My dear readers,

(Extracts from RPG Workbook Vol III No. 12, Oct 28 – Nov 24, 1984, edited by Dr SH Tow)

1. A SINFUL SELFISH SOCIETY (1 John 3:13-17; Ecclesiastes 4:1-3)

Men are by nature selfish. Instead of seeing themselves as members of one great society, each bound to the other in mutual helpfulness, they live to “seek their own.” (Phil 2:21) Sinful fallen men seek their own good at the expense of their fellow men. It is a corrupt society that we live in, with few exceptions. Even thrones and seats of power and courts of justice are not free from corruption.

Solomon saw the vilest of men exalted, the throne of iniquity framing mischief by law (Eccl 3:16; Ps 12:8). He saw oppression everywhere. Behold! See the tears of the helpless oppressed people. The power also on the side of the oppressor darkens the picture. We who live in free societies find it hard to imagine men and women dragging along a heavy chain of life in a wearisome hopeless existence.

The scene was aggravated by one sad realization. There was no comforter, no one to give relief, no one to stand up to the tyrant and check him in his tracks. “I looked on my right hand … but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul” (Ps 142:4). Does this description fit your situation?

A SINLESS SUFFERING SAVIOUR

O suffering saint, look not at yourself in your helpless estate, but look up! Your redemption draweth nigh. The Saviour has come. You need not bear your burden any longer. He has come to share your tears. “Surely he hath borne.our griefs, and carried our sorrows …he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter … “ (Isa 53:4,5,7)

HE SUFFERED FOR YOU AND ME

Are you oppressed by some habit of sin? By Satan, the oppressor of men’s souls? No way out? Oh yes! The Saviour has come! He was made sin for us, “who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). Your oppression, sin and injustice will find solution and relief in Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world.

QUIZ: Is there a solution to society’s ills?
PRAYER: Lord, teach me patience in suffering, endurance in tribulation.

2. THE FOLLY OF FOLDED HANDS (John 9:4; Ecclesiastes 4:1-3)

The Preacher takes a look at idleness, another curse of society. The sluggard squanders precious time and opportunity, mistaking idleness for quietness, heaps misery upon himself. He folds his hands, as though he might feed on his own flesh rather than earn his daily bread. Why will he not work? His fertile imagination conjures up excuses in abundance. He sees the tyranny of the oppressor, the capitalist blood-sucker, the envious neighbour, the union boss and union rules. “There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets” (Prov 22:13). How then can I work?

Enforced idleness is the scourge of many western communities. Entire nations and economies have been crippled by the cancer of a socialist welfarism and marxist infiltration of trade unions. Low productivity, high costs, inferior goods and non-competitive products have ruined country after country. Idleness has come in the guise of workers’ rights.

AWAY WITH WICKED SLOTH!

Idleness should have no place in God’s fair creation. Honest work and competitive effort is at once the backbone and health of society. Lift oppression and allow individual expression, and a thousand witnesses will rise up against every form of idleness — enforced or voluntary. Prison is to be preferred to captivity by a lazy temperament that destroys the spirit in man. Idleness enchains more than iron fetters.

Away then with this deadly “folding of the hands together”! Use your hands! Idleness is a deadly hindrance to the work of God and men. A life of ease was never meant for the people of God. It is never the pathway to heaven. Listen to the godly Martyn: “A despicable indulgence in lying in bed gave me such a view of the softness of my character, that I resolved upon my knees to live a life of more self-denial. The tone and vigour of my mind rose rapidly. All those duties from which I usually shrink seemed recreations.”

Dear reader, are you serving the Lord with zeal? Or is it with half-hearted sluggish effort? Away with it! Lord, let me toil for Thee with earnest self-denial, with heart and soul and mind and strength, Amen.

QUIZ: How much work and how much rest should your day be?
THOUGHT: Go labour on, spend and be spent!

3. THE CURSE OF COVETOUSNESS (Luke 12:16-24; Ecclesiastes 4:7-8)

Today Solomon shifts his attention to another kind of vanity: the covetous fool. His hands, far from folded, are full of feverish activity. His one goal in life is to get rich. He has made mammon his god, money his creed. Now a wretched slave of mammon, he toils, sweats, scrapes and grabs whatever comes his way. Is he struggling for family or society or what? No, he is single and alone, without family or brother or any relative. Yet so long as he can scrape another dollar into his coffers, he keeps at it without let-up. There is no end to his labour. He must make his million fast.

By and by, the million is made, but is he satisfied? Far from it, for his craving for more has captivated his mind. He could well retire with his fortune, but no. The less the need the more the greed! He has more than enough to nourish him ten lifetimes, but that wealth did not satisfy his eyes. And for whom was all this labour? “… He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them” (Ps 39:6). Oh, what folly!

The misery of the world is made more miserable by the misers that abound. Every society in every age has its scourge. The Duke of Marlborough last century in England amassed a fortune enough to nourish a hundred families. Yet he would walk through the rain in the night just to save sixpence! No better are those who spend their fortunes on themselves, for selfish gratifications, without a thought of the poor. All this is vanity.

THE JOY OF CHRISTIAN GIVING

For the child of God, there is a higher outlook and nobler purpose. We have been admitted into God’s family, joined to Christ by a new and loving bond. “Ye are not your own” (1 Cor 6:19b). We belong to the Lord who redeemed us at great price, His own life Blood. This means our bodies, talents, possessions and wealth are no longer ours, but the Lord’s. Kept to ourselves, for ourselves, our money is worthless and useless. But placed in His hands humbly and happily, it is an acceptable gift, consecrated to the service of God and His Church.

Dear reader, you need not be rich to give. But you need to love to give. The love of Christ constraineth us. The more you give to Him the more He gives to you. You cannot out give the Giver, and remember, His gifts are good and perfect.

QUIZ: How can a believer be “rich towards God”?
THOUGHT: All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.

God bless you dear readers.

Yours faithfully in the Saviour’s Service,
Dr SH Tow, Founding Pastor