'Wherefore of these men which have companied with us All the Time that

the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of

John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us, Must one be

ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection' (Acts 1:21 -23,

cf. John 15:27).

No man living today can be such a witness.  Our ministry is of a

different grade, based upon the testimony of those endued by the Holy Spirit,

which serves as a basis for our preaching, teaching, and living in view of

'that blessed hope'.

Let us consider a few outstanding prerequisites for Scriptural service

and testimony.

We trust that no reader expects us to launch out into a system of

legalism, setting out what he is to do, and where he is to go, as though the

epistles of the Mystery were addressed to servants instead of sons.  The

closing verses of Colossians 2 should preserve us for all time from this

reprehensible misunderstanding of our position in Christ.  There will be, we

trust, no approximation to 'touch not, taste not, handle not', in this study.

The apostle Peter has asked 'what manner of persons ought ye to be

...?' (2 Pet. 3:11) and the introduction of that word 'ought', so often on

the lips of believers when dealing with 'another man's servant', is rare in

the Word of God.  Paul used the word 'ought' (opheilo) but once in the

epistles of the Mystery when he said: 'So ought men to love their wives'

(Eph. 5:28), and even this passage is no exception to the rule that practice

flows from doctrine, for the exhortation beginning with the word 'so', cannot

be isolated from the preceding glorious doctrine concerning Christ's love for

His church.

The first item that we feel constrained to bring forward is the fact

that all service rendered to God, if it is to be acceptable, must be

'reasonable service'.  This is stated by the apostle in Romans 12:1:

'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye

present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,

which is your reasonable service'.

We are immediately faced with the necessity of making sure that every

term used in this important passage shall be understood and appreciated --

but that will be to leave the practical issues for the doctrinal, the very

thing we here seek to avoid.  We trust, however, that this very persistence

on the part of doctrine, meeting us again and again, will help all to realize

how impossible it is to contemplate practice apart from a knowledge of truth.

Avoiding the purely doctrinal issues which belong to the doctrinal sections,

we might notice that the apostle 'beseeches', but does not 'command'.  He

would have our practice to be the grateful response to 'the mercies of God',

for service rendered in any other spirit may not prove 'acceptable unto God'.

Not only must true service be rendered 'in love' and not 'in law', but

it must also be 'logical' or 'reasonable'.  This implies a fair acquaintance

with the teaching of the Scriptures, and a perception on the part of the

believer of the direction and goal towards which all doctrine points.  This