Monday, August 24, 2009
Feast of Bartholomew the Apostle

The defenders of the jargon and phrases of the Church’s traditions hold that there must of necessity be a specialized vocabulary, just as there is in any other specialized form of human activity, whether it is music, architecture, or electronic engineering. To me, at least, this is a thoroughly unsound argument, for Christ did not come into the world to bring men “specialized activity,” but life, fuller and more satisfying than it had ever been before. If the churches have made Christianity appear to be some kind of specialized spiritual performance so much the worse for them. The real purpose of Christ, the real relevance of the Gospel, is surely to enable men to live together as sons of God. Human beings, like children, love to have secrets, love to be “in the know.” But the Christian religion was never meant to be a secret recipe for living, held by a few. It is Good News for all mankind and, because it is that, the more clearly and intelligibly it can be presented, the more faithfully it is following its Master’s purpose.

... J. B. Phillips (1906-1982), Is God at Home?, London: Lutterworth Press, 1957, p. 8-9 (see the book; see also Acts 4:13-14; John 3:21; 10:24-25; 16:25-31; 2 Cor. 4:2; 5:11; more at Authenticity, Church, Faith, Knowledge, Purpose)

 
Compilation Copyright, 1996-2024, by Robert McAnally Adams,
        Curator, Christian Quotation of the Day,
        with Robert Douglas, principal contributor
Logo image Copyright 1996 by Shay Barsabe, of “Simple GIFs”, by kind permission.
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Last updated: 09/14/19

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