Reaching Out
THE TRAILBLAZER
Section IV: A Pacemaker
The world is not to be won for Christ by self-seeking, ease-loving men and women. Those not prepared for labor, self-denial and many discouragements will be poor workers. The men and women needed today for missionary work are those who will put Jesus and souls first in everything.
Paul was confronted by an era marked by imperialism and bitterness, decadence and division; by men who were occupied with systems of security, treaties and tributes, law and legislation, campaigns and conquest. To this era, he brought a concept as relevant and effective today as it was in his lifetime. Missionaries would do well to study Paul's life and attempt to develop the same approach.
Constancy or Change
Legislation has always been based on the assumption that human nature was constant – that it would not fundamentally change, and that therefore men would always respond in a predictable way to any given set of circumstances. It was based on the belief that his environment and nature would always master him. Paul introduced by the power of God the idea that human nature and environment could be mastered. “And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
No system, however free or however controlled, can withstand the demands, divisions, ingenuity of personal and national selfishness. A way of life which dangles before the world economic advantages does not win the goodwill of friend or foe; does not remove mistrust or bitterness. Without an answer to selfishness, no system can develop unity or give a spark of hope to any solution of the problems of our day.
In Sierra Leona the white ants will sometimes occupy a house, and eat their way into all the woodwork, until every article in the house is hollow so that it will collapse into dust once touched. That’s the way it is with selfish character. So honey-combed and eaten through, that though for years it may maintain its plausible appearance in the world and few people even suspect the extent of the inward decay, yet the end will come suddenly. There will be one touch of the finger of God, and the whole ill-compacted, worm-devoured thing will crumble into matchwood: “He shall be broken and that without remedy.” Sad to say, but some church leaders are plagued with selfishness – the greatest killer of missionary work!
Paul saw through the racial and religious contradictions of his day, to the reality behind them. He faced the fact that most men want what is right but find themselves succumbing to the pressures of the environment (Rom. 7:18-25).
Change and Challenge
Paul brings a needed factor into missionary work – a change in human nature (2 Cor. 5:17, 15). We are able to teach others only when freed from the death grip of materialism in our hearts (Rom. 6:2). This is a mighty conception and the only one that really works.
Men who have not experienced this inward freedom believe that economic, class, cultural and political forces must always be decisive. It is an understandable blindness, but our slavery to self does not alter the fact that such a revolution is real, practical and realizable. The outreach of such a conception staggers some because materialism has limited our experience and thought to a very narrow segment of what is possible.
The answer to the materialism of our era is the same as Paul’s answer to his world – Christianity: Changing human nature through God’s Word. Men who lead nations on this road have the answer to the present and the key to the future.
Paul helped to launch Christianity on a global scale. He was among the first to fight a battle which put every man and woman, every race and nation, on the front line. The battle line he drew ran through every heart, business, city and government. His journeys were equivalent to Rome's conquests (2 Cor. 10:4-5; Rom. 3:23). Their objective was dominion. Early Christians were a trained force of fighters. They had an inspired strategy. The fact that the troops were in the tens and not in the thousands simply underlines the strength of their leader.
This was a struggle for the minds of men. The aim was the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense – to capture every thought (2 Cor. 10:4-5). No wonder the missionary railway was so successful in Paul’s day.
