The Church and the world

 

J. Stoughton, D. D.

I. THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE WORLD IS THE SAME AS CHRIST'S — one of moral contrast as to character, principle, motive, inward life, whether it be the Jewish world, or the Greek, or the Roman. And it is the same now. Conceive the character of Christ, and place by the side of it that of a thoroughly worldly man, you will have the most striking contrast. "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." And marks there are, plain and palpable, between the Church and the world. There are two kinds of changes possible with respect to these.

1. They may be shifted.(1) The Church may push them out so as to take in more and more of the world, bringing in more and more converted spirits.(2) The world may push it in upon the Church, making inroads upon it, persecuting it. Moral ravages, too, may be made, and those who have been in the Church may backslide, and the number of the faithful may be thus diminished.

2. They may be obliterated —(1) By practical compromise. The peculiarities of Christian character are by degrees diminished, and the Church becomes more and more like the world, so that one shades itself off, and gradually fades away into the other.(2) By theoretical dogmas. The puritan doctrine was most unmistakeable. But there is in these days a doctrine which is just the opposite, that instead of dwelling upon the distinction between the Church and the world, dwells upon what belongs to Christians and men of the world in common. Now, we must protest against this obliteration of landmarks. Christ has drawn them most distinctly, and it is at our peril that we destroy them. We believe as firmly as any in the fatherhood of God over all His creatures; but in the case of worldly men, they have broken the hands of spiritual relationship, and adopted themselves into another family. We believe also in the universality of the atonement; but still there is to be a distinction made between those who accept that gospel and those who reject it.

II. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH IS THE SAME AS THE MISSION OF CHRIST. "As Thou hast sent Me into the world," &c. "I am the Light of the world," "Ye are the light of the world." Christ is represented —

1. In the Church's testimony of truth. The Church is to hold forth the truth, to make a stand for it, to illustrate and enforce it.

2. In the Church's missionary operations. Christ was the great Missionary, and His work is now to be carried on instrumentally by His Church. "Go ye into all the world." There are different kinds of missions. There is the lip mission; the pen mission; the hand mission; the foot mission; but chief of all, there is the life mission, and that must be connected with all the rest. Some men have done great things for the cause of Christ by their intellectual power, by pecuniary power, by business power, but I believe there is still more to be done by moral and social power. That connected with the rest makes the rest most effective.

III. THE DESTINY OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD, AND THE DESTINY OF CHRIST'S CHURCH IN THE WORLD IS THE SAME. "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own," &c., and so the text. A great change has been wrought in society by the influence of Christianity; so that the world is not what it was when the prediction was first spoken. And persecution does not exist now in the world as it once did. It is one part of the nominal church persecuting another. But the world is still opposed to what is most truly the spirit of Christianity. The world does not like to hear about the mediation of the Lord Jesus or the work of the Holy Spirit. And then, again, the world is not opposed to some aspects of Christian consistency. When a Christian carries out that in the way of generosity the world will praise him, but when he refuses to connive at deceit and falsehood, the spirit of the world will come out and persecute. Nor is the world so much opposed to moral consistency as to spiritual consistency. Those who oppose forms of amusement which are instinct with evil, such men the world hates. The world, too, may admire specimens of Christianity which are remote, but it does not like specimens of Christianity which are near. Bunyan dead is applauded, but Bunyan alive would not be so. Had Havelock come to England and exemplified his principles in connection with some civil callings at home, there are numbers who would have been ready to persecute the very man whom they applauded to the skies when he was far away. In many cases also the world would be found to admire Christians in spite of their Christianity, but not because of their Christianity. They are praised for their kindness, their generosity, their humility; but their fondness for prayer, their religious strictness, and so on, how often all this is regarded as an abatement!

(J. Stoughton, D. D.)