IDENTIFICATION WITH LOCAL ASSEMBLY CONDITIONS

C.A.COATES

Local difficulties do not prove that there is nothing in a place of the Lord and for Him. It would be serious, and contrary to the principles of 2 Timothy, to bind saints to identification with evil. But if, on the other hand, there is anything in a place which the Lord can recognise as being of Him and for Him, even amidst weakness and sorrow and for the time without the privilege of His supper, I am convinced that it is the path of faith and love to seek it out and be identified with it.

Our association with saints is not a voluntary one that may be taken up or not according to our pleasure. To entertain such an idea would be to give up the truth of the church. It is the liberty and responsibility of the saint to stand apart from iniquity, but we do not walk together as a voluntary association of believers. It is because we have learned something of the fellowship to which God has called us, and recognise that there is such a thing as the assembly of God, that we are together. We are under obligation to own the place in which God has set us, and the relations and responsibilities which are inseparable from that place. We are not at liberty to disown our divine associations merely because at some time they may involve sorrow and the bearing of burdens. Love would have no desire to do so.

I feel more and more the importance of owning practically our divine bond with saints, and that it is vital to the present testimony - not a formal ecclesiastical bond, but a knitting together of saints in truth and love according to our divine relations. This takes practical shape with saints who by God's ordering are within reach of each other locally. This was evidently what came into view at the beginning, and it is what we should have before us now, for it is what the assembly is vitally. It is due to the Lord that we should maintain the truth of the assembly as in local responsibility but it will not satisfy Him unless it is maintained in the activity of love which binds together in a distinct way the hearts of Christians who are locally near each other. The Lord does not want us to be lawyers carrying out divine principles in a formal way but to be living in the love of God and thus bound together in affection. I am sure that if we breathe the atmosphere of God's house we shall find that the order of His house is not an arbitrary rule but that it is the wisdom of love in exercise for the development and safe-guarding of holy affections.

I believe that one removed to a new place should take up his local obligations in every case save where the principles of 2 Timothy raise a moral barrier against his doing so. And in the latter case there would have to be some distinct evidence that what was due to the Lord was not maintained, or some principle not of God allowed. It should be in every case a matter of exercise and faithfulness and love, not personal choice or convenience. My impression is that the above simple principle, which I believe to be of God, would make the course of a newcomer clear in all cases of local difficulty.

TEIGNMOUTH

3 December 1913

(Reprinted from WORDS OF GRACE & COMFORT, Vol.33, No.4, April 1957)

THE CHILDREN'S MONEY

In early times the noble metals, gold and silver, were weighed out and kept in some form such as rings to be carried easily and serve as money. Later on coins became used and their names showed their weight or were words such as 'handful', 'quarter' or 'very small'. As now, one side of the coin told what it was worth to the owner, the other showed him that he owed loyalty and duty to a monarch. The glad tidings is therefore like a coin. One side tells its value to us needy persons, the other reminds us that we owe our blessings and our own selves to a Saviour God. When Jesus, who it seems had no money, was shown a 'penny' he drew attention to the 'head' side. From it we are taught to render to God what is His due.

It has been said that money is able to buy everything except happiness and is a passport everywhere but to heaven. This definition won a newspaper prize and through it many people had the scripture warning "take great heed to your souls". Without the knowledge of God the happiness of this world is like tinsel without reality, and husk without the kernel. In the parable of the wealthy father, the repentant son learned this lesson. But returning home he could now enjoy without money all that his father was in his love, all that he had in his house, and could have the help of at least three different kinds of servants at his bidding. We do not know the son's age but even his elder brother was called by the affectionate name "child"!

Our Lord was with the rich in His death, His precious body being lovingly buried by a wealthy man. Money itself is not an evil but Scripture tells us that a secret cause of every kind of wickedness is the love of it. This root of evil might be hidden for a long time and if allowed to grow it has an ugly shoot which should be cut off at once; if still let live it will have a fruit bitter as death. There was only one Judas but he is a terrible warning to us. The price of betrayal put upon the Saviour by those who should have had the very highest value for their Messiah was thirty pieces of silver. This was just the fine to be paid if a Hebrew bondman happened to be killed by an ox. It was also the cost of a potter's field out of which the clay had been dug. "A goodly price that I was prized at by them"! How precious is He to you?

J.C.Evershed