(2 Cor. 11:3)
It is frequently difficult, even for those who are really children of God, to hold fast to the simplicity which God intends for us to have in our Christian life.
Men naturally shrink from too close a contact with a holy God. The flesh loves show. The devil is ever busy seeking to corrupt our faith, and often does it in a religious way. These things tend to beguile us from simple straightforward faith in God, from whole-hearted, close fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ and implicit obedience to the Word of God.
When Paul wrote to the saints at Corinth he recognized that they "came behind in no gift," but he also fears "lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3).
As spirituality and devotion to Christ wanes, formality increases, and the Lord's people become occupied with questions, reasonings, and things that result in departure from simple acceptance of, and obedience to, the Word of God.
God's way of salvation is not by agonizing, or having some remarkable experience or heart-rending sorrow. Sorrow and bitter experience may indeed come into the life of a soul away from God, but salvation in its grand simplicity is "Repentance toward God. Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ."
In Acts 20 Paul tells us how he preached at Ephesus for three years, publicly, and from house to house, declaring the whole counsel of God, so that he would be free from the blood of all men. He sums up his preaching in verse 21 where he tells the Ephesian elders he was, "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." And this is God's plain, simple, clear way of salvation.
Our church-membership is equally simple. The moment a soul is born again, he becomes a member of the only church which God has on earth, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, of which He is the Head and we are the members. "By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13).
The Church is not only the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:23), but also His Building, a holy temple in which even the babe in Christ is a living stone (Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:5). This necessitates responsibility as to holy ways, as the Body shows our relationship to Christ.
The Christian's worship, according to the mind of God, is simple, as is his salvation and church-membership. True worship is the out-pouring of a grateful heart which knows the forgiveness of sins through the love of God and the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a priest (1 Pet. 2:1-9). We are a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice, we are a royal (or kingly) priesthood to show forth the praises of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. He who loves us and hath washed us from our sins in His own blood, hath made us a kingdom of priests unto His God and Father (Rev. 1:5,6). A priest is one who has the right of access to God and has a sacrifice to offer. The first is found in Hebrews 10:19-22, and the latter in Hebrews 13:15.
Our worship on Lord's Day morning is intended by God to be a simple memorial of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing mysterious about it; for on the night of His betrayal the Lord Jesus took bread and wine and gave to His disciples as a memorial of Himself (Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26). And so we partake of the bread and wine in memory of His precious work on Calvary, connecting it with the praise, worship and thanksgiving, which are its rightful accompaniments. We "show the Lord's death until He come."
Three .things are needful for a healthy physical body- Fresh Air, Good Food and Exercise. There is a corresponding need in order to have a healthy spiritual growth. Prayer corresponds to the Fresh Air, the Christian's "vital breath;" reading the Word of God is our spiritual Food, and working for Christ our Exercise.
God has not left His people to blindly grope their way home through a tangled wilderness or a pathless desert. Instead He gives plain, simple helps to guide our Christian walk and ways. These are the Word of God and Prayer. In the Word our path is marked out for us. Through prayer we understand the Word and commune with God. The unsaved man has but one nature, the old nature, the nature of the flesh, with which he was born into the world. The child of God has two natures; the nature of the flesh and the nature of the Spirit. It is as we feed the new nature, implanted in us at new birth, that we grow strong as Christians; that we walk according to the mind of God, that we are kept from evil and sin. This new nature feeds on the Word of God and prayer. Worldly occupations and amusements feed the old nature and keep the new nature down. God would have us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He has not given us deep, mysterious ways to do this. A child can read his Bible; a babe in Christ may pray.
In Ephesians 6 we have the whole armor of God listed, which we are to put on to fight against the wiles of the devil, and the list closes with the Word of God and prayer. Paul commended Timothy, in that from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures which make wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
The Christian is a citizen of heaven, passing through this world as a pilgrim and stranger. He will be taken out of the world at the coming of our Lord, when He returns for His Church. Any day we may hear His shout, as He calls for those who sleep in Jesus to arise from their graves, and together with them every Christian living on earth will be caught up to meet Him in the clouds.
When leaving His disciples, the Lord Jesus promised; "I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, ye may be also." This is our Blessed Hope! It simplifies a Christian's ambitions and desires and purposes. We are not to look for place, power, possessions or position in this world, but to set our affections on things above, "Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." This is to determine our entire outlook in life.
"For me to live is Christ."
"Not I, but Christ."
"Christ is all and in all."
May our gracious Lord lead each of His dear children to be very simple in the things of God, with Himself before each heart as its one Life, Hope, Desire and Object! F. L. French