The naturalist had climbed a long way up the mountain in his quest to gather information about mountain goats. Looking across a narrow gorge which dropped several hundred feet to the valley floor below, he quietly watched the male mountain goat as it carefully and gracefully picked its way along a ledge on the face of the sheer rock wall a path so narrow it was almost imperceptible to the naturalist’s view.
At that moment, a sight he had never encountered before startled him. Another male goat was moving down that same narrow, rocky ledge towards the first goat! The naturalist realized with a thrill that he was about to witness something that few others had ever seen a fight to the death between two fully matured, male mountain goats.
The two animals, each aware of the other, continued their steady advance until scant inches separated the huge horns on their heads. Then a most amazing thing happened. Without hesitation, one of the mountain goats lay down on the narrow trail allowing the other to walk over him. Then they both continued on their way, unharmed! Life a far stronger instinct than pride had obviously motivated this remarkable action.
How is it with us, beloved brethren? Can we say that our relationships with one another in the assembly, our marriages and our families are motivated by such a desire for the blessing of our loved ones that we would prefer to be walked on rather than be proven right?
What passes as an outward display of “faithfulness in standing for the truth” may be nothing more than a fleshly and proud desire to be identified among brethren as “one of the faithful.” Let each search his own heart to see if there is a following after the perfect example of our blessed Lord Jesus who willingly “humbled Himself,” going to the very lowest depths of the death of the cross in order that there might be blessing for all. (See Philippians 2.)
We heartily agree that walking in truth and holding the truth are both vital. But oh! what sorrow results from refusing to humble ourselves-waging, instead, a battle to prove how faithful we are. How many marriages and families suffer needless heartache and dissension—how many assemblies suffer needless confusion and discouragement because one refuses to give in or submit to another.
We are reminded of a political commentator who, during the height of the “cold war,” drew a cartoon which depicted the earth floating in space after a war had been fought between the two superpowers. A crescent-shaped void indicated that almost half the earth was missing. From this gaping hole, smoke was rising into space and some remaining pieces of the planet dropped into the space below. Two men—one representing the Soviet Union, and the other, the United States—were facing each other on opposite sides of what was left of their devastated world. The Russian was calling across the shattered chasm to the American: “Well, we sure settled that, didn’t we!”
The same result often happens in families and the assembly through our efforts to be “faithful.” It is all too easy to do battle rather than seek for peace. In Psalm 120, the writer lamented: “I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.” The only way to discern when it is truly “a time of war” or whether it is a “time of peace” is to walk in communion-fellowship with the Father.
True faithfulness to Christ does indeed earnestly contend for the truth in these dark days of spiritual apathy and coldness. But where are we told to earnestly contend for our rights? The battle in Ephesians 6 that believers are to engage in is not to be waged against other believers!
The priest (Heb. 5:22Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. (Hebrews 5:2)) was able to show compassion on those who were ignorant and wayward because “he himself also is compassed with infirmity.” Consciousness of our own great failures will guard against our knocking another believer off the path of faith.
How much is lost because we do not display a “meek and quiet spirit” because we aren’t willing to be the down goat. What blessing would result in our marriages and families (and our assembly life too) if our actions were conducted in “all lowliness and meekness” rather than with the spirit of “I withstood him to the face.” (We certainly do not suggest that Paul was at fault for his stand against Peter. But let us see to it that we have an equally good reason to that of the beloved Apostle, before we refuse to give in.)
Ed.