Epistle to the Brethrens

Mike of Smiths Falls, Brethren of the Brethren, bowdlerizing Paul the apostle, to everyone raised Plymouth Brethren.

You have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.  Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?  But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

 He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek to know God, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey empty acts of religious piety and following of rules, there will be wrath and fury.  There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who acts badly, the Brethren first and also the Pentecostal, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who accomplishes good, the Brethren first and also the Pentecostal.  For God shows no partiality.

 For all who have sinned without knowing the Brethren teachings and lifestyle will also perish without knowing the Brethren teachings and lifestyle, and all who have sinned under the Brethren teachings and lifestyle will be judged by the Brethren teachings and lifestyle. For it is not the hearers of the Brethren teachings and lifestyle who are righteous before God, but the doers of the Brethren teachings and lifestyle who will be justified.  For when Pentecostals, who do not have the Brethren teachings and lifestyle, by nature do what the Brethren teachings and lifestyle requires, they are a Brethren teachings and lifestyle to themselves, even though they do not have the Brethren teachings and lifestyle. They show that the work of the Brethren teachings and lifestyle is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of religious men by Christ Jesus.

 But if you call yourself a Brethren person and rely on the Brethren teachings and lifestyle and boast in God  and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are fully instructed in the Brethren teachings and lifestyle rules;  and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,  an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the Brethren teachings and lifestyle the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against sectarianism, do you form a sect?  You who say that one must not lie, do you tell lies? You who abhor division, do you divide?  You who boast in the Brethren teachings and lifestyle rules dishonor God by breaking the Brethren teachings and lifestyle rules.  For, as it is written, “The reputation of the Brethren is impugned among the Pentecostals because of you.”

 For no one is a Brethren person who is merely one outwardly, nor is being in fellowship outward and physical.  But a Brethren person is one inwardly, and being in fellowship is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter of commendation. His praise is not from man but from God.

Then what advantage has the Brethren person? Or what is the value of being in fellowship?  Much in every way. To begin with, the Brethren persons were entrusted with knowledge of the bible, and sound doctrine.  What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?  By no means! Let God be true though every Brethren person were a liar, as it is written,

That you may be justified in your words,

and prevail when you are judged.

 What then? Are we Brethren persons any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all Christians, both Brethren persons and Pentecostals, are caught up in empty shows of religious piety, as it is written:

None is right, no, not one;

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does anything meaningful Sunday mornings,

not even one.

Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.

The venom of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of passive aggressiveness.

Their feet are swift to excommunicate;

in their paths are ruin, misery and divided families,

the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

 Now we know that whatever the Brethren teachings and lifestyle rules say, they speak to those who are under the Brethren teachings and lifestyle, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by following the Brethren teachings and lifestyle rules no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the Brethren teachings and lifestyle rules come knowledge of sin.

 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the Brethren teachings and lifestyle, although the Brethren teachings and lifestyle and the Brethren of old bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have fallen into empty religious observances and fall short of God’s intention for proper Christian gathering, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former displays of empty religious piety. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our Brethren smugness? It is excluded. By what kind of teaching and lifestyle? By a body of doctrine and a lifestyle of sacrifice? No, but by a lifestyle of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from following the Brethren teachings and lifestyle. Or is God the God of Brethren persons only? Is he not the God of Pentecostals also? Yes, of Pentecostals also, since God is one—who will justify those in fellowship by faith, and those not in fellowship through faith. Do we then overthrow the Brethren teachings and lifestyle by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the Brethren teachings and lifestyle.

What then shall we say was gained by John Nelson Darby, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Darby was justified by his doctrine, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Darby believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works creating a body of doctrine, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work creating a body of doctrine but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

Blessed are those whose legalism is forgiven,

and whose shows of empty religious piety are covered;

blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his Phariseeism.

Is this blessing then only for those in fellowship, or also for those not in fellowship? For we say that faith was counted to John Nelson Darby as righteousness. How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he was in fellowship? It was not after, but before he was in fellowship. He received the sign of being in fellowship as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still not in fellowship. The purpose was to make him the father of all the gathered saints without being in fellowship, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of those in fellowship who are not merely in fellowship outwardly but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Darby had before he was in fellowship.

For the promise to Darby and his offspring that he would be the key founder of the Brethren movement did not come through the Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules who are to be the heirs of what God gave John Nelson Darby, faith is null and the promise is void. For the Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules bring wrath, for where there are no Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, there is no transgression.

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules but also to the one who shares the faith of Darby, who is the father of us all, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many assemblies”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

What then? Are we to put ourselves back under sacrifices and mandatory shows of religious piety because we are no longer under Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of shows of religious piety, which lead to death, or of faith, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once actors slaving away in shows of religious piety have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from shows of religious piety, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once devoted your lives as slaves to piety competitions and mask-wearing Phariseeism, so now devote your lives as slaves to inner righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of shows of religious piety, you were free of righteousness. But exactly what kind of fruit were you getting at that time, from the shows of religious piety, the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from shows of religious piety and have become slaves of God, the fruit you have now received leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages earned by making shows of religious piety is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules—that Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules are binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules regarding marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from those Brethren lifestyle rules, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were trying to govern our lives with willpower, sacrifices and rule-keeping, our smug piety, aroused by Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, was at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of trying to use our willpower to try to keep all the unwritten rules.

What then shall we say? That Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules are nothing more than empty religious piety? By no means! Yet if it had not been for Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, I would not have known about empty religious piety. For I would not have known what it is to be self-focused if Brethren teaching had not said, “You shall not be self-focused.” But empty religious piety, seizing an opportunity through the unwritten rules, produced in me all kinds of self-focus. For apart from Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, empty religious piety lies dead. Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules gave life to it.  I was once alive apart from Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, but when the unwritten rules came to me, empty religious piety came alive and I died. The very unwritten lifestyle rules that promised life proved to be death to me. For empty religious piety, seizing an opportunity through the unwritten rules, deceived me and through it killed me.  But Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules are holy, and the unwritten rules are holy and righteous and good.

 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was empty religious piety, producing death in me through what is good, in order that empty religious piety might be shown to be empty religious piety, and through the unwritten rules, might become achingly empty, deathly pious and fruitlessly religious beyond measure. For we know that Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules are spiritual, but I am trying to keep them merely with my self-control, sold under empty religious piety. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but instead I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, that they are good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but empty religious piety that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my willpower. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the works of empty piety.  What I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but empty religious piety that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I decide that I want to do right, empty religious piety lies close at hand. For I delight in knowing God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another agenda waging war against knowing God, making me captive to a code of empty religious piety that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself want to know God, but with my self-control I serve lifestyle rules of empty religious piety.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the way of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the way of empty religious piety and death. For God has done what the Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, weakened by attempts to keep them using self-control, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned empty religious piety in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to our self-control but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to empty religious observance set their minds on the things of empty religious observance, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on empty religious observance is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on empty religious observance is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are under empty religious observance and self-control cannot please God.

You, however, are not living by self-control but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although there is no life with God through empty religious piety, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your daily lives through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers we are debtors, not to Brethren teaching and lifestyle rules, to live according to self-control. For if you live according to your willpower you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the religious deeds of your best intentions, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Dad!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.