Truth Magazine

By Irvin Himmel

A responsibility may be both awesome and joyful, at times painful yet rewarding. This is the case with the weighty charge for which overseers in the church are accountable.

The Hebrew writers expresses the thought in this way:

Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you (13:17).

In the local church, according to the arrangement outlined in the New Testament, elders or bishops are the shepherds that have the rule or oversight of the flock. Paul said, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine” (1 Tim. 5:17). The same apostle admonished the elders of the church at Ephesus, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). The pastors of the flock must not rule in a manner that is dictatorial, domineering, and dogmatic. Peter warned elders not to be “lords over God’s heritage” (1 Pet 5:3). “They watch for your souls” is a statement which needs to be pondered, studied, and put into practice.

1. Watching for souls requires leading people in the way of the truth and right. Elders are not to make laws of their own but are to lead disciples in submitting to God’s will. They are to inform and instruct, applying the word of the Lord to specific cases, and helping the flock to follow Him who is the chief Shepherd. They are to be “ensamples” to the flock (1 Pet. 5:3). Their lives should exemplify humility, sincerity, wisdom, faith, love, and deeds of righteousness.

2. Watching for souls necessitates keen spiritual interest. In some churches of Christ it appears that elders have more interest in watching the finances than in watching for souls. They meet regularly to discuss the contributions, the budget, monetary support for preachers, building costs, etc., but show precious little concern in talking about how to win more souls to the Lord, what to do about sheep that have gone astray or jumped the fence, ways to devote more attention to souls that are in jeopardy, or why discipline is neglected in the church. Elders need to do more than watch the money; they watch for the souls committed to their charge.

3. Watching for souls takes times: Some men are chosen as overseers who either do not have the time or else are unwilling to take the time to do the work for which they are responsible. I am impressed with elders who take time to call on the weak, backsliders, or members who have been overtaken in a fault. Rather than acting disinterested, God-fearing shepherds go after the sheep which axe in trouble. Elders that have time to go to ball games; political rallies, picnics, school programs, etc. but no time to spend warning the unruly, admonishing the weak, and encouraging the fainthearted, should remember that they must give account before God.

4. Watching for souls demands alertness. Shepherds need to know the flock. There needs to be an awareness of the spiritual. condition of the sheep. If a sheep shows signs of spiritual sickness or an inclination to waywardness, the shepherds ought to detect it and work on the problem. If grievous wolves are stalking about, faithful shepherds will demonstrate vigilance over the flock. Paul warned the Ephesian elders about grievous wolves which enter, not sparing the flock (Acts 20:29). Wide-awake elders are the kind that really watch for souls.

5. Watching for souls reflects faithfulness. Perhaps some overseers have forgotten that the most serious charge given to elders is to watch for souls. One is not faithful as an elder merely because he attends all the services of the church, or all the business meetings, or all the elders’ meetings. He is not faithful because he is a good husband and father, nor because he makes an honest living, nor because he teaches a Bible class. An elder who is truly faithful in his oversight of the church must watch for souls. H.E. Phillips observes in his book Scriptural Elders And Deacons, “This is the real purpose for which God ordained that elders be in every church: that each member would be watched and matured in such a way as to bring him into the judgment as a faithful child of God” (p. 211).

Elders have a solemn charge. It is no trifling matter to watch over the souls that make up the flock of Christ. One’s soul is his most priceless possession. To lose the soul is to lose everything. Soul-watching sums up the work of spiritual shepherds. No member of the flock should be annoyed if the elders speak to him about his conduct. Good and faithful bishops feel strongly the responsibility that they have to watch for our souls.

Truth Magazine XXIII: 31, p. 498
August 9, 1979

By Evan Blackmore

There is nothing wrong with being a child, when you are the right age to be a child. The Bible never says that children are to be blamed for being children; in fact, it says quite the opposite (Matt. 19:14; Rom. 7:9). But if time passes, and you are no longer a child, but you are still trying to act like a child, then there is something wrong. Just imagine what the assemblies of your congregation would look like, if all the members were crawling along the floor with plastic trucks, or rushing around the building making whirring noises like dilapidated airplanes.

It is true that there are some characteristics of childhood, such as humility (Matt. 18:3-4) and innocence (1 Cor. 14:20), which every adult should strive to possess. But there are other characteristics, like childish ways of thinking (1 Cor. 14:20) and gullibility (Eph. 4:14), which should be left behind, when people become adults; and if they are not left behind, then something has gone wrong. God does not blame children for thinking like children; but if people have grown up and become adult, and if they are still thinking like children, then something has gone wrong. Every child needs to grow up.

Being a Christian is much the same. God’s people need to grow up spiritually, just as all people need to grow up physically; and if we are still acting like spiritual children when God expects us to be grown up, then there is something wrong.

Consider three ways in which God expects us to grow up.

(1) Growing Up from the Law of Moses. The law of Moses was given, in a sense, for the “childhood” of mankind; but now, mankind has grown up and become adult, and God expects us to act like adults, instead of trying to return to the law of Moses.

In Galatians 4, Paul talks about God’s people, who were the heirs of the promises. “So long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bond servant, though he is lord of all: but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father” (Gal. 4:1-2). Somebody who inherits a fortune while he is a child, is still under the rule of guardians until he becomes an adult; until that time, he has to abide by the commands and decisions of his guardians, just as a slave would do.

“So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world” (Gal. 4:3). “Before faith came, we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. So that the law is become our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:23-24). Under the old covenant (“when we were children”), people had to abide by the commands of the law (and the law that Paul is talking about is the law of Moses, Gal. 3:17), just as a child has to abide by the commands of his tutor or guardian.

“But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:25-26). “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).

Now that Jesus has died to redeem people by faith, “the fullness of time” has come. People are no longer children, under the law of Moses, and therefore people should not behave like children any more.

Before Jesus came, God’s people were “children,” held in bondage under the law of Moses, and they were expected to behave like children, by obeying the law of Moses. But now that Jesus has come, God’s people have grown up; and if we are still trying to behave like children, if we are still trying to keep parts of the law of Moses, such as circumcision, or special days and seasons, then something has gone wrong; we “are severed from Christ,” we “are fallen away from grace” (Gal. 5:4). The person who is still trying to keep the law of Moses, now that Jesus has come, needs to be told to grow up.

(2) Growing Up from Miraculous Gifts. The miraculous spiritual gifts which some Christians possessed in the first century – gifts of healing, and prophecy, and speaking in tongues, and so on – were given for the “childhood” of Christianity; but now, Christianity has grown up and become adult, and God expects us to behave like adults, instead of trying to return to miraculous gifts which we no longer possess anyway.

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul writes, from the viewpoint of the first century: “Whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three: and the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13:8-13).

At the time when Paul was writing, Christians were like children, knowing in part, and prophesying in part; but now that the perfect, or complete, knowledge and prophecy contained in the completed New Testament has arrived, Christianity has grown up; and if we have not “put away childish things,” then something has gone wrong. The person who is still trying to exercise miraculous spiritual gifts, now that perfect knowledge has come, needs to be told to grow up.

(3) Growing Up from the First Principles. When we have just become Christians, and are “babes in Christ,” God expects us to be nourished by the milk of His word; but when we grow up and become “mature,” God expects us to behave like adults, instead of trying to be nourished exclusively by milk.

The writer of Hebrews had “many things to say” to his readers about the fact that Christ was “a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.” But he told his readers that these things were “hard of interpretation, seeing that ye are become dull of hearing. For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food. For everyone that partaketh of milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; or he is a babe. But solid food is for fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil” (Heb.5:11-14).

And such “solid food” was precisely what his readers ought to have been consuming. “Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation- of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit” (Heb. 6:1-3).

When the readers of Hebrews had first become Christians, they were babes, and needed to be nourished by “milk” -that is, by “the doctrine of the first principles of Christ,” such as repentance, faith, baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection and eternal judgment. But now that they were “fullgrown men,”they should have left the first principles and pressed on “unto perfection,” being nourished by solid food, and “not laying again a foundation of” first principles.

The person who is still trying to feed on the first principles alone when he has been a Christian for a while and ought to be pressing on to solid food, needs to be told to grow up.

Conclusion

Many of the difficulties which arise in the religious world today, occur because people are still trying to behave like children when they ought to be fullgrown. Nobody today should be trying to return to the law of Moses or the miraculous spiritual gifts; all of these things were outgrown nearly two thousand years ago. And nobody who has been a Christian for a while should be trying to return to the first principles alone. If we are adults, let us act like adults.

Truth Magazine XXIII: 30, pp. 491-492
August 2, 1979

By Earl E. Robertson

The apostle Peter wrote, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God . . .” (1 Pet. 4:11). There is no divine directive more needed today than this one in the midst of denominational jargon and theological palaver of preachers and elders. One church recently advertised in the Firm Foundation, “Youth Evangelist applications being accepted by progressive, spiritually minded fellowship. Send resume of experience, references and salary needs to Roswell, NM. Note: no legalist need apply. Also send statement of personal beliefs re: grace, faith, Holy Spirit. A grace-oriented church.” Now that language truly reflects the attitude of the so-called liberated church. Liberated, yes, freed from the shackles of scripture so they can both say and do what they want.

The word of God says our speech must be as the oracles of God and our doing must be in the name of Christ (by His authority) (Col. 3:17). Any person with reverent familiarity with the New Testament knows nothing of the above language describing that New Mexico church. Yet, many people now want this kind of “fellowship” and will argue loud and long that it is all right, while at the same time designate all who would object as legalists. They would feign make us think that they believe the Bible to be the word of God and that they believe they must obey it. Yet, our very efforts to cause men to obey the Bible are declared by them as the actions of a legalist. They are “grace-oriented” and those demanding Bible for religious practices are, by them, legalists. We know the voice of the Savior (John 10) and we also know the voice of the modernist!

The loose attitudes presently being formed (some all ready formed and being pushed) lead to modernism. The path many preachers and churches are now walking will take them to a position where they can stand with men like Harry E. Fosdick. Deny this if you will, but if you continue to teach and practice what you now are one generation (your children) -will prove that I am correct. We remember the modernism of the past generation: Wilburn, Box, Sanders, Warren, and Roy Key. We remember what they said about the Bible being a “blueprint” for the legalists, and that they wanted freedom. When these men were identified and exposed they left their former hiding and went fully into denominational churches. Little things lead to big ones!

Our speech reveals the heart with all its attitudes (Prov. 4:23, 23:7) What we say and the way we say it determines whether we are safe or unsafe teachers. Much around us sets the pattern for religious behavior. Influence of our teachers is overwhelming. As Guy N. Woods recently editorialized in the Gospel Advocate, expressing his appreciation for having had the privilege to sit often at the feet of men like Hardeman: “It is for me most fortunate that the concept of the Junior Church was yet with the denominations when I was young because it is most likely that were such the practice then I would not today be attempting the work they did . . . . Suppose we had been shuttled to a `junior auditorium’ where we were amused by puppetry while N.B. Hardeman or some other great gospel preacher spoke only to adults!” This “Junior Church” concept is, as Guy stated, from the denominations and it is a tiger around the neck of the liberal churches of Christ. But it came into existence by men who did not “speak as the oracles of God.” Any departure in practice from apostolic doctrine is usually attributable to the fact that the teacher has ceased to speak apostolic doctrine.

The cry of legalism heard in some cities today is the same cry heard in the past generation. It will not take much more time to see the same end-results. When men grow tired of doing what God’s word says, they begin to take liberties with that word. Men of this attitude desist from speaking as the oracles of God, castigate all others who do “tell it like it is” as legalists while insisting that certain heretics are faithful gospel preachers! As one modernist, flying under the flag of being “grace-oriented,” wrote, “The church of Christ holds to a Pharaisaic Biblical literalism that blinds its members to their mission in today’s world and makes it impossible for them to meet modern problems in an effective way. The Bible becomes a blueprint with exact details for all work and procedures. Nothing can be done and no procedure used for which the `blueprint’ does not give example to command. Such literalism not only stymies the activity of the church but leads to endless and futile quarrels about insignificant details and methods. The non-instrumental aspect of worship is one such result, but hundreds, just as unimportant and irrelevant to the world’s needs, could be listed. I am changing to the Disciples of Christ to find more freedom of life and work and to find more spiritual compatibility in Christian service.”

That is the only direction loose speech leads. Reread Col. 3:17 and 1 Pet. 4:11.

Truth Magazine XXIII: 30, p. 490
August 2, 1979

By Jeffery Kingry

This article will likely land me in a pickle with some brethren. It seems as though some articles I write, though obviously directed at the abuse of a system, are invariably taken as a blanket disavowal of the proper use of the thing. In this series of articles we are attempting to direct attention to the biblical concepts concerning the quality of life in Christ. I am not opposed to free enterprise or to selling a product for a profit, or even a preacher working for a short while to supplement his support (or provide it). I have done all three, and believe that Christians have the liberty to do so. But, one thing Christians do not have liberty to do is practice covetousness, worldliness, exploitation, materialism, and indulgence. Our Lord is our example, and that is what this article is about.

There is a sordid canker which is eating away at the hearts of hundreds of brethren. The materialistic society we live in, and the love of gain of the saints gripped by it is destroying whatever chance some may ever have of enjoying the good life.

This writer has observed for several years the effect that a desire for gain has had upon brethren. To deny that materialism and its temptations are not existent among those brethren who scramble to sell soap, powdered protein and vitamins, “personal work” kits, books, papers, encyclopedias, insurance, mutual funds, and other “part-time” pursuits is to deny reality. Not every brother who involves himself in such work for gain is necessarily covetous, but this writer has seen enough to wash his own hands of the contaminating influence in his work as a preacher.

My first contact with the seamy side of the “get it quick” way to riches was in 1968. I had just returned home from a lonesome and brutalizing year in Viet Nam, enrolled in Florida College. The very first person to visit my wife and me in our apartment was an ex-preacher. We were pleased and impressed that his empathy would move him to come by and say hello. But, within five minutes of his arrival, he began his prepared talk on Amway (“It’s the American Way!”) and the Amway plan. Expensive soap, and its sale would end our financial worries and put us on easy street if we just had sufficient faith and would invest a small amount of our time and money. When it become obvious that we were not about to spend (having barely enough to meet our needs as it was), our brother closed his briefcase, apologized for leaving so hurriedly, turned down a cup of coffee, and was off to his next appointment.

We had received our first Amway burn. Through the years I have seen young men of promise quit preaching to chase the Amway dollar. I would see Amway bucks eat the heart out of congregations as brethren chased Amway prospects instead of the Gospel. In their deceived the blinding greed I have heard “Direct Distributors” explain how their Amway business enabled them more opportunities to preach the Gospel than they ever had as preachers. They even believed it, they had repeated it so long as justification for leaving the fields of the Lord to plow their own fields with dollars.

Recently a new product has arisen to capture the minds and hearts of brethren who feel they do not have enough. Several preachers contacted me while I was preaching in Annapolis, Maryland to sell “Slender Now,” a “fool-proof” means of weight loss. (The powder and vitamin diet supplement sells at an inflated cost, and is actually inferior to products selling at half the cost in healthy food stores. Recent set-backs in the industry caused by people whose electrolyte balance was disrupted by the modified fasting diet, and who ultimately died, have caused Slender Now to go out of business.) One brother called me long-distance from Pennsylvania in an effort to “sign up” another distributor (every person signed up to sell the product becomes a source of income for the one who signs him up. A set percentage of whatever he sells goes to the one who introduced him. A refined system of parasitism that feeds on greed.) His long-distance call was somewhat puzzling, as he had never called me before, not even to announce their meetings.

“Well . . . If you are not interested in making money – Brother Kingry, then don’t listen . . . .”

“But, I am already fully supported in my work as an evangelist! “

“Yes, I know. But just think. If you sell `Slender Now’ you could be independent of the brethren. You wouldn’t have to raise support!”

“I don’t know that I want to be, or should be independent of my brethren.”

“Well,” he finished, “Many preachers are doing it. And that money that is now supporting you, could be going to other areas if you would just be reasonable. There is `Slender Now’ money going into the church treasury here and all over the U.S.A.”

At the Florida College lectureship a few years ago, the “Slender Now” Cadillacs were in plentiful and ostentatious show. As the week progressed, so did those who made their rounds promoting their respective products. Amway had developed a new wrinkle through the years. Did you know that Amway will make you free? All the preachers selling Amway wore gold lapel pins that declared “Free” on their suits to promote and advertise the freedom offered by Amway.

One brother, whom I have known for years and thought well of, was standing next to a brother who later that year was fired by the elders at a church where he worked over Amway conflicts. Both wore a free button. I walked up and asked “What does the free stand for? `The truth shall make you free?”‘ My friend was embarrassed, and obviously uncomfortable. He did not want to talk about it. His “sponsor.”- was quick to respond; “No. Something better than that! Amway will make you free!” As he went into his pitch I kept looking with wider eyes and astonishment at my friend. He shrank and crumbled in upon himself. He walked away, and when I saw him later that day, he had removed his pin. I never said a word. The blasphemy and sickness of it was too evident except to the most corrupt.

I heard from one of my brethren who had left one of the larger churches in the Tampa area over the sin that had been stirred up in that church by “Slender Now” and “Amway.” From the pulpit and Bible classes the prosperous preacher /salesman had been preaching, “Prosperity of a physical nature is a sign of God’s blessing.” The preacher had come when the church had been between preachers and said in a humble tone, “I have made my fortune in business, and now I devote all my energies to the work of the Lord, I will move here to work with you for free, for my needs have already been met.” His first acts once moved was to sign up the elders, deacons, and leader members to sell his product. He openly endorsed and preached the doctrine of Bildad, the Shuhite: “If thou wert pure and upright; surely now He would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous” (Job 8). Of Bildad, God said, “My wrath is kindled against thee . . . for ye have not spoken the thing that is right” (42:7).

A Sordid Way

“Woe unto you who are rich! For ye have received your consolation. Woe unto ye that are full! For ye shall hunger . . thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 6: 24, 25; 12:20, 21).

Shame and woe upon the brethren who make merchandise out of their brethren, and look upon the church as their private fishing hole. These salesmen are like those described by the Apostle Paul, “He is proud, knowing nothing . . . supposing that gain is godliness; from such withdraw thyself. Only godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they who will be rich fall into a. temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and destructive desires which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some have coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:5ff).

For the preacher,, God says, “Thou therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath called him to be a soldier . . . . If man therefore purgeth himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared for every good work” (2 Tim, 2:3, 4, 21).

Yet, the way of Balaam declares a “New Way” for the follower of Jesus: “Let us buy and sell and make gain from our brother’s need, that we might spend it on our own indulgence.” They claim to give proportionately to the church, as justification for their high degree of materialism. Yet, like the self-righteous rich of the day of our Lord, they give of their abundance, with no sacrifice from the reservoirs of plenty.

“We Are Just Like Paul!”

These rocks who lurk beneath the water to shipwreck the innocent have had the arrogance to declare a comparison between their deeds, and those of the Apostle Paul. “Paul supported himself by tent-making rather than take the money of the church, that he might be independent!”

The grotesqueness of this distorted claim is beyond comprehension. The apostle “suffered want” (I Cor. 4:9ff) that he might preach the gospel to the Gentiles without a hint of personal profit or commercial advantage that might be brought if he sought any kind of financial support from his new converts. In fact, Paul’s labor was in indictment of these very men, who as in Paul’s day use the brethren as a source of income.

“But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them who desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers . . . . Satan’s ministers; whose end will be according to their works” (2 Cor. 11:8, 15). Paul’s work of sacrifice, laboring with his own hands in honest work to further the gospel “taking nothing of the Gentiles because of His name’s sake (3 Jn. 6-8) is the exact opposite of those who come to “labor” with a church for “free” that they might take their money in a way other than directly out of the treasury.

Conclusion

I mentioned at the beginning of this article, that the writing of it would get me in a pickle with some brethren. “The rich hath many friends” (Prov. 14:20) who will rush to his aid and support. “The rich man’s wealth is :his strong city . . (he) answereth roughly” (18:11; 23). “The rich man is wise in his own conceit” (28:11) and will not hear a rebuke. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24), and yet some bold brethren are determined to try. My responsibility as a servant of God is to “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches . . .” (I Tim. 6:17). But it will always be the “rich men who oppress you, and draw you into court” (Jas. 2:6). The rich, and those who would be rich are those who fall into the snare.

The abundant life is not to be found in “something for nothing”: getting gain with little effort. It is not to be found in emulating the rich, but the poor. Satan offers cars, cash, freedom, and prosperity. They call gain godliness and evidence of it. Yet, they are wells without water, clouds carried by the storm, promising life, yet holding only blackness. When they speak their glowing testimonials of prosperity and riches, they allure through the desires of the flesh. Unaware and underpaid preachers are their prey. While they promise independence and glory, they themselves are the slaves of their own rotting lives, for as it is written “A man is slave to that which he serves.” They serve their own belly, even while they claim to share. Does this sound to harsh? These are the word that Peter used to describe the same kind of men 2,000 years ago (2 Pet. 2:15-19).

Those preachers and brethren who would not fall prey to covetous practices must reply, “Thy money perish with thee,” and serve God as a true soldier.

Truth Magazine XXIII: 30, pp. 487-489
August 2, 1979