Week 42 Sunday
Week 42 Sunday
Principles of Corporate Living
Acts 2:41-47; 4:32
We have been studying the difficulties that come out of temptations that largely arise from within ourselves. But many of our spiritual problems do not arise from ourselves; they arise from our relations with others. It is not an easy thing to adjust oneself to other people and their wills. Christianity should teach us that very thing, for Christianity is the science of living well with others according to Jesus Christ. Many of our attempts to live together with others are haphazard; they do not obey the underlying principles of corporate living, for there are principles or laws of corporate living as well defined as those that underlie nature. We must attempt to discover them and live by them. All of us have to live in relationship with others. Many try to do it without any underlying principles, and it ends in disaster with its resultant bitterness and strife. If we depend too much on emotion, and not enough on intelligent planning, the result will be disaster.
John Wesley said that he was “a man sent from God to persuade people to put Christ at the center of their relationships.” It would be difficult to give a better definition of what our Christian task is than just those words. What are some of the principles we should embody if we are to live together well?
(1) We should recognize that life is corporate. Many do not recognize this. They still look on life as an individual thing. The consequence is that they are continually in trouble with other people. They want to turn whole situations to themselves, instead of relating themselves to the whole. A cancer cell demands that it be ministered to instead of ministering to the rest of the body. It is therefore cancerous instead of contributive. Many people are cancerous in society. They look at what they can get from the whole instead of what they can give to it.
O Christ, teach me how to live well with others, for I want others to live well with me. Amen.
Week 42 Monday
Principles of Corporate Living (continued)
Psalm 34:13; Isaiah 29:21; Matthew 6:33; 7:1-15
After we recognize that we are corporate we must proceed (2) to fix our loyalty to the group in which we are in immediate contact. There are degrees of loyalty of course. There is the loyalty to oneself, one’s family, one’s group, one’s nation, and the kingdom of God. Our final loyalty should be to the kingdom of God. Where loyalty to that conflicts with any of the lesser loyalties, then the lesser must give way and the kingdom must remain supreme and final. While this is true, there must be a loyalty to a group in which we work out the principles of that kingdom and make them operative. If we do not work them out in the smaller, we shall never work them out in the larger.
(3) Loyalty to that group should mean that we will never criticize any member behind his or her back. There is bound to be criticism, for this is an imperfect world of imperfect persons. But the criticism should always be open and frank and always redemptive. One of the mottoes on our ashram walls is this: “Fellowship is based on confidence, secret criticism undermines that confidence, therefore we renounce all secret criticism.” You cannot have fellowship, if you know or suspect that secret criticism is taking place. But when you know that, since there is no open criticism, there is no secret criticism, then the situation is filled with confidence and freedom and fellowship. Another motto on our ashram walls is this: “When about to criticize another, ask three questions: (1) Is it true? (2) Is it necessary? (3) Is it kind?” If it can pass these three tests, then the criticism should be given openly and frankly.
Religious people are in the business of endeavoring to be good, they are therefore tempted to point out the faults of others, so that by implication they themselves may appear better. It is a miserable business.
O Christ, save me this day and every day from the disloyalty of secret criticism. May the words die upon my lips and in my heart because of your love. Amen.
Week 42 Tuesday
Corporate Living Further Examined
Proverbs 17:9; 1 Corinthians 13:4-6; Hebrews 12:5-11; James 4:11-12
We continue our study of corporate living: (4) We should not only be willing to criticize another for his or her good; we should also be willing to take it for ourselves. And rejoice in it. Many of us are willing to give it, but we hesitate or refuse to take it for ourselves. No one has earned the right to criticize another unless he or she welcomes the possibility of criticism by others. The principle of give-and-take must be in operation within the group.
But (5) we should be on our guard that we do not thus become petty, always seeking for something to correct in others. We should perhaps be more inclined to compliment and encourage than to correct. We need not be afraid that we will make people proud, for sincere souls are often more humbled by compliments than by criticism. If we are always looking for things to correct, we become dangerously near to “mote-picking” (see Matt. 7:5; Luke 6:42).
Two prominent Indians went to England. One came back enthused with ideas that he put into practice and is now a great spiritual leader. The other came back and could scarcely talk of anything except the signs he saw in an elevator or lift, “Beware of pickpockets.” The idea of such a sign being necessary in a Christian country! He fed his soul on mote-picking and withered into insignificance. This has its counterpart in an American business man who, on his return from England, was constantly talking of a window in the hotel that could not be fastened. It loomed beyond cathedrals and beyond a great people. His message was defective window fastenings! He withered with his message.
Our attitude should be that of finding fine things, but now and then faced with the necessity of pointing out weakness. But the emphasis should be on the search for the good, for people are made more by compliments than by corrections.
O Christ, you who finds fine things in me when I cannot find them in myself, help me this day to find the good in others, and to say so. Amen.
Week 42 Wednesday
Giving Way in Small Things
Matthew 5:25; Romans 14:13, 15-16; 1 Corinthians 13:5; Philippians 4:5
We go on from where we left off yesterday: (6) There must be willingness to give way in small things that do not involve principles. Many tiny things become mountains because we insist on making them issues. It is far better to give way in small matters, that we might stand on the big ones. The bigness of a person can be judged by the size of the thing upon which he or she takes a stand. One of the great things in life is to learn to keep small things small and great things great. We often reverse these in our relationships with one another.
(7) Another principle is to refuse to look for slights regarding ourselves. There is no more difficult person than the “touchy” person—always looking for slights and always getting feelings hurt. If we look for slights, we shall find them. When we look for slights, it shows that we are on the defensive, and to be on the defensive shows we are dominated by fear. The defensive attitude shows that either the inferiority complex or the fear complex is at work.
(8) We should look more to our duties than to our rights. lf we are always looking to our rights, we shall throw emphasis on the wrong side of things. Think about privileges of service, and you will have more rights than you will know what to do with.
(9) Meet issues before they get cold. If you harbor a thing in the heart, it will fester. Get it up and out at once. The time element is important. Don’t put it off through cowardice. Jesus says, “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him” (Matt. 5:25 KJV). Don’t separate and let the thing get cold. Cultivate the habit of spiritual decisiveness. I find it a good habit when I pick up a bunch of letters to open first the one that looks unpleasant!
O Christ, we thank you that in meeting issues you did not hesitate. Give me that same nerve. Amen.
Week 42 Thursday
Siding Against Yourself
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4; 7:16; Acts 6:1-7; Romans 12:16
We pursue our study of the Christian way to live together: (10) We shall often have to side with the group against ourselves. A mother was bringing up her little boy on the principle of getting guidance in life. He had taken the scissors, cut off one side of his hair, and left the pillowcase in shreds. When his mother returned, instead of losing her temper, she suggested a “quiet time” in which they could get guidance as to what should be done about it. After the “quiet time,” she asked him if he had got any light. “Yes,” he said, “I think that we had better not let me have the scissors again!” Sound guidance! He had sided with his mother against himself! This is something that will have to be done very often; we will decide that the group-claim is stronger than our personal claim.
(11) Keep the power of laughing at yourself. Stand before the mirror and burst into laughter! It will keep you from taking yourself too seriously. One’s capacity of a man to laugh at oneself determines how high one has risen. There are these stages: the lowest are those who don’t laugh at all; then those who laugh only at their own jokes; then those who laugh at the jokes of others; and highest of all those who can laugh at themselves. For the power to laugh at oneself shows the power to look at oneself objectively.
(12) If you find that there is a basic inequality or injustice at the heart of your relationships with anyone in the group, don’t counsel patience unless and until you are doing your best to right that basic injustice or inequality. For that basic wrong will poison relationships and will break out again and again until righted. No surface kindness can atone for that central wrong. Build your fundamental relationships on justice and equality, and everything else becomes easier.
O Christ, I pray you to help us put your mind into all our relationships, and then we shall know how to live together. Amen.
Week 42 Friday
“Members One of Another”
1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Galatians 6:2; Ephesians 2:19-22
We come to an important principle in corporate living: (13) Remember what Paul says in Romans 12:5, “We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members [organs] one of another.” This thought should keep us from jealousy. If a member of your group excels you, say in singing, then that person becomes the organ of song for you. You should therefore rejoice that your organ of song is thus so beautifully efficient. Another may excel you in executive ability. You should rejoice that your organ of executive power is functioning. For the point is, you are striving to get a corporate job done, and the strength of any is the strength of all. You will have something in you which will be the organ of the others, something in which you are strong and they are weak. None of us has everything, but we all have something. Take an inventory of your strong and weak points, and see how your weakness can be supplemented by the strengths of others.
(14) Keep up the prayer life, and underneath that prayer life keep a surrendered heart. When we are inwardly surrendered, we don’t expect anything, and if anything comes to us, it is sheer gain. Moreover, when we are inwardly surrendered, we become immune to many of the slights and clashes that come in ordinary contacts. In that prayer life, let your thought of others turn to prayer for others.
A lady rather dreaded the coming of a person who was a ‘‘critical Christian,” and a great trial to her, and who was to stay a week! The woman felt a night of prayer alone would fortify her against the trial. No sooner had she knelt than the promise came, “God shall supply all your needs!” Her fears vanished. She jumped into bed and slept the night through. The guest came the next day, and her hostess quite enjoyed the visit. Prayer had tapped the power of Christ. It will do it for you.
O Christ, your power, and your power alone, can sweeten relationships and make impossible situations not only possible but glorious. Give me that power this day. Amen.
Week 42 Saturday
A Cross Section of a Christian Society
Acts 4:32-35; 1 Peter 2:17; 3:8; 1 John 1:7
We have been studying the principles of corporate living and now we must look at a cross section of a Christian society in the first century:
Fear came upon every one. . . . And all the believers kept together, and had everything in common. They sold their lands and other property, and distributed the proceeds among all, according to everyone’s necessities. And, day by day, attending constantly in the Temple with one accord, and breaking bread in private houses, they took their meals with great happiness and single-heartedness, praising God and being regarded with favour by all the people. Also, day by day, the Lord added to their number those whom He was saving. (Acts 2:43-47 Weymouth)
Let us see what was there: (1) Fear (Awe): The supernatural was working down through human relationships and was being embodied in a new society. God became an incarnate fact. (2) Unity: “all the believers kept together.” Many shades of belief and class and color among them, they had a living unity that transcended difference. (3) Unity included the social and economic life: They were not merely one in spirit, apart from and above the economic and social life; the whole of life was one. They held no difference between the sacred and the secular. (4) Need was abolished: Good news to the poor (see Luke 4:18); the first item in Christ’s program was fulfilled. (5) Community, family, and individual life were preserved: They were “in the Temple with one accord”; the community was preserved. They ate bread at home; the family life was intact. The individuals were filled with great “happiness,” therefore preserved and heightened. (6) Single-heartedness: The divisions were gone on the inside, and on the outside in their relationships with one another. Life was reduced from complexity to simplicity. (7) Life became winsome and contagious: “Regarded with favour”—winsome; “day by day the Lord added”—contagious.
These are the seven colors into which the white light of God’s society breaks up. We must rediscover this light for this darkened age. For God wills it!
O God, we cannot be fully victorious until everyone shares that victory. Help us to embody that victory in our total life together. Amen.