THE ASSEMBLY COME TOGETHER
[p. 230] THE ASSEMBLY COME TOGETHER
There are one or two expressions in the previous chapter of this epistle to which I will refer. “For first of all, when ye come together in the church ..”. (verse 18). Then verse 20: “When ye come together therefore into one place ..”. So again in chapter 14: “If therefore the whole assembly come together”. I want to bring before you two or three thoughts in connection with the coming together of the assembly. I may say they are elementary, but it is not always a very easy thing to present the elements, because so few of us understand the science. All the world comes together for worship; that is, at all events, the idea in Christendom. It is only the ungodly who do not come together. Churches and chapels are filled, and people have the idea of coming together for divine service. Now if we come together in assembly, we do not come together in accord with all that is around us. With very many there is probably the thought that they come together as others do, but in a more scriptural way. We come together at the same time, on the same day, and it looks as if we were in accord with all around, but we are not in spirit in accord with anything around us. The saints at the beginning certainly did not come together in accord with heathenism. Judaism was immediately around, but they did not come together in accord with Judaism. The coming together of Christians was in most distinct separation from all around. Now we have got Christianism (if I might coin a word), but we do not come together in accord with Christianism. Just as Judaism was then the established order, so Christianity has become the same thing. There can be no real Christianity outside of the Spirit of God, and the world cannot receive the [p. 231] Spirit; so if Christianity has become bound up with the world, there is something very wrong, and the mind of God is not met. In coming together in assembly, we cannot make it apparent to others that we are in separation from what is going on around; but in our own sense of things we come together in separation from all. People may come to us, but we cannot go to them; there can be no reciprocity, for it is not according to the Spirit of God. We are maintained by the Spirit in the fellowship of Christ’s death, and we come together in the fellowship of that death. Christ is not in honour in the world, and until He comes again He will not touch the world. He has died to it, and we have died with Him, and are in separation from that to which we have died. The apostle challenges the Colossians (chapter 2: 20): “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?” We are risen with Christ “through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead”.
Now to come to chapter 12, see verse 13. We come together in assembly in the unity of the Spirit. The Spirit has no regard to the distinctions of the world; the Jew is no better than the Gentile, the free man is no better than the slave. What distinction can hold in Christ’s presence? The Spirit pays no regard to the distinctions of men, and in coming together in assembly the distinctions which exist in the world disappear. If we do not come together rightly in our feelings and thoughts with regard to one another, it is impossible to gain the presence of the Lord. The Spirit maintains what is according to Christ, not what is according to man, and so in coming together it will not do for us to maintain distinctions which the Spirit of God has disregarded. “We have all been made to drink into one Spirit”. I am putting before you matters which are extremely [p. 232] important with regard to the things of the assembly down here. We have to regard the unity of the Spirit, and to look to it that we are right in our relations one to another.
Now I pass on to another point. It says in verse 27, “You are Christ’s body”. I refer you in connection with this to a verse in John 14. Read verse 20; that verse helps us to understand the statement which we get here — “Ye are the body of Christ”. The body is where the heart of Christ is. He says, “I am in my Father”, that is, in the Father’s heart. “Ye in me”, that is, in the heart of Christ. “I in you”, that is, the affections of Christ are here. Christ’s affections are in His saints down here. It is difficult to realise this on account of the confusion around, but we have to regard the true character of things, as presented by the Spirit of God.
The first thing is, we do not come together in accord with things around. Secondly, we come together in the unity of the Spirit. Thirdly, we are conscious of being Christ’s body. Christ is present there in affection. The Lord says, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you”. It is very important that we should come together aright. We may so readily fall into what is prevailing in Christendom, only with a more correct form.
Now I want to call your attention to chapter 13: 1 - 13. We will suppose that the points that I have referred to are accepted, and that we are come together. In the assembly come together, love is the principle which regulates everything and puts everything in its place. There is no real corrective to what is unsuitable but love. It is love in regard to one another. Christ puts love in activity, and the working of love is to put all in order in the assembly come together. We have to follow after love. These things are all excessively important if the assembly is to have its character according to God down here. We have to take account of its being Christ’s assembly, and that our conduct has reference to Christ, and love corrects all that is unseemly or uncomely. The points I have touched on are: first, separation; secondly, the unity of the Spirit; and thirdly, the body of Christ — His affections being there — and then love as being the regulating principle.
Now I pass on to what transpires in the assembly. Each one certainly brings there the best he has got. We come there as believers or as priests. All are believers, but the priests are practically a more limited class. We all bring the best we have. How is the service to be ordered? I think by the priests. In a church the service is conducted by the priest — the principle is in a way right; but all depends on the ordination of the priest. We want to find priests properly qualified, not priests ordained by a bishop, and we should look for it in ourselves, not in clericalism. Each one has to look to it as to what he has to bring to the assembly. Not something to give out, but as to the knowledge he brings. Every Christian is necessarily a believer, and every believer is entitled to be a priest, but I am not sure that every one is so. The qualification for a priest is the consciousness of being kindred to Christ. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. Your genealogy is attested in the consciousness that you are one with Christ. Then we want perfect assurance and liberty with God. There is nothing in God which is hidden from us. In the holiest you enter into the depths of God’s nature — His holy love. There is nothing beyond the holiest. The depth and resources of that nature are laid open to you, and you can draw nigh. God invited the confidence of Abraham; when, too, Christ was on earth He invited the confidence of the disciples. Now God invites our confidence, and we have boldness to approach Him in all liberty of access. We draw near, not with reserve, but with the sense that [p. 234] we are encouraged to drink into the depths of all that God has revealed Himself to be.
When we come together in assembly, though the ordering of the worship is properly by the priests, yet each one must be simple, and all must be from the heart. There is not much good in any one setting up a kind of ideal. We have to take things as they are. When we come together there are really the two classes of which I have spoken. Very few among the Corinthians had entered into the qualification for priests, and yet when we come together in assembly the conduct of divine service ought clearly to be on the part of the priests. It is not simply a believers’ meeting. We should not be content without having the qualification of priests — in the consciousness that we are one with Christ. I do not belong to any body of Christians on earth; I am of Christ’s body, and one with the Sanctifier. I have confidence thus to avail myself of the privilege which God has laid open to me in making Himself known in the depths of His love. So few of us are prepared to surrender the world, and if we will retain the world we cannot enter into the qualification of the priests.
I have no doubt that many would say, Does not Christ regulate the worship? Yes; but He does it through His members — through the priests — through those who are in the sense of being kindred with Christ. You do not gain the qualification for priest when you come together, for each brings the best he has got. God invites us to enter into the holiest, and if we have answered to it, we know how to accept our part as priests in the assembly. We know how to draw nigh to the holiest things. I want that we should not take these things up in a formal way. The assembly is a very great thing rightly understood. We come together in separation from the world in the unity of the Spirit; we are the body of Christ, and everything is regulated by love. You must not suppose that the [p. 235] obligation in coming together rests only with the priests. Every believer brings the best he has got If all were in the consciousness of being priests there would be a very great effect. In any case, we have to take care that all that takes place is done from the heart. Every one there is properly in sympathy with Christ and dwelling in the holy love of God.