Chapter 4
The Path of The Church
This brief appraisal of our world today, and the way man takes, clearly implies the responsibility of the Church. It is the task of the Church to point out to men the safe way, the right way, the way that will eventually issue in man’s best good and salvation. This has always been the task of the Church. Christ began His Church on earth for one simple reason — to show man the way he should take. Very early in the Church’s history Christians were referred to as of THE WAY.
Jesus expressed it this way: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).
This path that Jesus blazed for His followers is one radically different from the paths man has invariably followed. For the ways of God are foolishness to man. However, those who sought this new way from then till now and have walked in it have found that it is a path of peace and hope.
And so it was that Jesus started out His earthly Church to blaze moral paths through the wilderness and confusion of sin, showing man the path he should take. This is, and always has been, the task of the Church. When the Church fails to lead the way, humanity soon wanders off to make its own path, and ere long finds itself far astray from safety and perpetuity. The tragedy of it all is that the Church has too often followed the paths of the world rather than becoming the moral way-shower for man. One cannot escape the significance of it all — when the Church has been indecisive in its leadership, humanity has always faltered and turned toward disaster. Man always comes to confusion when he fails to follow the path of God, and the Church has too often been at fault in failing to lead the way. We live in such an age; consequently, the challenge is clearer than ever to those who regard the responsibility of the church with seriousness.