«
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
January, 1940
Life's New Commission I Peter 2:1-10 By ROY L LAURIN Los Angeles, California
■ WO great and grave dangers lurk in the shadows of our carelessness in these busy days. The one is other is a peril for the Christian. First, there is the danger of relying upon what science and the world can Offer, to the exclusion of the Bible. Sec ond, there is, in the case of the Chris tian, the danger of relying upon what we can do through fleshly human ef fort, to the exclusion of grace and the Holy Spirit. A missionary statesman said some time ago, “An alarming weakness ;among Christians is that we are pro ducing Christian activities faster than we are producing Christian experience and Christian faith.” There is tremen dous activity in church circles today. In a way, the present-day church pro gram corresponds to Broadway at Times Square. The din of traffic there is pretty well paralleled by the tumult of organizational activity in our churches. Bishop Freeman rightly counsels us, “Let the church remain the church.” Yet how many are trying to build it after the fashion of a Rotary Club or a Masonic lodge! The clatter of pots and pans becomes increasingly impressive. Yet God says, “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” I fear for any church and any Chris tian that is working more than wor shiping. When committee meetings and board meetings are held during the hour that worship is being conducted, Satan is using a subtle way of getting us overbalanced—of robbing our souls to conduct our activities. Every Christian has an obligation to his own soul first and foremost before he has any obligation to the soul of another. I have witnessed tragedy after tragedy in this connection—the failure of people who busied themselves about others and who depleted their own spir itual resources and reserves until they were so weakened spiritually as to lose out completely in their Christian ex perience. I would very earnestly caution every 'young Christian to seek those means of grace that are offered us in the church for growth and strength and develop ment. We say, “ Get busy.” Yes, every body ought to be actively serving Christ, [This is the third article in a series dealing with the Ep'stles of Peter
but also, “ Get ready to get busy.” And if we get busy without getting ready for our business there may be the tragedy of an abortive service. Having “tasted that the Lord is gra cious,” and having been thrilled with the loveliness of Christ and the joy of our new-found Hfe, let us tarry at the place and source of our new birth and become established and grounded in our new life, and-then we shall be able to meet the antagonisms and the adversi ties of life. The teaching contained in our pas sage in 1 Peter 2:1-10 extends over a wide range. It begins with an individual believer who is an infant in grace. And it widens to include a “holy nation,” a vast company. This holy nation, how ever, finds its inception in that infant. God always begins with the individual, and the individual always begins as an infant. Three things stand out: First, A New Program of Life, vs. 1-3; second, A New Priesthood of Believers, vs. 4-8; and third, A New People for the World, vs. 9 , 10 . I. A New Program of Life (vs. 1-3). This new program is a three-point one. It begins with: 1. A Personal Experience of the New Birth. This starting point is inferred by the term “newborn babes.” All real life be gins here and any religious experience short, of this is a tragedy of the first magnitude. 2. A Personal Cleansing of the Life (v. 1). The biggest hazard to a healthy phys ical life is dirt and filth. One of sur gery’s most important developments in the past hundred years was .the discov ery of the fatal presence of germs and the discovery of gemicidals and anti septics. A surgeon may be as skillful as a Mayo, but if either the field of his operation or the instruments his skill employs are septic, his operation is very likely to be fatal. It is so in our spir itual lives. And here is a list of vicious, filthy, septic sins we must be rid of to live healthy lives: “malice,” “guile,” “hypocrisies,” “envies,” “evil speakings.” 3. A Personal Nourishment on the Word (v. 2 ), Tht central word here is "desire.” It brings up three questions:
WHO are to desire? “Newborn babes.” These newborn babes are of course newly born believers. What is a baby’s one and chief occupation? Eating. And if the baby has another occupation, it is that'of crying for more food! And a normal Christian birth is followed by a consuming appetite for the spiritual milk of the Word of God. WHAT is to be desired? “The sincere milk of the word.” The same means of the individual’s new birth must now be employed in the nourishment of his new life. It is “ milk” that is to be desired. The Bible is also “meat’’ (Heb. 5:12-14). But milk must be first in the spiritual diet. Milk is the most complete food in the world. Like milk for the grow ing babe, the Bible is not only desir able but also indispensable to growth and development. WHY is the Word to be desired? “That ye may grow thereby!” Growth is as vital as birth. The process means normal life. Note the central word — “desire.” The command does not say “dissect” but “desire.” The babe is not analytically critical of its food. He simply eats it because he craves it. Don’t try to analyze or criticize the Bible before you eat it. Eat it and you will not want to ’ criticize it nor need to analyze it. But there comes a time when analysis and dissection of the Bible are both per missible and profitable. That period oc curs when we have passed out of in fancy into the age of learning—when we are not onily growing but learning as well. Then comes the command to “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not. to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). If the declension of modem Christian ity can be attributed to one cause more than another, it is to the fact that /e have Bible-less hearts, Bible-less homes, Bible-less schools, and Bible-less pulpits. An example of the extreme that can be reached occurred recently when a church in Canada changed its hour of worship so as not to interfere with the ventriloquist radio program of the "wooden wizard,” Charlie McCarthy! Bible-less churches! A university president, himself an extremist in re jecting the authority of the Word of God, nevertheless has recognized a lack in the modern church. He has made this statement:
a danger for the non-Christian, and the
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter