Truth Magazine

 

Dear Brother Paul,

Greetings from the Roman saints, brother Paul. We have carefully read your epistle to us and have appreciated it greatly. For the most part, we have understood it and have been encouraged by all of it. However, there is one section about which some question has arisen. We are disagreed about its meaning and application. At times our disagreement has become somewhat sharp and severe. I am referring to the section in which you instruct brethren who differ concerning “food” and “days” to receive each other.

I have been asked by the brethren here to write you asking for further clarification. I am doing this by in-forming you how I understand your teaching. If I have misunderstood you, please correct me frankly and plainly.

First, I understand you to mean that the difference between the “weak” and the “strong” brother is that the former is not “fully assured” in his faith and the latter is “fully assured” in his faith. Thus, in each case “faith” is personal  subjective  and does not refer to “the faith”  objective  as our brother Jude teaches in his epistle.

Dealing with “false teachers,” men who make fatal flaws concerning “the faith,” is taught later in this epistle as well as in other epistles. “Mark and turn away” from those who are teaching things “contrary to the doctrine.” We are familiar with brethren Jude and Peter’s instruction concerning such teachers. We have also heard of, though we have not yet seen the epistle, brother John’s instruction “to give no greeting” to a teacher who does not bring “this doctrine.” To the best of our ability we are practicing these instructions from the inspired witnesses.”

Second, I find no evidence in your instructions that you are concerned with which “faith,” “strong or weak,” is correct. Neither are you saying that the “strong brother” has “faith”; the “weak brother” is holding an opinion. Each is acting conscientiously. Your instruction relates to “receiving each other”; the how and why of it.

Third, it appears evident to me, that the matters about which there is a difference in “faith” do not involve the congregation. They involve brethren acting personally and independently of the group.

“Eating or not eating,” “esteeming one day above another” may be done personally and are not of the same classification as singing in the assembly accompanied by lyres and harps; or choosing an “elder” who has two wives.

Here are my reasons from your instruction for drawing these conclusions: (1) You use “faith” four times in this con-text. The last three unquestionably refer to personal faith. It seems highly unlikely that you would use “faith” in the be-ginning “objectively” and then use it “subjectively” in the conclusion. (2) “Receiving” each other is not based upon the correctness or incorrectness of each brother’s faith because: “Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.” “Each of us shall give an account of himself to God.” The “strong brother” is “not to set at naught him that eateth not” and is “to bear the infirmities of the weak.” On the other hand the “weak brother” is not to “judge (condemn) him that eateth.” Therefore, each is to “receive” the other while each holds his own faith. Since each has been “received” by the Lord  when each obeyed the gospel  the future standing of each will be decided by the Lord.

The “why” each is “to receive” the other is stated in these words: “Let not then your good be evil spoken of.” “For the kingdom of God is not (about) eating and drinking but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” “Let us follow after things which make for peace . . . and edify each other.” “The strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak” and “please his neighbor . . . unto edifying.”

Some who question my understanding of your instruction warn me  which I do not take lightly  that this interpretation would permit us to “give the right hand of fellowship” to some teachers who have recently come from Africa teaching and practicing “plural wives.” I reply that their concern is unfounded for that problem has been addressed by your later teaching in this epistle as well as in the epistles of Jude and Peter, and what we have heard about brother John’s. These “believers” do not argue their “faith” from the teaching of “the faith.” They “deny” our Master by not “listening to His witnesses.”

Our concern here is not about “eating meats” and “es-teeming days.” It concerns “May-pole dancing,” originally a celebration to a “god” which is not God, as you wrote the Corinthian brethren. Now it is simply a national and recreational holiday. Some of us participate in the game being “fully assured.” Some of us are not “fully assured” and therefore do not participate. Some think that we should study the matter until we are of “one mind and one accord.” Others, such as myself, think that we should “receive” each other in spite of our differences. Each “side” claims your instruction as their authority. My judgment is, as I have tried to explain, that we should maintain fellowshipping each other while permitting each brother to “May-pole dance” or not according to his own “faith.” And, that God will finally decide who “stands or falls.”

Be assured, beloved brother, that each of us is resolved to do God’s will endeavoring to remain a “company of believers.” We eagerly await your further instruction.

Fraternally,

Aristobulus (State Gymnasium Captain)

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 21, p. 10-11
November 7, 1996

By Irvin Himmel

King Saul was sent by the Lord to utterly destroy the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15. He was told plainly to “go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

The haughty Saul spared Agag, the Amalekite king, and the best of the livestock were brought back. When Samuel the prophet rebuked Saul for his disobedience to God, the rebellious king admitted, “I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.”

As the leader of the people, Saul had the responsibility to go before them in the fear of God. No matter what the people desired, God’s will should have been respected by the king. Saul let the people lead him when he should have been leading them.

Elders in the church sometimes cave in to the demands of the people when they should insist on following the New Testament plan for the church. Preachers often are influenced by the voice of the people. They preach what the people want to hear rather than what the people need to hear. Such men ought to read, believe, and obey Paul’s charge in 2 Timothy 4.

Let us always fear God and obey his voice.

 

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 21, p. 9
November 7, 1996

By Ron Halbrook

During his personal ministry, Jesus had many debates in an ongoing battle between truth and error. A religious lawyer once tried to trap him by asking, “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus answered the question by asking, “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” The lawyer correctly cited two pillars of the law requiring love of God first and then love of neighbor (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18). Jesus said, “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.”

This answer exposed the lawyer’s lack of love for his neighbor, so he asked a question designed to justify and excuse himself: “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus told the story of a man who was robbed, beaten, and left for dead on the Jerusalem-Jericho road, a route known for its bandits. A priest hurried by without stopping, as did a Levite. These religious leaders thought of themselves and perhaps their duties at the temple. They saw no reason to put themselves in harm’s way.

“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him.” The Samaritan bound up the man’s wounds and paid the costs for his recovery. Jesus asked, “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves?” The lawyer avoided saying the word “Samaritan” but simply said, “He that showed mercy on him.” Jesus answered, “Go, and do thou likewise.” To be a neighbor is to show love, mercy, and compassion wherever it is needed  to recognize our neighbor’s need and do what we can to help. That is how we fulfill the command to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Good lessons are found in this account. 1. Jesus is the Master Teacher. He taught we will know who our neighbor is if we resolve to be a neighbor, a person of love and mercy (Gal. 6:10; Rom. 13:8-10). Using a man of the despised race of Samaria to teach the lesson was a master stroke. “Never man spake like this man” (John 7:46).

2. Jesus appealed to the Bible as God’s Word. “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” “Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.” The Bible can be understood and has the right answer to every question (Matt. 4:1-11; 19:4; 22:29-31).

3. Religious debates are effective. This account teaches us to answer a question with a question at times. Jesus did not subscribe to Satan’s proverb, “I never discuss religion; I do not believe in debates.” We are not to engage in malicious quarrels, or to endlessly rehash the truth with people whose hearts are hardened (Rom. 1:29; Matt. 7:6; 10:14). Good de-bates can be traced from Elijah to Jesus to Paul to our time.

4. People who do not know the truth may do better at times on a given point than some who know the truth. Jeroboam led ten tribes of Israel to separate from Judah and to worship golden calves. When Israel went into Assyrian captivity, Assyria moved Gentiles into the land of Israel. The few Israelites left intermarried with Gentiles and their religions intermingled (2 Kings 17). Thus, the Samaritans arose with their false religion. Yet, in the story Jesus told, the Samaritan outshone two of God’s people. When the church at Corinth tolerated extreme immorality, God said the Gentiles do better than that (1 Cor. 5). Our proverb, “There is honor among thieves,” makes a similar point today.

5. Human sophistry cannot excuse sin. We cannot fool God by asking one question after another designed to get around his law and to justify ourselves. The lawyer knew the truth but his heart was not in it, just like the priest and the Levite.

The Good Samaritan Misused

Every gift and revelation from God has been twisted, perverted, and misused by Satan (2 Cor. 2:11; 2 Pet. 3:16). He twisted and tortured God’s law in the Garden of Eden to make evil appear harmless and good evil (Gen. 3:4-6). In tempting Christ, Satan perverted Psalm 91:11-12 to say God promises security to his children even when they disobey him; the passage promises God’s care when his children trust in him (Matt. 4:5-7). Jesus said men would destroy the temple of his body and, “In three days I will raise it up,” but at his trial false witnesses said he proposed to destroy the literal temple and rebuild it in three days (John 2:18-22; Matt. 26:59-61).

Satan’s ministers have perverted and misused the story of the good Samaritan to teach the following errors. 1. God does not care what our religion is, just so we are good neighbors and help people. This misses the lesson. Jesus shows that people who do not know the truth may do better on a given point at times than those who know the truth. He rebuked the spirit of the priest and the Levite another time, asking, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). The Bible speaks of some “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof’ (2 Tim. 3:5).

This is far different from teaching that people can be saved in ignorance and false religion. The Samaritan religion was a mixture of truth and error, an attempt to mix the worship of God with false gods. “They feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children” (2 Kings 17:24-41). Jesus told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well that her religion was false and devoid of salvation (John 4:22). She had to give up that religion to follow Christ.

Christ’s use of the good Samaritan to rebuke the Jews did not mean we can be saved by philanthropy without the gospel. Christ died on the cross because we cannot save ourselves by such deeds (Eph. 2:8-9). Salvation is only in Christ and is received by faith, repentance, confessing him, and immersion in water (Acts 2:36-38; 8:37).agencies, colleges, vocational training, entertainment activities, and legal and financial services.

2. The church is to be a good Samaritan by functioning as a social welfare institution. This very popular and widespread idea is utterly false. Jesus used the good Samaritan to teach that it is not enough to profess the truth  we must put it into practice in daily life. Each of us is personally responsible to help others as we have the ability and opportunity (Gal. 6:10; James 1:27). The church is a soul-saving institution, not a social welfare institution designed to provide hospitals, retirement centers, child care.

3. The church is to provide financial aid to anyone and everyone who asks without exception. No, the story of the good Samaritan is not discussing the use of a local church’s treasury, but emphasizes our personal, individual duty to our fellowman. The benevolent responsibility of a local church is limited to meeting the needs of faithful Christians on an emergency basis, except that qualified widows may be enrolled for constant care (Acts 6:1; 2 Cor. 9:1; 1 Tim. 5:4-16). A man who will not work should not be given aid at all (2 Thess. 3:10).

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 21, p. 8-9
November 7, 1996

By H. E. Phillips

To some degree just about everyone wants to be rich. The sad part is that most want to be rich in earthly treasures and care nothing for true riches. “Rich” is a relative term and does not say how much wealth one must have to be considered rich. It would depend entirely upon comparison with others. The word does not tell the nature of the wealth. One may be be rich in one thing and poor in another.

The Love of Money

The Holy Spirit warns: “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Tim. 6:9,10). Here those who “will be rich” are those who “love money,” and while they covet after it, they depart the faith and bring upon themselves many sorrows. I suppose there is nothing that has not been done or will not be done “to be rich.” One sure way to make a fortune is to devise a scheme which promises to make men rich and offer it for sale. The greed of men will drive them to invest in or purchase the plan in the hope of becoming rich.

False Concept of Riches

I can tell you how to be rich! But unlike some of the get-rich-quick schemes, I do not propose to offer the “uncertain riches” that fade away with time. “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). The tendency to trust in uncertain riches is plainly taught by the word in a parable of a certain rich man whose ground brought forth plentifully. His major concern was to find the room to store his wealth, and when had he made ample arrangements he thought to say within himself: “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” God called him a fool and said he would die that night. Now what about his riches? Jesus concludes by saying: “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).

The man who thinks he is rich because he has much money, property, stocks and bonds, and all that is considered wealth in this world is miserably mistaken. The lukewarm church in Laodicea considered itself rich. “Be-cause thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing . . .” (Would not a man in this state be considered secure and successful?) “. . . and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). I could hardly imagine a worse condition, yet these people thought of themselves as being rich, in-creased with goods, and have need of nothing. In reality they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

True Riches

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. . .” The real wealth comes from God and we must “buy” it. “Buy the truth, and sell it not” (Prow. 23:23). This suggests that the truth is obtained by some effort on your part and at some expense to you. Whatever you have to pay for it, do not sell it for any consideration.

Now, do you really want to be rich? I mean rich in the full sense of the word, with riches that cannot be taken from you. The Laodiceans were to “buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” “Buy” cannot mean that value for value is given, because there is no price man can bring to purchase the priceless riches in Christ. This simply indicates the effort on the part of the one desiring these riches to obtain them. The “gold tried in the fire” is the pure gold refined by fire and separated from the dross. “That you may be rich” is that true wealth from God in contrast to the riches of this world.

Jesus taught that men should “lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:19-21).

How to Become Rich

The true riches come from God through Christ. “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). They come through Christ by the gospel. Paul said he had been made a minis-ter “to fulfill the word of God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is manifest to his saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of his glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:25-27). “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2, 3). Again Paul said, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8).

All this means that you can be rich if you will hear the word of truth concerning the unsearchable riches of Christ and understand it. But you must do the will of God to receive these riches. Both Jew and Gentile must call upon the name of the Lord to be saved (Rom. 10:13). In order to call upon him, they must believe; and in order to believe they must hear; and in order to hear, there must be a message given and a messenger to preach it. In the verse leading to this point we read: “For there is no difference between the Jew and Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him” (Rom. 10:12). The Lord is rich only to those who call upon him, and this is done by obeying the truth believed.

James 2:5 says that the poor in this world are “rich in faith.” Of course, this does not mean that one who is poor in things of this world is automatically “rich in faith.” Since the whole context is dealing with “respect of persons” even in the assembly, based upon how much of this world’s riches one possesses, the “poor” would be those saints who are not rich in goods, but rich in faith. A wealthy man may be “poor” in that he does not regard his wealth as important when compared to his faith in Christ.

The Lord said unto the church in Smyrna: “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9). This church was in poverty, yet they were rich! How can this be? The answer, of course, lies in the difference between the riches of this world and the riches of faith in Christ. Moses elected to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; “es-teeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb. 11:25,26).

False Values

Not many can be persuaded to accept the riches that come by faith in Christ. They are not nearly as interested in the treasures in heaven as in the treasures of this world. In this affluent society in which we live, anything that is not valued in terms of dollars and cents is not important. The great majority would not turn around for the privilege of learning the truth of God’s word. Most are not concerned about what their children are taught by way of television, movies, books, magazines, not to speak of back alleys and lonely roads in parked cars. Just so they can “make plenty of money” to “provide for their children,” nothing else makes any difference. Your child needs money less than anything else in this generation. He needs to become rich in things that extend beyond this life. He will never be rich, even if you leave him a million dollars, unless you teach him the wisdom of God that he may be rich in faith.

Find the riches of the wisdom of God in Christ, and obey it; you will be rich beyond anything this world can offer.

Guardian of Truth XL: No. 14, p. 12-13
July 18, 1996