The English word “road” occurs only once in the A.V. and strange to say, does not mean a road or a highway at all. It refers to a raid conducted by David into enemy territory. The main English word in the A.V. meaning an ordinary road or highway is the word “way”. It is also often used as a figure of speech to represent a way or manner of life, either good or bad. Examples of such occurrences as these abound in the Scriptures; here are two:
Mark 11:8, meaning a literal highway or road, and,
Mark 12:14, where the word “way” is used as a manner of life.
Barclay, in his book, “The mind of St. Paul”, mentions a play entitled, “The Black Stranger”, where the author speaks of the Irish potato famine in 1846. At that time, as part of the relief work, men were engaged in making roads which served no purpose whatever. One day, in that desperate situation, Michael comes home utterly disillusioned, and says to his father, “They’re making roads that lead to nowhere”.
The way of life for many of our contemporaries is a road that leads to nowhere, and there are at least two Scriptural references to such roads.
The first reference is in 1 Sam. 10:14. The incident commences at Ch. 9:3. Saul and his servant set out to search for the asses of Kish. In self-reliance the search was a failure, and we in our experience can provide testimony to the failure we share when depending on our own efforts — the road led to nowhere. Saul’s circumstances were to change for the better. Realising their own inability the servant suggests obtaining help: “Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is a man held in honour; all that he saith cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; peradventure he can tell us concerning our journey whereon we go.” I Sam. 9:6 R.V. The sequel is recorded in Chapter 10:14-16. The road that led to nowhere was abandoned and in its place the men began to walk the road to the Kingdom. The second illustration has a very unhappy ending. It was a road to nowhere, equated with death and represented by leprosy. 2 Kings 5:25-27 —the story of Gehazi’s attempt to deceive Elisha. We too travelled the road to nowhere until, like Saul, we took advice and turned to the man of God, our Lord Jesus; and immediately the road to nowhere took on a different complexion.
We came to a junction and there to the right it was signposted, “The road to life”. Taking out the map, we studied the way. The map contours indicated that the road to life passed over varied country, plenty of ups and downs, many steep and dangerous, narrow and twisting, strewn with obstacles of one kind or another. Yet, in spite of this, there were, from place to place, green pastures and still waters. The way was bisected with a river, narrow but deep, and before we could start on our journey, water had to be gone through. The waters of purification.
The water purifies the heart that seeks God’s face, and in obedience to His word we know His saving grace. Out of the water and on the way. Not now the road to nowhere — but the road to the Kingdom. Not having passed this way before, and unfamiliar with the road, we needed a loving guiding hand. Like the man who stood at the gate of the year, we stood cleansed, infant-like at the start of the road, and putting our hand into the hand of God, he spoke to us, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”.
The journey on the way of life is no one-man job. There are obstacles to be overcome which are just too much for one on his own.
The Lord God had said that it was not good that man should be alone, and so providing a helpmeet. He says that He will never leave nor forsake us. The adhesive bond of love keeps Him by our side to guide us in the way. Whenever we try to attach two pieces of material together by the use of contact adhesive, it is important that the adhesive be evenly spread on both pieces. By so doing, a perfect bond is formed when the pieces come together.
Our bond to our Heavenly Father is love.
Paul says, “And above all things put on charity, which is the bond of perfection”. Col. 3:14. The Greek word for “Bond” means that which binds together, figurative of the ligaments of the body, a strong and compact substance which serves to bind one to another. The love must be mutual. “We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. Paul says in 1 Cor. 14:1, “Follow after charity” (A.V.). The R.S.V. reads, “Make love your aim,” and the Emph. Dia. reads, “Ardently pursue love.” Paul is evidently using the metaphor from the stadium, and in the translation by Bp. Wordsworth “Make charity your aim and end in the whole race of your Christian life”. The phrase “follow after” in the A.V. does not portray a sense of urgency or a pursuing with earnestness and diligence, as would be understood by those who heard the word in the Greek. Paul is emphasizing the importance of love and is saying — ardently pursue it. “If I were to speak with the combined eloquence of men and angels I should stir men like a fanfare of trumpets or the crashing of cymbals, but unless I had love, I should do nothing more” (JBP). He continues “If I were to sell all my possessions to feed the hungry and, for my convictions, allow my body to be burned and yet had no love, I should achieve precisely nothing”.
The road to nowhere is paved with good intentions but littered with good works cast off in a throw-away-world; and love is conspicuous by its absence.
The very first principle of Christ-likeness for the true believer is to ardently pursue love, and the kind of love of which the Apostle speaks is “slow to lose patience, and looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive; it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance” (JBP). The Greek word “dioko” rendered “follow after” in the A.V. is used in Matt. 10:23 “But when they persecute you in this city…” and means to pursue or drive into exile. The Greek grammarian Parkhurst says that, properly speaking, the word means “to run or fly quickly, and was used of fugitives”. Paul uses the word in Phil. 3:14 when he says “I press towards the mark…”. This is no mere leaning on the oars. It is the exercise of great pressure and effort in the enthusiastic pursuit of a principle objective. How do we measure up to the Apostle’s description of men and women in Christ? Do we reciprocate the love He has shown to us? Where in our daily lives are we showing kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering? Let you and I show to each other the spirit of forbearance and forgiveness, manifesting love, which is the bond of perfectness. Safeguard the ligament. Protect it at all costs “As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” Rom. 12:4.
I think Paul is saying, that as with the natural illustration, so the spiritual analogy, there is not only vital unity and harmony in operation, but diversity too; and all being essential to effectiveness. The unity thus resulting is not due to external organisation but to a common and vital union in Christ. I do not use the words and phrases you use. You do not speak like me —You probably would not want to anyway. You and I should, for the love of the Truth, allow each other the privilege of differing phraseology in doctrinal assertions, provided they are in harmony with our accepted basis of fellowship (which in Australia happens to be that defined in the Unity Booklet — the whole of it — not a bit taken from here and a bit from there).
“Now they are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee… but God tempered the body together, giving more abundant honour to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another” 1 Cor. 12.
Prof. Bruce paraphrases part of this passage like this — “Those parts of the body, which are reckoned to be weaker turn out to be the more necessary, and those which are reckoned to be less honourable have all the more honour bestowed on them. God, you see, has put the body together in this way, bestowing greater honour on those parts which naturally lack it, so that there should be no division, no sense of superiority or inferiority between the various parts of the body, but all of them should have the same care one for another”. The word “schism” in the A.V. is the Greek schisma — a split or a gap, and can be literal or figurative for division, rent. Schisma is from schizo which is apparently a primary verb to split or sever, literally or figuratively to break, divide, open, rend or make a rent. Schisma occurs in 1 Cor. 1:10 which the R.S.V. puts this way:
“I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no DISSENSIONS among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgement”.
In avoiding the road to nowhere, burst the bubble of puffed-up knowledge, continue to build and run with patience the road to the Kingdom. Follow after Charity, because it “knows no limit of endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; It can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen”. (1 Car. 13 JBP).
Is Pentecost Happening Today? (Part 7) – Tongues Shall Cease