THE NATURE AND CONDITIONS OF FELLOWSHIP IN THE TRUTH

The truth is professedly and confessedly a "narrow" thing. Jesus declares this in saying "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life." This "way" he afterwards speaks of as "the truth," saying, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free;" and also, "every one that is of the truth heareth my voice."

The narrowness of the truth is one of the obstacles to its general adoption. People do not like to be fettered either in doctrine or practice. It is also one of the causes of the active tendency to corruption which has manifested itself among those embracing the truth from the very day it was apostolically established at Jerusalem. It is inconvenient to be under restrictions in our dealings with fellow men in the truth or out of it. If it were a question of choice, we should all prefer absolute freedom. But no one recognising Christ as the supreme teacher can think of freedom in the matter. If we make freedom our rule, we can only have the freedom of those who set Christ aside altogether, saying in the words of the wicked "Our tongues are our own: who is Lord over us." None who truly know Christ would desire this freedom. All who sincerely accept Christ will recognise his law as paramount, however irksomely it may work in some of its present relations.

It is one of the narrownesses of the truth that it demands of those who receive it that they "contend earnestly for it," even if an angel from heaven oppose it or corrupt it (Jude 3; Gal. 1:8–9), and that they maintain it intact and unsullied among themselves as the basis and association among those who profess it, refusing to walk with a brother who either disobeys its precepts (2 Thes. 3:14; Rom. 16:17), or refuses consent to its teachings in vital matters (2 Jno. 10; 1 Tim. 6:3–5). This policy is so contrary to natural friendliness that it is easy to drift away from it, and to invent theories that will relieve us from its unpleasant obligations.

The controversy on inspiration has forced the re-consideration of this question upon us. We say re-consideration: for it was considered and debated in the beginnings of things connected with the truth in this generation, and satisfactorily disposed of for a time. The principal cause of our trouble in the present situation has been the divergence of view that has prevailed at the bottom on this fundamental question. Many who have allowed the entirely inspired character of the Scriptures, have not been able to see the necessity for insisting upon that truth in our basis of fellowship. They have been inclined to leave it as "an open question." This is the result of a dim or faulty perception of the apostolic doctrine of fellowship (a common sense doctrine) which requires agreement on fundamentals as the first condition of walking together, or co-operating, associating, or fellowshipping together in the prosecution of the objects of the truth. As a brother writing on the question says:

"There is prevalent at the present time a lamentable looseness in regard to what must constitute the basis of fellowship. It arises partly from ignorance and partly from an over anxiety to increase numbers, and keep together divergent elements. This must inevitably result in serious trouble or general declension. . . The truth’s interest is at stake, and no doubt much depends upon our action, as to whether it is yet to be maintained in its purity and simplicity, or lapse into laodiceanism. The crisis is, doubtless, the most acute that has taken place since it was brought to light in these latter days. It has been brewing for past years. You were reluctant to believe it, and laboured to stave it off. A too long course of loose discipline and slackness in dealing with wrong principles in doctrine and practice has, no doubt, intensified the evil and made it all the more bitter, and grievous and hard to bear. I am persuaded that good will result in the case of those many or few who will outride the storm by keeping a firm grasp of the anchor of the soul, by coming out of this ocean of suffering as gold tried in the fire."

With a view to the thorough ventilation and effectual exhibition of the Scriptural principles of fellowship, we append a double series of propositions in which there is some attempt to formulate them in their bearing upon the question which has been troubling the ecclesias. We should be pleased to receive and publish enlightened criticisms that may be offered thereon; or any other capable endeavour to amplify or illustrate Scriptural principles in the same direction.