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Slander o f the Christians by Spiros Zodhiates
W hat ’ s in a name ?” Something very real. In the case of a man, it is his character, his person ality, what he does, and what he believes. “ The name is a mark or sign of him who bears it; it describes what is, or is said to be, characteristic of the man, and what appears as such.” * When our name is cast out in public as evil, the most precious thing we possess is defamed. It is an attempt to ruin .not only our name but also what it stands for, the total person. It is an effort to degrade us as persons and thus to destroy what we are doing. And, since the Christian’s primary characteristic is that Christ indwells him, and his foremost task is to make that Christ known to others, the attack is really aimed at Christ and His avowed purpose to work through the Christian in the lives of others. A certain class of people specialises in that sort of attack upon Christians. It is not that they are really interested in one individual Christian more than another, but they are interested in defeating Christ. Christ is their ta- get; but because He is not here to be maligned per sonally, they seek out those in whom He dwells, those who represent Him on this earth. And thus the war is on. The Lord said, “ Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their com pany, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil” (Luke 6:22). The translation of the word anthroopoi that indicates who does all these things should be “ the men,” indicating not all, but only a cer tain class, of men. When the whole world speaks evil o f you, beware, take stock, examine yourself. But do not expect to avoid the unavoidable, that a class will cast out your name as evil. They are the enemies of the Christ within you. This slander is the result of your bold and active witness for Christ. Someone once told the amiable poet Tasso that a malicious enemy spoke ill of him to all the world. “ Let him persevere,” said Tasso. “ His rancor gives me no pain. How much better it is that he should speak ill of me to all the world than that all the world should speak ill of me to him.” A nobleman once wrote outside his castle gate: “ They say. What do they say? Let them say.” Write these words on your door, too; write them on your heart. The Lord attests that your name is good. Other wise wicked men would not speak evil of it. The word translated “ cast it out” in the original Greek is ekbaloosin, literally “ to drive out, to expel, to throw out more or less forcibly.” Your name as a Christian is likely to become a public football. It will travel from one lip to another, and from one paper to another. Blessed are you, the Lord assures you. This verb is in the aorist future, indicating an act in a historical set ting complete in itself. This is not something that will happen constantly, but there will be frequent attacks upon your name. When these attacks come, ’ Hermann Cremer, Biblico-Theological Lexicon of New Tes tament Greek, T. T. Clark, p. 454.
you will be made to realize more fully your blessedness in Christ. Do not shy away from certain activities be cause they are likely to make your name a public foot ball. Stand up for Christ whatever others may think of you. There is a principle established here: Never give up a task for Christ simply because you are likely to be misunderstood and have your name cast out as evil. Never be guided by expediency, as so many Chris tians are today, but by principle and a fiery enthusiasm for Christ. We note here that all the other verbs are in the same tense, the aorist future, referring to out bursts of hatred and excommunication and to periods of making fun of you as a Christian. These occasions cannot be avoided in your Christian life. Who is actually the party responsible for all this hatred, excommunication, ridicule, and slander? Not we, because we neither merited nor achieved our pres ent state of blessedness. It is by God’s grace and His alone that we became blessed when we received Christ as our Saviour. And it is He who enables us to go poor and hungry, to shed tears, to be hated, to be excom municated, to be ridiculed, to be slandered for His sake, and to consider it well worth while. All these adversities and more cannot steal one iota from our blessedness but rather serve to increase it. What arrests our attention here, as well as through out the New Testament, is how often the Lord calls Himself, and is called by others, “ the Son of man.” He is more commonly known as the Son of man and more infrequently as the Son of God. A. B. Bruce, in his book, The Kingdom of God gives a most perceptive and thorough treatment of the terms, “ the Son of man” and “ the Son of God,” in reference to the doctrine of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. In sum mary he writes: ” As Son of Man, Jesus stood in a rela tion of solidarity and sympathy with men. As Son of God, He stood in a similar relation to God. As bearing both titles, He was in intimate fellowship with both God and man, and a link of connection between them. In His person the kingdom was thus realized in germ, as a kingdom of grace in which God is related to men as Father, and men are related to God as sons—a king dom o f filial relations.” The most important reason for His choice of this name, the Son of man, was to give admirable expres sion to His connection with the human race. In this instance, He says “ for the Son of man’s sake” because He wants us to be aware of His identification with hu man suffering and want, except for sin. He became man; He became poor; He went hungry; He shed tears; He was hated; He was excommunicated; He was re proached; He was slandered. Why? All for our sakes, so that we might become blessed. Now that we are blessed, we must be ready to suffer all these things for His sake. And He understands what we are going through each time we suffer, for He is predominantly the Son of man when we are experiencing these reac tions of the world to our Christian life and witness. *T. & T. Clark, 1909, pp. 166-186.
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AUGUST, 1964
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