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THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE OF THE TRUTH

A. P. Devenish

I wish to speak of the feminine or subjective side of the truth. We have been occupied with our responsibility, and the masculine side of the truth in Matthew. Luke emphasises the feminine and what is subjective in these women, very remarkable women! What marks Mary, the mother of Jesus, is simple obedience. A most wonderful transaction was to take place and she says, “be it to me according to thy word”. One great feature that the Lord would draw attention to is that of submission, simple obedience, the basis upon which the great thoughts of God are to be worked out. How wonderful these thoughts were for Mary, for the whole race as the angel says, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and power of the Highest overshadow thee, wherefore the holy thing also which shall be born shall be

called Son of God”. How wonderful is the incarnation, and what shines out in this favoured woman is her obedience. No questioning but simple submission to the word of the angel. I believe there is something very fine that comes into expression in these women for us to take account of, that is the truth worked out subjectively and affectionately. How attractive it is!

How much the sisters can contribute to the local settings and universally—features that are to be seen with us all.

In the hill country there is in Mary and Elizabeth a suggestion of the truth of the body, that wonderful organism. How sensitive it is. How fine is the reference to Mary’s link with Elizabeth. What was the subject of their conversation? How one affected the other. It says,

“And it came to pass, as Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb”. Do we really experience the working of the body? When she relates the experience she says, “the babe leaped with joy in my womb”. It was a wonderful response to Mary’s voice involving intelligence; she could describe the experience intelligently, and suggesting quickening, she felt the life that was there responding. Other bodies in the world are gathered together by external means, external organisation, but this involves a spiritual link with one another having in mind that we should be able to move one another affectionately and quicken the work of God, arousing these spiritual affections in one another. This is much needed, beloved brethren. This inward organic movement of heart is to be experienced. What a wonderful occasion this was in the hill country, elevated above the world and its things; above mere natural relationships. Of course this was a very special and unique occasion but the Lord would teach us through it. This is the inward side of fellowship. There is the outward side and there are the principles of the fellowship to which we need to be faithful, but, too, we are to experience what is inward in our links together. Moses and Aaron had such a link typically. God said to Moses about Aaron, when he seeth thee he will be glad

in his heart”, Exodus 4: 14. What a beautiful link that is, “glad in his heart”. We may break bread together and we can be together in the fellowship, as it says, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism”, Ephesians 4: 5. This would be the public and outward side of the fellowship. But firstly it is “one body and one Spirit ...”, that is our inward spiritual link together. What an experience of spiritual joy is open to us.

I add a word in relation to Elizabeth. She is able to say, “No”. The kinsfolk would have called the child after his father Zacharias, perpetuating the family name, the family traditions, but she said, “No; but he shall be called John”. She was thinking about the child spiritually. She had the divine mind as to him. She would foster the spiritual growth and the work of God in the child. I suppose there is nothing more needed than such mothers at the present time. So often we are governed by natural feelings with worldly objectives, having in view for our children a place in this world and success here. The Lord would help mothers, indeed help us all to deny such unworthy objectives, and seek to nourish what is for the spiritual growth of our young people. Elizabeth had the moral power to say, “No”.

Now in Luke 10, there is a beloved woman sitting at the feet of Jesus. It is a great blessing in our localities to have those who are sitting at His feet listening to His word. In 1 Corinthians 1:7, Paul speaks of the saints there coming short in no gift. Gift is referred to in the sense of furnishing, and it is good to realise that the Lord provides each locality with the furnishings needed to continue in the testimony and to prosper. There is perhaps nothing so needed as one, two or more sisters sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to His word. We know in Luke 9, on the mount, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son—hear him” (Luke 9: 35), and almost immediately we get a woman, Mary, sitting at His feet, listening to His word, in full current accord with heaven. Paul speaks of himself having sat at the feet of

Gamaliel; Saul of Tarsus was the product of that instruction and of that instructor, but here you get one sitting at the feet of Jesus. His word coming to her would be in view of her growing up to Him in all things. That is another beautiful scripture, “holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things”, Ephesians 4: 15. You would see those lovely traits coming into expression in her. As coming under the influence of His teaching, I think you would see, day by day, spiritual increase, her growing spiritually in correspondence to Christ.

This is the way we would have prosperity and blessing coming into our localities.

In John 11, the Lord brings Martha out of the shade into the sunshine. Luke, gracious Luke, leaves her in the shade, complaining. John brings her into the sunshine, as we would desire to do to any who remain outside of the full sunshine of His love. “Martha then, when she heard Jesus is coming, went to meet him”. In John 11: 30 it says, “Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was in the place where Martha came to meet him”; a special place, “where Martha came to meet him”. The Lord honours Martha and brings her under His gracious influence and teaching to be a confessor of the Son of God. Her belief was not to be merely historical or orthodox but real and present. He says to her, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live; and every one who lives and believes on me shall never die. Believest thou this?” She came to realise the greatness of His Person.

In His presence death must flee, must give way, and thus she became a ‘confessor of the Son of God’. That is the privilege and opportunity of every sister and of every one of us. Jesus thus brought her out of the shade into the sunshine of His glory and love.

Now to refer to Mary, in John 12 it says, “Jesus therefore ... came to Bethany, where was the dead man Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from among the dead”. In John 11, He is called to come because of the great

sorrow, the death of Lazarus; but in chapter 12 He comes Himself of His own volition. It was because He was attracted to the persons there. Is it perhaps too much to say that He could not stay away? I do not think so. He was drawn to that little company because of the beautiful traits of moral excellence. “Martha served”, she was not now complaining, but gracing her service with the knowledge of the Son of God in her heart. Then “Lazarus was one of those at table with him”, with quiet dignity testifying to the power and the glory of Christ. “Mary therefore, having taken a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment”. She is the vessel herself. There is no alabaster box referred to here. She had accumulated this ointment in her experience with Christ, and with spiritual instinct and intelligence she expends it upon Him just at this time. What a fine quality of love shines in her; loving our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. We have before us the Lord’s day, if He tarry. These attractive features are to be seen in every local company, so that He would say, ‘I must come, I cannot stay away’. May the Lord bless the word.

Address at Grimsby
13 October 2001

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