CARE FOR OTHERS, A FEATURE OF THE DIVINE NATURE
[p. 96] CARE FOR OTHERS, A FEATURE OF THE DIVINE NATURE
Luke 10: 34; 1 Timothy 3: 5; 2 Corinthians 11: 28 - 30
I have in mind, dear brethren, to speak about the feature of the divine nature expressed in care, in care for others, in what is expressed in us. Thus whatever feature of the divine nature shows itself, it has had its expression in Christ first, but I confine my remarks to the idea of care.
It is seen in these scriptures, first in regard to a christian (an individual) and then secondly in regard to a church (the church in its real setting) and thirdly in regard of all the churches. These are the thoughts I have in mind and it is to the end that we might be enlarged first in caring for one’s neighbour, then in caring for the local company in which one may be, involving fellowship in its local feature, and then for all the churches involving what may be termed general fellowship. I believe this is the order in which we are developed in this divine feature.
We get examples in the Old Testament, and the fundamental principle, as I might call it, of the local company is the neighbour. One arrives at the local feature of the church by beginning with the neighbour and so in the Old Testament you have that thought embodied in the law, indeed it is in the Lord’s own condensation of the law: the second commandment is like unto the first. The first is the supreme idea; the second is very near it, it is like unto it. The first is, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart”, etc., that is my relations with God, and the second is, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”, on these two, says the Lord, hang all the law and the prophets.
[p. 97] The Lord had a marvellous way of condensing, indeed compression is a feature of the Lord’s life and ministry and it enters into the Bible, too, but compression that can be opened up and opened up ad infinitum. It must be so, so that having the thing in a small compass we should get a general grasp and then begin at the opening out. So that whilst we learn this we learn in relation to the whole.
Hence the Lord said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14: 6), all is there, but volumes could not contain what anyone of these things is, as opened up, and so this commandment as I said, is second, it is like unto the first, for all the divine truth hangs together, but there is the principle of one, two and three in divine things and that enters into all the orderings of God, the order of one, two and three. The first is the supreme idea and the second is like unto it so that great place is given to this principle of the neighbour and then to the care of more than one person.
Moses aptly represents our Lord in the bearing of the burden of the whole; it was no small matter to look after some two million men, women and children in the wilderness; he is a type of Christ. But then under divine ordering he goes up to the mountain to be with Jehovah and what would become of those left behind? Beloved brethren, we have the Lord’s position in a simple way, gone up; the Lord has gone up.
Moses was directed to go up to Jehovah, he and Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, but then he was to go himself, they all went up but Moses was to go himself and he was there six days and on the seventh day the cloud covered him and he ascended (see Exodus 24). I have no doubt he was viewed by those below before the cloud covered him, but he entered the cloud and ascended to Jehovah. But what was to happen to those below? Moses was [p. 98] not unconcerned about that so he says if anyone has any matter, Aaron and Hur are there. These millions must be cared for. These Israelites must be cared for and so you have Aaron and Hur. Now I think Aaron and Hur indicate the idea of care for the assembly. They are tried persons. “Let these be first proved”, we are told, that is to say, care is entrusted to trustworthy men.
Aaron is a development in secret; he is not brought forward in Scripture until he was a very old man, he was never known as a young brother publicly as far as Scripture goes. He was known to God and he is introduced to Moses at that old age, Moses himself being nearly as old, about three years younger, so that there would ever be that test between the two that the most prominent in the service of God was younger. But he is introduced by Jehovah to Moses as Aaron the Levite, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well”, Jehovah says, and he is coming to meet you and when h sees you he will be glad in his heart (Exodus 4: 14).
That is the one and he proved all that Jehovah said about him; I think God looks for that, dear brethren. He looks for confirmation of His choice and Aaron was not behind so far; he was the brother and he could speak well, and the best evidence of the fact that he could speak well was that when he spoke to Israel they turned away from Egypt to the wilderness (Exodus 16: 10). The man that can turn the saints away from Egypt is a worthy man. They had just been talking about Egypt and the fleshpots and how well they fared there; they said it just as worldly-minded christians say it. They were inclined to go back and Aaron spoke to them; Moses directed him to speak to them, and as he spoke to them they looked to the wilderness, and as they looked towards the wilderness they saw the glory of Jehovah. It is worth while looking towards the wilderness to see [p. 99] that; it is as if God would say, that is the way to go, that is the direction of the glory; it is not in Egypt, it is in the wilderness.
Now Aaron is left to look after the people; I do not say that he is successful, I am not speaking of that side as Aaron was not. But he had all the qualifications, he was the brother and he could speak well and he could influence the saints by his speaking. He could influence them towards the wilderness and any speaking that does not influence towards the wilderness is not to be trusted. Any writings or books that do not direct towards the wilderness are not to be trusted.
Well, that is the position. Aaron and Hur were, so far, proved men; Hur represented purity; we have nothing to go by but his name, and what he could do. He could hold up another brother’s hands, the two men together as a matter of fact, Aaron and Hur, had been the support of Moses (Exodus 17: 12). He had proved them, it is a great thing, beloved, to prove the brethren, David speaks about not having proved the armour that Saul would have induced him to wear. We are first to be proved. Moses had proved these men; he had proved Aaron and now he proved them both and they uphold his hands so that the victory is decided in favour of the people of God. The bearing of the service of these two men is in favour of the people of God and they are trusted to look after them whilst Moses is away. That is the position in the type and I mention it in regard of the second scripture: “how shall he take care of the assembly of God?”
Well, I go back again to the first scripture so that we may learn something about caring for the neighbour and about caring for one who may be regarded as near, and Luke gives us this beautiful parable, Luke alone gives it. It is what you might call a medical parable and in keeping with the writer; one [p. 100] who can diagnose and see what the ailment is and who, not being, as I may say, ever at a loss, has the medicine with him; He never says go; He never writes a prescription. It is personal contact, a living voice and a living touch, that is the Samaritan as you know; I suppose every preacher has used this beautiful parable in the gospel. I want, however, to confine myself to the closing verses which include the idea of care.
After the man is attended to medically, he is put on the Samaritan’s own beast and brought to the inn and he (the Samaritan) took care of him. He did not hand him over to the innkeeper at once; I want you to notice this because it enters into what I have specially in mind. The innkeeper would certainly know how to take care of a sick man; he is accustomed to take care of people in poor health, but it is not said so here. The Samaritan brought him to the inn and took care of him himself. There is not a word about his employing anyone else at first.
Now, beloved, we must learn everything in the Lord. Christianity is not merely a matter of precept, but of precedent and principle. There are precepts, of course; there are laws, but the great feature of the Acts is what was done and how it was done, that is the great feature, and so the Lord remained with them for forty days before He went up.
We speak about the Lord Jesus as if we could walk round Him like an ordinary person. You cannot do that, He is always present; no one knows the Son but the Father; the inscrutable is there always and so specially as He rose from the dead; He was with them forty days. Where was He? He appears once amongst the disciples as they were gathered together and again we are told, eight days afterwards, Where was He? You see the thing is inscrutable, He was there, it is altogether beyond the natural mind, it is inscrutable, He was there for forty days.
[p. 101] Paul, in writing to the Corinthians so as to induce them to be spiritual, refers to the number of times that the Lord appeared to His own. It is as if He would impress His own, before they entered the service, that it is spiritual and to be done in a spiritual manner. The book of Acts shows how things are to be done. Luke begins that narrative by telling us how the Lord showed Himself after His suffering, after His death, with many proofs, and that He assembled with them. Then Peter says, ‘now we are less than twelve’. It is a good thing to accept that we are less than the required number. The Lord, according to Matthew, recognises the eleven, and He was not deterred by the fact that they were less than twelve, but Peter recognised it.
It is a very wholesome thing to accept that we are less than twelve. Some humiliating thing has happened, why this dividing, why this shortage, why this trouble? Well, we accept it, and the Lord knows the explanation, but the breach has to be filled, the twelfth is to be added. I may say that twelve is complete administration, the administration of love has to go on, twelve signifies this. Then we must take account of the Lord’s manner, and how He did things, and so the apostle says as to the disciple who is to be the twelfth apostle, that he must be one of those who assembled with us during all the time the Lord Jesus came in and went out amongst us from the baptism of John until He was received up. That is the idea, everything must be learned from Christ. If I am to assemble rightly with my brethren I must learn that; He assembled with them, and so if I am to know how to care for a christian I must learn that in Christ.
He took him to the inn and took care of him and on the morrow, meaning that he spent the night there; is it too much, dear brethren, for me to say that the innkeeper went into the room where they were and [p. 102] saw how the Samaritan treated him? It is quite obvious that the Samaritan remained there to take care of him and he showed in that action how such; a man is cared for, and on the morrow he says, ‘Now you take care of him, I am going away and I will see to it that you are paid’. “Take care of him”, that is the charge, that is the idea of the Lord’s care and as we run down the chapter we come to Martha, and what do we find? She actually chides the Lord with not caring. “Dost thou not care”, after this wonderful example of care on His part.
Need we wonder that He prays in the presence of that, not simply praying, but praying in a place! It is not obvious that it was that particular village where Martha’s house was, but they were wanting in that house; they thought He did not care; she had that in her mind but He adjusted her, and He prays in a certain place and in certain circumstances. We have to learn from Jesus how to pray. They saw Him praying and one disciple said, “Lord, teach us to pray”, not ‘teach me to pray’, because the idea is a collective thought. Chapter 11 brings in the collective thought; indeed chapter 10 begins with the idea that the Lord sent out disciples two by two into every city and place where He Himself would come.
The idea was to have a place and conditions suitable for His presence, so that they were to enquire for a son of peace and if there is a son of peace in the house, He says, “Your peace shall rest upon it”. It is a very great challenge for a locality, a son of peace; I always like to know how many are breaking bread, but the quality is in the son of peace; if you have not a son of peace you will have no assembly according to God. If a son of peace be there, let your peace remain.
I may say that no one should go round serving the Lord’s people except it be on right lines; it should never be a sideline, it is an urgent matter, it is a [p. 103] question of construction, it is a question of the sons of peace, and if there be a son of peace let your peace rest upon that house.
At the close of Luke 10, the Lord goes to a certain village; we are not told the name of the village, but no doubt it was Bethany. He goes to the house of Martha, and there was a question as to His caring for people: “Dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” She chides Him, a very serious state of things in a locality; but the Lord is not to be questioned; He is caring for things. So in Luke 11, the Lord prays; what can we do in such a condition but pray? The disciples saw Him pray; how beautiful! He lifted up His eyes. John tells us what He prayed for, but in Luke it is a personal example. “Teach us to pray”, says one of the disciples. “Teach us”; this is, I believe, to bring in a company. Then we have the furnishings of that company which, as the chapter shows, is the Holy Spirit which the Father gives out of heaven.
Well now, that, dear brethren, is the position in Luke 10 and 11. It is a question of caring for a saint and that saint is cared for in finding his place in the company, for that is the idea, and instead of being like Martha, chiding the Lord that He does not care, he is praying, he has learnt how to pray and to find out that he gets everything from the Father. “How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
He takes charge of all our affairs here so that there is care for the assembly, but then I want to have part in that if I have learnt care in the inn as the innkeeper did from the good Samaritan. I want to have part in the care and that is what is in view in the scripture in 1 Timothy. It is a question of the care of the church. I do not say that the care of the church is ever handed into one man’s hands; what you will observe is that the ordinance of bishops is [p. 104] in the plural, it is not an ordained elder of every city, not like the systems around, the Spirit of God ever guarding against the very thing we have to do with today.
When Scripture speaks of ordained elders, whether in the assembly or in the city, it is in the plural, and can we not prove, dear brethren, that it is love that teaches that there should be no arrogating in any one person of the supreme charge of the assembly? But there is in the case of an elder the idea of a caretaker and the Spirit of God is most particular as to whether he is a proved man, whether he is an Aaron and a Hur. What is he in his house? Has he a good report there? Are his affairs upright? Is he a righteous man? Has he on the breastplate of righteousness? Can any charge of unrighteousness be brought against him? Is he clear of these things entering into the care of the assembly? So if he does not know how to take care of his own house how can he take care of the assembly? God will not accept any kind of care, He puts up with a great deal, I know. As was said of Aaron of old, when Moses heard him he was content, but there was a serious defect in Aaron nevertheless.
The Lord has to put up with a good deal but he will insist on certain qualifications in those who take care of the assembly; if they have not got these qualifications, they need to be taken care of by the assembly. Like the man who fell among thieves, they need to be cared for; the assembly is the place for that.
So in Romans we have the individual Christian; a weak brother is cared for, but he is not an elder; he cannot take part in the care meeting, not to the determination of reasonings, but he is to be received and cared for although a weak brother. The assembly takes care of the weak brother; his very weakness implies that he has not the qualifications of a care [p. 105] taker. If I have not such qualifications, I need to be cared for and the brethren are bound to attend to that.
Well, that is the idea that I wish to impress upon you as regards Timothy. Then we have the widening thought of 2 Corinthians, not that the apostle presents himself as being officially appointed as a pope; he was not that. A pope, I suppose, will be shut in and it is assumed that the burdens of the churches rest on his shoulders. But there is no such office at all. The only One to whom that office can be entrusted is the Holy Spirit. The only Vicar of Christ on earth is the Holy Spirit. He is the One who takes charge of all the affairs of the assembly and, mind you, it is not simply that He stays in Rome, where He is never seen; He is alongside of us, like a solicitor by his client in the court, who is alongside of him, and who takes charge of his affairs. That is the greatness of the Spirit down here; He takes charge of all the assemblies.
There is a wonderful interchange of influences in the gatherings. They are not merely local assemblies, for God is against any sectarian idea. They form one assembly. Local companies are not independent of one another. There is only one fellowship, dear brethren, we might as well accept that. We can thus never say, ‘It is not your affair’ to any brother.
There is only one fellowship, it takes a local form, the local merges into the general and wisdom knows how to discriminate. Hence we have that passage, “using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit”, for there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, over all, through all and in us all, that is the position it requires enlargement and wisdom to distinguish where the local feature arises.
Corinthians is the local feature, Ephesians is the general feature, that is the way the matter stands,
and hence you get in Ephesians, “the love which ye have towards all the saints”. The more love we have towards God and to the saints, the more we have for all, even if they be strangers, they all belong to the assembly and they are welcome, that is the principle. Wisdom may order certain things that everybody recognises, but that is the Spirit.
Well, now you see how that was worked out in the apostle; as I said, it was not an office. The things that he relates in this particular chapter which I have read are things that he would have preferred to have kept secret until the judgment-seat of Christ, but it was a question of love, that is the idea. A man whose heart was so large that he almost took in the fulness of the breastplate; his heart was so great as formed by the Spirit of God, his love for the assembly was so great, not only in the general way, he does not say care for the whole assembly but for all the assemblies. I do not know how many assemblies there were; there are assemblies now, but Paul had them all. I can understand him having a list before him as he prayed. He writes to one of them that he had never seen, the assembly at Colosse, and he did not simply pray but he agonised for them.
Now for the experience of that man in regard to the testimony of God, the great burden of all the assemblies, he did not wish to regard it as one great idea like the pope, it was a question of love, beloved, the praying for the care of all the churches.
What compression in that holy man! I urge on you the idea of compression. Paul was martyred as a comparatively young man; so far as we can learn his ministry was not very long, it was like David’s, it was compressed. Now just think, beloved, what that man’s daily experience must have been, what his prayers were, what his house-to-house visiting was — the idea of care of all the assemblies.
Well, may the Lord help us to see what the position [p. 107] is, what there is to be cared for, the assembly. The Lord referred to it in the parable as the pearl of great price, and it says that He gave Himself for it. So you can understand how full the heart of our great apostle was as he set off from the elders of Ephesus. They are the flock of God; the Holy Spirit has made you overseers of the flock of God. What a charge that was! Then he says, “to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. These scriptures show us what the assembly is to Him. Well, dear brethren, what is it to us? What is a local company to us? What are all the assemblies to us? We are to challenge our hearts. We are to be in these days on the line of caretakers, to have a sense of responsibility in regard of what is most precious to God and has the greatest place in the universe to Christ — the assembly.