If a pendulum clock is not true
on its base the pendulum will swing too much to one side. This
will upset its timekeeping, and those who are guided by it will
be misled. There is much that spiritually corresponds to this,
and in the Word of God there is a constant effort to keep the
Lord's people true on their basis.
The Church is intended to be
God's instrument for keeping life true. Too often its pendulum
swings too much to one side or the other and its guidance becomes
unreliable. This unbalanced condition relates to many things. In
different ways and at different times the swing is in some
exaggerated or extreme direction and an abnormal condition
results.
As we have said, so much of the
Word of God is concerned with either guarding against such loss
of balance, or restoring it when it has been upset. Here we are
going to touch upon one major aspect of this matter. Let us say
immediately that anything which goes to extremes and loses its
proportion means a serious loss to the Lord, and throws His
people into confusion. This has been and is the result of
Extremes
in Exclusiveness or Inclusiveness
While it is true that each of
these has often been a reaction from, or fear of, the other, such
reaction is never a satisfactory solution, or a justifiable
expedient. Excess in any direction is wrong, and what is wrong is
dangerous.
Let us first look
at the evil of exclusiveness when it is carried too far. In the
New Testament there is a very clear and strong appeal against
this disposition. We see this in at least two connections. It was
the incorrigible propensity of the Judaisers. They had their base
in Jerusalem and their tentacles reached out to the ends of the
earth. Like the arms of an octopus they spread out to strangle
the life out of anything that they could fasten upon. Not merely
did the Lord and Paul appeal against this life-destroying evil,
but they thundered against it, and were never so vehement against
anything else as they were against this.
It goes by various names, such
as Legalism, Puritanism, Exclusivism, etc., but it is anything
that is wholly and invariably negative without a balancing
positive. Of course, there are differing degrees and various
causes or characteristics, but, whatever the form it takes, it is
one of the persistent enemies of life and of the fulness of
Christ.
In the case of the Judaisers,
exclusivism was a system, not just a tendency. You belonged or
you did not belong. You were 'one of us', or you were an outsider
and suspect. Prejudice was in the very roots and it instinctively
ruled relationship.
But there was, in New Testament
times, as there ever has been and is now, another aspect of this
malady. It was one of the strongest elements in Corinth. As you
know, the Apostle, in his letters, was dealing in the main with
the 'natural man', that is, the 'soulical man'. A large element
in this 'natural man' complexion was natural selectiveness,
preference, partiality, etc.; both in the preference for the type
of man and in the kind of ministry. The eye was not on the Lord
in the man, or looking for what he had to impart of the Lord, but
upon the man himself; his manner, his ability, his personality,
his 'line of teaching', and so on.
There were things about the
Apostles personally which the Corinthians either preferred or
resented and these things resulted in more-or-less-closed
parties. It is tragic to note that this kind of thing brought
them to the point of losing the values of the ministry of the
great Apostle himself. Because of this he made his great and
pathetic appeal in the words, "Be ye enlarged".
The classic and incomparable
thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians took its rise and had its
basis here in this very context. There is nothing larger in all
the Bible. That this particular feature of exclusivism marked and
marred the Corinthians and threatened both their spiritual
fulness and their world-testimony becomes immediately evident by
the very way in which the Apostle opens his letter, and we
do well to ponder his words.
"With all that call
upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord
and ours".
The range and scope of
benediction is "all in every place". Who? What? - Who
hold our particular interpretation of truth? Who conduct their
meetings as we do? How many such questions could be introduced
here. But what is the denominator? It is "who call
upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and
ours". The basis of fellowship is thus determined as being
the acknowledged, accepted, and declared Lordship of Jesus
Christ; Jesus Christ as Lord uniting them and us. Well, so much
regarding exclusiveness, for the time being.
What about excessive
inclusivism? If it is dangerously possible to make Christ smaller
than He really is, it is equally possible to make Him, not
greater, but more inclusive than He is. We have only to read that
First Letter to the Corinthians to see (if we will so study it),
that there are more than a few things which have no place in
Christ. These things, of course, are not just the moral, social,
and pagan evils referred to; but are, again, the bringing in of
the 'natural man' with his standards of wisdom, power, and
success(?). Natural wisdom is particularly ruled out. Indeed, it
is the whole system of this world's ways and standards which is
vetoed.
If there is one thing that the
Bible reveals as being hated by God more than another, it is
mixture. There are two irreconcilable spiritual systems in this
universe, the very natures of which are positively inimical and
hostile to each other, emanating from two utterly contrary
sources. The overlapping of these and their admixture, where what
is of God is concerned, is Anathema to Him and He hates it.
It is with regard
to this that the Apostle says in this letter that "the fire
shall try..." The fire of God's wrathful judgment will
expose and consume all mixture. Christians, the Church, and all
which claims to be of God and for God will do well to examine all
things in this light and ask just how much 'conforms to this age'
and is according to this world? There is an inclusiveness
everywhere which is sapping the very vitals and destroying the
very effectiveness of Christianity.
The greatest plague and menace
in the physical realm is cancer. What is the effect of cancer?
When it gets a hold, it enlarges the organism out of all natural
proportions, but as it does so, it destroys its particular and
distinctive form so that the organism no longer looks like itself
and loses its natural character. This is what has happened very
largely to Christianity. There has been an invasion by this world
which has enlarged it abnormally and at the same time robbed it
of its distinctive character and function. God has always spoken
along physical lines concerning spiritual conditions.
Distinctiveness is something very vital to, and rightly
characteristic of, the Body of Christ, but it should be that of
the whole Body. Otherwise the Body will be thrown out of balance.
If God has to raise up specific ministries in and to the Body, it
is not with a view to making the Body unbalanced and bulgy, but
because the Body has become deficient and indefinite. There is a
difference between specific ministries to the whole Body
and abnormal features in the Body.
If the whole Body were as God
would have it, it would be outstandingly distinctive and
pronounced. The fear of distinctiveness and a reaction from the
specific may result in a very general, heterogeneous,
nondescript, something-or-nothing mixture. This may be very 'happy'
and free from conflict, but it has no impact and will not meet
need in its deepest demand.
How clear it is that there has
never been anything which God has raised up to lift His Church
from the 'ordinary', nominal and very general level but that
sooner or later a 'down-grade' element has come in which has made
that thing quite general, broad, indistinct, and, if it goes on,
it is with but a shadow of its original and former glory and
effectiveness. There is a bigness which is disastrous to
spiritual quality.
In order to recover a true and
effective testimony the Lord has more than once had to put into
effect His words, "I will leave in the midst of thee an
afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the
Lord" (Zeph. 3:12). This was first said in relation to an
inclusiveness which had robbed of all distinctiveness.
So, for this present, we close
by repeating our conviction that the two great needs of our time
are, on the one hand, salvation from man-made fences around our
Lord Jesus by which He is made smaller than He really is: and, on
the other hand, the recovery and consolidation of the outstanding
distinctiveness and unmistakableness of what is really Christ,
without mixture.
Let us seek largeness of heart
with proper discrimination: true distinctiveness without
hardness, bigotry, superiority and spiritual pride. The Holy
Spirit, when in full control, will always adjust contradictions
and establish proportion and balance. This can be easily seen if
we read our New Testament with the object of noting this feature
of His leading and work.
Let us pray that we may really
be set level as to our basis, and that our pendulum may swing
evenly and equally; resulting in a true and safe testimony to all
who are looking in our direction for guidance.
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, May-June 1963, Vol 41-3