Reforming warnings

There are some great examples of church reforming in the Bible.

In the days of Nehemiah, we’re told, ‘the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshipped the LORD their God’ (Neh. 9:1-3). That must have been quite a day! They listened intently to God, and deeply lamented their own sin. What followed was pretty amazing too – they began to reform themselves in response to what they heard from God’s word.

Reform yourself

In my recent sabbatical, I read through the whole Bible, and also re-read the works of John Owen (in chronological order this time, which was enlightening). Owen was no stranger to reforming efforts in his day. And yet I noticed this very blunt warning from 1656 for anyone engaged in such work.

He said: ‘Take heed lest that evil be still abiding upon any of our spirits, that we should be crying out and calling for reformation without a due consideration of what it is, and how it is to be brought about… Would you have a reformation? Be you more humble, more holy, more zealous; delight more in the ways, worship, ordinances of God; reform your persons in your lives, relations, families, parishes, as to gospel obedience, and you will see a glorious reformation indeed… Hath not God said to us, You that have prayed under persecution for reformation, – you that have fought in the high places of the field for reformation, – you that have covenanted and sworn for reformation, – go now, reform yourselves!’

I wonder if we sometimes long for ‘strongmen’ to lead us in our grand reforming efforts, rather than those who are quietly zealous for personal and private and parish reformation? Yet Owen warns against exalting successful but unself-aware Samsons: ‘Let men to whom the Lord hath given stout hearts, strong hands, and great success, watch carefully over their own spirits, lest they be led aside into any way against the mind of God. Great endowments are ofttimes great temptations.’ We probably need to do more lamenting and confessing.

True glory

Zechariah 4:10 urges us not to despise the day of small things. We shouldn’t idolise the shiny and big because, as Owen once said, ‘success without the gospel is nothing but a prosperous conspiracy against Jesus Christ’. But if we are few in number it can be discouraging and overwhelming.

That’s why I was heartened by what Owen said about this, during the time when he was pastoring a small church in the City of only about 36 members. He preached that, ‘The Lord Jesus sees more beauty and glory in the weakest assemblies of His saints, coming together in His name, and acted and guided in His worship and ways by His Spirit, than ever was in all the worship of Solomon’s temple when it was in its glory.’ The new St Paul’s and other churches around him looked massive and significant. In their shade, he must have been tempted to give up. But he found glory and joy in simply doing what God had called him to do, amongst a small unstrategic group of marginalised and alienated people.

So it is worth continuing to train up workers for the harvest field, even if they’re up against overwhelming odds. It is worth attempting to reform things, even if our efforts seem to have little temporal impact. It is even worth it in small places, because as Owen says: ‘There is a greater glory in giving a minister to a poor congregation, than there is in the instalment and enthroning of all the popes, and cardinals, and metropolitans, that ever were in the world.’ ‘Let their glory be what it will,’ he said, ‘Christ is upon His theatre of glory’ when people get an ordinary pastor, to lead them in hearing God’s word and confessing their sins, just as in the days of Nehemiah.