Rev. A Linford, before his decease, was recognized as a good, great and interesting Bible teacher in the Assemblies of God Fellowship for many years. He was a well-loved Bible College lecturer and writer that bequeathed a tremendous amount of Biblical material in his generation. What a legacy he has left to be researched and brought forth to refresh our day! We shall be using such on this site: His writings from the book of Proverbs and also his Editorials that he wrote for the Redemption Tidings when he was its editor. I trust you will enjoy and appreciate his inspired teaching.
THE WAY OF GOOD MEN
“Walk in the way of good men” - Proverbs 2:20-22
Admonition has its uses, its oftimes negative approach is a preservation. It tell of ways we should not go, and warms of moral cul-de-sac, paths that lead nowhere. We should obey spiritual road signs on the way to Glory.
Wisdom’s call is spatial, it adds new dimension to living. Those who respond are upright, that is morally perpendicular and righteous, that is straight, or morally horizontal: a life that reaches upward and a life that stretches outward. Men of principle are men of influence.
Wisdom’s call is “settlemental“, it produces not only motion in “the way of good men” and “the paths of the righteous”, but it promises settlement “in the land”. To walk in the way of good men brings us into the “land of promise” where God’s blessings permanently abide. The Christian life is both progress and rest. The same epistle that exhorts us to enter into God’s rest also exhorts us to run with patience the race that is set before us (Heb 4:11, 12:1). Resting and running may be concomitant.
Wisdom’s call is separational, it divides men into responders and rejecters. On the one side are the “good”, that is, those whose disposition inclines them to follow the Lord, and the “perfect”, that is those who are steadfastly loyal to God and resolute against all temptation to unfaithfulness. They make the right decision and maintain it devotedly. On the other side are the “wicked”, whose disposition is evil, whose morals are distorted, whose character is bent, and “transgressors” who actively cross the line from decency to indecency, from the will of God to the whim of the flesh, from moral truth to moral turpitude. These “shall be cut off from the earth”, that is, they will forfeit all the benefits that God promises to those who love him and be “plucked up” from all those blessings that make godly living so enjoyable.
Those who seek to live after God’s order are often accused of avid negativism; but there are things a follower of Christ cannot do, should not do, will not do. The first principle of discipleship is a negative denial of self - Matt 16:24, 25 but it leads to a very positive experience of spiritual benefits. Self-abnegation is a prelude to self-absorption in God: t( thus lose our life is to gain it to life eternal.
PRAYER: May I answer wisdom’s call, 0 Lord, to walk in the way of good men.
DOUBLE THINK
George Orwell, well-known author of Animal Farm, wrote: ‘Double think means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously and accepting them both.” I don’t know the context of this definition, but the concept has tremendous implications.
Double think is a denial of logic, which asserts that a thing cannot both be and not be at the same time. But life is larger than logic. We need to systematize thought, but concepts were there long before they were regimented.
But it is as we approach spiritual things that logic becomes less valid. To reason-bound pedants the actions of Christians border on mania. Jesus was accused of being “beside Himself”, that is, out of His mind. Paul’s passionate seeking after the lost and the appalling risks he took to reach them was regarded by some as sheer lunacy. His testimony before Agrippa wrung from Governor Festus the scornful ejaculation, “Paul, you are mad I”" I am not mad, most noble Festus”, was the nonchalant reply, “but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.”
And yet Festus had a point. Christians live in another world, under the laws of Christ. Judged by the lesser laws of men - we are mad. We see the invisible, we hear voiceless words, we know the love of Christ “which passeth knowledge”, we enjoy “peace that passeth all understanding”, we rejoice with joy unspeakable. The nearer we get to spiritual things the less logic seems to apply. Paul could describe himself as “less than the least of all saints”. Illogical. Ungrammatical. I But it was the only way he could express his feeling of humility. At the other end of the scale he could speak of seeing things “which it is not lawful for a man to utter”. Spiritual life is fraught with experiences too much for words, experiences beyond the power of logic to analyze or the reason to define - but real enough.
Double think: Is it too illogical to accept two contradictory propositions at the same time? Relativity poses that if we proceed in a straight line far enough we shall describe a circle. Is light a series of waves or a procession of particles? Why not both at once! Apply this double think to doctrine. Jesus is God: Jesus is man. He is completely both at the same time without diminishing the perfection of either. A mystery? Yes, but faith grasps hold of what logic gasps at. Take the age-old controversy between fatalism and freedom, determinism or free-will, Calvinism or Arminianism. Are not both sides true - but only true together and not apart?
And so we could go on. Logic is essential, but its use is relative. There are areas in which it ceases to be valid. We must serve God “with all our mind”, but there are planes of experience that rise above reason.
