THE TESTIMONY

THE TESTIMONY

This is very simple and attractive to the devoted heart, but very exacting and arduous to human feelings. It is comprehensively expressed in the words, “Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus”. Nothing could be more gratifying to a heart true to an absent one than the obligation to do everything in His name; yet it involves so much, that maintaining His name in any measure evokes every evil force against us, even the wicked spirits in heavenly places, because it insists on the life and ways of a heavenly man on earth, to walk even as He walked.

Having given this very brief sketch of our calling, I now turn to note how divisions occur. It must be plain to every godly soul, when the calling in all its parts is so entirely new and outside of man’s tastes, that unless he walks in the Spirit he is in danger of being as is described in 1 Corinthians 3: 3, “For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” Now the first division on record was caused by Ananias and Sapphira seeking to obtain credit ^[p. 131] in the church by falsely representing the amount of property they had surrendered. It may be contended no true person would dissimulate after this fashion. True, but the man who does not see the calling of the church, and yet assumes the position of one seeing it, though not in heart opposed to it, while there is no question as to his right and duty to be there, yet, though not in conscience implicated in Ananias’ deception, he is deceiving himself and others. He is not in a truthful position; he may, like Lot in another day, accompany the man of faith, but if he has not faith, sooner or later he must cause division. This form of deception was not so probable in the earlier days of the church as now. There was then but one company known as the church of God. There was in it a present power to rebuke the carnality of any one opposed to the calling to which he had avowedly attached himself. In this day of weakness and ruin, the judgment of God is much slower, and hence as there is less fear of Him in His own house, so should there be more holy watchfulness lest any should be induced to obtain credit by accepting a standing which does not truly represent him, because like Lot, though he be in it, he has really no faith regarding it. It may be retorted that every believer belongs to the church, and is bound to take his place as such. With this I heartily concur. But I contend only that there must be faith in adopting your true place if you would have any power for continuance in that place.

I do not want to debar any one, even the feeblest, from entering on his true place; but while it is simply and positively incumbent on each one, I believe the more I understand the grace of the Lord in awakening His people to their calling and to a sense of their failure in departing from it, the more would I fear to press any one into a position owning the calling, though I would press on him the responsibility of it as a member of Christ; labouring by word, by example, and by prayer, to lead every one of Christ’s into it truly, for it is their only true ^[p. 132] standing. The man who takes a position for which he has not faith cannot be in practical unity of the Spirit, and the seed of division is there. The moment I act according to the flesh, there is a breach of the unity of the Spirit. Mark breaks it in returning to Jerusalem, and Barnabas breaks it in acting according to his natural feeling in choosing Mark as his companion for the work.

Thus we see divisions may occur morally by souls assuming a position, even a true one, beyond their faith; and though the division be not open and patent, yet there is as great a moral distance as if openly avowed. There are divisions, as with Mark, which arise from fear, and again divisions, as with Barnabas, from giving way to natural affection.

Lastly, we are bound to “mark them which cause divisions ... contrary to the doctrine what ye have learned; and avoid them”. The ten spies who brought up an evil report of the land and discouraged the people are of this class, and in the righteous judgment of God they died by the plague before the Lord. Caleb and Joshua were very distinctly separated from them. When acknowledged leaders inculcate by word and deed a course subversive of the truth of the calling, there is division which demands a practical separation on every one that names the name of Christ. Indeed, any line of teaching which is damaging to the testimony must be classed under this head; and the godly have no option but to come out and be separate and touch not the unclean thing. Such divisions as these must always entail separation; the Spirit of God is grieved until we are in dissociation from them. We must purge ourselves. There are, as we have seen, divisions where a right position is assumed without faith; and there it is the duty of all to bear with and heal, as Paul did with both the Corinthians and Galatians. But there are divisions contrary to the doctrine we have learned, and then there is no option but to “avoid them”.