"To
serve the living... God" (1 Thess. 1:9).
1.
The Service - What It Is
If the service of God
is to be as immediately and fully fruitful and effectual
as it can be it is essential that we should have its
nature clearly defined. If asked what the service of God
is, many different answers would be given. Christianity
has - on its practical side - been resolved into certain
particular lines and forms of work, with their peculiar
objects governing. Because the conception of Christian
service has become so large and general it has become
necessary to reconsider the matter and ask - What is
really the Divine object in the service of God?
(a)
The Object
If we look carefully at
the Bible as a whole with this question before us, we
shall see that there is but one all-inclusive and
all-governing answer. The work of God may move along many
and various lines and have different aspects but the
object is one. This one object determines whether the
work is really the work of God, and also determines the
measure of permanence and eternal value of what is done
in the Name of the Lord. Even with the best intention of
doing God service, there is very much that misses the
mark and fails of the Divine object.
The one object is
Christ. God has, all-inclusively, committed Himself
to fill His Son with all things, and to fill all things
with His Son. To bring Christ in, and to increase the
measure of Christ, both extensively and intensively, is
God's sole object, and co-operation with Him in this is
the only true service of God. That "He may fill
all things"; that "in all things He
might have the preeminence"; that "Christ
(may be) all, and in all," is the only
service which answers to God's heart. This is a statement
of fact, and it is also a test of work. In the Old
Testament, everything points to Christ, and He is
implicit in all things there. The significance of Christ
governs all. In the New Testament this is explicit.
Conversions are not ends and objects in themselves. Every
new believer is a vessel of Christ. The fact in every
"new birth" is that Christ has come in. But the
Scriptures do not leave it there. The greater part of the
New Testament is occupied with the increase of Christ in
believers. That is the personal aspect. Beyond this the
Church as a whole is brought into view as that which is
to be "the fulness of Him." Then local
churches are represented as vessels and vehicles
of Christ beyond individual possibility and capacity. The
whole idea of the Holy Spirit is to make the fulness of
Christ a reality. All the conflict is related to this,
for the Adversary knows that his kingdom is weakened and
narrowed in proportion to the increase of Christ. The
test of all Christian work will be its effectiveness in
really enlarging the measure of Christ in this universe.
(b)
Its Nature
In this dispensation
Christ is not on this earth physically, but is only here
in and by His Spirit. Christ cannot, therefore, be known
in any other way than spiritually. Further: Christ is
not, in this dispensation, seeking to set up something on
this earth as attached to it. He is detaching a people
from the world and the nations, and attaching them to
Himself in an entirely spiritual way. Their birth is
spiritual - John 3:6. Their sustenance is spiritual -
John 6:33. Their knowledge of God and of His things is
spiritual - 1 Cor. 2:9-16. Their consummation is
spiritual - 1 Cor. 15:35-38. Everything is now a matter
of spiritual measure and value.
So the service of God
in this age is essentially spiritual. Not what can be
seen, counted, or in any way appraised by the natural
senses; but what is the pure and alone work of the Spirit
of God is the criterion.
The trend of things
since Apostolic times has almost entirely been to set up
a world-system of Christianity; a Church that is
something of temporal account and position. The immediate
result of touching this cursed earth is discord and
division. Only a Church on heavenly ground is the "one
body." (see Ephesians 1 and 4). As the Church of
"the eternal purpose," so is its
ministry, spiritual and heavenly; not 'ecclesiastical,'
formal, and ritualistic.
2.
The Servant
If the work of God is
essentially spiritual, then it demands spiritual people
for its doing; and the measure of their spirituality will
determine the measure of their value to the Lord. Because
this is so, in God's mind the servant is more than the
work. If we are going to come truly into the hands
of God for His purpose, then we shall be dealt with by
Him in such a way as to continually increase our
spiritual measure. Not our interest in Christian work;
our enthusiasms, ambitions, energies, or abilities; not
our academic qualifications, or anything that we are in
ourselves, but simply our spiritual life is the basis of
the beginning and growth of our service to God. Even
the work, when we are in it, is used by Him to increase
our spiritual measure. Any Christian work which does not
have the effect of adding to the measure of Christ in the
worker is either not the true Divine service, or is
itself working to his or her condemnation and injury. The
Apostle Paul is a great example of how much increase of
true spiritual knowledge and Christly measure is
resultant from the very service of God itself, when the
servant is a truly spiritual man. There are numerous
other instances of this, both in and out of the
Bible.
The Apostle's word "not
a novice"(1 Tim. 3:6) as to "overseers"
would - if applied to all taking responsibility in
the things of God - correct much that is weak and painful
in organized Christian work. The lack of an
essential measure of maturity has resulted in
tragedy in many lives under strain, and many defeats in
the work. Too often the devil has either weakened or
destroyed the work and the worker by making the
activities too heavy and exacting for the spiritual life
to measure up. It is not truths stated, ideas set forth,
doctrines preached, etc.; but the spiritual life, power,
and measure behind it all that settles its real value and
fruitfulness.
Again, because this is
true, there is no end to spiritual growth in this life.
We are really only getting to a position to be of some
value, because of experience and understanding, when we
are taken away. This would make life an enigma and
something of a mockery were it not that the greater
measure and nature of our service was to be
afterward when and where "His servants shall
serve Him. And they shall see His face."
There is a dangerous
tendency to commit the interests of God to the hands of
those who do not really know Him in a deep way, and to
regard those who have measure through much experience as
incapable of meeting the needs of the younger generation.
The New Testament would soundly trounce this superficial
tendency as a peril to the Church of God. Years may not
be the criterion, either way, but spiritual degree most
certainly is!
3.
The Training
Because what we have
said about the servant and the service is so true, the
training must be above all things that which will produce
spiritual men and women. Of course we recognize that this
applies to all children of God who would serve Him in any
way; but we are now having in mind such as may serve Him
in more than a general way.
a. It is essential
that there is a strong and sound grounding in the
knowledge of the Scriptures. For every obvious reason
this is so. But when we have given this matter all
the place that it must have, it is necessary to point
out that the letter of the Word is not enough.
Lectures on the Bible, and analyses of its books will
never make a true servant of Christ. The need is for a
spiritual knowledge of the Word of God; it must
be spiritually taught and apprehended. That which
lies behind the letter as to the Divine mind must be
seen. The teaching and study of the Scriptures must
have immediate spiritual effect in the life of those
concerned. The Word of God will only profit in so far
as it comes to us in spiritual power.
b. There must be a
practical life running side by side with the study
work. This practical side should have two aspects at
least.
1. There must
be life as in a spiritual family, so that all the
lessons of forbearance, patience, and
co-operation are learned. The Cross must be known
in the numerous and frequent occasions when the
flesh in ourselves and in others rises because of
human failures and faults. The great value of
fellowship has to be learned in the testing
conditions of life at close quarters over a
sufficient period. The reality of the laws of
"the Body of Christ" has to be
established. Dependence, inter-dependence,
inter-relatedness, as over against independence,
individualism, and detachment, are some of these
laws which will mean in their observance or
violation life or death, fulness or limitation in
the Lord's service. Our object must not be to get
adherents to Christianity, but to build a
spiritual "body," therefore we must
know 'body' life, order, and function.
2. There must
be practical spiritual expression in our
training, and the best and most directly fruitful
way for this is assembly life. The training of
'workers' should be in close relationship with
'church' life as constituted and formed on the
true organic basis of the Body of Christ. Not
just a preaching place, or one where meetings are
held and attended; but where there is true
corporate life and mutuality in building up. In
such, and out from such corporate life, ministry
and service should be developed; not just
technicians from an institute. No one should
really be allowed to go out into whole time
Christian service who has not had a true 'church'
training and learnt the meaning and value of
corporate life. God is not wanting so many units,
either for salvation or service. He is set upon
His Church as the corporate expression of Christ,
Everything, therefore, if fulness is to be
attained, must be on that basis.
To sum up. God is
working in relation to His eternal purpose concerning His
Son, Jesus Christ. The Church which is His (Christ's)
Body is the predestined "fulness of Him." This
personal and corporate expression of Christ is not
earthly, temporal, 'ecclesiastical'; not national, or
sectarian, but heavenly, spiritual, eternal. The ministry
of this corporate representation of Christ is essentially
and solely a spiritual thing, determined by its spiritual
measure. (Spirituality is what is of God and not of man -
even religious man.) While there are those things which
are of value in furnishing the Lord's servants for the
human aspects of their work, the real training is
spiritual, i.e. the knowledge of God vitally, and of His
Son, in the Word of God and in experience. Training for
the service of God should therefore be solely governed by
the object of producing men and women of a sound and
strong spiritual life, with a background of a deep
knowledge of Him, "the word of God" dwelling in
them "richly in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding."
First published in "A Witness and A
Testimony" magazine, Nov-Dec 1951, Vol 29-6
Republished in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Mar-Apr 1962, Vol 40-2