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The Acts of the Apostles
the sight of all Israel the congregation of the Lord, and in the audience
of our God,” to “keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord
your God.”
1 Chronicles 28:1, 8
.
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To Solomon, as one called to occupy a position of leading respon-
sibility, David gave a special charge: “Thou, Solomon my son, know
thou the God of thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with
a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all
the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek Him, He will be found
of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off forever. Take
heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee: ... be strong.”
1 Chronicles
28:9, 10
.
The same principles of piety and justice that were to guide the
rulers among God’s people in the time of Moses and of David, were
also to be followed by those given the oversight of the newly organized
church of God in the gospel dispensation. In the work of setting things
in order in all the churches, and ordaining suitable men to act as
officers, the apostles held to the high standards of leadership outlined
in the Old Testament Scriptures. They maintained that he who is called
to stand in a position of leading responsibility in the church “must
be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry,
not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of
hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; holding
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by
sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.”
Titus
1:7-9
.
The order that was maintained in the early Christian church made
it possible for them to move forward solidly as a well-disciplined army
clad with the armor of God. The companies of believers, though scat-
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tered over a large territory, were all members of one body; all moved
in concert and in harmony with one another. When dissension arose
in a local church, as later it did arise in Antioch and elsewhere, and
the believers were unable to come to an agreement among themselves,
such matters were not permitted to create a division in the church,
but were referred to a general council of the entire body of believers,
made up of appointed delegates from the various local churches, with
the apostles and elders in positions of leading responsibility. Thus
the efforts of Satan to attack the church in isolated places were met