THE CHRISTIAN CIRCLE

A.J.E.Welch

John 13: 34,35; 15: 9-13; Revelation 1: 4-6

We sometimes speak, rightly, about the Christian circle. It refers, I suppose, to what is for the time being here in the very scene in which we might say the Lord Jesus formed it, and became gloriously its centre. Many of us, I hope all of us, would remember how one of God's beloved servants used to emphasise the conditions necessary for life, and he enumerated three as light and atmosphere and rule; light, atmosphere, rule. That is something that bears thinking about perhaps more than we have thought of it, and when the idea of atmosphere was enquired about it was pointed out that the atmosphere is found in the Christian circle with Christ among His beloved disciples. That is a very precious suggestion because, if I could venture a simple remark from experience of recent times, the sense of atmosphere is becoming more to us than it has ever been. We come together for a meeting like this, see our brethren, see the faces of our brethren, not faces strained by crisis conditions such as you find, alas, around us, but faces that are restful, though not without concern for what is so precious; they are not without the sorrows that the scene in which we are of necessity occasions, but nevertheless restful, and rejoicing in gathering together. That brings, beloved brethren, an atmosphere. The Spirit would have us to sense it and to enjoy it, and to give God thanks that there is such a circle yet, down here in the scene out of which the Lord Jesus went by way of death, which has Himself as its centre and furnishes the circle in which His love is paramount, in which His glory is paramount. This, however, gives us to think of what this circle really involves.

If I could divert a moment to a somewhat different connection, we read in the third chapter of Mark of a circuit: "And looking around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him, he says, Behold my mother and my brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and sister, and mother" (v 34). That is a circle disclosed in the Lord's mind to be based upon kindredship with Himself, and that is a wonderful thing. But He looked around in a circuit, suggesting something by way of a company around Him that in some sense was complete; He could go from one to another without a break. I feel a concern that we get some sense of that, beloved brethren, as we touch the side of the Christian circle. Here were persons surrounding the Lord Jesus, such that He could look around upon them in a circuit. I wonder if we realise how often the eye of Christ is upon us. He has left us here with responsibilities as to His interests, He has left us here divinely supported and supplied, with everything that we need to fill our part in His interests. I think sometimes we need to be conscious that His scrutinising eye is upon us, with perhaps the question, Is the circuit broken into? There is much that would break into it. The subtlety of the enemy, of Satan, would seek to break into it, to rob it of its completeness; not that it is complete in the final sense, but the circuit suggests something that for the moment, and in respect of matters on hand, is complete. It is very precious among the people of God at the present time that there is no break in it. It is a very real challenge because much that is taking place, and perhaps about to take place, would really work against our filling out in love for Christ a responsible, definite, committed part in what is so precious to Himself.

I was affected in my spirit a few weeks ago by a beloved brother in Germany, aged and relatively infirm, not able perhaps to comprehend much, who repeated again and again the line of the hymn, 'O how precious Thine assembly' (No.359). I wonder how much that is in our minds, how much it is stirring our hearts to faithfulness and devotion in the absence of the One for whom the assembly is, the One from whom love for the assembly is so abundantly and so richly proved. All these matters come up in the circle of those who are near to Him. He, glorious in His Person, is of necessity the centre; He in His manhood, His glorious manhood, is the centre. We would have to speak of the Father, in a place which in the divine economy is relatively greater, but if we speak of the Christian circle the centre is Jesus in manhood, and we are to be drawn into that attachment to Christ that will keep us in relation to the centre, and keep the circle unbroken, the circuit unspoiled.

Now I read in John 13 and in John 15 where the same thought is presented in two different settings, the thought being that He would have us to love one another as He has loved us. No less a standard is allowed for, and what is to be noted specifically is that the Lord Jesus makes this a matter of commandment. It is not that I love my brother on account of certain features that he manifests that are pleasing to me; it is not because in some natural respects he is a lovable man; it is a matter of commandment. When you think of it it may seem a little surprising that affections should come under commandment; it is the Lord's way of asserting something which for Him is absolutely essential, for how can the Christian circle take substantial character unless there is a love working within it that holds everything together? This first scripture coming in John 13 reminds us very much of how the Lord loved His disciples. It says in the first verse of the chapter: "having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end"; and the note is of great importance, that the expression 'the end' is not a point in time, it represents a certain objective that is in His mind; and it would be in His mind for His beloved disciples. That is the kind of love that He is bringing to bear upon us, and by way of commandment, He is directing that that love must subsist in the circle of His disciples. Now that is a very real challenge, but the commandment is presented to us, as if the Lord would say, If you take Christian ground characteristically and profess to be a believer, profess to be a disciple of mine, it must be that you love your brother, that you love the brethren, and that you love them according to the divine standard of active sacrificial love which is seen in Jesus. Nothing less will pass under God's eye for His approval. It opens up many questions, many points that may arise, but the intent is that they be settled. It may be that differences have crept in, but this scripture would give us a solid basis for insisting that love would have those things to be settled, cleared. The Scriptures abound in indications of the way that love will take to settle things that dishonour Christ. Let us seize the point, dear brethren, that if something comes in that brings about estrangement it dishonours Christ, because as we find in scriptures such as Ephesians 2, He has laid down His life that there might be reconciliation, not only that the distance may be removed between me and God Himself, but the distance may be removed between me and my brother, what we could speak of as reconciliation horizontally as well as upwards - a real thing. It brings out the suggestion, which I am sure is a right one, that there is a reflection really on the efficacy of the work of Christ if lack of reconciliation persists. The basis is there in the work of Jesus for us to have no distance amongst us. I know the standards are high, but that is Christianity. Christianity is a question of standards which in the eyes of men are very high: Many a man would say, You cannot achieve this, but it is Christianity to achieve in divine grace and power what according to man is out of range; that is Christianity, that is the glad tidings if you like.

So the Lord is searching things out about it. It will be noticed among other things that this passage comes in after Judas has gone out. These things could not be said to the betrayer; the betrayer had gone out, and those who remain are those true disciples, not just disciples in word but disciples in substance, gathered with Jesus; and how much He opened up to them! The Christian circle is a circle of love and of life in which the greatest divine thoughts can find their place, and I would say again, the Lord is not given to setting things forth to find no reply, no answer; He speaks that there may be an answer. If there is any way in which He is speaking to us today it is that there may be an answer, and we can see the wonderful extent of what He sets forth in the following chapters, 14, 15, 16, and then in 17 what is set forth in Jesus Himself, lifting His heart to the Father in prayer, among His disciples as it seems. What intimacies belong in what we speak of as the Christian circle! Paul would place this in relation with the assembly, and truly it belongs there. But I am speaking of things as John, the lover, the disciple whom Jesus loved, presents them to us, that he relates things to a circle of the disciples, never saying how many. It could be a very small company, but there is a company that has the characters of the Christian circle, where the Lord is free, where the Lord, to use a word, is uninhibited by any kind of condition that would dishonour Him. I believe that is a great point to grasp in many connections, to govern us particularly in what we speak of as separation. Does this thing dishonour Christ? Does what I am saying dishonour Christ? Does what I am thinking dishonour Christ? The Christian circle is a circle of loyalty to Jesus, and that involves what the assembly is for the delight of His own heart, and the features that properly belong to a vessel of such ineffable attractiveness to Him. Let our minds work, beloved brethren, by the Spirit on those lines and we shall find that things open out before us in relation to a circle down here of which the blessed Lord is the glorious centre and in which what is precious to Him is cherished to the uttermost.

So chapter 15, presenting this matter to us in another way, traces it back to the Father: "As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you"; and then He says: "If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love". The commandments stand as the great test of true hearts in this gospel, the commandments of Jesus. But they are the Father's commandments too, He traces matters back here to the Father Himself, a most touching thing, and brings forward His own relations with the Father, without extending the point very much, as the pattern for what follows. We need to be ready to see the glorious pattern of things in the Christian circle, to see that it is an unqualified and unmodified thing, not marked by compromise as human affairs are, but where everything is held in true loyalty of heart to the Jesus who did not stop short of death to secure such as belong to the circle of His lovers. So He goes on: "I have spoken these things to you that my joy may be in you, and your joy be full". It is as if He would say, This is a circle of rejoicing, I rejoice in it and I would have you to rejoice. It is a circle where everything is according to God characteristically. We may have to acknowledge from time to time that we have dropped from the proper level of what attaches to the circle of the disciples of Jesus, but characteristically what is of God is in view there in every detail - a wonderful thing! It gives occasion peculiarly to the active service of Him who is the Spirit, but the Holy Spirit, of Him who is another Comforter in the absence of Jesus, but still the Spirit of truth, and the Holy Spirit. All that is to govern us in this circle where what is divinely precious is cherished as being precious, and held in every heart devoted to Christ in a way that would never allow what dishonours Him or bring His glorious Name into discredit, or besmirches in any way the great concept of the assembly, His bride, and what the assembly is for the delight of His heart. And so He goes on: "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you". And then He tells us how He has loved us, if I could put it so simply: "No one has greater love than this, that one should lay down his life for his friends”. It is that character of love that appears to be in the Lord's mind at this point, He laid down His life for His friends, and then He goes on to speak of them, in certain necessary circumstances, as His friends. What a circle to have part in! And the whole idea of a circle involves that each has a distinct part in what is proceeding; there are no spectators in a circle, they are all equally involved and that is how I understand the Christian circle. There may be the side, particularly in the Pauline setting, of the gifts that God gives and supports, but the Christian circle is something that embraces us all in this wonderful realm of divine affections and divinely-formed affections in the saints.

Now John at another point was in isolation, and I wanted in closing just to call attention to this remarkable greeting, as we might speak of it, to the seven assemblies. It is John taking upon himself, under the Lord's touch, to address himself to what had been promoted and established under Paul. In certain respects he is now using Pauline language, he would love to use it; the line of his ministry might appear different, the character of it may be different, but it has the same glorious objectives and presents the truth in ways, especially in these last days, which but enforce the more strongly the necessity for what is Pauline, and he addresses himself to the seven assemblies. He has the idea now not only of the assembly but the assembly here in testimony in localities, and he is addressing them all, though conditions were so different in the seven as chapters 2 and 3 would show us. He has to address the angel of each of the seven in such different respects, but he is really saying to them here, You all belong in this great circle of disciples of Jesus, and I want to address you in that connection. So the line of his word is "Grace to you and peace". What a man of peace John manifestly was! He was ready for conflict if conflict came, but characteristically he was a man of peace. We need to learn from that. Peace is set before us often in Scripture as a great feature which occasions God's pleasure, which occasions His blessing, and it is something to be in our minds to do that which tends to peace, which leads to peace. And John has a word of peace. It is as if he would say, There are matters to be raised, there are questions of the deepest importance to be raised. Think of what he has to say in respect of Thyatira, of the pain, the intense pain of heart that John would have in writing something to the assembly in Ephesus, or to the angel of that assembly, to say that they had left their first love! What that would mean in pain of heart to a faithful man like John! But he begins his writing: "Grace ... and peace"; he has the divine thought in mind, he is thinking of the saints in their oneness under the divine eye and of what is properly characteristic of them in the circle of His beloved disciples. He addresses them rightly as the seven assemblies; he has regard for what had been formed remarkably under Paul's ministrations and the ministrations of those with him, but he is thinking of all of them still as belonging in character to that which is so infinitely precious, a circle of the disciples here of which Christ is properly the centre.

And so John says: "from him who is, and who was, and who is to come", God Himself, especially in the sense of "who is", God as we know Him at the present time, not, so to speak (to speak reverently of Him) a historical God but a God who is immensely precious and current in our knowledge. "And who is to come, and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne" - adequacy of power in the Spirit to apply itself to every situation, and standing related to the throne of God and the rights of that throne, involving that everything will bear divine scrutiny, and everything is holy and according to Him. Lovely touch that is as to the Spirit! - "before His throne; and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead". "The faithful witness" - a fine word, as if to say, follow in the steps of Jesus in a course that involves Witness, something to which we need to stand true as here amongst men in the midst of all the negative things that have tended to corrupt in the seven assemblies - faithful witness. It is to stir affections in those who love Him, that we may not be found wanting in faithfulness when the test comes. And this is how John addresses himself to them. "The firstborn from the dead" reminds us that Jesus is out of death; we stand related in this circle to a living Jesus, the glorious Man out of death, the firstborn from the dead. What a choice thought that is! What a stimulating thought it is to our affections to think of having such a One before our hearts as the centre of a circle down here! "To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father: to him be the glory and the might to the ages of ages, Amen". That would be the exclamation of every true heart, to glorify Christ, to magnify Christ, to give our glorious Lord, God's beloved Son, the Head of the assembly, His unique place, and respond as He fills it with such a note of glory to Himself.

May the word, dear brethren, affect us as to what is here in this present time, bound together in such holy affections, and bound to Christ as its glorious centre, that we may fill our part in it in the realisation of all that it involves, the immense benefits for ourselves, but that which is for Christ's own heart secured among those who love Him, for His name's sake.

MAIDSTONE

28 August 1982