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Let us recognize and settle it once and for all that the ecclesia, the Body of Christ is not here in this world to have anything to do with the systems of this world, as such; and insofar as we become involved in the matters of the kingdoms of this world, we lose our magnetic vocation, and we shall involve ourselves in chaos from which it will take a very great deal to disentangle us.
That has been the historic tragedy of Christendom: it has in various ways become linked up with the kingdoms and interests of this world, and that is the secret of its spiritual ineffectiveness. Christ’s Body is a heavenly thing since Christ, its Head, has ascended, and all that comes down into and through His Body is heavenly in source and nature. This is utterly different from the things of earth.
Everyone who has an understanding of the Body of Christ will find himself being detached from tradition, from organized religion, and being brought to the place where there is no alternative but to come out from a thing which is a system and an order – though claiming to be in the name of the Lord and according to the Word of the Lord – but which is a thing of this earth.
It is a tremendous thing to say, but we do not hesitate to say it – that spiritual emancipation from the present system of organized religion and of what is called “the Church” with its methods, institutions, officials, governments, etc., is the necessary way to the maximum of spiritual effectiveness and fruitfulness. The tragedy of so many is the earth-boundedness of vision and the tyranny of the system.
Austin-Sparks (1888-1971)
A Witness and a Testimony (December 1927)
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