The Greatest Masterpiece on Earth!

The Greatest Masterpiece on Earth!

There once was an emperor who had a noble desire in his heart. He wanted to cultivate harmony and unity among his people. When he did not succeed, it made him so despondent and dejected in his heart that he abandoned his throne and his realm. He settled in a foreign land, and since he could not persuade the people to live in harmony with each other, he decided to occupy himself with getting a row of clocks to tick all at the same time, but this did not succeed either.

It was a challenging task, the greatest task possible that this emperor had undertaken: to get people to agree. He is surely not the only one who has given up on it. Almost all of those who have tried have realized (and that quite quickly) that the problem is unsolvable. They think that even the power of Christianity cannot solve it. Nevertheless, the problem is solvable regardless; that is, for those who desire to lose everything in this world so that it may succeed, for those who love God above everything, for those who love God alone.

What a terrible amount of strife and division and uproar there is in this world! What a terrible number of factions! This saddens, pains, and troubles all the souls who have a noble attitude of mind, for they love oneness and harmony, peace and love. They gladly sacrifice the lesser values for the sake of the greater values. What is it that hinders oneness? Money, honor, power, luxurious living, and personal opinions (conceit). Give it all up, and oneness will appear by itself. What is it that hinders it? Sin! By forsaking sin, everything that prevents oneness will cease. Can it be forsaken? Yes, of course! What is it that people quarrel about? They quarrel about a chip, a dishcloth, a seating place, a pencil, a piece of paper, a nutshell, some words, about who is the smartest or the greatest, about who shall be the leader (who shall have the great honor of saying, “Now let us pray to God”), about some perishable inheritance, about wages, etc. What of all this cannot be given up?

For example, people argue about which field would be best for potato cultivation. One person thinks that one field could produce half a bushel of potatoes more than the other field. This could be doubtful. But let us go along with the idea that it is so. For this reason, husband and wife can argue for a whole day. Their children’s hearts are torn to pieces, unconverted people in the neighboring apartment hear it and lose faith that there is any power in Christianity, and friends notice it at the meeting in the evening and are inhibited in their faith and in their boldness.

Thus the calculation runs as follows: What is worth more, four bushels of potatoes plus unity, peace, love, a good effect on the children, neighbors, and, friends plus time gained for prayer and other labors; or four and a half bushels of potatoes plus disagreement, arguing, unkindness, anger, bitterness, and the breakdown of faith and trust and other valuable things in their own children, neighbors, and friends, plus a loss of time to work and strength to work? Can you solve this problem by exerting yourself to the utmost? Can you manage to live according to the correct answer? Is there a solution to the problem?

Peace, mercy, love, and consolation will surely be the lot of those who act according to this guideline.

I shall in all modesty permit myself to point out (among other things) what a person risks by not acting according to this guideline. For example, if there were some people in a place who called themselves Pentecostal friends, and if disunity and strife was the norm among them, they would thereby risk that the inhabitants of that place would add a little prefix to this name so that among these inhabitants they would become known as Pentecostal un-friends. And if their meeting hall was called “Bethel,” it could be that if they heard someone argue, they would say that they argued just like they do “at Bethel.”

God help us all to avoid making ourselves worthy of such a commendation, but rather make room for other people’s commendations: “Behold, how they love one another! Their strength is in their unity!” “They stick together just like peas in a pod!” We can almost not make out who is the leader or the leadership, but everything goes as if by itself.” “I have never heard of any disunity among them.”

I wish to recommend to all those who desire to be strengthened to this end to read the overseer Ignatius’ seven letters that he wrote just before he suffered martyrdom. The most prominent and conspicuous point in all these letters that he wrote with his end in sight is about the unity of the believers. His statements are outstanding! They are beautiful, serious, and stern!

The greatest masterpiece, the greatest miracle on earth, is to get people who by nature, personality, taste, and habit are extremely dissimilar to agree completely in spirit and mind, in opinion and word. 1 Cor. 1:10-13. Yet it is possible! It can happen! Even more, we are exhorted to it; it shall happen! As far as that goes, it has already been fulfilled among us to some degree! God be praised! May it soon be completely realized across the board!!!

Ignatius writes to Polycarp, who was the overseer of the church in Smyrna, the church that is mentioned in Revelation 2:8-11: “Let unity be the chief object of your care.” Division, quarrelling, strife, arguing, fighting, and factions are something terrible, something harmful, something confusing, corrupting, and stifling! Paul even says in Galatians 5:19-21 that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, they will remain outside. James says that “where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing will be there.” Jas. 3:16. Therefore Ignatius’ exhortation to Polycarp was in order. He knew what he was writing about and how he should word it just before he was to be swallowed by wild beasts in Rome!

When the elders in an assembly disagree and argue, tearing each other down, the reason is that their sinful lusts war in their members. Jas. 4:1. It is pointless to come with any other nice explanation. Then they are clearly sinning, especially against the young ones and new ones in the assembly. Then they are actively engaged in harming or ruining them. Even if the young ones, by God’s grace, should come through unharmed by the elders’ meanness, the elders have nevertheless, as far as they are concerned, become guilty of murder, so to speak. They have displayed a frightening heartlessness and thoughtlessness simply for the sake of vainglory. Gal. 5:26. They should actually go into a corner and be ashamed like a dog, lying down flat on the ground or on the floor, for they have undeniably shown that they had a greater desire for vainglory than for the salvation of souls.

Who can solve this problem? What is worth more: sitting in a meeting hall which I think we should not use, but full of peace and joy, power and boldness, in beautiful harmony with all the souls who are increasingly prospering, or sitting in a meeting hall which I think we should definitely use, but arguing, and making sarcastic remarks to each other with strife and the lust to quarrel in our hearts, with some of the friends absent from the meetings because they cannot bear to be present and listen to all this wretchedness, and others—especially the young ones—sitting there downcast, questioning, doubting, and bound so that they cannot manage either to pray or to testify, and with the further consequence that the whole affair is publicized to the entire population so that the congregation loses trust for a long time into the future?

What is best? Following a proposal that is not so good and agree and be blessed, or following the smartest suggestion and then consuming each other because of envy and strife?

The “wisdom” that is from below drives people to argue about what is the smartest thing to do so the guns blaze. The wisdom that is from above sacrifices the lesser values for the greater values and prefers to agree to a lesser proposal with peace and oneness rather than to the best proposal with arguing and disunity. Or in other words, wisdom sees that the first proposal that was worse will after all still be the best proposal. The “wisdom” that is from below is stiff, stubborn, and inflexible; whereas the wisdom that is from above is mobile and agile. As much as the soul has been poured out, that is how agile, flexible, and pliable a person is.

You have to love and esteem oneness so that you put quite a few things aside for its sake. You have to learn to assign its correct value to it.