In writing to the Corinthians, Paul refers, in that remarkable fifteenth chapter, to the sad circumstance that some among them called in question the fact of the resurrection of the dead. (And we to-day are accustomed to hear of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ questioned by doctors of divinity.) The Apostle at the close of the chapter counsels the beloved brethren to be steadfast and unmoveable, knowing full well the methods of Satan in using false brethren and erroneous doctrine to undermine the faith of some, if possible, and thus disturb the unity and tranquillity of the Church.
Steadfastness is a great, essential, and gracious characteristic which the believer upon Christ Jesus is repeatedly called upon, in Scripture, to exercise by the aid and sufficiency of divine grace. The things which are surely believed among us and are embraced within the faith once delivered to the saints and were held and practised by the Apostles, are surely worthy of the believers established, fixed, firm and constant adherence thereto. The doctrines, form of worship and practice of the Christian Church set forth in the Word of God, and as believed, accepted, loved and adhered to by our pious and eminent forefathers and fathers, do not alter and change with the passing of time.
As we note elsewhere in this issue, it has been said “that to express the full Christian faith and gospel there must be some hymns and music.” We repudiate such a suggestion, and do not need these innovations for which the Christian Church has no scriptural warrant, to express the full Christian faith and gospel. Sufficient to think of the day of Pentecost; Paul and Silas praying and singing praises to God in the prison; the Covenanters on the moors and hills of Scotland; and the “days of the fathers” in Ross-shire—and no uninspired hymns or organs required to give full expression to their Christian faith. Therefore let us be steadfast in our adherence, as in other matters, to the form of worship in the public worship of God as handed down to us from the Apostles and our godly forefathers who enjoyed so abundantly the presence of the Lord and days of heaven upon earth.
In part, steadfastness is the refusal of God’s people to defile themselves with beliefs and practices contrary to the Word and mind of God. Because to embrace and give place to such, means the defilement of the conscience with guilt in the sight of the Holy One of Israel. Daniel affords us a precious example of this feature of steadfastness, when at the outset of his career in Babylon, he and his companions were to be required to partake of the King’s meat and wine (see Daniel i). “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the King’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (verse 8). He firmly refused to depart from the practices laid down by God in His law and Word for His church among the Jews. The meat may have been “unclean” and the meat and the wine offered to idols before presentation to the King and then to Daniel. New circumstances in captivity and worldly proposals left Daniel unmoved in his adherence to the faith delivered to the Church of God in his day.
For a child of God to fall temporarily from his steadfastness exposes him to chastisement. The Lord will visit His people’s transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, as surely as they may at any time depart from His commandments and break His statutes. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. xii, 6). For one who has a good hope through grace to become unsteadfast by reason of temptations, worldly influences and a desire to compromise with such as are not true friends of the Truth of God or His Cause, is most dishonouring to the Great Head of the Church, a grief to others of the Lord’s people, and an occasion to the enemies of the Gospel to blaspheme. Take for instance the case of godly Jehoshaphat, briefly. He was entangled into giving assistance to godless Ahab in going up against Ramoth-Gilead (see II Chronicles xviii). He nearly lost his life in this uncalled for collaboration. “And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the King of Israel: Therefore they compassed about him to fight: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the Lord helped him; and God moved them to depart from him” (chapter xviii, 31). But later, when Jehu the seer was sent to him, Jehu said, “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord” (II Chronicles xix, 2).
Then there are those who are outwardly steadfast for a time, but ultimately abandon the faith they once upheld. The Bible and the history of the Church of Christ right up to the present day, provide grievous instances of this nature. Paul writes to Timothy with respect to “holding the faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: of whom is Hymenæus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme” (I Timothy i, 19, 20). He writes in another place,
“Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” Those who were never “born again” of the Holy Spirit and never had true faith or love to Christ and His Word and ways, may appear among the true children of God as genuine believers, and may outwardly adhere to the faith of the gospel for a time and appear steadfast therein. But in cases, God will test and expose such by means and providences of His own ordering, so that the real man appears openly, and discovers to the Church and the world that he has no love to “the faith once delivered to the saints,” to “the old paths,” and to the pure and scriptural standards and practices of the Church of Christ in the midst of an evil world.
Finally, there are two foundation elements in spiritual and persevering steadfastness. One is, a deep and constant sense of one’s own weakness. “Without me ye can do nothing,” says Christ: And the other is, a humble and living desire that God would, out of the fullness of His Son Jesus Christ, grant grace for grace, to keep one’s feet from falling and one’s eyes from tears.