THE FIRST CIRCLE OF INTEREST; OR, THE RIGHT START

^[p. 349] THE FIRST CIRCLE OF INTEREST; OR, THE RIGHT START

It is often the case that, though there may be much readiness and zeal to serve the Lord, there is not watchfulness enough as to the start. Activity is more before the mind than the starting place for all true activity and service; and if the latter — starting from the right point — be overlooked, there will be a flaw all through the course, which will betray the first failure; for however true and earnest the purpose, that which is crooked cannot be made straight.

No one can question that there is a right point to start from, and that there is a first circle of interest to the heart of Christ; and that whatever is first to the Lord must be first to His servants. The first thing to be assured of is the circle of interest which is first with Him. The church, the bride-elect, is His first circle. He “loved the church, and gave himself for it; ... For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church”. He is now sanctifying it, having purged it by the washing of water by the word. Now as the church is Christ’s first circle of interest on earth, so every servant, in order to be right, must start from it. This being conceded, let us see how the work of Christ can be carried on in keeping with it. First, let us see how Scripture insists on this truth. In Matthew 16 the Lord, consequent on His rejection looming before Him after the death of John the baptist, conducts the disciples to the new ground, practically defined by “the other side” and “no bread” (verse 5), and they then learn, not through flesh and blood, but through revelation from the Father, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He is the Rock, the new ground, and the foundation on which He builds His church. Here is disclosed the great circle of His interest on His being rejected; and every builder ^[p. 350] walking in faithfulness must seek to have his work really and truly laid on this foundation, which is outside and beyond man’s mind and power. The work that does not start from the Rock, and find its foundation on the Son of God, will come to nought; losing sight of this as the only true starting-point has led to the enormous bulk of christendom. Next, in John 15, when the Lord was about to go away, He tells His disciples to “love one another, as I have loved you”. This is His one simple direction to them. This is the start, and the maintenance of this start would put them in their true place here on the earth in the absence of their Lord. This their one grand occupation, to love one another as He had loved them, even unto death, and then they would be His friends. He had been their greatest friend, and now He shows them how they could be friends to Him, not in dying for Him, as He had done for them, but in dying for one another. The sphere of His interest was to be the sphere of their interest; blessed that it is so, and sad deprivation were it otherwise! The effect of this would be that the world would hate them as it had hated Him. All men would know that they were His disciples by their love one to another. This devotedness of interest for one another unto death, so novel and unaccountable a thing here, would arouse and arrest the attention and chagrin of this selfish world in a very remarkable way. Who could doubt it? Hence it was the centre from which all the vigour of testimony would flow. If the heart be in tone and vigour, there will be vigour throughout the system. The attempt to warm up the extremities when the heart is weak is superficial and transient. No doubt the vigour will extend from the central organ to the extremities, but all the vigour depends on it. The Lord is explicit as to the course of action which would awaken testimony to His name, namely, loving one another according to the quality of His love for them, making His first circle their first circle; shown in private in washing one another’s feet, and publicly in giving their lives for the brethren. It is evident that this is the first circle, and it is also evident that saints failing in it is the great cause of the little testimony now. It is useless for man to argue that there are other ways. The word of God lays down the only right one; and all the others must be defective, whatever the intention may be. Many a true saint seeks on his conversion to do good to others, and is thus led to what are commonly called charities; he becomes interested in the circle of man’s need. Now it is not that this should be overlooked, but when it is the principal object before the mind, the start is not a right one, and there will be no real progress in service, no entering into the place of a friend with the Lord, until there is a beginning from the right point, and thence extending; in fact a running within the posts. It is quite right to reach out our hands to the poor and needy (see Proverbs 31: 20), but the wise woman never placed them before her lord’s interests in the house; verses 11 - 20. Unless I make this first, He does not communicate to me as to His friend, and the testimony at best cannot be intelligent or after His mind.

Now in Romans 12, where the devotedness incumbent on the justified one is presented, the first circle is the body of Christ. The saint who presents his body a living sacrifice has first to see and comprehend his relation to that great organisation here of which we are through grace a part; “so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another”. If this new relation be not known, there must be an individuality in one’s actions which cannot be supported by the Spirit of God. As a member of this great company, how weak and inefficient must I be as a unit, instead of co-operating with and receiving co-operation from all the others. One voice isolated from the choir is feeble by itself, and the rest is enfeebled by its absence. For true personal devotedness, one has not made the ^[p. 352] right start unless he finds his beginning with the one body. Devotedness in its true form and force is lost unless it starts from the circle of Christ’s interests, because otherwise it must be only a zealous adherence to something less than the chief thing in the mind and heart of Christ. That which I am connected with in my devotedness necessarily imparts to me a character. It is according to the object which chiefly commands my interest and attention that I am found. The very claim made on me by it, and which I like in my devotedness to answer to, conduces to make me useful and suitable. That which is entitled to the greatest devotedness necessarily makes me the most devoted; and hence, where devotedness is not found by starting from the chief circle, the church, it must be of a lower kind, and rise no higher than what the sphere of interest requires.

If many a true saint loses the place of being a friend, because he does not start from the right circle, there are more who fail in devotedness, because they accept a lower sphere for its origin and claim than the church. They satisfy themselves that they are devoted because they are enough so for the line of interest which claims their attention, and this is true in itself. But then this devotedness would not be considered sufficient even by themselves, were they to see that the first circle of Christ’s interest, the church, was the sphere where they were to begin their devotedness, and where it was to be born.

Now in 1 Corinthians, in company with the saints as the one loaf (chapter 10), one has discerned the Lord’s body in death, and therefore has judged oneself in chapter 11; the new sphere is opened out in chapter 12, where the fact that we are baptised by one Spirit into one body is insisted on; and therefore in chapter 13 we are fitted for service according as we have charity. Charity is shown to be a surrender of all selfishness, and the effect of the grace of Christ in ourselves. For ^[p. 353] it is as we are cleared of self, and have Christ’s nature working in us, that we are efficient and useful; but the sphere presented to us for this service is distinctly and peculiarly the body of Christ. That which led to so much failure at Corinth was simply this, that each thought for himself and did not connect himself in purpose with the new and spiritual sphere, the sphere to which we are introduced as we truly realise what it is to reach Christ through His death. Then we find that the circle nearest to His heart is now ours, because we are His, and we are conscious of being near to Him, and have come so near through His death, that that which interests Him most interests us most. This is the order, and the heart understands it and accepts it. As in Romans the devotedness gets its colour and character from its start, or first circle; so here the service derives its morale and character from the claims of the body of Christ. If it were an organisation of less perfection or sensibility, the service would be less delicate; but seeing that it is the body of Christ, in order to be really qualified for serving it, so that the gifts of the Spirit may be unhindered, we must learn the more excellent way, and that is, the transformation of the man to the nature of Christ in love.

Now in Ephesians the first practical thing enjoined is “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”. For this there must be the right start; the first efforts must be in the new order of things. It is not ascending from a low and imperfect order of things up to a high one, but from a high one descending to every circle appointed for me here, in order to contribute to them. Here in Ephesians we have God’s purpose and view of the church set before us; and now, when the practical part comes, which would spring from this great truth, the great thing pressed is that we should endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit, the new relationship in which we are set. There are plainly other circles in the remainder of the epistle,

^[p. 354] most distinctly defined, and the suited practice enjoined; but the first circle heads the list, intimating that if the first be not first in practice there will be a great deficiency in all the others. As it is devotedness in Romans, and service of charity in 1 Corinthians, so is it, I apprehend, the heavenly element or the mind of Christ which is acquired here in Ephesians. It is important to bear in mind that for progress in any circle we always begin in the highest. The strength of the natural body is always determined by the vigour of the heart and the head. No one doubts that the beginning must be with Christ, and if so, the start for all progress must be there; there is no progress elsewhere. Nor can there be advance in any circle but as there is progress in the knowledge of Him; and as there is knowledge of Him, there is necessarily a deeper and fuller connection with His body, the church, the circle nearest His heart. Every moral quality must come from above; and therefore it is not at the point to which it descends that I am to learn it, and from there to ascend. No, I must learn it above with the Lord; and as I have it, I can then descend, and range through all the lower circles according to the measure of power and grace which I have learned in the uppermost one. Going from darkness into light is really to better oneself, to be released from the darkness. Coming from the light into the darkness is to confer on those who are in the darkness. As we learn the place in which the grace of God has set us, we enter on a sphere compatible with it. Thus, as we have seen, in Romans it is devotedness, beginning with the body of Christ; in 1 Corinthians it is the manner of service because of our relation to one another; in Ephesians, the Spirit’s manner and purpose because of our relation to the Lord, and as deriving from Him. Finally, unless I know something of what the church is to Christ, unless I have learned His affection to the bride, how can I be as the bride prepared and ready for Him? I must be a bride in heart before I can speak ^[p. 355] and act as one, and I must know myself as one. I must have learned His love to the church before I could be found in the enjoyment of such a relationship. The Lord’s first communications after rising from the dead, the first expression of His heart after He had cleared away in death every obstruction, was to lead the disconsolate Mary Magdalene, the sorrowing earthly bride as it were, into the knowledge and standing of the heavenly one. No one can be prepared or fit for the close, for the reception of the bridegroom, who has not learned the affection which alone can make him in heart and desire a bride.

To recapitulate: first, there is the new ground; the building is the church (Matthew 16), and this is the clue to all true work. Secondly, for testimony and to obtain the confidence of the Lord as friends, the circle of the saints must be paramount; John 15. Thirdly, for devotedness, it must be the body of Christ; Romans 12. Fourthly, for true service in love, it must be the one body; 1 Corinthians 12: 14. Fifthly, to express the mind of the Lord, the chief endeavour must be to maintain the new relationship; Ephesians 4. Sixthly, to be the bride here, the first circle of His heart must be the one first and best known to our hearts.