VITALITY, THE THOUGHT IN THE BODY
[p. 218] VITALITY, THE THOUGHT IN THE BODY
In chapter 11 you get the Head, you get Christ Himself; in chapter 12 you get the body, the assembly; in chapter 13 you get the life of the body or assembly; and in chapter 14 you get the medium of communication, that is, how we may profit one another. The One who is Head is the Head of every man (chapter 11).
We come together in assembly really in order to bring in Christ as Head; this is the point of the Supper. We recall Christ, and He is only to be recalled by that which speaks of His death. The great point for the disciples was to recall Him when He was leaving or had left them, to bring Him to mind; so it is with us all along the line. Paul got it from heaven for revelation to the gentiles.
The first great point in coming together in assembly is to recall the Head, and that is through the breaking of bread. We call Him to mind according as He has been set forth in death. No one else is known by his death, but with Christ it is so; you cannot properly know Him apart from His death. You see the great principles that ruled Him, and those principles were shewn out in His death; every act of His ministry really came out in His death. In death man was put out, but it was in order that God might be brought in. All His miracles brought God in, but then there was the exclusion of man; no pretension of man was allowed at all by Him; man had no place, but on the other hand God was brought in. All this was seen in its fullest extent in His death. Man was really condemned by the very fact of Christ becoming a Man, but then God came in. So we see that in the assembly there is no room for any pretension of man, but God is there.
So in chapter 14 you have the unbeliever falling down and reporting that God is there; man is exposed and God revealed. In the assembly the great point is the exclusion of everything except what is of the Spirit; all [p. 219] are baptised into one body by one Spirit. But then there is a further thing in all being made to drink into one Spirit; they are all of one mind; this is by the work of the Spirit.
Unity in contrast to pre-eminence is brought out in this chapter; every member serves the body for its good, there is no idea of a member serving itself. It is the general idea of the body, not Christ as Head of the body here, but the human body brought up as a figure to affect us as in the assembly. The gifts are the endowment, and chapter 14 shews how they are to be utilised.
We are not a corporation or company, we are really in an individual position; we must take care not to assume anything. The Spirit of God has opened our eyes to the truth of the church and to the confusion around. You may be asked the question, What christian body do you belong to? I belong to the church.
The great point here is that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to profit withal: the word of wisdom is given to one; the word of knowledge to another. As to the difference between the two, my thought is that the word of wisdom is used abstractly, whereas the word of knowledge is more the application of it, and both are needed; the wisdom is the wisdom of Christ and knowledge is the application of wisdom. In a congregation of christians there must be a good deal of buried gift, there is no room for the Spirit to act.
“Ye are the body of Christ”, they were the local expression of Christ; they had that place and privilege. In the temple the great thought seems to be holiness, and in the body the thought is vitality.
When it says, “Covet earnestly the best gifts”, it means those that are most profitable to the saints. The saints then, we must remember, had not the Scriptures and so were very dependent on prophecy, for in that way God’s mind was brought to bear upon them. How are you really going to help people? You are to help them by bringing to them what the mind of God is toward them — you cannot serve people in any better [p. 220] way than that. It tends most to the profit of people to let them know the mind of God toward man. You want to talk to the saints and not to speak to the ceiling; if you do not carry the people with you then you are not speaking to edification.