“WHO ART THOU THAT JUDGEST ANOTHER MAN’S SERVANT?”
By T. E. Bowen
SHOULD the owner of the property adjoining you come over onto your property and begin to direct the men you were employing to do your work, whom you paid regularly for their services, how would you feel about it? Further, suppose you had given out your instructions for their guidance, and this same individual, in your absence, insisted that your servants follow his instruction instead of yours, changing this plan and that. Think you such conduct could be passed by unnoticed? No, indeed. It would justly stir every jot and tittle of human law to bring such a usurper to justice. Every man is supposed to be able to direct his own servants. Carry the same thought to God and His dealings with His servants. When Jesus ascended on high, He “gave gifts unto men.” Eph. 4:8. He also reserved the right to personally direct His servants. He delegated this power to no human being. Peter was inquisitive as to what John should “do;” but Jesus rebuked him, giving him to understand that he of himself had nothing to do in directing the movements of his fellow-servant. John 21:20–22. This is further shown by the personal appearing of Jesus to Paul, sending him forth as a chosen vessel unto the Gentiles. The Holy Ghost was left for the believer’s guide. “He shall guide you into all truth.” “Tarry ye [as men] in Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” The church at Antioch were fasting and praying (the true attitude of any church), and6“the Holy Ghost [not the church] said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” In all this testimony we are shown that God, through His earthly representative, the Holy Ghost, is able to guide every soul. Each individual is alone accountable to God for his work, and must either stand or fall upon the merits of that work, whatever it may be. The whole church is under the control of God’s Spirit. But the Holy Ghost never varies from the unerring Word of God. If a voice speaks not according to the Word, it is because the counterfeit spirit is at work, called the “spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Eph. 2:2. Has a power arisen not bearing the fruits of the Spirit of God, claiming the power on earth in Christ’s place to rule, direct, and judge—yes, even punish—God’s servants?—Just such a power as this has arisen. Does not God justly call all this a system of “iniquity,” “the working of Satan”? God’s own lips have sealed the destiny of this wicked power: “Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” See 2 Thess. 2:3–12. This power has changed the explicit commands of Christ. It has accused His servants, and put millions of them to death, consigning them to eternal damnation. But a reckoning day hastens. These slain ones, who went down into death trusting in Jesus, shall come forth glorified; while this whole system of usurpation shall be destroyed. Rev. 19:19, 20. Reader, God’s call to you is, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4. God, through His Spirit, is pleading for your life. He desires to save you from the calamities coming upon the Babylon of apostate churches, translating you out of all this darkness into His marvelous light. If you hear His “voice” to-day, “harden not your heart.”