01.12. ESSAY NO. 12
ESSAY NO. 12
After diagnosing protracted childhood in the church as the fruit of false teachers and fickle Christians, Paul prescribes the remedy: "Speaking truth in love may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; from whom 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 4:15-16). Christians in growing up into Christ, become progressively more identified with him, more incorporated with him into one body of which he is both head and heart, and more and more instinct with his life. Such is the heavenly goal to which Christians are called. Surely, we have plenty of room in which to grow.
"Speaking Truth in Love"
Redemptive truth draws a line between the church and the world. Then, brotherly love binds the church into "one flock." When men at Christ’s call come out of the world into his church, they receive from him a new and vital oneness with himself. This oneness is so total that he and his people have but one and the same nature. Inevitably, it follows that, "As he is, even so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). That is, as long as Christ is rejected by the world, so are Christians. And as my hand and my foot, because my head with which they are incorporated into one organism correlates and uses them both, trust and aid each other; just so the members of the church, because Christ lives in and through them all, love, trust and help one another. Christianity, which is the masterpiece of God’s wisdom, grace, and power, enables Christians to live "knit together ... in the bond of peace"—something fallen humanity has never been able to do by its own efforts. Saints who speak truth in love cannot compromise with the world or disrupt their fellowship over trifles. The church must never lose her direction and goal.
However, with worldliness rampant in the church and with love of brethren deficient, it is to be feared that Christians do not feel the importance of these two cardinal principles of Christianity. Near 125 A.D., Aristides wrote the Emperor, Hadrain: "The Christians know and trust God . . . They love one another ... If anyone among them is needy, and they do not have food to spare, they fast two or three days, that they may supply him with necessary food . . . Because of them there flows forth all the beauty that there is in the world . . . Truly, this is a new people and there is something divine in them."
"Something Divine in Them" No doubt, the pagan’s "something divine in them" explains this "new people" better than he knew. Our verse says that the church is "fitly framed and knit together." That is, each member is rightly placed and mutually related, without deficiency or redundancy; it also says that each member according to his measure contributes to the building up of the church in love. And how does it account for this perfect organization and unique achievement? Each Christian is personally joined to Christ, which "joint supplieth" all needs. This juncture with Christ is the source of everything, "Something divine in them," indeed! Christ’s, "I am the vine, ye are the branches . . . apart from me ye can do nothing" is the simplest and best statement of this constitutional, Christian truth. In nature, the union of branch and vine is not superficial; the branch grows out of the very heart of the vine. The church, like the Bible and Christ, combines divine and human elements. Of all the countless weaknesses that have shown up in the church over the centuries, all are attributable to the human element—none to the divine. Since Pentecost, Christ has been "straitened" only in the church. For twenty centuries, nations have risen and fallen, religions have been born and buried, but the church lives on; she has defeated constant attacks from without and repeated betrayals from within—these things all prove her divine element. Is it not passing strange that Christians are foolish and "slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken" to teach them that they still need divine, personal help as they did in becoming Christians in the first place?