Mutual Oversight by M. C. Strachan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 29, 1907

Mutual Oversight

By M. C. Strachan

M. C. STRACHAN

THE right of every individual is sacred, and his personal interests are of considerable magnitude; nevertheless, the church of Christ, the cause of God in the earth, has an oversight of its individual members, and has the divine prerogative to question the conduct and acts of its members.

In the twenty-second chapter of Joshua we read that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh built an altar by Jordan, “a great altar to see to;” and in verses 16-20 we read the speech which the children of Israel made to these tribes that dwelt on the other side of Jordan. “Thus saith the whole congregation of the Lord, What trespass is this that ye have committed?” Now, might not the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh do what they pleased about altar building? Did they not live in a free country? What right has anybody to interfere? These are the questions we might ask to-day.

Yes, the children of Israel had a right to inquire about the altar which the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh had built. However sacred our right or individuality or personality, none of us can live to himself. We can not lift a hand without compromising somebody. Life is much more subtle, delicate, sensitive, responsive, than some of us have ever imagined. It is touched by a million ministries at a million points; out of it goes what is incalculable as to influence and destiny.

With a true Christian, a member of the church, the body of Christ, there are no self-rights in the narrowest sense of the term. Why are there no self-rights? —Because self is lost in Christ. “Not I, but Christ.” “With brotherly love . . . preferring.” Self is destroyed the moment we catch a glimpse of a second person upon the scene of this great world. We shall never get right so long as we maintain that there is of right a self-interest, a self-idolatry, a self-trust. In Christ every man is part of every other man. We are members one of another. The acts of one are felt by all, consequently all have a right to question the wisdom of one's act or conduct.

This law of mutual oversight in the matter of doctrines. False doctrine is worse than bad bread. A man is no better than his doctrine when it comes to a clear summing up of things. If his doctrine is only in his head, then we care nothing for it; but if his doctrine has got down into his heart, it most assuredly will come up again in his life, his spirit, his conduct. And inasmuch as action brings with it continual influence ever multiplying, the church reserves the right to look into its sources and fountains and origins.

Christianity takes the oversight of the whole world. The Bible interferes with everybody and everything; the Bible will let nothing alone. Herein is revealed its inspiration. It searches into all interests and all claims and all institutions and all secret life by right. By what right? —By the right of life. The sun does not say, “By your leave.” It shines, and in shining, shows the reality of things.

All true Christians should be willing to allow their individual interests to stand aside that an established institution of the church might move on. There is a spirit of sacrifice in it that is akin to the divine. So long as the minds of men are diversified, the cause of truth in general will ever cut across the plan, the purposes, the privileges, of certain individuals.

“Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.” I Cor. 10:24.

“Even as I . . . not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many.” I Cor. 10:33.

“Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.” Rom. 15:2.

“Charity . . . seeketh not her own.” I Cor. 13:4, 5.

Washington, D. C.