VOL. V, NUMBER The THE National MagazIne CHURCH O F G O D JANUARY, 1955 Unconverted Church Members? Sometimes eueu God's people need to be AWAKENED to their real spiritual state! Here is revealed the SHOCK- I N G condition many of you are in. by Roderick C. Meredith P AINFUL AS it may be, much as we hate to admit it, God's ministers have come to realize that there are m an y i nd iv id ua ls p hys ic al ly mnong God's people wh o are spiritually no t of God's church, They are progressing towa rd a c er ta in destination-the lake of [ue! This could easily i nc lu de YOc! Before yOll were baptized and began building ,1 Christian c ha ra ct er , you should have sat down to connt th e cost - as J es us said in Luke 14:25-33. He said you were to love Go d m or e t ha n an)' rclat: z: e- --even your ow n wife-and more than your own life also (verse 26). He concluded by saying, "So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsakerh not all that he b.ab, he cannot be my disciple" (verse 33). Have you really forsaken AL L that you have? Do you really consider that your life no longer belongs to you, bu t to God-to do with as He wills? There is no use "kidding" yourself. Some of you new converts-and some wh o have been in d1ll0ng God's people for yean an d years still have a CAR;\IAL mind! I t' s t im e for e ve n G od 's people to wake up. Now let me explain. Corinthian Church Among th e strongest and most corr ec ti ve epistles that the apostle Paul wrote were his tw o letters to the Corin thians. He addressed them as th e "Church of God" ( I Cor. 1:2), yet he said "there are contentions among you" (verse 11). Some were f ol lo wi ng one ma n instead of CHRIST. Others were following other men. Because they liked men's persons ins te ad of C hr is t, b ec au se t he y had a spirit of contention or argument about many t hi ngs, and b cause they had no t fully to Go d and guidance of Hi s Spirit, Paul could n ot w ri te to them as he would to fully c on ve rt ed , spiritually minded people. Instead, he said, "And I, brethren, could no t speak um o you as unto spiritu,ll, bu t as unto carua], even as unto babes in Christ" ( I Cor. 3:1). And that is the exact condition of some of you who now read what I write! Many of you still look on things from the point of view of a CARNAL mind. Yo u have seen much of th e truth as a correct a rg um en t, and you have gone along with it an d been baptized. But when a particular truth is applied to yo u personally, you often resist it an d s ti ck to your ow n way. As many h ave i nd ic at ed by their ac- tions-which s pe ak louder than words -they want to go along with God an d Hi s church "u p to a point." An d what is beyond that point that they are unwilling to give up? Th e answer is SELF! That big part of self they still think is pretty good, after all, a nd t ha t they never learned to hate, to REPENT of, and to BURY in baptism. Al! this may be revealed when a situation arises w he re the human scl! has to be denied in order to obey God. Perhaps a couple has to split up in order to obey commandment against adultery. Maybe a ma n has to give up his lif -long job in order to fully keep God's weekly an d annual sabbaths. I t might be that someone in the church has b ee n g iv en an honor or position that yo u thought you-your self -should have. Or perhaps you think God's minister has "offended" you in some way. S udd en ly, y ou r " sp ir it ua l" attitude changes-and we find that yours was only a surface conversion-at least so far -and that you have surrendered to Go d only up 10 a p oi nt . Then you for- ge t about God's conditions of total sar- render, and you began setting forth conditions that Go d and Hi s church will have to meet in order to keep ill Jultr good graces. You will often begin to accuse one of G od 's m in is te rs a nd p er ha ps compare hi m unfavorably with another minister. In your mind, an d in your words, you will try to create sides. Yo u will have th e same carnal, contentious spirit that some of the people at Corinth had. Yo u may begin to judge or accuse others of te n G od 's minister-and forget the fact that Go d is your JUDGE, that Christ is the living Head of God's church, an d that God's ministers are r es po ns ib le to
