a pilgrim making his way through this present world. He may belong to an earthly commonwealth hs an American and may have certain duties in that realm but he has a higher duty to the kingdom of God. He speaks two languages, as it were, and sometimes has difficulty defining his earthly position in the light of his heavenly status. This world can make no sense of it and the more he tries to explain it, the more enemies he may make. To use our Saviour’s figure, the dogs and swine trample the holy things and rend those who deal in them. This explains a great many things but there would be no use in using the figure for the world cannot even understand the explanation! Some topics are suitable for discussion only at home within the family circle. We would not share them with strangers. It is so with the deeper things of God. To peddle them indiscriminately is to throw holy things to dogs and pearls before swine. Christian experience and fellowship belong only to the initiated. After His resurrection, our Lord appeared only to His disciples. He did not show Himself to Herod and Pilate or parade the streets of Jerusalem. The disciples declared that He was risen but, while they could convey the fact, they could not communicate the experience. When it comes to the meaning of history, what the future holds and how this age will end, the Bible-taught Christian again deals with the unintelligible as far as this world is concerned. Tell the unsaved man on the street what God says about the last days, the end of civilization, the return of our Lord and world condi tions in the light of prophecy and you will get a vacant stare. He will shake his head and look as blank as though you had addressed him in Sanskrit. He is not ready for that and it is foolishness, meaningless nonsense, to him. He may be university-trained but he must get another B.A. degree (be Born Again) before this strikes a responsive chord in his heart. Of course, an unsaved man may take an academic interest in spiritual themes and speak the language after a fashion but he speaks as an outsider . . . and there are no “naturalized” citizens of the Kingdom of God. Our Lord’s Olivet Discourse on the End of the Age was given to His disciples and New Testament prophecy is written to the church. Testimony as to the times in the light of Scripture may excite curi osity and provide an entering wedge but the unregen erate man cannot comprehend it until he is born from above. “Pearls before swine!” That is strong, speech for this dainty age but it is the language of our Lord and a sample of language not now recommended for preach ers. Nowadays we are so anxious to be inoffensive that we end up ineffective. In this matter as in all else we would do well to sit again at the feet of our Saviour, the Master Teacher.
of their wives; while they behold your chaste conversa tion with fear,” he did not mean by “ conversation” a lot of talk. That is what the word means now but he meant the way we live. Let a Christian wife pray for her unsaved husband and live a godly life before him. Let her seek to get him exposed to the Word of God if pos sible and when the Spirit provides an opening, speak a word in love. But tackling him by verbal frontal assault may mean disaster. In our Saviour’s figure, the swine and dogs not only trampled the pearls and holy things but turned on those who offered them. The meaning is that people unprepared for spiritual truth may bitterly resent it and become hostile. Over-zealous young Christians sometimes go at soul winning almost by felonious assault and often alienate those whom they seek to win. I know that very clumsy and awkward personal work has often reaped good results but the Spirit had undoubtedly prepared the prospect. “ Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God” and the Word given in the Spirit by a born-again witness will not return void. When we are led of the Spirit, He not only prepares the sower but also the soil. To the sinner, dead in sins, we can only pre sent Christ Who alone is able to give life. Beyond that, to try to explain spiritual truth is useless. It is pearls before swine, not only unintelligible but “ foolishness,” meaningless nonsense, to the natural man. Here lies the reason why much discussion of worldly amusements, for instance, fails. Many church members are called babes and carnal Christians when actually they have never been born again. They see no evil for they live in the dark. There is an eternity of difference between a talented worldling singing a hymn and a dedi cated Christian singing to the glory of God. They live in different worlds. Until the worldling is born into the Kingdom of God, all discussions of “ separation” are another language. It is the speech of the holy nation of God’s people and he is an alien. One might as well talk Greek to a savage. Our Saviour’s command has still wider applications. One of the problems connected with religious issues is that certain angles are unintelligible to the uncon verted. Some phases may be discussed at ordinary levels but there are points where we enter a realm into which the natural mind cannot follow. I heard a highly intel ligent man deal with these matters on television. It was evident that he was in a dimension foreign to him and a field beyond his personal experience. Some angles of the controversy seemed ridiculous to him and that is understandable. He was beyond his depth. It was pretty evident that he was not a citizen of that spiritual realm where another language is spoken. His brilliance on the lower level was no help to him. A Christian belongs to a heavenly kingdom and is
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AUGUST, 1965
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