Abuse of Rights the Hammer That Forges Extremists

Authorized action for one toward God can be placed under two basic headings (1) Things one must do to please God. (2) Things one may do and please God. The musts should not be made mays, nor the mays made musts. Paul warns against forbidding one’s rights before God, such as marriage and meat eating (1 Tim. 4:3,4). No person needs to feel that he must marry nor eat certain meats to please God, but he has every right to feel that he may do both. One has no right to deny him these rights. Elsewhere, Paul warns Christians against indiscriminately using their rights without regard to the effect it would have on others and the cause of Christ. (1 Cor. 8, 9; Rom . 14:1-23). In fact, Paul had denied himself certain rights, on occasion, for the overall good of the cause of his Lord.

One must be baptized to please God (Acts 2:38). He may be baptized in a stream, a pool, a vat, a baptistry, or any other suitable container of water – inside or outside a house. One must eat the Lord’s supper, as a Christian, upon the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 11:17ff. ). A church may use one, two, three, or as many plates and drinking vessels needed to distribute the elements of the Supper. A great deal of harm is done by those who would release Christians from the necessity of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Likewise, harm is done by those who demand that one must baptize in a specific kind of container, such as a running stream; or by those who demand that a church use no more than one drinking vessel for the whole congregation. (I have often thought that if each congregation can have only one container then the one at Jerusalem must have been a whopper to serve 3,000 plus those being added daily – Acts 2:41,47).

The history of the church is dotted with extremists who have gone on a negative kick consigning to perdition anyone who practices certain things God has given us the right to do. I know of no period that this has not been not so. In my own lifetime I have met my share of such. I may have had a little pet extreme or two of my very own along the way. But, let’s not talk about that! Without offering one ounce of defense for unwarranted negativism, it might be good to examine factors that make extremists tick. I do not profess to know all the answers, but I would like to suggest one factor for consideration.

I have observed that very often negative extremists are simply reacting to excessive zeal and abuse of some in the exercise of particular rights. In the early 50’s I almost took the Garrett-Ketcherside position on “located preachers” and “the colleges”. Why? I knew a few “located preachers” who were virtually “Pastors” and some school advocates who almost equated loyalty to the schools with faithfulness to Christ. Had it not been for some patient teachings and good example of two or three older “located preachers”, I might have done myself and the Lord’s work grave injustice.

Preachers have a right to “locate” (“Abide still at Ephesus – 1 Tim. 1:3), receive wages (1 Cor. 9:14; 2 Cor. 11:8) and preach the gospel to the church (Acts 20:7,8; Rom. 1:15). One has no right to deny them these rights. But, I fear, that some preachers who have located and “took over” the work of the congregation and/or made excessive demands for pay and/or neglected efforts to reach those outside of Christ have caused some to turn from those rights in disgust and conclude (wrongly) that there must be something basically wrong with the “system”. It is not so, but those of us who preach would do well to not abuse our rights so as to give occasion for weaker brethren to fall into negative extremes in their over reaction to our abuses.

Brethren have the right to go into business and offer products and services to saint or sinner. It may the hardware, book, furniture, publishing or private school business – or any other legitimate business. (cf. Eph. 4:28). They may sell “living room” or “church” furniture. They may sell math, history or religious books, even Bibles. They may publish sports magazines or religious journals. They may sell instruction in the arts, the languages, or the Bible. I know of no principle that would be violated by these individual business enterprises. Of course, it must be kept free from church entanglement. Yet, those in such businesses need a word of caution just here, lest their fervor for their “rights” redound to the forging of extremists.

In recent years, I have heard a great deal of negative talk (from preachers and others) about activities of brethren in business. Some have even questioned the basic right of certain brethren and certain businesses. I get the impression that much of the opposition was born of a disgust for the excessive zeal of brethren for their endeavor. One brother questioned a preacher’s right to sell “soap products” on the side to supplement his income. I have no doubt that a preacher or anyone else may sell something “on the side”. But, why would this brother question this right? From what I could see, a great deal of it could be traced to the preacher’s excessive zeal for his side line. It was hard to tell if he was using soap to get an opportunity to teach the gospel or using the gospel to sell soap! Isn’t it simply amazing how many sermon illustrations one can draw from business, especially one’s own business?

I am hearing some alarming misgivings from brethren as the basic right of individual Christians’ to go into the private school business (especially if Bible classes are a part of the curriculum) and/or the religious publishing business. I do not believe that all these misgivings are held by brethren “horn in the objective case and kickative mood”. The excessive zeal of some paper and school men (and their friends) may have, rightly or wrongly, given rise to some of these misgivings. When a school man leaves the impression that one is kind of a second-class Christian unless he actively supports and/or chooses to send his children to such a school some eyebrows should be raised! If a paper man suggests that his paper is a “must” or nearly so, he is asking for questioning. When a paper or school enthusiast uses gospel meetings to either openly or covertly promote his business then he should not wonder why serious doubts are raised. What if a furniture salesman or manufacturer, who happened to also preach, used meetings to sell furniture? Would brethren be as tolerant as some are with education and publication salesmen who use them to sell their wares? Oh, I know, that the person is so sold on his work that he sincerely thinks that he is really doing brethren a great service by telling them what he has to offer. But, I have never met a dedicated salesman or business man who did not feel the same about his product or service. The brethren where I preach are in various lines of work and I hope legitimately so! They believe they are doing their patrons a real service. How long would brethren put up with the use of the church’s bulletin and assemblies to advertise each of their businesses and urge brethren to trade with these brethren in a “Christian atmosphere”? How long would they put up with one of our teachers (who happens to be a banker and preacher) using his position as a Bible class teacher to urge brethren to put their money in his bank so that it could be handled by “Christian hands”? I can tell you – not long! It might ever cause a few weaker brethren to wonder about the banking business on the part of a Christian and conclude (wrongly) that Christians, especially teachers, have no business in banking.

Again, let me make one thing crystal clear I believe Christians may go into any legitimate business – either part or full time. I believe brethren may publish religious papers or operate private schools, including those with Bible in the curriculum. These may be profit making or non-profit in organization. I believe that anyone who would deny that right is dead wrong. His position is both unscriptural and logically indefensible. But, I also believe that brethren in these businesses need to take a good look at themselves and their tactics of promotion and operation lest their good be evil spoken of. They should try to weed out excesses and abuses that often are undeniably present so as to avoid being the very hammer that forges extremists. – From The Reflector, Feb. 1975