EXTRACT

How far does this section go?

To the end of chapter 7. If you recognise the holiness of God’s temple you can then get the true measure of a man—the principle of God’s holiness is so exclusive that it leaves no room for man, and you do not think of man above what is written. If we had a due sense of the Spirit’s being here we should not make much of man, we should not seek to act upon man; the best service you can render me is not to make much of me. It is not a question of our being in the presence of one another, but in the presence of the Spirit of God.

It is all viewed in the light of a coming day; does he not look forward to it?

It is all as in the presence of the Spirit of God, and the apostle strictly is referring to the local assembly at Corinth.

When it says, “Not to think of men above that which is written” (1 Corinthians 4: 6), does it refer to what the apostle has written in chapter 3?

I do not think the gifts were meant to make anything of the man, and the Corinthians were using them in this way. You are not to let your thoughts of men, even though gifted, go above what is written; that is, I think, the impression which Scripture gives you of men.

What sort of impression is that?

The sooner that man gets out of sight the better. Men have a relative importance in the world, in the providence of God. We are not on one common level. What I say as to myself is, that in this world, I shall never be a great man; I have not the qualities for it. But there are men qualified to be great in this world, but in the presence of the Spirit of God, that is nothing. I quite give a man his place, I feel I cannot help doing so in a way, but in the presence of the Spirit of God, all that is nothing. God is no respecter of men. A Christian is not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. In the presence of the Spirit of God it is a question of a man’s holiness, how far he answers to the Spirit of God.

It is all of God in that line of things.

We see the recognition of the flesh in the Old Testament. Daniel was a capable man, a man fit to be third ruler in the empire, and so too, Joseph, in Egypt, but now when you come to the Spirit of God and the temple, a man’s measure is his holiness.

F. E. Raven (Vol. 10, pp.60, 61)

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