Is That Really Necessary
Fred London
"but only a few things are necessary, really only one..." (Luke 10:42a)
It is imperative that we have right spiritual thinking in order to see a true spiritual expression of the Kingdom of God through His Church. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things (we ought to) speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words" (I Cor. 2:12-13).
For this to be accomplished we must be willing to empty ourselves, that "He might fill all things." We must be willing to "decrease that He might increase." We must be willing to lay down our vision that we might be taken up with Christ's vision., which is predicated upon a vision of Christ. This one thing will keep us from being "led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." For most of us, however, it is too late for that. It is more a case of repentance and restoration, and for many, quite frankly, it requires one to begin all over again. We begin with Christ and we end with Christ. "He is the Alpha and the Omega" and "in Him all things hold together." We hear so much and speak so much about callings; corporate callings, individual callings. However, all callings must be founded upon the preeminent calling as Paul expressed it, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (I Cor. 1:9). As Gene Edwards so insightfully contends, "Before there was a Jerusalem, there was a Galilee." Before there is church, agendas, and formal ministry, there must be a significant, qualitative time of learning to fellowship with the Son and with each other within the sphere of normal, everyday life. This took place with Jesus and His disciples for three and a half years.
There must be a spiritual conception followed by an embryonic stage prior to birthing. This is Galilee. Men, however, often with the best of intentions, proceed to start with building their Jerusalem, and therein lies the fatal problem. It is not fatal in the sense that you cannot build your Jerusalem if one is bent on doing that. The real question is, are we building something for God with "the best laid plans of mice and men" or allowing God to have His own way with and through us? Are we basing our efforts with an "ends justifies the means" mentality with what is often supported by pseudo-spiritual terms as "look at the fruit?" Are we more concerned, or rather consumed with God's way of doing things, so readily available to the true seeker, found in Scripture and early church history in order that a fuller expression of Christ might be manifest? Deep down in our hearts, surely we know. Of course, we need not fear the answer if we dare not ask the question.
Men in the Church historically have a nasty habit of adapting worldly thinking, methods, techniques, and the like in order to help God further His Kingdom. However, the notion of "the ends justifies the means" does not work in the spiritual scheme of things. God's permissive will is truly beyond human comprehension when one considers such in light of His eternal purposes. They can be found as nuggets of gold within Scripture when revealed by His Holy Spirit to the true, desperate seeker.
In the days of Samuel when he and his two sons were judging Israel, the elders came to Samuel, "and they said to him, 'Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the other nations" (I Sam. 8:5). What they were saying was that the way in which God prescribed for Israel to be ruled was not working and neither had they had any faith or desire to see it work. Having a king seemed to work just fine for the other nations. If it was good enough for them, it should be good enough for us. "And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, but they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them (I Sam. 8:7).
It is interesting to note that generations earlier God foretold of this when He said, "When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, I will place a king over me like the other nations who are around me..." (Deut. 17:14). In another place we have the account where the Pharisees said to Jesus, "Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate and divorce her?" He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it has not been this way" (Mat. 19:7-8).
Three key phrases speak volumes in making a point here, "like all the other nations," "because of the hardness of your heart," and, "but from the beginning it has not been this way." There is in fact a common thread. All permitted. All missing the mark. All missing God's best, His Divine purposes. Be assured, there is more Scriptural precedent from where these examples come from. Human nature has a way of justifying our settling for, and under, God's permissive will. And, if that is the extent of our desire in seeing God's will manifest on earth as it is in Heaven, then as we have already seen, God may just allow us to have it. There is another human element which greatly adds to the corruption of "the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" which must be mentioned here. It is "the man who would be king" syndrome. Men who would presume leadership apart from an experience in "Galilee" and people who would demand a leader apart from the same. It has been said by some that Moses was an Old Testament foreshadowing of a type of "New Testament pastor" and so "they have seated themselves in the seat of Moses." However, this is quite incorrect. Rather, Moses was a type of Christ (Deut. 18:15, 18-19).
Consequently, it should be of no surprise that in accepting the former notion as justification for Reformation style leadership, that we have churches that bear little resemblance to those depicted in passages such as found in the Book of Acts, I Corinthians 12 and 14, and Ephesians 4. As we shall see, the usurping of spiritual kingship can be a prelude to the usurping of the "priesthood" in the House of God.
The story of Uzziah vividly illustrates the pitfalls and tragedy of exceeding one's God ordained authority. Now, Uzziah started out doing right in the sight of the Lord and was used mightily in re-establishing Judah under righteous rule and military might, reigning for fifty-two years. "But when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly, and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God, for he had entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the alter of incense (II Chron. 26:16).
T. Austin-Sparks offers sober insight concerning this account; "The temple is the place of worship, and worship is just giving God His rights, God's rights are absolute, and in His temple God gets everything - all is unto God. In the day when the temple was not what God meant it to be... Isaiah wrote, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple." It is the place where there is no room for anything else. In other words, Uzziah got into God's place, and then, when he was out of the way, Isaiah saw the Lord filling the temple."
The spirit of Diotrophes, 'who loves to be first among them" (III John 9), lurks in the hearts of even the most sincere spiritual leaders as well as would-be leaders. Much of this problem is not only attributable to fleshly ambition or misconceptions related to Church leadership, but that we really do not trust God and His people. We all must have the attitude of being willing to decrease so that Christ and His corporate expression might increase. We must give more than doctrinal lip service to the spiritual reality of Christ having "first place in everything." (Col. 1:18b).
Any individual or activity having preeminence or predominance over the Church robs Christ of His rightful place, "both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). The Body is not held together by one or a select few, but by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the Body for the building up of itself in love" (Eph. 4:16b).
When the Church was young, its success came from the reality of "the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." Their secret to building the Church was in the knowledge that they could not build it. Only Christ can and will build His Church and He will build it His way, "for unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it" (Ps. 127:1a). "And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and simplicity of heart" (Acts 2:46).
Fred London