The Gospel Messenger—October 1894

 “Study to be quiet and do your own business”  1 Thess. iv. 11.

Every business man in the world knows that study and close application to every branch of his business is absolutely necessary in order to success in his worldly avocations. And in the text above, and others of similar import, the inspired writers apply this well-known principle of business to the church of God as a kind of directory that will cover their whole practical life, whether in common, everyday avocations of life or in their far more important avocations and business relations as members of the visibly organized church of God upon earth. Quietness is a well established law of Christ that will guide his disciples safely through the rugged journey of life, securing to them a degree of peace and comfort never to be enjoyed by any neg­lect of its heavenly teachings.

Study to be quiet. Here is something in which every church and its members should constantly be engaged. There is no time for idlers. We are in a world of sin, selfishness, covetousness, confusion, carnality and strife, and not only are we in the world, but of necessity we have more or less to do with its affairs. Being heirs of God and subjects of a kingdom that is not of the world does not exempt any one from his allegiance to the earthly government in which he lives. His obligations as a citizen to “live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world,” are not diminished by his conver­sion to God, but rather increased. But there is another important feature in the text which, if well attended to, will help us much in securing a “quiet and peace­able life in all godliness and honesty.” We must not only study to be quiet, but as a very important means of attaining to that end, we must attend to our own business, and let other people’s business alone.

I once heard of a man who had generally been suc­cessful in life, and had also secured the good will of his neighbors and all with whom he had any business rela­tions. He was asked one day by a friend to please tell him the secret of his success. He promptly replied by saying, “I have always spent half my time attending to my own business,” and when asked what he did the other half, he said, “The other half I employed in letting other people’s business alone.”

In considering the admonition of the text, there is much embraced in the phrase, study to be quiet. Self-denial, forbearance, forgiveness, meekness, long-suffer­ing, and many other fruits and graces of the spirit come into use. The very word, “study,” carries in it much food for thought. The Holy Ghost makes no mistakes in the use of words. If we obey the demands of the word study in this text, close investigation and prayer­ful meditation will often be necessary to secure peace and quiet to ourselves, or to the church of which we are members. Our own judgment and understanding, and all the faculties which our God hath given us, or given the church in us, will often be called into active use. How often do we have things to come before us in our church relations, making us feel the importance of prayerful study to secure quiet? No minister of Christ, no pastor of churches, no deacon or any other member of the church, that loves God, can have much gospel comfort himself, or secure its continuance to others, without meditation and study. For this reason it is specially enjoined on gospel ministers to “Meditate upon these things.”—Tim. iv. 15. Each member in the church must study to be quiet and to do his own busi­ness. Every one has a place and hath a business that is peculiarly his own. He cannot do that which is strictly his own business by proxy; he cannot shift the responsibility off upon another or upon the church without sin, and if another person or the church, even, should assume to do what is the real and proper busi­ness of another, it would be a violation of the text to “Study to be quiet, and to do your own business.” That individual members of the church have business that is strictly their own, may be clearly seen from the following and other similar texts: “If thy brother tres­pass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.”—Matt. xviii. 15. Here is individual responsibility which no church member can neglect without violating the command, “Be not slothful in business; but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”— Born. xii. ii.

Now, if this individual responsibility and business is neglected or cast off, and the church should assume it, much trouble may be expected instead of quiet. Re­member that quietness is the end to be attained unto “Study to be quiet,” and there can be no better way of attaining unto this than to obey the command of Christ to “do your own business.”

Individual offences between only two members re­quire private labor of the two who are involved in it, and if the offending member can be saved from his error, and reconciliation takes place between the two at variance, so that brotherly love continues and church fellowship remains unbroken, then, the church has no business with it, nor any investigation to make on that subject. But if it cannot be settled by the two at vari­ance, and it becomes necessary to tell it to the church, as required in Matthew xviii., it then becomes the busi­ness of the church. Individual responsibility ceases so far as the final result is concerned touching church following, and the church alone is responsible. She cannot gospelly transfer her responsibility over to a council of brethren any further than to have their help in coming to correct conclusions, and thus secure and maintain peace and quiet among themselves and among sister churches of like precious faith and order. If a church strictly regards the admonition of the text she must assuredly know that in all cases where church fellowship is involved, it is exclusively her own busi­ness, and not the business of Associations whose au­thority in such cases is unknown in the New Testament. I have heretofore repeatedly said, and I here reiterate it again, “That Primitive Baptist Associations should never assume to investigate disorders in churches, or re-investigate any matter that has already been under consideration, and which has been acted upon by a church.” Much trouble to Primitive Baptists results from unscriptural interference of Associations in things pertaining to church fellowship. If Associations ever were organized as disciplinary bodies, to discipline churches of Jesus Christ, they never ought to have been organized at all, for I am certain they have no such authority given them in the Scriptures. They should never take a vote touching fellowship in churches, neither as to receiving or excluding members. They may, when requested by a church or churches, report or publish what a church has done, and if so requested or commanded by a church or churches of the Associa­tion to drop any church from the associational scale, it should at once be done, without investigation or re-in­vestigation of the causes that make dropping of the church necessary.

At some future time, if the Lord permit, I may say something more about Associations and the evils that grow out of their assumed authority.—W. M. M.