35. “Walking Together” (Amos 3:3)
“Can two walk together, except they be
agreed?”
This is surely one of the most curious passages
quoted by the advocates of “pure fellowship at any price”, inasmuch
as their application of it has so very little regard for the context. The verse
is used to suggest the notion that only when there is perfect agreement among
brethren can they “walk together” in the bonds of fellowship. In the
first place such a blanket assertion is not true, and in the second place such a
usage of the verse is entirely beside the point.
It is certainly wrong to state as a matter of
principle that two men cannot cooperation unless they are perfectly agreed in
every particular. In actual practice, nothing is further from the truth. Two men
or a group can work together quite well on a common project by agreeing
beforehand to submerge their differences in matters of secondary importance. If
in their minds there is the same major goal, then minor considerations are
modestly set aside so that their full energies may be directed toward its
achievement. Such a policy is wise, and Scriptural! Peter’s “Be ye
subject one to another” (1 Pet. 5:5) surely expresses such a spirit of
“compromise” in the best sense, as does Paul’s exhortation to
the strife-prone Corinthians:
“There should be no schism in the
body... the members should have the same care one for another” (1 Cor.
12:25).
What then is the point of Amos 3:3? Perhaps the
RSV rendering here would be helpful:
“Do two walk together, unless they have
made an appointment?”
Or, as the Hebrew: ‘unless they have met
together?’ This sounds very much like the thoughts expressed above:
two men can and do walk together IF they have agreed beforehand to walk
together; it is as simple as that.
However, a consideration of the prophet’s
message in the broader sense indicates that the two who must agree in order to
walk together are God and man. God knew Israel in the sense that to Israel He
had committed His laws (v. 2; Psa. 147:19,20). This knowledge placed upon Israel
the burden of responsibility to obey God, to agree to walk with Him; else Israel
would be punished above all the nations for her transgressions. But,
responsibilities aside, there are also great privileges in such a close
association with the Almighty:
“Surely the Lord God will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (Amos
3:7).
Man must walk in communion and harmony of heart
and purpose with God. In doing so his blessings will be many, but if he deserts
such a partnership then he may expect fiery judgment. God is saying, ‘Can
you think to ignore My advice and still claim to be My
friend?’
The very first thing God asks us to agree with
Him about is that we are sinners, not that we are as perfect as He is. An
awareness of our weaknesses before God should make us considerably more
sympathetic toward the weaknesses of our brethren. The goal of all is that we
learn day by day to walk more and more in conformity with God’s will. In
the awesome shadow cast by our Father, we are all no better than toddlers, and
our petty quarrels with His other babes are just so much futility, and are due
to our limited horizons. The Lord of all creation has condescended to grasp each
of us by the hand; like a natural father, He has shortened His pace so that we
may be helped and guided in our first faltering steps upward toward manhood. Let
us set our attentions upon His standard and strive to conform to it; let us
walk with God (Gen. 5:22; 6:9; 17:1), and not be so concerned to
scrutinize the faltering steps of our brothers.
One final thought: Today divorce has become a
widespread practice in the world around us, so much so that many young people
enter marriages fully intending to terminate them at the first sign of trouble,
on such flimsy grounds as “incompatibility”. It is as if they are
saying, ‘We can no longer walk together, because we do not agree on
such-and-such.’ There are few in the brotherhood who would not deplore
such a childish disregard for the marriage bond. And yet how often do brethren
put forward this same excuse for “divorcing” themselves from a bond
just as sacred — the tie that binds (or should bind) all Christ’s
brethren together! They thus put asunder in the spiritual realm what they would
never think of dissolving on the domestic level; and this means a debris of
broken homes and lingering recriminations. And all because they will not apply
the same restraint and reasonableness and patience and understanding in the
ecclesial family that every husband and wife knows is essential in the natural
family.