Are You?
the stak e9 y e t fo r us each da y life has
Colosseum conflicts
ferent and they are not satisfied with imperfection. They started out with a conversion instead of a decision. They have been bom again. Jesus is not only their Saviour; He is their Lord. They believe there is only one way to be saved and that makes all other ways false doctrine. They are on good New Testament ground there. And they are on good New Testament ground when they believe you can not walk the way of the cross and the way of the world at the same time. And they are on good New Testament ground when they look for Jesus to come again. They have no organization of their own. You cannot organize them; they are an organism, a fellowship of the Spirit, and they know each other like the early Christians knew each other in the midst of pagan Rome. They are exasperating to Caesar’s world for they are strangers and pilgrims and Caesar’s world is their passage, not their portion. And they are irritating to Caesar’s church because they just don’t get worked up over a lot of projects put on in the name of re ligion. An Ecclesiastical Dog-house So they are persecuted. I do not refer to those holier-than-thou sep aratists, modem Pharisees in their super-sanctity. They bring just criti cism upon themselves. I mean simple New Testament Christians of what ever Church or persuasion. The pres sure is terrific these days if one does not get in step with Caesar. It makes one look almost un-Christian if he does not fall in with current trends and fashions and popular brands of adapted (instead of applied) Chris tianity. He is not burned at a stake, but the powers that be can make it
pretty hot for him otherwise. He is not jailed, but he can land in an ecclesiastical dog-house. He is not put in exile geographically but he can be isolated by other means just as effectively. He is not beheaded these days but he can be demoted and shunted off to a Podunk charge while a politician pulls the wires and lands in swanky Ichabod Memorial. Make no mistake about it, the choice is still Caesar or Christ. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan says, “ The Chris tian life is lived in the midst of gi gantic forces opposed to Christ and God.” Caesar’s world and Caesar’s church are an imposing set-up these days and it takes all the wisdom we can pray down to make decisions and all the courage we can pray down to stand by them. Christian youngsters face Caesar in godless pagan high schools. They encounter his demands in college and university. They make the choice in society, to dance or not to dance, to drink or not to drink, to smoke or not to smoke, to say noth ing of dope and immorality and all the subtle lure to “ do as Rome does.” But after all, there were two kinds of Romans in Rome. There were Christians even in Caesar’s household. They lived in it but not of it and we can do the same today. The businessman faces it: whether to allow a few crooked practices be cause everybody does it; the unequal yoke of an unsaved partner; worldly organizations and projects that solicit his support; witnessing for Christ to a godless office force; the wine glass at a convention; what to do with his money. When I see a humble but stalwart Christian true to Christ on a job where all day long he is im mersed in paganism, I see a modern saint among the Caesareans.
It is not easy in the home where only one knows Christ and must needs stand alone. Many a good wom an today fights a lonely battle seven days a week, as true to Christ as ever was a believer in the amphi theaters of Caesar. When she slips into church and sits over there in a comer seeking fresh grace for a new week, you may not know it but there is Quo Vadis up to date. She is not fed to lions in a Roman colosseum but she is among lions all the time and maybe dying a slow death of heart break. A Choice Between Two Friends Our Lord called His di s c i pl es friends. Pilate had a chance to be Jesus’ friend. But he chose to be Caesar’s friend and so gave in to the crowd that cried, “We have no king but Caesar.” The Jews too made a choice that day; they rejected their rightful king and chose Caesar. It is a choice between two friends. It is a choice between two kings. You can not have both. A man cannot be a friend of Christ and a friend of Caesar for “ whosoever will be a friend of this world is the enemy of God.” Do not be deceived by the pomp and splendor of Caesar’s world and Caesar’s church. You cannot be popu lar with and persecuted by the same crowd and we have been told that “ all [not some but a ll ] that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” It is not Christ and, it is Christ or. And whether we wear purple robes or dress suits, whether we ride in chariots or Cadillacs, whether we tread the sands of an ancient colos seum or the streets of a modern city, the choice is the same. Whoso will be a friend of Christ can be no friend of Caesar. END.
JULY, 1955
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