THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE COLLECTIVELY
[p. 67] THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE COLLECTIVELY
Judges 14:5 - 9; Colossians 2:6 - 9
JT I thought the Lord would be pleased to help us to see in these passages something of how life is developed, and how it appears collectively. It occurred to me that the passage in Judges affords the initial idea of collective life; that is, it is life out of death-not simply the light of life, but active life. Perhaps creation affords no better illustration of life in activity- than that of bees in the hive. The Spirit of God seems to employ these creatures to illustrate the energy of life in a company. We may see life illustrated otherwise, as it appears in an individual, but I think this type is life out of death seen properly in a company. It says, as “he returned to take her (his wife) he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion, and he took thereof in his hands and went ...”. We see there, I think, a type of the Lord appropriating the result of His death as it appeared in life. It is not the abstract idea of life, but the concrete idea. Thus it is a type of those who have come out of His death, being active in producing that which is acceptable to Him.
EBMcC I think that is very helpful. It would set forth the activities of the assemblies in life.
JT The great point in reference to life is that it is out of death according to what it is for God, and we have in Hosea 6 an example. Verse 2 says, “After two days will he revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight”. Hosea 6:2. The Lord, I believe, in showing Himself alive to His disciples after He rose, intended to set out before their eyes what life is as before God. “He showed himself” to them “alive”; not ‘risen’. Of course He was risen, but the point was “alive”. Everyone who rested his eyes on the Lord during those forty days, especially when He intended to convey the idea of life as manifestation, would remember ever afterwards what the divine idea was, and would seek to be conformed to it. Colossians is intended to bring about in us conformity to Christ as alive; indeed, it is said, as we read in chapter 2, “He had quickened together with him”. I understand the word ‘together’ has reference to the saints. So that, as quickened together with Him, the thought is we are to live with Him, as He is. Then again, in the prophet Isaiah, in the case of Hezekiah, we have a further thought of the living — in life; his soul is delivered. Hezekiah was cut off figuratively in the meridian of his life, but he is made to live. He is brought up from the gates of the grave, and he says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day”, Isaiah 38:19. So that we are to live in God’s sight according to Christ, and then praise as in life.
EBMcC Hezekiah would set forth one who would arise from the dead, and as risen he says, “The living, he shall praise thee”.
JT Yes, and it is in the house of the Lord; and so the Psalms end, as we have often remarked, with everything that has breath praising the Lord. The great thing is to see that it is all living — everything that has breath. I think that our meetings for worship sometimes run short of breath. We do not run short of words, because they have been coined for us; others have used them; they are thus ready made. But it is not words only, it is breath expressed in words; and if we run short of breath, so to speak, it is wise to stop. We have to admit it. We are not equal to very much that is for God. We are equal for more [p. 69] that is from God.
EBMcC Breath means spiritual life.
JT Yes, that is the idea of breath.
RJW Do you connect that with John 20 in any way?
JT Well, the Lord breathed into them. That would be that they were to have His Spirit. Whilst we are down here we need the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
WJP Do you connect John 6 with support?
JT Yes, the “bread of God” is the support of life.
JCS Do you think the Lord Jesus in Acts 1 presented Himself “living” so that they might have some idea of life according to God?
JT Well, I thought that. You see, all that happened during the forty days was a pattern of what should come about later by the Spirit. Hence, among other things, He presents Himself alive, or living. They would see a living Man, and that would ever afterwards impress every one of them, and each one would say, ‘That is what Christ was when I saw Him’. And Peter, in presenting Dorcas, presented her alive, or living. There would be a woman set down in the midst of the saints. They would have before them constantly a living woman. Lazarus was one of those that sat at table with the Lord — a great testimony to life there.
Ques Would Colossians answer to the forty days of our Lord?
JT That is what I thought. It is the working out of that in the Christian circle, or the assembly; we are to be brought into accord with Him. “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him”. He is the test for all.
JCS So that, to follow the figure, Colossians would show that the bees had been active?
JT I thought we might work it out that way. There were bees and honey, showing typically, that [p. 70] the activity of life had yielded something the Lord would take up. He asks, “Have ye anything here to eat?” Luke 24:41. They gave Him part of a broiled fish and of an honeycomb, and He took it and ate before them.
MPM In that way He drinks of the brook by the way, and gets refreshment from His saints.
JT Quite so.
Ques What is the thought, He ate honey and went on?
JT It indicates, I think, what the Lord receives now from those who are alive from the dead, for the assembly is the product of His death. He looks for the sweetness of mutual relations among the brethren. It is delightful. The Lord’s supper, for instance, rightly apprehended, is that we sit down together and feed on what is presented to us through the love of Christ seen in Him as dead; because it is a dead Christ that is before us immediately, not a living Christ. It is not that we remember Him as dead; we remember Him as alive — as absent; but the memorial is, in the simplest sense, that He has been into death — the blood separate from the body; that the Lord Jesus actually died, and that He died in love. Nothing can exceed the sweetness of that, as rightly apprehended. The saints sit down together and have communion in it, and love springs out of it. He gets His portion out of all that.
JCS So that the love which is carried to us in the suggestion of a dead Christ is to be formative and productive. We have thus something in life answering spiritually to what was seen in Him during those forty days.
JT That, I think, is exactly what we come to. It is a question for us all, how much we are in that life as in the assembly; and we should not go beyond our measure in our activity there.
Ques Would you say this evidence of life is to be seen here on earth?
[p. 71] JT That is really the Christian circle — the green spot, anticipating the time when life shall be apparent everywhere. The Christian circle is the green spot now, and Colossians is to remove all that hinders; the thorns and weeds that grow naturally have to be kept out. That is what Colossians is mainly for, so that there should be full development of life in the assembly. There is thus the full result of “holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”, Colossians 2:19. The Lord gets His portion, and He gives it to the Father. There is an indication here (Judges 14) that the Father gets His part.
WJP Would that occur on Lord’s day morning: he ate and went on, and gave to his father and mother?
JT Well, one would not strain the scripture or be fanciful, but there seems to be an indication there of what the Lord does. Samson “turned aside to see the carcase of the lion, and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion. And he took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat”, Judges 14:8,9.
GRG Would that be an example of the Lord accepting the honeycomb from His disciples and appropriating to Himself the fruit of His own death?
JT Well, that is what I was thinking. In Luke 24 He comes to them and says, “Have ye here any meat?” The bees had been working. The two had returned from Emmaus having had their share of the honey, because the Lord appeared to them in the breaking of bread, and they related that; but the others also had been working, because the Lord had appeared unto Simon, and they were all there together in the light of these things; thus the honeycomb was being formed. Hence when the Lord comes, He says, “Have ye anything here to eat?” That put them to the test. He knew what was there, but He would bring it out.
WJP How do you view the lion in death?
JT It is death, but now productive of life as Christ has been into it. It says, “it roared against him” (verse 5); but now the bees and honey are in the carcase.
EBMcC It sets forth the death of Christ, and the assembly coming out of His death.
JT Yes, it is a striking figure of that. The bees are in the carcase, and the honey was there; so that it is life out of death, or through death.
WJP I suppose Samson’s riddle would explain that.
JT Yes, quite.
JCS If the Lord were to come and ask us whether we had anything to eat, it might be testing. Have we any honey, and are we in life?
JT It is not necessary that everyone should speak. It is a question of the power of life, as I remarked; because it may be that we need to hear something from Him that would be of more value than what we are endeavouring to say to Him. He would have something to say to us.
RMcM Would we be conscious of what our measure is, and know when we are out of breath?
JT I think if we were with God we should know just when we had reached the limit of our worship. Of course the Lord helps us as we draw near to God, but there is much repetition of words, which should be avoided; and then a brother need not speak just because he is present.
Ques Is the honey found in the assembly?
JT I think it is the product of mutual relations.
Ques The result of the affections of the saints, would you say?
JT Just so, as set together in the assembly.
JCS [p. 73] So that we should know when we are in assembly whether we are out of breath, so to speak; whether we are going beyond the power of life.
JT The Lord might have something to say. One idea in the assembly is that He speaks. He loves to hear our voices, but He speaks. The setting of 1 Corinthians is: in chapter 11 you have the Lord’s supper; then in chapter 12 His operations; in chapter 13 it is love in the saints, which is the way of surpassing excellence; and in chapter 14 ministry.
JCS So that when breath no longer remains, to keep up the figure, the Lord may address a word to us at that moment. It would be for us to listen then.
JT I think one feature of the assembly is for the very purpose that there might be divine speaking, which results in replenishment. There is always increase from the Head; increase, not through what we say, but rather in what He says. “Holding fast the head, from whom all the body”, Colossians 2:19 etc. The increase is in what comes from the Lord.
Ques Are you limiting your remarks to when we are actually in assembly?
JT I am speaking for the moment of that, because as there you would look for the movement of life in what we are before God. The honeycomb represents more than one bee; it is the outcome of mutual relations, so there is something for the Lord.
JCS I suppose there is no moment when the affections of the saints are so susceptible, or when they can be so readily impressed with what is spiritual. It seems really a unique moment for the Lord to address us at that time; He would say something to us.
Rem The land beyond Jordan flowed with milk and honey.
JT Yes, just so; there is plenty there.
MPM But we are not able to sustain our part very long; we have limitations.
JT [p. 74] Generally we cannot afford very much, and the Lord knows that we are very limited. It is wisdom to recognise our limitations.
MPM The danger is of becoming artificial.
EBMcC Is there not a certain light governing us at that moment?
JT There is a certain light which governs us as we come together to break bread. Then there is the thought of what we are for God, and for that you need particularly to have power. Many break bread, and so far own they are helped and nourished, but do not go over Jordan; they are not disfellowshipped by that. They are in the assembly, but they lack the power to go over Jordan. It is as we recognise the Lord as Head that He would lead us to the Father. But then that is not all. 1 Corinthians shows there is more than that. As a matter of fact there is all that follows during the week as the extension of the saints having come together in assembly. This is one thing; but there is another, and according to 1 Corinthians 14 the assembly involves ministry, and prophecy edifies the assembly.
MPM And would the light that governs us in coming together thus govern the Lord’s ministry to us at that time?
JT I think so. A message from the Lord is opportune, and if we consult the saints we would find they enjoy it. We have to admit it, most of us need constantly to be ministered to.
HLD Would there be a special character about that ministry?
JT No doubt there would. What we have just then been engaged with would lend a peculiar character to it. It would be a word from the Head.
SF Would you say that such a word would fit in well and come about when breath is exhausted?
JT Well, that is what I thought. The Lord might speak to us then.
Ques Joseph said to his brethren, “come near to me”. Genesis 45:4 Would that involve the idea?
JT I think that leads on to the assembly — to what we are before God. Then there were communications after that which Joseph made. That would fit in with what we were saying.
JCS So you think a word at that moment would descend gracefully on the spirits of the saints.
JT It is the refreshment of the dew coming down mediatorially, I apprehend, because Hermon refers to Christ as the Mediator. I would like to leave with the sense that something came into my soul from the Lord; also that something had gone from me to Him.
Ques Would you say that ministry from the Lord in the assembly would be productive of further breathing?
JT No doubt.
EBMcC It is the five words in the Spirit — a word from the Lord.
JT Brevity is the thing, but each of the five words has its own weight and power.
Ques It would be like a “word fitly spoken”? Proverbs 25:11.
JT Well, just so; it is just a word, but it is fitly spoken, and becomes an ornament.
Ques Would you mind saying a word about “in assembly”?
JT We come together in assembly to break bread; that is how we come together; and it is the beginning of the week. It would seem that 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 Corinthians 14 cover the whole week, because all the ministry that comes in is of a piece, but it begins with the breaking of bread.
Ques Would you expect to find the savour of it at the prayer meeting?
JT Yes. The assembly’s life is one of weeks, in a sense. We learn individually by the day; so you have the time between the resurrection of Christ and [p. 76] the coming of the Spirit — fifty days, or weeks (see Leviticus 23); sometimes it is “weeks”, sometimes “days”. I think the weeks refer to assembly history, and the days to individual history.
Ques The assembly would answer to the swarm of bees?
JT I thought that. Judges 14 would give you the initial idea, not that one would be fanciful; but there is denoted in a Swarm of bees all the energy of life. They are all active, and there is the result. They are not working aimlessly. I think the bee represents life in its instincts. There are no creatures more marked by intelligent instincts than bees.
EBMcC The instincts of life were with Deborah — the name meaning ‘a bee’.
WJP The bee always works toward the hive. It is not the individual idea.
JT It is collective. The bee works collectively.
Ques Would you say that the honey given by, Samson to his father and mother would bring in the thought of the family?
JT No doubt. There is an indication there of what the Lord does.
JCS The great thing to look for is the activity of life in the assembly. Colossians has been introduced as showing that certain things have to be guarded, or they will neutralise that.
JT Then another thing in regard to Samson. While there is much about his history that is very humiliating and extremely incongruous to us, to say the least, still, the life-line runs through his history, and this is developed in chapter 15. He finds a fresh jawbone of an ass, meaning that this life which has just begun must be sustained by being kept near death; death is ever there; and the Lord’s supper, I think, maintains the death of the Lord in its freshness continually, so that we do not get far removed from it. If we do the life is not sustained, because [p. 77] this life is out of death. It is a great principle of the life we have. He takes (as the better version reads) “a fresh jawbone”. Judges 15:15. Death had just happened. The Lord’s supper should ever be as if it had happened just now; it should come to us as if we were present when it occurred. Thus the Lord’s supper, rightly apprehended, maintains us in freshness — it is a ‘fresh’ jawbone; so we are kept near the death of the Lord always. Then, later, he takes the gates, bar and all — showing the energy of life in power — and takes them up to the top of the hill before Hebron, which, I think, directs us to Colossians, which is our Hebron. It is before the world was. It is the purpose of God for us, outside the world. That is what you get in Samson, and I think it helps greatly as to the maintenance of life amongst us, because if I am to reach Colossians it is not enough that I have the Spirit of God; I must be formed. The Spirit is only mentioned once, and that is to say that they loved in the Spirit; that was the kind of love they had at Colosse. It was not a preferential love — not of special friendships, but love like God’s love. Love in the Spirit is general — you love all the saints.
MPM The word ‘together’ would come in there.
Rem It is the privilege of all to contribute to the honey supply.
JT It is; every saint should have something. The Lord went after two on the way to Emmaus. I understand Emmaus means what is insignificant. The Lord, in going out after them and bringing them back, shows that He is concerned about the most insignificant believer. He appeared to these two; then they contributed. The most insignificant, as we speak, is intended to contribute.
MPM It would be difficult to get a better illustration of the thought of mutuality than what is seen [p. 78] in a hive of bees. They are all working together for the commonwealth.
Ques Is there anything in the thought that it was a swarm — not a hive? They had swarmed.
JT That word ‘swarm’ has been used a good deal lately. Where meetings are too large it is a wise thing to swarm, so that you may all yield something for the Lord.
EBMcC You were saying that bees have instinct.
JT I think they represent the intelligent instincts of life. We are brought into correspondence with Him in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. In Colossians 1 all the fulness dwelt in Him personally; but in the second chapter it dwells in Him bodily, so as to be within our reach, and we are “filled full” in Him. That I take to be objective truth; that is, we are circumcised in his circumcision, “in the putting off of the body of the flesh” Colossians 2:11 — the power of it; then we are baptised and risen with Him: “buried with him in baptism” Colossians 2:12; buried and risen with Him through the faith of the working of God, who raised Him from among the dead. So that positionally we are set up in relation to Christ as risen, as He was during the forty days. Then we are quickened — quickened together with Him. By the Spirit we are made to actually live with Christ, and this is the ground of the Christian circle. We are brought into correspondence with Christ, and made to live with Him in our affections.
JCS That is the answer to Christ presented living — I mean the answer to it in the saints.
JT Exactly. We are living now-we are living with Him.
RJW It says in the Acts, “he presented himself living after he had suffered” Acts 1:3; He assembled with them.
JT That is very good. The living One — He assembled with them. In Colossians 2 He has blotted [p. 79] out the handwriting of ordinances that stood against us; He has taken them out of the way; and then He spoils principalities and powers, making a show of them openly. Everything is removed, so that we need not be hindered by legal requirements — things belonging to a past dispensation but which have been set aside in His cross.
JCS None of these things have any place in that sphere where there is life out of death.
JT He has taken the handwriting out of the way. Now there is room for the development of life; so the next thing is, we are to hold the Head. The whole body, as it says, is nourished from Him: “From whom all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God”. Colossians 2:19. There is development of life from Christ.
HLD Do you think the saints touch life in part here and there, but do not continue in it? The great objective seems to be life.
JT I think we are very spasmodic. We touch it occasionally, but it is the continuance of the thing we should be concerned about. The object of the chapter is to develop life.
JCS The continuance of it depends on how near we keep to the death of Christ.
Ques What is the increase of God?
JT It is increase according to Him. If you look at the creation you see what wonderful bounty God has — how rich the supply is. No matter what part of the creation you look at, there is abundance. Take the heavens, see the immensity of things; or on the earth the same thing appears-the abundance of everything as God gives it. So, if you look at the Christian company, the increase is of that kind — it is great; it is according to God.
Rem If you take the figure of the bees in the activity of life you get [p. 80] increase.
JT The thing is to increase in love according to the pattern of Christ — the increase of God.
JCS How do we hold the Head?
JT In our minds and affections. You apprehend Christ as He is. In Colossians He is Head personally; in Romans morally. In Romans He comes into my soul on moral grounds, because He is my Saviour; He has done everything for me, and eclipses all else. He supersedes everybody on moral lines. But in Colossians He is Head on personal lines, being what He is, He is the beginning of the creation of God. He is the Head of the body, the assembly. He must have pre-eminence in all things, because of what He is personally. Then in the epistle to the Ephesians He is made Head. God has made Him Head of the body now. We have to apprehend Him in these three lights in order to rightly hold the Head.
RJW In Romans there is the power to solve all questions of good and evil, and in Ephesians He is able to bring to pass all the purposes of God.
JT In Colossians you hold Him as He is presented there; then nourishment comes in from Him, and God gives the increase. There is the working of the joints and bands, and God gives the increase.
WJP Would holding the Head safeguard us from turning to any other source?
JT I often picture Mary Magdalene in John 20. Suppose you went to her with the latest book on philosophy and said, ‘Mary, here is something that will help you’. What would she think? The Lord was there, and He was everything to her. She needed nothing outside of Him. She would say, ‘I don’t need it’. That is the point in Colossians; you do not need anything outside of Christ.
LDB There is a book that sometimes troubles us a little — the hymn book.
JT Sometimes, I think, our brethren come to the assembly with the hymn book and leave the Bible at [p. 81] home, which, to my mind, is an indication of a want of understanding of the assembly. They do not expect God to speak to them. The principle of the Bible is that God speaks to us; the principle of the hymn book is that we speak or sing to God.
Ques Do you think we arrive at the thought of His Headship in Colossians as we apprehend Him as the Son of His love?
JT That is it. We are translated by the Father out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So He should be before us.
WJP You would encourage us to bring both Bible and hymn book?
JT Certainly. “The word of God and freely addressing him” is the principle of Christianity.
MPM What you say brings in necessary adjustment for many of us.
EBMcC You were speaking elsewhere of the highest note. How would that come in with a word from the Lord on Lord’s day morning?
JT It is like the angel going up in the flame in Judges; but that would not hinder Him speaking.
JCS It is the climax on the upward line, the other is the downward line.
JT Exactly.
EBMcC Would you think giving out notices at the end a right thing?
JT That means that you are closing the meeting, and is not right. If anyone undertakes to do anything that he means to indicate is the closing of the meeting, then I think he is a little out of line, because the assembly is left open; it is a weekly thing. It is the Lord’s matter, not mine; it is His assembly — it is left open. I think all that follows in the week is a continuation of the assembly.
SF That is, our time expires, and it is necessary for us to go home, but as to the meeting, I like the idea that, it is left open.
GRG “He ... went on eating”. Does that indicate that the supply of honey was continuously available?
JT Just so.
Ques Would you say our meeting this afternoon is an outcome of this morning’s meeting?
JT Yes, certainly.
Ques Should we always be moving on that line, in connection with what you were saying about the meeting being left open?
JT Yes. It is available for the Lord when we come together; there is something for Him. Numbers 28 prescribes the number and order of Jehovah’s offerings, and we are to be there to offer them.
GHC I think the end of Luke confirms what you have been saying. After the Lord partook of the fish and honeycomb He spoke to them and opened their understanding, so that they might understand the Scriptures, and then He led them out to Bethany.