WISE UNTO SALVATION
The Bible in the life of a Christadelphian
This essay is designed, in plain words, to set
down matters of critical importance to every Christadelphian or potential Christadelphian,
regardless of age or experience. It discusses the very title deeds of our
Brotherhood, the elementary justification of our existence as a community.
First, let us remind ourselves in a few simple
Bible-phrases of the high calling which we accept when we are baptized into
Christ. We are :
"a people for Christ's own possession,
zealous of good works "; (Titus 3:14)
"an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for God's own possession " (1 Peter 2:9)
"a temple of the living God " (2
Corinthians 6:16)
"children of God " (1 John 3:1-2)
However much, therefore, we may fall short of a
full response to this calling—as we all do—it is impossible to doubt our
privilege. It is equally impossible in faithfulness to accept the privilege and
live lives which leave it out of account. That, too, is readily shown by the
Scriptures' own words :
" Be not fashioned according to this
world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind " (Romans 12.2)
" I beseech you to work worthily of the
calling wherewith ye were called " (Ephesians 4.1)
" Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord " (1 Corinthians 15.58)
" What doth it profit, brethren, if a man
say he has faith, but has not works? Can that faith save him?" (James
1.14)
No doubt this life of faithful working covers
every department of our living, but at the basis of it all lies the Book from
which all these quotations are taken : the Bible itself. It needs only another
handful of passages from the Scriptures to show the claims which the Book makes
on our attention :
"Blessed is the man whose delight is in
the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night " (Psalm
1.1-2)
"Thy word have I laid up in my heart, that
I might not sin against Thee " (Psalm 119.11)
"Whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the
Scriptures we might have hope " (Romans 15.4)
"We have the word of prophecy made more sure; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place." (2 Peter 1.19)
This and much more makes it entirely plain that
regular Bible-reading on the part of all for whom it is possible is an
indispensable mark of the saint in training.
An earlier edition of The Bible Companion
contained the words : " The mind . . . cannot be brought at once to the
divine likeness. This can only be achieved by the industrious application of
the individual to ... the Scriptures of truth'', and the tables in this
companion were put together to help us accept the discipline of regular and
systematic Bible Reading. We are all, no doubt, familiar with its plan : a
first portion drawn from the first half of the Old Testament (Genesis to Job);
a second portion from the second half (Psalms to Malachi); and a third portion
from the New Testament which, because it is so much shorter than the Old, is
read twice to the latter's once over the period of a year.
It is possible to read the whole Bible, the New
Testament twice, quite clearly and deliberately, in around 100 hours.
At the rate, that is, of 16 minutes a day. Allow a little extra for getting out Bibles, settling down, a prayer perhaps, and a short discussion or meditation, and half an hour could readily pass. Now let us put together a few statistics :
|
Occupation |
24-hour days |
% of year |
|
Sleeping (8 hours a day) |
112 |
33 |
|
Working (40 hours a week, 48 weeks) |
80 |
22 |
|
Eating (2 hours a day) |
30 |
8 |
|
Travelling to work (7 hours a week) |
15 |
4 |
|
Time not occupied as above |
118 |
33 |
|
OF WHICH |
|
|
|
- Attending three
meetings weekly (8 hours) |
17 |
5 |
The figures relate, of course, to a fictional
average man, and cannot in any case be stated so simply for the even-more
fictional average woman. Nor is it suggested that the ' unoccupied time ',
amounting to about one third of our year, is empty of important things to be
done. All that is suggested, in fact, is that for the case considered, not more
than 2% of our year, 3 % of our waking time, or 6% of our ' unoccupied time' is
claimed by The Bible Companion for systematic reading of the Scriptures.
This, no matter how busy our own time may be,
no matter how busy, indeed, with occupations good or innocent in themselves,
seems no unreasonable tribute to pay to the God who gave us the Book, and no
excessive price if we would by that Word be made wise unto salvation, through
faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Our spokesmen proclaim before others that we
are happy to pay this price. We invite our friends to take a copy of The Bible
Companion, with the aid of which Christadelphians read the Old Testament twice
and the New Testament once, each year. Yet each of us needs to ask whether the
spokesman could have said what he did, if I, or my family, had been the example
he had in mind.
So each of us must ask himself, how far is
daily reading is the Bible truly a Christadelphian practice today? To what
extent is that 2% of our lives actually given over to the Word of God?
If we would judge from the hymns we sing, the
reading of the Bible is the dear delight of us all :
" O, how love I Thy law; it is my study
all the day"'; (Hymn 22)
" O, may these heavenly pages be my ever
dear delight "; (Hymn 118, ‘Father of Mercies’)
" And now Thine oracles we read, with
earnest prayer and strong desire more richly on Thy words to feed "; (Hymn
120)
" But when our eyes behold Thy Word, we
read Thy name in fairer lines ". (Hymn 124 ‘The heavens declare thy glory
Lord’)
All this and more we affirm when we sing hymns
22, 118, 120, and 124 in the 1964 Christadelphian hymn book, and other hymns
beside. Our hymns are prayers, pleas, and promises and, unless we should
perjure ourselves, the words we sing must be fulfilled in actions : each time
we sing such words we promise our attention to the Scriptures for the future,
and repent our inattentions of the past.
In the words of the first of these hymns:
" Thy word is to my feet a lamp, and to my path a light; I promised have,
and will perform, to keep Thy judgements right." That promise, both in
means and end, must be kept.
Is this the best of all imaginable
Bible-reading systems? No doubt it is not. But it is a system which the
Brotherhood has used for many decades with incalculable profit. By its
disciplines we read the whole Bible, and not just those parts we are moved to
read. By its wise emphasis we read the fulfilment twice to the promises once,
and let the actual life, teaching, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus
take that proper precedence over the anticipation of them which is their due.
We see from the lives of sinful men enough of the depths to which our human
nature can sink to know how desperate our need; we see from the righteous, if
painful, judgements of God with what displeasure He views our wilful sinning;
we see, from His compassion revealed in the prophets, how deep the sorrow in
the heart even of the Creator when His creatures go astray, and with what
forbearance He rises up early to leave undone nothing which might bring about
their reform. And in all that He did for the world through His Son, and yet
will do, we see how that compassion triumphs in the repentant and obedient
saint, and will yet triumph in a conquered and then regenerate world.
All this, if we use the Bible Companion to help
us, we shall see, and learn, and increasingly, year by year, come to know
better and to value more. More than this : if we do not use this system, it is
unlikely that we shall devise another for ourselves; not to read all the Bible
through in this way is likely to mean that we do not read it through at all. It
is a rare person who discards The Bible Companion because he has acquired
another plan, no less comprehensive, which serves him better. But even in that
rare case the change would be ill-advised.
For The Bible Companion is a bond of fellowship
among brethren and sisters throughout the world. All who use it are, within the
space of twenty-four hours, reading the same words, guided into the same
channels of holy thought, moved in ways which can find expression in related
prayers, made strong before the throne of grace because they speak as one.
How better can we fulfil the spirit of:
" These words, which I command thee this
day, shall be upon thine heart : and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when
thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest
up"? (Deuteronomy 6.7)
If Moses could bid the people of Israel — all
of them, leaders and layfolk alike — make that part of the Word of God which
they possessed their constant topic of conversation, in their homes and as
like-minded people walking together, morning and night, can it be less our
pleasure, as they that fear the Lord, to speak one to another of the things
most surely believed? And can there be any better preparation for this than
daily reading in our homes of the same Scriptures?
" Man doth not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8.3;
Matthew 4.4)
Thus the Lord repelled the temptation in the
wilderness. This Israel should have learned from the daily provision from
heaven of manna in their desert. And we, who are taught to pray that God will
grant us day by day our natural food, are provided with daily bread to
strengthen us in our spiritual pilgrimage through the world's desert : in the
Scriptures, if only we will use them so. When the multitude who had fed of the
multiplied loaves came back next day for more, they were taught to "
labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for the meat which abideth unto
eternal life " (John 6.27); and this food is offered to us in the Word of
God. To this we must have regular recourse if we would reap the blessing :
" Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filled " (Matthew 5.6).
But this food should not only be the subject of
a family meal. It is the right diet for our guests also. In how many
Christadelphian homes is it still the practice for the host to say to the
casual Christadelphian visitor, or the week-end speaker, "Have you had
your readings to-day?", and for the guest to answer truthfully, " Not
yet, but if I had it would be a pleasure to repeat them. Let us have them
together." There are still some such homes, but there are not enough.
We could do with being thoroughly old-fashioned
about this. When we meet in one another's homes the Bibles should be out, the
readings read aloud, and (for why should our praises be limited to the public
meetings) why not hymns sung once again round the piano ? It would be good for
our singing, and good for our spiritual health. Mechanical sources of news,
music, and entertainment may have their acceptable place in our lives (though
they may also have their grave abuses), but none of them should be allowed to
compete with the overriding claims of the Word of God.
In many other religious communities the
religious duties are discharged by ministers or clergy. Little is expected of
the layfolk beyond such attendance at services as they care to offer : but this
must never be the case among us. Already there is a dangerous disposition to
accept a division into those who speak and those who are spoken to, and a kind
of unpaid professionalism has arisen in which there are experts who can preach,
and debate, and convert, and there is a large and growing silent majority who
let them, with or without their own passive support.
What do we do, each of us, if " a man
asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3.15)? Do
we say, " I will bring you a leaflet about that"? Do we say, " I
should like you to meet Brother Dot or Sister Dash, who know a lot more about
this than I do"? Do we simply change the subject? Or do we tell them?
Of course it is good to know the best printed
matter to offer for our friends to read for themselves. And of course it is
good to bow before the experience of Brother Dot and Sister Dash. It is true,
too, that some people are readier of speech than others, and that, of the many
members in the one Body there are eyes and ears, hands and feet (1 Corinthians
12.13-20). There is nothing to be ashamed of in being genuinely slow of speech,
and inexpert in the cut and thrust of debate. But there would be much to be
ashamed of if, on the pretext of such small abilities, we were to wrap our
pound of ability in a napkin, or bury our one talent in the ground (Luke 19.19;
Matthew 25.18), on the ground that our Lord as a hard man who asks too much of
us; and therefore we will not exert ourselves to know more of His ways, that at
least under God's hand we may bear our own small witness to the Lord who saved
us from our sins.
If the truth could be told, in any case, we
might well find that the number of those brought to the faith by the supposedly
unlearned and ignorant men whose simple zeal for the Word bears testimony that
they have been with Jesus (Acts 4.13) vastly exceeds that of those converted by
the labours of the ones we look upon as learned. And " they that turn many
to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever" (Daniel
12.3).
In any case, Brother Dot and Sister Dash, if
the Lord's coming is not soon, will one day lie sleeping. And if we have not
all been training from the Word, that some of us, at least, may be their
successors, what will the Brotherhood do then?
The Spirit and the Bride say, Come! God
reveals, and man must pass on the message. " Let him that heareth say,
Come!" (Revelation 22.17). None of us should look upon himself or herself
as a blind alley in the progress of the purpose of God. " Freely ye have
received, freely give," in all ways open to us, is the exhortation of the
Lord (Matthew 10.8).
It is a dangerous folly to allow our lives,
just once at the time of our baptism, to be cleansed from our former sinful
ways, and then, the ' examination' passed, lapse passively into the assumption
that, since we shall never officially be asked such questions again, there is
no need to keep our knowledge of the Scriptures alive, still less to cause it
to grow. Into such lives worse evils enter: sloth and complacency; inability to
meet the subtleties of those who would deny the authority of the Scriptures,
even that of our Lord, can expose us to the invasion of the seeds of doubt. Our
empty lodgings can be opened to the tempting rentals of half-belief, or even to
the violent entry and unpaying squatting of total loss of faith.
" There is no virtue," so it is said,
" in reading merely for reading's sake. Doing the readings can tempt us to
a self-righteousness which is unbecoming and unhealthy. It were better not to
read at all than read without the understanding." The argument is tempting
and subtle. The part which deals with self-righteousness is even correct. But
the rest is wrong, and dangerously wrong.
What we ought to say is this : there is less
profit in reading mechanically than in reading intelligently and with full
understanding. But even the former, imperfect though it is, is better than not
reading at all. Every child of a Christa-delphian family who has ever sat down
reluctantly at parental behest, and done the readings in just such a mechanical
manner, has been able at some later time to confess : " I learned much in
those days, without knowing that I was doing so. What now lies in my armoury
consists in large measure of the spiritual sleep-learning of those days. Such
ability as I now have to find my way around the Scriptures is due to a great
extent to what found its way into my mind then and, adhering, provided an anchoring
point for the next piece of knowledge, and the next, and the next ad
infinitum." Many a brother or sister coming to the faith from the outer
world has found good reason to covet that inbuilt familiarity with much of the
Scripture that comes almost as second nature to the one who has, even
unwillingly, read the Scriptures regularly over many years.
So: let our readings be as unmechanical and as
leisurely as may be. But if we find ourselves reading hastily from force of
circumstances, or even with a tired mind, let us read nevertheless. It is far
better thus than not to read at all.
One more temptation to be dealt with. Our busy
brethren and sisters, but particularly brethren, are tempted to say, " I
have much special studying to do, for lectures, exhortations, and Bible Class.
I cannot do both this and the daily readings, and the former is the more
important. The daily readings will have to go."
The writer is a convert from this way of
thinking. For it is wrong, and dangerously wrong again. It is a bad example to
the family, and takes away a source of spiritual fellowship, isolating the
cleric from the layman both in the home and in the ecclesia. It is a bad
example to our fellow-brethren, as though one should say, " Daily readings
are all right for you who study not, but I have risen above this." It
introduces dangerous specialization into our study of the Word of God, and
effectively blots out those parts we have no wish or present need to study. So,
no matter what extra burden the preacher's vocation may place on his shoulders,
he should read the Bible as a whole like the rest of us.
If diligence in daily reading needs special
exhortation, so does diligence in our communal study of the Word of God. It is
a long-standing but growing scandal that ecclesial Bible Classes are the Cinderellas
of our weekly round. The ecclesia where as many as half the membership arc
present to share in the exposition of the Scriptures is rare indeed. The
statistics given on page 2, which assume attendance at three meetings weekly,
are in all probability over-estimated in the light of what has just been said.
Even when all allowances are made, this and
other much lower proportions represent a regrettable state of affairs. "O,
how I love Thy law" (Psalm 119:97) rings a little hollow against this
background. What can the reasons be? That the quality of the exposition is
often poor? That we study to better purpose alone at our desks? That small
groups meeting informally enjoy a livelier and more instructive discussion?
That our consciousness of our privilege is less than it should be, and our
sense of proportion is wrong as to which things matter most in our lives?
As to the first, the quality of our Bible
Classes is self-augmenting. With the encouragement of large attendance and
enthusiastic participation, speakers will prepare more diligently and speak
more cogently. As to the second, no doubt study at one's desk is more
efficient, but if it is left there it is also more selfish : such knowledge is
there to be shared, and the Bible Class is a good place to do it. As to the
third, this is often perfectly true, and such groups can be put to excellent
use in witnessing to the gospel among our friends, too. But if we restrict our
discussion to such groups we are in danger of undermining the unity of the
ecclesia; we are penalising those to whom such a group is inaccessible; and we
are running the risk of subversion should such groups fall into partisan or
unbalanced hands. Let the groups exist by all means, but let this not be at the
cost of our ecclesia's united Bible study. And as to the last, it needs only to
be mentioned for the remedy to be obvious : if our sense of proportion is
wrong, the thing to do is to put it right.
Ecclesial Bible Classes might be more
profitable than they are, too, if we took a little desk study of the subject on
hand with us. They would be better informed if more of us got the very portable
India-paper edition of Young's Concordance and took it with us. Even as they
are, those who attend such classes regularly find deep enjoyment and
satisfaction in that fellowship around the Word of God which they provide, and
would need a lot of persuasion to keep away.
Much of what has been said in this section
applies also to our preaching occasions, the rather forbiddingly - called '
lectures.' For there it is the ecclesia, not the speaker, who is bearing
witness. It is not one man on a platform talking to ' brethren and sisters and
friends' but the brethren and sisters bearing witness to the friends through
him as their representative. Here, too, interest is self-generating, and a
virtuous spiral of waxing enthusiasm is the result of speaker responding to an
audience which wills him on, and an audience blessed by the words of a speaker
desiring only to serve them well.
The recipe of the following words provides all
that we need to fulfil the spirit of this exhortation. The ingredients are :
(1) the ever-present love and grace of our Lord as our priest before the throne
of grace; (2) a true heart and fullness of faith in every one brought to the
Lord through the cleansing of baptism; (3) mutual provocation in good things,
that love and good works may multiply and expand; (4) assembly together on all
occasions possible, exhorting and being exhorted, that the day approaching may
find us watching, united, and prepared :
" Having therefore, brethren, boldness to
enter into the Holy Place by the Blood of Jesus, . . . and having a great
Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed
with pure water; let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not;
for He is faithful that promised : and let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and good works; not forsaking the assembling of our selves together,
as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more as ye
see the day drawing nigh." (Hebrews 10.19-25)
What we have written has called attention,
however imperfectly, to opportunities and needs affecting us all in our
relation to the Scriptures. That the imperfections might be purged, and the
message itself stand out for the glad acceptance of us all, unhindered by the
complicated emotions which arise in our minds when we are exhorted to amend our
ways, is the earnest desire of those promoting this publication.
Nothing is better calculated to achieve this,
perhaps, than to conclude with prayers commended to us in Scripture by holy men
of God, that we might make these prayers our own, and be heard and blessed by
the One to Whom they are addressed :
" I will meditate in Thy precepts, and
have respect unto Thy ways. I will delight myself to Thy statutes : I will not
forget Thy word." Deal bountifully with Thy servant that I may live; so
will I observe Thy word. Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things
out of Thy law." (Psalm
119.15-18)
Thy testimonies are wonderful : therefore doth
my soul keep them. The opening of Thy words giveth light; it giveth
understanding unto the simple. I opened wide my mouth and panted; for I longed
for Thy commandments. Turn Thou unto me, and have mercy upon me, as is Thy
wont unto those that love Thy name. Order my footsteps in Thy word, and let not
any iniquity have dominion over me." (Psalm 119.129-133)
A.D. NORRIS,
Aletheia Books
A previous version of this booklet was called “Take
Heed”.
Quotations are substantially from the Revised
Version. Here and there very slight modifications of the wording into a more
modern style have been made for the sake of clarity.
Other booklets by A.D. Norris on www.christadelphianbooks.org and www.god-so-loved-the-world.org