THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY (3)

THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY (3)

1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 1:30,31; 1 Corinthians 2:1,2; 1 Corinthians 6:15-20; 1 Corinthians 10:15,16; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32

SMcC In our two readings yesterday we considered passages in Romans, bearing on how Christ is presented in the truth of the gospel, in such a form and manner in view of the building up of our souls in that knowledge. Now we come to how our souls are built up in the knowledge of Christ in relation to the assembly. This morning we shall consider it in relation to the local position and perhaps, if the Lord will and we should live, this afternoon we shall consider it in relation to the general position. It is important that we should understand that the local position of the assembly is not merely a doctrinal and ecclesiastical position, but it is a position that involves persons, who are the subject of divine operations or divine attention. They are persons who themselves are built up in the knowledge of Christ. I am sure this is a source of weakness amongst us, for failure largely stems from lack on this constitutional side. Many of us perhaps come into fellowship because we have so grown up in an environment where the fellowship is talked about and the principles of the fellowship are gone over and we feel it is right to follow in the path of our parents. That is very good and very important, but it is equally important for each one of us to see that we shall never be preserved and sustained in the position on that ground only. The whole intent of the ministry in these epistles is to correct what was existent at Corinth by a powerful presentation of Christ so that the brethren in that city might be affected by it. Therefore the passages we have read, especially the latter three, particularly speak of faithfulness, fidelity to Christ. But the first passage brings on to view the thought of the fellowship we are called into, the bond of which is God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It is an important thing that we should understand and see the dignity of the fellowship from this standpoint, involving our collective relations together as believers. We cannot go on in isolation however blessed we may be; and wondrously blessed we are according to the truth of the glad tidings in Romans! These letters show that we are morally bound, as the work of God proceeds, to find ourselves linked with others in a common bond in the enjoyment of the great things of God. The end of the chapter shows how Christ personally as Man is everything to us in this position. We do not have to take on anything else. Why would we want anything else? “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”, 1 Corinthians 1: 30. I think it is important to see that it is the Person of Christ, not just principles. He has been made this unto us. We are thus fully furnished from God’s side, to fill out our part and place in this fellowship, that works out practically in our position in the local assembly. Then in connection with the knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Mr. Darby points out, in the Synopsis, that, ‘it is not, as some generally make it, the knowledge of the cross’. Sometimes the passage is quoted as if it were the cross that was the crux of the passage, but it is not. It is the Person. “For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. It is the Person of Christ that is referred to, in such lowly conditions of reproach as the crucifixion alludes to. All that is to affect the local personnel, so that we should be stripped of pride and of all ideas of self-sufficiency which belong to us naturally, according to the first man, and that we should have a greater sense of the dignity of the fellowship.

LES Does the great matter of the faithfulness of God suggest that on our side there are the affinities to that faithfulness manifested in our relations one with the other?

SMcC I should think so. By presenting it in this way, he would have in mind that they should be challenged as to their ways, because he immediately begins to speak of what was existent among them - their bad behaviour. The stress on ‘God is faithful’ should strike a note in their souls.

JAK Do you think we are tested as to whether we are able to present Christ in such a way as He is presented in the Corinthian epistle?

SMcC We want to see that the principle on which we are bound together in this fellowship is by common attachment to and affection for a Person, and that Person, God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

WBG Does being in it rightly involve the call by God into it?

SMcC The call involves, not exactly a call from heaven (Ephesians would give is the heavenly calling), that is not the point here, but God, on the ground of redemption having taken up His abode by the Spirit in the assembly down here, speaks out of that position and calls us. “Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tent of meeting”, Leviticus 1: 1. The call is out of that position into the fellowship “by whom ye have been called into the fellowship”. It is not exactly called to it, but called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now this applies to every believer, for the fellowship of God’s Son, rightly and normally and abstractly speaking, involves every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course the question would arise as to whether he has responded to the call, but the call bears on every believer.

Ques Would that be in view in preaching on the street?

SMcC Well, I would not think so much on that line. It is for believers, and as we have said in Leviticus 1. Jehovah spoke out of the tent of meeting, not in the open air. This links with the assembly position.

Ques The Lord says: “But the nine, where are they?”

SMcC The principle of it would be there. That is, they had been affected by grace in the service of Christ, so they should have been normally found together in the appreciation of that grace. We need to think of this matter of God calling out a little more. God is in this position, involving the assembly. We speak of ourselves as being in it, but then God is in it, and He has called us into it, as speaking out of it. The calling into it involves the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

WB As being a divine calling.

SMcC Of course; it is God’s calling, therefore it must be divine.

WB We are a divinely-called company.

SMcC So there may be young believers waiting for the brethren to say something to them, but what about God? Have they heard God saying something to them? Have they heard God’s voice speaking out of the assembly, in testimony here, calling them into the fellowship? It is a wonderful thing that it is God’s call, God’s speaking.

WBG How would Abraham link on with your thought, and Lot being only nominally in it as following Abraham?

SMcC In the fullest sense Abraham’s was a heavenly calling, having the inheritance in mind, the land that God was to give. This is not exactly calling us into the inheritance; it is the assembly in the wilderness before the eyes of men in testimony,

and God in that position is calling us to it. But still the call out of the world is there. God, in the assembly position, as seen in the type in the tent of meeting, is calling us out of the world, to come into it. The question would then arise with each one of us as to whether we are like Abraham or like Lot; whether, in the selfishness of our hearts, we are putting personal advantage foremost in our thinking, or whether, as with Abraham, we are characteristically obedient and subject to the divine call, come what may. Whatever the sufferings, whatever the cost may be, the attitude of our souls is to be obedient to the divine call.

EG Is it seen with Cornelius? He hears the divine call and then sends for Peter.

SMcC The principle of it is there too, how the Gentiles are subjects of the work of God and come into the assembly position.

LES “The assembly of God which is in Corinth” is really the position out of which God is calling. It involves our position publicly in this world.

SMcC It is not our position in heaven. The three positions defined in this epistle are: the Jewish position, the Gentile position and the assembly position - Jew, Gentile and assembly of God. Now you, of course, have come out of the Jewish position, the rest of us have come out of the Gentile position; and we have come into this realm and sphere in the presence of evil and adversaries, but where God has His testimony and is setting out His testimony in an ordered way, both in regard to the gospel and in relation to the assembly.

ABM'N Does the expression “God is faithful” suggest what is originally in God’s mind in relation to the assembly and the calling into the fellowship of God’s Son, the bringing to light and development of the personnel that composes it?

SMcC I think “God is faithful” is like an added touch of grace to affect our souls. It is remarkable how God goes out of His way to assure and confirm our hearts. Being God, He does not have to do so, but you take Hebrews 6 - the chapter has been dealing with the apostasy and the danger of getting into it - it says in regard to the heirs of promise, “Wherein God, willing to shew more abundantly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, intervened by an oath, that by two unchangeable things, in which it was impossible that God should lie, we might have a strong encouragement”, Hebrews 6: 17, 18. Of course it is speaking to Jewish believers, but the two unchangeable things are the promise and the oath. Think of God promising, but think of Him adding to the promise the oath, as in Genesis 22. God makes certain promises to Abraham, but then He interposes by an oath, swearing in regard to the matter. God would affect our souls that whatever our unfaithfulness may have been or may be. He is going out of His way to confirm our souls in regard to where He is and where He stands.

JAK When the Lord says in John 17 “the men whom thou gavest me out of the world”, does that link on in any way?

SMcC I would think it would, only John 17 would bring us on to a more elevated plane, involving eternal life and sonship; Corinthians does not take us as far as that. But the fellowship is like that, for God has called us out of the world morally. Soon we shall go out of it physically, but now He has called us out of it morally, into this realm where the bond is His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

HS Would it be anything like the place at David’s table?

SMcC Yes, it would involve that. There are privileges that are linked with the position, as we shall see as we go on in the epistle. The great point for Mephibosheth would be that it was David’s table, and the great point in the fellowship for us is that it is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not a fellowship of ideas, or hobbies, or mutual improvement; it is the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

LES It would govern every position in which the thought of being in the Lord would be involved. There is nothing greater from the public side of the testimony.

SMcC No, exactly.

Rem The presentation of Christ in the Corinthian epistles not only helps us to find our place in the fellowship, but would make us available as vessels through which the call may go out through the preaching on the streets or speaking to persons privately. There would be something there to make way for God to say to that person in relation to the fellowship through what we are.

SMcC I suppose so. The call of God would come into the gospel too, but the stress is on the assembly position in this letter, “The fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” is not mentioned in Romans. We do get the reference to the “one body in Christ”, without any opening up of it, but when we come to Corinthians we get the stress on “the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord”. The point before us now is the knowledge of Christ in which our souls are to be built up, and the knowledge of Christ in this relation is that He is the bond of the fellowship into which we have been called. The brethren are not the bond, nor what the brethren hold. The bond is God’s Son, God’s best we might say, because God’s Son is His best. He is the bond of the fellowship, and that challenges us. I mean, What am I in Gothenburg in relation to in the fellowship? What is before my soul? What is holding me? Is it a young man, a young woman? Is it an employer that I want to get on with, someone whom I might get a job from? What is it that holds me? That is what this passage would search us as to. In the fellowship Christ is the bond objectively, and the Spirit is the bond subjectively.

JHS Thinking of Korah’s rebellion in Numbers, was it a lack of appreciation of the bond, typically, that gave rise to the rebellion?

SMcC Exactly. It was because they thought that the whole matter lay in the assertion of personality amongst themselves, forgetting that the whole matter lay in divine sovereignty. So God’s answer to the rebellion is this Person, typified in the rod that budded and bloomed and yielded almonds. That is, God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The priesthood is based on His sonship as well as His eternal personality.

Rem Mary, at the feet of Jesus, had an Object. It was the Person. I was thinking of her affection for the Person.

SMcC We are all tested as to that and especially in the local position, where our temperaments and our make-ups are such a trial to one another naturally. What is it that holds us together? Is it because I like you and you like me? That will not go on very long if that is the only bond, because something is sure to come in that will arouse feelings against one another. The bond cannot be social; that would never do. But when we have entered upon the fellowship with a true apprehension of the bond being God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, then we shall not very readily go out of it if something happens that goes against the grain. The bond is the Person of Christ.

JHS He is the One who is Son over God’s house.

SMcC Is it not interesting to see how His sonship is made so much of in that relation? He is over the house as Son, “but Christ, as Son over his house”, Hebrews 3: 6. Then the bond of the fellowship is God’s Son; that is, God’s affections are entering into the matter of providing that which would hold us together. It is not an arbitrary matter; it is a matter of attraction. Persons are brought together in this circle of community of interests, that the fellowship suggests, by mutual attraction to Him who is the bond of it.

JHS Then is it right to link on the word, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35?

SMcC The fellowship is one of the things. J.T. very aptly said once, and I think it is very important to see it, that sometimes things lose their force with us without careful attention. When it says, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, it is not that the Father has given them away. We perhaps think of that as if the Father has put them out of His hands and into the hands of Christ, but that is not the sense of that passage. The Father still retains the things, but He gives them into the hands of Christ for administration and the fellowship is part of the administration, and the expression “God is faithful” would show us how the Father still retains His link with the things. What community of interests in this world could give you the advantages that the fellowship of God’s Son gives? Think of the dignity of it and how it would help us to be careful in linking on with anything or anyone that would detract from this circle of community of interests!

CAH Is it not illustrated in Joseph under Pharaoh? Pharaoh gave to him the administration of matters relating to the need and the supply. Pharaoh did not give up the possession of things, but what Joseph did was to bring all into the possession of Pharaoh.

SMcC That is how administration works out. In John’s gospel the things are given into the hands of Christ, but they still are the Father’s things, and the Lord operates to bring all these things in the return flow back to Him, from whom they came. Even in regard to the persons it says, “They were thine, and thou gavest them me” (John 17: 6), but then He brings them back to the Father.

LES “But if any one love God, he is known of him”, 1 Corinthians 8: 3. And “to us there is one God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”, 1 Corinthians 8: 6, 7.

SMcC That helps in regard to what we are saying. The Lord Jesus is the great Administrator, the Father is the source and the Spirit is the power by which the things are enjoyed or made effective in our souls.

When we come to the end of the chapter (he has had many things to say especially as to the divided conditions among them) he says, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus”. Now the truth of the glad tidings as in Romans has taught us that we are in Christ Jesus. That is our true state according to God, but then we have more here, for it says: “who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption; that according as it is written, He that boasts, let him boast in the Lord”, 1 Corinthians 1: 30, 31. The point is that, over against philosophy which was so rampant in Corinth (learned men moralising in regard to things). Paul is seeking to impress the Corinthian believers with the fact that we have everything in a Person, and that Person is made of God all to us that is necessary to fill out the position here. It is not exactly the position in heaven, because redemption will not be needed in heaven, but it is the Person who is made to us redemption here. You may say: Well, it is the work of the Person, but that is not how it is put here. It says, “Christ Jesus who has been made to us ... redemption”.

LES His Person governs every sphere that He is in, and every feature of the whole testimony is governed by the knowledge of His Person.

SMcC Just so. As we proceed into the great thought of the local assembly and the working out of things practically, we are tested as to how our souls have been built up in the knowledge of this Person. Take the matter of wisdom; we all know that the need for it is constantly rising in matters amongst us. Where do we derive our wisdom from? Have we derived it from the world, or from what we are naturally; or, are our souls so built up in the knowledge of Christ, that we are deriving it from Him, as made by God wisdom unto us? The same with righteousness and holiness and redemption. The standard of separation is not exactly principle in this passage, it is a Person. He is made unto us holiness. The divine standard is Christ.

Ques Would you enlarge a little on the word ‘made’?

SMcC I think it is very affecting to see how the Lord Jesus, as in manhood, has become this to us by God, “Christ Jesus, who has been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”. The ‘made’ would involve that Christ has thus become available to us, through the divine will, in regard to the furnishings that are necessary for the local position, because we can all see that wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption are needed in the local position.

JHS Does it mean that all of these are personified in this Man?

SMcC That is right. The qualities that the philosophers moralised on and drew up and set out were without any pith and power; nothing was effected through them. But when we come to Christianity, all these qualities are in a Person; the Person embodies these qualities and He is made from God these qualities unto us. It brings out the great advantages of Christ’s humanity. His humanity has not only been the great instrumental means for our clearance from the moral question, but His humanity becomes the means of our being furnished with all that is necessary to hold and to fill out the position to which we have been called according to God.

LES “Let the whole house of Israel know assuredly that God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. I was thinking of the whole position being filled out and secured in the glory of the manhood of Jesus whom God has made both Lord and Christ.

SMcC It is very affecting to think that He is everything to us. We say, He will be everything to us in glory and eternity. Of course, He will. But He is to be everything to us now in the local position. When a matter thus arises that calls for wisdom, the great thing would be: How did Jesus do this? What would He have done? How would He have acted? And the same with righteousness: How is righteousness seen in Him? And the same with holiness: How is holiness seen in Him? He is apart from everything. And then redemption: the Person is made unto us redemption. We know how every person was set free that came into the Lord’s presence with a sense of their need; the Person became redemption to them, and that is to help us in dealing with one another. Our prime thought is not how we are to fasten guilt upon one another; that should be the last thought with us. Our first thought is, according to John 20, how persons can be forgiven and set free. That is the great force of Christ being made redemption to us.

WBG So we are to be regulated by these features as seen in perfection in Jesus?

SMcC Exactly. It furnishes us fully to meet them substantially.

ABM'N And that this Man is the Son of God adds a great deal of authority and glory to it.

SMcC It involves another order of things, an out-of-the-world order, because God’s Son is linked with another world and the fellowship is morally linked with another world. As we are rightly affected by God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, the bond of the fellowship, we would never think of taking on the features of this world.

JAK When Balak wanted Balaam to curse the people, he was brought to see them from God’s side. Is that the principle here, to see them from God’s side, not only the assembly, but also the personnel?

SMcC This epistle speaks of the members and we are not to forget that. I think that Christ being made redemption unto us involves that we would go to the utmost limit to save a member, one of the personnel of the assembly. Sin has to be taken account of, for we cannot pass over sin lightly. Redemption involves that sin has been fully measured and taken account of, but then God has gone to the utmost limit, in redemption, to secure persons, and Christ being made redemption unto us, as viewed here in the local position, would affect our minds and our souls in that light.

JAK In connection with what you said, we are not to try to fasten something on an individual. We would try and help them to repent.

SMcC That is what redemption has in mind, that we should come to a sense of our need and see how God has dealt with sin in order that persons might go free. It is not that sin is ignored. God has not ignored it. Redemption shows that God has measured the question fully and dealt with it, and,

if we are to deal with sin, we must see and learn how God has dealt with it at Calvary.

LES It is very interesting how Paul confirms and brings it in in the second epistle in relation to what has transpired in the first. “But to whom ye forgive anything, I also; for I also, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sakes in the person of Christ; that we might not have Satan get an advantage against us, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts”, 2 Corinthians 2: 10, 11. It is as if the apostle was in the fullest gain of Christ as redemption.

SMcC What dignity attaches to his outlook there as he refers to the Person of Christ! It brings out the high level of his movements and his outlook; he did not stoop to anything petty. He was moving on this high level, that if forgiveness was to be extended, it would not be with a grudge. It would not be on a ‘fifty-fifty’ basis - forgetting some things and remembering others. Forgiveness in the Person of Christ would mean that the thing was full and complete. Forgiveness is forgiveness. If a person is forgiven, in an administrative manner by the assembly, you do not bring matters up again. The matter is finished.

LES The word is in the perfect tense. He has done it and it is continued as a present thing.

JAK Is that why Mr. Taylor drew our attention to the fact that one is restored to what he was before?

SMcC Yes, exactly. Galatians 6: 1 has that in mind, “if even a man be taken in some fault, ye who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted”. The word ‘restore’ has in mind the thought of mending, a person is fully set up again, as he or she was before. That is a great test, dear brethren, because it is very difficult for us to forget things.

Rem The butler forgot when he was restored to his former position.

SMcC Yes, he did, but the trouble with him was the opposite to what we are referring to. It was not much trouble for him to forget, and he forgot about Joseph. But what we are referring to is that the things we should forget, we do not, and the things we should not forget, we do.

JAK Would what the Lord said to Peter fit in here: “and thou, when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren”, Luke 22: 32?

SMcC That would be the point. Think of Peter in the opening of the Acts, the greatness and dignity and power that enters into his service! Could there be any question or doubt as to that man, as to his relations with God, with Christ, with the Spirit, with the brethren? It says that he stood up with the eleven. What a wonderful thing grace is! Ours is a dispensation of grace. It is an important thing that when persons are forgiven by the assembly, they are forgiven. The matter must be complete. You do not forgive them and carry over something, saying, There is some matter we will take up again. There is no kind of forgiveness in the assembly like that. Forgiveness is complete and, if there has been a right dealing with the matter, there can be no going back on it.

ABM'N How can it be called forgiveness otherwise?

LES You referred yesterday to new covenant ministry. Is that not involved in what you are saying now?

SMcC It is, but we all have to admit humbly that when persons fall into sin (and it is a humbling thing how persons do fall into sin) we do not find it is easy to forget it. But God forgets. Where there is true repentance, and a true judgment of sin. God forgets about the matter. And the marvellous thing is that we have the same power as God to forget, for we can forget things if we allow His work to come uppermost with us.

CAH Speaking of the new covenant the word is: “I will pardon their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more”, Jeremiah 31: 34.

SMcC That is what we are thinking of. It is active in God. It does not say, ‘I will forget’. It says, “I will remember no more”. It is an active matter with God that they are put out and put out for ever.

CAH It is a question of His will.

SMcC That is the point I am making in its being active.

Ques Does what is of grace overpower the law now? In the old dispensation it was the law, but grace comes in now.

SMcC Ours is a dispensation of grace. Under the law there was no hope although it is a remarkable thing that under the law you get the interposing of grace at intervals, and it was allowed. Grace would come into the position. Take David for instance; according to the law, death should have been his portion, but grace came into the position and he was forgiven. When we come to the dispensation we are in, we could not say that law comes into grace. The dispensation is the dispensation of unmixed grace. You cannot mix law with grace.

Now we have this reference: “For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. Think of the attitude of Paul and the ability he had to eliminate everything but what was necessary for the gain and benefit of the Corinthians! The Corinthians were proud and making much of man in the flesh, boasting carnally in their own efforts and results; whereas Paul emphasises with himself in his service among them, that he did not judge it well to know anything save Jesus Christ. You can see that it does not actually refer absolutely to Paul’s knowledge, because he had wonderful knowledge, but it is a determination of mind in regard to a peculiar set of circumstances and conditions. He would not know anything else for the moment but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, in view of their gain.

Ques In regard of complete forgiveness, is it important to see that there has been a complete dealing, by God, with sin? It is not a partial matter.

SMcC Just so. If we are to deal with sin we must learn how God has dealt with it. That is where we get help. We are to be like God in dealing with sin, whether it is in the judging of it or the remitting. Some of us would like to make much of the forgiving and little of the dealing, but both sides are involved in redemption. Sin was fully dealt with according to the standards of divine holiness. The cross brings in reproach and lowliness, over against the boasting Corinthians and their reigning as kings.

JHS The woman in the gospel, in the sense of her own need and approaching the Person of Christ, desired to touch Him, which would afford help to us personally in view of the whole matter. He perceived that virtue had gone out of Him, laying the basis for not being overcome by evil, but overcoming evil by good.

SMcC She is a very good illustration of what enters into our subject, as to how we are to be built up in our souls substantially in the knowledge of Christ. It is not just by mere theoretical knowledge of the truth, but by practical contact with the Person of Christ. The Lord says: “power has gone out from me”, Luke 8: 46. That is the basis of the assembly, the basis of the body. What formed the body is what is out of Christ. That is, the body is not a theoretic or academic idea, it is a living substantial idea that is formed of what is out of Christ.

JHS So that the power with any one of us to discriminate rightly is bound up in that idea.

SMcC It is. So that brings us to the next passage that we read, where the basis for union is referred to, although of course we do not get union in the full sense in 1 Corinthians 6, “But he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”. Now think of our souls being built up in this knowledge of Christ, that we are joined to Him! Union, in the full thought in Ephesians, deals with privilege, but 1 Corinthians is dealing with responsibility and we have the germ of union in that statement, “he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”. The same Spirit that in its fulness is in Christ, is the Spirit that is in us, so there is a binding power between believers and Christ that doctrine could never afford.

Ques Is that seen where the Lord breathed into them?

SMcC It is pattern there, of course. It is a unique transaction but the whole point is that the life that was in Christ is the life that is in the saints.

WBG The link is in that very thing, is it not?

SMcC Just so. We were referring yesterday to the important link of our bodies physically with what is spiritual, and perhaps we have not sufficiently realised that; as if our physical bodies were a different department and had something to do with our life in this world, but had nothing to do with our spiritual link with Christ. Whereas, this passage says: “Do you not know that your bodies” - not your hearts, or minds, or souls, but your bodies, these physical bodies - “are members of Christ?” That is a marvellous statement! Think of our souls being built up in that knowledge of Christ.

ABM'N Is that the new order of man, that you spoke of?

SMcC It would involve that, although Corinthians does not develop the thought of the new man.

Ques Would what the apostle is saying here flow out, in any way, from the words of the Lord to him: “Why dost thou persecute me?”

SMcC It is the germ of the body there. You have the germ of the body and the germ of union here. The more we ponder the verse the more marvellous it becomes, because how could a believer marry an unbeliever, when his body, or her body, is a member of Christ? You would be linking Christ on with an unbeliever. He or she perhaps has only thought, Well, I am only linking on myself, but you are linking on Christ. Of course the passage is dealing with the extreme case here. It says: “Do ye not know that he that is joined to the harlot is one body?” And that is the point of: “Shall I then, taking the members of the Christ, make them members of a harlot?” So that a believer, who joins an association that is outside the fellowship of God’s Son, is joining the members of Christ to that association.

JHS So that the present testimonial position requires our bodies.

SMcC This clearly shows that we cannot divorce Christianity from the thought of our bodies. We cannot make what we are in the assembly one thing and what we are in our houses and our businesses another thing. Because the bodies we use in our business are the same bodies that we use in the assembly. It is one idea.

Rem Expression comes through the body.

LES The verse in Romans 6 enters into this “For even as ye have yielded your members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness, so now yield your members in bondage to righteousness unto holiness”.

SMcC The germ of it is there. It would help us as to greater care in our public lives in the testimonial position. We have to work in factories or offices with other men, but that is not being joined to them. But if I get into any position where I have to join, that involves my taking the members of Christ and joining them to what is unholy and what is not in keeping.

JHS We should therefore be careful of being caught in things insidiously which may involve us, like co-operatives and shares and dividends and that kind of thing.

SMcC All that would involve joining. The point in the passage is what is joined. “Shall I then taking the members of the Christ, make them members of a harlot”, but the positive side is put over against it: “he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”. Think of being joined to the Lord! It is a marvellous statement. It does not say ‘joined to Jesus’ or ‘joined to Christ’, but “joined to the Lord”.

LES The footnote says: “It is not ‘shall be one spirit’; but ‘he is’. The spirit which is in the Lord Himself dwells in us, and is the living power of the new life”.

SMcC It may be someone wants you to join a club, which may be a good thing in the world, but as you have to take account of your body as members of Christ, would you think of the Lord as joining it? Would you think of the Lord as joining a political club? Or, joining any association in the school? You could not think of it. Well, how could the believer with his body - as members of Christ - join? That is the point.

JHS Would you make clear please what is involved in giving to the Red Cross? Are you not free to give to the Red Cross?

SMcC Yes, because it is a humanitarian institution supported by the government. Giving to it is not a matter of joining.

JHS They call you a member.

SMcC They may do that themselves as they do in some factories where you are all called members of the company. Some manufacturing concerns allude to their employees in that light, but the believer has nothing to do with that. You would support a humanitarian cause insofar as you can go, where help is provided for human need. You would therefore be free to give to the Red Cross because of that. It is free from religious trammels, and it is supported by the Government. The head of the Red Cross is appointed in Washington, by the President, which gives it a different colour from other associations.

JHS Is your exercise to put us on our guard against anything that involves a substantial, tangible link?

SMcC That is it.

UG Would you say more as to the matter of co-operatives?

SMcC It is a matter we have to consider. I have been noticing lately and wondering about it. There is a great rage of trading stamps and I notice on some of these stamps that ‘Co-operative’ is stamped on them. That is a very subtle thing and we have to look into it, as to whether these stamps do not amount in principle to what a Co-operative is. Certainly a believer never would have anything to do with a Co-operative. There has been a judgment as to that for years in the old country, that as believers on the Lord Jesus Christ we could have nothing to do with Co-operatives because it involves an unholy link and association. We have to look into it. What does it mean, the word ‘Co-operative’? You want to find out what it means and what enters into the charter linked with these trading stamps. I am not saying they are wrong, because I have not looked into the matter sufficiently to say, but that word ‘Co-operative’ arrested me.