Article August 27, 1938 Issue

Signs of the Times

Topic: The Christian's Work

with contributions from Henry Geerlings, James Reid, Oliver Huckel, Jean Bess Goodman, C. S. S. Dutton, W. E. Edmonds

[From the New Outlook, Toronto, Ontario, Canada]

"The Christian is most free and the servant of none." Luther was merely echoing a triumphant note which rings in all the teaching of the Apostolic age. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free." This is the charter of Christian liberty. We are delivered from every kind of bondage which can fetter the soul of man. Conventions have no power to hold us; we slip through their meshes and go forward to find the truth which is the answer to man's immemorial quest. That is why a code of ethics is such a sorry substitute for a living religion. The one is apt to be a system imposed from without; the other is a free response springing from within.

It is one of the paradoxes of Christianity that this glorious liberty is limited at every turn. In principle our freedom is absolute; in practice is never is. We live in a world where other men and women are also seeking the liberty of the children of God, and it sometimes happens that our own achievement becomes a stumbling block to those who are less advanced. Our freedom is controlled by our responsibilities. The key to our liberty is "the mind of Christ;" and we disclose it under varying circumstances. It may sometimes happen that our very freedom from the bondage of convention makes us more susceptible to the demands of public opinion. We consider individual weaknesses, and the private needs of others. "Take thought," wrote the Apostle, "for things honorable in the sight of all men." St. Paul, who was so emphatic about the liberty of each Christian, showed in his own life an endless self-subordination to the limitations of others. He remembered their ignorance, their prejudices, their frailties. He became all things to all men in order that he might by all means save some. This is a natural development in the believer's life. The exhilarating thrill of absolute liberty becomes the patient drudgery of ceaseless service. "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." As Luther discovered, the Christian who is the servant of none, ends by becoming the servant of all.

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