THE CIRCLE OF THE BRETHREN
[p. 31] THE CIRCLE OF THE BRETHREN
Malachi 1:1 - 5; 1 John 3:13 - 16
— How God loves those in whom the brotherly spirit is found! Malachi speaks right at the end of a dispensation. He looks back and alludes to what was past. He draws Israel’s attention to the love that God had for Jacob, for it is in the family of Jacob that the brotherly spirit manifested itself. He alludes to Esau with whom the brotherly spirit was not seen. He was Jacob’s brother, but what had characterised him was hatred for his brother. Therefore God says, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau”. The Old Testament is full of examples showing how Esau failed with regard to this brotherly spirit, and this prophetic testimony which is presented to us right at the end of the dispensation, shows us how God hates those who are marked by the lack of this brotherly spirit.
We are likewise at the end of a dispensation. We also are allowed to look back, to take account and discern where this brotherly spirit has manifested itself and where it has not manifested itself. Many Christians who bear the name of brethren do not manifest this brotherly spirit; there are even some in whom it is lacking. John speaks of these two categories: one shows itself in the case of Abel; the other, in the case of Cain. And John puts us on our guard against hating the brethren. He expresses himself most severely and says to us that “Every one that hates his brother is a murderer”; while those who are truly brethren are known as those who love one another. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”. Esau and Jacob started off, so to speak, together as brethren, and in the days that followed God carefully preserved the rights of Esau as the brother of Jacob.
[p. 32] But Esau failed completely as to the manifestation of the brotherly spirit. He would not allow his brother Jacob to place the sole of his foot on his territory. Israel said to him, “Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country; we will not pass through fields, or through vineyards, neither will we drink water out of the wells: we will go by the king’s road; we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy border ... . We will go by the high way; and if we drink of thy water, I and my cattle, then I will pay for it”, Numbers 20:17 - 19. But Esau did not allow his brother to pass through his territory. Where then is the love of God in Esau? We are at the end of a dispensation, as Malachi was at the end of another dispensation, and that which is particularly pleasing to God at the end is love amongst brethren. Malachi warns us that if this spirit of brotherly love is lacking with us, we shall be the objects of the hatred of Jehovah: “I hated Esau”, He says.
It is very striking that that is said with regard to Esau at the end of a dispensation, as it is again spoken of for us who are at the end of the present dispensation.
It is a question of what is the result of a prolonged exercise. If God gives light, His object is that that light should produce exercise. If the result is according to Him, that is acceptable to Him, but He hates the opposite. Thus, light was given at the Reformation. The result was acceptable to God; but those who would not accept the light that shone at the Reformation plunged themselves still further into darkness. And also, more recently, there has been a recovery: God has added light to that which He had given at the Reformation. The circle of the brethren has come to light. Many of those who came into that circle during a certain time, afterwards abandoned it. God looks for the full result of the exercise, as is seen in Enoch who was the seventh from Adam, the number seven speaking of the [p. 33] complete exercise. I believe that we are at the end of this exercise. God is giving His own the inward testimony of His approval. Enoch, before his translation, had received the testimony of having pleased God. The Lord says to the overcomer at Philadelphia “that no one take thy crown” Revelation 3:11. Our glory is that the brotherly spirit is in evidence among us. So that the Lord Himself inaugurated the present dispensation with these words: “Go to my brethren” John 20:17. For Him, these words are as fresh today as the day when He pronounced them. There are two thoughts, ‘brethren’ and ‘the assembly’, terms known and used publicly. They have taken their place in the vocabulary of popular religion, and thus they have necessarily lost their true meaning. We have therefore to learn afresh the meaning of these terms ‘brethren’ and ‘the assembly’. No one would ever be able to learn the truth as to the assembly by the study of a dictionary, neither can the dictionary ever teach us what the word ‘brethren’ means in its true sense, according to the Lord’s mind. The fact is that the expressions, the true scriptural terms, have lost their real meaning, because they have passed into the popular religious vocabulary. We must therefore go to the Lord Himself to learn their true meaning, as Elisha had to learn from Elijah the meaning of Gilgal, of Bethel, of Jericho and of the Jordan. These places had a spiritual meaning; but it had been lost, so that it was necessary to learn again what those names meant. So, if we want to understand what ‘the brethren’ really are, we must appeal to the Lord and be taught by Him. He says, “Go to my brethren” John 20:17. The great truth, the pre-eminent thought in regard of the brethren, comes out in Jacob’s family. And although Jacob’s twelve sons were begotten by one and the same father, they had four different mothers. And of these four mothers, two were only maid-servants. The twelve sons of Jacob had to [p. 34] learn the true meaning of the expression, “Joseph’s brethren”.
Joseph is a type of the Lord Jesus. It says that he was loved of his father. God is the Source of love. The Lord Jesus brings divine love to us and teaches us to behave as brethren. There are true Christians in all the sects and denominations in Christendom today; they all have one and the same Father, but they have various mothers, which explains why they do not understand the true character of the brethren. The expression ‘mother’ refers to the religious system in which I have been brought up. It is from our mother that we have our character. Gideon said, speaking of his brethren, that they were the sons of his mother; and they all resembled him: “As thou art, so were they” Judges 8:18. Then he said, “They were my brethren, the sons of my mother” Judges 8:19. It is an allusion to the assembly. In the measure in which we walk in the light of the assembly we are characterised by that which marks brethren according to God. It says of Jerusalem above that she is “free, which is our mother” Galatians 4:26. None of the religious systems is free, and none of them is ‘above’, but the assembly belongs to heaven, so that the believer is heavenly in nature and in character, on the side of his Father and also on the side of his mother.
— The mother of true believers is Jerusalem above — “our mother”.
— The mothers represent all the endless denominations of Christendom where there is only one Father, but all sorts of mothers.
— On this ground of love and the brotherly spirit, we reach what God proposed at the beginning; we reach it at the end of the present dispensation. Might it not be that there is someone here who would neglect the thought of God, in the last days of this dispensation? “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1.
[p. 35] That is the last but one of the Songs of Degrees. And the last song is a song of praise: “Behold, bless Jehovah” Psalm 134:1. The end in view in the Songs of Degrees is that we all arrive at unity, as brethren. Jerusalem will be the joy of the whole earth; and it is there that brethren will dwell together in unity, “As the dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion; for there hath Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore” Psalm 133:3. The first allusion in this Psalm is to Christ Himself — Aaron — and the oil is poured on Aaron’s head, on his beard, and on the hem of his garments, that is to say, on His own. “The dew of Hermon” is the heavenly refreshment that comes down upon the saints here below. “The mountains of Zion”, that is the purpose of God, where He has commanded the blessing, life for evermore. In the first epistle of John, we see and we know. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren”. The love of the brethren is the proof of life.
— That is the blessing, eternal life.
— Here, we have the things that we know, from John. The brethren properly speaking know things; they not only think them or hope them, but they know them.
— We ought to test ourselves, to see if we love the brethren as such.
— There are many believers who are far from knowing. A characteristic feature of the first epistle of John is to introduce us into the certainty and assurance of things. It says frequently, “We know”.
— According to John, there is nothing between the two circles; there is the circle of hatred and that of love, the circle of Cain and that of the brethren.
— Is it permissible to put the question to those who are distressed, not being sure of anything: Do you love the brethren? If they have truly passed from [p. 36] death to life, they will have affection for the brethren.
— It is a characteristic feature of one who is truly a brother. He loves the brethren.
— It must not be lost sight of that the expression ‘brethren’ includes the whole company; but the divisions are due to there being many ‘mothers’, although there is only one Father.
— The religious systems are the different ‘mothers’. We have numberless brethren in the various systems of Christendom, but as they have all kinds of mothers (all kinds of characters), it follows that the characters are not in harmony with the character of God, and fellowship is not possible. Thus, the Galatians were going back to the legal system, and consequently were in danger of being without light in their midst. They were going back to the old mother — the law. John has before him a circle in which love is in activity down here. He says, “Do not wonder, brethren, if the world hate you”. He addresses the brethren. He looks upon the brethren as those who have the same Father and the same mother, Jerusalem above. That is liberty. The evidence of life is that we love the brethren. We have passed from death to life. God has begotten us, and we love the brethren. That cannot be arrived at by human efforts. So that in that circle we breathe the atmosphere of life. It is the atmosphere of Hermon — a blessed atmosphere.
— Eternal life.
— A brother from the Haute-Loire, after a very encouraging reading, once said: It is like the dew of Hermon. He was happy; he was refreshed.
— There are two thoughts, that of heavenly refreshment, and also that of the dignity that goes with the anointing, the dignity of having been anointed with the oil of gladness. So that, although outwardly we may be hated and despised, nevertheless there is inwardly this enjoyment of the heavenly atmosphere.
It says, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”. It is there that we see love. We have learnt the love of Christ; it is He who has taught love. Generally, this would not be understood, nor even admitted; love can only be learnt from Christ, being taught of Him. Then he adds emphatically: “We ought for the brethren to lay down our lives”. The secret of maintaining this brotherly love is the individual decision to lay down one’s life “for the brethren”. In the epistle to the Romans, it speaks of dying for a righteous man, for a good man; but in the first epistle of John the great question is laying down one’s life for the brethren. God has the brethren in His thoughts and in His heart, and we are coming to have in our hearts the same thoughts and the same circle, which is not limited to the millennial kingdom, but goes on into eternity. At the moment when the Lord was about to ascend to heaven, He sent the message to His own as being His brethren: “Go to my brethren” John 20:17. That is what pleases Him, and He is working at the present time in us to produce that which is agreeable to Him, and what is agreeable to Him will finally be translated to heaven like Enoch. In Hebrews, it is said of Enoch that he has the testimony that he had pleased God, but in Jude we find that he was a prophet. Those who please God will have the mind of God and will be able to express it; such are prophets. He says “Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads” Jude 14. He was surrounded by corruption: his sole companion was God. So that in contrast with the frightful corruption that surrounded him on all sides, he saw the Lord coming amidst His holy myriads. That is what the Lord showed him. The Revelation really belongs to the brethren. “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus” Revelation 1:9.
— Philadelphia means ‘brotherly love’.
— [p. 38] What we have seen this evening is what pleases God, what is agreeable to Him. It is the circle of the brethren where His mind is disclosed; it is known to them. It was the same at the end of the previous dispensation: “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau”. The divine hatred will be manifested later. He speaks of Esau, and says, “I hated Esau; and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his inheritance to the jackals of the wilderness. If Edom say, We are broken down but we will build again the ruined places — thus saith Jehovah of hosts: They shall build, but I will throw down; and men shall call them the territory of wickedness, and the people against whom Jehovah hath indignation for ever”. God is entirely opposed to all that is not of the brotherly spirit. The severest judgment will fall upon the whole of Christendom. In the Revelation, that is all unfolded in detail. The great dark religious system with which we are surrounded is very specially in view in the Revelation. They may build and construct, but God will overturn all that they construct, and that for ever. “And your eyes shall see it, and ye shall say, Jehovah is magnified beyond the border of Israel”. The Lord says to the overcomer at Philadelphia: “Behold, I make them of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will cause that they shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that I have loved thee” Revelation 3:9.
Reading with J.T. at St. Etienne, 2nd May, 1926, evening.