently thought otherwise and Paul reprimanded them in this language: “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw your-selves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which they received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to imitate us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat bread for nought at any man’s hand, but in labor and travail, working night and day, that we might not burden any of you: not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you, that ye should imitate us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat. For we hear of some that walk among you- disorderly, that work not at all, but are busy-bodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well-doing" (2 Thessalonians 3:6-13). The gospel condemns such idle, disorderly, busy- bodies and the church should not tolerate them. I knew about a case one time where a church was im-posed on by a man and his family who fastened them-selves on them for support, He was rather domineering in his demands that he be supplied with certain things, including money, and this continued for many months. The leaders of the congregation were too soft- heaided, or soft-headed to shake him off. They did not know what to do with him. This instruction from Paul should have been followed. The church should wean a fellow like that. Bible teaching in regard to caring for the needy does not obligate or even authorize a church to hang a feed bag on a lazy and arrogant parasite. The word of God abounds in principles designed to enrich the life of a Christian citizen and make him a good business man.

It follows that a Christian in his business life, in his social and material relationships should be strictly and uncompromisingly honest. “Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9-10). I read about the golden city, the home of the soul and find that nothing unclean enters into it. Murderers, fornicators, idolaters together with all liars are excluded. A liar is close-kin to a thief. Any man who will lie will also steal if the temptation is strong enough. The Christian in business is often in the midst of an economic struggle and the temptation at times is strong to take advantage of somebody by using fraudulent methods. “Take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men” (Romans 12:17). It is the climax of a Christian’s honor that he would rather die than lie. Remember that Ananias and Sapphira lied and died both. There can be no permanent profit in dishonesty. "The wages of sin is death.”

We naturally connect business with profit. The worldly business man confines his interest in profit to material things that have to do with happiness and contentment on earth. The Christian business man must keep in mind that there is a higher profit in a world to come. Paul in his letters to Timothy discussed matters of supreme gain. "But godliness with contentment is great gain: for we brought nothing into the world, for neither can we carry anything out; but having food and covering we shall be therewith content. But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which 'ome reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:6-10). Some might think, the way some of us preach, that the only way a Christian can be guilty of worldliness is to dance, play cards, or go in swimming. One of the greatest temptations to worldlinesa is found in the conduct of legitimate business, social life, even home life. Many people who are hoaest and cannot be tempted to engage in things that are known to be sinful, may allow business or pleasure which are above criticism in themselves, to interfere with some of the duties of the Christian life. They allow the cares of the world, the deccitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life to choke out the word and they become unfruitful. If a man allows his business, or a woman suffers the cares of home life to crowd the word of God out of their lives, they become guilty of a fatal sort of worldliness as deadly to the soul as any commonly acknowledged sin. Nothing of a material or temporal nature can become the supreme thing in the life of a Christian. The things of the kingdom must come first. Martha was troubled about many things but Jesus reminded her that “one thing is needful/' The Christian should exhibit a fine sense of values based on the plain teaching of the word of God.

There is nothing wrong about a man becoming rich, if there is no ground for just criticism of the methods he employed in becoming so. He must not trust in such riches but on God who gives him such things to enjoy and use. There is nothing wrong in the ownership of property. Whether a man has little or much is not really a vital matter, but what he does with, and what his attitude is toward, his little or much does amount to something. This reveals him more than anything else can. The man who reaped rich returns from his piece of ground, built new barns and filled them, and bade his soul enjoy it for many years was called a fool by the Lord. It is not charged that he was a thief or that his business methods were shady. He was a worldly-minded man who grounded his hope on the uncertainty of riches. Had he been unselfish, rich in good works, ready to distribute, he would have been laying up in store for himself a good foundation against the time to come that he might lay hold on that life which is life indeed. (See 1 Timothy 6:17-19). If a man loses his soul he loses everything. We are in the flesh for only a very short time. Use should be made of present opportunities so that when the time comes for mortality to be swallowed up of life, the climax of the Christian's hope may be reached when he enters upon his heavenly and eternal inheritance.