"Lie Not One To Another" Col. 3:9
"Speak ye truth each one with his neighbor." (Eph. 4:25.) This is a quotation by Paul from Zech. 8:16,17 where we have these words: "These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth with his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates; and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, saith Jehovah."
The Bible condemns liars and false accusers. Therefore, the greatest care should be exercised in our opposition to the teaching of people with whom we do not agree; there is great danger of misrepresenting and falsely accusing them, unless we guard against it all the time. All liars and false accusers must answer in the judgment.
Letters from friends in many parts of the country tell me that I have been accused of teaching things that I have never believed or taught.
A brother in Louisville, Kentucky, writes that a preacher from Indianapolis had told him that I do not believe that a church can scripturally buy products or services from a human institution. What can I do about such misrepresentations and false accusations? I do believe that churches can buy both products and services from human organizations, and I have so stated many times in my articles. The Southside church in Brownwood, of which I am a member, frequently buys products and services from hotels, utility companies and other human institutions. But I do not believe that any church should donate one dime of its money to any human institution on earth. That is the issue, and I am neither afraid nor ashamed of my position on that issue.
A very good friend and brother in Beaumont, Texas, informs me by letter that he has heard some say that I do not believe that one church can scripturally send money to another church to build a meeting house. But I do believe that one church or many churches may send donations to a poor church to enable it to build a meeting home, and I have so written many times. I do not believe that any church scripturally can set itself up as the "sponsoring church" for a brotherhood meeting-house-building-project, and collect money from other churches with which to build meeting houses for poor churches all over the country; and then write a brochure and tell the donating churches that the elders of that "sponsoring church" are the sole authority and will make all decisions in that meeting-house-building-project. That is as sinful as the thing that the elders in the Highland church in Abilene, in Broadway church in Lubbock and in Union Avenue church in Memphis are doing. That is the issue, and I am neither afraid nor ashamed of my position on that issue.
Newcomers to Brownwood have reported to me that a few of the sisters in one of the churches here had told them that I do not believe in "helping widows and little orphans." I have called some of these false accusers by telephone and mailed literature to them, explaining that I do believe and teach that churches must provide and oversee the care of certain widows and orphans; but some of these "false witnesses" continue to misrepresent in spite of everything I say and do. I do not believe that a church has a right to contribute one dime to the head of a family, or to the elders of another church, or to the board of directors and superintendent of any human benevolent society, who go out and gather up widows, children and the aged, to whom they sustain no peculiar responsibility, with a predetermined plan to beg funds from the churches with which to do that work. That is the issue, and I am neither afraid nor ashamed of my position on that issue. I believe and teach that the churches should provide for the poor for whom they are responsible just as the church in Jerusalem was commanded to do in Acts 6:3, and for which we have the example in Acts 6:1-6. I have always believed that the church in Jerusalem was a model church in all matters that pertain to the work and worship of the church today, including the work of benevolence.
Some of these newcomers tell me that some of these "neighbors" who ought to know better have said that I do not believe in "mission work." But I do believe that churches should send "missionaries all over the world as "Jerusalem sent Barnabas to Antioch (Acts 11:22, and should support them as Philippi (Phil 1:5; 4:15-18.), and other churches sent wages to Paul. (II Cor. 11:8.) I do not believe that a church has a scriptural right to donate one dime of its money to any "sponsoring church" or human society whatever for the work of preaching the gospel. According to the New Testament it was God's will for the church at Philippi and "other churches" to send wages to Paul while he preached in the school of Tyrannus, Jewish synagogues, the Areopagus in Athens, the church in Corinth and the Judaizing churches of Galatia. But I do not believe that it is or ever was God's will for a church to send one cent of its money to the school of Tyrannus, or an Areopagus, or a Laodicea or any other institution either human or divine, to be paid as "wages" to Paul or any other preacher. All churches are related equally to the work of preaching the gospel all over the world, and it is God's will for each church to use and control its own resources in performing this task which the Lord has assigned equally to all.
The supposition that churches in Galatia, Corinth or Laodicea collected money from other churches with which to hire Paul or some other preacher of their own choice to "hold them a meeting" is just as unscriptural and ridiculous as the supposition that the school of Tyrannus, or the Areopagus in Athens, collected money from churches of Christ with which to hire Paul or some other preacher of their own choice to "hold them a meeting." That is the issue, and I am neither afraid nor ashamed of what I teach on that issue.
On the pages of the Gospel Guardian and in a fifty two page booklet, "Centralized Control of Churches Resources," I have stated clearly the scriptural conditions under which one church may donate money from its treasury to another church. I do not understand how anyone who will read what I have written can misunderstand or ignorantly misrepresent me on these issues.