The Legal Tangle
W. Carl Ketcherside
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Any person who writes as I plan to write in this article is going to be brought under journalistic attack by his brethren. They will call in the big guns and zoom in on him and try to blast him out of the restoration movement skies. It may appear to some of you that I am acting foolhardy, like a farmhand hitting a hornet's nest with a hoe handle. You could be right. But I have some ideas which I believe need to be expressed. I will say them and take the consequences. I do not expect others to state what I am too cowardly to say myself. Really, what happens to an individual on this earth is not too important. What happens to truth is very important!
I do not think I have a martyr complex. I hope I do not have. I know a brother who does and he never intends to have a happy day or allow anyone else to do so. He feels that fate has conspired against him and he shows it in every lineament of his drawn features. Every time you see him he looks as if he is just coming down with a severe attack of "the uglies" and gives the impression of an accident going somewhere to happen. Even if he meets you on the street he will buttonhole you and entertain you with a list of the latest disasters, if you do not see him coming and duck into the nearest Woolworth Store. I do not want to be like that.
It doesn't "bug" me that some of my brethren oppose my position. It would disturb me if they did not. When they write me up I know that I must be writing pretty clearly. If they ever start commending me I will re-examine what I am saying and try to discover my error. I will know that I am wrong somewhere. I am not too thin-skinned and I do not think I am being burned at the stake merely because someone holds my feet to the fire. The only way to truly avoid criticism is to say nothing, do nothing and be nothing! It is too great a price to pay!
I am dedicated to the task of pleading for oneness in Christ. I think it will be very difficult to express for the simple reason that most people want you to be one in something else. A lot of them want everyone to be institutionally one, and they want it to be in their institution. This is especially true of groups which exist on a legalistic basis. Before you go off half-cocked let me tell you that when I use the term "legalistic" I am not speaking derogatorily of adhering to the commands of our Lord. I intend to keep them as meticulously as I know how. That is the only way I can overtly demonstrate to others that I love Him.
A legalist is one who thinks that we are under a written code and relate to God because of our subservience to it. To such a one, a righteous person is one who lives up to the law, and who both attains and sustains righteousness on that condition. I do not believe that. We are
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For fifteen hundred years God sought to keep His people together by a written code. He put them under bondage to law and shut them up under it so He could deliver them to Christ. Then He made a new covenant. It was not like the former one which was made at Sinai, or Horeb. "The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Many people would change this to read, "The law came by Moses, and another one came by Jesus Christ." Unwilling, or unable to trust in grace, and anxious to prove their own righteousness, they think that Jesus nailed one written code to the cross and handed another one down. That is not true. God did not send another law. He sent grace and truth.
Law is a principle of action. The principle which governs us is called "the Spirt of life in Christ Jesus." That is our law, our rule of existence. That is why we are not under condemnation. If we were still under a written code and seeking to be justified by it we would be under condemnation and our state would be hopeless. We would be of all men most miserable. But we are not under law, we are in Christ. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). We have not simply swapped legal masters. We have been set free!
A great many casual readers, frightened and insecure because we are no longer under a written code, attempt to forge the love letters constituting the so-called new covenant scriptures into such a code. They ask me, "What is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus?" Because the word law occurs here they think it consists of the compilation of the biographies of Jesus, the account written to a Greek city-state official by Luke, the twenty-one letters and the apocalyptic account by John. But these letters had not been written and even after they were it took more than a century before they were collected, collated and compiled. The primitive saints had no law-book. They had Jesus. Their law was what Paul said it was, "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." That's my law, also!
The written code was weak through the flesh. Every written code, without exception, is weak for the same reason. God did not send another law. He sent His Son. "For what the law could not do, being weak in the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Under law man was condemned. In Christ sin is condemned. I do not avoid sin simply because it is forbidden by law. I hate it because Jesus condemned it, and he did so in the flesh. Sin killed the dearest friend I ever had. It was my sin that did it, not his. He died to redeem me and I am in Him. He bore my own sin in His body on the tree. You do not need to pass a law condemning sin. I deplore it, hate it, and detest it. I am not dead in sin, I am dead to it. There is no life in law. "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Galatians 3:21). "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." I am off the treadmill.
Anyone who seeks to convert the new covenant scriptures into a written code by which a man must be justified makes them simply another law of sin and death. Written Code Number Two can no more produce life or righteousness than Written Code Number One. In that beautiful treatise on the difference between the old and new covenant, contained in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul points out that we are the real letter from
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It shouldn't take a lot of profound reading to determine that the apostolic letters were never intended to be an enactment of corpus juris. A little plain, old-fashioned, down-home common sense is all that is requisite. Take, for example, the letter to Philemon. Certainly it is not a compilation of statutes. It was written by an inmate of a Roman prison, and addressed to a brother in Christ, with his wife and son. Their slave, whose name was Onesimus, "went over the hill" and hitchhiked to Rome where he was picked up by the local police and clapped into jail.
Here he was led to Christ by the prisoner, whose name was Paul, and he was persuaded to return to his master. To make it easier for him, Paul sent along this letter in which he promised personally to pay off any debts which the slave owed. He also made a request. "Prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping through your prayers to be granted unto you." You might as well incorporate a personal promissory note or a request for a room reservation at the Ramada Inn in the State Constitution as to try and make this part of a written code of legality.
The letters to Timothy are no exception. They are personal and not statutory. They were written by an aged campaigner to a younger son in the faith. They mention the mother and grandmother of the younger man by name. They tell what happened to a group of associates who "flaked off" and went to different places. They request Timothy to pick up a topcoat which was left hanging in the closet at the home of a man named Carpus, and bring along some books, but especially writing materials. What would you do if you were reading the Statutes of the State of California and you hit a spot which read, "No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments"?
Of course, nothing I have said will make the slightest impression on a first-class Grade-A legalist! He is going to be under law if he has to make one up. Regardless of what God says about the new covenant being written on the heart, he must get it down on paper. Even though God declared the new covenant was not written with ink, he is going to get twenty-seven books into the new testament, and bind them in black leather stamped with gold. This must be the law-book, the book of statutes.
That way the preacher can lay down the law. This is much easier to do than to live up to love. He can memorize "the statutes and judgments" and reel them off, and give "book, chapter and verse," and if he is a clever enough lawyer he can make them apply to things of which the original writers never even dreamed. He will become especially adept at creating precedents out of things not even in the same category as that which he is currently condemning. I know what I am talking about because I constantly hold forums which legalists sneak away and attend. Nothing upsets them more than someone who is really free to love all of his brethren in Christ Jesus. Any man in bondage has it in for one who is free. You can tell how freedom "bugs" them by the questions they ask. I'll cite a few of them to show you what I mean.
If the new testament scriptures are not the new covenant, why do you quote from them to validate your position and refer to them as authority for what you say?
The answer to that one is simple. These scriptures were written by people
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The apostolic letters were written under the guidance of the Spirit. They reveal to us the nature of the covenant. I regard them as the sharing of the thoughts of God. The scriptures are for instruction, edification, correction and reproof. They reveal to us how Jesus would have reacted to certain situations which arose, and how He would have responded to circumstances. But they are no more the divine-human covenant than a marriage manual is the marriage covenant. People can be married who cannot read a word in a marriage manual, and they can be married to Christ and not be able to read a word in the new covenant scriptures. My paternal grandparents could not even read their own marriage license, and my grandfather had to make an "X" where his name was written in by another, but they had a wonderful life together. They knew what a covenant was even though they could not read the marriage license.
It is from the scriptures I have learned that the new covenant is written on the heart by the Spirit. It is from the scriptures I have learned that we are not under law but under grace. It is from the scriptures that I have learned that Christ is the end of the law for justification to everyone who believes. It is from the scriptures I have learned that the law was a custodian to bring us unto Christ, and once faith came we were no longer under a custodian. I happen to believe every one of these things. These statements are valid to me. I do not employ casuistry to turn them into a written code and thus seek to circumvent them. I must confess that I once thought the new covenant scriptures were given as God's law. His written code, to our particular segment of the Church of Christ. As good lawyers, we warped them into a compilation of Church of Christism exactly as the Jews created Judaism as an admixture of the Torah, their interpretations and traditions all whipped up together.
I do not derogate the scriptures now that I refuse to make them something God never intended for them to be. No one frustrates the grace of God by placing His revelation in its proper perspective. The problem is that we still have too many Pharisees who think they have eternal life in the scriptures and they can attain it by memorization of whole sections of it, or by making a passing grade in law-keeping. Jesus said, "You search the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life in them, but they are given to testify of me, and you will not come unto me that you might have life."
It was not wrong to search the scriptures. It is right to do that. The wrong lay in the false concept that you could find eternal life in them. The scriptures became a substitute for the Messiah, and the Jews were so involved in "Bible study" they did not come to Jesus. The faith is not Jesus pointing us to a book, but the Book pointing us to Jesus. We can end up worshiping the book instead of the Lord. That would be like a girl so entranced by the love letters of her sweetheart that she couldn't stop reading
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If we are obligated to obey the commands of Christ what difference does it make whether we regard them as a written code of laws or not?
It makes a great deal of difference. I will mention some of the differences in four different areas. Every constitutional law requires an authoritative interpreter. When the interpretation is rendered by such a supreme judiciary it is that interpretation which becomes the law. The Roman Catholic Church is a legalistic institution and it eventually developed a papal system, investing a man with infallibility in order to have an enforceable code of laws to which all must be subservient. Regardless of what the Spirit meant by what was revealed the interpretation of the pope became the dogma.
The United States of America has a Supreme Court and the decision of this judicial body becomes the law of the land whether the citizenry likes it or not. The Churches of Christ have developed into a legalistic organization postulating the hope of salvation upon law-keeping rather than upon relationship to God through Christ by simple trusting faith. Since these churches claim to be autonomous, each congregation makes its elders a board of official interpreters who determine what "the law" means. From this decision no appeal may be made. Generally, a dissident or dissenter has no opportunity to even present his case before his spiritual peers. The elders are the plaintiff, prosecutor, bailiff and judge rolled into one. The individual is charged and must either subscribe to the ruling of the elders or he is thrust out!
The same spirit manifested by the pope on a universal level is characteristic of such elderships on a local level. The difference is one of degree and not of nature. But the fact is that we are not under a legalistic system at all and such tyranny has been drummed up to perpetuate The System. The letters of love were addressed to all of the saints. Each one is free and even obligated to read them for himself. The only court of decision is the individual conscience. There is no authorized interpretation. God has arranged for no official interpreters since grace requires none. No man can bind his understanding upon another person in Christ Jesus. He can state his opinion and share his conviction but he cannot make a dogma out of it. What one man cannot do a body of men cannot do. Each man must stand or fall to his own master!
Let me be specific about this, so you will not misunderstand what I say! Elders cannot interpret the meaning of the Word of God for others and make the meaning they derive a creed by which to coerce others. The right of private judgment in reading the word of God must never be abridged by any man or set of men. No one can mediate between you and the Father except the one mediator, the man Christ Jesus. It was John Locke who wrote: "It becomes all men to maintain peace and the common offices of friendship in a diversity of opinions, since we cannot reasonably expect that anyone should readily and obsequiously quit his own opinion and embrace ours with a blind resignation to an authority which the understanding of man acknowledges not."
(2) All laws must have an enforcement agency, and such agency must be empowered to command obedience to the law or assess a proper penalty for infraction or non-compliance. In order to force such obedience the Roman Catholic legalistic system invented purgatory and made the priests and hierarchy official enforcers with power to pardon and to punish.
The Churches of Christ, which also predicate life upon conformity to statutes, seek to impose enforcement by threat of excommunication on earth and torment after death. Fellowship is manipulative by men who can, through interpretation, decide upon the terms of its extension or withdrawal. As a legalistic institution
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This should not be thought of as strange. It is an inborn characteristic of legalistic establishments. One should expect elders and preachers to react as a Federal Bureau of Investigation, gunning down those whom they regard as subversives and keeping a tight control on the thought-processes. That all of this is utterly foreign to God's design can be ascertained by those who read the scriptures without partisan bias. Few will do this, however, because to think for oneself is regarded as traitorous in any organization built upon a closed-in view of scriptural interpretation.
I am thinking now of a former elder in a congregation in a northern state. As he began to read this paper a few years ago he became convinced that what was being said made sense. He started gradually making suggestions about fellowship based upon faith and not conformity of opinion. The other elders served notice upon him that this type of thing would not be tolerated. Although he was as much an elder as they were, it became apparent that he would have to knuckle under or stand up and fight. Against the pleas of his wife he decided to resist.
The other elders subjected him to the "third degree" and when he admitted that he thought there were Christians in other bodies, they publicly charged him with heresy and announced that unless he repented, on a certain day he would be excluded from the congregation. He respectfully asked for an opportunity to state his position before the brethren who had chosen him for elder but was denied the privilege. He was "railroaded" out. This kind of action disturbs many people, but it should not. It is the natural reaction of those who are caught up in a web of legalism and who regard themselves as the guardians of orthodoxy and keepers of the gate.
(3) If the new covenant scriptures are regarded as a written code, one who violates them, even unintentionally, is regarded as a lawbreaker, or criminal. The old aphorism "Ignorance of the law excuses no one" will be repeated and made applicable, regardless of circumstances. Since all legalistic institutions must, for their own preservation, resist and punish any criminal element, the concept of penal exaction automatically intrudes itself. The law must be vindicated. The criminal must be punished.
But if we are not under a written code, one who misunderstands, or steps aside is not a criminal. If we are a family consisting of sons and daughters of the Lord almighty, and maintained by the bond of love, one who falls short of the demand of love is not a criminal. He is a mistaken brother, one who has been overtaken in a fault. The remedy is not to "lower the boom on him." It is not to "throw the Book at him." If he makes an unspiritual judgment the requirement is clear. "Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourselves, lest you too be tempted" (Galatians 6:1, 2).
In our legalistic approach there are no honestly mistaken brethren. There are just two classes--ourselves and false teachers. A false teacher is one who does not agree with us on "the issues" which have been exalted and inflated into divisive standards or criteria for fellowship. The expression pseudo-didaskalos only occurs once in the apostolic letters. It appears many times that often in one paragraph of some modern religious journals edited by men "who trust in themselves that they are righteous and despise others" (Luke 18:9). Peter made use of the term when he wrote, "But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be false teachers among
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Those who are branded "false teachers" by radio preachers and front men who constitute the "palace guard" of the Churches of Christ are not like that. If a man does not think that instrumental music is as important as a lot of people make it he is a false teacher. If one does not think that the congregation becomes digressive if it has Bible classes he is branded a false teacher. If he refuses to get all lathered up over the support of Herald of Truth radio and television propaganda, and will not denounce Highland congregation in Abilene, Texas, of which he is not even a member, he is a false teacher, a compromiser, a liberal. One wonders just how silly we will get if we keep on drumming up new laws and new creeds with each passing decade.
One may be mistaken about instrumental music, cups, classes, or the millennium without being a false teacher. Not one of us knows all there is to know. As Will Rogers, the Oklahoma humorist put it, "We are all ignorant, but just about different things." If being mistaken about some scriptural meaning makes one a false teacher, we are all false teachers, and our vociferous brethren are but examples of a lot of pots calling a lot of kettles black.
In view of our own human failings and shortcomings we would probably be better off if we were a little more understanding and tolerant and made allowances for one another as the scriptures teach us to do. Since I have learned we are not under a written code of law but under the demands of grace, I can be a little more gracious and a little less legalistic. I am not disturbed when other saints do not see everything as I do.
I recognize and respect the freedom of others in Christ Jesus. One who is not free to be wrong about some things is really not free to be right in anything. One who is not free to make mistakes is just not free. I cannot take away the freedom of brethren to think for themselves without forfeiting my own right to do the same thing. My brethren are not lawbreakers or criminals just because they do not concur with my opinions about instrumental music or the support of Herald of Truth. I am not one of God's motorcycle policemen whose duty it is to zoom around on a Harley-Davidson and "chew everyone out" and give a ticket to those who do not share my position. I am not a "divine clearinghouse for ideas" but a sinner saved by grace.
Sometimes I am asked, "But how do you regard one who worships where they have instrumental music?" I wish all questions I have to face were that simple and easy. I regard him as a brother in the Lord who worships where they have instrumental music. One does not become my brother because he is opposed to instrumental music, but because he is God's child. He does not cease to be my brother because he endorses instrumental music. We are not born of a position about music but of the water and of the Spirit. Since we are not under law but under grace I shall allow the grace of God to take care of the situation. I am not God's patrolman and I carry no heavenly "billy-club" to batter my brethren into submission to my thinking.
(4) If we are under a written legal code we are doomed to a life of fear, dread and insecurity. We can never be sure that we know all of the law we aught to know, nor that we are living up to what we do know to a saving degree. We can never have the assurance of salvation and hope will be more anxiety than anticipation. It seems incredible to me now, but when I was under a written code, I actually was afraid to say that I was saved. I thought that such conviction was arrogance. The only thing you could be certain about was your uncertainty. To be decisive was to be unfaithful to the Book!
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No wonder with that kind of an attitude we were all "recording angels" and blotting out the names of brethren "who did not live up to their responsibility." If they missed three times straight without being able to give a good and sufficient reason, like getting a leg cut off in an automobile accident, we withdrew from them. It never occurred to us that they were fed up with a diet of corn flakes every Sunday morning, served up dry and without the sweetening of love and the milk of human kindness. I am glad all of that is over for me. I think it was good that I waded through it and tried to hang on because now I can appreciate what a blessing it is to be in the everlasting arms.
I know now that I have been made a partaker of the divine nature. I am dead and my life is hid with Christ in God. I "worship God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh." I have been set free from sin and become a slave of righteousness. I am a willing captive, drawn by His immeasurable love and power. "But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit" (Romans 7:6). The new life of the Spirit is not only contrasted with the old written code but it is contrasted with any other written code, old or new. I am glad that I found that out. Once I thought God wanted me to be a good lawyer, and I studied hard and majored in law. Now I know he wants me to be a great lover, and that's my major. It is the more excellent way! I know. I have tried them both!
I want to be like Paul. I want to gain Christ. More than anything else in this whole universe that is what I want. I want to "be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Philippians 3:9). Read that again! It is a description of the ground on which I have pitched my tent. There are two approaches to righteousness. You can try to have a righteousness of your own, based on law. It will not work. You do not have what it takes. You can never be good enough by law to make it. You can have the righteousness of God that depends on faith. It will not fail. It is founded not upon what you do for God but upon what He has done for you.
Yes, there is a difference between being guided by the abiding principle of love and being under a written code, a compilation of laws, where you are treated like a child or a slave (Galatians 4:1-3). Never forget that any written code upon which justification is suspended is a law of sin and death. If you convert the new covenant love letters into such a code you doom yourself to die. You build your own scaffold. You knot your own noose. You sharpen your own dagger. If the inheritance is by the law, or by any law except the principle of faith in Christ Jesus, it is no longer by promise!
If the apostolic letters are not intended to be a written code, why were they written at all?
Since they are personal letters and were written to different communities and individuals they were written for different reasons. If you have several married children away from home you do not always write the same things to all of them. Some of what you say applies to all and in that respect one letter is like another. But you deal with
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Paul's first letter to the saints in Corinth was prompted by a report conveyed to the apostle by the family of a Christian woman whose name was Chloe (1:11). He wrote, "I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children" (4:14). This was his method of dealing with a rather sticky case of division within the group. Another part of his letter was a reply to one addressed to him and carried by Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus. "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote" (7:1).
The letter to Philippi was one of thanks to brethren who had sent to relieve his need in prison. It was intended to reassure them of the recuperation of Epaphroditus who had almost died in bringing their gift to Rome. "I have received full payment, and more; I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God" (4:18).
The first letter to Timothy was to inform him of the way one should behave in the household, that is, the family circle of God. If Paul could have seen Timothy the letter would not have been written at all. "I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you so that, if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God" (3:14, 15).
The first epistle of John was written that the recipients might share in the common life which the eyewitnesses of Jesus shared with the Father and the Son, that their joy might be full and that they might know they had eternal life. "And we are writing this that your joy may be complete" (1:4). "I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life" (5:13).
It was never intended that those who wrote the letters dominate the faith of the saints. "Not that we lord it over your faith, we work with you for your own joy" (2 Cor. 1:24). Those who have converted these timely letters into a legalistic code with which to force brethren to goose-step to their orders and will have completely missed the spirit of the revelation of God.
If we are not under law, why does Paul speak of the law of faith?
In Romans 3:20, Paul affirms that no human being can be justified by works of the law in the sight of God. Actually, he says, law brings knowledge of sin. It does not bring relief from it. But now the righteousness of God is manifested apart from law. It is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. This makes boasting impossible.
Obviously, if one could attain to a state of righteousness through law-keeping he would have something about which to brag. But since we are justified by His grace freely, that is, as a gift, and not through our own efforts, there is no room for boasting. The King James Version reads, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of law" (Romans 3:27, 28).
The law of faith is not the new covenant scriptures. They were not yet written. The apostle was contrasting two principles upon which man might predicate justification. One was by perfectly keeping law. The other was by absolute faith, or trust in the righteousness of Christ. He shows that the first was impossible for man in the flesh. The only hope was by grace as God's gift. The Revised Version conveys the correct
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There is no indication that the apostle Paul ever thought of the letters he was writing as part of a written code of law. It remained for us, after these letters were gathered up and compiled into a single volume, to read back into them the idea of a code of jurisprudence. Grace is so difficult for us to accept, simply because it is a gift without strings attached that we feel more comfortable if we devise a system by which we pay God back for what He did for us. Because of this tendency toward "legalism" every time some brethren see the term law they automatically think: it is speaking of a written code.
But did not Paul say he was under the law of Christ?
Indeed he did, and I am also under the law of Christ, exactly as he was. Paul was talking about adjusting to various categories of individuals for the sake of the gospel that he might by the employment of all means save more. He was free from all men, but he made himself the servant of all men, in order to gain the most men possible for Christ (1 Cor. 9:19). He knew that in order to do this it was necessary for him to share the life and circumstances of those he met. He did not ask them to become like himself. He became like them. He adapted himself to their customs, recognized their hangups and made allowances even for their prejudices.
He said, "Unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law." Paul respected the traditions of the Jews. He conformed to them while among the Jews. Although he regarded every creature of God as good and not to be refused as food if received with thanksgiving, he would not violate the dietary laws of those among whom he labored. He valued men more than his own freedom and would not allow his liberty to become a stumbling block to others. When one has a passion for souls other considerations are always secondary.
"To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law." Paul did not seek to bind upon the Gentiles any of the ceremonies or requirements of the Mosaic law. Paul was circumcised, but had no qualm about eating with brethren who were not. He circumcised Timothy, who was a half-Jew, as a matter of expediency, but he did not suggest this as a rule for others of mixed parentage. He did not deliberately flaunt his Jewishness. As Albert Barnes says, in his comments upon this passage, "Nothing is ever gained by provoking opposition for the mere sake of opposition. Nothing tends more to hinder the gospel than that."
But Paul was not lawless! He was not an antinomian. He was not an outlaw among those without law. He recognized the sovereignty of God. He sought to live, even among the Greeks, in such a manner as to demonstrate respect and reverence for God's rule. Jesus was not just someone for whom Paul lived. He was Paul's life. "It is not I that liveth, it is Christ that liveth in me." That is exactly the way I feel, and although I cannot begin to imitate His life as did Paul, I want to do so "as much as in me is."
For years I sought to be good by law. But law operates by fear. It does not bring inner calm, but trepidation. It causes you to measure yourself by dogma
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What a blessing it is to have no rivals! You are yourself and God loves you as you are. He doesn't want you to be someone else or even try to be. This frees you from the frightful trauma of thinking you are a failure because you cannot accomplish what another does. It also delivers you from the terrible wrong of trying to make everyone else over in conformity with your own scarred image. You can listen to what others say about you and read what they write about you, and rejoice and be exceedingly glad. You can even laugh out loud when they lie about you, and feel sorry for them, rather than yourself!
No one is going to disturb my relationship with Jesus. No one is going to displace me or replace me. I'm the only child of the Father who is like me, and there are no substitutes for me. There are no substitutes for Him either. No one else has to think like me, talk like me, or write like me! They probably would not want to do so. But I do not have to think, talk or write like anyone else either. You're right, I don't want to! To let Jesus be your law does not mean that all of God's children are stamped out with a divine cookie cutter. It does not mean they are a row of sanctified Kewpie dolls lined up on the shelf of the heavenly den. If you have any growing ambition to convert me into being like you, forget it! I am clay, but you are not the potter! You are another lump of clay. And there is nothing sillier than a couple of clay pots engaged in a knock-down-and-drag-out fight about whether the Father will swipe one off the shelf for supporting a television program.
Those of us who are heirs of our particular "restoration movement" which was launched by godly and devout Presbyterians with the help of others, are running out of steam and effectiveness in this generation. We have never made peace in the church. We have only made pieces of it. Even now, while others are thinking in terms of repairing breaches and binding up wounds, a lot of our brethren are in a frenzy of withdrawal, driving humble saints out from among them, breaking hearts and homes, cutting and slashing as if the sword of the Spirit had been given them only for the purpose of massacre in the family. The day for such "blood-baths" and political purges is gone. The saints are getting fed up with authoritarian assumption. They are tired of mere human beings throwing their weight around and "lording" it over God's heritage. The fullness of times has come for a change.
The "church" is composed of individuals. It can only be changed as individuals are changed. And individuals are changed as their thinking is changed. We are today exactly where our thinking has brought us. We will be tomorrow exactly where our thinking takes us. If we would be different tomorrow than we are today we must change our thinking before tomorrow. You do not change the thinking of an organization. You change the thinking of those within it, but you must start with yourself. Please allow me to make a few suggestions I think may help restore to sanity a movement which is tearing at its own flesh, and ripping itself to shreds.
1. Begin to regard "the church" as a family, the whole family of God. Think of it as the entire collection of the ransomed and redeemed. It is not limited to those who have a correct understanding of certain doctrinal points. It consists of all who have been born again. It is the community of the whole creation. Every saved person on earth is in it. All who have committed themselves to an obedient
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There is a difference in being a member of your father's family and in belonging to the Farm Bureau Association or the Parent-Teachers Association. It is true that the constituents of the latter organizations can get together for a Christmas party but it is not like having the family present on Christmas Eve. Our problem is that we have allowed the family feeling to erode away and the warmth has gone out of our association. Sometimes we are even "bugged" because we have to go to a meeting and we are afraid to take strangers for fear they will be assaulted verbally by impolite and boorish guardians of the ramparts. We must allow the Spirit of God to change our hearts until we regard each other as beloved brethren.
2. Put the new covenant scriptures back into the proper perspective. They are not a compilation of laws under grace, but a collection of letters written with deep affection to the children of God in Christ. You are not a law enforcement agent, or a political officer. You are a sinner saved by grace. You are not one of God's police squad, but a participant in divine mercy.
The new covenant scriptures are a recipe book for life. They are not the Way. Jesus is the Way. He is also the truth and the life. The letters are a road map to show you how to follow the Way. They constitute the white lines on the edges of the highway, and the yellow line in its center. Do not get uptight when someone does not see everything like you do. You will not be held accountable for what another thinks or does. Above all, do not "lay down the law" for others. You are as human as they are. Show them "the more excellent way." It is never inappropriate, and never out of place.
3. Think of the particular restoration movement of which we are the fortunate heirs as a historical reaction to disunity and fragmentation of the saints of God. Do not confuse that movement, or its crystallization into its present form or image with the "Lord's church." It is sectarian to build an institution around any concept, even one as great as unity, and designate it as "the church." This means that we must stop thinking of any of the two dozen different Churches of Christ, or all of them put together, as being the body of Christ exclusively.
That body has members in the world who never heard of "our" Church of Christ. It has members who meet behind various and divergent signboards. They are not God's children because of where they are, but in spite of where they are. One is a child of God because he is in Christ Jesus and Christ is in him. He is not a person who is right on everything, but one who is in the right Person with everything, including his mistaken ideas and notions. We are not a people of the united notions, but a people united in Christ.
4. Begin to quietly enjoy the freedom wherewith Christ has set you free. You do not need to engage in oratory or flag-waving to be free. You do not need to set off fireworks in the local congregation. You do not have to beat a drum and shout in the Bible class. But remember, you are not free so long as your life is regulated by other men and you are motivated in what you do through fear of what others will say or think.
A good way to commence to be used by God as a humble peacemaker in this divided complex is to resolve to visit other groups who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to see for yourself how they express their praise unto God. I suggest that you resolve to visit a new place one Sunday night per month. Scare your neighbors by telling them you would like to attend with them on a certain Sunday night. It will probably cause them to think you are coming unglued, and losing your marbles, seeing that you have always refused their invitation with a kind of self-righteous arrogance before.
If your intentions are misunderstood and you are regarded as a "potential
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What you see and hear will probably "turn you off." You may develop a feeling of pride and superiority and sit in the seat of the scornful thanking God that you are not as other men are. Do not let this happen. If you do, Satan has turned your good intentions into a personal destructive force. Search for the things you can commend as well as seeing those you cannot commend. But each place you go, enter with a prayer, "Lord, if there is someone here who needs me, lead me to that person. Let me touch his life, or hers, in such a manner that Christ, who is the Reality can shine through me."
If you have been reared in "The Church of Christ" you may have a real trauma about even going to another place for a visit. This is a part of the legalistic approach, and it affects us exactly as it does a devout Roman Catholic, and for exactly the same reason. Of course, on that basis Jesus could never have left heaven and come to earth, and even had He done so. He could not have associated with those among whom He moved. All sectarianism is based upon fear, and that includes our sectarianism as well as any other brand.
If you are afraid to go listen to others for fear you may be misled, your real problem is not what they may advocate, but what you believe. You are afraid that your shield of faith may be penetrated, or that your sword is incapable of saving you in certain encounters. The tragedy of all this is that what you call faith is merely your prejudice, and it is true that mere prejudice can never stand up in encounter. If the sword of the Spirit is not able to resist some enemies it is not able to resist any! I grant you that your use of it may be inept, but if that is the problem you ought not to be too cynical and critical of your religious neighbors who are not too well-trained either. In our sheltered monastic existence, where we send out knights, whom we dub preachers, to battle dragons like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the rest of us couldn't kill a mouse in the castle with a broom. But Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living," to which I offer my own paraphrase, "An unexamined faith is not worth having."
All attempts at reunion of the people of God must begin with association, not for debate but for mutual understanding. This is not easy for those who have been taught that segregation from others is proof of fidelity to God, and any association on a friendly plane is compromise. Any reversal of policy is difficult when the traditional procedure is assumed to be the will of God, but we must change if we are to be used by the Spirit. In my own life I have developed a personal strategy. I call it the ART of peacemaking, because it involves three things-- Association, Recognition, and Teamwork. Let me explain.
I am resolute in my determination to inaugurate and practice association with all who regard Jesus as the Messiah and God's Son. Since this is my only creed, it is a good foundation upon which to stand with another while we try to explore the implications and demands of our mutual faith. In addition to mere association, I will recognize as a brother in Christ anyone who has been born of the water and of the Spirit. I will receive such a one as God received him--and me!
I do not receive one because he is a Baptist, a Methodist, a Mennonite, or a Church of Christer. To do that would be sectarian and I am opposed to all sectarianism, which is, in essence, simply the party spirit expressed. I receive him because he is in Christ. I am not so much concerned with what he is in. I am concerned with who he is in and who is in him. Since I must rely upon human judgment, as well as upon the word of God,
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In addition to association with all who believe in Christ as Lord, and recognition as my brothers of all who have become a new creation in what I believe to be the divinely authorized response to the good news about Jesus, I am driven to go one step further. I will engage in any work with others which I believe to be in harmony with the principles of righteousness. In plain simple terms this means that I will put my shoulder to the wheel and help in one particular with others with whom I cannot assist in anything else.
Let me be explicit! In case of a tornado tragedy, if the Mennonites are on the ground and alleviating distress in a well-organized fashion, I see no reason for me setting up a "Church of Christ Depot." I will serve in the soup kitchen and the clothing dispensary with the Mennonites. If the Presbyterians develop a good program for handling drug abuse among high school young people I will go into the schools with them, and appear on television with them, and throw my support behind them. I will engage in teamwork with anyone who seeks to exemplify the spirit of my Lord, even though I may think he is quite ignorant of a lot of things in the scriptures.
Disaster, hunger, drug abuse, cold, and age, are not "Church of Christ" problems. They are problems of the human predicament and all of us are caught up in them. I want to fight sin, and that means I must fight its effects. The human predicament is part of those effects, and anyone who seeks to openly fight them is fighting the effects of sin, whether he knows it or not. I fully realize that I may be labeled a "heretic" for my position, but that does not bother me one bit. The heroes of today were the heretics of yesterday. I am perfectly aware that all of the reforms ever carried out were the work of heretics, and I shall feel in good company.
There is one thing you must remember, however, as you read this. I am telling you what I think and how I propose to work. You need not think as I do and you need not work as I do, for me to love you. I am doing what I think my Lord wants me to do and saying what I think He wants me to say. I will be glad to see Him and find out if I was right about it, but I respect Him to the degree that no one else will ever be Lord of my life! God bless you all!