Church Benevolences
Church Benevolences CHURCH BENEVOLENCE
A. R. Holton
“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:16-19).
It is said that upon one occasion the multitude was milling about like sheep without a shepherd. The disciples suggested to send them away, that they might go and buy- bread. And then we have the significant statement that Jesus looked upon them and had compassion upon the multitude (Mark 6:34-36). Something enters into the situation here that the people had not been accustomed to. The compassion of Jesus was compelling. In the account of the Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), we are told that this was the difference between the Samaritan and two others. A man was wounded and left by the roadside for dead. A priest came by, looked at him and passed by on the other side. A Levite looked at him and passed by on the other side. The Samaritan looKed at him, and came to him and had compassion on him, and poured in oil and wine on the wounds of the man, carried him to an inn and saw that he was taken care of, and provided means for his further care. Two men saw him, but that was all. One saw him and had compassion on him. And it is this that.makes the difference.
Jesus went into this whole subject in the 25th chapter of Matthew, where he gives the account of the judgment. This scripture points out that mankind will be divided like the shepherd divides the sheep from the goats. The sheep he places on his right hand, the goats on the left hand. Just as the shepherd makes this division, there will be a division in mankind. And this division will not be on the lines of race or nationality, or education, or any of the things that men form as barriers to each other. This division will be on the basis of our attitude and our relationship to our fellow men. This relationship, Jesus points out, is not only the relationship between human beings, it is, in the long run, the relationship between the individual and God; because Christ is the Son of God, and Christ is Lord, and he says that if you have visited the sick, if you have clothed the naked, if you have visited a man in prison, you have done these things to the Lord. And if you have not met these human needs, it is as if you had done them against the Lord himself. And mankind will be divided on that basis. Those who are hungry, those who need clothing, those who are sick, those who are in prison—your relationship to these unfortunates determines your relationship to Christ.
It is interesting to note what we would find today if we visited the sick, and the prisoners, and the hungry and the naked. We would find mental disorders as well as physical disorders. And Jesus simply means that the church, or his kingdom, is going to face up to these human needs and human problems. And our attitude toward them will determine our destiny. Christianity is a fellowship, and Christianity has a message for these unfortunates; it has a remedy for all these ills, and it was the purpose of Jesus Christ that his church and this fellowship spread to every creature on earth, because when he gave the commission, he said, “Go teach all nations, go preach the gospel to every creature.” He intended this fellowship to be world-wide and to include all men and women. Jesus had a message for the unfortunate while he lived on earth. He had compassion on the multitudes. This was his attitude. Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.” He was talking about food and clothing, things to wear, and things to eat. And he knew how concerned the world was about these things; and not only did he know our concern about them, he knew the absolute necessity of food and clothing.
He knows what we have need of; and he tells us the way to secure these things—-“Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.” Anyone then who thmks that they have a real solution to the problems of the world without God and his kingdom, are certainly wrong. The mere dispensing of food and cloth-ng is not the way. Jesus said there is something else if you will do, then all these things shall be added. The greatest thing then that the church can do for humanity is to increase the fellowship of the church and extend it as far as we can to all mankind.
Let us look then just a moment at what the Bible points out as the. reason why we lack things that arc needful. James tells us that ye have, not because ye ask not (James 4:2). And this leads us at once then into the field of prayer and worship. What a boon could come to the suffering millions of our earth if they could be led into real worship of God! So much today of materialism has spread mto the very places where hunger and disease and nakedness has full sway. These things could be done away with if the hearts and lives of the people were, in accordance with the will of God. Worship is the place wherever a man lights a candle to carry with him into places of darkness. And worship is the place where we meet God, and have the inspiration to grow Christ-like. And somehow he managed to get along in a world of poverty, had no place to lay his head, but we have felt that somehow Jesus was lich, and that here is a life that had riches beyond, all compare. What a wonderful blessing then could come to men if they learned really to cooperate with (tod. And not only do we lack these things because we do not ask, we are told in this same scripture that when we pray, wTe pray that we may consume these things upon our own lusts. In other words, waste is sinful, and the misuse of God’s bounty is sinful. Jesus in teaching his disciples to pray, told them to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And this is certainly a recognition that even bread comes from God, and that waste and selfish use of material is the reason that these things are taken away. And when we look at the economy of our world today, and realize that 50 per cent of our human resources on this earth goes to war and the prosecution of war, and when we think of the astounding debt, and interest, that the world has to pay on account of war, you can see at once that it is waste that destroys the very bounty of the world. To get mankind then to seek the kingdom of God, certainly all these things could be added. The church has at its command the resources of science in the betterment of humankind. There isn’t a congregation in the land but what could render a great service in any community, if they mobilized the resources of that congregation for human help. There are doctors, there are business men, there are successful teachers in all the professions, and successful men and women in many ways. If all of this could be turned and mobilized for human help and human aid, what a difference there could be in this world. And then in the third place, we are told to work with our hands, that we may have to give to others. Paul said in Thessalonians, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). It was said in the very beginning that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow (Genesis 3:19). Christianity then in this world would bring an honest day’s work, and would dignify work to the level as something done for God, for humanity. We certainly need this blessing to come to the world. Work is a great character builder. A population without work is a dangerous situation, for the individual and to the community. The powder keg which may explode a world any minute is this great mass of unemployed. Work means also independence of mind. No man is absolutely miserable who has work to do. It is in work that self is forgotten. In work, we can forget human slights, and can forget many disagreeable things by being lost in the doing of our duty. Many a man has found himself by giving himself to the duties of today. Work means courage, patience, and faith. And out of these come a peace, the peace of God. Tn work is refuge from the world. We need to come back in our country to preaching the old fashioned doctrine of work and its place in the affairs of men. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “To every reproach I know but one answer, to go again to my work.” Work is the greatest balm for grief. How many people have you known who have been able to bear a great sorrow because they had great work to do? Work has been the relief and the release of many a broken heart.
Thousands of people have turned away from a funeral service, where all the beauty of the word of God and the Beauty of flowers were all around—they have turned away from this to relate themselves to the living who, in some way, it was their duty to uphold and protect. And in the discharge of these duties to the living, there was balm for sorrow and grief. It was Jesus who said. I must work while i| is called today, for the night soon comes when no man can work (John 9:4). It was Tolbert Fanning at Franklin College in Nashville who, in the 1850’s, said to his students and to the public, that no nation has produced a happy people without work. He said, “Show me a people who work, and I will shew you a happy people.”
Happiness has a strange quality. If you seek it, you lose it. I am sure it has been the observation of us all that the happiest people are busy people. Health of body , peace of mind, and worthwhile work to do.will bring its share of happiness. The New Testament church had for its ideal to have the mind of Jesus, and therefore, the New Testament church was a church that entered in wholeheartedly into this matter of meeting human needs. Jesus had said at the little synagogue in Nazareth, “The Spirit of God is upon me, and he hath anointed me to preach to the poor, to bind up the broken-hearted, to preach to those m prison, and to the blind, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). Jesus had just returned from the temptation, and in this temptation Satan had given him an entirely different program. Satan had said, “Make bread out of these stones/' But Jesus answered, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.” They were insisting, you see, that mere relief was all that was necessary. Jesus points out, Man shall not live by bread alone; it isn't enough to give bread to the world. And that’s where the program of the church differs from every other relief program in the world. And then Satan had said, “Fall down and worship me.” In other words, divide your loyalty. But Jesus said, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul.” A division of loyalty to God is fatal. This is the same thing as when he said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added.” The worship of Satan is the point at which the kingdoms of the world begin their own destruction. It was Plato who said, “Every human organization has in it the seed of its own destruction.” And that’s why Jesus said, “Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up” (Matthew 15:13). And then Satan said, “Climb up on the temple and jump off, and it will not hurt you.” In other words, engage in some scheme, attract attention. And Jesus points out, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” In other words, it is as much a religious act to use the brains that God has given you, and cooperate with him and all of his laws, as it is to pray or sing. Because in praying and singing, you are cooperating with God and his laws. In using your intelligence, you are also cooperating with God and . his laws. Faith in God does not mean a lack of intelligence, or a lack of reason; faith in God is the summons of the entire man to follow the revelation of God. So Jesus comes back to the little town of Nazareth, and having met the three temptations of Satan, he announces his own program. The church got the idea very early, and we are told that they appointed seven men to serve tables in Jerusalem (Acts 6:1-6). This was a care for the needy. But humanity is one, and the human personality is one. We are body, and we are soul, and there is no sharp distinction between spiritual matters and xnaterial matters; because the serving of tables was, after all, a spiritual matter. Which leads us to say that today mankind has only one problem, and that problem is spiritual. These, seven men who were appointed to serve tables produced two of the church's greatest evangelists. Philip and Stephen came out of this group., which proves again that you cannot separate the material from the. spiritual. Faithful discharge of duty in serving tables is a good preparation to be an evangelist. At Corinth Paul said, “As I have given order to the churches of Galatia, let each of you upon the first day of the week lay by in store” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). The church had in mind the great help to the unfortunate and to the needy. They were carrying out this spirit of Jesus; and throughout the New Testament we find this same spirit. The qualifications of the leadership of the church in elders and deacons had the qualification of given to hospitality. Jesus had said that there are two things that fulfill the law—love God and love your neigh-bor. Brethren in the Jerusalem area “sold their possessions” (Acts 2:4 b) ; Barnabas from distant Cyprus joined the parade (Acts 4:36-37) ; Antioch promptly dispatched messengers to Jerusalem with needed substance (Acts 11:27-30) ; Dorcas busied her hands in her individual effort to help the cause of mercy (Acts 9:36 ff) ; Galatia, Macedonia and Achaia poured the wealth of their generosity into the stream of benevolence (1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 1 Corinthians 8th and 9th chapters. 2 Cor.) ; the hearts of Philippian saints beat in sympathy with needs of the veteran Paul (Php_2:25-29; Php_4:10-20) ; and James informed them that they possessed pure religion only as they ministered to needy widows and orphans (James 1:27). Thus is seen the manner in which the early church handed down the spirit of compassionate ministry so wonderfully demonstrated by the Master. Now all this was done without aid of a single human society or organization. It was the church at work! “Unto him be glory in the church” (Ephesians 3:21) is herein indisputably demonstrated.
Young people need advice about marriage and home; they need advice about the selection of a calling and a work. Many broken homes could be saved if advice and help could be given. The benevolent program of the average congregation is growing weaker and weaker. We are depending more and more upon secular institutions. And secular institutions can no more fulfill this field than they can in the field of education. We believe that the church has a peculiar contribution to make to the education of our children, and we believe, that the church has a peculiar contribution to make to the needs of humanity, and that somehow it is impossible for man to think straight without God. We will lose our freedom without God, we will dry up human compassion without God, and we will have a sec-ular, godless world, poised finally as an army of scientists and technicians, but without heart, without conscience, without God. May the day never come when we shall wholly separate human life on this earth from God and his cause.
Lead me, yea lead me deeper into life,
This suffering human life, wherein thou liv’st
And breathest still, and hold’st thy way divine.
’Tis here, 0 pitying Christ, where thee I seek,
Here where the strife is fiercest; where the sun
Beats down upon the highway thronged with men.