DO CHRISTIANS TAKE OBLIGATIONS TO GOD SERIOUSLY ENOUGH?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 4, 5 December 1947, Page 3

DO CHRISTIANS TAKE OBLIGATIONS TO GOD SERIOUSLY ENOUGH?

(Contributed by the Minister’s Association) The Church rests primarily upon God’s faith in us rather than upon our faith in Him. Our faith is our response to what we believe He is saying to us and seeking to do with us. We must speak. We must pledge our obedience. We must take our vows before Him so that He can have His way with us. The Church, looked at from our side, rests upon the sanctity of those vows. They are taken for us at Baptism. We take them ourselves at First Communion, at marriage, at every recurring Sacrament, at every service on the Lord’s Day (if we are making a true offering to ourselves), and when we offer ourselves for some special service in Christ’s Church at home or abroad. In his address at the close of the General Assembly the Moderator asked the members of the Church for an honest facing of the meaning of the. vows they had taken. “I do not know whether we should feel encouraged or depressed by the fact that at a time when there is evidence of a great weakening of interest in religion, so many should still be prepared to commit themselves to Christian vows. I suggest that we should give far more attention than we have been giving to these vows, and to all that is involved in the administering of them and the taking of. them. We are on the whole an honourable people. If a man enters into a business contract he will usually do his best to carry it out faithfully; if he undertakes any financial obligation he will do his best to discharge it; and he will greatly resent any suggestion that he is capable of trying to evade his duty.”

How has it come about that so many people have come to regard lightly solemn undertakings entered into before God and many witnesses, committing them not simply to the performance of certain specific duties but to obligations of the most farreaching kind covering the whole of their lives? For example, parents at the baptism of their children affirm their faith in God, the* Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and promise to teach their children the truths , and duties of the Christian faith, and by prayer, precept and example, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and in the ways of the Church of God. When young people are. admitted to communicant membership of the Church they affirm the same faith, and promise to make diligent use of the means of grace, to share dutifully in the worship and service of the Church, and to give of their substance as the Lord shall prosper them for the advancement of His Kingdom throughout the world.

Do all of those who make these promises really intend to keep-them? If they do, what comes between so many and the execution of their purposes?” Look to your vows, men and women of the Church !

(Life and Work, Church of Scotland.)