259
June 1929
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Where Men Win by Losing "Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall save it." HITH these words our Lord turns the wisdom of this world upside down and -proves that so-called “economic laws” do not necessarily work in the spiritual world. Whoever heard it said by any of those who instruct us in such matters that the way to gain our fortune is to lose i t ! Go to any of the great “captains of industry” and ask them for the formula of success, the secret of acquiring wealth. They will all tell you that the initial axiom of the business world is “SAVE.” Save and you will succeed. It is otherwise in the Kingdom of God. Here the “savers” lose and “losers” save. In this blessed sphere men win by losing. Here the highest good for man is described as “Blessedness,” and “it is more blessed, to give than to receive.” There is some solemn instruction in all this for the Church of God. The watchword of the hour among various Protestant bodies has become “conservation”.; we must husband our resources, it is said. And certainly, from certain viewpoints, this is wholesome advice. But the following of such a course in too thoroughgoing a manner may bring disaster upon the church. It has been suggested that of late years too much atten tion has been given to Foreign Missions, to the injury of our more internal interests. If the words of our Lord be trustworthy, as we firmly believe they are, no amount of sacrificial giving, either of life or of substance, to the great work of Foreign Missions, can possibly injure the internal interests of the church. To affirm the contrary is to deny validity to the declaration of Christ, “ Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall save it.” And experience confirms His Word, for it never has been proven that any church has been injured by giving too much for the salvaging of a lost world. On the contrary, it can easily be shown that the pouring out of life and substance for Foreign Missions has always benefited those churches which have followed this course. Interest in Foreign Missions invariably brings new life into the veins of every activity of a church. Local con gregations, counted as good as dead, have become power ful and living through the quickening touch of missionary effort. The great problem in the church is to get the minds of men off themselves. Anything that will accomplish this objective is a good thing for everybody concerned and for every interest of the church. And the appeal of Foreign Missions seems historically to have been the most suc cessful means of getting men to forget themselves. It is beside the point to say that the thousands given to Foreign Missions could better be used at. home upon our own internal interests. The real question is, would we have these thousands available if it were not for the appeal of missions? The writer is not unsympathetic toward the internal interests of the churches, such as education, pub lication, benevolences, etc. But he is firmly convinced that
these very interests profit most when the great commission of the Church is put above all. There is a striking instance of this in the Apostolic Church. The church at Jerusalem would have confined its preaching to the homeland, but fortunately for all concerned one apostle could not forget that he was “ debtor to all men, whether Jew or Greek,” and it is not long before we find Gentile churches actually sending money back for the relief of the “poor saints at Jerusalem”! Raising the budget for “benevolences,” if you please. " Whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall find it.” This great principle is sublimely exemplified in the life and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Existing in the form o f God,” possessing all the incommunicable glory and attributes of the one true God, “He counted not the being on an equality with God a'thing to be grasped” as a robber would grasp something which was not his own, but “emptied Himself,” forgetful of Himself in view of man’s need to the point of laying aside the glory which He had with the Father, at the same time “taking servant-form” in order that He might finally die for man “even the death of the cross” But this is not the end of the story. “Where fore,” the apostle writes, “God hath highly exalted Him, and gave Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name o f Jesus every knee should bow.” And so out of loss He gathers gain. It is not otherwise with the Church which is Hi®body. If we forget ourselves, we shall be remembered. If'we lose our lives, we shall save them. If we humble ourselves, we shall be exalted. If we empty ourselves, we shall be filled. If we cast away our bread, it shall be returned again to us. Lately there has been some discussion regarding the future of Protestantism. The question has been raised as to what the years may bring forth, whether growth or de crease, whether life or death. In the midst of all this dis cussion one thing stands out as certain; the most dis astrous thing that can happen will be for Protestantism to become too introspective, too much concerned with saving its own soul. This is the surest road to decay and death to any great movement within the Church. Let us rather forget ourselves, and follow our blessed Lord in pouring out our life for the sake of those who are “without God and without hope in the world.” No church, while giving itself without reserve to the preaching of Christ to a lost world, can perish from the earth. “The Body of Our Humiliation” I N Philippians 3:21 the Apostle Paul declares that Christ at His coming will “fashion anew the body o f our humiliation.”.I t is not “our vile body,” as the Authorized Version translates. Acts 8 :33 uses the same Greek word in speaking of our Lord’s “humiliation.” And Luke 1 :48 uses the same word in referring to the Virgin Mother’s “low estate.” The body of the believer is the body of his humiliation, thè body of his low estate, but never “our vile body.” It is wholly a pagan notion that the human body is something “vile.” The Revised Version never did a better thing than in striking the word “vile” from this
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