THE HOUSE OF GOD
[p. 171] THE HOUSE OF GOD
Ephesians 2: 19 - 22; Ephesians 4: 1 - 3
[Translation] These scriptures direct our attention to a very important subject, namely, the house of God. No material building can now claim to be the house of God, for we read that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. We will first refer to a few scriptures which, as I believe, will not only serve to bring before us the fact that God dwells here, but will indicate to us the importance of that fact. The last verse of Ephesians 2 reads, “In whom ye also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”, that is, God dwells amongst us in the Spirit; and in the beginning of chapter 4 we have brought before us the conduct which is proper to the house of God:
“I ... beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”.
The first passage to which I would call attention is in John 1: 35 - 39. We see there how the two disciples of John followed the Lord with the desire to know where He dwelt. The Lord put the question to them, “What seek ye?” They said, “Master, where dwellest thou?” and He answered, “Come and see”. He encouraged them to come and see where He dwelt. We cannot believe that the disciples wanted to see the bare house in which He dwelt. That was nothing in their eyes, but the important thing was that He dwelt among a few disciples, and it was there that the disciples of John desired to be. I may live in a house of four walls, but, if you visited me with a view to know me better, walls, furniture and the like would not [p. 172] so much interest you as my family, and the order of my household. So it was with the two disciples. They wanted to know Him better where He, if I may so say, was at home, and the Lord gratified their desire. That certainly was not without effect upon them. They came under the influence of His presence and, as we read, “abode with him that day”. God dwells amongst His own, and the scripture which we are now looking at furnishes us with a beautiful picture of this truth. The two disciples came under the influence of God, for God was revealed in Jesus. It is wonderful to think of it, that God dwelt here in flesh, so that men, as these two disciples, could abide in nearness to Him without fear. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. When Jesus said to them, “Come and see”, “they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day”. One could say that this was, in a certain sense, the beginning of what we find in Ephesians 2.
We will now pass on to chapter 14: 15 - 20. All that we have seen in chapter 1 is past. If I may so say, it was for one day. “They abode with him that day”. He could not remain with them; He had to go away, as we see in chapter 14. He was on the point of going back to the Father, in whose house He would prepare a place for His own. We stand in the period of time between the going away of Jesus out of this world and His return to take His own to be with Himself. The passage in John 14 has relation to the present time, which is characterised by the presence of the other Comforter among the saints on earth. The Lord referring to it said that the Comforter would come to abide with His own for ever. “The world ... seeth him not”, He said, “neither knoweth him: but ye know him”. The Lord Jesus could only remain with them for a time, and the two disciples, as we have already seen, only remained one day with Him, but the [p. 173] Comforter would abide with them for ever. It is so wonderful that the Comforter should come in order to remain with them for ever. Let us give it due consideration. The Comforter is God — God dwells down here now through the Spirit.
Then the Lord spoke of the effect which this would have upon the disciples. One consequence of the presence of the Holy Spirit on the earth is that we see Jesus. “The world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also”. This verse shews us that so far as life is concerned we are not dependent upon this world. We live because He lives, and He lives for ever; death cannot touch His life and therefore it cannot touch ours.
A second effect of the presence of the Spirit is that we know. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. That is indeed a wonderful knowledge! The Holy Spirit gives us to know that Jesus dwells in the affections of the Father, and that we also have a place in His affections; and more than that, He is in us, He is the object of our affections. So we see how much better and greater is our situation than that of the disciples at the time in which the Lord uttered these things. He shewed the disciples plainly in this chapter that they would enjoy a much greater advantage by the coming of the Comforter than if He Himself were to remain with them. They knew that He had to leave them, but the Comforter was to abide with them for ever. Through Him we also see Jesus, and we live because Jesus lives.
The passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians to which we will next turn, shews us the range or the extent of the house of God. In John 14 we read of the dwelling of the Comforter among the disciples, but the point here is that believers from amongst the nations, as well as from amongst the Jews, are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit, and this shews us the [p. 174] extent of the house of God. If we only had the passage in John 14 we could well suppose that the dwelling of the Comforter would be limited to the disciples, but this scripture teaches us that the house of God — the habitation of God through the Spirit — embraces the believers out of all nations of the earth. Verse 21 looks on to the glory, but in the meantime, as we see in verse 22, believers out of the nations are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.
We have now considered two points. First, that the Holy Spirit is down here and abides with us for ever; and secondly, that the house of God, which depends upon the presence of the Holy Spirit here on earth, is no material building, but is composed of persons. It is very important that we form a right conception of the house of God, and although it is no longer to be seen as it was before the failure came in, nevertheless the truth of it as well as the fact remains unchanged, that God dwells down here. The house of God is not brought before us in the scripture in the form of a local assembly; it includes, as we have already noticed, the believers out of all nations of the earth. We should manifest the same zeal for the house of God as the two disciples who could only be satisfied with knowing where the Lord dwelt. If we only resembled them in this respect the house of God would soon become a great reality to us.
Now I should like to refer to the advantage which accrues to us in the fact that God dwells down here. In the book of Exodus we get the first mention in the scriptures of the dwelling-place of God on earth. God saved Israel out of Egypt in order that He might dwell among them and bless them. He did not want to dwell among them to judge them, but to bless them, and that is very wonderful. Then He said, “I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee”, Exodus 15: 26. And God was also light among them; He entrusted to them His statutes, and all nations were to have the witness before their eyes that God dwelt among Israel. But the children of Israel did not yet realise the fact that God dwelt among them, and turned to idols; hence the severity of the judgment which He brought upon them.
An important point in connection with the dwelling of God amongst us is that we learn to know His attitude toward us. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and God dwells among us in order to bring us to the consciousness of His goodness. If God is present it is only to bless us. When Adam was driven out of the garden he found himself in a certain sense in a God-forsaken scene, but God has brought us into His house in order to lead us into the consciousness of His goodness. He has come near to us, so that we might, as His children, be in the consciousness of His favour and live in nearness to Himself. In the house of God we enjoy His favour. How else could we be happy as His children except in the consciousness of His favour?
Moreover, God dwells among His own to “heal” them. He heals us from the diseases of Egypt — brings us spiritual healing from the corruption of the world. The world is full of moral sickness, but God brings us into His house and under His influence so that we might live in the consciousness of His love and His favour, and in this way be delivered from the moral diseases of the world. Then we are conscious that God dwells among us, because we are conscious of His blessing and His favour and His power which heals us, and instead of living in the confusion of the world, we enjoy the peace of God. The light of His love and of His will, as well as the knowledge of His favour, makes us perfectly happy.
Then as members of the household of God we enjoy still another favour, namely, His education.
[p. 176] We come under the discipline of God. God really allowed the rest of the nations to go their own way; He gave up those who served idols so that they sank and perished, given up to uncleanness; but Israel was the house of God, and on this account He could say, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth”. And further, “therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”, Amos 3: 2. By his chastisement God would hinder them from going down into the pit; Job 33: 24. But Israel did not pay heed to the discipline of God, and as a nation have rushed to destruction. If we then dwell where God dwells He takes notice of our ways. If we were not righteous before Him we could not be in His house at all; we are righteous, however, and we know that God does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous. He pays attention to our ways, tries our hearts, and disciplines us. He does not overlook our sins and we have to receive His chastening. In Hebrews 12: we find this all confirmed. The Lord chastens us because He loves us, and if He did not chasten we should certainly go down into the pit; none of us would continue in the faith. We are “kept by the power of God through faith”, that is, we are exercised and disciplined so that we are preserved and do not get away from the path of faith. In this way God exercises His power unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. If God drew His hand away from us it would be the greatest calamity that could happen to us. We cannot let our children go their own way, neither can God. That explains much of what happens to us down here. The discipline of God has in view our being kept in the faith.
It is not difficult to understand these thoughts in connection with the house of God, because each one of us has a picture of this before his eyes in his own house. In my house my personal influence asserts itself; I have not to trouble myself so much about [p. 177] the house or the family of my neighbour, but I would be a very bad father if I did not exercise any discipline with my own children. Well, God is a Father — perfectly good — and He lets us feel that it is He who disciplines us. He does it, so that we may not be disobedient but walk in His ways. Peter gives expression to the same thought when be speaks of judgment beginning at the house of God. Let us consider this fact more, that God dwells among us. In His house we come under the influence of what He is. We rejoice in His love and care, and are conscious that He heals us. His desire is that our souls should be healthy. As far as I can I take care of the health of my children, and God cares for the health of our souls so that we do not suffer the diseases of the Egyptian — the moral evil of the world.
Now a word in connection with the first part of chapter 4. We find here a touching exhortation of Paul, the prisoner of the Lord. He beseeches us to walk worthy of the calling. And what is the calling? It consists in this: that God dwells among us, that we constitute His house through the Spirit. It is the fulfilment of the word of the Lord in John 14 that the Comforter would abide with us for ever. Could God have given us a greater privilege? My children could not have a greater privilege than that I dwell in their midst. Now God has given us the wonderful privilege that He dwells among us. What then is to characterise us in His presence? Lowliness to Him, and then meekness with one another. In the world we see little of this; one seeks to supplant the other; but in the presence of God, in His house, lowliness becomes us towards Him and meekness towards one another. We are not to sit in judgment upon one another, nor seek occasion against one another, but to forbear one another in love, and endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is what we are to be concerned about; for we come together in [p. 178] assembly to give expression to the truth that we are one; as the apostle says in another place, “For we, being many, are one bread and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread”. All that we read here, proves that God does not intend that each should stand alone by himself. The Lord said, “By this shall all men know ... if ye have love one to another”. This is the testimony of God before the world. The Lord prayed, “that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me”. The unity of believers through the Spirit should be the testimony of God in the presence of the world. The diseases of Egypt are pride, lust and the like; but here we see portrayed, in a certain sense, the healthy soul, characterised by lowliness, meekness, longsuffering and forbearance in love. God grant that we may abide down here in the consciousness of His blessing and under His influence, and so walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called.