CHAPTER 4
“Unto to each one of us has been given grace, according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”, v 7. This is said in connection with the other members of the body. It states concisely what chaps 1, 2, 3 have already shewn, namely, that the Christian is God’s workmanship, is also fully equipped for his service, and has to act out, as in the body but on the earth, what he is. “There is one body”. Of this body he is a member.
There is also but “one Spirit”, and this Spirit dwells in him.
But if a member, there are other members, and if the Spirit dwells in him (chap 1: 13) the Spirit dwells also in them. No member can think of himself, or act, but as affecting all the other members of the body. And since the one Spirit dwells in all, He (the Spirit) never consults but for the good of the whole body. No smaller circle than the Spirit’s circle must henceforth be mine—the whole body—and I am to be always endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace.
I believe this means that I must seek the good of all; for the Spirit, working in each member, ever has this as His one object, although the working out and display may be very different in each member. There is, nevertheless, but “one Spirit”, and He never works to the detriment of the body, but for its good.
Now it is of all moment, as is stated in this seventh verse, that I should know that I am (by the Lord) individually fitted for my place and work in the body of Christ, and that my power to carry them out is the Holy Spirit. Hence I have also to remember that the Spirit will, if un-grieved, direct me first as to my individual service. And it is only when I am rightly executing my individual service that I can have the mind of the Spirit made known to me as to what is good for the whole body. Certainly I must have the mind of the Spirit as to myself first. In order to this I must “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God”, by which I am “sealed unto the day of redemption”, v 30.
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Now many may be found who are not endeavouring to
“keep the unity of the Spirit”, and they do not know what it is, because as individuals the Spirit who dwells in them is grieved. As a Christian I must be separate from all the working of the mind of man and entirely free for Him to instruct and to use me in this new and holy place. He is here called the Holy Spirit of God. He is the true and only measure of holiness on earth. If I am betrayed into un-holiness, He can never overlook it (though I may), and He is then in me a grieved Spirit. The whole body is affected to its distress by the member who has grieved the Spirit, and His mind as to the other members is not made known to that one.
“But ye have not thus learnt the Christ”, says the apostle. We are not henceforth to “walk as the rest of the nations walk in the vanity of their mind”. For what comes in when the one Object, and the Revealer, the Spirit of God, are turned away from, but the working of our minds? The poor mind of man introduces its judgment as to those things which can only be “spiritually discerned”, 1 Cor 2: 14. But what is the truth? By professing to be a Christian I profess to have already put off the old man and to have put on the new. Is all this false? No, says the apostle, and falsehood is one of the things to be also put off: one of the works of the flesh.
“Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour”, for, says the apostle, “we are members one of another”, &c: when I injure the others I injure myself.
To sum up, “the Christ” is to be learned, v 20. Each one of us has been given “grace”, according to His measure (v 7), and the desired result for each is that we may “arrive at” (v 13) “the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”, in order that we may be no longer children (babes) tossed about by every wind of doctrine. We are to grow up to Him in all things (v 15), who is the head, “the Christ”. These are the references to “the Christ” in this chapter, which in this epistle begins first to instruct us as to our life and walk on earth, and Christianity is the profession of having put on Christ.
From A Voice to the Faithful—vol 23, 1889
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