TOZER on New Testament Standards
Our Lord Still Demands
New Testament Standards
New Testament Standards
“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all
pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10).
Not the naked Word only but the character of the witness determines the quality of the Christian convert. The church can do no more than transplant herself. What she is in one land she will be in another. A crab apple does not become a Grimes Golden by being carried from one country to another.
God has written His law deep into all life; everything must bring forth after its kind!
It would appear logical that a subnormal, powerless church would not engage in missionary activity, but again the facts contradict the theory. Christian groups that have long ago lost every trace of moral fire nevertheless continue to grow at home and reproduce themselves in other lands.
There is a weakness too in world missionary activity carried on by the evangelical wing of the church. That weakness is the naive assumption that we have only to reach the last tribe with our brand of Christianity and the world has been evangelized! This is an assumption that we dare not make.
Evangelical Christianity is not tragically below the New Testament standard. Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual. We have lost the art of worship. We are not producing saints. We carry on our religious activities after the methods of the modern advertiser. Our literature is shallow and our hymnody borders on sacrilege. And scarcely anyone appear to care!
Not the naked Word only but the character of the witness determines the quality of the Christian convert. The church can do no more than transplant herself. What she is in one land she will be in another. A crab apple does not become a Grimes Golden by being carried from one country to another.
God has written His law deep into all life; everything must bring forth after its kind!
It would appear logical that a subnormal, powerless church would not engage in missionary activity, but again the facts contradict the theory. Christian groups that have long ago lost every trace of moral fire nevertheless continue to grow at home and reproduce themselves in other lands.
There is a weakness too in world missionary activity carried on by the evangelical wing of the church. That weakness is the naive assumption that we have only to reach the last tribe with our brand of Christianity and the world has been evangelized! This is an assumption that we dare not make.
Evangelical Christianity is not tragically below the New Testament standard. Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual. We have lost the art of worship. We are not producing saints. We carry on our religious activities after the methods of the modern advertiser. Our literature is shallow and our hymnody borders on sacrilege. And scarcely anyone appear to care!
A. W. Tozer, Renewed Day by Day, Christian Publications, Camp Hill, PA,
reading for November 12th
