LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1962, Page 33

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DOCTRINAL-DEVOTIONAL ESSAYS 33

Christ also received them to the glory of God; yes, and
mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary
to the doctrine which they have learned, and avoid
them.

To the precocious Corinthians, torn by factions that
were born of arrogance and selfishness, Paul spoke
many straightforward words about removing the divi-
sions in their midst and being joined in the same mind
and in the same judgment, about not letting the incon-
siderate exercise of their liberty become a stumbling
block to the weak brother for whom Christ died. They
should follow the example of the apostle’s tactful behav-
ior in being all things to all men that he might by all
means save some, “and this I do for the Gospel’s sake.”
All their marvelous spiritual gifts are to be used by all
the members of the one body for the welfare of the
body “that there be no schism in the body but that the
members should have the same care one for another”
and do it all in the spirit of the most excellent gift of all,
agape, Christian love.

The Galatians are commanded not to let anyone
destroy their unity in Christ by the intrusion of another
gospel. They should by love serve one another, avoid
the works of the flesh, which include hatred, strife,
sedition, heresies; and they should manifest the fruits
of the Spirit, which include love, long-suffering, gentle-
ness, meekness. And if somebody is overtaken in a fault,
the spiritual among them should restore him in a spirit
of meekness, lest they also be tempted, and all should
bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of
Christ.

For the Ephesians the apostle paints a magnificent
picture of the redeeming work of Christ, which has
demolished the human barriers of race, culture, social
standing, and has made them all one in Him. Now they
are exhorted to be full of zeal in keeping the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace by practicing the
requisite virtues: ‘With all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.”
All the gifts of the exalted Lord are to be used “for the
perfecting of the saints ... for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God.” However, far
from sanctioning a mushy noncreedalism, the apostle
exhorts them not to be “children, tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine.”

The Philippians are to “stand fast in one spirit, with
one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel.”
They should be “likeminded, having the same love,
being of one accord, of one mind.” The good ladies,
Euodias and Syntyche, should stop their squabbling
and “be of the same mind in the Lord.” All of them
should be governed by the mind “that was also in Christ
Jesus.” Surely this is enough by way of illustration.

Loyalty, unity, love — the three beautiful daughters
of the faith that makes one a disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ! Living up to them, or endeavoring earnestly
to do so, without stressing one at the expense of the
others — this is proper practice. Injuring the one or the
other — this is unionism, or its opposite, separatism.

May God give us the firmness to remain fully faith-
ful to Him according to His Word, the wisdom to recog-
nize the tensions created by our discipleship and the
humility to live with them, and finally, the winsome
love to labor unceasingly for the unity that pleases Him
and glorifies His holy name!

Vil
The Confessional Church Reviews
Her Lodge Practice

Fred Kramer
Concordia Seminary, Springfield

When our church as a confessional church views
any phenomenon whatsoever in church or world, she
must remind herself that she is bound to “the prophetic
and apostolic Scriptures ... as the pure, clear fountain
of Israel, which is the only true standard by which
all teachers and doctrines are to be judged.” (Formula
of Concord, Comp. Summ.)

She must remind herself, furthermore, that accord-
ing to all her confessions the heart and core of the
prophetic and apostolic Scriptures is the holy Gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who
became man and suffered and died as man’s substitute,
and that the first and foremost article of our faith is
the doctrine of justification by grace for Christ’s sake
through faith.

From this vantage point of our Confessions, which
are an exposition of the teachings of Scripture and set
forth as its central teaching the doctrine of our salva-
tion through Christ, we wish to review our Synod’s
lodge practice.

We note first of all that Synod as a confessional
organization is interested in the lodge practice of her
constituent congregations. What the Synod expects that
practice to be is not left in doubt. The Synod herself
has formulated policies and has stated them briefly and
clearly in the synodical Handbook, 14.03, entitled “Syn-
od’s Position Concerning Lodges.”

In order to understand and to appreciate the Synod’s
lodge policies, we shall do well to consider briefly how
the Synod arrived at them. We might say that the
Synod’s present lodge policies go back to year 1929,
when they took essentially the form in which we find
them stated in the synodical Handbook. It would, how-
ever, be a mistake to believe that these policies orig-
inated in 1929. The Synod dealt again and again with
lodge matters throughout her history. The literature of
the Missouri Synod, both in its official synodical reports
and in its official publications, whether popular and
slanted chiefly toward the membership of her congrega-
tions, or theological and calculated chiefly for her pas-
tors, abounds with references to what was often called
the “lodge evil.”

The first major reference which I was able to trace
is found in Der Lutheraner, Vol. V, June 26, 1849, there-
fore a scant five years after Der Lutheraner began
publication and only two years after the founding of
the Synod itself. The article, which was continued for