INCREASE IN THE PRESENT TIME
J. Wright
I desire help, beloved brethren, to speak of increase which comes into these sections of scripture. One is connected with the temple, speaking of the “building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord”, and the other relates to the body—“works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. These are both allusions to the assembly. The “holy temple in the Lord” has in view the day of Christ’s display, the day of Christ’s rule; and I think what is in mind in the “holy temple in the Lord” is that the rule of Christ will become intelligible to those who are on the earth. It will come through the assembly in that way. I like to think of the setting of the scripture. What Paul is saying at the end of this chapter really flows out of his reference to persons who know what it is to have access to the Father. He is speaking in this chapter of the way that every distinction, or anything that would bring in distance, among believers has been removed. The greatest distinction or distance would be that between Jew and Gentile, but that has been removed and what remains is Christ. There is in this section what is “being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone”. I believe, beloved brethren, as we know what it is to have access to the Father we can appreciate this, that there is only one order, one character of Man before the Father.
We think of this blessed matter of both having access by one Spirit to the Father. I do not think it necessarily means, because we are at the Lord’s supper and we are sitting there and singing hymns, that we have access to the Father. It is true if it is true, and it is open to us. It is open to us through Christ by one Spirit to have access to the Father. It is a wonderful thing to go into the presence of the Father and to go in together. We have saints with whom we can go in together into the presence of the Father. We can understand from that how the fitting together takes place as we have access to the Father. What comes out in the epistle is its universal bearing, and one thing I am thankful for (although it is very small) is that we have what is universal. We have saints available in a universal way. I think if we keep what is universal before us, it helps us in the working out of the truth. May the Lord preserve what there is in a universal way so that we do not become insular in our outlook. We are kept wide in our outlook. It is a wonderful thing to have brethren in different countries with different natural national characteristics, but that is all gone, in that sense, and we sit down together and we have access to the Father. I felt that on Lord’s day.
So he says, “ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but ye are fellow-citizens of the saints”. What a dignified thought that is, “fellow-citizens of the saints. How Paul regarded the saints! He could speak of himself as “less than the least of all saints”; how he would value being among them, being a fellow-citizen of the saints. Then it says, “and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner-stone”.
That comes into his epistles in quite an extensive way, the thought of “Jesus Christ” and what takes character from that Man. There can be nothing really for the divine pleasure apart from what takes character from that Man, as of that Man’s order. “Jesus Christ himself” is emphasised here. He does not say ‘Jesus Christ’, but he says “Jesus Christ himself”—that is to emphasise it “being the corner-stone, in whom all the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord”. I believe this would look on to the millennial day but the increase must be going on now. I do not think the increase will go on then; it looks forward to that day, but it is going on now. So that the persons who are there on the earth when Christ rules will understand how it all operates and be intelligent as to it. It raises a question as to the intelligence I have as to the rule of Christ now, as to what “in the Lord” means—“a holy temple in the Lord”—whether I understand that and whether I am governed by that, so that there is this increasing to a holy temple in the Lord. That is what the assembly will be in the millennial day, but it is a “habitation of God in the Spirit” now. It is God’s dwelling-place now. It is a wonderful thing to have part in that.
Well, in the scripture in Ephesians 4 it is “the whole body ... works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. I do not think that the reference to the body here is in relation to what is future, it is what is now. You cannot speak of the increase of the body in the millennium or in eternity, it will be complete, but it is what applies now. And it would refer to the body in its sensitiveness. It refers to those who belong to Christ, those who have the Spirit. What a wonderful thing it is to be in the light of it and the way that that increase can be brought about now. I am sure the Lord uses various things for the increase of the body but what we have in this chapter really flows out from the operation of the gifts that the Lord has given, gifts from an ascended Christ. It is a wonderful
thing that the Lord has given gifts and they have not been taken away. Persons of distinguished gift who have served the saints are no longer here now; but the gifts have not been taken away, the gifts are here, and they are here in view of the edifying of the body of Christ, in view of the saints being built up.
It says, “holding the truth in love”. I love to think of what Mr. Raven said that, we do not speak of truths, we speak of the truth it is one whole. The truth is one whole and it is a good thing to see where one feature of the truth fits into another. We need intelligence in these things to hold it in love, not to hold it just in our minds, but to hold it in love. That is, I think, that you hold it in relation to others. You do not just hold it for yourself, “but, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ”. I remember reading a reference somewhere to ‘growing up to Him in all things’, that this is all round growth. It is where I am at school, where I am at work, where I am in the home and in the assembly. If we have Christ before us, and we are holding the truth in love, it would exercise us to be growing up to Him in all things.
It means that Christ is coming into expression because that is involved in the body. The body is for the expression of Christ, and it says, “we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ—from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply”. One of the things that I find I need a lot of help on is to appreciate and know the headship of Christ, and the way that the headship of Christ operates. The body is fitted together as things proceed from Christ, as we draw upon Him, our living Head. I think we appreciate what is in one another and being “fitted together”. This fitting together is a wonderful thing. It speaks in Ephesians 2 as to being “fitted together”. I cannot see how there can be the increase of God in what is of assembly character and assembly formation without it. We need one another,
beloved brethren, and I think one of the great needs of the present time is assembly formation, assembly features being brought about; they are brought about in localities but as connected with the whole. We hold ourselves in relation to the whole, to what the Lord is doing in a universal way. We need to keep before us that the Lord is working in a universal way that we might be “fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part”.
We have each a measure and we are conscious that we have not all got the same measure.
Some have more than others, but we can fill out our measure so that it might become available to the saints in view of this building up. Think of “its self-building up in love”; it is love operating in the body so that we are thinking of one another in love. We are able to contribute in love; it is a mutual thing. It is said that then the gifts will have done their work.
The gifts have in mind that there might be the function of the body. We need to value gifts, and we need to value what has come to us through the gifts but it is all in view that there might be this increase, “works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. May the Lord help us in it; may this increase take place at the present time, beloved brethren, in the Lord’s name.
Word in meeting for ministry, Adelaide
25 April 2000