Within this tenement of clay called the body, dwells a spirit. God hath "formed the spirit of man within him" (Zec. 12:1). That spirit is the inward man which can be renewed daily, even while the outward man perishes (2 Cor. 4:16). It is strengthened with might by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 3:16). It is the spirit, held captive in the body, which longs and groans for the day of adoption when the body shall have redemption (Rom. 8:23). It is the spirit, confined to an alien realm, which aspires to a higher sphere; which yearns and gropes and reaches out to embrace its creator and to know again the bliss of perfect union which was so rudely shattered by sin.
The spirit of man can expand and grow only in the atmosphere of freedom. It was never created to be dominated, brutalized or made subservient to men. It should never be subject to coercion or undue pressures. Our fleshly parents gave us our physical bodies, and they may chastise them for our social need, but they did not give us our spirits and these are not subject to them. "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" (Heb. 12:9)
We are accustomed to the anguished cry of parents who have reared their children in a certain sect, that, when they became older they "left the faith." Sometimes it is said that, in their marriage they went to a different church. Did they do, either? Did the boy renounce his faith in Jesus? Did he turn his back upon the Savior? How could he go to a different church when there is only one? If he still loves Jesus, and recognizes Him as his head, is he not as much a member of the one body as he ever was. Should we not rejoice in his fidelity to our precious Lord rather than whining and making trouble for his family.
Our fathers may set forth principles of religion which they deem to be worthy, and while we are young they may take our bodies to the place where they worship, but in the final analysis we shall be judged, not by what they thought God meant, but by what He said. And here we must reason with God as individuals, for we shall be judged in that manner. Is not the whole purpose of the faith to develop in each of us a certain kind of character? Is it merely the recital of empty liturgy, the grinding out of ritual which may be, meaningless to us. And when we see the kind of character or lifestyle in evidence, may we not conclude that Christ is there?
A man and a maid decide to form a union, and in marriage they create a social unit called a home, or family. It was the first such unit created by God and received His blessing. Over this unit the husband and father is the head. But this gives him no rights or prerogatives in the spiritual realm. "He shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh." "But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife" (1 Cor. 7:4). To which it may be added that neither one has any jurisdiction over the spirit of the other. "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth" (Rom. 14:4).
In the dim and distant past I have heard parents say, "I would rather follow my daughter to the grave than see her married to a Baptist." Sometimes it was to a member of the Christian Church, although it was generally the Baptists, because there were a lot more of them. This is the bitter and vitriolic language of sectarianism which intrudes itself into the most sacred relationships of life. It creates barriers and walls where there should be none. It makes a wife unable to respond to the caresses of her husband whom she regards as an alien in spite of his dedication. She fears to give herself fully to him, lest she prove untrue to her father and mother, and the way in which she was reared.
Marriage is too sacred to make it into a tug-of-war to see which one can proselyte the other. It might astound one to realize how many divorces have resulted from the party spirit carried into marriage. It might be still more amazing how many couples have given up on religion, to the utter impoverishment of their children who so desperately need Jesus as a focal point of life. He could be their shadow of a rock in a weary land. Almost every frightful drift in our day has resulted from loosening our grip upon Jesus and the erosion of our faith. It is natural for a ship to drift aimlessly when it has slipped its hawser and is no longer moored to anything solid. We have already paid dearly for that work of the flesh--the party spirit--but we shall pay even more dearly. "They that do such things shall not inherit eternal life."
It should be a source of comfort to us to realize that no one else can control or manipulate our spirits. Many are exercised in conscience, because, as they grow older, they find their thought pattern differing from that of their parents. They suffer inner pangs of chastisement because they are torn between loyalty to the belief of the parents and fidelity toward God. But no parent can form a code of spiritual conviction for his offspring. He can teach what commends itself to him to be the truth, he can exemplify his teaching by his conduct, but he cannot tyrannize the minds and hearts of his children.
Wise parents will teach their children to love truth for truth's sake; they will encourage them as they develop, to seek and search for truth as the chief aim in life. They will make such amendments and adjustments in their own thinking as are necessary to conform to newly discovered truth, and freely admit their past errors to their children. Thus will be produced emotionally mature children who will not hesitate to adopt truth, regardless of the cost.
It is the truth that makes men free. But for truth to accomplish this it must be free, and not shackled by human dogmatism or political pressure. A veil upon the heart in approaching God's revelation will shut out the light of truth, as effectively as a window shade while drawn will exclude the light of the sun. This is the problem of our Jewish friends today. Their heart is not turned to God, but to a defence of Judaism. They fear to depart from the traditions of their fathers. "But whenever the heart of the nation shall have turned to the Lord, the veil will be withdrawn. Now by 'the Lord' is meant the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, freedom is enjoyed" (2 Cor. 3:16, 17).
Those who are in the Christ have been called unto freedom (Gal. 5:13). They are exhorted to be free men (1 Peter 2:16). Even a slave, whose body was purchased by an earthly master was still free. "For a Christian, if he was a slave when called, is the Lord's freed man" (1 Cor. 7:22). His body still belonged to a master, but his spirit was free in Christ. "You have all been redeemed at infinite cost: do not become slaves to men. Where each one stood when he was called, there, brethren, let him still stand--close to God" (1 Cor. 7:24).
There is the big problem of the ages! Men are not content to let him stand where he stood when he was called. They must mould, shape and alter him to fit their pattern. If he does not do so, they conclude he does not belong to God, because he will not bow to them. After he is called they will work him over, and make him conform to their pattern--Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian--or dare I say it? What is the answer to all of this. It is the words of scripture, "Do not become slaves to men--stand close to Christ."
Ever since the day Christ set men free, there has been a constant struggle to maintain that freedom. In a less enlightened era, the rope, the stake, the cross, the rack, and the whip were employed to torture the bodies of men to bring their consciences and opinions in line with the orthodox religious views which prevailed. In these days men employ more exquisite means of torture, such as ridicule, malignant whispering, misrepresentation, lying and boycott. The same spirit which lighted the fires of Smithfield, and prompted the Spanish Inquisition, motivated the "powers that be" at Freed-Hardeman College to arrest Leroy Garrett and cast him into a filthy jail cell, because he would not conform. He was treated as all dissenters are treated when they cannot be answered.
But we cannot bring the hearts of men into subjection by force or tyranny. Even atheistic communism learned that lesson in Hungary! We are limited in our attempts to change the minds of men, by the very nature of Christianity, to reason and persuasion. Christ's spirit must be equally dear and honored, no matter where it is manifested. To confine God's love or his good Spirit to any party, sect, or name, is to sin against the fundamental law of the Kingdom of God. It is to break that living bond with Christ's universal church which is one of our chief helps to perfection.
Charity and sincerity are characteristics of the true religion and it must utterly disown bitterness and hypocrisy. These things must not once be named among us. They are unworthy of Jesus and unworthy of His followers. These are the weapons in the arsenal of false and vain religion, which must deceive where it cannot persuade, and force where it cannot deceive. Of what good are abuse, ranting, cavilling and misrepresentation? Can we adjust the hearts of men with a wrench as we would tighten a resistant lug or bolt? Can we use the thumbscrew on the mental processes and force them into a certain mode of thought.
Is not an error in thinking a species of intellectual lameness? Will such lameness in another hurt me any more than if he had a crooked leg or a deformed arm? Will a wild opinion do me any more injury than a wild look out of his eye? Why should I become so enraged or provoked by his internal defects any more than his external ones? Shall I try to force every cripple I meet to walk as I do, by twisting his deformed leg, or shall I not rather lead him to the physician and surgeon of my acquaintance who can straighten the crooked member? And how shall I regard him during the straightening process--with sympathy and charity, or as an object of my spite and ridicule?
I must maintain the dignity of every man's spirit. To do otherwise is to reflect against me and not against him. I cannot force another to grovel and kneel before me without first losing my own dignity. I must defend his right to think, reason and act for himself, or establish the principle by which I will lose my own right to do so. If I fail to see in my enemy the image of God, though defiled and shattered, I shall fail to restore myself to that image. One who is egotistic, proud, arrogant, conceited and boastful, and who feels that God belongs exclusively to him, reveals he does not yet belong to God.
These are the sins I fain
Would have Thee take away;
Malice and cold disdain,
Hot anger, sullen hate,
Scorn of the lowly, envy of the great,
And discontent that casts a shadow gray
On all the brightness of the common day.
Contents
Chapter
10