Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume IMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy, Volume I
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Deuteronomy -- Commentaries
But some will doubtless inquire, Where is this one body to be seen? Is
it not an absurdity to speak of such a thing, in the face of the
almost numberless denominations of christendom? Our answer is this: We
are not going to surrender the truth of God because man has so
signally failed to carry it out. Did not Israel utterly fail to
maintain, confess, and carry out the truth of the unity of the
Godhead? and was that glorious truth, in the smallest degree, touched
by their failure? Was it not as true that there was one God, though
there were as many idolatrous altars as streets in Jerusalem, and
every housetop sent up a cloud of incense to the queen of heaven, as
when Moses sounded forth, in the ears of the whole congregation, those
sublime words, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord"? Blessed
be God, His truth does not depend upon the faithless, foolish ways of
men. It stands in its own divine integrity; it shines in its own
heavenly, undimmed lustre, spite of the grossest human failure. Were
it not so, what should we do? whither should we turn? or what would
become of us? In fact, it comes to this: if we were only to believe
the measure of truth which we see practically carried out in the ways
of men, we might give up in despair, and be of all men most
miserable.
But how is the truth of the one body to be practically carried out? By
refusing to own any other principle of Christian fellowship--any other
ground of meeting. All true believers should meet on the simple ground
of membership of the body of Christ, and on no other. They should
assemble, on the first day of the week, around the Lord's table, and
break bread, as members of the one body, as we read in 1 Corinthians
x, "For we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we are all
partakers of that one loaf." This is as true and as practical to-day
as it was when the apostle addressed the assembly at Corinth. True,
there were divisions at Corinth as there are divisions in christendom;
but that did not in any wise touch the truth of God. The apostle
rebuked the divisions--pronounced them carnal. He had no sympathy with
the poor, low idea which one sometimes hears advocated, that divisions
are good things, as superinducing emulation. He believed they were
very bad things--the fruit of the flesh, the work of Satan.
Neither, we feel persuaded, would the apostle have accepted the
popular illustration that divisions in the Church are like so many
regiments, with different facings, all fighting under the same
commander-in-chief. It would not hold good for a moment; indeed, it
has no application whatever, but rather gives a flat contradiction to
that distinct and emphatic statement, "There is one body."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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