"The World Owes Me A Living!"
That the conclusion of the above statement is the philosophy of the average person can be seen without half trying. "Work out your own salvation," is a command often forgotten. Reasons are sought, and often found through wresting the scriptures, for imposing on others. For example, we have often overworked the word "fellowship." The fact that brethren are taught to fellowship each other does not mean that others have a right to plan my life, and expect me to enter into those plans. Do I have a right to plan a work, without regard to its scripturalness, and then expect others to fellowship me in it? Do others disfellowship me when they do not engage in a work that I plan that other minds might have. Then we have overworked the word "obligation." How much is one Christian obligated to another? Only to the extent of his ability. Certainly he cannot neglect his own Christianity. Paul summed it up by saying we should do for others as we have opportunity. How much is one congregation of the Lord's people obligated to another? Only in as much fellowship as conditions may allow. The Lord made each congregation of his people separate, in that each one has its own government and obligations. We cannot neglect a program of the congregation of which we are a part, because another group might be demanding our time and money. The Lord realized this when he made the government of his church congregational. That is, each congregation has its own government and work. We have always faced the problem of trying to tie congregations together in some form of union. This was the big question over which the second apostasy took place, when the Christian Church was formed. They wanted the United Missionary Society. The same problem continues to come up in one form or another. There are those weak enough to teach that congregations should be tied together, and sometimes they try to find some Old Testament story to illustrate it. But this is just another weakness that must be watched by those who are able to see beyond their own personal desires. Congregations of the Lord's church may have fellowship in any good work, but you can't tie them together. Neither can we teach that one is obligated to another in any sense whatsoever, except in whatever fellowship can be offered in a good work. How much fellowship is to be had in any work must be determined by each individual congregation.
All of this leads me up to my subject. The attitude that "the world owes me a living," has been gradually growing among the Lord's people for some time. Each year more letters asking for assistance keep coming in. A group of people decide they want a new building. They obligate themselves for it, then write throughout the brotherhood for other churches to take care of their obligation. They all want to be debt free. The obligations of the congregation to which the letter is written are not considered. How much it may need to do locally is not considered. People just feel that the fact they want to do a thing, is enough to cause others to rush in and meet their obligations. It seems people are either afraid of their own obligations, or have developed their selfish natures to the point that they do not care. We face the same thing with individual members in a church. Instead of building up a congregation by converting people, we often expect another congregation to do all that, and feed them to us as a sense of obligation. The sooner all congregations of the Lord's people wake up to the reality that we are a separate group of people in our government and work, and determine to build the congregations of which we are members, the better off the church will be.
Certainly fellowship in a good cause, far as circumstances will allow, everyone knows to be right. But the organization of the Lord's people is not communistic. We are not a union of churches. Each congregation should plan its own work. No other congregation is obligated to do our work for us. The spirit of Christianity will cause anyone to lend whatever assistance seems appropriate, but no congregation has any right to cry "obligation" at another congregation, because the other has obligations of its own.
As the church prospers, problems continually arise. We have discussed some of them at other times in these pages, and will continue to do so. Only a taught membership concerning all phases of Christianity can see us through our growing pains into the great possibilities that are ours just now.