THE ANOINTED VESSEL (1)
[p. 134] THE ANOINTED VESSEL (1)
— In proposing this epistle, I should like us to see, with the Lord’s help, what is the thought of God with regard to each local company of believers. According to this letter, God desires that each local company should be a vessel for Him, a vessel established in the light of the assembly, a vessel of testimony, and that this vessel should be morally clothed with dignity, for we see the thought of the anointing introduced in chapter 12, where it says, after having spoken of the human body as a figure, “So also is the Christ. For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit” 1 Corinthians 12:12,13. I believe this passage suggests the thought of a vessel clothed with dignity, to be used by the Lord in each locality. I hope that we shall see, with the Lord’s help, that the elements that compose this vessel are developed in the early chapters.
— Could we say that the divine thought is that there should be now, characteristically, in each locality, that which marked the Lord when He was upon earth?
— The gospel of Luke presents the anointed Vessel, “the Christ”. This epistle should serve to develop this thought with regard to the saints as forming one body. In 1 Corinthians 12, it speaks of the human body, as a figure, to represent the spiritual organism that God proposes to establish in each locality; to this end, it is necessary for each member to understand the teaching of the early chapters of the epistle. From the outset, dignity is in mind: “The assembly of God which is in Corinth” 1 Corinthians 1:2.
— [p. 135] Have we the thought of dignity, when it speaks of “the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:9?
— That is the provision relating to “the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus; that in everything ye have been enriched in him, in all word of doctrine, and all knowledge (according as the testimony of the Christ has been confirmed in you)” 1 Corinthians 1:4 - 6. In this passage the truth is presented objectively, but it gives us to see that the provision corresponds to the position. It is a question of what they had in Christ, and the testimony of the Christ was confirmed in them. That suggests what the thought of God is in the local vessel: “the testimony of the Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:6.
— “So also is the Christ” 1 Corinthians 12:12. That is not exactly Christ personally; it is an anointed vessel.
— In Christ, the testimony was lifted above that which belongs to the natural man; that is what strikes you in reading the gospel. The Lord begins by making good use of the Scriptures. Thank God, the Bible was in the synagogue of Nazareth; there were other books there as well, books of traditions that obscured much that is in the Bible. But the Bible was given to the Lord to read, and He found the scripture that described exactly the position that He occupied; He read, then closed the book and sat down, having delivered it to the attendant. The position was therefore clearly defined, and the fact that He sat down means that all that that position involved was to be developed. The words were words of grace and truth, which is true of the Vessel. The testimony was adorned by the Vessel. Now, we must keep that in mind, if we would correspond to Christ, in our locality.
— In Luke’s gospel, He is called “Son of the Highest” Luke 1:32. The testimony is clothed with dignity in that Person.
— Then it says, “Glory to God in the highest” Luke 2:14.
[p. 136] That all refers to the moral dignity that marks the testimony of God.
— The divine thought is that “the Christ” should be reproduced in the saints of the various localities, and that there should be found there a vessel in the dignity of the anointing. In Christendom, the idea of testimony is adopted without any idea of an anointed vessel; and Luke desires to introduce what is externally according to God. Thus in chapter 4 we have the idea of the Christ, the Anointed; the testimony is so to speak adorned, embellished.
— There are two thoughts: that of the temple, and that of the body. In the temple all the light of God is viewed as a whole, all the light of God in grace; in the body, it is all the grace of God expressed in the saints, for the same locality.
— The first nine verses of the first chapter form a kind of preface, but they show how the Corinthians were equipped, then finally there is the thought of the faithfulness of God who has called us into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
— Would you say that the thing was expressed in life, and not only in words?
— The first five verses of chapter 2 confirm that.
— The Lord, in the synagogue, could sit down and say, The fulfilment will be seen in Me. “To-day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears” Luke 4:21.
— A living voice was heard, for the scripture was read. The scripture went out of His mouth in living power, but He added, as a commentary, “To-day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears” Luke 4:21. The astonished audience felt the effect of the words of grace that were coming out of His mouth. So then, although others may in the past have made use of that scripture, they were now brought into touch with a certain economy, and it was living to the ears of the audience. I believe that gives us the idea of “the Christ”, and the ministry of Paul at Corinth corresponds to that,
[p. 137] and he desired that they themselves should profit by his example. He so desired that the things should be presented in a living way that in writing his epistle he speaks of Timothy: “For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly” 1 Corinthians 4:17. His idea was that although he had been to Corinth himself, his letter should be accompanied by a living representative, and so, the divine thought is that there should be in each assembly a living representation.
— When Paul was at Corinth, the Lord said to him by night, in a vision, “Fear not, but speak and be not silent; because I am with thee” Acts 18:9. You have the thought of the anointed vessel, and the personal activities of the Lord to maintain the thoughts of God in a locality.
— The Lord had gone about doing good, as the anointed Vessel, God being with Him. He was anointed, but also God was with Him. And here, in a corresponding way, the Lord was with Paul in his ministry. His ministry was in the power of the anointing.
— He says, “I will come quickly to you, if the Lord will; and I will know, not the word of those that are puffed up, but the power” 1 Corinthians 4:19.
— When he was at Corinth, “Paul was pressed in respect of the word” Acts 18:5. The thought of an anointed vessel was expressed in him.
— What is the idea of the temple? Is it that each one takes part there?
— Christendom has abandoned what is living, and is content with what is material.
— We see how far away the modern thought of the assembly is from what is found in this epistle.
— Men cannot take in what is spiritual.
— [p. 138] From verse 10 of the first chapter, we see how the great defection had commenced. After having presented to them the faithfulness of God, Paul warns them against what has spread abroad in Christendom. He says, “Each of you says” (1 Corinthians 1:12); they were all in that same error of forming sects. “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:12. We cannot have an anointed vessel under those conditions.
— There must be, not sects, but unity.
— In Luke, the genealogy of the Lord is not given on the patriarchal side. The names of His ancestors are indicated, and finally He is “Son ... of God”.
— And here, characteristically, it is “the assembly of God”.
— “But of him are ye”, of God, “in Christ Jesus”, (1 Corinthians 1:30) which shows that we are not of Paul or of Cephas, but of God, and the believer takes account of himself as being of God in Christ Jesus.
— What is said of Jesus, in Luke, is said of the saints, here.
— “According as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord” 1 Corinthians 1:31.
— Nor must we try to introduce lesser men than Paul or Apollos; that would be still more serious, do you not think? We might for example call ourselves ‘Darbyites’, but that would be shameful.
— One might also use the name of Christ in a sectarian way.
— I was thinking of the young man who, running up, came to find the Lord, calling Him, “Good Teacher”, whereas God alone is “good”.
— Just so. There are those who would give the Lord the first place among men; they would connect Him with those who are renowned, like Confucius and others. And the Lord would answer them: “Why callest thou me good? no one is good but one, that is God” Mark 10:18.
— [p. 139] Jesus is a divine Person, but as Man, as the anointed Vessel, “God was with him” Acts 10:38.
— And He links every heart with God, so that the result is that He leaves, in the temple, a company who are continually “praising and blessing God” Luke 24:53.
— In this epistle, we are lifted above the level of this world in relation to God. “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus” 1 Corinthians 1:30.
— Thus, the heavenly city is the expression, in the world to come, of what is maintained in testimony in the saints of each locality, and it says that this heavenly vessel has the glory of God.
— In the presence of this worship of men, so to speak, the apostle speaks of baptism which he seems to connect with it. He says, “Christ has not sent me to baptise” (1 Corinthians 1:17) but to preach; and he brings out the character of the preaching: “For the word of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us that are saved it is God’s power” 1 Corinthians 1:18.
— “The cross” characterises the preaching.
— The preaching of the cross does not recognise in the least the worship of heroes. The Greeks were perhaps those who had produced the most heroes; but it is a question of “the word of the cross”. The word of the cross puts out of sight all that distinguishes man after the flesh down here. Certain Greeks who came up to Jerusalem wished to see the Lord; Andrew and Philip sought the Lord to tell Him, The Greeks are here. Ordinarily one would have considered it an honour that the Greeks came, for they seek wisdom. The wisdom of the Greeks forms the basis of the teaching of the present day. The literature and eloquence of the Greeks are very highly esteemed. Did the Lord think Himself honoured because these compatriots of Demosthenes sought Him? He knew exactly what they were. He had under His eyes, so to speak, the whole Greek world: its present, its past and its future; and He says,
“[p. 140] Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone” (John 12:24) our modern professors would say, ‘Demosthenes deserves to be placed alongside of Christ’; but the Lord shows His entire contempt of that thought. “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone” John 12:24. That is the Lord’s thought, and Paul’s! And here, what were the Corinthians doing? They were bringing in again this principle of hero-worship. I might become the best-taught man in the world, or the greatest orator, but that has not in itself the least value in the assembly of God. The Lord shows His greatest contempt of human wisdom. The apostle admits that the preaching of the cross was foolishness, but he says to those who believe, “it is God’s power” 1 Corinthians 1:18. “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and set aside the understanding of the understanding ones. Where is the wise? where scribe? where disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom has not known God, God has been pleased by the foolishness of the preaching to save those that believe. Since Jews indeed ask for signs, and Greeks seek wisdom” 1 Corinthians 1:19 - 22. The apostle brings the wisdom of God in here to pour contempt on the wisdom of this world which ought to have no place among the saints of God; and he found himself, it seems, at the root, at the basis of this leaven that was among the saints at that moment. The second epistle brings in wisdom once more.
— The wisdom of the Greeks left man where it found him.
— The Lord despises it.
— At the end of the chapter, “Of him”, of God, “are ye in Christ Jesus” 1 Corinthians 1:30. He “has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption” 1 Corinthians 1:30. Thus, we are set up by God in all that we have need of, in Christ. If we boast in anyone, let it be “in the Lord”. If the Lord gives us the sense of what it is to be of God in Christ Jesus, “who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30), I think we shall have a good foundation for our meetings.
— All this shows that what there was in Christ as a Vessel for the glory of God, is to be continued in the assembly which is here, at Valence, among the saints of this locality, characteristically, as if the Lord were Himself at Valence. We begin this epistle with the sense of what is of God, for it is a question of “the assembly of God which is in Corinth” 1 Corinthians 1:2.
— This is not an individual thought; we all form part of this vessel, the assembly.
— In chapter 14, the man falls upon his face, acknowledging the presence of God amongst the saints.
— As we said at Beauvoisin, the population of Corinth was divided into three classes: Jews, Greeks, and the assembly. I go to the synagogue; I find the Scriptures there, but they are obscured by tradition; there is no life; one may hear much about the patriarchs, but there is no life. I go to the Greeks; I find there many books concerning the wisdom of men, but there is nothing for my soul; at Athens they went to Areopagus to hear the news, the events of the day, the actions and thoughts of wicked men. Then, I enter into the assembly of God; I find there the Bible, a sanctified company, divine order, ministry; I am conscious that God is there; I am exercised; I fall upon my face and I report that God is indeed amongst them. That is the important point.
— The secrets of the heart are manifested.
— And what God had in His mind as to Corinth has not changed as to all the gatherings.
Reading with J.T. at Valence, 11th May, 1926, evening.