Wholesome Words for Spiritual Guidance

CHURCH GOVERNMENT

It is evident that at the close of Paul's life he was particularly concerned about leadership in the church. The function of elders is barely mentioned in his earlier epistles, but in the Pastoral Epistles it is strongly emphasized. Four main passages deal with the subject (see l Tim.3:1-7; 5:1; 5:17-20, Titus 1:5-9). To these might be added the address to the elders of the assembly at Ephesus given at Miletus (Acts 20:17-38).

There was already a group of recognized elders at Ephesus before Timothy was sent there, but one of the objects of leaving Titus at Crete was that he might appoint elders in every city (Titus 1:5). Apparently the question of elders had been neglected there up to this time.

The question might be asked, "How are elders appointed today?" Paul answers this in Acts 20. In addressing the Ephesian elders he says, "Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers" (20:28,RV). Only the Holy Ghost can make an overseer. The overseer is called by God, who has created the desire in his heart. Such a man will already be doing the work, and the responsibility of the local church is to recognize what God has already done, and to set the man apart for this work.

There are two forms of departure from God's arrangement which are in evidence today. First, there is the episcopal hierarchy, the general characteristics of which are followed by Rome and much of Christendom. Most commentators admit that in apostolic days "bishop" and "presbyter or elder" were synonymous terms, and that neither has any connection with the ministers or offices of modern clerisy. Men justify the present hierarchy by the "doctrine of development" and not by the teaching or example of Scripture.

Secondly, the other extreme occurs where there is no recognized eldership, the argument being that there are no apostles today to ordain elders, and therefore there can be none. A business meeting is introduced to take the place of the deliberations of God-appointed elders, and anyone who has a care for the assembly is said to be free to attend this meeting. The first form of unscriptural government is a form of dictatorship, while the second departure is virtually a kind of democracy. Neither is condoned in the teachings of Paul.

The New Testament envisages a plurality of elders recognized by the assembly as leaders, shepherds and guides. Paul uses three words to describe such men and their work:

Elder (presbuteros). This is a word describing the man himself. He is characterized by spiritual maturity.

Overseer (esplskopos). The word emphasises the place he has among the saints, and generally indicates his responsibility. He exercises spiritual authority among the flock.

Shepherd (polmen). This figuratively anticipates his chief exercise. He displays spiritual capacity to feed, lead and tend the flock.

All three words describe the same individual from different viewpoints, and indicate the various functions which he has in caring for the people of God. His work is essentially spiritual.

Paul, in these pastoral letters, gives instructions as to the qualifications, responsibilities and compensations of an elder, indicating also what Timothy's attitude should be to them.

Comparing the lists of qualifications for elders in I Timothy and Titus, there are some twenty-three items which may be considered in four distinct categories. In these the man is portrayed in the personal, the domestic, the church, and the world contexts of his life and witness. These give us a standard by which the aspirant for eldership can test himself.

It may be felt that no one could perfectly fulfil all the qualifications, but here is God's standard, and it is the biblical standard that is to be aimed at. In I Timothy, nine of the qualities mentioned have to do with his personal life, four with his home life, one with his church life, and one with his relation with the world outside.

Moral characteristics are emphasized in I Timothy. The personal and the family life must be of a high order. Failure here disqualifies a man for leadership in the church. His reputation in the world outside must also be taken into account, any inconsistency here debars him from eldership. "Apt to teach" does not necessarily mean that he is a "platform man". However, he should have a profound knowledge of the Word of God and be able to open up the Scriptures to feed as well as lead the flock. He must be capable of giving sound scriptural counsel to all. Doctrinal considerations and ability in spiritual things are more prominent in Titus 1.

The responsibility that rests on elders is a heavy one. Like Jacob, they will often spend sleepless nights out of concern for those in their charge. When discipline has to be exercised, it should be done with a broken heart and a weeping eye, as the Old Testament priest when eating the sin offering in the holy place.

Elders are not only leaders; they are to be examples and models of well-balanced discretion. If they go astray, either in doctrine or behaviour, the flock is liable to follow their lead into "By-path Meadow" (Acts 20:30; Isa.9: 16).

Timothy is instructed to "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, specially they who labour in the Word and doctrine" (l Tim.5:17). it is very likely that Paul is here thinking of material help. Shepherds who spend and have been spent in the service of others should not be allowed to suffer need. Most of this very necessary and valuable work is done as unto the Lord with no thought of reward (cf. I Pet.5:2). The saints who are alert will recognize the circumstances and minister to the Lord and to His servant out of their material things (Gal.6:6).

Finally, there is the elder's compensation. He often receives this in the present - his joy of seeing the people of God walk in truth (2 Jn.4; 3 Jn.4). The supreme joy of the elder will be when the Chief Shepherd shall appear. Then all faithful under-shepherds will receive that crown of glory "that fadeth not away" (1 Pet.5:4).

-- T.Ernest Wilson. Courtesy "Counsel"

Wherefore we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto Him." - 2 Cor.5:9 RV.

As those who have trusted in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, we would surely earnestly desire that such language from the heart of the apostle Paul might be true in measure of each one of us. We have to pursue our pathway through the world where our Lord was crucified, and where He is still neglected by many, but since we are "not of the world", let it be our ambition to devote ourselves whole-heartedly to the will and pleasure of the One Who loved us and gave Himself for us.

The privilege of showing our fidelity to Him in the night of His absence from this world may soon be over forever. May the bright and blessed prospect of beholding His glorious face create within our hearts a more ardent desire to bring pleasure and joy to Him during this waiting period.

It is our privilege and responsibility to honour Him in every sphere of life - at home, in business, or wherever we may be found. His interests should always be paramount with us. "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus", and, "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, and not unto men" (Col.3:17,23). May each one of us be stirred in spirit to be found like Enoch of old, who, before his translation had this testimony "that he pleased God". A.E. Bird.

THE MYSTERY OF THE HOPE – I Cor.15:51-54.

The Corinthian Epistle was written some years after the first epistle to the Thessalonians, wherein the apostle, by special revelation, had made known to them their Lord's personal, exclusive, and imminent return for His loved church. Now he goes on to unfold the mystery of the change which all believers will experience at that moment. Death is not the hope or lot of all the saved of this dispensation. Sometimes we hear the expression, "As sure as death", but here is something surer than death. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (l Cor.15:51).

As the apostle unfolds this mystery, he first reveals the suddenness of the change. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye". Then he goes on to explain how this change will affect both believers who have died, and those who are living when the Lord returns. "The dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality". The corruptible here refers to the saints who have fallen asleep. The mortal refers to the saints living at His return.

The Lord alluded to this wonderful moment when in John 11:25 He revealed Himself to Martha as the Resurrection and the Life. He went on to say, "He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die". He is the Resurrection to the saints whose bodies have seen corruption, and in the great change they will put on incorruption. He is the Life to all believers who are alive at His coming, for through Him their mortal bodies will put on immortality.

Some labour to apply "immortality" to the soul, and to make it synonymous with "Eternal Life". Please note that in God's Word it has no reference to the soul, and it is not the same as eternal life. It is purely and simply a body condition, and a body condition that will mark the change in those who are alive and remain when He comes. That coming will bring incorruption to the body of the saint that has died and seen corruption, and immortality to the mortal body of the living saint.

There are only three uses of the word 'immortality' in the New Testament, two of them are in this passage, and the other one in the great passage of I Tim.6:16. There is only one Man today who possesses immortality, and that is the Man at God's right hand. Truly He saw death in His Manhood, but He was not suffered to see corruption (Acts 2:31). When he comes every living saint will put on that "Immortality", while every sleeping one will be raised incorruptible. Then shall be brought to pass that unspeakably triumphant saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory' (l Cor.15:54), and as believers we can add, "Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (v.57).

-- Abridged.

I would seek unto God, unto God would I commit my cause. - Job 5:8.

This counsel from Eliphaz to Job in his affliction was wise, but as one has said, "Its only fault is its unjust implication that Job was a prayerless man". Job seems at times to have been so overwhelmed with darkness and confusion that he is hardly able to pray. Likewise many a child of God in the hour of greatest trial has been tempted to feel it is useless to tell out its trouble to God. Prayer seems so unreal, so powerless to bring down a blessing. And yet it is the soul's true resource. However cold the heart, however little it is able to realise the presence of God, or the nearness and sufficiency of His power to deliver and to keep, this is the soul's best course. If we seek Him we shall find Him, and then, let us not only pray for His help, but commit our cause to Him. How often so much that we do falls far short of this simple definite act. (See Psalm 37:5; Phil.4:6; I Peter 5:7).

-- Selected.

I muse on the work of Thy hands - Psalm 143:5

What a variety of thoughts are revealed to us as we meditate on the places in the Holy Scriptures where the hands of the Lord are mentioned. Let us consider a number of them that bring a sense of divine comfort and security to our hearts.

The Hand of Salvation. David expresses his confidence in the salvation of the Lord in life's trials in Psa.20:6, "He will hear from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand". This is re-echoed in lsa.59:1, "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that He cannot save, neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear". Some of the believers who were scattered from their homeland in the persecution that arose about Stephen, came to Antioch preaching the Lord Jesus, and we read of them in Acts 11:21, "The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord".

The Hand of Power. "Fear thou not for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea I will help thee, yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness". "For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, 'Fear thou not I will help thee"' (Isa.41:10,13). How precious to realise that the mighty hand of the God of Jacob will hold our right hand. He is able to strengthen us in our weakness, and uphold us in our weariness and stumbling.

The fashioning Hand. Job could say, "Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about" (ch.l0:8). When Jeremiah watched the potter at work, and saw him making the clay into vessels as he chose, the word of the Lord came to him saying, "0 house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" saith the Lord. "Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in my hand, 0 house of Israel" (Jer.18:4-6). Our God has His special design for each of us. He desires to mould us that we may be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom.8:29). It will also be so with His ancient people Israel through His gracious dealings with them in days that are still future.

The Hand That Plans. With full assurance of faith we can say with the Psalmist, "My times are in Thy hand" (Psa.31:15). Times of joy and sorrow, trials and difficulties all prove His unfailing guidance and unceasing care. They are all planned by the One Who knows the end from the beginning. How blessed to know that he silently plans for His redeemed people!

His Guiding Hand. In Psalm 78:72 it was written of David, the man after God's own heart, "So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands". Thus the Lord leads us through wilderness paths that we have not known, yet they are known to Him in every detail. We can rest assured with the Psalmist, that, "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me" (Psa.139: 9,10). It is still true, as Moses said in Deut.33:3, "All His saints are in Thy Hand".

His Providing Hand. How good it is to know that we have a God whose hand can and will provide for all men every day of their lives. "The eyes of all wait upon Thee, and Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thine hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing" (Psalm 145:15,16). This is particularly and wonderfully true of all the children of God.

His Hand of Security. Let us rejoice that we are in the safest hands in the world, and let us rest assured in His Own precious promise, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand" (John 10:27-29). A double assurance of our eternal security is given to us here.

Our Blessed Lord appeals to His disciples after His resurrection, "Why are ye troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet that it is I Myself -and when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet" (Luke 24:38-40). It was the sight of those pierced hands that caused Thomas to know that He was the risen Son of God, and with adoration he declares His deity, "My Lord and My God". We also see the Lord of glory as He ascends from earth to heaven pronouncing a blessing with uplifted pierced hands. We wait for His return, which could be very soon, and with joyful anticipation we can sing with the hymn writer:

"I'll bless the hand that guided
I'll bless the heart that planned
When throned where glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel's Land".

That I may know Him - Phil.3:10.

It is a marvelous lesson that God has set us to learn. It is so precious and all-important that He has given us a divine Teacher, the blessed Holy Spirit, to abide with us to teach us. We shall need eternity to grasp our lesson, but we are to begin now. We shall continue it when we shall see Him face to face Who loved us and gave Himself for us.

"We all.. beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (lCor.2:18). This 'beholding' is the ABC of our lesson. There is no other way. If we want to copy a painting we must gaze on it, and drink in its features and its beauty so as to make them our own, and in some sense to reproduce them.

John the apostle said, "We beheld His glory.. full of grace and truth", and further on, "of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace". (John 1:14,16). The Holy Spirit wants to teach us the highest of all lessons, that is, likeness to Christ.

When we are looking at what we are, we cease to grow. We have ceased to behold "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ", (2Cor.4:6), which is the one divinely appointed way of reflecting His grace and glory.

The first dawn of 'life from the dead' is in the look of the sinner at the crucified and risen Saviour. the believer's strength and victory in the conflict with the powers of darkness lie in a fixed "looking unto Jesus, the Author and perfecter of our faith" (Heb. 12:2, RV). The joy of sleeping saints as they pass through the shadow of death is the unveiled vision of the risen Christ, as it was with Stephen, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). "And when he had said this he fell asleep". And then, in the day of Israel's restoration, when the natural branches shall be grafted into their own olive tree (Rom. 11:24), it will still be the look at the glorified One that shall bring them to repentance; "They shall look on Me whom they pierced" (Zech.12: 10).

May the Lord help us, not only to see, but to look upon the Heavenly Vision (1 John 1:1) with fixed gaze of soul, until our hearts are satisfied with its fulness, so that all else shall be eclipsed by reason of the surpassing glory.

-- A.E. White

Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness - Romans 6:18.

Freedom from sin may be considered in three senses -

Freedom from its penalty, its power and its presence. We are free from sin in the first sense by justification; in the second by sanctification; in the third by glorification. In this chapter it is the power of sin that is contemplated. Sin is personified here as a slave master who would keep the soul in bondage, who would claim his service and pay him wages ("the wages" which sin pays "is death").

Freedom from sin in this chapter means freedom from sin as a master. Identification with Christ in His death delivers the believer from sin's authority. Sin henceforth has no right to demand his service. Sin's claim has been broken by our crucifixion with Christ on the Cross.

As new creatures in Christ Jesus, alive by virtue of His resurrection, believers now have the right to say "no" to sin's demands, and to present ourselves and our members to God for His service. While we cannot claim immunity from the power of temptation, when these great facts are intelligently grasped by faith, we can rejoice in freedom from sin's bondage. - Selected.

EDITORIAL

As we pause to reflect at the passing of another year, mixed anticipations of a new millennium are abroad, some of optimistic confidence, others of anxious perplexity. It is true that we are entering the year that will complete the twentieth century, and of course, the second millennium, for the many nations of the world that use our calendar.

It is remarkable that our calendar divides known human history into the period before the birth of Christ, and the period after His birth, commemorating with reasonable accuracy His coming into the world. What an amazing impact He has had on the history of the human race, yet He won no fame as the great men of the world have won it. His teaching ministry lasted only a few short years, but He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass away". His death was unique. Sinless Himself, He died as the Sinbearer, and because of this, God has highly exalted Him, and decreed that every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. Each one of us who has received Him as our Saviour can bow in His presence and say, "My Lord and My God".

The advent of a new millennium projects our thoughts forward to His millennium when He shall reign from sea to sea and shore to shore, and the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

But looking back now, it is fining that we record our gratitude to the Lord for His grace and faithfulness confirmed to us in so many ways, enabling us to continue the ministry of Wholesome Words for another year. We are grateful too, for all who remember us in prayer, and for those whose fellowship is shown in other practical ways, to all these our helpers we extend our warmest thanks. Now, as we face the unknown paths of the year 2000, let us take courage from His faithful promise "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Prov. 3:5,6). May the Lord grant to all our readers His richest blessing, and a happy and prosperous New

Year in His will. - Ed.

Oh, the peace forever flowing From God's thoughts of His own Son,
Oh, the peace of simply knowing On the cross that all was done!

Peace with God! the blood in heaven Speaks of pardon now to me:
Peace with God! the Lord is risen! Righteousness now counts me free.

Peace with God is Christ in glory; God is just and God is love;
Jesus died to tell the story, Foes to bring to God above.

Now, free access to the Father, Through the Christ of God we have;
By the Spirit here abiding, Promise of the Father's love.

Jesus, Saviour, we adore Thee! Christ of God - anointed Son
We confess Thee, Lord of glory, Fruits of victory Thou hast won!

-- AP Cecil (1841-1889)

Please address Wholesome Words correspondence to:

R.M. Goatley,
P.O. Box 353
Taree, N.S.W. 2430, Australia.