Many primitive people
have a custom of making a great show of grief over the death of their
loved ones. In ancient times they even hired mourners to lament and
bewail the loss of a relation. The idea here was that the grief of the
family was so overwhelming it simply could not be expressed by any
normal or ordinary outpouring of mournful cries, and must needs have the
help of "professionals" to make lamentation.
This was the kind of
"sorrow" Paul admonished against when he wrote the Thessalonians, "that
ye sorrow not, even as others who have no hope."
(I
Thess. 4:13). The
Christian does not need hired mourners; in fact, he really does not
mourn at all in the sense in which the heathen mourns. For he recognizes
that his separation from a loved one is only temporary, and will be
followed by an eternity of complete happiness in company with the one
who has now gone.
This will be the case if
(and what 'a terrific "IF" it is!) both the deceased and the bereaved
die as faithful children of God.
Motives For
Obedience
Nobody ever acts from a
single motive. All the factors lying behind any decision or action have
their influence on an individual. His action (or lack of it) is a TOTAL
situation. Some of the strongest motivations, of course, can become so
dominant in a given situation as to make it seem that a single motive
controls the action, but this is not so. Fear of punishment and hope of
reward are two of the strongest motives activating the Christian in his
service of God. (Psychologists have long since determined that the
former is much stronger than the latter — hence, the folly of those
teachers who would eliminate all references to hell and eternal
punishment from their speech.) But along with these two basic motivating
factors, surely the deep feeling of gratitude to God for the gift of his
Son is of no small importance. And the blessed relief from the galling
burden of guilt and self-reproach for wrongs done all of these are
potent factors in a man's obedience.
But a very valid
motivation is often overlooked the love a man has for his family. It is
perfectly right and proper to appeal to this as ONE influence that
should lead a man to obey the gospel. If he does not, and goes into
eternity without any promise of salvation at all, think what a crushing
weight of grief this brings to the family he leaves behind! It is bad
enough for them to be deprived of his person and association through the
lonely years ahead. But to know that the separation is FOREVER, and that
there can be no hope at all of any kind of reunion — surely, no man who
loves his family would want to lay that heavy load upon them!! He will
compel his family to "sorrow as those who have no hope."
The much controverted
expression "baptized for the dead" in
I
Corinthians 15:29
may well be another reference to this very motivation. Many scholars
(probably most) believe that this means "baptized in the hope of reunion
with the dead." If there is no resurrection, obviously such a reason for
baptism is meaningless. And any Corinthian who was "baptized in the hope
of reunion" with some dead loved one, and then denied the resurrection
of the dead, was obviously not thinking very straight!
Those "who have no hope"
are the forlorn and broken people whose loved ones have died out of
Christ. Theirs is a bitter sorrow, indeed. How brutal and callous the
man who would run the risk of subjecting his family to such torture. The
faithful Christian who dies leaves his sorrowing family a comfort, a
consolation, a "blessed hope" more precious to them than anything on
this earth. Their sorrow, truly is not the hopeless despair of the
heathen.
This, of course, is not
the only motive that should lead a man to Christ. But it is one; and a
very powerful one at that. Powerful, that is, for the man who loves his
family. - Gospel Guardian – August 5, 1971
Other Articles by F. Yater Tant
Authorized by a Well-Defined and a Clear
Majority of Churches of Christ in Texas
Mental
Incinerators
Going Home