Quote:
MAY 23 SEEING IS BELIEVING
The life hid with Christ in God is a hidden life as to its source, but it must not be hidden as to its practical results. People must see that we walk as Christ walked if we say that we are abiding in Him. We must prove that we possess what we profess.
This means a great deal. It means that we must turn our backs on everything that is contrary to the perfect will of God. It means that we are to be a "peculiar people" (d. Titus 2:14) not only in the eyes of God but in the eyes of the world around us. Wherever we go, it will be known from our habits, tempers, conversation, and pursuits, that we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ We must no longer look on our money as our own but as belonging to the Lord, to be used in His service. We must not feel at liberty to use our energies exclusively in the pursuit of worldly means, but must recognize that if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all needful things will be added unto us (d. Matt. 6:33).
We will find ourselves forbidden to seek 'the highest places or to strain after worldly advantages. We will not be permitted to make self, as heretofore, the center of all our thoughts and aims. Our days will have to be spent not in serving ourselves but in serving the Lord. We will find ourselves called on to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. All our daily duties will be more perfectly performed than ever, because whatever we do will be done, "not with eyeservice, as menpleasers: but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart" (Eph. 6:6). (SEC, 202-3)
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If all we had was the first paragraph, I would have nothing to say. But the second paragraph pushes the discussion in a vague direction. Based on the second paragraph, there is almost a sense of being removed to a kind of Walden Pond of spirituality. Not that any of the things mentioned are not in the scripture. But that they are not all that is in the scripture on the subject.
It is too nearly a kind of removal from the world. There is nothing that speaks of having a normal, ordinary human life that is righteous. Instead, it is so peculiar in its focus. It may be that the writer (TAS?) has no intention of implying that we are not to continue to have and live normal lives. But they sure do not say it. The whole of life is directed at peculiarity. Yes, the world will notice such people. But it is not certain that such people are much of a part of the lives of the people around them. There is no hint at anything that could be classified as engagement with those people. Anything that would appear to be acts of love for them like what we might have for ourselves.
It is not that such is actually precluded. But it is omitted. And the kinds of things that might fall into that category are, if mentioned at all, too often dismissed as being "works." And if they are allowed for, it generally is only where there is a high likelihood that the gospel can be intentionally fit into the time, event, etc. If there is no provision for the possibility of the gospel, it is not acceptable. (I've heard this one way too many times from too many different places.)