Please see my commentary below, regarding two posts I received from the daily devotional I subscribe to, the CQOD, Christian Quotation of the Day, which is highly recommended as the best online source of quotations for Christian unity I know of.
_______________________________
Christian Quotation of the Day
Monday, November 15, 2021
Commemoration of Oswald Chambers, spiritual writer, 1917
Meditation: Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- --Galatians 1:1 (NIV)
Quotation: There is one ... aspect of St. Paul's preaching which is often taken for granted, but is certainly not true--that the Gospel of St. Paul was purely individualistic. To the heathen crowd St. Paul addressed himself as to a mass of souls from amongst which he was to gather the elect children of God. But he did not approach them as an isolated prophet: he came as an Apostle of the Church of God, and he did not simply seek to gather out individual souls from amongst the heathen; he gathered them into the society of which he was a member. He did not teach them that they would find salvation by themselves alone, but that they would find it in the perfecting of the Body of Christ. Souls were not invited to enter into an isolated solitary religious life of communion with Christ: they were invited to enter the society in which the Spirit manifested Himself and in which they would share in the communication of His life. [Continued tomorrow] ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 76 See the book at http://cqod.com/b/r3159 See also Acts 2:41; 13:46; Gal. 1:1-2
Feast of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, Philanthropist, Reformer of the Church, 1093 Commemoration of Edmund Rich of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1240
Meditation: For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. --1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV)
Quotation: [Continued from yesterday] It was inconceivable that a Christian taught by St. Paul could think of himself as obtaining a personal salvation by himself. He became one of the brethren. He shared in the common sacraments. The Church was not an invisible body formed of unknown 'believers'. Men were admitted by their baptism into a very visible society, liable to be attacked by very visible foes. The Apostle who preached to them was a member of it, and he preached as a member of it, and as a member of it he invited them to enter it, to share its privileges and its burdens, its glory and its shame. Entrance into it was guarded by a very definite and unmistakable sacrament. ... Roland Allen (1869-1947), Missionary Methods: St. Paul's or ours?, London: World Dominion Press, 1927, reprinted, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1962, p. 76 See the book at http://cqod.com/b/r3160 See also Matt. 10:14; Rom. 6:3-4; 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 6:2-3
--------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: cqod-unsubscribe@cqod.com For additional commands, e-mail: cqod-help@cqod.com
_______________________________
Commentary by Tim::
Allen is looking for the right obedience at the wrong time for the new believer. Allen says, "Entrance into it was guarded by a very definite and unmistakable sacrament." Paul says it was one Spirit we all drink, and one Spirit into which we were all baptized, not into one water, doing guard duty.
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. --1 Corinthians 12:13 (NIV)
Jesus sends us believers forth as one, in the same way His Father sent Jesus into the world, to help in the process of gathering all the Father's sheep into the one fold, whether they've been baptized before and now strayed away, baptized for repentance only, or not yet baptized at all, because lacking water baptism can be corrected. And Jesus makes identifying the Father's sheep unmistakable, the ones which we are to help gather into the one fold, but not initially identified by previous water baptism.
Peter was plainly shown that the Spirit can enter persons prior to baptism with water, and Peter made it clear that no man can guard or forbid by water what the Spirit gives to live in the heart. “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” (Ac 10:47 AV)
The fact that no man can forbid water baptism after the Spirit is already in a believer is because the Spirit knows hearts, and can choose water baptism to come after baptism in the Spirit, as the Spirit may choose. No man can forbid the Spirit's decision, and that includes Allen, whether he would argue for unmistakable sacrament or undeniable ordinance, either way, the commandment to be baptized is being obeyed as the believer understands it so, as well as obeying the commands of Jesus to repent and believe, whether before or after the moment of baptism by water.
In this mistaken insistence by Allen on only one sequence of obedience allowable by the Spirit, Allen has taken the wonderful blessing God intended in baptism for all believers and turned it into a stumbling stone of offense to keep the unbaptized believer out, just by insisting on the absolute, unmistakable priority in time of the right command at the wrong time. Paul and Peter understood this well, because they both focused on the words of Jesus, which Peter heard from the mouth of God, Himself, and Paul heard in person about the goads being hard to kick against as the Light blinded him, giving Paul good reason to hear carefully, with ears to hear from other believers, the full message of all the words God sent Jesus to speak to all us believers, and to Paul in particular. “13 About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ’Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’” (Ac 26:13-14 NivUS) “The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails — given by one Shepherd.” (Ec 12:11 NivUS) “6 "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ’Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ 8 "’Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. "’I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. 10 "’What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. "’Get up,’ the Lord said, ’and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’” (Ac 22:6-10 NivUS) “14 "Then he said: ’The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’” (Ac 22:14-16 NivUS) “For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.” (Joh 17:8 NivUS) “Jesus answered, "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’"” (Mt 4:4 NivUS)
If we look to the One, Good Shepherd, in which Jesus and the Father are one, to lead us all as one flock to green pastures, in order to feed both ourselves, and all the rest of the Father's sheep, on the same, one, eternal Bread that lasts so we never hunger again, the Bread which feeds the Spirit in all of us by that which proceeded out of the mouth of God, who is the Word, then the Spirit will remind us that the words from the very mouth of God in Jesus tell us the Father gives all His sheep the ears to hear the voice of the One, Good Shepherd calling to them in the two commands that come first in time to the Father's sheep needing to come out of the world of sin into the one flock, which is to repent and believe the good news in the words in His voice, before rightly hearing the command he also gave us to be baptized with water. “14 I am the good shepherd, and know my [sheep], and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, [and] one shepherd.” (Joh 10:14-16 AV) “But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (Joh 14:26 AV ) “14 ¶ After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"” (Mr 1:14-15 NivUS) “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Lu 24:47 AV) “14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Mt 6:14-15 AV)
Only in the light the Spirit gives both us and Peter, as well as to Paul, in the understanding of the words Jesus spoke, can we fully understand the words Paul wrote that Allen refers to here, about Paul intending no 'personal salvation by himself', without all the other members of the body, which both nowadays, as well as in the days of the Apostles, always includes every repentant, mutually loving and all-forgiving brother and sister in Christ in the world, in every Christian denomination and faith group, which in the Apostle’s time was only one denomination, wherever located, and no matter how each congregation had to be corrected to finally learn to live in the Spirit, and not in the flesh, not in the lusts for worldly things, wealth, power, and honor among men, or sexual immorality.
Whether the One Spirit of God leads all believers to remain in multiple Christian denominations and faith groups or not, it is the One Spirit’s decision to make and to lead as only He may choose, because it is the One Spirit in all us believers that leads us to unite in Himself, with Himself living in each and every believer, leading us all into the fullness of unity on Earth as the Father and Jesus of Nazareth were one on Earth, in the One, Good Shepherd, all working the Father’s will on Earth as it is in Heaven, working as one here to gather into the one flock even the least believer among all the Father’s sheep, including every repentant, mutually loving, and all-forgiving brother and sister in Christ, in every Christian denomination and faith group.
Allen was right, but in a way he did not realize, when he said of Paul, "He did not teach them that they would find salvation by themselves alone, but that they would find it in the perfecting of the Body of Christ”, which perfecting actually begins, not on the precise sequence of the moment of conversion vs. the moment of water baptism, but rather, our perfection as the body of Christ begins when all believers start uniting in the one, commonly-shared salvation that the voice of God in the words spoken by Jesus specifically said God wants, in Christian unity of all believers as one, the same unity as Jesus and the Father were one, in the one Spirit of the One, Good Shepherd, so that all believers love and care for one another with their lives in this world laid down, figuratively for one another, thus fulfilling the first most important commandment to love God, so God can show His glory to make us one, showing it to all in the world whosoever will come to believe that God sent Jesus for that purpose of salvation for all the Father's sheep, which unity in mutual love among all believers then, in turn, fulfills the second most important command to us to love all in the world as much as we love ourselves as believers, in the love both we and God have together for all in the world to see His glory, which the world can now believe God sent Jesus to show to the world, too.
“21 “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 24 ¶ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (Joh 17:21-24 NKJV)
“27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 “I and My Father are one.”” (Joh 10:27-30 NKJV)
What Paul and Peter knew, and the body of Christ now learns all over again, is that the perfecting of the Body of Christ that God wants the world to see is described in the words to live by, that give sustenance and life to the One Spirit that lives in all the Father's sheep, words given as they proceeded from the mouth of God, when He walked the Earth in the man named Jesus of Nazareth; words heard with the first spiritual gift of ears to hear the voice of the One, Good Shepherd of all the Father's sheep, including every repentant, mutually loving, and all-forgiving brother and sister in Christ, in every Christian denomination and faith group, whether any man tries to use baptism to exclude, instead of helping to gather, all the Father's sheep into the one fold, beginning even before they are baptized as the Spirit may choose, if they haven't heard the command already, which God willing, all "whosoever believeth", will soon hear and learn, only in fervent brotherly love in Christ from the baptized already, like Paul heard in Damascus.
“14 "Then he said: ’The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’” (Ac 22:14-16 NivUS)This message has been edited. Last edited by: Tim Warlick,
