It is getting increasingly difficult to be a real Christian in today’s unbelieving world. Everywhere, even within the Church of God, there are constant temptations to sit lightly to what the Lord has taught us in His holy Word, and especially what He has taught us by the words and example of the Son of God Himself and by His holy Apostles in the years immediately following His resurrection.
The word ‘love’ is now almost totally misunderstood. Most people consider it to be a sort of unthinking, anaemic benevolence that smiles upon anything that appears to be vaguely ‘good’, without any consideration of what God thinks is good and whether there are things He might disapprove of. We constantly feel the urge to be ‘nice’ to people (and to ourselves) because it is the easy way out and avoids causing any unpleasantness or even worse, feelings of guilt.
Like the great 18th century Evangelical poet and layman William Cowper, we need to pray for a closer walk with God, a calm and heavenly frame. The closer we stay to Him, the greater will be our desire to love His righteous commands and desire those wonderful things He promises. In doing these two things our Christian witness will be much stronger and more effective, because the whole world is crying out for honesty and integrity. All it gets at the moment is half-truths and broken promises.
In this connection it is instructive to study the thumbnail sketch of the Christian community at its birth, as described by St. Luke in Acts 4. After St. Peter’s powerful sermon on the Day of Pentecost, when 3,000 people were added to the Church, we see this fledgling body devoting itself to three things; the Apostles’ teaching, the breaking of bread and the prayers. And they did it together in real fellowship day by day, listening and learning from the Word of God as it shaped their lives, meeting Jesus in person in the Holy Communion and lifting each other and their needs to the Throne of the heavenly Grace.
All these spiritual essentials ended up in very practical action. They loved and cared for each other, even to the extent of selling their surplus property and possessions and donating the proceeds to the Church pool, so that anyone in need had cash to go to the shops and buy food and clothing. The Apostles themselves administered this fund. Just imagine the phenomenal level of trust there must have been between the Christians and the Apostles and what a testimony to the unbelieving world outside. Is it any wonder that the Lord added to their number those who were being saved – not just every year, every month or every week, but DAILY. Wow!!
