SPIRITUAL REFINEMENT
W. McKillop
What I have been thinking about in regard to this passage is spiritual refinement. I believe that the apostle’s expression “that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent” involves the thought of spiritual refinement. It would remind us that not everything has the same value or the same degree of refinement but that as assembly persons we should be increasingly marked by spiritual refinement. And so the apostle says, “And this I pray”.
The Philippians were a spiritually mature company but his prayer was that “your love may bound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence”. It is not exactly that their love would abound by itself; he does not say that the stock of love among them might be increased, although no doubt this was generally in his mind in writing to the various localities, but he had in mind that their love should “abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence”. It might seem that knowledge and intelligence are essentially the same, but they are not really because we know that ultimately “knowledge ...
shall be done away” (1 Corinthians 13: 8), and so what will remain will be spiritual intelligence.
The thought of knowledge always implies what is partial, and I suppose generally we are very conscious that at the present time we “know in part” as he says elsewhere. But we are also in the time when we can acquire full knowledge. The full knowledge of God is
really within our reach if we set ourselves to go in for it. I would like to encourage the beloved brethren here to go in for that using, I might say simply, the impetus of our three days together to begin to get on to increasingly spiritual lines, and to find that we are becoming increasingly at home in the realm of divine knowledge. So full knowledge is set before us in that way, and spiritual formation involves that we might “abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence”. I suppose the idea of full knowledge would come out typically in Moses; that his knowledge of God in the old dispensation would involve the thought of full knowledge. I think that typically the idea of intelligence really comes out in Adam because as God brought the creatures to Adam he named them; that really was intelligence. We know that Adam did not have time to study the creatures that were brought to him, but in his intelligence he named them and what he named each one, that was its name. There was no change. In that respect, of course, he is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ naming persons and things.
The brethren may remember that speaking about Adam in that connection, Mr. J. Taylor Sr. spoke about him as setting out the idea of superior intelligence which is seen in Christ. I mention that because that is something available to us in our dispensation. It is available to us as having the Spirit of Christ. It is a wonderful matter to be in touch with a blessed Man who is marked by superior intelligence. Human language really fails in speaking about Christ, but that expression would bring out that we are in the presence of what is surpassing. The full mind of God was expressed in Christ; whatever He said brought out this wonderful thought of intelligence. If that seems too much for us I would encourage us to think about what the apostle wrote to the Ephesians having in mind that they should understand his intelligence in the mystery. That is within our reach; the “intelligence in the mystery”, of the greatest minister of Christ in this dispensation is available to us and we need to set ourselves to go in for it.
The thought of refinement flows out of that. He says, “that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”. The thought of refinement comes out in the greatest way in David in the Old Testament. That would be the supreme thought typically of refinement in humanity—refinement in his relations with God and refinement as characterising his part in the service of God. I would encourage us to have this before us and to lay ourselves out for it, and in doing so to be patient because you will not acquire “full knowledge and all intelligence” overnight. In fact most of us who are older have been at it for years and years, and we would not be prepared to say that we have reached this yet, but we want it, and if you want it you will get it. And so he says, “that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”; that is a fine word, “the things that are more excellent”. That would help us in our conversations in our households and our conversations in our meetings. “That ye may judge of” means that you look at something, whatever the thing is, and you say, There are things that are more excellent than that and they are what I want. Then he says, “and approve”; that is to say, you are now capable of passing a right spiritual judgment on a thing and you approve it. I suppose one of the greatest things that we could be engaged with would be what the assembly is to divine Persons.
In that regard the various epistles help us to “judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”, having in mind that “ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day”. The apostle is speaking of the Lord’s public appearing, that He will have a day and He will display in it what has been wrought out in the present dispensation. We surely want to be characterised by purity and being without offence. Indeed “every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”, 1 John 3: 3. We might not have connected righteousness
with this line of things but there is this thought of being “complete as regards the fruit of righteousness”, nothing is lacking in this respect and it is “by Jesus Christ”. That blessed Man is the operative Person in the economy and so completeness as regards the fruit of righteousness is by Him, Jesus Christ, and it is “to God’s glory and praise”. I think we can see how the apostle’s mind is travelling as he writes, and how he longs to bring the Philippians with him on this ascending line, into this realm of spiritual refinement because it really belongs to the assembly. If you look at the description of the holy city in Revelation, it impresses you not only with the immensity of the work but also with the refinement, the very foundations being adorned with every precious stone. It is a wonderful display of what God has reached by Jesus Christ at the present time. I trust that we will be stimulated to go in for this line of things—“full knowledge and all intelligence” and to be able to “judge of and approve the things that are more excellent” for God’s glory and praise.
Word in meeting for ministry, Adelaide
25 April 2000
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