There is no special circumstance that warrants a true disciple of Christ to break his law. We have in mind specifically his command that “If any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat, let him have the cloke also.” But before we deal with this particular commandment we would like to build a strong foundation for our exegesis by calling the attention of our readers to some of the reasons why we cannot ignore one jot or tittle of his commandments.
“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you”, saith the Lord in John 15:14.
When Jesus sat upon the mount and gathered his disciples around him, this was the beginning of his ministry. He declared unto his disciples the principles which he upheld in his own obedience to the will of his heavenly father.
His ministry begins with the triumphant assertion of the reality of God in his own life, and ends with the proclamation of that reality to the world from the vantage point of the cross. The principles he maintained glow throughout his sayings, and nowhere with clearer light than in the Sermon on the Mount.
“The father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak and I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. (John 12:49-50)
Moses received the law standing before God and descended from the mount to deliver it to the people. The one who is greater than Moses is seated, and delivers the law in the mount as the very voice of God. With a direct allusion to the Lord’s emphatic “I will require it.” in Deuteronomy, Jesus declares that “the man who receives not his words has one which judgeth him : The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him at the last day.” (John 12 :48). The result is clearly foreshown in a thought common to Jesus and Deuteronomy: The commandment is life ; the persistent rejection of the commandment is death. (Deut. 30: 15-20)
Life in the future Kingdom will be given for a faith already proved by works ; No disobedience will mar, because the disobedient will have perished in a destruction from which there can be no release. “Wide and broad is the way that leads to destruction” says Jesus, and many there are who go in at it.” “How narrow is the gate, and straitened is the way, that leads to life; and few who find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14) (Quoted from “The teach-of the Master” by L. G. Sargent.)
Our Lord closes his teachings to his disciples with these words “Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not : for it was founded on a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended, and the floods, and the winds blew and it fell and great was the fall of it ; and it came to pass when Jesus ended these sayings the people were astonished at his doctrines. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Yes, our Lord spoke as one having authority, because he did have authority. He was the word made flesh and all that he said and did came from the Father of whom he was the express image. No one will deny that when he commanded his disciples it was the same as the Father commanding them. For in the gospel of Luke we have recorded the fact that God spoke from a cloud saying, “This is my beloved son : Hear him.” (Luke 9: 35) There is no need to further emphasize the authority of our Lord. No one would deny or contend against it.
We bring up these matters to show that it is important to keep each of our Lord and master’s commandments.
Also it is important to keep them in the way he prescribed. We must not keep just the ones we think will not inconvenience us too much, or ones that will not hinder us in our pursuit of worldly pleasures. We must not twist them around to suit our particular purpose, when we know very well that is not what our master intended. This latter case is a real temptation to all of us in this modern age of soft and fast living. Most of the People around us are not totally bound by these rules for eternal life. Therefore it is extremely difficult for a true disciple of Christ to keep his garments clean.
Especially is it so, for those brethren in business for themselves. There is probably no other time in the history of modern business when unethical practices were looked upon with approval, as they are today. In fact it seems to be the rule of the day to beat out the competition by hook or crook no matter how unscrupulously it is done. This is not only confined to business men, but also fellow employees. In competing for better jobs and higher wages many will stoop to almost any kind of dishonesty to achieve what they think is success. Also high pressure selling and false or misleading advertising seems to be the rule of the thumb for the business man of today.
True brethren and sisters of Christ cannot have any part of this. Sure Lord and his apostolic representatives are very emphatic in their instructions on these matters. “Ye have heard that it hath been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth : But I say unto you, that you resist not evil; But whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at law, and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also. And who so ever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow turn not away. Ye have heard it said : Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you love your enemies, bless them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you,” Matt. 6:38-44.
There it is for us in black and white so to speak. We cannot stoop to any of the practices or actions that are followed by those who are not bound by these precepts.
We cannot take our troubles financial or otherwise, to the courts of the unbelievers because Christ commands us not to. This is all the reason we need. We have a very definite Thus saith the Lord, for Christ said, “If any man sue thee at law, and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also”. Note that he said if any man. He was speaking of any one whether he be Greek or Jew, believer or unbeliever, neighbor or enemy.
This is also borne out by the testimony of all the apostles, especially Paul. For he says “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible as much as lieth within you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath ; for it is written, vengance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst give him drink; or in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”
We, who are brethren and sisters of Christ, must submit ourselves to these great precepts of love. We are not allowed any leeway of compromise, if we are true to our great calling. How can we say we love our neighbor if we are willing to drag him into a lawsuit because we feel we have been wronged ? Is this the spirit of Christ’s teaching in the Sermon on he Mount? Besides we have no ight to take our trouble to the law. We are strangers and sojourners here. “Our commonwealth is n heaven and from it we await a savior, The Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 4:20)
The master teaches us to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. As disciples of Christ we should be wise and well grounded enough in he truth, to not put ourselves n the position that would tempt s to compromise the commandments of Our Lord. The apostle Paul says, “That the love of money is the root of all evil”.
We must not join ourselves in associations with the unbeliever or personal gain. When in so doing e leave ourselves open to temptations where by we would be willing to be doubleminded concerning the commandments of our Lord.
We cannot compromise one precept of Christ’s law with out undermining another precept. To continue to do so deadens our sense of responsibility to all the precepts of his law.
As a summary and conclusion we would like to quote the following article written by Brother B. War-render in the 1906 Christadelphian magazine.
“Some fasten on that word brother and say that, although Christ and Paul forbid brethren going to law with each other, still we are at liberty to invoke the law in self defense when wronged by an alien. Such a contention will not stand examination for a moment. It is false pernicious, unscriptural. Paul mentions those brethren in Cornith who had taken a wrong course, not to imply that a brother may go to law with an alien, but to indicate the length they had gone in their disobedience. His own attitude is quite clear for he says, “Being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it, being defamed, we intreat.” Also in 1 Thess. 5:15 he says, “See that none render evil for evil unto any man ; but even follow that which is good, both among yourselves, but rather give place in Rom. 12 :19-21 we find him saying “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink ; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good !” But a brother will say, Suppose a man owes me $500 and I want the money to enable me to provide things honest in the sight of all men. Have I not the right, if persuasion fails to exact payment by legal process ? Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us”.
If brethren will give indiscriminate credit in business, they must accept the consequences. In any case we must not do evil that good may come. Brethren in business today cannot compete in equal terms with many of their competitors, “He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey”. So it was in Isaiah’s day, and so it is today. We have to be fools for Christ’s sake, the sooner we recognize the fact the better. The whole spirit of what is called the Sermon on the Mount shows that such is the position to which we are committed as servants of Christ. We need not expect to make the present life a success in a commercial sense. For us, this life is but a means to an end ; the end is the Kingdom of God. The condition of our entrance therein is not that we pile up a fortune, but that we get through this mortal life faithfully, by faith in the word of God and obedience to his commands. If we can succeed in this, other things will not so much matter.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One