THE DISCIPLES HOME STRUCTURE

THE DISCIPLE AT HOME

Thus it is with the homely life around,

There hidden, Christ abides;

Still by the single eye forever found

That seeketh none besides.

When hewn and shaped till self no more is found,

Self, ended at Thy Cross;

The precious freed from all the vile around,

No gain, but blessed loss,

Then Christ alone remains — the former things

Forever passed away;

And unto Him the heart in gladness sings

All through the weary day.

— H. Suso

            So far we have considered the great essential facts of discipleship. There is a sense in which we hold most tenaciously that view of Christianity which is spoken of today as "other-worldly." Man's destiny lies beyond this life of probation here on earth, and toward that great issue the Master is ever working as He teaches us the lessons of His love. Yet it has forever been the glory of Christianity that it is intensely practical, touching the present life here on earth at every point with healing and beauty, sweetening all the streams by purifying the sources. In this and the following articles it will be ours to trace the effect of discipleship on the com­mon relationships of life.

            We begin then with home, because of its para­mount importance. Perhaps there is no side of life more in danger of being neglected in this busy, many-sided age, than that of home, and certainly there is no side which we can less afford to neglect. No service for God is of any value which is contra­dicted by the life at home, neither have we any right to neglect home on the plea of multiplied en­gagements outside.

            The home of the disciple may be conducive to progress in grace, or it may be quite the reverse, and of course the duty will vary accordingly.

            Let us first look at the great ideal of the Christian home presented in the New Testament, and then make particular application of the same.

            1. To the follower of Jesus Christ, there are cer­tain central and unalterable facts which will touch and influence all the home relationships. Let us look first at these.

            The New Authority stands in the forefront. Satan realizes this fact and has many a government undermining this structure. The Teacher has claimed an absolute and unvarying supremacy over the life. That initial condition of discipleship now enters into every question, and from it there can be no deviation — no, not for a single moment. This authority is one that will set up the ideals of life, and declare the standard of action in all the larger and more important matters of the days, and in the most simple and trifling de­tails of the passing moments.            

            This authority becomes the gauge and measure of all other government. The righteous or otherwise of any rule of life imposed on the disciple by any other person is to be tested by the will of the Master. So my obligation to any person as a disciple is limited or enforced by my utmost obligation to Jesus. Responsibility to Him is higher than that of wife to husband, or child to parents, or servant to master. These are all relation­ships of His approving, but His claim is first, and if any of these clash with that, they are to be sacrificed, this to abide.

            Then comes the new attitude created toward others. The relationship of the disciple to Christ, as we have seen, is that of life. Now, this life is the life of Christ, and what it is in itself must now become the governing force, and so give new character to my feeling and action toward others. His life is love. That life, reigning in me, creates the disposi­tion of love toward all. The old scheme of life was that of a preeminent sense of the importance of self, and all other interests were made subservient to that, and all other persons loved or disliked as they minis­tered to or interfered with that. Now, love govern­ing, each will "esteem other better than himself," and the need of the outsider will become the touch­stone of life. The light of Christ's presence will reveal the shortcomings of myself, and the hitherto unrecognized excellences of others. So the attitude of the disciple will become like that of his Lord ­the attitude of one who waits not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and the bearing of the cup of cold water to the thirsty will be the delight of all the days, opportunities for which will not be waited for, but sought.

            Out of these essential considerations there grows a new sense altogether of what home really is. It is to be the first, and perhaps the most simple and beautiful manifestation of the authority of Jesus. Every member of the home, recognizing that utmost Kingship, will find their relationship toward each other ennobled and purified as they live in the great realm of His love. Each willing to sink per­sonal aims for the sake of the realization of the high­est good of all, no one desiring to gratify any part of their own desire at the expense of another, self-renunciation, the individual law that realizes the gen­eral peace and restfulness, makes home at its highest and best.      So the manifestation of the beauty of the kingdom of Jesus in realization of His beatitudes in the home being the highest desire of each and all, personal blessedness is also realized, and every sacred tie of home becomes in itself more delightful and satisfying for Christ's mission amongst His dis­ciples is always the fulfilling, and never the destruc­tion, of all high and noble ideals. The real music and beauty of home are only known to those who are simple and faithful disciples of Jesus.

            What a glorious picture is presented of a true home in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Himself a man, who for the highest reasons never perhaps knew the joy of such life, he nevertheless under­stood its beauty, and if you will take the different words he writes in his Epistles as to the true position and duty of husband, wife, parent, child, master, servant, you will see the vision of the perfect home life. At the principal points let us look.

            (a) Take first the husband and wife in their rela­tion to each other, and as parents toward their chil­dren. What more wonderful ideal than this can there be? "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." That is true love. Absolute self-renunciation, the one over­mastering passion being that of the highest good and greatest happiness of the wife. How impossible in such love the thousand little neglects which mar the life of women, and render them heavy with dis­appointed hope. How far more impossible the selfish brutality that too often has made home infinitely more like hell than heaven. Again, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." That can only be obeyed when the husband loves with the Lord's love. When that is so, see how beautifully there is recognized here the true view of woman's love, as that which finds its highest manifestation in submission. Then the revelation of Paul's writings concerning the relation of parents to children is a remarkable one and sorely needs re­stating in these days. It is that of the father's responibility. It is he who is to train them; and see how tenderly this is to be, not by the methods that will provoke anger, but in "nurture and admonition of the Lord."

            (b) Then the position of the child, simply marked by the one thought of obedience. What a glorious and tender thought it is. It implies an authority pro­vided which frees the tender life from the respon­sibility of thinking and planning, and provides that it shall make advancement toward perfection, within the realm of a very definite and direct government. How grand a provision that is, perhaps we never fully realize until we have passed beyond it, and amid the strife of life, with its oft-recurring crises, when we are sore bewildered as to which path we ought to take, we long for the days of childhood again, when we could ask father, mother, and when in obeying them we knew we were doing that which pleased the Lord. That view of obedience as the Lord's tender provision for their safety and develop­ment should always be presented to our dear disciple-children. What a responsibility it entails upon us parents that we seek our laws for them from the King.

            (c) Then there is the presence in the home of those who help and serve. The position of these is made very sacred in the school of Jesus. Most dis­tinctly is it laid down that they can do "all things" as unto the Lord, and that expression includes and lights up the most trivial duties that they are called upon to render. It is of such that the wonderful pos­sibility is declared, that they may "adorn the doc­trine of God our Savior." How beautiful the life of some is, we know full well. Toward them the Christian master is to exercise the patience of his Master toward himself, making demands on eager, loving service, not by threatening, but by loving, Christly recognition of the holiness of their service, and its value to the Lord Himself.

            2. This is a glorious picture. No such ideal of home has ever been presented to the world. It has been realized in a large measure over and over again. No truer fore-glimpse of the heavenlies can be found than that of the Christian home, with all its deep love, quiet peace, and constant brightness and merri­ment. Discipleship has often to be maintained in very difficult home surroundings. The husband, wife, parent, child, servant may either of them be the only disciple, and their relationship to Christ looked upon with pity, contempt, or even open opposition. The position of such is a very difficult one; but for this, as for all other circumstances, the grace and power of Christ are sufficient. When this is so, there is a twofold responsibility resting upon the Christian.

            Remembering the great ideals, there must be a realization of the Master's will for the individual case. The Christ-life of love must govern and mani­fest itself toward others, even though there is no return on the part of the dearest earthly friends.

            Then, if that manifestation bring contempt and persecution, there is to be an absence of the re­vengeful spirit, and the presence of loving patience, that so the unbelieving may be won by the behavior of the believing.

            The creation of true Christian homes is the splen­did possibility of young discipleship. The question of marriage lies at the base of this. Unequal yoking together of the disciples of Jesus with unbelievers is one of the most disastrous matters for the Church and the world. And there should be no alliance of life even between believers unless the Lord's will be so clearly revealed that there can be no mistaking it.

            The ideal Christian home will forever have a door open to welcome the homeless ones of our great cen­ters of population that its atmosphere of love may help to guard and form the life of such. American and other  governmental authorities prove their ignorance of the Bible by their mandates on the home and its true authority structure.