Living According to Our Heavenly Calling
In discussing the practical side of our heavenly calling, we would like to speak first of all of positive things. It is true that, as heavenly citizens, there is much which we must witness against, for we are in a world that has rejected our Saviour. However, there is much, too, that we can witness for, and how important it is that this be prominent in our lives! It is humbling to read the account in Acts 5 of the solemn judgment of God on Ananias and Sapphira who dared to lie to the Holy Spirit. This was followed by a healthy fear on the part of those who might not be wholehearted: “And of the rest durst no man join himself to them,” yet we also read that “the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord” (Acts 5:13-1413And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. 14And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.) (Acts 5:13‑14)). So where God is working, His power will be manifested in both grace and government.
Perhaps the most powerful testimony to our heavenly calling is a life lived in the atmosphere of heaven. If our hopes and treasure are all up there with Christ and the things of this world mean little to us, there will be a peace and composure that the person of the world knows nothing of. There will be a calmness in meeting difficulties, a peace that looks beyond all that is down here, and an equanimity that the world covets. Coupled with this will be the earnest desire to display the character of our blessed Saviour who came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” The world of today is a world of takers, where all want to be served. How good to be like the Master, who could say, “I am among you as He that serveth.” The Christian will freely give, having freely received, and will look for opportunities to be of help, to “do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
Living Realities—Wordless Preaching
May we say that the lack of this, perhaps more than anything else, has discredited the believer in this world. We may speak of our heavenly calling, we may profess to wait for the Lord to come and take us home, and we may even tell others about Him. But if our lives are characterized by the same self-seeking, the same materialism, and the same going after the things down here as the world exhibits, then our witness will be a hollow one. May we show the fruits of what we have been brought into, and above all display Christ in our lives. The world does not want Christ, it is true, but that new life in us, if lived out, will compel others to acknowledge that we have been with Jesus. Many years ago, an unbeliever, much against his will, was compelled to spend the night with an earnest Christian. So powerful was the life and testimony of the believer that in the morning the unbeliever rushed from the room exclaiming, “If I stay in that man’s company any longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself!”
Added to this, of course, is our witness in the gospel and the truth. As someone has aptly remarked, “Preach always, and if necessary, use words.” We are told in Colossians 4:66Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. (Colossians 4:6), “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,” and we are to remember both. Grace has saved us, and it is the grace of God that will draw others to Christ and save them. But we are always to have that heavenly character in our speech, that “salt” that preserves and seasons, a flavoring of that which might otherwise not properly witness to God’s character. Only walking with the Lord and in the power of the Spirit can give this. When the Lord Jesus met the woman at Sychar’s well, He seasoned His speech with salt in exposing her sinful life, but His grace drew her to Him in spite of this, making her want to know more.
A Silent Witness
Our witness will also have a negative side, for the one who follows a rejected Christ must witness against this world and its course. As we have seen in an earlier article, Satan diluted the church’s witness by bringing believers down to the level of the world and by having them try to reform the world. If we are to witness to this world, we must be clearly seen to be ambassadors down here, not citizens. We must be clearly seen to belong to another country, having seen that the world is under judgment.
Thus we will not be allied with the world, trying to make it better. While as individuals we will surely do good wherever we can, yet we must carefully avoid any compromise of our position as heavenly citizens. We will not join with those who try in an organized way to promote the betterment of mankind, realizing that only a work of God in the soul can do this—a work of the Spirit of God in saving individuals. God has saved us and called us out of this world, but then sent us back into it to do His work of calling others out of it. We will recognize that the work of the Lord by believers is done by the energy of the Spirit of God in the individual, not by man-made organizations, even if Christian in origin and membership. Someone has aptly remarked that a good principle for the Christian to follow is, “Never join anything!” The only membership Scripture knows is membership of the body of Christ, and God has made us such, not ourselves.
Dangerous Neglect
It is this neglect as heavenly citizens that has often ruined Christian character and testimony. As previously noted, when the believer allies himself with the world, even in a good cause, he must take up the world’s methods and ambitions, since the world cannot take up Christian principles. If Christians as a body try to reform the world, they run contrary to the truth that the world is under judgment and depart from their command to call souls out of this world. The call to save a particular people or nation collectively from the effects of moral and spiritual decline, while well-intentioned, is out of character for those who profess heavenly citizenship. God is not dealing today with nations, but with individuals from all nations, calling them out to be part of His church. May we understand God’s purposes and work.
The Importance of Attitude
Connected with this is our attitude toward the enforcing of right principles of justice in the world. How often our souls are indignant when we see God’s claims rejected, the Word of God laid aside, righteousness abandoned, and human passion and selfishness resulting in tyranny and misery. It is tempting for those who know right to seek to enforce it by physical power! Yet it is not the place of the heavenly citizen, for the time has not come for God to set the world right. We may talk of wars where justice or the lack of it was more evident at one time than another. But the believer does not belong to this world and should not become involved in all this.
Our blessed Saviour never became involved in righting all the injustice and sin in His day, but His words carried the weight of God’s comment on it all. Thus it should be with the believer. A well-known preacher in the nineteenth century was once accosted by some sailors on board a British naval ship and asked about his stand on the subject of a Christian’s going to war. He replied, “I believe in fair play! Suppose I go to war and meet an enemy who is not saved. Suppose I shoot him and he shoots me. He sends me straight to heaven, and I send him straight to hell. Boys, I don’t call that fair play!” May we be found using our energy to relieve suffering, help the poor, feed the hungry and above all to bring Christ before them.
Living as Pilgrims and Strangers
Likewise we will not be found seeking political office or a position that tries to enforce the law. We are to obey the law, and may well speak out as to that which is contrary to the Word of God. It is most fitting, for example, for us to give God’s mind about such things as euthanasia, abortion and capital punishment and to expose the sinfulness of man’s heart. The moral weight of our words will be in proportion to the degree that we walk as heavenly ones, for it must be clearly seen that we are giving God’s thoughts and not merely our own opinion. But we leave this world to carry on in its own way, rather seeking to bring souls out of it before the judgment falls. We will not be taken up with various causes in this world or become involved in such things as protest marches, lobbying of influential people, or forming organizations to take up some particular grievance. We will rather seek to be the salt of the earth by our walk first and then our speech, but we will leave vengeance to the One who has said, “I will repay” (Rom. 12:1919Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. (Romans 12:19)).
The Importance of Communion
In all of this we must remember that only a walk with the Lord, constant dependence upon Him, and communion with Him can effect all this. We may realize the truth of our heavenly calling in an intellectual way and even wish to walk in it, but we cannot do so in our own strength. Without constantly being in the Lord’s presence we will duplicate the error of the early church when they either withdrew from the world in isolation or became part of the world and thus lost their testimony. If we seek to act on the teaching of Scripture in an honest and true heart, it will always drive us back to the Source of it all and make us more dependent. Our affections are drawn out to Christ and all that He has done for us, and at the same time we realize more and more that, as He is now in heaven and we belong to Him, we have a heavenly calling.
Called from above, and heavenly men by birth
(Who once were but the citizens of earth),
As pilgrims here, we seek a heavenly home,
Our portion in the ages yet to come.
We are but strangers here, we do not crave
A home on earth, which gave Thee but a grave:
Thy cross has severed ties which bound us here,
Thyself our treasure in a brighter sphere.
(Little Flock Hymnbook, #212)
W. J. Prost