READING (1)
READING (1)
JT It is in mind to see the mutuality that existed at the beginning between the ministers and the saints to whom they ministered. The apostle, as you will observe, omits to introduce himself as an apostle here. Where it is a matter of doctrine or order his authority was necessary, as in most of the epistles, but he omits it here. It is simply a bondman, “bondmen of Jesus Christ”, and the epistle is based rather on what he was morally than what he was officially. In that way there is, I think, a suggestion as to how things are maintained amongst the saints. What is moral in the minister is emphasised so that he becomes a model to the saints.
FHB He is seen more as a living exponent of the truth rather than as a teacher. It is very useful in that way to see that God has given us a man in whom the truth is exemplified.
WHB Is that why he takes up Timothy as a man like-minded?
JT Yes, he was a son; a son just like his father. It is remarkable how the truth took form in family relations; we are the household of God. In relation to that Philippians suggests affections, in connection with which the word of God has free course, as having their beginning in a remarkable way in connection with the households of the saints.
WJ You refer to the Acts?
JT Yes, Acts 16. The chapter begins with hereditary faith. Timothy is there as replacing Barnabas. He alludes to the beginning here, what they were from the first day until now. The testimony opened at Philippi in that way. The chapter begins with Timothy, who became Paul’s son, and then we find him in the houses of the saints there. I think it will be found, the more we look into Scripture, that the testimony has run in connection with affections in that way. You will find it in Mark, which is closely allied to this letter because it is a question of the glad tidings; the Lord is seen in houses there more than anywhere else. I thought we might be helped to see, that if the young are to be led on it is to be in the way of example.
WJ He was always glad to drop the apostleship, and to speak of himself as a Christian, what is proper to us all.
JT I think that in this epistle, as well as in Thessalonians and Philemon, the apostle is seen according to what he was morally. He drops the apostleship in this epistle. There can be no doubt that the ministers can be a greater help in that way by example.
FHB He could speak of the things which they had seen in him, not only what they had heard.
JT There are many walking, he says in chapter 3:18, who are enemies of the cross. The difficulty with the young is, that they see men as trees walking; they are unable to distinguish. But they were to remember his walk; to have him as a model.
ER To fix their eyes on him.
WJ If we look back we can remember that we have been more helped by what we have seen in some of our elder brethren even than by what they have said.
FHB And is it not that which has given weight to what they have said?
JT It is not only by his word, but you get the idea from his manner of life. Abraham is commended because he would command his household and children after him. The Spirit’s comment is that he dwelt with Isaac and Jacob in tents; in that way [p. 77] they would get the idea of a heavenly man. Abraham is the father of the faithful; a father has in view what is to follow. Therefore he took care with regard to Isaac and Jacob where they lived. And Joseph was the fourth generation of the spiritual family. I think the preacher has in view what remains. He considers what is to follow; and if things are to be maintained, we must see to it that we set a right thought and example before the young.
WHB Is that what the apostle means here by fruit, that he stayed behind in order that there might be fruit in them?
JT I have no doubt that there would be a continuance of that which was seen in him, but I only said that to make clear what I had in mind in suggesting the epistle.
THR I think it is a great thing to see in this epistle that the apostle’s public service was over, and that he was not preaching the gospel, but he was standing for it. He was set for the defence of, to answer for, the gospel; and Satan got no advantage over him. His head is covered in the day of battle. Suppose he had got irritated by the circumstances he was in, Satan would have got an advantage; instead of that Christ came out, and Satan was entirely defeated.
HD'AC It does not matter where the witness to Christ may be, his testimony is bound to have an effect on all around, as in the case of Paul in prison.
THR And Christ was greater than Satan. Satan would have liked to get an advantage, but everything turned out to salvation. Christ was covering Paul’s head in his conflict with Satan: Satan was defeated. “According to my earnest expectation and hope, that ... Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death”.
EJMcB Is not that rather the idea in [p. 78] the epistle that when a person gets beyond active service, the light that has been there all the time is shown in living testimony?
THR Yes, apparently Satan had secured an advantage in shutting him up in prison, but all the way through we see that Paul is the conqueror; and I think that in this chapter Christ is more mentioned than in any of his other epistles.
JT Things had had a good start; the gospel was not only a benefit to the Philippians, they laid hold of the thing, and were sympathetic with it. Paul was simply a bondman of Jesus Christ with others; and it is very touching that he addresses along with the saints, the overseers and ministers; account is taken of all that the Lord had given; there is mutuality.
THR There were people who preached Christ of contention; but “Christ was preached”, in that he rejoiced. It is a man who is superior in every difficulty; Satan gets no advantage over the gospel of Christ which Paul stood for.
JT It would be helpful for us to see the perfection of sympathy in which the word goes forth; the gospel flourishes in connection with sympathy. It is not only dependent on the preaching, but on the sympathy of the saints.
THR I think it is beautiful, the Philippians had sent him a little money, and he says, “ye all are partakers of my grace”.
JT He speaks of their fellowship with the gospel. It is remarkable that though he speaks of their having him in their hearts it is a question of the glad tidings. In Mark it is the beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as though the Spirit would emphasise the importance of the glad tidings. Paul would pass away, but the gospel would remain. They had had fellowship with the gospel from the first day, and [p. 79] that remains.
JSG Do you read the epistle in two lights? In this way that if you think of the Philippians you think of what is collective; but if you think of the bondmen you think of what was presented in Paul and others; and Paul is counting on the Lord that what was true in him should be formed in the Philippians.
JT He looked for them to work out their own salvation. The gospel remains, and the saints remain. The great thing to see is that there is a model.
JSG He is a model in every chapter.
THR And I think you get those who do answer to it. The Philippians were answering to it in sending the money, and then of Timothy he says, “I have no man likeminded”. Then with Epaphroditus, there is the total absence of self; he would not have the Philippians troubled about him.
JT They were in sympathy with the glad tidings in consequence of its having taken root in their hearts. One would desire that the saints should see that the glad tidings remain here, and consequently inquire as to how it is to be supported. A Philippian Christian would be greatly pleased with Mark’s account of the glad tidings, because it is the beginning of the glad tidings.
WJ I think there is a very striking link between Mark’s gospel and this epistle. In the third chapter we get the blind man seeing all things clearly. The line Mark takes goes with this epistle; you see the blind man of chapter 8 in the third of Philippians.
EJMcB Would you expect to find the remarkable features that were there at the beginning?
JT The Philippians had come to the end of Mark 8. The man is led outside the town if his eyes are to be opened. Young people have to be led outside the town. Then the Lord touches him with both His hands, and spits on his eyes, but the young [p. 80] man does not see clearly; then the Lord put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up, and he saw everything clearly. After that the Lord says, “Whom do men say that I am?” Peter says, “the Christ”! In this epistle Christ is everything.
WJ Does not that mark the gospel? There is one blind man peculiar to Mark, and another to John.
JT In John it is that the works of God may be manifested.
WJ The thought of sympathy comes out very strongly in Mark’s gospel. His feelings are expressed there.
JT You find the Lord goes into a synagogue, and there is a man there with a demon. He casts out the demon, but there is no sympathy in the synagogue. But He goes into Peter’s house, and Peter’s wife’s mother is sick; He heals her, and then immediately there is sympathy; she ministers unto them. Then when He returns to Capernaum He enters into the house, and the paralytic is let down through the roof before the Lord, showing that the house is completely won for Christ. Then in the second chapter you get another house, Levi’s house, in which the area of sympathy is enlarged.
FHB When He came to the ruler’s daughter He cast out all who were not in sympathy.
SH Acts begins and ends with the house; and so in Acts 16:15 Lydia said, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide”.
JT I have no doubt it was Lydia’s house that put it into Paul’s mind.
SH Both sympathy and the opposition come out in the chapter.
JT He said, I do not only want to have this man, I will have his house.
WJ And in Philippians that had been [p. 81] maintained.
JT Yes, that is the point, what marked them at the beginning continued there.
SH I suppose your thought is that the house is the circle where it is nourished and goes forth.
JT It leads up to the house of God.
SH There is a difference between the house and the household, though the latter is often spoken of as the house.
JT You can control your house, “As for me and my house”, (Joshua 24:15) so that to that extent you are sympathetic with the gospel, but then it leads into the house of God. If a child grows up under the influence of the parents, that is divine authority; well, that eventually leads into the house of God. Hannah is a figure; if a child is begotten for the Lord, you bring it into the house. The influence of a parent over a child is to prepare for the house of God. If Lydia had children, how they would be prepared for the idea of the testimony.
WJ And this epistle is written that they might be maintained and developed. There was a dead fly that would spoil it (chapter 4:2).
ASL You just made a remark, Mr. H., as to the difference between the house and the household.
SH A house is where a man lives; the household is those who are in it. Acts begins and ends with the house; Paul preached the kingdom of God in his own hired house; he disappears in his house.
EB Would you say that is how the gospel goes on now?
SH That is how it ought to get its support.
JT You sometimes get one within the other, “the assembly which is in thine house”.
Rem In our houses we express what we are.
SH Here in this epistle Christ comes out in all His excellency.
JT The altar you rear up in your house is an indication of what you have in your heart; that [p. 82] is the measure of your surrender, you give up your natural rights, you cannot maintain them. In the house in Mark 2 they did not protest, it was quite clear that the Lord was the Master of that house.
SH It comes out also in Matthew 9, they took possession of the house without invitation; they knew it was a sphere of blessing, and they all came.
JT If one is right with the Lord in one’s house, one’s influence increases. In Gideon’s case he reared up an altar for himself; then he had to throw down the altar of Baal in his father’s house his influence increased.
FHB The effect of the gospel is to come out first in ourselves, and then in our own house.
JT So that one’s altar becomes one’s tell-tale.
Ques What do you mean by the altar?
JT It is a question of surrender and sacrifice. You are marked by readiness to suffer, not by ease and comfort.
SH At the beginning of the third chapter you worship by the Spirit of God.
JT The thought of Christ is prominent throughout. The young woman in Acts 16 announced that these were the servants of the Most High God, but that was not true, they were the servants of Christ.
JSG Will not the development of all you have been speaking of be seen when the day of Christ will be brought in?
JT They were not the servants of the Most High God but the bondmen of Jesus Christ, and that involves suffering.
JSG And is it not a fact that suffering brings us into sympathy one with another?
JT Well, it has a binding influence. The Lord called attention to the saints as sufferers, “Why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4). It seems to be a central [p. 83] thought of their position, they are always in suffering, they are always in reproach. It is in one’s house that one must have an altar; both Lydia and the jailer exemplified it.
HD'AC I suppose that is why the Lamb is so very prominent in the millennium; all that have suffered will have a very great place there.
JT The Lamb’s wife; she is qualified through suffering.
GWW Is it not in this that the privilege of the present moment lies?
JT That is what it says here, “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake”.
GWW In that way the bride is made sympathetic for her association with the Lamb.
JT I think she is qualified. We have a peculiar line of suffering, and it begins with one’s altar.
FHB The gospel was the testimony of the Christ, and forms the saints according to Christ. Paul was formed by it.
GWW I would like to hear a little more as to your thought of the altar in connection with your house.
JT In Genesis you have no special instructions for the altar; but it is a book that presents to us altar builders, and I gather from that, that they were left to act according to the light they had in their souls, so that each altar indicated the measure of the light of its builder. Now, when you come to God’s house, He is very careful as to the dimensions of the altar. You are the ruler of your house, so it is left to you to build your altar, and the saints find out where you are thereby. One is disclosed publicly through one’s altar; it is a question of what you are prepared to give up. It is in your house that whatever may have come upon you through nature is sure to show itself. Now the question is whether you are [p. 84] going to value these things or Christ; whether you value any nobility that comes to you through nature more than that which comes to you through Christ. Then you throw down the altar to Baal and think of Christ. “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord” (Acts 16:15); she did not think for a moment that she was patronising Paul by inviting him to her house; but it was he that was patronising her. You must have your altar at the door if you want the servants of the Lord to come into your house.
One of the most baneful things that has marked Christians has been the recognition of what is according to nature. I have noticed it in regard of Job; in the first chapter you have Job’s family, the number of them, and how Job regarded them; but they were feasting in their elder brother’s house; that tells the tale; things were on the basis of nature. Alongside of that you have the spiritual family. What were they doing? They all came to present themselves before God; that is, God is in the hearts of the spiritual family. Well, Job’s family were feasting in the elder brother’s house, and the wind smites the four corners of it: there is an end of all that. Mind, Job was not feasting. Now, in the end of the book you get the spiritual family, the same number of sons and daughters, but not a word about the elder brother. Job gives the daughters an inheritance “among their brethren”. The spiritual recognises the saints as brethren; there is no one pre-eminent except the Lord. That is what the Lord would bring us to, the recognition of spiritual principles, not natural ones, and if not, there is no room for the testimony; you may support it, but your house does not.
THR I think another thing that one wants to bear in mind is, that we ought to know God’s altar, and the pattern and meaning of it, then our altar will be all [p. 85] right.
JT Quite; but there it is in Genesis, the altars are left to the builders.
GWW So that as one’s appreciation of the testimony of the Christ was raised, the character of one’s altar would change.
JT In the first chapter we see how things began at Philippi; sympathy began in their houses.
WJ The first chapter is a kind of index.
GWW A man regulates things in his household in connection with the glad tidings.
JT So that a good Philippian Christian would admire the presentation of the gospel as it came out in Mark; he would say, I would like to have my house like that. With Luke, he presents the things the Lord did; but Mark emphasises how He did them. It is the “beginning of the glad tidings” (chapter 1:1) so that the course of the glad tidings is detailed. It is very striking how many times the Lord is found in houses.
Ques Would Zacchaeus illustrate it, “To-day I must abide at thy house” (Luke 19:5)?
JT Quite; he received Him that day.
FHB So the first effect is to put matters right in your own house.
JT Then he refers to the overseers and ministers; you cannot have overseers and ministers unless houses are in order.
DLH Might it not be well to say something about the gospel itself?
THR I think the gospel is largely connected with the truth of the altar, but when you come to the third chapter you are set for heavenly places.
JT It seems as if the gospel is synonymous with the testimony. We have often said that in Mark we get the perfect Servant; but the point in Mark is to show how that Servant introduced the gospel and maintained it. In that way I understand that the gospel is equivalent to the testimony as we speak [p. 86] of it. That is what is in the heart of God for recovery and the reinstatement of things according to His counsels the question of how comes in. There is a great deal going on in Christendom in the Lord’s name; but Mark would help us to judge things, not so much what things are done, but how they are done. Wisdom is skilful. One may see the thing done and admire it, but a skilled workman admires the manner in which a thing is done, not only the spirit but the skill. A thing may be done in a right spirit but be clumsy. “He hath done all things well” (Mark 7:37) is said of the Lord.
THR It never wanted a finishing touch.
JT What the Lord alludes to in Sardis is that things are not complete, nothing finished. So the great thing is the completion. There was nothing ever wanted to be touched up after Christ, it was done perfectly.
EB Do we not get the gospel presented here very much in view of Christ’s day, not simply for present blessing?
JT I do not think one is formed by the gospel until one is anointed. The tabernacle was all anointed after the parts were put together. First you have the pattern, then the workmen, and each piece is made as if it were to be passed judgment upon; and Moses put every piece in its place, but they are not yet anointed. You may have many converts, and so on; but are they anointed? The last chapter of Exodus gives the anointing, and it is when anointed that the glory fills the scene. God is complacent with things anointed. It was all like Christ, because He was the pattern. Paul was very like Christ; he had not quite arrived at complete conformity, but that was what he was after. I believe that is the idea, that the gospel brings in what is suitable for [p. 87] the anointing.
GWW You mean not simply what we may call soul salvation.
JT No, it is what a man is outwardly, he is marked by grace, he is dignified. Take the Lord Himself, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18). They marvelled at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth.
Rem Oil to make the face to shine.
JT That is the idea.
Ques Does the thought come out in verse 20, “Christ magnified ... in my body”?
JT I think so, very aptly.
Ques How do you mean coming out in the face?
JT As our brother remarks, oil makes the face to shine. The natural boldness of the man disappears. Look at Stephen, he was full of the Holy Spirit, and his face shone as the face of an angel; that is a suggestion of it, I think. But it is a very striking thing that in Christendom you get nothing completed; in fact, they do not pretend to complete their cathedrals even.
JRK Is it not an interesting thing that in Mark power comes out, and that links with Romans, so that we can understand what He has purposed to do?
JT Peter, in referring to himself with the others as witnesses, says, “we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:16). They were affected by it.
JRK And in Mark 9:1 there were some standing there who did not taste death until they had “seen the kingdom of God come in power”. In Luke 9:27 it is, “until they shall have seen the kingdom of God”; and in Matthew 16:28, “the Son of man coming in his kingdom”.
EB Does verse 6 give us responsibility towards one another?
FHB [p. 88] I thought we have in that verse what was underlying all we have spoken of as the expression of Christ in Paul and the saints; that is the work of God in the saints.
JT And that it will be completed.
FHB Until it comes out in perfection for display in the day of Jesus Christ.
WJ I think his prayer is the key to all that he says, he first prays about it.
EJMcB The apostle had confidence that God would bring the work to completion.
JT I think that is very important; and he laboured to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Take a convert, it is not what he is now, but the possibilities that are in him. The preaching has in view what a man is going to be. The apostle laboured that every man should be presented perfect in Christ Jesus.
EJMcB What encourages me is that you get a man like Abraham, and he looked to see Christ’s day; but the gospel brings in the possibility of that day.
JT He “rejoiced to see my day”, the Lord said (John 8:56). It is a Man; faith always looked for a man; not a babe but a man. Now he “rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad”. Now Paul is looking to bring everything up to that day.
GWW Does it look on to the future?
JT The question is what you have in your mind; you want to have an ideal.
SH You must have nothing less than the mystery.
JT Quite, and you do not want anything to be short of that.
EB You were speaking of Abraham dwelling with Isaac and Jacob; the responsibility really goes right on.
EJMcB Almost his last act was a very touching [p. 89] one; he sends all the others away, but he gives all that he has to Isaac.
JT I have no doubt he saw Christ’s day when Isaac was weaned; he saw the idea; he had to come to it. It takes us a long while to come to it. He had said, “O that Ishmael might live before thee!” (Genesis 17:18). But that man would not do. Abraham saw Christ’s day, and was glad: that is the Spirit’s beautiful comment.
PRM He made a great feast.
DLH And he received him from the dead.
JT You have the child, and the young man, and the married man in Isaac. The married man is the complete thought. A new institution is established, and Abraham can disappear in the light of that. The marriage of the woman is on the sixth day.
SH Do you not think that the apostle is speaking from the height of union? He has come from that side, and I suppose all is embodied when you see that the evangelist goes forward in the light of union if he is to be effective for God. So the wilderness is not taken up as passing through, but as coming back from over Jordan.
FHB That agrees with what Mr. Darby used to say, that for us Numbers comes after Joshua.
SH We must have the light of the land to carry us through the wilderness. I suppose we get here the pathway of Joshua and Caleb.
JT Pretty much; they had been in the land, and it was ever in their hearts.
THR Not exactly the heavenly calling, but the heavenly position. Then I think it is a very wonderful moment in any Christian’s soul when he realises that he belongs to heaven by the grace of God; and you will find a thousand things drop off the moment you realise that, through God’s grace, you are a heavenly man.
WJ What strikes me is that it is brought forward [p. 90] in connection with the circumstances in which we are found; but it is far reaching, and would touch us in a thousand ways.
JT I think we are apt to magnify the difficulties of our position; they are not nearly so difficult as the early Christians had to encounter.
THR I think it is interesting to see in Mark that the walking on the water is presented in a different way; in Matthew, Peter walks on the water to go to Jesus; but in Mark, Christ is seen walking on the water, coming to them. It is a pattern to my mind of John 14:18, “I will come to you”. They learn Himself as One who is superior to everything.
JT Yes. They had come to Him flushed with victory, the demons were subject to them; but He did not make any comment on that, but He says, “Come ye yourselves apart ... and rest awhile” (Mark 6:31) and He sends the crowd away, all to the end, that they may discover what resources they had found in Him.
EAP And while the epistle looks on to the completion of the work in the day of Jesus Christ, he has a present evidence as a basis.
JT You mean “even as it is meet for me to think this of you all”.
EAP And then he greatly longed after them.
JT He had good grounds for believing that God would complete His work, they had continued so long in sympathy with the gospel.
EAP I was thinking of the Lord Jesus as a pattern of all that: He had surrendered everything, He had laid all aside to bring us the glad tidings.
JT And then they had Paul in their hearts. It is a remarkable thing in Mark 4:36, “they took him even as he was in the ship”. It is a great test whether we are just content to have the Lord without [p. 91] any conditions.
THR It is a great thing in this epistle that Paul tells them what they are, not what they ought to be.
JT What we are by the work of God. Some are very pious, and say, I am nothing: that is not true. Paul says, “by the grace of God I am what I am”, (1 Corinthians 15:10).
THR It is a great point, What kind of a Man am I linked to? If it is a heavenly Man, then I must be a heavenly man also.
JT It is not only what God has done in Christ, but what He has done in us. God has begun in you, and He will complete it. “According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” (Numbers 23:23).
THR And yet it was all wrought at the Red Sea.
FHB That was more what He had wrought for them; but, according to Balaam’s prophecy, the people are seen according to what God had wrought in them.
JT It speaks of what God wrought at the Red Sea, but what you did at the brooks of Arnon. “According to this time it shall be said, What hath God wrought!” He had wrought silently all the time of the wilderness, and ultimately they are made suitable for the land according to that work. I think it is most important here that what God has wrought in you He will complete.
WHB You were saying, this work was not completed in Paul; at what point was it completed?
JT According to this epistle he does not say it is completed. I think we may infer from 2 Timothy that he had finished his course.
FHB I think the work is not completed until the Lord comes and changes the body, and fashions it according to His body of glory.
WHB I meant in regard to his soul’s history.
THR I think a full-grown man is one who has Christ before him as his one [p. 92] object.
JT Paul was not yet perfected. All his desires and energies were after Christ, but he was not yet perfected.
SH What you have said about the Red Sea, and what they had done at the brooks of Arnon, ought to help us very practically: what have we done?
JT And there is another thing: I think it will be found that Mount Nebo and Mount Pisgah correspond. One looks towards the wilderness, and the other towards the land; so that you look and see what God has done in you, and thus you are suitable for the land. I am quite sure we shall never be heavenly without the work of God in us.