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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
July, 1936
NOTES on Christian Sndeavor B y M a r y G . G o o d n e r
2. Taxes are due the civil government for the functions it performs (Mk. 12:14- 17; Rom. 13:6, 7). 3. The Christian’s motive for submis sion to civil authority is his desire to be obedient to God (Tit. 3 :1; 1 Pet. 2 :13-17).
AUGUST 2, 1936 WHAT SERVICES SHOULD STATE AND COMMUNITY RENDER? R o m a n s 13:1-8 M editation o n th e L esson While our topic is “What Services Should State and Community Render?” our Scripture lesson deals primarily with the duties of the citizen. Although these instructions were written to the Ro man church at a time when political con ditions raised especially serious problems for Christians, the passage is fresh and vital in its dictates to us today. The Jewish Christians, born of a race that in spirit had never been conquered by Rome, felt very rebellious at Roman authority. Paul’s practical exhortation to them was: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” The view that secular governments are ordained by God was held by those of the Old Testament times, as we find in such passages as Daniel 4. The apostle uses the principle here as the basis for a posi tive valuation of the secular government. Christians then, as now, were asking, in effect, “What should be the attitude of Christians toward their government? How far should their allegiance go?” Paul gives the principles that apply. The state is ordained By God for the good of all its citizens. Rulers have the responsibility of punishing evildoers. Therefore, be subject to the state. Resistance to it would be re sistance to the ordering of God. As the state exists for a good end, you will have nothing to fear if you lead a law-abiding, peaceable life: “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.” In verse 7, there is a reminder of Christ’s teaching on this theme. Paul in structs his readers: “Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” When the Pharisees sought to trap Him, our Lord showed them that there was a sphere in which they were obligated to obey the civil government. But He declared also that they must “render . . . to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:15-21). Principles tvhich must lie at the basis of Christian politics have been well expressed as being “that the state is divinely appoint ed by God; that its end is beneficent; and that the spheres of church and state are not identical.” Our Lord will enable us to apply His Word prayerfully as we face our responsibilities.
AUGUST 9, 1936 DISHONEST PRACTICES IN
OUR DAILY LIFE E p h e s ia n s 4:25, 28, 29 M editation on th e Lesson
Right in the center of this marvelous epistle which deals with the deepest, most mystical of all church truth—the revela tion concerning the body of Christ—we find these practical, everyday injunctions. After we have learned in chapter 2 that we have been raised together and made to “sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” we are enjoined to put away lying, to “speak every man truth with his neigh bor,” to “steal no more,” and to guard our language. As frequently occurs in Paul’s epistles, the negative is presented first: “putting away lying.” Lying includes all kinds of falsehood, among them being commercial untruthfulness such as adulterated goods,- false investments, dishonest advertising, exaggerated business possibilities, and the like. There are lies in social life: gossip, false pretenses in living, “white” lies, and hypocritical living. It is sometimes claimed that tricks are necessary in trade and that some lies are justifiable. But God says to put away lying; His Word declares: “These . . . things doth the Lord hate . . . a lying tongue, . . . a false witness that speaketh lies” (Prov. 6:16-19). Much sweeter is the positive injunction: “Speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.” What a cogent reason that we should speak the truth! All we who have been born again are members of one body of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the risen Head -lie that is “the truth.” “Let him that stole steal no more.” If truth is required in our words, honesty is required in our actions. Here is the solution of the economic problem. If this command were obeyed, there would be no graft and no oppression of the poor, which is one form of stealing. On the other hand, there is to be no shirking or laziness, but “let him labor, working with his hands.” And the motive for work is not that men may become rich or powerful, but “that he may have to give to him that needeth.” What a glorious standard! It is unlike the natural heart and is indeed Christlike: “Though he [Christ] was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). The last injunction has to do with our conversation. Spurgeon used to say that if all of men’s sins were divided into two bundles, half of them would be sins of the tongue. Have we let God guard our lips.
to life. Each citizen has a perfect right to expect from his country safety from violence or harm. We can easily under stand that “the powers that be are or dained of God” for this very purpose. God, whose eye is on the tiny sparrow, was most assuredly watching over Paul; and organized law and authority, arriving in time, saved Paul’s life from the angry mob. Later, when Paul was imprisoned be cause of his testimony.for Christ, he spoke of himself as a “prisoner of the Lord” (Eph. 4:1), recognizing that his captors had no power apart from God. II. C r im e D oes N ot P a y (Gen. 4:1-15). In this story giving the first recorded murder, we have a graphic picture of the solemn fact that “crime does not pay.” Cain and Abel had equal opportunities for knowing God’s will; they had the same en vironment, the same parents; they had equal facilities for worshiping God, but Cain worshiped in self-will, and Abel brought his gift by faith according to God’s Word. Because God accepted Abel’s offering (not because of Abel’s character, but because of the faith and obedience ex pressed by his offering) and rejected Cain’s offering, Cain became angry and killed Abel. Little did Cain realize the enormity of his crime or of the punishment to follow. Perhaps his only thought as he murdered Abel was, “Now I am rid of this hated rival.” Perhaps he thought that as they were alone in the field, no one would ever know of the deed. But after God met him and pronounced the awful judgment: “Now art thou cursed from the earth . . . a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth,” Cain cried out in anguish, “My punishment jjs greater than I can bear” (Gen. 4:13). He learned, in the school of experience, that crime does not pay. III. B ible T e a c h in g C o n c er n in g C o n stitu ted A u th o rity 1. Rulers hold their power only in the will and plan of God (Da,n. 2:21, 37, 38, 44). ~
H elps fo r th e L eader I.
P rotected from a M ob (Acts 21:30-40). This incident in the life of the great apostle is a fitting illustration of one of the most important services the state should render to its citizens, namely, protection
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