THE LORD’S SUPPER

1 Corinthians 10: 14–17; 11: 23–26; Matthew 26: 30; Psalm 122: 1–9

JW I wondered if we could consider the Lord’s supper as being the focal matter in our Christian experience. I am thinking of what leads up to it and what the occasion is itself, and what flows out of it. The scripture in 1 Corinthians 10 bears on fellowship and our being loyal to the fellowship. It is the fellowship of Christ’s death and the way Paul writes here is to deliver us from idolatry. We are not speaking of heathendom, we are speaking of what may exist at the present time and I think the presentation of the cup here is calculated to do that—it is “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ?”

I would take it that what is brought before us in the blood of the Christ is what God is in Christ, and it is the blood of such a One that would appeal to our affections, that we might have God before us. In our individual pathways we would be governed by that, the love of God as expressed in the blood of the Christ, we would have God before us. Of the bread it says, “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?” The body of the Christ is the body in which the will of God was expressed. So that we are governed by that in our pathway here, the love of God and the will of God. I think these things as kept before us would preserve us from idolatry and preserve us from lawlessness, because it says, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf”.

That brings in the saints and abstractly would involve all the saints of the assembly; no true believer, as having the Spirit, is excluded from that, but fellowship is restricted in the present day because we have to keep to the conditions and principles of the fellowship of Christ’s death, and that has a restricting character on those we can have fellowship with practically.

But we never forget the whole, we all partake of that one loaf, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body”. The will of God was expressed in that and the intention is that, as believers, we should be governed by the will of God. I wondered also if the one body brings in the thought of the organism, the vital links we have as in the organism.

When we come to the Lord’s supper itself, I think it is the personal love of Christ expressed, first of all in His body. It is very touching the way that Paul speaks of it, “I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread”. That is a great appeal to our affections, and He says, “This is my body, which is for you—this do in remembrance of me”. I think this is His own personal body, the way He has expressed His love for the assembly. In assembling to break bread, we assemble in the light of the whole assembly. We have to keep that before us, there are only a few available to us but we assemble in the light of the whole assembly, and we are in assembly relationships as we gather. It is not a household setting, it is not a personal setting, the Lord’s supper is in an assembly setting, an assembly occasion. I wondered if 1 Corinthians 10 brings about in us moral suitability to partake of the Supper and, as partaking of the Supper, we assemble together. It says in Acts, “we being assembled to break bread” (Acts 20: 7), there are the features of bridal affections in the saints as gathered in that way, and the Lord’s love is the great appeal to us. He says, “This is my body, which is for you”, and “In like manner also the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood”. Again I think the emphasis is on His blood, and whilst the disposition of God is made known to us in the new covenant, it is His blood and I think His personal love is before us because it is in remembrance of Him, the living One.

I thought the other scriptures might help us to see what flows out of the Supper, “having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”, that is, there is a line of ascent in singing together. It was a custom for the Lord to go to the mount of Olives but here “they went out”, it was a mutual matter, the singing of a hymn and then going to the mount of Olives. It was the line of ascent, into heavenly relationships, into the heavenly region, which really flows out of the Supper.

I wondered if that is also included in Psalm 122, I was thinking particularly of the reference to “Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of Jah” involving, I think, the thought of ascent in the assembly, the whole assembly. As the Lord comes in, there is the side in Luke He comes into “their midst”, but in John it is “the midst”. It is the whole assembly, the experience of what the assembly is in going up and ascending. I wondered if the rest of the psalm brings out that that really colours our lives, colours our activities. It is Jerusalem, it is the assembly before us in type, it becomes our great interest, our chief interest. I wondered if we might get help in considering this.

PLJ It is the divine centre.

JW Yes, and it is to be our centre.

PLJ That is what I was thinking. Paul here is thinking of the assembly as the divine centre. We know the assembly involves persons but I was thinking of Jerusalem as the divine centre, that is how we should view it.

JW Everything centres in that at the present time, the time we are in is the greatest dispensation, when the truth of the assembly has been brought out, and I think the Lord’s supper, which is the focal point for us while we are here, is placed in the setting of the assembly.

PLJ I wondered about the expression in verse 17.

JW “Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body”. It is the whole assembly.

PLJ That is right. That is the way we come together in the light of the assembly.

JW We come together in assembly relations, we are not the assembly, however large a company we may be. If you get the largest company possible here in Denton it is

not the assembly, but we come together in the light of it and in assembly relations. We do not come together as a congregation, we come together in the light of the assembly and in assembly relations.

CB Would 1 Corinthians 10 be a moral preparation?

JW Yes. Moral suitability, that is right. I just wondered, if we are governed in our walk and lives here by the love of God which is expressed in 1 Corinthians 10, and the will of God, which the loaf speaks of, that will bring us into moral suitability to partake of the Supper. Ever bearing in mind that what is presented to us in 1 Corinthians 10 is the fellowship of Christ’s death, and that really governs us in our path here; so we are to be consistent with the death of Christ in our walk and ways here. That would bring about moral suitability. What would you say?

CB We would have that in our minds during the week?

JW I was thinking of that, we have the Lord’s supper before us; we are either going to the Supper, or coming from it, and we have that before us, that we are going to partake of the emblems on Lord’s day, and remember the Lord Jesus, and we want to be in moral suitability to it.

DMW It is a very great thing, there can be nothing greater than the Lord’s supper. We are waiting for the Lord Jesus, but we are looking forward to the Supper, we are really beginning to look forward to it now for next Lord’s day. We sometimes say, Well, how can I be prepared? I think this is how we can be prepared, the love of God and the will of God is before us, from this point forward. We know it is the desire of the Lord Jesus that we come morally suitable to the great occasion of the Supper.

JW That is just what I was thinking, that we keep that before us, it preserves us from what Paul speaks here of idolatry. We are not in danger of actual heathen idolatry, but idolatry as set out in this chapter where Paul says, “Neither be ye idolaters, as some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play”, 1 Corinthians 10: 7. That is the danger, the

form which idolatry can take today, that is, we have a good time here in this scene which has rejected Christ, and we are not loyal and faithful, and not consistent with the death of Christ.

DMW That is what you mean by being loyal to His death. Say more about it.

JW We sometimes sing when we are together,

‘... Thy death we deem

Our point of severance from this scene’ (Hymn 192),

the Lord Jesus went out of this scene by way of death and, not only went out of this scene by way of death but, in His death, the man that governs this scene was ended, finished with. It is a testing matter that we can so easily minister to and gratify ourselves, but that man was ended in the death of Christ. So it involves our associations, where we go and what we do; we involve the saints in what we do, but we have to keep in mind the basis of our fellowship is the death of Christ. That is the basis of it, we could have no fellowship apart from the death of Christ. The fellowship of God’s Son is the dignity of it, and the bond in the fellowship is Jesus Christ our Lord. The basis of it is the death of Christ.

PLJ The death of Christ put an end to the world as far as God is concerned. The whole time of trial and testing is finished. So that the world is totally set aside, and that is the way we should be. It is no longer a time of testing and trial, but the rejection of Christ is the termination of the world.

JW Paul speaks to intelligent persons, and we should be intelligent about that. I think also, the cup coming first here, means the love of Christ is to appeal to our affections. It is only in true affection we can seek to maintain that.

PLJ Otherwise we get legal.

JW That is right.

DMW In Acts 20 it is a similar thought, “the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own” (Acts 20: 28). Such a love as that, expending, is what would attract us! The love of God and the will of God was in that, to bring us into what is in mind, for our

blessing and good. I say this for myself, I know we all at times do not think of the love of God and the will of God as we proceed during the week. I think it would help us to know the basis of the fellowship, it is the fellowship of the Lord’s death, which opens the way for blessing.

JW Yes.

TRV Would you say some more about this thought of fellowship? The verses in 1 Corinthians 10, the bread which we break, the cup which we partake of, seem to be perhaps an occasion, but fellowship is broader than that is it not? Does it bring in in 1 Corinthians 10

especially, communion (the footnote says ‘or ‘fellowship”), it would broaden out as we have been saying, so we should be careful not to isolate it to a particular occasion?

JW That is right. The way it is presented in 1 Corinthians 10 it is not exactly the Lord’s supper, it is the matter of fellowship, it is that the truth of the Lord’s supper really governs me personally, individually in my path here. I am true to Christ’s death and I am true to the fellowship; 1 Corinthians 10 bears on our individual path, as having part in the fellowship.

TRV I think it is important for us to carry this. It is not just the fellowship we have as coming together and assembling, it is much more than that as you have pointed out. Everything we do either contributes to, or detracts from the fellowship in that sense.

JW The Lord’s supper is for those in fellowship, those who are true to the fellowship, loyal to it, do you think?

TRV Yes, that is good. That is why the cup is first.

JW Just so.

SS The Supper is an expression of fellowship.

JW Practically it is the greatest side of fellowship, it is the expression of it. We should come together as in fellowship and true to the fellowship.

DMW Could you say that the Lord’s supper is a culmination of the fellowship of Christ’s death, and as we have sought to be governed by the love and the will of God, and so we come together in assembly relations to celebrate that?

JW That is right.

DMW It is not in memory of our sins or anything like that, even bringing that in. It is a celebration that we have been helped in during the week to be in fellowship with Christ’s death by doing the will of God and being governed by the love of God.

JW What you say as to there being a celebration is a good word to use. It is a celebration, I think that as true to that we are free to partake of the Supper, free from other things, free from every encumbrance really to partake restfully and freely at the Lord’s supper.

DMW We may be holding to things in this scene but we need to keep before us what has been done that leads to another area of things.

JW We need to keep that before us. The Lord’s supper itself is in the wilderness but it leads into the land. The service of God really is on this line of ascent, what flows out of the Supper, you have the power to ascend.

TRV I was struck recently with what Paul says, “I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered”. So, it is from that heavenly Man, He gave this so that we could enter into it on the other side of death, death is completely behind us, it is from heaven that the authority is given for this occasion.

JW The final words as to the Lord’s supper were given to Paul from Christ in glory, and really that is what governs us. The Lord, in the gospels, is not quite the same, He inaugurated the Supper when He was here, in the night in which He was delivered up, but what He gave to Paul from the glory is the final word as to the Supper. That is what governs us at the present time.

TRV Would you say that in the gospels, when the Lord takes it up with His own, it is to demonstrate His love and affection, and what He would anticipate providing for us to draw out our hearts?

JW Yes, I mean He had His own with Him. He had the twelve with Him, they had a distinct place in the inauguration of things in Christianity, and He would leave with those persons what His own desires were that we should have remembrance of Him. That was given to the twelve but this is what is given to Paul from the glory. It is not setting aside what was given to the twelve but it is the final word as to it. In 1 Corinthians 11 it is put in an assembly setting. In the beginning of the Acts they broke bread in the houses, but Paul really, from the Lord in glory, put it in an assembly setting.

PLJ Yes, “this do in remembrance of me”, we show His death, but it is in remembrance of Him.

JW That is really what is for the Lord Himself, in the Supper, it is the remembrance of Himself. In the loaf and in the cup it is the remembrance of the Lord, that we have Him personally before us. His love and how it has been expressed in death, but He Himself personally before us, the living One.

DMW In the gospels it has a link with the passover too, but here it does not have a link with the passover. The passover may underlie that and bear on the fellowship of His death during the week, but this is in assembly relations. It is a wonderful celebration.

JW It is a wonderful celebration, and what you say as to the passover is right, there is no mention of it here. In the way it is presented in the gospels the passover really leads into the Supper. The passover would be what we take up individually, or householdly in the week, that Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. That brings out what Christ has suffered for, my sins, but that is not before us at the Lord’s supper, it is the personal love of Christ expressed in death. 1 Corinthians 10 gives us what leads up to it, bringing about in us moral suitability for it, but in 1 Corinthians 11 it is really in an assembly setting. We have to understand what assembly relations are, we are in assembly relations although we are not the assembly. We keep the whole assembly before us, and we are governed by the light of it.

DMW The assembly in its public position in testimony is not going through in the way it was established in the day of Pentecost, it lost that place, but assembly light, assembly privilege, assembly responsibility, the character of those things in assembly relations will do. We have no other authority but what is in the Scriptures, and that is what we want to continue in lowliness.

JW Assembly relationships involve our relations with Christ and with one another.

PLJ The assembly is still here.

DMW Yes, it is here, but what is in the saints, it seems to me, is assembly light, assembly relations.

PLJ That is the light that governs us, the light of the assembly.

JW We have the light of the assembly, but I think assembly relations mean that we are in relationship with Christ, and we are in relationship with one another as governed by the light of the assembly.

PLJ Yes, the character is still the same.

JW Yes, and that governs our relations together. Mr. Taylor said that when we come to the Supper the first thing we do is, to greet the saints, look at the saints. It is not just that we come together as a congregation or as individuals, we come together in the light of the assembly and we have assembly relations in that way.

DMW I do not know if it could be said dogmatically we come together because the Lord is there, I do not think so. I think we come because the brethren are there and then things appear out of that.

JW We do not come because the Lord is there, He is absent, but the saints are there.

DMW Yes, but He comes in. If the love and conditions are right He comes in, but it is His prerogative.

JW We cannot say it is automatic but we come together in expectancy. If we are maintaining the truth as to the fellowship of His death we come together expecting that the Lord may come. We cannot say He must come, we cannot exactly dictate to the Lord what He would do, but we come together with the desire that He may come. But when we assemble together He is absent, we do not gather to the Lord in that sense. We come here to remember Him, we assemble to remember Him.

DMW Gathering together to His name would suggest His absence.

JW Yes, that is right.

SS I understand that would help to preserve us from getting on ecclesiastical lines, because if we start making claims that the Lord is with us, we are going to find we are on wrong lines. Like you said, the Lord comes to a company or to persons.

JW We have to recognise the public position, and keeping before us the truth of the whole assembly would help us to recognise the public position. I do not think, in view of the public breakdown, the Lord recognises publicly any company today. But where there is loyalty to Him, where the truth of the fellowship is maintained, He will come.

DMW That has been taken up wrongly, I think, and it has been a humbling experience to come to it in our souls that there is no special company; the only special company the Lord ever has in His heart is the assembly.

JW The whole assembly.

PLJ The assembly is here.

DMW The assembly is here, it is here in broken conditions.

PLJ So that governs our exercises, we are not the assembly but we walk in the light of it.

JW We keep before us the whole assembly, otherwise we get a sectarian view of things. We must keep the light of the whole assembly before us.

PLJ That is really what I had in mind in saying that the assembly is here, the whole assembly.

JW His body is here, we come together in the light of that, then what we experience is the Lord’s personal love. He brings the emblems before us as the tokens of His matchless love, as we sometimes sing (Hymn 339). That really should affect our hearts in remembrance of Himself.

DMW I suppose if we think of assembly relations when we come together for the Supper we would have faith that the assembly is here. It is not here in an ecclesiastical sense but it is here so we hold these relations dear. Christ loved the assembly. We gather in the light of that.

JW “This is my body, which is for you” is for the assembly, and it is for the whole assembly. We have to keep that before us and what we enter into after the Supper is the experience of what the assembly is, in its fulness.

TRV What flows out of it, the remembrance, the love-feast that we have would follow on to the service of God, it really flows out of our hearts being fully engaged with that One.

JW Yes, that is right.

TRV Remember Me.

JW He has the central place in our affections and as He comes in He would lead us.

He is the One who leads in the assembly. The remembrance of Himself is that we have that One before us, in our minds and in our affections. Remembrance must involve our minds being engaged with Himself in the Supper. It is easy to take the Supper in an automatic way but, during the Supper, the focus is upon Him, our minds and affections are engaged with Him.

TRV That is helpful, because in line with what we had referred to as to the Lord and the passover, what we would have during the week, our thoughts would rightly so involve ourselves with what we have been sheltered from and what the Lord has done for us; our hearts are taken up in that way, but it progresses on to where we come to 1 Corinthians 11, we assemble, we remember Him, we could almost say we have no thought of ourselves, our thoughts are all on Him.

JW That is it, He is the One before us, we need the Spirit’s help for this, that our minds particularly might be focused on Him. As our minds are focused on Him we will surely get some impression of Himself and His love. In Matthew 26 we come to what flows out of the Supper. First of all, “having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”. It was the custom for the Lord to go to the mount of Olives, but this is something additional, as having partaken of the loaf, partaken of the Supper. It comes into both Matthew and Mark, but in Matthew particularly the side of eating is emphasised. There is something to be appropriated spiritually in the Supper. The love of Christ in the loaf is to be appropriated, and what is expressed in the cup is to be appropriated by us. That really forms us and gives us spiritual strength, giving us a constitution spiritually to enter into heaven’s things. So “having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”, that is the line of ascent, it is the Lord’s ascent. The Queen of Sheba saw Solomon’s ascent, and the Lord has ascended but He has the assembly with Him on this line of ascent, and I think that is what is suggested in going out to the mount of Olives.

DMW It is a spiritual idea entirely, is it?

JW Yes.

DMW It is spiritual fruitfulness involved in the ascent, which would have in mind elevation, really off the earth even though our bodies are still here. It is an ascending time, like being raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies. Would you say something about these thoughts?

JW Well, I think the line of ascent is in conscious relations with Christ Himself, as His brethren, and as the assembly, and in association with Him as sons. That is all on the line of ascent, it must be in relationship with Christ Himself and association with Him. What would you say?

DMW We will be in association with Christ eternally, but now we have the spiritual movement that elevates us in association with Christ, in relationship with Him, and He before the Father. I think this is the way He would lead us.

JW I am sure of that. I do not know how the brethren get on here generally, but sometimes there is a slowness or reluctance to get on to the side of heavenly relationships after the Supper. We do not despise the Lord’s pathway, but what really is before us is the association with Him as the ascended Man, in heavenly relationships.

TRV Would you connect Hebrews 2 where the Lord leads the praises of the assembly with that? It is really outside of anything of this scene, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Hebrews 2: 12.

JW That is right, it is really the line of ascent He is speaking of. It must be in relationship and association with Christ Himself. I do not think there is anything more wonderful than the service of God. It is the most precious truth we can enter into and the Lord’s supper is the way into it. Some brethren still have the Supper at the end of the meeting, but the Lord’s supper is the way out of the world and the way into what is heavenly and spiritual.

SS Sometimes we may have ability to dwell on the Lord as to His greatness as Lord, and so forth, and no doubt that brings in pleasure, but we really should link on with Him in His thoughts, and move with Him to the presence of the Father, to bring pleasure and satisfaction to Him.

JW One of the first impacts upon us as we are conscious of the Lord being there, is to worship Him because of who He is. But what you say is right, He would lead us on, and really what He has before Him is what is for the Father, and what is for God. He said to Mary, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20: 17), that is really what the Lord had before Him.

SS What I have been impressed with of late is that that is how we really provide the most pleasure and satisfaction to the Lord.

JW Yes, to be with Him in it. He has the assembly for Himself, He secured it for Himself. I remember a brother saying, It brings out the unselfish character of the Lord that He has the assembly for Himself, but what He has in mind is what is for God. As our brother has quoted, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”.

DMW I think there is something distinctive in our spontaneous response in bridal affections. As there is some manifestation of the Lord as He comes in we would worship Him, but then there is something peculiarly satisfying to His heart and affections as Man, and that seems to me to be a necessity for His liberty to lead on in the midst of the assembly in praises to the Father.

JW Union with Christ is the side of mutual admiration, is it not? It is not really the side of worship so much, it is union, the two being one flesh, Christ and the assembly in reciprocal affections, Christ’s love for the assembly and the assembly’s love for Christ, and the side of mutual admiration. The glories of Christ as Man would be before us.

DMW It is an intimate thing really. There are certain things, in love, I may direct my wife to do; but there are other things which are quite intimate, what no one knows about, and that is the thought of union, it is intimacy, it is the thought of love between Christ as Man and the assembly as the bride.

JW That is right. It is not a question of the assembly being told what to do, she is intimate with Christ and knows His mind, knows His movements, knows His affection, and moves with Him in that way.

DMW He is not exactly leading us in that sense, it is instinctive and spontaneous, in view of His leading us in worship and in praise to the Father.

JW I think the Lord’s headship operates where that is known; there is what is instinctive, what is in affinity with Himself, what is spiritual, it involves spiritual intelligence and affection, and the Lord’s headship operates in view of that.

PLJ It is not authority.

JW No, it is not authority. It is direction from the Head.

PLJ Almost instinctive.

JW If there is a company together unintelligent in divine things, I cannot see how the Lord’s headship can operate. It involves spiritual formation, spiritual intelligence. It is impulse from the Head, but in relation to what is spiritual among the saints, what is of Himself.

PLJ Yes, spiritual intelligence is important, I think, because we know in fundamentalism and Christendom there may be intelligence but not what is spiritual.

JW Spiritual intelligence comes about through appreciating what the assembly is to Christ. We should get a touch in the psalm now, to this reference to “Jerusalem, which art built as a city that is compact together. Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of Jah”. It was a great thing in the Old Testament to see the tribes go up. It is just a figure of what proceeds in the assembly, not just the local situation, but what the assembly is as a spiritual vessel, a spiritual entity. The full thought would be here in the tribes going up, “Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of Jah, a testimony to Israel, to give thanks unto the name of Jehovah”, it is really that God might get His portion.

DMW It is not a testimony to men here.

JW No, it is a testimony to Israel. The note says ‘or ‘Israel’s custom”. It is really a testimony to what is in the saints in that way.

SS I just was thinking that it seems to go back to what we had on Wednesday in the reading. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together, fitted together as we get in Ephesians, and it has to do with assembly relations.

JW Just so, compact together. As the brother said in his word on Thursday, the assembly is composed of persons, the idea of being compact together. You get that idea in Ephesians, being compact together.

SS Well, it just impressed me, the sense of closeness, next to one another; not a sense of aloofness or anything like that, but compact together.

JW Very good. That is the idea of what the assembly is vitally. You take the public position, it is scattered, but this is the spiritual view, God’s view of the assembly and the saints as compact together.

DMW Is that the importance of getting through to “the midst” rather than “their midst”, because “their midst” is more local, but assembly relations involve “the midst”, “in the midst of the assembly”? It is a wonderful thing, the saints compact together, it is not just a few, it is the whole.

JW It is the whole, that is right. Sometimes questions are asked among us as to how we get a view of the whole assembly. We do not get it by looking at the public position. I think, for myself, what I have experienced of it is, you get a view of it in the service of God, we get a view of what the assembly is in its completeness.

DMW It is like “those sanctified are all of one”, Hebrews 2: 11. It is not the two or three but the myriads who are sanctified. In proceeding you get a view of things in “the midst” rather than “their midst”.

JW That is the idea of going up, you enter what is heavenly. We sometimes speak of a ‘sphere vast, yet finite’ (Hymn 129). We are going up into it, we are enjoying it as being conscious of it. I thought the remainder of the psalm would show us how, as having had that experience, then the assembly is our chief occupation. We pray for the peace of Jerusalem, “Peace be within thy bulwarks”. Our prayers and our interests are in relation to the assembly.

SS Would verse 6 to 9 really be the attitude of assembly-minded persons? I just repeat what you have said, it is our bent of mind, it is the way we view things as assembly-minded persons.

JW I do not think it is without significance that the prayer meeting comes on Monday usually. After having had the experience referred to, our prayers would be in relation to the assembly, assembly interests, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”.

DMW Do you think the Lord’s supper and how we proceed is on the basis of assembly relations, but on Monday, when we come to pray, we have had the impress of that and it is in relation to the assembly? It is not assembly relations exactly, but in relation to the assembly, in fact we are just a few praying, it is not the assembly.

JW No, that is right. The Lord’s supper and the service of God is a unique occasion, an assembly occasion, it is the only occasion in the week like that. We come together to pray, but our interests are in relation to the assembly. (The only other assembly meeting would be for discipline).

DMW I suppose the personnel that we walk with are especially before us because we desire that the light of the assembly be before all of us.

JW That is right.

PLJ That is why it says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem”. Not peace of a few but the company, Jerusalem.

JW I think we keep before us the whole assembly, all the saints, but primarily our responsibility is the working out of things with the few that are available to us. We should be available to others, I mean I feel free to pray for all believers as belonging to the assembly, in the prayer meeting, but we need to keep before us in a prime way the working out of things practically at the present time.

PLJ We can only work it out if we are moving in the light of the assembly, Jerusalem, the whole thing. We do not want to get on the line of viewing them as a fragment, but as the assembly, do you think?

JW We need to keep before us love towards all the saints, and to see what the saints are to God. However scattered things are publicly, they are still God’s inheritance in the saints, what the saints are to God. We need to keep that before us in our prayers. But in the practical working out of things there are exercises at the present time to be carried. I often thing of the prayer meeting as being the golden altar, it is the altar of incense to God. We come as burdened but there is what is fragrant to God, as we view the saints as what they are according to God, and pray in that relation.

SS It is only His chief interest we are occupied with, what He is interested in and that is the fragrant incense. There is the sense of communion He has with His own because of their share of His thoughts of things.

JW That is right. It is what the saints are to God, what the assembly is to Christ, we keep those things before us in our exercises and prayers. We want all the saints to come into it, that would be our desire. What we have, and enter into, is not just for a few, it is for all, and our desire would be that the saints might come into it. But then that raises questions with us as to suitability. Can we be entrusted with persons? Are the conditions with us to which the Lord can entrust persons?

DMW Would you say also, to recover persons to us?

JW We would look for that.

DMW I enjoy what you are saying. In relation to the epistle to Philemon, it is interesting that it is written to the assembly “in thine house”. So I think it suggests smaller things on the one hand, although we know this gathering was linked with Colosse, but Paul says in Philemon, “I thank my God, always making mention of thee at my prayers, hearing of thy love and the faith which thou hast towards the Lord Jesus, and towards all the saints”, Philemon 4, 5. That is Colossian and Ephesian language. In Colossians it says, “praying for you, having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which ye have towards all the saints”, Colossians 1: 4. In Ephesians it is the same language, “Wherefore I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is in you, and the love which ye have towards all the saints”, Ephesians 1: 15. So, it suggests small conditions, and one person being recovered, and moral conditions being available there in connection with Philemon and his house. Wherever they are gathered together, it is still the same, it is love towards all the saints.

JW The more fully we enter into what we had this morning in the service of God, where you get a view of what the assembly is, surely our hearts would be expanded towards all saints. What you say as to Philemon is interesting because the household is brought in. It really brings forth the family setting.

KEY TO INITIALS

C. Brien

S. Selman

D. M. Welch

P. L. Johnson

T. R. VanderHoek

J. Wright

Reading at Denton, Texas
16 November 2003