Fellow-Citizens with the Saints

Fellow-Citizens with the Saints

By W.H. Wood

Churches can improve human relations if they are composed of people who are born from above.  The only thing which can save a human life in time and in eternity is the power of Jesus Christ.  A church is a little colony of heaven on earth.  A church, above all earthly organizations should be God-like.  The fellow-citizens with the saints are the sowing salt of the earth. 

The churches can improve human relations by proclaiming the Gospel.  Before Christ returned to heaven he gave his church a great commission.  That commission is to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  The missionary enterprise is the organized effort of the churches to give the Gospel to all men.  The improvement of human relations is a product of the proclamations of the Gospel.  A soul-winning church in a wicked community can improve that community. 

Churches can improve human relations by behaving like Christians in church life.  In a Baptist church everybody ought to be somebody.  A Baptist church is a spiritual democracy.  All have equal rights and privileges.  Every church ought to demonstrate to the world how church members can love one another, help one another, and live together in a glorious, transforming fellowship. 

Churches can improve human relations by demonstrating Christ-likeness in the world.  Just as Christ opposes hypocrisy, sham, and all sorts of evil in the world so should His churches oppose them.  Churches are militant forces for righteousness.  They are to go forth clad in the whole armor of God.  We must remember, as Paul told the Ephesians, that this is composed of the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit, the breastplate of righteousness, the girdle of truth, and feet that are shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.