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Literature and History of New Testament Times

[271] <h2>LESSON XLIX</h2> <h3>CHRISTIANITY AND HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS</h3> <h4>1. THE PROBLEM</h4> Two apparently contradictory features appear in the life of the apostolic Church. In the first place, there was an intense other-worldliness; the Christians were regarded as citizens of a heavenly kingdom. In the second place, there was careful attention to the various relationships of the present life; no man was excused from homely duty. The two sides of the picture appear in the sharpest colors in the life of the apostle Paul. No one emphasized more strongly than he the independence of the Christian life with reference to the world; all Christians, whether their worldly station be high or low, are alike in the sight of God; the Church operates with entirely new standards of value. Yet on the other hand, in his actual dealing with the affairs of this world Paul observed the most delicate tact; and in all history it is difficult to find a man with profounder natural affections. Where is there, for example, a more passionate expression of patriotic feeling than that which is to be found in Rom. 9:3? "I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh." On the one hand, then, the apostolic Church regarded all earthly distinctions as temporary and secondary, and yet on the other hand those same distinctions were very carefully observed. The apparent contradiction brings before us the great question of the attitude of Christianity toward human relationships. This question may be answered in one of three ways. <h4>2. THE WORLDLY SOLUTION</h4> In the first place, there is the worldly answer. The Christian finds himself in a world where his time and his thoughts seem to be fully occupied by what lies near at hand. The existence of God may not be denied, but practically, in the stress of more obvious duties, God is left out of account. (1) "Practical Christianity."—In its crude form, of course, where[272] it involves mere engrossment in selfish pleasure, this answer to our question hardly needs refutation. Obviously the Christian cannot devote himself to worldly enjoyment; a cardinal virtue of the Christian is self-denial. Worldliness in the Church, however, may be taken in a wider sense; it has often assumed very alluring forms. At the present day, for example, it often represents itself as the only true, the only "practical" kind of Christianity. It is often said that true religion is identical with social service, that the service of one's fellow men is always worship of God. This assertion involves a depreciation of "dogma" in the interests of "practical" Christianity; it makes no difference, it is said, what a man believes, provided only he engages in the improvement of living conditions and the promotion of fairer laws. (2) This World Is Not All.—This tendency in the Church really makes religion a thing of this world only. Undoubtedly, much good is being accomplished by social workers who have given up belief in historic Christianity; but it is good that does not go to the root of the matter. Suppose we have improved conditions on this earth, suppose more men have healthy employment and an abundance of worldly goods. Even so the thought of death cannot be banished. Is the totality of man's happiness limited to a brief span of life; are we after all but creatures of a day? Or is there an eternal life beyond the grave, with infinite possibilities of good or evil? Jesus and his apostles and the whole of the apostolic Church adopted the latter alternative. (3) The Secularization of Religion.—We lay our finger here upon one of the points where the modern Church is in danger of departing most fundamentally from the apostolic model. Religion is in serious danger of being secularized; that is, of being regarded as concerned merely with this life. The only corrective is the recovery of the old conception of God. God is not merely another name for the highest aspirations of men, he is not merely the summation of the social forces which are working for human betterment. On the contrary, he is a living Person, working in the world, but also eternally independent of it. You can work for the worldly benefit of your fellow men without coming into any saving contact with God; it does make a vast difference what you believe; it makes all the difference between death and life. (4) The Teaching of Jesus and of the Apostles.—Only one-sided reading of the New Testament can find support for the opposite view. Jesus said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my[273] brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me," Matt. 25:40; but the same Jesus also said, "If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26. The giving of a cup of cold water, which receives the blessing of Jesus, is done for "one of these little ones ... in the name of a disciple." Matt. 10:42. Evidently the good works of the Christian are not independent of the attitude of the doer toward Jesus and toward God; Jesus regards the personal relation between himself and his disciples as one which takes precedence of even the holiest of earthly ties. Far more convincing, however, than any citation of definite passages is the whole spirit of the New Testament teaching; evidently both Jesus and his early disciples had their lives determined by the thought of the living, personal God, holy and mysterious and independent of the world. Social service exists for the sake of God, not God for the sake of social service. The reversal of this relationship is one of the most distressing tendencies of the present day; a study of the apostolic Church may bring a return to sanity and humility. <h4>3. THE ASCETIC SOLUTION</h4> The second answer to our question is the answer of ascetics of many different kinds. According to this answer, the relationship of the Christian to God on the one hand, and his relationship to his fellow men on the other, are in competition. Consequently, in order to strengthen the former, the latter must be broken off. In its extreme form, this way of thinking leads to the hermit ideal, to the belief that the less a man has to do with his fellow men the more he has to do with God. Such conceptions are not always so uninfluential as we are inclined to think, even in our Protestant churches. Monasticism is not indeed consistently carried out, but it is often present in spirit and in principle. Some excellent Christians seem to feel that whole-hearted, natural interest in earthly friends is disloyalty to Christ, that all men must be treated alike, that admission of one man into the depths of the heart more fully than another is contrary to the universality of the gospel. By such men, individuals are not treated as persons, with a value of their own, but merely as opportunities for Christian service. (1) This Solution Defeats Its Own End.—It is evident, in the first place, that such an attitude defeats its own aim. Evidently the power of a Christian worker depends partly at least upon his[274] interest in individuals. It will not do, for example, for the teachers in this course to let their students say, "The teacher loves Christ supremely, but he has no interest in me." Evidently the power of influencing our fellow men is largely increased by an intimate personal relationship; if we are to serve Christ by bringing men to his feet, then we ought not to dissolve but rather to strengthen the bonds of simple affection which unite us to our human friends. (2) This Solution Is Opposed to Apostolic Example.—The example of the apostolic Church points in the same direction; we have already noticed the intensity of natural affection which was displayed even by a man so thoroughly and heroically devoted to Christian service as was the apostle Paul. This example might well be supplemented, and supplemented most emphatically of all by the example which lies at the basis of all of the apostolic Church—the example of Jesus himself. If any man might have been aloof from his fellow men, it was Jesus, yet as a matter of fact, he plainly had his earthly friends. <h4>4. THE TRUE SOLUTION</h4> The true solution of the problem is found in consecration. Human relationships are not to be made the sole aim of life; neither are they to be destroyed; but they are to be consecrated to the service of God. Love for God under normal conditions comes into no competition with love for man, because God takes a place in the life which can never be filled by any human friend; by lopping off human friendships we are not devoting ourselves more fully to God, but merely becoming less efficient servants of him. <h4>5. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL SERVICE</h4> Consecration of human relationships to God does not involve any depreciation of what is known to-day as "social service." On the contrary it gives to social service its necessary basis and motive power. Only when God is remembered is there an eternal outlook in the betterment of human lives; the improvement of social conditions, which gives the souls of men a fair chance instead of keeping them stunted and balked by poverty and disease, is seen by him who believes in a future life and a final judgment and heaven and hell to have value not only for time, but also for eternity, not only for man, but also for the infinite God. (1) Society or the Individual?—It is sometimes regarded as a reproach that old-fashioned, evangelical Christianity makes its[275] first appeal to the individual. The success of certain evangelists has occasioned considerable surprise in some quarters. Everyone knows, it is said, that the "social gospel" is the really effective modern agency; yet some evangelists with only the very crudest possible social program are accomplishing important and beneficent results! The lesson may well be learned, and it should never be forgotten. Despite the importance of social reforms, the first purpose of true Christian evangelism is to bring the individual man clearly and consciously into the presence of his God. Without that, all else is of but temporary value; the human race is composed of individual souls; the best of social edifices will crumble if all the materials are faulty. (2) Every Man Should First Correct His Own Faults.—The true attitude of the Christian toward social institutions can be learned clearly from the example of the apostolic Church. The first lesson that the early Christians learned when they faced the ordinary duties of life was to make the best of the institutions that were already existing. There was nothing directly revolutionary about the apostolic teaching. Sharp rebuke, indeed, was directed against the covetousness of the rich. But the significant fact is that such denunciations of wealthy men were addressed to the wealthy men themselves and not to the poor. In the apostolic Church, every man was made to know his own faults, not the faults of other people. The rich were rebuked for their covetousness and selfishness; but the poor were commanded, with just as much vehemence, to labor for their own support. "If any will not work," said Paul, "neither let him eat." II Thess. 3:10. In short, apostolic Christianity sought to remove the evils of an unequal distribution of wealth, not by a violent uprising of the poor against the rich, but by changing the hearts of the rich men themselves. Modern reform movements are often very different; but it cannot be said that the apostolic method is altogether antiquated. (3) The Ennobling of Existing Institutions.—Certainly the apostolic method has been extraordinarily successful; it has accomplished far more than could have been accomplished by a violent reform movement. A good example is afforded by the institution of slavery. Here, if anywhere, we might seem to have an institution which was contrary to the gospel. Yet Paul sent back a runaway slave to his master, and evidently without the slightest hesitation or compunction. That action was a consistent carrying out of the principle that a Christian man, instead of seeking[276] an immediate change in his social position, was first of all to learn to make the best of whatever position was his already. "Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called. Wast thou called being a bondservant? care not for it: nay, even if thou canst become free, use it rather. For he that was called in the Lord being a bondservant, is the Lord's freedman: likewise he that was called being free, is Christ's bondservant. Ye were bought with a price; become not bondservants of men. Brethren, let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God." I Cor. 7:20-24. The freedom of the Christian, in other words, is entirely independent of freedom in this world; a slave can be just as free in the higher, spiritual sense as his earthly master. In this way the position of the slave was ennobled; evidently the relation of Onesimus to Philemon was expected to afford both slave and master genuine opportunity for the development of Christian character and for the performance of Christian service. (4) The Substitution of Good Institutions for Bad.—In the long run, however, such conceptions were bound to exert a pervasive influence even upon earthly institutions. If Philemon really adopted the Christian attitude toward one who was now "more than a servant, a brother beloved" in Christ, then in the course of time he would naturally desire to make even the outward relationship conform more perfectly to the inward spiritual fact. The final result would naturally be emancipation; and such was the actual process in the history of the Church. Slavery, moreover, is only an example; a host of other imperfect social institutions have similarly been modified or removed. What a world of progress, for example, is contained in Gal. 3:28: "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus." Not battles and revolutions, the taking of cities and the pulling down of empires, are the really great events of history, but rather the enunciation of great principles such as this. "Ye are all one man in Christ Jesus"—these words with others like them have moved armies like puppets, and will finally transform the face of the world. <hr class="tb" /> In the Library.—R. E. Thompson, "De Civitate Dei. The Divine Order of Human Society." Clow, "Christ in the Social Order." Cunningham, "Christianity and Social Questions." Schmidt, "The Social Results of Early Christianity." <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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