PERSONS WHO ARE CHARACTERISTICALLY OF THE TRUTH
John 18: 36, 37; 2 John 1–6; 3 John 1–14
DBR What was principally in one’s mind beloved brethren was what the Lord says to Pilate, “Every one that is of the truth hears my voice.” It would suggest what persons are characteristically, they are “of the truth”. The chapter is a solemn one following the Lord speaking to the Father in chapter 17; He enters into an area of attack. He is being attacked.
Satan had found a ready tool in one who had companied with the Lord, I mean Judas; a faithless traitor, and also the officers of the chief priest and Pharisees. We need to remember that the nation had turned apostate. So you have the components set up by Satan, an evil attack of a character that had never been seen before. It is the last moments of the Lord’s life down here. And yet what marks Him is personal dignity, the glory of His Person. He says “I am he” and they fall backward (John 18: 6); a display of majesty, a display of power in deity.
Then we come to Pilate too. He represents the Roman power, a cruel power. It would seem that he had some right sensibilities. I think Mr. Taylor said of him at this point, he was convicted but not converted. He acts against his conscience. That is the position that the Lord is in here. It ought to be felt by every true heart. In that setting, we may say the outer circle, the circle of darkness, it says they came with lanterns and torches and weapons (John 18: 3), miserable darkness.
I thought that what the Lord says here, “Every one that is of the truth hears my voice”, presents to us an inner circle, and I thought that was seen in the two epistles. In the second epistle you see very clearly that the truth is our bond, the bond of fellowship is the truth. In the third epistle you have persons witnessing to the truth, walking in the truth, regulated by it, and at the very end of the third epistle, you have a man who not only bears witness to the truth, but the truth bears witness to him; a most remarkable thing that the truth itself bears witness to what was found in Demetrius. I thought we might speak together and help one another, because I believe we are in days when the obligation that lies upon us is to maintain the truth.
P.H.
That is helpful. I was wondering as to this inner circle. Would it relate to those that the Lord speaks to the Father of, “They were thine, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word”, John 17: 6?
DBR Yes I wondered that, it is helpful to bring that in. Think of the great advantage of having part in this inner circle, it says, “Every one that is of the truth hears my voice”. Do you think the first great feature of the inner circle is intimacy with Christ? And beloved brethren we need to be maintained in that, we need to be maintained in intimacy with Christ.
Do you feel that?
P.H.
I would be glad if you would say something more as to how we are to be maintained in that please.
DBR Well it would obviously involve exercise on our part, and I think the Spirit would be required for it. The Holy Spirit’s service would be active to keep us near Christ, consciously in intimate relationship with Him. In that way we hear His voice, I think there is a very precious suggestion in it.
R.D.P.
You made a reference to Pilate being perhaps convicted but not converted, would you say a bit more about that?
DBR Well in one way he seems to try an avenue to get Christ clear. There is an element of conviction there. He must have been impressed with this Person who was before him. There was never a Person before him like that. So Pilate has some inward sense of that. I think there is some conviction in his soul, but he remains unchanged, he is not converted. It puts him in a solemn position, do you think?
R.D.P.
Yes I was thinking of Laodicea, “I stand at the door and am knocking; if any one hear my voice”, Rev 3: 20. Mr Coates says we can become totally occupied with the knocking, but the important thing is the voice. Just as you made the remark I thought of that, the voice involves
something more than conviction or being alerted, or feeling something is not as it should be, the voice involves divine communication does it?
DBR That is very good. All that would be communicated by that voice to us. The law is taught by Moses, but what we have I think in the suggestion of the voice, is that it is the voice of the Son of God. He teaches us divine secrets about the revelation of God. I think that all belongs to the inner circle, and one would trust that we are stirred to have our part actively in it as belonging to it.
A.P.D.
Would you say what is involved in the truth’?
DBR Well I thought it was the whole scope of the truth involving God being made known in Christ. It is not a small thing we are speaking of, it is a wonderful thing. I think that God has brought us into it that we might maintain it, maintain all that is involved in it, and have part in the answer to it. The voice of Christ would very much bear on that, that the Lord would keep us quickened in our affections in relation to what has been revealed of God. But I would value what you say.
A.P.D.
What you say about the voice of Christ I would support. In any matter that comes up among us I think we want to hear the voice of Christ do we not?
DBR Just so. That is really what pertains in the inner circle of Christianity.
W.McL.
Would the Shepherd’s voice be in that circle?
DBR The gospel of John is full of the suggestion of the voice of Christ, the voice of the Bridegroom, the voice of the Son of God, the voice of the last Adam and as you say the voice of the Shepherd. I think it involves the whole spectrum of what would be involved in securing us and holding us vitally for the pleasure of God, in answer to the way that God has been revealed in Christ.
H.T.F.
Would you say that what has just been said is illustrated in a way in the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22), the inner circle? It was really the shepherd’s voice that would have been heard. David was in rejection but he became more to them as a result perhaps of hearing his voice, do
you think?
DBR Well that is good. “My sheep hear my voice”, John 10: 27. The sheep are really representative of the quality of God’s work in the saints. I think the sheep represent those who become formed in the divine nature. All that is involved in the hearing of the voice of Christ. It is introduction into Christianity vitally; that is how we want to be in it, and that involves that we are formed in the divine nature, in the love of God.
J.W.
Those that are of the truth, they have not only appreciated it as coming out in Christ objectively, they have done that, but it has had a formative effect in them, so that the truth is seen in them in that way do you think?
DBR Yes I think that is good John, I had that in mind. Of course the Lord Himself says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”, John 14: 6. When you come to the epistle it says “the Spirit is the truth” (1 John 5: 6); and that is really pointing to the fact that the Spirit is substantially operating in men like ourselves to form us after the truth. I think that is involved in “the Spirit is the truth”, do you think?
J.W.
I was thinking as to what you said as to the maintenance of the truth, we can only maintain it as expressing it, and there must be a formative work for that, which is by the Spirit, do you think?
DBR I think that is important, and is really bearing on my exercise that it is beyond the mere knowledge of the terms of the truth. These terms are blessed to understand and to know them, but I think we need to get beyond that, we need to be persons who represent the truth, the truth is seen in us, substantially.
D.B.B.
You started at verse 36, “My kingdom is not of this world”; to hear that voice we need to come into a certain mystery of that kingdom, do we not?
DBR Yes say more.
D.B.B.
Well it is an out of the world condition. It is separate is it not?
DBR Yes, and the idea of authority is in it, “My kingdom”. I do not think we will make much progress in taking on the
truth unless we are subject persons. It is another, we may say exercise, on a moral line; we need to learn to be subject, learn to be obedient, learn to be submissive to the voice of Christ.
These are important things, do you think?
D.B.B.
Very much needed.
A.P.D.
What do you say about the unction in relation to this?
DBR You could help us.
A.P.D.
Well I wondered if we are “of the truth” our instincts would be right?
DBR Yes I think what you say is right, “ye have the unction from the holy one”, 1
John 2: 20. It is more than what is outward, it is the idea of rubbing in. Mr. Raven says a very important thing to my way of thinking, he says ‘There is no such thing as mental access into Christianity, progress must be made by the Spirit’; that involves the unction, involves the secret working in us, the Holy Spirit’s power to secure persons who can express the truth, that is what the Lord is after.
DJW Does desire come into it, in chapter 7 the Lord says, “If any one desire to practise his will”, John 7: 17.
DBR Yes that is very good, say more about that. I appreciate that.
DJW Well the world sets itself for self-aggrandisement, does it not? But the believer as affected by Christ has to set himself to grasp the truth, it does not just happen.
DBR Well I think the Lord values where there is desire. If there is no desire it is almost impossible to help a person, that is true, just to be practical. But where there is desire you find the Lord takes them on, and the brethren take them on, and help them too, I say that for the encouragement of the young people, to be stimulated, to have desire to go in for these things.
DJW Mary chose the good part (Luke 10: 42), and the Lord commends it. If we thought more of what it meant to Him, we would desire it a lot.
DBR Yes very good.
APG I was just thinking of what you were saying as to intimacy. The Lord says,
“Abide in me and I in you” (John
15: 4); that is intimacy, is it not? Does that involve our affections?
DBR It does involve our affections. Also there is a practical side to it. We have to make room for it. Our brother said we have to desire it. Individually we ought to spend a little more time with the Lord. I say that, not critically at all, but as knowing my own leaning; we need to spend more time to speak to the Lord and to be quietly in His presence. The religious Christendom has become absorbed with almost viewing Christianity as a science, something that can be taken on and we develop the art of it, but that is completely false. People speak about studying divinity, it is ridiculous to think that way. What we need to be exercised to do is to study the revealed mind of God, that to me is of critical importance at the present time.
To meet certain exercises we need to study the revealed mind of God, and that of course involves a knowledge of the Scriptures, but it also involves time spent with the Lord and with the Spirit, and of course with the Father.
AM The Lord says to the Father, “Sanctify them by the truth” (John 17: 17), the truth as made way for by us, has that effect upon us, there is a change, there is a sanctifying effect as the truth has its way.
DBR He says, “thy word is truth”, I think that is most important, and that would help us practically. It may be a younger person, and us all of course, we may read scripture and ministry but it may be that we do not always understand it, but it has a sanctifying effect.
That is an important feature in our individual lives and in our collective lives, we have such a thing as a sanctified company.
M.JM Why do you think then that the Lord draws attention to Pilate as to His kingship here? He says in the middle of the verse, “I have been born for this, and for this I have come into the world”.
DBR What would you say about it?
M.JM Well, is everything in the Person?
DBR Yes exactly, that is the truth of John’s gospel. Everything is presented in that Person, everything we may
say that is needed; it is there in Him objectively, to feed on, to admire, to grow in appreciation of. Then to be with the Spirit that the very same thing, these features, in measure are formed in you and me. I think that is one of the great needs of the moment, for persons like ourselves to be formed in the truth.
M.JM Does the very question that Pilate asks, “What is truth?”, expose himself?
DBR It does, it was there before him. It was there in Christ. The answer was there right in his presence, and as far as we know he was unaffected by it morally.
Well perhaps we should go on to the epistles. John is writing as an elder here, a person who had experience with God. The idea in the elder is substantiality, not now the Lord, but it is John that is speaking; the expression of substantiality after the pattern of Christ is seen in John. “The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not I only but also all who have known the truth, for the truth’s sake”. I think it opens up a very important matter, beloved brethren, we need to see that the truth is our bond. If we accept that and come into the gain of it, it does away with all the social whirl of the world that sometimes has a place amongst us. The truth is our bond. I would like to hear what the brethren say about that.
J.W.
It has been said that love of the truth is morally greater than love for the brethren; although that is essential that we do love the brethren, but we love them in truth.
DBR Yes that is it.
J.W.
Well if you love the truth you love what is of God, and the way that God has come out in expression, and you love what is of God in the saints, so would that bear on what you say as to the truth being our bond? We are linked together in that way.
DBR And “all who have known the truth, for the truth’s sake”. It is not for the sake of advancing any person, we serve one another for the truth’s sake. It opens up the question really as to the whole way we live, especially in our relations with one another, and whether we are set for the
development of the truth in one another. Of course we come into the things by measure.
Everything is seen perfectly and objectively in Christ, but we come into things by measure.
Therefore we need to be patient, but we need to rejoice when we see some feature of the truth coming into expression. The Lord says in Luke 7, “Seest thou this woman?” (Luke 7: 44). It is to be seen in expression, not merely in the page of scripture, or in the books we have, it is to be seen in us.
DJW When you say the truth is our bond, is that an organic thing?
DBR Yes, it is.
DJW I wondered if it involved the way we all derive from the same source?
DBR That thought was in my mind, the idea of derivation, and we derive from the same source, therefore what is to be produced really is of the same character do you think?
DJW I was thinking that you cannot exactly set out a technical document of what involves my relationship with a brother, it is there because it is a family thing. It is family manners if you like.
DBR Yes. Eve was a product of creational formation, but Rebecca was the product of the family relationships, that is the organic side. It has been worked out that we derive from the same source, derive from the same substantial matter of the truth. That is what we derive from, we are being formed in that way, and I think you can see clearly that the link, the bond is an organic one, it cannot be easily broken.
P.H.
What you have already said is very good. You remarked I think that the thing we are speaking of is not just an abstract thing, it is what is in Christ Himself, and it is features that are of Christ that are formed in each one, and it is that that we find attractive in one another. I may not necessarily get on with a person on a natural basis, but it is what is of Christ that holds us together.
DBR That is important, it is part of my exercise that we see that. The bond that we have together is in the truth, and it is not abstract it is substantial, it is real.
H.T.F.
Is that the family, the family is always the inner side, the inner circle you are speaking of?
DBR That is what I had in mind in suggesting that Rebecca was the product of the family, the family feature rather than Eve who was really a creational product. Rebecca was formed in the family and that is a great matter.
H.T.F.
God has set the solitary in families (Psalm 68: 6).
DBR Yes, just so.
R.D.P.
We have been thinking of Rebecca recently. The servant went to the area of those that were kin. He moved into the area of kinship, but he was looking for something additional, he did not just go and ask for their address, he looked for characteristics did he not? So kinship, they were all of the family, but she expressed something additional.
DBR Her character was there and that is really the burden of my exercise that the truth is to be taken on characteristically, that we are of the truth, and being of the truth we hear His voice, and I think you see it worked out in these persons beautifully. In the elect lady and her children, and then there is another lady. I think the thing is being worked out so beautifully according to the divine pattern. I suppose only the Spirit could bring that about, do you think?
R.D.P.
It must be part of the Spirit’s work. He brings the treasure all to light. There is the way in which the Spirit brings to light what is latent, would that be right?
DBR So it says here, “for the truth’s sake which abides in us and shall be with us to eternity”. They are the same words as are used for the Spirit by the Lord Himself, with you and in you (John 14: 17). I think “for the truth’s sake which abides in us and shall be with us to eternity” is the substantial product of the Spirit’s work. Think of that, ‘abiding to eternity’.
I noticed some time ago there are two thoughts that come in. It was Mr. Gardiner, I was reading something from him, he said that ‘to eternity’ would mean that the fact that the Spirit is the truth and the truth is formed in persons, the whole exigencies of time will yield in triumph to God. The other thing that Mr. Gardiner suggested is that this really goes into eternity itself. That the substantial
evidence will be in eternity of what has been formed according to the truth in the saints. That is a very fine thought.
M.JM I was going to ask as to this, it is a veiled reference to the Holy Spirit, is it not?
It does not formally refer to the Spirit, but he does in the previous epistle as to the Spirit bearing witness.
DBR And the Spirit is the truth, and that I think is seen in these operations in this inner circle of things in these two epistles. You see the fruit of the Spirit’s work. It is totally reliable and most attractive.
A.P.D.
Does this involve some conditions in us that the truth should abide in us?
DBR Yes it must do.
A.P.D.
I was thinking of the woman who had the flux of blood (Luke 8: 43), it came to light with her that she told all the truth and she was transparent was she not?
DBR That is a necessary condition for the formation of the truth. I think it is the first element of the kingdom, that is transparency. As you come into the kingdom everything becomes clear in your history, both on God-ward side and on man-ward side, so that there is transparency; one of the great needful conditions to take on the features of the truth.
A.P.D.
I wondered if the thought of dwelling would involve suitable conditions in us.
DBR Exactly.
APG Could you help as to the children, the elect lady and her children? John speaks of the children of God and he speaks of his children, this is her children.
DBR Yes what do you see in that?
APG Does it speak of character, children derive?
DBR Yes I think so. I remember getting a touch from Mr. Percy Lyon about that, character linked with the motherly side. He was referring to the overcomer in the seven churches, and said the overcomer was the product of the mother, the motherly features of the assembly. It is a very fine thought, the more you think of it the more right it appears. You may say that every Christian can claim God
as his father, but not every Christian can say the assembly is their mother. I say that soberly.
We would be exercised to find our place in the assembly and to be characterised by the assembly. One of the features that I think has to be combated throughout the period of the recovery, is the rising up of persons who thought they could mould the assembly into the way they think. It is totally wrong; we must be related to the assembly in a humble, contrite, subject way that we might be formed by the assembly. That is a most important thing. So I think you can see that what Mr. Lyon said was the truth, that the overcomer was the product of the motherly feature. A very precious matter.
R.D.P.
This matter of walking in the truth, “I have found of thy children walking in truth”, involves more than keeping commandments. It must involve that there is something of Christ coming out in character. I mean the Pharisees kept commandment, or thought they did, but they were not walking in truth, there was no representation, there was nothing there of the divine root.
DBR I think what you say is helpful, because if you take the Lord Himself, the pattern for us, think of how He walked and what God saw in that walk. He saw in that walk the answer to everything He ever had in mind in his heart for man, there was the perfect expression of that, now there is to be an expression in you and me of that, do you think?
R.D.P.
So that you could academically, take in the teaching of the recovery even, but you cannot academically achieve this inward touch, that must involve that you have to do with Christ.
DBR That is right, you must hear His voice, it is a living voice, a quickening voice that brings in the last Adam, a quickening spirit (1 Corinthians 15: 45). The last Adam, a making alive or a quickening spirit; that is far beyond commandment. I think the walking is that you are regulated really by the whole glorious character of how God has been revealed in Christ. It brings an exalted touch into it, that we are regulated by the greatest thing, the revelation of God in Christ. It is not academic, I think it is vital Christianity.
W.McL.
Would John have got some impression of it when the Lord spoke to him from the cross?
DBR Yes that is good, go on say more.
W.McL.
Well I just wondered, there was the mother she met with the twelve, did she not, or the eleven, all that transpired there and all that was prophesied of her, and John went through the testimony until the Lord took him, and I just wondered if he would get the feelings of all the assembly has passed through? It comes out in his suggestions in the addresses.
DBR Yes that is good, and the proper feelings that entered into that.
DJW I was just pondering this idea of walking in truth. Would that link in some way with the first epistle that in it we would have spiritual growth, children, young men and fathers? I was thinking, does that involve spiritual progress, is movement in mind?
DBR You mean it is progressive in that way, is that your thought? You progress in it, something we take on and we become developed in the idea.
DJW I trust I have some deeper appreciation of the truth today than I had.
DBR I think walking therefore is a most important matter; God says to Abram, “walk before my face, and be perfect”, Genesis 17: 1.
DJW So when it says to eternity, I was thinking of John 13 where the Lord was departing out of this world to the Father, that was His walking in truth, it was out of this world.
DBR Yes just so, out of the world to the Father. Now I wonder how many of us really have a sense daily that God’s eye is upon us? Walk before Me, He says. If you had the sense of God’s eye upon you, you could not be careless, it would determine where we go and where we do not go. I do not want to be negative at all but it is a very searching matter to be governed by the truth in our walk.
A.P.D.
Mr. Taylor said about that reference to Abraham that he would see the way God was looking, the direction in which He was looking. That would help us as to our walk.
DBR So we are walking in a certain direction, we are moving in a certain direction, we are not turning. It says, “when ye turn to the right hand or when ye turn to the left, thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it”, Isaiah 30: 21. That for us would be the way of the truth.
M.JM Is there progression, the first epistle refers to walking in the light, but is the thought of walking in the truth a more developed thought?
DBR I think walking in the truth is just what I said before, I think it is the whole truth.
We cannot really go on rightly if we departmentalise the truth; we cannot leave sections of the truth out which do not appeal to us, we must walk in the truth. We are regulated by the truth in its entirety.
J.W.
Would this help us in walking together, do you think? I thought this is an important thing, that we are walking together, walking in the same direction as regulated by the truth; governed by the truth, we would walk in the same steps, would we?
DBR Yes walking in the same steps, in a certain sense walking the same way. It becomes characteristic that that is how we walk. We are being regulated by the power of the Spirit, but it is in relation to the whole counsel of God. It is a wonderful thing. In the Lord’s pathway down here, every step He took was regulated by the counsel of God. We could hardly claim that, but it is what we should have in our minds.
R.McL.
Would that enter into what we have in 2 Timothy, it says, “with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”, 2 Timothy 2: 22?
DBR Yes, it must involve practical separation from evil. That is the practical side of it, and we must remember that separation from evil is God’s principle of unity, there is no true unity apart from that. That is how we discover that we are walking with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. I think God would place it upon us that we must be set to maintain the truth. Is that timely? Is what I am saying right? We must be set for it, and I think too we must be
collectively set for it. So it is the way that things are held amongst us, and can come under scrutiny from anyone, and especially the scrutiny of God. That would reveal that persons were governed by the revealed mind of God.
AM The word to Gaius was that he was holding fast the truth, does that show that the truth was precious to him? I feel sometimes it is a challenge. How precious is the truth to me?
Divine things may seem to become common place to some, but how precious it is, there is nothing like it.
DBR That is what it means there, we need to hold it. If you go back to the Old Testament you have a man going about cutting people’s thumbs off (Judges 1). That is what the enemy is trying to do today. He is trying to cut our thumbs off so that we lose our grasp on the truth. We need our thumbs, we need all our hand to hold on to the truth. Hold fast and make sure that no one is cutting your thumb off. A little bit here and a little bit there, a little modification and what is happening?—the truth is evaporating. Beloved brethren we cannot afford to let any detail of the truth go.
J.W.
Mr. Raven said that if we let one feature go we lose the lot, we lose the whole truth because the truth is one whole. He did not like to speak of truths, the truth is one whole.
DBR It is the entirety of the thing. Every sect that has been formed in Christendom has been generally formed as a result of pushing one truth at the expense of another; for instance Baptists—they pushed that truth, and they lost it all. We must hold fast the truth, you might say balance the truth, that does not mean that you let certain features go, but balancing the truth is you take in the whole scope of the matter.
A.P.D.
Would this help us to value the ministries of the recovery? I think we need that.
We need to get into that and see how valuable it is to us, the opening up of the truth.
DBR To see how God has operated by the Spirit, how carefully, and in what a detailed way, to open the thing up to us. Now there is the idea of the faith and the truth. I would suggest that the faith is something we embrace that is the principle of faith, the fact that we embrace it; but the truth is
what God commits to us and it is to be kept, we have that obligation, to keep the truth. I do not want to sound hard in any way, beloved brethren, but we are in critical days. The Lord is coming soon, and the public side is that He will take over. We long for that day when that glorious Man will be vindicated, but in the interim, we must take on the obligation to maintain the truth.
R.D.P.
Would you say that the enemy will attack this, he does attack it, and we may fail, but you look for this feature, characteristically, holding the truth; we may need and we will need adjustment as we go on. This does not suggest persons who are, I was going to say, inch perfect in every detail, but it is characteristic would you say?
DBR I do think that. I think we have needed and we will need adjustment, but it is fine when persons can be adjusted.
R.D.P.
Yes because that would be one of the characters of it, persons who are holding truth, is that they were adjustable, they were amenable to divine adjustment.
DBR It is a question of being of the truth. The thought comes in early in Romans; it speaks of those who are of the faith of Jesus, not only those who have faith in Jesus, but there is the faith of Jesus. So it begins early I believe in the Christian’s history, we take on this characteristic feature, it becomes part of us.
R.D.P.
So a man like Peter, but this was there with Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16: 16), “flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father” (Matthew 16: 17), and yet Peter failed grievously; he was recovered, but he was one who walked in truth, characteristically, it was what marked him.
DBR That is it.
M.JM Would our committal, Lord’s day, by Lord’s day at the Supper involve this line of being committed to the truth.
DBR Yes, that is good and I think perhaps that mainly at the Supper, we would hear the voice of Christ, Lord’s day by Lord’s day. You think of His voice saying, “this do in remembrance of me”, Luke 22: 19. What a voice that is and
many are answering to it. Then it is not only that we answer to it but we answer to it characteristically, week by week. The matter is fresh and I believe as the Lord comes in there is always some touch from Himself, a quickening touch, we hear the voice of Christ, a very precious matter.
R.D.P.
We should always make room for that element, a calling of Him to mind. There is the public side as well, there is the matter of the announcement, but that first touch is what the heart has in Christ Himself. Is that right?
DBR That is right. It is the inner side, the secret side. And if we are going to be maintained publicly in our witness to the truth we must be sustained by what we know in the inner side. “Every one that is of the truth hears my voice”. I suppose you see it in John 20, the inner side of the truth.
Well there was a man here and he was casting out of the assembly, Diotrephes. But here is a man Demetrius, he is going on in spite of all the Diotrephes’ in the world, he is going on, and I think this is a great testimony, “Demetrius has witness borne to him by all, and by the truth itself”. How would you understand that?
A.P.D.
I do not know, except there must have been a correspondence there. Real correspondence there with the truth, in him. You say what you had in mind.
DBR That was what I had in mind, there was such a formation in the man that the very truth itself witnessed to him.
M.M.
Is the truth seen then objectively in Christ, and then it is worked out subjectively in us, by the Spirit?
DBR That is what brings out the characteristic side of things, you become subject to the Spirit’s operation in you, bringing into correspondence with the truth.
M.M.
So that when we look upon one another we see features of Christ.
DBR Yes exactly that is it.
DJW Do you think Demetrius being referred to here would remind us that the Lord always leaves practical examples for us. “Remember your leaders” comes in, does it not (Hebrews 13: 7)? The Lord always shows that the condition is
workable in our day does He not?
DBR I am sure you are like me, you can look back and you can remember men and women that you have come in touch with, and you have been affected by the fact that they were characterised by certain things. I can look back and see many of them, my own father was one. He was of the truth, and others, not only brothers but sisters also you can say they were of the truth, they left their mark on you. It is more than what we say, it is what we are.
They said to the Lord, “Who art thou?”, and He said, “Altogether that which I also say to you”, John 8: 25. I think that is the great thing, that the truth is never better expressed, than when it is expressed in a person.
DJW So sometimes you do not need a chapter and verse, you see the thing expressed among the saints.
DBR Just so.
P.H.
Does what you are saying link back to what we had as to Christ Himself, “I have been born for this, and for this I have come into the world”. It was manifested in the Person, and it is now formed in persons who are like Him.
DBR Exactly, seen now in the saints. I suppose in a certain sense, as Mr. Raven taught us, regarding the features of the new man, that there is no individual Christian able to display all of the features of Christ, but when you think of the whole of the new man it is a collective state, Christ characteristically as seen in that new man. Do you think?
P.H.
I noticed as to Gaius it says in the note, ‘Lit. ‘to thy truth’’. Would that relate to what he had made his own.
DBR Yes it is ‘to thy truth’.
H.T.F.
The word “all”, “to him by all”, it is not some is it, I was wondering if there is a link with God all in all?
DBR Demetrius “has witness borne to him by all”. Well God all in all, He is all objectively and He is also all subjectively.
Well there is just a word before we finish, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He that does good is of God”. May we heed the exhortation beloved brethren. Do not imitate what is of evil it does not belong to us, we
have been called to a greater thing, called to a greater matter, called to have part of being exponents of the truth.
W.McL.
That reminds me of a remark of Mr. Percy Lyon, that Paul was the exponent of all that he expounded.
DBR Yes I remember that, the exponent of what he expounded. Just so.
Reading at Grimsby, 10 October 2009
KEY TO INITIALS
D. B. Bodman
A. Martin
R. D. Plant
A. P. Devenish
M. J. Matthews
D. B. Robertson
H. T. Franklin
M. Metcalfe
D. J. Willetts
A. P. Grant
R. McClean
J. Wright
P. Hutson
W. McClean