All Christian belief must culminate in service or else the belief
itself will wither away. Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, "Let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16); again, in
giving His parting instructions to His disciples, He commanded, "Go ye
therefore and teach all nations" (Matthew 28:19,20). "Faith, if it
hath not works, is dead" (James 2:17).
The New Testament rings with an optimistic trumpet call to service;
there is not a single pessimistic note sounded. A man expresses his
belief and he at once goes to work. To the fact that men were so
willing to lead a strenuous Christian life in those early times is due
in large measure the marvellous spread of the gospel faith.
The Object of the Call was not a cause but a Person (Acts 1:8;
2:22,36,38; 4:12; 10:43; 16:31); to set forth Jesus Christ as the
Saviour of men. The world was full of evil. Society was corrupt. The
state was bad. There were many giant wrongs crying out for the
reformer. The apostles might have devoted themselves to the causes of
social and political reform with splendid success. They might have
bought only a gradual and purely friendly approach to the people whom
they wished to influence, as we often do now, with some success, but
the New Testament writings show that they believed that in the person
of Jesus Christ they had a more powerful remedy for bad social and
political conditions than any other which they could urge. In Christ
they found a supreme object of service; for Him they were willing to
give up houses, lands, position, even life itself (2 Timothy 4:6-8);
for only through Him, they preached, could the world be truly
reformed. Why then potter with temporary and minor remedies when the
permanent and great remedy was at hand? Times have changed since the
apostolic days, but for any lasting good in reform work Christ is
still the great remedy. He must be at the centre of all social,
political and temperance betterments or they are destined to fall
short of the largest success.
The Place.--Where shall men serve the Christ?
1. In the heart; there is a goodness of conduct on the part of some
men which has no relation to their heart's desire and is simply a
cloak worn for appearance's sake. With this sort of goodness Jesus had
no sympathy and denounced it as hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-34; 23:27,
28). Christ's service must commence with an inward conformity to the
law of God. This necessity for a new heart is very clearly brought
out in His conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21).
2. In the home. Jesus said to a man whom He had healed, "Go home to
thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for
thee" (Mark 5:19). Anything that strengthens the home strengthens
society and the state. Good homes are essential for the bringing up of
children and the making of right characters. But it is in the home
that the real testing often comes of a professed Christianity; if a
Christian life can be lived and manifested here it is quite sure to
stand the outward strain.
3. In the community. The disciples of Christ were commanded to begin
their first service in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4,8), where Jesus had been
the most persecuted and was finally crucified. It was no easy task for
them to begin to preach Jesus, where they were the most looked down
upon. But the command was justified when the day of Pentecost came
with the marvellous moving power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). There
can be no clearer teaching from this than that a Christian man should
begin to serve Christ, testify for Him and work for Him in the
community in which he resides no matter what the adverse conditions
are. Here is the sanction for home missions.
4. Abroad. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature" (Mark 16:15; Matthew 28:18-20). The field of service
broadens out from the heart until it takes in the whole world and
every class and condition of men. Man under the guidance of Christ is
led not only to think of saving himself, his home, his community, but
all homes and communities however remote they may be from his
own. Here is the sanction for foreign missions.
The urgency of the call is everywhere manifest in the New
Testament. In the three years of His ministry Jesus Christ is
incessant in His labours, calling upon men to turn to Him (Matthew
11:28-30). He urges watchfulness, prayerfulness, and earnestness in
seeking to enter the kingdom of God (Matthew 11:12; 25:13; 26:41; Mark
14:38; Luke 11:9,10). Paul declared, "Woe is me, if I preach not the
gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16), and he urges Timothy to "preach the
word" and to be "instant in season and out of season" (2 Timothy
4:1,2).
A conflict is going on in the world and those who believe in Christ
are besought to take every possible opportunity and every means to
advance His gospel and cause men to accept Him as their Saviour
(Ephesians 6:10-18).