by Vance Havner
I n the O ld T estament God warned his people as to the perils of prosperity. He said in substance: “When you have come into the Promised Land, and have eaten and are full, beware that you forget not the Lord your God and say in your heart: “My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.” In the New Testament our Lord faced the Laodicean church with this charge: “ Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.” So, whether God in the Old Testament is warning his chosen people Israel or whether our Lord in the New Testament is dealing with his purchased people, the church, the problem is the same. Christians face the same peril today. There was a time when we were a poor and persecuted sect. We were regarded as the scum of the earth and the offscouring of all things. We rose in judg ment against false doctrine and worldliness and had no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reproved them. But believers are no longer in the wilderness. We have reached the promised land of suc cess and prosperity. We are no longer a Gideon’s “ three hundred” nor a “ David’s band in the Cave of Adullam.” Most religious movements begin in a cave and end in a cathedral. It would be well to check on where we are between these two points. We are no longer the dis inherited. Like the Israelites of old we are tempted to say that our power and the might of our hand have gotten us this wealth. Or, like the Laodiceans, we are inclined to boast that we are rich and increased with goods and we are reaching the danger point where we have need of nothing. Spirit\tal Pride 1 am sure that the Laodicean church resented tne warning of our Lord nor did they like his call to the lukewarm to be boiling and repent. Why buy gold tried in the fire when already they were abounding in wealth? Why put on white raiment when already they were the best-dressed congregation in proconsular Asia? Why anoint their eyes with his eyesalve when already their famous eye-powder, the Tephra Phrygia, was known far and wide? . One of the worst signs of spiritual pride is an un willingness to accept reproof and a tendency to lump all who would warn the churches into one aggregation of pessimists and fault-finders. There are indeed profes
sional trouble-makers and the answer to our problems will not come from these apostles of discord. But, on the other hand, there are thoughtful and earnest men who are concerned about our plight and it is not fair to tar them with the same stick. When we become too high and mighty to accept counsel from the least of our num ber, when we refuse to remember, repent, and return as the Lord commanded Ephesus, then we are ready for removal. We are told that when Uzziah was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction. His strongest moment was his weakest. Paul was strong when he was weak but Uzziah was weak when he was strong. That can be true of any Christian, any church, any denomination. The measure of our self-sufficiency is the measure of our spiritual poverty. We read that, at the height of Solo mon’s fame, “ all the vessels were of gold; none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.” They had no silver service for it was too cheap! Three hundred shields of gold were hung up for display and eveiybody must have said, “We never had it so good.” But I turn three pages in my Bible and Shishak has stolen the golden shields and in his em barrassment Rehoboam hangs up brazen shields in then- stead. The people who would not look at silver three pages back are now making out with brass! My fear is that Shishak may rob us believers of our golden shields and we shall substitute brass instead of admitting that we have been robbed and insisting on gold or nothing. Our greatest problem is not the bad that could be better but the good that could be best. Silver will shine but it is not gold! We are spending much time scrubbing brazen shields in a vain endeavor to make them look like gold. No great religious body ever became rich and in creased with goods but that soon it had need of nothing and in its pride lost its power. No great religious body so far has been able to survive its own success. Here too we can gain the world and lose our soul. It is easier to “ take it” in adversity than to stand it in prosperity. An old litany says, “ In times of prosperity, good Lord, deliver us!” It takes more grace to keep us humble on the mountain top than to make us strong in the valley. This is no time to crow over how we got here; it is time to pray, “Where do we go from here?” A Religious Check-up Needed Sometimes we have physical check-ups, not because
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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