10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Brethren

Anyone refusing to be called a brother of Christ,‭ ‬gives the faithful anywhere a reason for refusing to receive him into their fellowship‭; ‬for none but confessed brethren of Christ are eligible for that fellowship.‭ ‬It matters little whether the relation be expressed in English or the Greek equivalent‭ — ‬Christadelphian.‭ ‬Its Greek form is necessary for distinction's sake‭; ‬and those who object to it in this form,‭ ‬probably,‭ ‬wish to save their respectability:‭ ‬a motive unbefitting a good soldier of Christ.

The Christadelphian, Feb 1874

The church (ecclesia) was associated with the apostles in the ministry of reconciliation. By "the church" (ecclesia), I mean, not that multiform thing called "the church" by the world in these times; but that one, undivided body of disciples, collected together by the personal labours of the apostles and evangelists; and all through subsequent generations, who should believe and practise the same truth.

To this "one body", (Eph 4:4) energized by the "one spirit", (Eph 4:4) and perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment", (1 Cor. 1:10; Acts 4:32) and styled "THE BRIDE" -- is committed the work of making known "the manifold wisdom of God", (Eph. 3:10) as contained in the word; and of inviting the world to be reconciled to God. (Rev. 22:17)

No member of this body is exempt from the obligation of co-operating in this work. It is the duty and privilege of every one in his own sphere to endeavour to turn men to righteousness; for there is no distinction of "clergy" and "laity" in the family of God.

Elpis Israel 1.5.

How is this unity to be secured? By an attentive and faithful ear to the voice of God. This will unite us in faith and supply us with principles for harmonious action. Difference of judgment frequently arises from a non-recognition of Scripture principles, hence the necessity for thorough and honest investigation concerning everything we take in hand.

Let us seek peace, eschewing strife and all that leads to it. Where no principle is involved let us be yielding to the wishes of others. We are living in an age when there is a manifest disinclination to heed the apostolic admonition. There is a tendency to seek to be different for the sake of being different—to refrain from adopting a particular course, wise though it be, because others have adopted it.

This attitude is to be deplored. It leads to evil. It tends to disunion. Unity is strength, and this we sorely want. We are few and weak and our enemies are many and strong. Let us endeavour to knit ourselves together as much as possible not only in faith but in action. In an ecclesia where Paul is observed, "decency" and "order" prevail. The decisions of the majority are respected and upheld—not rebelled against.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, June 1888

12 Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

The existence of such a state of division in a community blessed with the gifts of the Spirit, will appear inexplicable to those who have not realised that those gifts did not override the judgment and temperamental peculiarities of the possessors; but were restricted to the particular function appertaining to them.

A speaker of tongues was the same individual in the manifestation of character as if he had not received a supernatural knowledge of the languages. A worker of miracles was not made infallible by the impartation of the power to heal.

Those having the gift of knowledge, wisdom, &c., would be reliable guides; but they do not appear to have been deferred to, to their full extent.

And this would be accounted for by the probable argument that one man with a gift of the Spirit was as good as another with a different gift.

Thus, the man having the power to interpret tongues, if he differed in judgment with the brother who had the word of wisdom, might feel justified in maintaining his own opinion on the ground that he also having the Spirit, had as much right to form a judgment of the matter as another having the same Spirit in another form.

In this disordered state they appear to have written to Paul to give his mind [1 Cor 12] on the various questions raised.

The Christadelphian, Mar 1872

18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

The natural man is responsive only to that which he can experience in the ordinary range of his faculties. The Spirit of God is not within this range at all. Consequently it is to him a myth or a notion, though in reality the first and truest and most powerful of all truth.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 52

THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS

This breaking of bread signifies our acceptance of God's ways, and is a testimony to the world that they have no hope outside of this way.

...We have even earned the bitterest odium it is possible for men to bear - the reputation of being illiberal, and uncharitable, and narrow minded, and bigoted because we maintain the 'teaching of Christ and his apostles on this vital matter. What can we do but accept the result with resignation ?

It is a result that has always more or less attended the testimony of the truth. It is no new thing for" the preaching of the cross" to be productive of offence. Paul speaks of it in his letters. He says the preaching of the cross was to the Jews a stumbling block and to the. Greeks foolishness.

He accepted the reproach incident to such a situation; he refused to glory in anything save the cross of our Lord Jesus. We are in the best of company when we are in the company of Paul, and we are undoubtedly in his company when we are accused by the modern Greeks (the scientists of every grade) of being behind the age and badly informed, and old fogey and sectarian; and by the Jews, of being worse than the Christians in the rigidness of our insistance on the original teachings of Christ; and by Christians, of being gloomy retrogressionists, the slaves of a dead letter, and strangers to the broad life and charity and the true spirit of the gospel.

To each and all, ... we challenge you all to deny that the conclusions which we maintain are the teachings of these writings. It would be pleasant to come on to your broad platform and to join in your charitable spirit and to share your freedom from the narrowness and restraint that undoubtedly hamper the profession of the gospel, as originally delivered, as regards the present evil world. We should have your pleasant society, and your encouraging recognition, and your advantageous patronage, and your general enjoyment of the broad fields of human culture, and pleasure, and good fellowship.

But wherein should we be the gainers in the day when Christ arrives to sweep away the present order of things, and to re-organize affairs in harmony with divine principles only, and to give glorious place in his house to those only who do the will of his Father, as written in his revealed word of truth?

We should have a poor staff to lean on, in a respectable world which will then dissolve in terror before his face. No: we have made Christ our portion, and for better or worse, we will accept the isolation and the odium that result, confident that experience shortly to be apparent, will justify an uncompromising adherence to the written word as the only enlightened policy that can be pursued."

Seasons 1.91.

...the progressiveness of the salvation is indicated in the original, though not in the common version. "The doctrine of the cross," says Paul, "is God's power to us who are being saved"—τοις σωζομενοις to the being saved, literally. Also in 1 Cor. 15:2,

through which (gospel) also ye are saved by a certain word I preached to you if ye hold it fast; unless ye believed in vain."

Here the "are saved," σωζεσθε is qualified by the hypothesis, "if ye hold fast;" if they did not continue to hold fast the word preached, then they would not be saved.

The saving process was continuous with the holding fast. If they let go the process stopped, and they were lost.

In 2 Cor. 2:15, Paul says,

"We are a fragrant odor of Christ for God εν τοις ωζομενοις in them who are being saved, and in them who are being lost"—απολλυμενοις.

The common version has it, "In them that are saved, and in them that perish;" but "saved" and "perish" are both in the same tense; so that if "are saved" be correct, it ought to read "are perished" likewise.

But perdition is a process of decay, as salvation is of growth. Diseased trees grow worse and worse until they perish, having borne only evil fruit; while good trees grow up to maturity, and yield abundantly. So that,

"If our gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are being lost—εν τοις απολλυμενοις in whom the god of this age hath blinded the understanding of the unbelieving, in order that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, may not shine unto them."

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Mar 1857

20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

"Where is the wise (the philosopher)? Where is the disputer of this world?" We have to say, "Where is the scientist? Where is the higher critic? Where is the unbeliever?" They are having a fine dance in the sunshine, to be sure; but what is all this world of "learning" they have created for themselves but an intellectual cloud- land with much apparatus and much inspiration of pride, visible only in the smoke of their intellectual meerschaums?

There is fact and truth in science: but there is science falsely so-called. Speculations and inductions are not science, but mere methods of human thought which may be entirely illusory in their results. Scientific meditation is respectable, when it confines itself to fact: though even then, there should not be such a fuss. But when it lifts its hand against attested divine truth, it becomes the worst foe of mankind.

By the side of "the unsearchable riches of Christ," it is only properly classified in Paul's rough but correct word—"dung."

What else is human notion of any kind at last when lifted against Christ? A Professor dies: his memory is glorified in high - sounding words by fellow - sinners. But what is he in himself? Rottenness—decomposition—dung.

Can his theories, his writings, his diplomas, his fame, redeem his bones from corruption? The best his friends can propose is "cremation!" Can any of them say,

"I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live?"

Where is learning in the presence of death? Learning that bows at the feet of Christ (there is such learning, but true learning and Christ are not incompatible) has a useful lowly place as a servant. But learning that denies or even competes with him is to be spurned indignantly from the presence of divine light and knowledge.

"Be steadfast and immovable," was Paul's advice to the brethren in his day. "Stand fast. Be strong: quit you like men." The advice has not lost its force, or its value, or its need.

"Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is."

Stand by the banner that Christ has erected in this breaking of bread. A crown waits the victor. The battle will not be long. The length of natural life at the most will see the end of our conflict, and then for us (whatever else may happen) will have arrived the goal of all effort, the joy of all aspiration, the haven of all rest—the air musical with the voice of melody—sorrow and sighing a memory of the past—the cup of life and gladness full for ever.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1898

24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

"Christ" is styled "the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:24); and "Of God he is made unto" all who are in him —

"wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (chap. 1:30). If we are able to partake of His wisdom and His righteousness, we partake to a certain extent in the glory of His name. Paul shows it to be a part of the mission of believers to make known this wisdom

to the world, in his epistle to the Ephesians. Having spoken of the "fellowship of the mystery, which hath been hidden from the ages in God, who created all things," he says: "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the Ecclesia the manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3:9-10).

By the phrase, "manifold wisdom," it may be understood that wisdom has many foldings — a multiplicity and diversity of forms; so deep, so rich, so profound and unfathomable, as to lead the apostle to exclaim: "O the depth of the riches, of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out".

The Word, is the medium through which this wisdom is conveyed to us, in all its varied shades of light. Righteousness is the companion of Wisdom. The Spirit of wisdom

personified in the Proverbs is represented as saying, 'I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment" (Prov. 8:18-20). "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness" (chap. 8:8).

Christ being the manifestation of the wisdom of God, he is also the manifestation of His righteousness. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that

believeth" (Rom. 10:4). This righteousness is a part of those "attributes" of the Deity constituting the glory of His name. "For if the ministration of condemnation be glory,

much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth" (2

Cor. 3:9-10).

Sis Lasius - Yahweh Elohim Ch 4.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

THE Bible is a fact,‭ ‬and as such compels our recognition.‭ ‬What form does our recognition take‭? ‬The question is not a trivial one.‭ ‬Do we receive the Bible as the unerring voice of God to poor,‭ ‬sinful,‭ ‬perplexed man‭?

That this is the correct view is our contention.‭ ‬Let us deal with the question from the standpoint of common sense.‭ ‬It is to ordinary common sense that the Author of the Book appeals.‭ ‬God's method in this respect is wise‭; ‬it is excellent.‭ ‬Had God made extra-ordinary ability,‭ ‬or a course of learning,‭ ‬essential to the attainment of saving truth,‭ ‬how few of us could have survived the grave‭!

God's way provides for both the cultured and uncultured.‭ ‬It removes from us the risky obligation of having to lean on man‭; ‬and it also strikes a fatal blow at the pride of learning.‭ ‬Let us,‭ ‬then,‭ ‬exercise our ordinary intelligence,‭ ‬and proceed to consider‭ (‬month by month‭) ‬the Bible in relation to its origin,‭ ‬its claims,‭ ‬its evidences,‭ ‬and its difficulties.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, March 1899

29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

God has ever chosen persons despised by their contemporaries to bring to nothing the theology of the schools. He does not use the wise in their own conceit, professors and presidents of divinity establishments, to enlighten the people. He leaves them in their solemn foolishness as blind to lead the blind; and takes fishermen, and carpenters, and tentmakers, and healers of the sick, &c., to reduce their "wisdom" to absurdity,

"that no flesh should glory in his presence."

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Jan 1854

No flesh should glory in His presence - 1 Cor 1: 27–29.

The truth is simple, though profound. It requires no unusual qualifications to apprehend it. Ordinary capacity, coupled with a good and honest heart, is all that is needed. Thanks be to God for His beneficent plan. Had He decreed otherwise, few of us (through stress of circumstances) would be able to attain to salvation.

The plan is self-evidently divine. Man aims at securing the sympathies of the great and learned. But not so with God. He has chosen the poor, rich in faith. If a learned man would receive the truth, he must come down from his learning, and, like the unlearned, receive with meekness the simple Word.

There must be no arraying the judgment against that Word, though the whys and wherefores of God's will may not in all things be fathomed. The simplicity in Christ places the learned and unlearned on a level.

This arrangement is exceedingly distasteful to the flesh, which dotes on distinction. God's method has for one of its objects the humbling of the creature. The learning of the world is more a hindrance than a help in receiving the truth. Whatever advantages such learning may have, they are outnumbered by the disadvantages.

Learning, in the great majority of cases, inflates, and inflation blinds. It is a notable fact that the greatest enemies that the truth has are to be found among the learned. Their worldly wisdom is a snare, both to themselves and their followers.

The Christadelphian, Feb 1889

30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

The individualization of the Eternal Word in a man, instead of excluding the notion of a personal and independent volition, rather seems to involve it, for the result was the appearance of a new personage on the scene -- the Son of God who,

"though he were a Son, learnt obedience by the things that he suffered" (Heb. 5:8).

The rendering of perfect obedience by such a man was surely the work of God, since the man who could render such obedience had to be expressly produced by God; and seeing "the flesh," viewed historically and racially, could never have brought such a Deliverer to the birth, surely the flesh has no share in the glory of the deliverance. It remains absolutely true that "of God, he (Christ) is made unto us righteousness."

There ought to be no difficulty in receiving and rejoicing in the whole truth of the matter. There would be none if men were content to receive the testimony in its entirety and simplicity.

Seasons 1.45.