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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Missionary Responsibility in Scriptural Terms.* By R. H. GLOVER
"without the Gospel and he writes these honest and searching words, “I am debt or.” He did not look upon missions as "a philanthropy. He did not consider he was conferring a favor upon the Romans in taking them the message of the Gos pel. He did not ask men to regard him as a hero. He simply regarded himself as an honest man seeking to do his duty, willing and anxious to pay his debts. “I am debtor.” “I owe these men the Gospel.” It is a very potent figure. The matter of debt makes it obviously not a matter of" choice. Debt is some thing which obligates us. I can rush past this ragged beggar on the street and disregard him with the idea that I owe him nothing, that he is nothing to me for I have no responsibility concern ing him; but I cannot face my creditor that way. I have got to deal with him because I am his debtor. Debt in the very nature of things takes precedence of other things. Suppose my business is prospering, and I am making lots of money, and I choose to live in a mansion, and to surround myself with comforts and luxuries of every kind, and to spend money, like water. I say, “It is no one’s business. I owe no man anything. I can do as I please with my money.” But suppose my business goes wrong and I get into debt, and I owe this man $500 and that man $1000 and another $5000, and I make no effort to pay those debts; I regard it as a very secondary matter, and I go on living in this extravagance and wastefulness. Don’t you see that in this new light of indebtedness I am guilty. The things I considered neces sary, when this debt did not face me, are now to be regarded as non-essentials and to be laid aside, and every hones.t, earn est effort put forth to pay my debt. And so, when once Paul was clearly convict ed that he was indebted to take the Gos pel to the unevangelized, he courageous ly took up the task and said, “Therefore I am ready as much as in me is to preach the Gospel unto you.” Now I don’t mean that Paul put his missionary enterprise on a legal basis; but I mean to say that the true response and co-operation, that God is looking for on the part of Chris tians, will never be reached until there
Naturally, I should choose to speak as frequently as possible about the great land of China, the appalling need and the splendid opportunity that present them selves in that fast-awakening Celestial Empire. My heart is full of the subject; but somehow I have felt that this morn ing we should not look upon the field of China but have a Bible reading upon the topic, “Missionary Responsibility in Scriptural Terms.” “My heart has been saddened not a little in coming home and moving among Christians to find not only a great mass of utter indifference with regard to this missionary theme and rwork, but more than that, even among those who pro fess to be interested in missions, such weak views and ideas and conceptions of the missionary enterprise. It is im portant, tremendously important!, that you and I and all God’s children get •clear and right conceptions of God’s will, and of our right relation,to this great work of making Jesus Christ known to this world. In this study, as in all else, our cry must be, “To the law and to the testimony,” and I want with you to look into God’s Word very simply and informally this morning, and examine some of the Scriptural terms that are used to express this fact of missionary responsibility. Debtor 1. Now first of all, shall we look at Romans 1:14,15, where we have the first term “Debtor.” We are familiar with this verse, “I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also.” Now Paul was writing to Rome, and he was writing after he had accomplished splendid service to the Gospel ministry in other lands. He had already done more missionary labor probably than any other dozen men, yet he looks out upon Rome, a land which he had not yet visited and which he knew still was
"Delivered at the Bible Institute. Stenographic report unrevised by the author.
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