CHAPTER XI

Our Task in Society

INTRODUCTION

The teaching of our Standards concerning our task in society is not treated under this topic. There is a body of teaching given in relation to the last six commandments and the second petition in the Lord’s Prayer. These are brought together in conjunction with passages of scripture which throw light on this topic.

A. THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

In the treatment of the visible and the invisible church, it was recognized that the visible church is in a society of men on the earth. Because it is in such a society, and because its members are members also of society, the church visible is more or less pure. Any individual believer may be pure in heart through the grace and power of Christ. Salvation is an individual matter. Yet men ordinarily are saved through the church. Their union with the church is essential to their best growth and service.

These concepts underlie the fundamental principle that Christian believers are both separate from society and a part of society. They are separate from unbelieving society in that they are called out by the grace of God. They are in society in that they are sent to the world to bring Christ to it. The same Jesus who said to His disciples, “Come ye after me” also said, “Go ye into all the world.” Thus the individual is directly related to God through Christ. He is in a fellowship of like persons who exercise a saving faith, and in this fellowship is strengthened by his worship and service. He is also a citizen of his total society, a large part of which needs the redemptive power of God through Christ. He thus becomes a missionary, an evangelist, a reformer, a person who strives to bring the power and light of the Gospel of Christ to his world,

B. THE WORK OF CALVIN IN GENEVA

The principle of separation between church and state is an excellent principle as it was conceived by our founding fathers. History demonstrates the fact that state support of the church tends to mean and usually means state control of the church. Witness what has happened in Germany and Russia in recent years. At the same time there is a moral obligation on the church to help the state become a better state and the world a better world. In John Calvin’s time in Switzerland this latter principle was in operation even though the principle of separation was not. So John Calvin returned to Geneva and went about reforming both the church and the city. He found all of his basic principles in the Bible. His rules of discipline were applied to both the church and the city.

The reforms in Genevan society are described in this way by an eminent historian:

“The material prosperity of the city was not neglected. Greater cleanliness was introduced, which is next to Godliness, and promotes it. Calvin insisted upon the removal of filth from houses and the narrow and crowded streets. He induced the magistrates to superintend the markets, and to prevent the sale of unhealthy food, which was to be cast into the Rhone. Low taverns and drinking shops were abolished, and intemperance diminished. Mendicancy in the streets was prohibited. A hospital and poorhouse were provided and well-conducted. Efforts were made to give useful employment to every man who could work. Altogether Geneva owes her moral and temporal prosperity, her intellectual and literary activity, her social refinement, and her world-wide fame very largely to the reformation and discipline of Calvin. He set a high and noble example of a model community.”

(Quoted by Walter Lingle, Presbyterians, Their History and Beliefs, p. 32.)

It is quite obvious that the Presbyterian Church would not attempt to exercise a similar control over the civil life of a city or community. At the same time Presbyterians recognize the fact that they have a Gospel which transforms civic leaders and society insofar as it is voluntarily received and put to work. This fact leads us to recognize the possibilities open to us for the transformation of society by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

C. THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIETY BY THE GOSPEL

The last six commandments forbid lack of respect for parents, murder, adultery, dishonesty, false accusation, and covetousness. All of these rear their ugly heads in our society. The God who forbids the practice of these things also provides the way that they may be overcome; namely, through the Christian Gospel.

Christians pray that God’s Kingdom may come, that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. God’s Kingdom comes on the earth through the obedience of God’s people. And Jesus Christ said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matt 28:19, 20.)

Because some people in our world have exercised a social concern without identifying themselves as believers in Christ as Son of God and Saviour of the world, many Christians have drawn back from the task of making our society more Christian. They have assumed that there is a distinction to be drawn between a “personal” Gospel and a “social” Gospel. This unrealistic error limits the power of Christ and runs counter to Jesus’ example of healing sick bodies and feeding hungry stomachs. He said, “As you did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you did it unto me.” (Matt 25:40.) The more we recognize the power of Christ’s Gospel, the more convinced we will be that it will make a change in our world. Let us therefore recognize how this power of the Gospel works.

1. THROUGH TRANSFORMED INDIVIDUALS

In previous studies we have recognized the fact that salvation is a very personal experience. It brings an individual into a vital and transforming relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. We have also underscored the importance of the Christian fellowship as a transforming fellowship. Christians in fellowship enrich both individual and group experience. The influence of one Christian over another is one of the means by which the total experience of redemption is made more effective.

The first step toward transforming society is therefore the step of evangelizing and converting individuals in society. The effective proclamation of the Christian Gospel is the church’s primary business. God’s Spirit has a way of using this proclamation of the Gospel for the redemption of men. However, this witnessing to the power of God is not limited to the pulpit. Business men and women, employers and employees may witness by the way they operate in business more effectively than they do by their words in religious meetings. For this reason the church can never stop with the profession of faith on Sunday morning. Any Christian concerned with evangelism must be concerned with the application of the Gospel to the social and economic order. For the acid test of the power of Christ to transform individual life is what it does to the man or the woman in personal, social and economic relations. There is where non-Christian people look most often and most carefully.

Presbyterians believe, as the Bible teaches, that men are known by their fruits. They believe in putting faith to work right where people live. They do not retreat into dogmas declared by the church or an orthodoxy which limits itself to one particular type of evangelism. They believe in witnessing to their faith by every means in every area of life. Some Presbyterians need to be reminded of the importance of their testimony on the frontiers where they would be most effective.

2. THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES

What has been said leads to a further emphasis on the fact that a part of the evangelistic and educational work of the Christian witness is the application of Christian principles to all of the relationships of life. Even though we might not follow John Calvin, the founder of modern Presbyterianism, in seeking directly to control civic life, we do recognize the fact that he sought to bring the teachings of the Bible to bear on the total life of the people in Geneva. He did it by authority granted by the Council and the people of Geneva. We do it by persuasion. When we fail to do it by persuasion, we and our children suffer the consequences.

The difficulties of winning persons to Christ in a non-Christian society are well known to Christian missionaries in lands where Christians are very much in the minority. Russian controlled China in a few years will probably be a very hard field for missionaries to re-enter. The society in which we live is gradually imposing its lax ideas and practices on church people. There is a constant struggle between the church and the world for the control of the ideas and habits of a people. Unless the church is constantly transforming the world, it will gradually conform to the world.

Let us suppose, for example, that a Christian employer resents the intervention of organized forces not among his employees to a point where he refuses to play fair with his employees. Because other people are un-Christian and are acting from selfish motives, must he become like them? Or must he play fair even though he does not like some of the means used by outside forces?

Again, imagine that a workman is required to join a union in order to secure work. He finds that instead of going on the principle that an honest day’s work should be given for a full day’s pay, he goes on the principle that he is to do as little as possible for as much return as he can get. Will not such practice eventually shoot prices up to where he and his family suffer and inflation destroys the earning power he might have had?

Quite obviously it is very hard to be Christian in the workaday world in which people live. Why? Is it not because Presbyterians and others have waited to be pushed in many directions because they did not take the lead in establishing Christian principles in business? There are some men who have done just that and have been successful in spite of all of the pressures brought to bear upon them. They are the stabilizing influences on economy and business. They put Christian principles to work insofar as they can in an un-Christian society.

Suppose again, business men are asked to contribute to the Community Chest. They start out with a cocktail party and celebrate with a similar party at the end. Certain Christian men suggest that they will support this movement only if they can seek God’s blessing upon it and the way it is conducted. Their testimony becomes effective in changing habits. This is the application of Christian principles to society. Society is in some measure transformed through Christian individuals who take their responsibility as Christians seriously.

The logic of refusing to take Christian principles into business and government and international relations is the logic of letting a world become more and more pagan while the Church is trying to develop in it a minority of persons who should become more and more Christian. It is the logic of serving a man whiskey to get his business and then working in Alcoholics Anonymous to cure him of his habit of drink. If Presbyterians expect to give an effective witness to Christ in their world, they must put Christian principles to work in that world. For the power of the Gospel can work there as it works in the individual.

3. THROUGH THE ABIDING WORSHIP AND WORK OF THE CHURCH

It is easy to forget the unostentatious but continuous influence of the regular worship and service of the church. People in the United States who take the church for granted do not recognize the importance of this influence. Why is it that a person may leave his house unguarded for hours at a time while he goes to his work? It is because of the influence of the church on society. Why may a woman drive in safety from morning until night on the highways of our state and nation? Because of the influence of the church on society. Why is a contract considered binding upon two parties? Because of the influence of the church on the laws of our land and on the ideals of business life. Why may one borrow money or buy with credit to furnish his house? Because at least most of the people in our society have directly or indirectly inherited the values of the life and work of the church.

It is no accident that our founding fathers built a church before they built their homes. They knew that without their regular worship and work, they would soon be fighting among themselves. Their survival depended upon their willingness to forget their own selfish interest in the common good. Presbyterians believe in regular worship and service. They believe in it to an extent that they invest millions of dollars each year on local and benevolent expenses. They send out elders to conduct services in chapels and outposts if there are not enough ordained ministers to do the job. They work with migrants, with coal miners, with mountaineers, with the most cultured and the least cultured members of society. They know that the regular worship and service of the church changes society through changing individuals who exert their influence on society.

Our task in modern society is tremendously great because we have been neglecting many opportunities to witness effectively to our faith in Christ. It is also great because our world has become one world and the relationships of life have become proportionately complex. We have a challenging task which may be done within the framework of our time-honored principle of separation between church and state. Let us witness and persuade in the name and in the power of Jesus Christ. He will be with us always, even as He promised to those who took His commands seriously.