Christian Living in the Modern World
by James B Chpman
Chapter 7 - Vigilance the Price of Safety
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and "am deceit, after the tradition of
men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ (Colossians 2:8)
It would seem from a study of the methods of John Wesley, that he first thought that once a
Christian had come into the enjoyment of the grace of heart purity or perfect love there would
henceforth be no personal problems, or any problems as relating to a society of believers who had
come into the fullness of the blessings of the gospel. But there arose division among Wesley's own
followers, and some of them drifted into great extremes of faith and temper, and it became
necessary for Wesley to reprove them. Then after considering the matter more maturely, Wesley
saw that the blessings of God are offered upon condition, and that this is true of the keeping of
God's grace, as well as upon its reception to begin with. He therefore wrote a tract and distributed
it among his followers, calling attention to the dangers which he believed beset the pathway of
people who set out to live for God in this world. The content of the tract was largely negative, but
by contrast the positive virtues were intimated. It has now been a long time since this tract of
Wesley's had general distribution and it is likely that many Christians of today have never read it.
Also those who read it years ago have probably become rusty regarding the things which it
contains. It therefore seems proper to bring to our attention the outline of the words of this
wonderful Christian leader.
I do not have Wesley's tract before me, and I do not propose to follow his discussion of his
points. But the points themselves are so fitting that it would be folly for me to try to state them in
my own words, and the general trend of his discussion doubtless has influenced my own thinking,
although I make no effort to either remember or forget what he said. Wesley's message appeared
under the general theme of "Beware," and his points were: (1) Beware of pride. (2) Beware of the
daughter of pride, enthusiasm. (3) Beware of Antinomianism. (4) Beware of sins of omission. (5)
Beware of desiring anything but God. (6) Beware of making a rent in the church. (7) Be exemplary
in all things, especially in little things like dress, laying out your money, and in serious and useful
conversation.
1. Beware of pride. Paul exhorted all not to think of themselves more highly than they ought
to think. There is an assumed self-abasement that savors of unreality, and which is injurious to
sincerity. One cannot actually account himself as dishonest and vile, when he knows that his full
desire is to please God and live a good, unselfish life. Henry Ward Beecher suggested that it is not
necessary for anyone to belittle himself. All he need do is let his shadow fall upon someone who is
really good and great. After that he will not need any help to bring his estimates of himself down to
sizable proportions.
Wesley allowed that there are a hundred different kinds of pride, and suggested that one
may even become proud of his meekness, in which case his meekness becomes but a shadow and a
pretense. There is pride of race, which is the temptation of those of noble pedigree or of supposed
noble pedigree. Then there is the pride of face to which the comely are exposed, and the pride of
grace which is the bane of the religious.
Pride is a temper of the heart, and does not necessarily appear on the outside. But we know
its opposites as meekness, humility and patience. Paul observed that tribulation worketh patience,
and we know that tribulation crucifies pride. Tribulation shows us what others think of us, and
when we discover that others have appraised us at a lower figure than we have named as our
value, it humiliates us. But when we find that others hold us in higher esteem than we hold
ourselves the discovery lifts us up. That is why Jesus said, "He that humbleth himself shall be
exalted and he that exalteth himself shall be abased."
But pride is personal inflation. We hear a great deal in political circles these days about
"inflation of the currency." Practically everyone dreads inflation, but all seem more or less afraid
that it will be forced upon us. Brought right down to its simple analysis, inflation as the politicians
think of it, means appearing to be worth more as a nation than either our fixed assets or national
income can justify. And they tell us that when such inflation comes there will be a temporary boom
in prosperity, but this will be followed by financial disaster, nullification of debts and depression
such as will entirely consume all the apparent advantages of the inflation. And that is what comes
to the individual when he gives way to pride. Solomon said, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall."
There is a state in God's grace wherein we live so consciously in God's presence that we
do continually "pour contempt on all my pride." Isaiah found this in the temple. There he saw the
Lord high and lifted up, and he himself fell upon his face crying, "I am undone." He was just as
good and just as worthy that day in the temple as he had been previously, but when he saw himself
in the presence of a holy God he suddenly became aware of the limitations he had possessed all
the time. This is our hope and God's way for us. As we see more of God, we care less for self, and
the way to self-abasement is the way of divine exaltation, until we can say, "To me to live is
Christ." "Beware of pride," and of depending upon your own good works and upon the arm of
human strength.
2. Beware of the daughter of pride, enthusiasm. Wesley used this word enthusiasm with the
same meaning as we now use the word fanaticism. The meaning, as Wesley gave it, is expecting
results without giving due attention to conditions. If we expect to receive without asking, if we
hope to be spiritual without time spent in Bible reading and prayer, if we expect to wield a good
influence without living consistently, if we expect people to come to church without being invited,
if we expect to speak well without study, if we think God will send a revival without travail of
spirit on the part of His people, if we think the work of God will find support without our tithe and
offerings, we are enthusiasts, fanatics, and expect results without attention to adequate causes.
Wesley concluded that it is important for us to make way for receiving God's blessings by
passing on the things He gives us. He said of himself that as soon as he received money he passed
it on as quickly as possible, lest money should get hold of him. And his philosophy of economic
life was (1) Make all you can, (2) save all you can, (3) so as to be able to give all you can. And in
private devotion and public service he was careful to make way for singing and thanksgiving, as
necessary to further reception from God and spiritual growth on the part of the Christian.
It is not always given us to know the exact connection between cause and effect, but we
know there is such a connection, and that we get things when we pray that are denied us when we
do not pray, and that God's faithfulness to us is conditioned upon our faithfulness to Him. This is
not so much that God is unwilling to bless the unworthy, as that our own hearts condemn us and our
own faith will not work when we do not bring our best to God when we come to ask His best for
us. There are mysteries in the Christian life, just as there are mysteries to the human mind in all
worthwhile things, but there is no magic. We get out of the service of God according as we put into
the service of God, and better conditions on our part bring fuller blessings on God's part.
Once a preacher excused himself from grinding study on the theory that he would simply
open his mouth and God would fill it. But a more logical Christian replied, "He will fill it, indeed.
He will fill it with air." But if we would learn, we must study. If we would grow in grace, we must
give attention to the "means of grace." If we would have friends, we must show ourselves friendly.
If we would accomplish good, we must give ourselves to doing good.
Feelings in the Christian experience are results and not causes. We should not seek to feel
good, but to be good and do good. We should not strive to be happy, but to be useful, and when we
are useful, happiness will come as a byproduct.
3. Beware of Antinomianism. This is a big word which was, I think, invented by Luther,
and adopted by Wesley. The import of the word is "against law." Applied practically it means the
divorcement of experience from practice. It means that you can be right and yet not do right. That
you can be holy and not righteous. That you can stand well with God and yet be in disgrace with
men for your own folly and wickedness. Of such error, Wesley said, beware. The word sounds
old-fashioned, but the idea is as new as today. People profess to be Christians, and yet indulge in
wine, gambling, tobacco, worldly amusements and tricky business methods, and they would be
deeply hurt if you suggested they are not Christians, and they would be unaffected if you insisted
that they depart from iniquity to warrant their naming themselves after Christ.
In some communities in India, where the Mohammedans are consistent in abstaining from
alcohol, and the Hindus likewise are true to their law of prohibition of liquor, and where every
man is known by his color and his religion, rather than by his nationality, when a white man is seen
drunk, the people remark, "He is a Christian." But in our own land, where Christian enlightenment
has made men wise, a man is required to prove his profession by his life. But we do not seek to
pass this on to others, we want to face the issue ourselves. Beware of excusing yourself in matters
of practical Christianity. Remember that faith is based upon faithfulness, that while we are not
saved by good works, we are saved to good works. If we claim the blessings of the gospel, we
must comply with the requirements of the gospel. Law does not include grace, but grace includes
law. To be saved from the law means to be saved from the rigors of the law by being made to love
the things the law demands. It never means license to break the law. I am, for example, not under
the law which forbids murder, for I am under the grace that enables me to love all my fellow men.
Therefore the love of Christ constrains me before the law against murder has any opportunity to
restrain me. In the divine order we are made right before we are expected to do right, but we keep
right by doing right. Beware of Antinomianism, of making void the law.
4. Beware of sins of omission. There are many passive graces in the Christian galaxy, like
patience, and self-control, and for their exercise we have need of many prudential maxims. We
need to "bridle the tongue." We need to "rule our spirit." We need to literally close our eyes to
seeing blood, and shut our ears to the hearing of blood. We need to shake our hands from the
holding of bribes, and refuse to go with the multitudes to do evil. What everybody does is not
necessarily wise or right. There is a never-ending demand for keeping ourselves in hand and
allowing no wild thoughts or unwise and hasty actions to mar our reputation for sanity and
consistency.
But passivity can carry us too far. It can take us on to where we conclude we are not our
brother's keeper, and that it is required of us only that we be good, and not that we do good. There
is danger that we shall become harmless, but not militant. We may decide that if others will leave
us alone, we will not trouble them. We may conclude that making and saving are the end of the
law, and that giving is neither necessary nor desirable. We may neglect opportunity for testifying,
thinking it enough to just live inoffensively. We may fall into that error of which James speaks, "He
that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." What did this man do? No, that is not it.
He just did not do anything. He was not guilty of an evil deed. He just passed an opportunity for
doing a good deed or saying a kind and helpful word. Negative goodness is not enough. If we
would be genuine Christians, we must also possess and practice positive righteousness. Beware of
being so good that you are just "goody-goody." Beware of being good for nothing.
The true Christian not only has a shield, he also has a sword. He does not stop with
warding off attack. He attacks evil with a militant spirit. He does not hold to the fallacy of "peace
at any price." He knows that in this world we are born unto conflict, and that we must fight, if we
would win. The Christian who is at peace with a world that is at war with God has difficulty in
explaining his allegiance. Beware of omitting the Christian duties, and of passing over the
Christian opportunities. We are here to do good, as well as to be good, and we are challenged to
active service, as well as to passive suffering for Christ.
5. Beware of desiring anything but God. Coveting that which is rightly another's is
condemned by the Ten Commandments, and the possession of worldly goods is the snare of many.
But it is likely that Wesley was not thinking in quite such an elementary sphere. He was writing to
Christian people, and it is likely that he was warning against seeking to be like others, seeking for
religious happiness, seeking for "power" to do miracles, seeking for manifestations that will cause
others to wonder. And knowing how treacherous and transient such things are, he would say,
beware of seeking anything but God.
There is a difference between manifestation and demonstration. Manifestation is on the
inside, demonstration on the outside. Manifestation is what God does for us as we meet conditions
for His favor. Demonstration is what men see in us as we work out what God has worked in. This
is not discounting demonstration altogether, but it is suggesting that it be given only passing
attention.
Sometimes in the presence of an effective preacher of the gospel, or in the company of a
saintly soul we may be tempted to pray, "Lord, give me what that man has." But what we may see
and think we want is not the pure grace of God, but is the grace of God shining through a special
human personality, and it is the human features that especially impress us. If God were to give us
what man has, He would have to give us that man's personality, and that is not what we want at all.
We may ask God to make us demonstrate like someone else whose zeal and fervor have
impressed us. But this too is irrelevant. We are not adapted to the form of demonstration which is
another's, and enforced uniformity is a hindrance to personal enlargement. The little verse in the
old schoolbook that made the robin conclude "I would rather be my honest self than any made-up
daisy," is full of thought for us. It has been suggested that if we could all place our bag of troubles
in a common mart, and then if it were given us to know all that is connected with the troubles of
others, and then with this enlightenment we were asked to take our choice, we would go right back
and pick up our own burden in preference to the lot of any other. A change of environment is not
our solution. An exchange of personalities is both impossible and undesirable. Transformation of
temperament will not help, for any temperament has its limitations and drawbacks, as well as its
advantages. God is our only solution, and He has made provision in His grace for exactly what we
each one need. Therefore let us not frustrate His grace. Let us not become entangled with
incidentals. Let us desire God. Let us seek to be perfected in His grace. But let us close our ears to
all who would set us on the track of tricks and trappings and spiritual alchemy. "Now the end of
the commandment is love out of a pure heart, a good conscience and faith unfeigned." All else is
gratuitous and incidental. Not all of God's gifts will meet the need. It is God himself my spirit
craves. But when He comes into my life to reign in the fullness of His grace and glory, there is no
craving left unappeased, and I am enabled to look on all there is in the world, and all there is in the
transient and incidental of even the Christian life, and still say, "There is none on earth or in
heaven I desire but Thee."
6. Beware of making a rent in the church. Wesley's challenge was stated in dual form,
"Beware of schism -- of making a rent in the church." We know that in the past great fundamentals
have divided the professed followers of the true God. Such a separation came when a portion of
the faithful in Israel proclaimed Jesus . of Nazareth as the promised Messiah, and when the others
would not hear and heed the message. There was then a sharp and permanent separation. There
was such a separation in the visible church when Martin Luther proclaimed the apostolic doctrine
of justification by faith, and all would not hear. Even Wesley himself led off a separate group
composed of those who had themselves become partakers of vital things in Christian experience
and life. And there are other instances of separation over fundamentals in which the separatists
were "pushed-outers," more than "come-outers," and other such instances may yet occur in the
history of the Christian Church. To such cases Wesley evidently had no reference.
Rather his thought was turned to the instances in which within a group of worshipers
ambitious people who have real or imagined qualities for leadership make themselves or their
own pet notions nuclei for clans and inner circles" which minister to pride and personal
preferences, rather than to the glory of God and the advantage of His cause in this world.
Questions relating to general church union are beyond the sphere of interest for the most of
us, and if we are interested, in the most cases there is nothing we can .do about it. But within our
own group there is responsibility, and here we are enjoined not to contribute to divisive
tendencies, but to work for peace and co-operation in service.
It is a serious thing to break fellowship with other worshipers of God. And the sad part of
it is that Christians are so serious in their religion, that they usually do not go far until they begin to
impugn each other's motives and become divided in spirit, even when circumstances work for
keeping them united in form. Solomon gave the man who sows discord among brethren a low place
in bad company, but David commended as good and pleasant the dwelling together of brethren in
unity.
Our present purpose does not warrant our branching out into questions of wisdom about
church joining, church union, advantages and disadvantages of denominationalism and such like.
We are thinking in terms of the personal unit in God's work. How shall I go about it to develop and
maintain unity among God's people? Well, Christ is the gathering place of His disciples, and the
way to get close to all of them is to get close up to Him. I would perhaps waste my time if I went
about preaching "let us get together." But when I get up close to Christ all those who are close to
Him seem immediately to recognize me as a brother. But when I get off and warm my hands around
the enemy's fire, I need someone to identify me in the crowd, for few will know me as one who
companies with His people. After all, then, the call for unity among Christians is a call to each one
of us to a closer walk with Christ. Not simply a conversion of doctrines, or even a broadening of
nominal and official fellowship, but a "drawing nigh to God." Our oneness is in Christ, not in
external vows and formalities.
7. Be exemplary in all things, especially in little things like dress, laying out your money,
and in serious and useful conversation. In this last instance Wesley forsook his negative form and
gave a comprehensive and positive precept. Perhaps we all love hero stories, and perhaps we
have dreamed of a red letter day in our own lives when with one bold act we would justify our
whole existence upon the earth. But most of us have lived long enough now to know that usually
we miss the big opportunities.
We were too young when one war came, and too old when the next appeared. We were at
the place just before and just after the accident occurred, but we were not on the spot at the big
moment. We could be at the wonder spot only one time, and on that day it was raining, so the
beauty that some describe escaped us. The night of the big eclipse it was cloudy in our part of the
country. The great man did not move into our circle when he was a boy, so we narrowly missed
being his chum. And it is the same way with deeds. We are not called upon to do one heroic act
and be through with it. We do not have a challenge that we can answer and prove once and for all
that we are what we claim to be. No, our lives are made up of little things. Just as the "little drops
of water and little grains of sand make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land," so we must content
ourselves with an accumulation of minor deeds and mediocre speeches.
Wesley mentions dress as one of the little things in which we should be exemplary. By
being exemplary is not meant that we shall be models of the latest fashions, nor that we shall be
companions of outmoded styles. On this matter the Scriptures stick, as they usually do, to
principles, rather than to rules of thumb. There are at least two reasons for human dress, one is
necessity and the other is modesty, and the exemplary person regards both these demands. We must
wear clothing in the winter to keep us warm, and we must wear it in the summer to protect us from
the heat, and our clothing should be adapted to this utilitarian purpose in disregard of the styles
which would have women wear furs in the summer and light and unadapted garments in the winter.
And dress must have respect to modesty. Clothing was given our foreparents the day they fell into
sin in substitution for the halo of innocency which was taken from them, that their shame should not
appear. And in spite of the faddists, let us not forget that clothing is the handmaiden of modesty,
and that its style, texture and fullness should pay tribute to this fact. And, again disregarding the
faddists, the well dressed person is the modestly dressed person, whose dress does not call for
remark for either comeliness or homeliness.
Laying out your money is also listed among the little things. Money is just stored up labor,
and labor is but the material form of time, and time is the commodity of which life is made.
Therefore the careless spender of money is involved in many serious complications. Laying up
money is condemned as the sin of the miser. Laying out money too lavishly is the sin of the
prodigal. But in between these two extremes is the place for Christian economical life. Industry
and frugality are virtues. Laziness and prodigality are vices. The Christian must give thought to
earning, saving, spending, and giving, with giving as the guiding motive. And yet not indiscriminate
giving, but thoughtful and religious giving, such as will, in the judgment of the Christian, honor
Christ and change the gift, by processes of divine alchemy, into the kind of gold that can stand the
fire and be at par when the gold of earth has perished.
Serious and useful conversation. These "little things" begin to loom large. It has been
remarked that the diagnostician does not go far until he asks to see the patient's tongue, that from it
he may judge the state of the general health. And I think it is the same in spiritual matters. The
tongue, the lips, the mouth, the words, how frequent the appeal of inspired prophets to these
indices of inner condition! How earnestly did David pray, "Let the words of my mouth and the
thoughts of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."
Wesley thought few people could talk for more than an hour at one time without saying
something they should not say, and on this account he recommended frequent withdrawal from
social communication, and thought that work, even exacting work, is more friendly to godliness
than leisure. Most people think they could do well if they but had more time to pray and to meditate
and to do good works. But the temptations that come to the idle are more subtle, and have better
opportunity than those which come to the busy, so we are perhaps more fortunate than we think,
who find ourselves too busy to be much affected by incidentals about us. When sin first entered the
world God, in mercy, prescribed work as a remedy to allay the worst effects of the fallen state.
Careless talk, the use of bywords, the habit of speaking evil of others, the tendency to
spread evil surmises which have not been authenticated, make jokes of religion, of matrimony and
of death are bad for both the spirituality of the speaker and the good manners of the hearers. The
Christian should be a lady or gentleman of the first class. For while good manners do not always
embrace Christian graces, Christian graces should always embrace good manners.
When about to tell something uncomplimentary of another, if we would always stop and
ask, "Is this true? Is it necessary to tell it? Is it kind to tell it?" we would probably leave off many
things that we spread all too readily. But even conversation dealing with good things, religion, the
church and God can run shallow by reason of excess, so that it is not enough to judge that
conversation is serious, it must also pass the test of being useful.
But a complete summary of Wesley's seven points pretty well covers the scope of
commended Christian life. To avoid pride, fanaticism, lawlessness, sins of omission, seeking
things that are outside the will of God for us, . making factions in the church and giving our
attention to the matter of being a good example in all things, including such little things as dress,
laying out money and engagement in serious and useful conversation is to just about assure
ourselves that we shall be approved of both God and men, and that we shall be able to do good
and not evil all the days of our lives. And in our pursuit of such a life, we ask for divine grace and
wisdom.
