THE MODEL - IN INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE CHARACTER
[p. 77] THE MODEL — IN INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE CHARACTER
Luke 7:44 - 48; 1 Thessalonians 1:2 - 8
I have in mind to say a few words on the subject of a model. I need not say that Christ is the Model. I believe that, from the outset, God has worked in relation to a model. In the creation of Adam, God had a model before Him; and Adam typified Him who was to come. The principle comes to light particularly in relation to moral and spiritual things. It does not speak of a Model when it is a matter of the physical creation. Nevertheless, it is written that the worlds were framed by the word of God. His word was the expression of what was in His mind; there was the divine plan of this world. No natural man can even understand that. By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Men who have not faith may give themselves up to speculations, but they do it to their own cost and they never arrive at a right thought of the physical universe. Only by faith can we apprehend that it was framed by the word of God. Those who know God are interested in what comes from His word. We recognise the things that are made as representing a spiritual order of things; the invisible things of Him are seen in the things created, His eternal power and His divinity. These things are laid hold of by the mind of the believer, but on the principle of faith.
When we come to things which concern the moral universe, God is careful to show that on this point He has always had a model before Him. For example, Moses was taken by God on to the mountain, and during forty days God made His model pass before Moses. During forty days he neither ate nor drank, so that he was ready to receive and understand [p. 78] spiritual thoughts. And so, the whole tabernacle and all that was connected with it was according to the model that God had shown him. As says the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews, “See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern which has been shown to thee in the mountain” Hebrews 8:5. We see then that God, in framing the moral world, had a model before Him. All that of which I have spoken in Exodus is only a type of what we find in the gospels. The Lord said, “Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me” Matthew 11:28. The Lord presents Himself as the Model. This passage gives the great features of this Model; as being rejected by His own He turns to His Father. He rejoiced in spirit and said, “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes” Matthew 11:25. He is superior to all opposition down here. He is in the presence of His Father; He is in relation with His God and Father. He is the Model for all those who are going to fill the heavens and the earth. All is to be developed from Him and according to Him. The disciples were there as babes. These were to be brought up according to Him. We can see how this blessed system is modelled after Christ. There is nothing that belongs to man. All the inventions of this world find no place there; this system had been designed before the foundation of the world according to “the hidden wisdom” 1 Corinthians 2:7. When the physical system was formed, Jesus was there as Wisdom, and how much more when the system was formed which is to subsist eternally. “As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him” (Colossians 2:6); all that is contrary to Him must be rigorously refused by His own. We can see, in the system which surrounds us, how far men have got away from this model, while,
[p. 79] when it is a question of recovering us, God always recovers us to this model; and I wish to show you how this principle is developed individually and collectively. I have chosen these scriptures, the first to represent the individual model, and the second to represent the collective model.
This woman in chapter 7 of Luke is one of the most intelligent believers in Scripture; she is a woman who loves Christ, and He can thus present her as a model. It is very interesting to speak of a person who loves Christ. I could draw your attention to Mary of Bethany who learns from Christ. In Mary of Bethany we have a model, if we wish to learn from Christ; and I need not say to all who are present, that one learns better at school than when one is alone. We learn, not only from the Master, but also from the pupils; you have to learn how to learn. I consider Mary of Bethany; it says she sat down at the feet of Jesus and was listening to His word; it was not a question with her of any subject whatever, but of what He was saying: He was saying wonderful things. All the intelligence of heaven was found in that blessed Man, and Mary of Bethany seized the occasion she had. She desired to understand all that the Lord would say to her. She was like Timothy who, later on, wished to receive all that was presented to him. “But thou hast followed up my teaching ...” 2 Timothy 3:10, note. We need the truth in its entirety. Some have given themselves to certain features of the truth, but we need the whole. Christ is the truth objectively, and the Spirit is the truth in us. That is to say that there should be the truth correspondingly in the saints; the truth in its entirety was maintained in the Christians at the beginning. Mary is a model scholar. The name of the woman in Luke 7 is not given. It was sufficient to say that she loved Christ, and I have no doubt her name was well known. But the Holy Spirit has hidden her name. He presents [p. 80] her name in her character, to Simon. She is a model. The Lord knew the qualities of the model that He presented, and He says, “Seest thou this woman?” It is a great thing if only there is one soul to whom the Lord can draw attention in a locality. This woman did not say that she loved the Lord, but she showed it by her acts; if one proves something by one’s acts, that is greater. The Corinthians could speak of love, but Paul says, “Yet show I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence”, 1 Corinthians 12:31. He could say much more than the Corinthians, but it was necessary to show it, and he could show it, for I suppose he is in the front rank among those who love the Lord; I have no doubt that he loved Him more than John. He was the greatest of sinners, but according to Luke 7, the one who has sinned much loves much. Paul was in the front rank among the lovers of Christ. He had such a consciousness of the love of Christ that he says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema”. He could show things like this woman. The Lord says to Simon, “Seest thou this woman?” The cold, cynical critic of Jesus was present; but there was also this woman who loved Him. What a striking contrast, beloved, between the two!
However, the Lord says, Simon, thou seest here My ideal of a person who loves Me; this ideal is in thy house; l am in thy house.
Thou gavest Me not water on My feet, but she has washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair.
Thou gavest Me not a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing My feet. It is not one or two kisses, but continual kisses; such is love!
Thou didst not anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment. I understand it is a matter here of an ointment composed of myrrh. How suitable that was!
[p. 81] His feet were walking in a hostile world, in suffering; His feet suffered, His feet that brought divine grace. This woman knew that all that involved suffering.
How little we think of suffering! When Christ was raised from among the dead, it says that He presented Himself to His disciples after He had suffered. How little we think that divine things have reached us by way of the sufferings of Calvary! In Exodus 17, the rock, a type of Christ, was smitten. God said to Moses, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock on Horeb; and thou shalt strike the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink” Exodus 17:6. God was witness of the sufferings of the Lord, when He was smitten, and the water has flowed. The Spirit of God is the result of the sufferings of Jesus. He desires to remind you of these things. He is the Spirit of a Christ who has suffered; and one of the principal parts of the anointing oil was myrrh. The descent of the Holy Spirit is the result of the sufferings of Jesus. This woman discerned that He must suffer. She anointed His feet with myrrh. So, beloved, we have the model and the question should be raised in our hearts Do I love the Lord? It is not a question of speaking of it, but of manifesting it. The tears express love. You remember, when Joseph kissed his brethren, how his love expressed itself in tears. That is real love, and this woman washed the Lord’s feet with her tears. She had emotions. I believe in persons who love Christ possessing emotion of which love is the source. Paul said to Timothy, “Remembering thy tears” 2 Timothy 1:4. The Lord takes account of the tears of His own.
There is that which is to one’s glory naturally. This woman put her hair at the Lord’s feet; she wiped them with her hair. She did not have her hair short. Hair is given to woman for her glory. It is not merely acquired naturally, but is given to [p. 82] her to cover her. It is therefore her glory, and she used it for the feet of Jesus. That speaks more than mere words. Then there was the ointment, the myrrh. Love is always ready to furnish what is suitable. Love never fails. This woman had what was suitable, just as Mary of Bethany who offered “a pound of ointment of pure nard of great price” John 12:3. It is what she had kept for the day of His burial; it was the fruit of love.
I have spoken of the individual model. There are few subjects more impressive than this; for this woman represents the model chosen by the Lord, as being a person who loves Him.
I come to the collective aspect. I need not say that the collective model must be composed of the persons of whom I have spoken. The Christians of Thessalonica were chosen as a beloved company. The apostle says, “Knowing, brethren beloved by God”. The apostle gives the reasons for which they were “beloved by God”; that is why they were models.
The woman of whom I have spoken was a model in the house of Simon. The Christians of Thessalonica were a model in all the region. It says, “Ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia”. Then he adds, “For the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is towards God has gone abroad”. They were models in their province, and in every place their faith was spoken of.
I wish to show you how this model was formed. God always works in view of what is collective. If He draws attention to an individual, it is to lead him to what is collective. In the seventh chapter of Luke we have the individual side. In the eighth chapter we have the Lord, the apostles, and certain women with Him, women who ministered to Him of their substance. We see clearly the link with chapter 7. How do we obtain substance? We read in Proverbs [p. 83] that those who love wisdom obtain substance and wisdom fills their treasure. It is therefore clear that these women in chapter 8 include the woman in chapter 7. She is a woman who represents those who love Christ and who have substance. How does she use her substance? To glorify herself? No, beloved, but to serve the Lord. Like the Shunammite, she was a woman who was morally great, but she made use of her substance to receive the prophet. All that with which I have been enriched by the Lord is to be used in His service. The individual is to shine in the company: the Thessalonians shone in a collective way. Individually, they learnt from Paul, who said, “Ye became our imitators, and of the Lord”. In other words, the Christians of Thessalonica knew how to take account of a model. They followed Paul as a model. What a model, beloved! A man who loved Christ! He evidenced it to them, for he loved them. He said, “As a nurse would cherish her own children, thus, yearning over you, we had found our delight in having imparted to you not only the glad tidings of God, but our own lives also, because ye had become beloved of us” 1 Thessalonians 2:7. What a model Paul was for these young believers! But they advanced; he says, “Ye became our imitators and of the Lord”. It is good to take account of the one through whom the light has come to us. They took account of Paul and followed him; and advancing, they followed the Lord Jesus. It is the Lord Jesus who is the Model for us in the first place, like the pattern that was shown to Moses on the mountain. Then the Thessalonians knew how to take account of a collective model. He says, “Ye, brethren, have become imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus” 1 Thessalonians 2:14. They had learnt that the assembly ought not to take on a purely local character; the assembly of God ought to be freed from what is local and national. All should be modelled after Christ. It is [p. 84] a universal thought, a thought that has come down from heaven, and heavenly principles should characterise the assembly. These Thessalonians had not adopted Greek customs, but they went a long way, as far as Judaea, where the assemblies of God were established at the beginning, and we ought to be free from every national feeling as to the assembly; we ought to take account of all that is of God “in every place”. They are “the assemblies of God in Judea”. Paul says, “Thus I ordain in all the assemblies”, 1 Corinthians 7:17. “But if any one think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God”, 1 Corinthians 11:16. We all belong to the same assembly of God and the same blessed principles should characterise the saints in every place. Thus, these dear Thessalonians were models for the whole region around them. It says, “For the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith which is towards God has gone abroad”. It also says: “Ye became models to all that believe in Macedonia and in Achaia”. The secret of becoming models is to learn from a model, and it is essential to have the light which governs the assembly. It emanates from Christ and from heaven, and the divine thought is that all the assemblies should bear the same character in every place. This same character could be seen in Macedonia and in Achaia, as in Judaea.
You see the divine thought was unfolded at the beginning. These believers were, so to speak, young; according to the book of the Acts, Paul had only been among them three weeks, and in writing to them he honours them in a unique way. This is the only assembly to which the apostle says that it is “in God the Father” 1 Thessalonians 1:1. And this expression proves that they were acceptable to God the Father, for they had observed the idea of the divine model and were formed according to the model. God saw in these young [p. 85] believers the blessed character of Christ. They had received the word “in much tribulation” but “with joy of the Holy Spirit”. In that assembly, there was a formation that was relative, but exact, and it was a model for the whole region and “in every place”.
Address by J.T. at Loriol, 6th May, 1926, evening.