Prioritizing Our Relationship with God in Society
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The Bible's primary concern is with our relationship to God. That doesn't mean that it isn't interested in our relationship to one another, but its primary interest, its essential emphasis always is in our relationship to God. Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar, and the thing that men forget unto God the things that are Gods. [00:06:25]
The business of the church is not to deal directly therefore with these problems. She only deals with them indirectly. The church and her preaching are to do exactly what the Bible does itself. It mustn't spend the whole of its time in entering into these problems in detail. No, the business of the church is to deal with the great general principles. [00:08:11]
The church is not here to reform the world because the world cannot be reformed. The business of the church is to evangelize, is to preach a gospel of Salvation to men who are blinded by sin and under the Dominion and the power of the devil. That is her primary task, and she must never do anything that militates against that primary task. [00:11:04]
Christianity obviously does not abolish our relationship to social, political, and economic conditions. It doesn't abolish them. Now, why is it necessary to say that? Well, because many of the early Christians thought that the fact that they had become Christian abolished all that, and there are many people who still think the same thing. [00:14:26]
Christianity not only does not change our relationship to these conditions, it does not even condemn such things as slavery directly as being sinful. No, you realize at once that this has been a great stumbling block to many people and particularly during this last century. But it's our business to expand the scriptures. [00:21:00]
Christianity is interested in is the way in which a Christian slave behaves himself towards his master and how the man who owns a slave treats his slave. That's what it does. It doesn't deal with the question of slavery per se. Now, you've got your principle, I trust. I don't want to mention some of the modern applications of this at the present time. [00:24:36]
The individual Christian is never to take the law into his own hands. He is never to act as an individual, but that does not mean that as a citizen of the country to which he belongs that he is not entitled to take part in improving the circumstances and conditions. So you see, it works like this. [00:35:09]
The Flaming passionate evangelism of men like George Whitfield and the Wesley and others was the thing that transformed the situation. What did they preach about? What did Whitfield preach about when he began to preach to those miners outside Bristol? What was his preaching to? Did he talk to them about their social conditions, about their wages, about the hours of their work? [00:37:55]
The church can't change conditions. She's not meant to change conditions, and the moment she tries to, she's shutting the door of evangelism. If I attack communism, the Communists are on defense, and they're not going to listen to my gospel. They won't even give it a hearing. I mustn't do that. I mustn't attack any of these things. [00:45:57]
The Christians one burning concern is his relationship to God and to heaven and Eternity. And because that is his burning concern, he looks on at everything else as being secondary. He looks on at it cooly and quietly, realizing that his first business is to be related to it all as a Christian different from all others. [00:49:34]
The church does not commend any of these changes. It's never done so. There is not a word in the Bible which tells men to abolish slavery, and yet we know that it was Christian men who did that eventually. That's exactly how it's happened. That is exactly in accordance with this teaching. There's no command to do it. [00:40:32]
The moment that begins to happen to men, they begin to see things in a different way, and they begin to act. Now let me show by means of an illustration what I'm saying. Take the effect, for instance, of the Evangelical Awakening of 200 years ago. Prior to that, the common people of this country were ignorant. [00:36:52]
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The business of the church is not to deal directly therefore with these problems. She only deals with them indirectly. The church and her preaching are to do exactly what the Bible does itself. It mustn't spend the whole of its time in entering into these problems in detail. No, the business of the church is to deal with the great general principles. [00:08:11]
The church is not here to reform the world because the world cannot be reformed. The business of the church is to evangelize, is to preach a gospel of Salvation to men who are blinded by sin and under the Dominion and the power of the devil. That is her primary task, and she must never do anything that militates against that primary task. [00:11:04]
Christianity obviously does not abolish our relationship to social, political, and economic conditions. It doesn't abolish them. Now, why is it necessary to say that? Well, because many of the early Christians thought that the fact that they had become Christian abolished all that, and there are many people who still think the same thing. [00:14:26]
Christianity not only does not change our relationship to these conditions, it does not even condemn such things as slavery directly as being sinful. No, you realize at once that this has been a great stumbling block to many people and particularly during this last century. But it's our business to expand the scriptures. [00:21:00]
Christianity is interested in is the way in which a Christian slave behaves himself towards his master and how the man who owns a slave treats his slave. That's what it does. It doesn't deal with the question of slavery per se. Now, you've got your principle, I trust. I don't want to mention some of the modern applications of this at the present time. [00:24:36]
The individual Christian is never to take the law into his own hands. He is never to act as an individual, but that does not mean that as a citizen of the country to which he belongs that he is not entitled to take part in improving the circumstances and conditions. So you see, it works like this. [00:35:09]
The Flaming passionate evangelism of men like George Whitfield and the Wesley and others was the thing that transformed the situation. What did they preach about? What did Whitfield preach about when he began to preach to those miners outside Bristol? What was his preaching to? Did he talk to them about their social conditions, about their wages, about the hours of their work? [00:37:55]
The church can't change conditions. She's not meant to change conditions, and the moment she tries to, she's shutting the door of evangelism. If I attack communism, the Communists are on defense, and they're not going to listen to my gospel. They won't even give it a hearing. I mustn't do that. I mustn't attack any of these things. [00:45:57]
The Christians one burning concern is his relationship to God and to heaven and Eternity. And because that is his burning concern, he looks on at everything else as being secondary. He looks on at it cooly and quietly, realizing that his first business is to be related to it all as a Christian different from all others. [00:49:34]
The church does not commend any of these changes. It's never done so. There is not a word in the Bible which tells men to abolish slavery, and yet we know that it was Christian men who did that eventually. That's exactly how it's happened. That is exactly in accordance with this teaching. There's no command to do it. [00:40:32]
The moment that begins to happen to men, they begin to see things in a different way, and they begin to act. Now let me show by means of an illustration what I'm saying. Take the effect, for instance, of the Evangelical Awakening of 200 years ago. Prior to that, the common people of this country were ignorant. [00:36:52]
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