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.