THE SPIRIT IN THE CORINTHIAN EPISTLES (5)
[p. 419] THE SPIRIT IN THE CORINTHIAN EPISTLES (5)
2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22; 2 Corinthians 5: 5; 2 Corinthians 6: 6; 2 Corinthians 13: 14
JT The subject of the Spirit, as will be observed, is less pronounced in this epistle than in the first. It links on in this one with other main subjects. We have it introduced in chapter 1 by way of establishment, the apostle treating of the aspersions upon him as to veracity. In chapter 5 the Spirit is the earnest in relation to coming things, a house which is from heaven; and in chapter 6 as standing related to the practical ordinary life of the servant; and then the final allusion is to fellowship — the fellowship of the Spirit. Fellowship is a main thought in the first letter, but here it is connected with the Spirit in a solitary setting. The Lord will help us, I am sure, to touch on these scriptures at this time profitably. The idea of confirmation is appropriate as regards the approaching end of our meetings here, that is, not only that which should be confirmed severally, but together. “Now he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God” — the apostle placing himself with the Corinthians in this allusion to the Spirit reminds us of the wisdom of merging, however distinguished any one may be in the service, for after all he comes in as established in Christ, and anointed, sealed, and possessing the earnest of the Spirit in his heart.
FWW Is that seen in the way the apostle uses the words “us” and “with you”?
JT Yes; the apostle coming down to them, established with them by God in Christ. This would hardly fit in in the first epistle, because he is dealing with serious evil conditions, but now the recovery that has been effected enables him to speak in this way, linking himself on with them. This is always a becoming attitude for us, for those who may be distinguished by [p. 420] their service. Our greatest privilege lies in our part with the saints, part with Christ, of course, in relation to them.
JCS Would the servant disappear in a measure? The local tent set up by the apostle in Corinth would be anointed and the servant would disappear in the anointed vessel for the moment, do you think?
JT I think he would enjoy that thought. In the section that leads up to the work at Corinth, he allows himself to be taken on a certain way by the brethren — he is amenable to their wish.
PL The word “preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus)” — this links with this happy merging, “among you”.
JT The preaching of the Son of God would certainly suggest to the preacher that he could readily merge with the saints, because it involves the calling of God. The preaching of the Son of God is seen here in a threefold way — by Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus. They must have preached in different places at the same time or alternately. We must assume that there would be much simplicity in their service, and in their relations one with another, but the Son of God was preached and the thought of it would lift the saints up in their minds. The apostle begins the first letter by saying that God had called them into the fellowship of His Son: “by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord”, 1 Corinthians 1: 9. Even as in the fellowship the saints are dignified. Being established “in Christ” takes us outside of the world, and is the idea of status; “the fellowship of his Son” contemplates us as in the world, but in the fellowship, that is, held in the fellowship; shutting out the world and involving our loyalty to Christ and to one another.
EE Does the earnest of the Spirit, and the establishment connected with it, stand related to the promises given effect to in the Son of [p. 421] God?
JT I think so. I should like to dwell a little on this point of the fellowship, the distinction between it and “in Christ”. As just mentioned, “in Christ” is an out-of-the-world status mentioned in Romans 6, and in Romans 12 we are said to be “one body in Christ”, not yet “the body of Christ”, but given that status of “in Christ” as a body of persons. Here, we are established in Christ. That is a further thought, the bearing of it is out-of-the-world, whereas the fellowship of God’s Son contemplates us as in the world, but in spite of that maintained for God — the fellowship of God’s Son involving the security and dignity of the position. “In Christ” bears on the future, but it also gives lustre to us here.
CFI Is the second epistle designed to raise the saints to the level that is proper to christianity?
JT It is; the level is the Son of God. It is not the fellowship of the Son of God, but the Son of God preached and what enters into that. One idea is the faithfulness of God; we are on that ground — “yea is in him”.
EWC Would the fellowship require a corresponding faithfulness down here, to the status given us in Christ, apart from this world?
JT Quite so. It is a great thing to lay hold of the status — the way things are worked out in Romans: “reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6: 11); “the wages of sin is death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus”, Romans 6: 23. The early verses of chapter 8 speak of the position “in Christ” as affording liberty to our souls; and then “one body in Christ”, Romans 12: 5. The mind is let into that, the position we have as over against what is in the world.
CFI Is there any distinction between “in Christ” and “in Christ Jesus”?
JT Not much, beyond that “Jesus” brings in the Person more; “in Christ” is the anointed position.
PL [p. 422] Would you attach in this epistle the thought of the Son of God more to levitical operations, and would “in Christ” here be more of the house of Aaron?
JT Well, quite so, the Son of God is the final testimony to men. Dignity and power are there, as bearing on service. The Son of God as “preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus) did not become yea and nay, but yea is in him”. The full testimony of God, involving His faithfulness, is there, and all this enters into the minister’s position. Finality is the line he is on. It is not a time of guessing, but a time of certainty. It is obvious that the Son of God is the final thought. He has in these last days “spoken to us in the person of the Son”, Hebrews 1: 2. It is the final thought, and the minister is final; he seeks to be that; there is a certainty about what he says.
AS So the thought “in Christ” would disclose the line in the apostle’s mind. “If any one be in Christ, there is a new creation”, 2 Corinthians 5: 17.
JT The whole bearing of it is towards the future — towards heaven. It is a question of status, even the Corinthian babes are said to be “in Christ”.
FS What about “establishes us ... in Christ”?
JT Establishment means that you are there from your side. The second letters are usually establishing letters. So it is in Peter’s second letter. The things he brings forward, the mode by which the testimony has come to us, and by which it is made effective is through one quality coming from another quality, and another quality coming from that, and so on, 2 Peter 1: 5 - 11. So you are not dealing with mere abstract doctrine, but with substantialities. Establishment lies in substantiality, and so John presents the Spirit of God from that point of view, in the main, throughout his gospel. The anointing, the sealing, and the earnest are substantial — all is very practical. The earnest, for instance, is said to be in our hearts — you should know what is in your [p. 423] heart.
FS Something like the opening of John’s epistle, “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word of life”, 1 John 1: 1.
JT Quite so.
PL Peter in that second epistle refers to “our beloved brother Paul” and what he has written, “according to the wisdom given to him”, as set over against the untaught and ill-established.
JT Second letters are usually establishing. Joseph said to Pharaoh, “as regards the double repetition of the dream to Pharaoh, it is that the thing is established by God”, Genesis 41: 32.
Ques Is the thought of establishment that one should have the thing confirmed livingly?
JT Yes, it is the truth substantiated that establishes you.
JCS Did I understand you to say “in Christ” properly is always in a collective setting?
JT It is applied and entered into individually, as in Romans 6, and 2 Corinthians 12, but culminates in the collective setting in Ephesians 2. We are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenly places in Christ.
PL In this epistle one man could speak of himself as “a man in Christ”.
JT That is the full individual application, including the elevation attaching to it. He goes to the third heaven — he goes “as far as”, not “into”, meaning that he could go thus far. He goes “into Paradise” but “as far as” the third heaven. It would seem as if that is the exaltation which is proper to those in Christ, the numeral three indicating that the full thought of heaven is reached. He went so far, as “a man in Christ”. You could not conceive of that being predicated of babes in Christ, and yet the status “in Christ” attaches also to [p. 424] them. Evidently we are to be in heaven as men “in Christ”.
EBMcC Is it brought in here to elevate the Corinthians, to get them off the low ground they were on — being associated with Paul in this way would have that effect, would it not?
JT Yes, I think it is drawing them on to his own ground. The tendency was to divert them from Paul, and he is here stressing common christian ground with them.
PL Would it be that he stoops to them when at their worst, and grades them as “babes in Christ”; and takes them over to his side when at their best, here in the expression “with you in Christ”? If we are patient and make the most of brethren at their worst, we can have the privilege of having part with them at their best.
JT Quite so. Generally our wisdom is to clothe the saints in their best garments, but hating those spotted by the flesh. Throughout this epistle the apostle identifies himself much with the Corinthians.
PL This epistle indicates the wealth accruing from the investment made by love in the first epistle.
AS He would have, as the end in view, the whole Ephesian position.
JT As he wrote he had been engaged in his great work at Ephesus, and he would have nothing less in his mind for the Corinthians than what had been reached there.
JCS When things go badly in a locality there is a tendency to speak evil of it and rob the saints of their proper status. The apostle encourages us here to keep the full mind of God for His people in view in such circumstances.
JT Paul always spoke well of the Corinthians; “Ye are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read of all men”, 2 Corinthians 3: 2. He did not have the evil things written in his heart. The Holy Spirit would [p. 425] never write evil things about the saints in one’s heart — He writes good things. “Known and read of all men” evidently alludes to the way Paul spoke of his beloved Corinthian converts.
WHU Why was the Son of God preached in this particular way?
JT I think it was to establish certainty, the finality, the fixedness, of what is presented to the Corinthians. There was no variation in it, it was not “yea and nay”, but “yea”. What is presented in the Son of God is fixed, permanent. The apostle shows that he was not out of keeping with that. They were imputing duplicity of mind to him, whereas there was no duplicity whatever; it was the calculation of love that kept him from going to Corinth. That he stayed away because he loved them there is no question.
PL That was seen in perfection in his blessed Master in relation to the death of Lazarus.
JT Yes, He stayed away two days. The apostle says it was “to spare you”. It was not that he did not have the means to come or anything like that, but he wanted to spare them. It enters into the anointing. In what he said in chapter 1 the allusion would be to that — “he that establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”. It is the bundle of life — all bound up in this, and God has done it. What is seen here should bring us very near to one another; those who are ministering in a distinct way, and those ministered to are bound up in this way by God Himself, and established thus. So that the minister carries the saints — bound up with them, as one of them. God has set him in that way, and he loves to be there because the saints are our heritage in one way — all our joy lies in relation to them. Paul loved the Corinthians in spite of their naughtiness.
EBMcC The anointing of God was shining out in the apostle in the love and dignity in which he [p. 426] regarded them, and this, should have been in the Corinthians towards him.
JT There was very great disparity between them. Anyone comparing Paul with them would see the disparity in their way of doing things and his; but this anointing that he speaks of was calculated to bring them on to where he was.
Ques Is it preparatory to the coming in of the glory to take possession? I was thinking of Exodus 40 — the anointing precedes the glory coming in.
JT That is right — the anointing is needed so that the divine glory should be resident.
EBMcC What hinders our allowing the anointing to act in this way?
JT I think there is too much room for the natural. The anointing precludes all incongruities in us. We were speaking yesterday of chapter 6 of the first epistle, as to our bodies being brought to a high level as members of Christ, the temples of the Spirit. There should be nothing contrary to that. The anointing here is a question of holy dignity in the saints, and then the sealing is that we belong to Another. Thus you cannot belong to associations in this world. Then finally the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts is an inward possession, and satisfies us. It is a positive thought, and what is in our hearts should be felt.
Ques Is the anointing a secret thing and the sealing a more public thing?
JT I think the anointing and the sealing are public. The anointing is dignity, God committing Himself to us for testimony. The sealing is ownership — we are God’s; we belong to God in this positive way by the seal. We have elsewhere “the seal of the living God”, Revelation 7: 2. The earnest is more private. It is, as it were, an income that maintains you in all this.
EBMcC So being sealed you would not join up with anything in this world for [p. 427] betterment.
JT That is a good point. Repudiation of the worldly combinations and claims marks one divinely sealed.
Rem Both these are seen in Christ, the sealing and the anointing.
JT Quite so, that is John 6, “him hath God the Father sealed”, and in Luke 4 the Lord speaks of His anointing.
JCS As consistency with the anointing and sealing would deprive us of certain things here, is the earnest brought in to show that we would be abundantly recompensed?
JT The anointing and the sealing put the obligation upon us of conforming to them; the obligation may involve suffering; it is pretty certain to, but then the earnest is compensation — the income that sustains us in the position taken up. It is the earnest of all that we are coming into. It is a tangible possession. You are not left without an abundant income to sustain you.
JCS Does the earnest go with the status we have in Christ?
JT Yes, and to sustain us in the circumstances of suffering. The apostle brings in the Holy Spirit in chapter 6 in the midst of thirty-seven things mentioned — an extraordinary combination of experiences he was constantly going through. “In the Holy Spirit” was the great dignifying element that characterised him in these experiences.
EWC In chapter 5: 5 the apostle says, “he that has wrought us for this very thing is God”. Does that refer to a full completed salvation resulting in mortality being swallowed up of life?
JT Yes. That is another thing. What we are speaking of here is the anointing and the sealing as effected by God. In chapter 5 the earnest stands in relation to the house from heaven, the great future. It does not say that it is in our hearts — “he that has wrought us for this very thing is God”. That is, when we enter on our house which is from heaven — there is [p. 428] no disparity between it and us; in the meantime the earnest of the Spirit maintains us in relation to that.
JCS “In the Holy Spirit”, chapter 6: 6. Is that the working out of spiritual power in Paul’s difficulties?
JT Yes. It is wonderful what items he mentions: “in the Holy Spirit”, “in long suffering”, and so on. The Holy Spirit uses the word “in”, it involves power. You can understand how that would enable him to go through all the experiences he mentions.
JCS Suffering “in the Holy Spirit” would put him outside all that which marked him as a natural man, so in his service he would not be impeded by natural feelings.
JT You can see the danger of that at Philippi. The Spirit of God gives us actual facts in the historical part, and these show there were discrepancies. While the life of Jesus was seen in the doings of Paul in his mortal body, still the life of Paul could not be said to be the life of Jesus. There were discrepancies, as, for instance at Philippi, Acts 16: 37, but the general thought is that in all his experiences the Holy Spirit had His place.
WJH The great thing is to realise the presence of the Spirit of God — not to regard Him theoretically.
JT The Lord is pressing that upon us.
WJH At the end of the dispensation the Spirit will express Himself, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come” — the Spirit having a real voice in the saints.
JT The persistent faithfulness of the Spirit is very remarkable. Even in a course that was questionable Paul refers to this: “the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me”, Acts 20: 23.
EBMcC In our sufferings, love expresses itself through the Spirit.
JT Yes. God loves to see us go through them, and thus develop the life that is fragrant to Him. Referring again to chapter 5: 5, the setting there links on with the resurrection, only it is not treated as in the [p. 429] first epistle, but from the standpoint of the believer’s intelligent anticipations. “We know that if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this we groan, ardently desiring to have put on our house which is from heaven; if indeed being also clothed we shall not be found naked. For indeed we who are in the tabernacle groan, being burdened; while yet we do not wish to be unclothed, but clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now he that hath wrought us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit”. We are maintained in view of that by the earnest of the Spirit; that is, the earnest here is evidently in relation to our great anticipations of what is coming out of heaven, in which we shall have part.
WHU Are there two thoughts connected with the earnest — the earnest of the Spirit in this epistle and in the epistle to the Ephesians — in the latter it is the earnest of the inheritance?
JT The idea of the earnest is the same, only the inheritance is mentioned there — the full thought of God for us. As we have been noticing in the first chapter, it stands in relation to the anointing and the sealing; here in the fifth it is in relation to the anticipation of “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”, a very great and glorious thought.
AMH Does the earnest here connect the work of God, as giving assurance of the final issue?
JT That is how it stands. We are ready for this self-same thing. The work of God stands by itself, and the Spirit as the earnest maintains us in it, so that the hope is sure. The great richness in the allusions here to the future, to the eternal state of things, ought to appeal to us all, especially to the elder brethren. We have “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”. It is not from the standpoint of [p. 430] 1 Corinthians 15; there it is what comes out of the grave, but here it is the building from God out of heaven.
SF Is this more the character of the house which we shall have eternally?
JT That is what is in mind — a house from heaven characteristically; “a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens”.
JCS And the earnest of the Spirit is something of that in advance, so to speak; we get the thing in the earnest before it is literally realised.
JT Yes, that is how it stands; we shall thus be ready for the great and blessed change.
WJH That would enable us to go through without being crushed in the groaning tabernacle.
Rem We are rejoicing in anticipation, in our house which is from heaven, through having the Spirit.
JT “Now he that has wrought us for this very thing is God, who also has given to us the earnest of the Spirit”. The work of God fits us for what we are coming into and the Spirit enables us to anticipate it.
Ques Does that link with the thought in Philippians, “if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead”, Philippians 3: 11?
JT Yes, only Paul is there seeking to arrive at the resurrection from among the dead; the heavenly side of the truth he regards in that chapter as the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. What is before us in our chapter corresponds with the latter.
WJH Sometimes at the dissolution of a saint you get a wonderful evidence of victory and support of the Spirit of God, and sometimes the opposite, which is humbling.
JT When the former is the case there is practical testimony to the power of God. It is therefore of great importance to have this before us. We are all advancing in years, and if the testimony is to continue, we may expect to fall asleep. We are thus to be looking at the things that are unseen, which are eternal.
[p. 431] AS Peter would have the enjoyment of this, when speaking of the putting off of his tabernacle, that it was speedily to take place. Immediately he goes on to speak of the glory on the mount.
JT Yes. He is a fine example of what we are speaking of. The only reference in his ministry to the Son of God is in that passage. He kept the scene on the mount, we may say, as a treasure. He knew the Son of God, but it belonged to another to unfold that glorious title of Christ; and that was Paul. John deals with it, too. Peter in view of putting off his tabernacle brings in the glorious event. How bright and victorious he was as contemplating the putting off of his tabernacle!
Ques The Morning Star was in his heart?
JT Yes, the great thing for us elder brethren is to keep the eternal state of things in mind, because dissolution will come if the testimony goes on. Peter knew his would come, but the allusion in John 21 is to the death by which he should glorify God. This I am sure is what God looks for in the death of His saints — that He is glorified.
Ques Does the earnest enable us to understand that the glorified body will be an outward expression of what God works in us while in these mortal bodies?
JT Yes. The Spirit as the earnest brings in something of what the apostle speaks of, our house from heaven. We thus accept the present condition of our bodies. There are those who beautify them and become proud of them, but they are nevertheless bodies of humiliation. That is what they are called in Scripture and it is well to accept it. They are mortal and fragile. This epistle speaks of the treasure the bodies of christians contain, but they are earthen vessels, all the same.
SF Does what you have been saying suggest the completion of the work of God in us, fitting us for whatever position of glory He has assigned to us, what is eternal?
[p. 432] JT That is right, we are being fitted for glory. “He that has wrought us for this very thing is God”. The work of God in us, is greater than our present constitution. We know that our present bodies are not in keeping with the work of God in us; it requires a house different from this — a house from heaven. The Spirit as the earnest enables us to understand and to live in anticipation of the heavenly.
JCS The house from heaven will clothe that work with what is commensurate with it.
JT Yes, and Philippians teaches that Christ will conform us to His body of glory. It is not Christ as here for the forty days, although the same in Person, but the condition is enhanced, it is His body of glory — that is what we are to be conformed to.
Rem The Thessalonians were waiting for God’s Son from heaven. They would not be looking for death.
JT The attitude of mind of the believer is to wait for God’s Son from heaven, but the dissolution of our mortal bodies is a certainty, if the testimony is to be continued. Paul, for instance, knew his would happen, and Peter his, and it is well for each of us to calculate spiritually as to his body. If we take account of what God is doing — of the young being brought in, and the general trend, we may say that many of us will fall asleep. Not that one would dissipate the proper hope of the christian as to the Son of God coming from heaven; He will not delay when the time arrives, but He says that no one knows the hour, but the Father.
Ques Contemplating his own death or martyrdom, would the apostle be thus able to say, “with Christ; which is far better”?
JT That is what he does say, but he also says that we await Christ from heaven to conform our bodies of humiliation to His body of glory. This hope is not to be weakened.
AS The Psalmist says, “I will walk before Jehovah in the land of the living”. “Precious in the sight of [p. 433] Jehovah is the death of his saints”, Psalm 116: 9, 15. I wondered if that would be in line with what the apostle speaks of — departing to be with Christ, having the living in view?
JT Quite so. From the time of the first burial, what we have in Scripture is the hope of resurrection. As the Lord says, “that world and the resurrection”, but He says those who are there are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection, which does not go so far as the idea of “our house ... from heaven” or “his body of glory”. These latter expressions indicate the proper hope and expectation of christians.
WJH Would you say another word as to the Lord’s body in the forty days — flesh and bone — as distinguished from His body of glory?
JT The period of forty days is an educative matter. The Lord might have ascended at once, as He indicated to Mary, but He sojourned here on their account. Why should He not go up to heaven at once? It was on their account, to show them how He came in and went out amongst them in His condition as risen, and how He could change His form. I do not think that is contemplated in His body of glory. I think the change of form and other features of the forty days are to show us what is possible spiritually. Christ’s present condition in glory expresses the full purpose of God for man. We are to be like Him as manifested.
SF Would you say a word as to the difference between the state described in the eighth verse and being clothed with the house from heaven?
JT In verse 8, “we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord”. He speaks there as he does in Philippians of disembodiment and what it implies — “absent from the body and present with the Lord”. He is pleased at the thought of it. It is not final, but temporary. The purpose of God requires that we are to be conformed to [p. 434] the body of glory of Christ — that is the full thought of divine counsel for man.
FS Is that involved in the term “Son of God”?
JT I think it is. He is “marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection”, Romans 1: 4. Sonship is declared in resurrection, but it goes on to the present condition — He is now in His body of glory.
JCS That seems a climax to all the ground we have covered, and it puts a touch of glory on it.
JT It does. One feels encouraged to speak of it in view of the elder brethren, and younger ones, too. It is just as well to calculate according to the facts presented to us “to number our days”. It is well to have this before us always, and to understand the Spirit as the earnest in that connection; having a tangible hope and enjoyment beforehand of what is coming.
SHB Is “the body of glory” defined in Scripture?
JT I do not know that it can be. I do not know that language can suffice to describe the body of glory of Christ. It is surpassing. On the mount of transfiguration, there is a suggestion of it, but what was seen there was for testimony here. Peter says they were “eye-witnesses of his majesty”. That is hardly the eternal view.
CHH Is the body of glory commensurate with the glory?
JT It is commensurate with God’s full thought and purpose in man. One’s idea is that there will be no discrepancy between us and that. Christ is entirely in keeping with the glory where He has gone, and so shall we be, for God has wrought us for it.
CHH Is the earnest we have of that an encouragement on account of the outward man perishing?
JT It is, and it enables us to grasp something of the eternal purpose of God for us.
Ques Why have we to wait for it?
JT That is a question for God to answer. He has His own calendar and things happen according to it.
Revelation 10 says that the angel “swore by him that lives to the ages of ages, ... that there should be no longer delay”. It is a question of the calendar. There is no delay when the time is reached. The Lord Himself says, “No one knows ... nor the Son, but the Father”, Mark 13: 32. It is kept in the secrets of the Father.
CFI Will the manifestation before the judgment seat clear the way?
JT I think so. Our minds will then be entirely adjusted and brought to God’s mind.
WHW Is the idea here that we make room for the Spirit of God to bring this home to us so that the work may proceed? “He that has wrought us for this very thing is God”. This work is to go on.
JT The work is to go on and we are to make room for it as you say. Now the last reference is to the fellowship. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all”. It is remarkable that we have the Trinity again here. The Corinthians are left with the thought of God brought in in this way. It would look as if the testimony of these two letters was on that principle — three, the full thought of the Trinity entering into it, the witnesses Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus corresponding to it, so that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. There is a remarkable threefold testimony to christianity in these epistles. “Communion of the Holy Spirit” is remarkable. It is not “with” but “of” the Spirit. Indeed throughout these epistles it is characteristic, the fellowship of God’s Son, and of Christ’s death in the bread and the cup, and the fellowship of the Spirit. In John’s epistle it is with.
JCS Is it — in this last passage — that the Spirit gives character to it?
JT I think that is right, and He has part in it. The Son gives character to it — dignity — the Spirit pervades it, the great binding influence in our fellowship. The word communion here is the same as fellowship in 1 Corinthians 1: 9. “In the Holy Spirit”, chapter 6: 6, would govern all Paul’s experiences. He would be seen in that way, which would imply the fellowship. It is not a human affair — the Spirit of God is in it.
Ques Is the idea of fellowship conveyed in the peace offering?
JT Yes. The peace offering includes not only the brethren, but divine Persons have part in it. In the verse we are considering, 2 Corinthians 13: 14, the three divine Persons are contemplated as affecting the saints in blessing.
EC Would there be the thought, in the fellowship of the Spirit, of participation in power in all the Spirit has for us?
JT Fellowship here means “common participation”, not merely that we have the same thought one towards another, but there is a bond involving the idea of partnership and the Spirit is in it. It is of Him — it is that kind of fellowship — the fellowship of the Spirit.