RECOVERY OF LIFE'S CUTTING EDGE
Roger T. Forster
Reading: 2 Kings 6:1-7
THE background to this story is that Elijah and Elisha in their spiritually unified ministry, reflecting Christ and His Church endowed by the Spirit, had seen something of revival begin amongst the apostate Northern Kingdom of Israel. One major feature of this was the rise of the sons of the prophets and their wives -- men and women who wished to embody the prophetic word of God and relate to Elijah and Elisha as children learning God's way of family living.
In 1 Kings 20, the days of Elijah, there seemed to be just a few of these sons of the prophets in evidence. In 2 Kings 2, when Elijah was translated, there appear to have been fifty or so near at hand. In 2 Kings 4:1 mention is made also of their wives, and 4:43 indicates that there were over one hundred present in the community's life. Now in this sixth chapter of 2 Kings, we are told that the place where they were living was too small for such a growing community. It was this growth that occasioned the event of the building of a larger campus, with the subsequent loss of the axe head into Jordan in the course of the building operation.
One wonders if some modern Elisha, if appealed to under such circumstances, might have urged the workers not to worry about the loss of the cutting edge but to press on with God's work. As if to suggest that they should keep chopping with the axe handle, persevering and perspiring in their efforts to keep things going at all costs. Before we ask what the lost axe head represents, what the cutting edge of growth and church building is all about, it is important to remember that spiritual revival and growth is connected with the Biblical principle of community life. This is a truth not only illustrated [79/80] by the sons of the prophets in the days of Israel's apostasy, but throughout the whole church age. We are all aware of the beginning of the New Testament church in Jerusalem, with its spontaneous, voluntary, communal living, so that "All that believed were together and had all things common. No man called what he possessed his own, and there was none who had need" (Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32-34).
The Irish Missionary movement was made up of small communal bands, both from Catholics and from theUnitas Fratrum, a pre-reformation Biblical movement. Anabaptists, Moravians and Methodist class meetings are all in the same stream of those who saw the need of some form of living and sharing together. Going back to the New Testament it seems from Romans 16 that the church in the great metropolis of Rome certainly had house group cells, five of which are mentioned in that chapter.
It is in the smaller congregations that body life can most adequately be experienced. Many churches are inspirational in their singing, free and fulfilling in their worship, profound in their teaching and active in their organised outreach, all essential elements in the Christian life. Too often, however, the factor that is missing is the life-changing business of becoming more like our Lord Jesus, that is, "being conformed to the image of his Son". Yet this is really the heart of God's purpose in the churches. Failure in Christ-like growth among believers is a serious hindrance to Church growth as a whole.
