Discipleship Letters 111-112

Discipleship Letter 111                                              Nov. 07^th, 2010

Albert B. Simpson, the founder of the C & MA, had three convictions in life: “To live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands” (1 Thess. 4:11); “to please Him always” (2 Cor. 5:9); “to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard” (Rom. 15:20).

“To live a quiet life” is not to detach from a community. Rather, we work hard in our own business within the community before minding the business of others. We ought not to inherit the American way of life, saying, “It’s not my business.” Every business happened in this body is our business. But the attitude toward our business is that we should mind our own business first. People see the work that we do and how we do it. We do it quietly, for Christian workers ought not to be showy.

“To live a quiet life” is not to let others do your works in community. There is a reason why Paul said, “Working with your hands.”

A.B. Simpson composed the following lyrics for his hymn, “Himself.”

“Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;

Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me;

Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;

Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.”

We labor with our hands for Him alone.

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Discipleship Letter 112                                              Nov. 14^th, 2010

“The theological use of the term tradition signifies the means of passing on the message of the Scriptures from generation to generation. In this sense, every theologian and every believer stand within a theological tradition” [Richard Lints, The Fabric of Theology: A Prolegomenon to Evangelical Theology (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 1999), p. 83.].

God is concerned about passing on this tradition, which prevents the upcoming generation from degeneration. After Joshua died, it said, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.” (Judges 2:7-11) In order to break the cycle of degeneration, passing on the tradition from one generation to another is indispensable.

Judges who were raised up by God served as tradition passers. In the approximate 400 years of the Judges period, the judges helped pass on the tradition until the emergence of the Davidic lineage (Ruth 4:18-22; see Matt. 1:1-6). In the faithless age, the faithful judges led God’s people to the Faithful One. 

Paul said to Timothy, “You have heard me teach many things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are able to pass them on to others” (2 Tim. 2:2). It is our theological task to understand how to communicate the tradition and pass it on to Timothys in our time and space; Timothys, to trustworthy people; trustworthy people, to others.