SPIRITUALITY AS IN JOHN'S GOSPEL
SPIRITUALITY AS IN JOHN’S GOSPEL
John 4:28-30; John 4:39; John 12:3; John 20:1-3; John 20:11-18
I have been thinking of late of the women of whom we have records by the Holy Spirit in the different books of Scripture, particularly in the typical books of the Old Testament and in the gospel narratives. These women, if rightly considered in relation to one another, set out the result which the Spirit of God would work in His people in relation to the light presented in each book. I have selected John this evening, having spoken of other books elsewhere, particularly Luke.
Luke has in view subjection in the people of God, and so there we have emphasis laid on Mary the mother of our Lord. As having heard the communications of Gabriel, she says, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”, (chapter 1:38). She is subject. Many women might be noted throughout the book as bearing constructively on what is set out in Mary. At the end of Luke we have women who, as loving the Lord, were at the sepulchre and received word relative to Him from the two men whom they saw there, and it says they returned from the sepulchre and told all these things to the eleven; that is, these women recognised the authoritative representatives of Christ; that is the sure result of the gospel of Luke as rightly apprehended. As subject, we shall not fail to recognise what represents Him in any way authoritatively. It adds, “And to all the rest”, (chapter 24:9) We shall, as subject to Christ, surely have some communications from Him, and we shall place those communications where they can be made best use of, where they can be best disposed of. They will not be trodden under the foot of man, for the communications that we receive from the Lord [p. 376] are precious. They come from heaven; they are as fine gold and must not be cast to the swine, but be placed where they will be properly cared for and distributed, that is, by those who are in some way representative of Christ. And then “the rest”, that is, all the saints will be taken account of.
And so later in the same chapter we have the two restored ones who, having come back from Emmaus, “found the eleven”, (verse 33). As having wandered from Christ and divine principles, some have difficulty in finding those who seek to maintain the authority of Christ, not that they are hidden away exactly, but the difficulty arises because of our dark thoughts, the darkness that accrues from wandering. But the two found the eleven. It is important for anyone seeking light to find the eleven, that is, those who represent the Lord in some way, it may be in a broken way, for there are only eleven here, whereas there had been twelve; nevertheless there were the eleven who represented the Lord, “and those with them”, and they were “gathered together”. That is the sure result, as I said, of understanding Luke — subjection, and the recognition of those who represent the Lord as seeking to maintain His authority.
Now in John we have another view, inclusive of Luke indeed, for there can be nothing for God without subjection, but John has in view what is spiritual, not only that we should be subject to Christ, as it is said, the assembly is subjected to Christ, and the Holy Spirit is operating to bring that about, but that we should enter into the greatest and best thoughts of God, for He withholds nothing now. It is a wonderful time; it is a time of unparalleled privilege; a time in which God is unfolding to us His very best. He has come out in His beloved Son, according to this evangelist, and so the great truth of the Person of the Son is immediately stated: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, (John 1:1). We are notified at once of the immense fact that the Word was in the beginning, that is, the One who unfolds the thoughts of God is not only from the beginning, but He was in it. “In the beginning was the Word”. That One who has been talking to you, and telling you of God, was in the beginning. He was in it, and He was in it not in any inferior sense; He was God. In taking up things which relate to divine Persons we are slow to apprehend the magnitude of what we are dealing with. “No man hath seen God”, says the evangelist, “at anytime; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, (verse 18). The Word conveys the thought of speaking. The glorious One presented in John 1:1 has actually spoken to me! How affecting! If He has not spoken to you, well, you know very little — you know nothing first-hand. John would have us get things first-hand, and he emphasises that the Person who brings things to us is the Word — He is the One who speaks. What, you say, the One who has spoken to me? Yes; that very One. When He was here the speaking was general, for He says, “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin”, (John 15:22). You see the wonderful speaking; by it the sin of the Jews was exposed and could not be covered up.
And so we find the very One who has spoken to you speaking to this woman here. He was in the beginning, not from it; bear that in mind. He was in it, and in no inferior way. He was in it, and He was with God in it. And then to add to that, He was God (no less than that), and that is the One who has spoken to you and to me. See what that means, beloved, not only have I things first-hand, but I have them from such an One as that — He who is called the Word. So abundant and universal has been His speaking, so unlimited have been His communications,
[p. 378] that He has acquired that name in all hearts who love Him — the Word.
Immediately He is here as the Word become flesh, it is recorded: “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth”, (verse 14). And then John the baptist, who is brought in by this evangelist as representing service according to God, bears witness, as if the picture must be complete, and what did he witness? “After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me”, (verse 15). He is that — the One who was in the beginning. Name any dignitary in the Old Testament, any angelic dignitary, and you will come to it that every one will have to say, “He was before me”. Than John the baptist there was none greater born of woman, as the Lord says, and he says of the Lord, He “is preferred before me”. Surely He is preferred! Preferred by whom? By God, and I hope by all of us. I hope Jesus is preferred by all of us to any other man or being in heaven or on earth, however great. This gospel delivers us from the influence of men in these our days, when they have such a place even with the saints of God. John says, He “is preferred before me”. He does not say by whom, but presently two of his own disciples prefer Jesus to him. Not that they despised John, far from it; he was not to be despised; the Lord would not have that; no one knew his worth more than Jesus, and He spoke of it. But these two disciples heard John speaking — that is John, as it were, exercising his powers; they heard John speaking about Christ and they left him; they preferred Jesus. That is a voice. I wonder if we have all preferred Him, preferred Him to all others?
Now in the light of that, we are told later that John the baptist says of Him that He comes from heaven; not only that He was in the beginning and was with God and was God, but He comes from [p. 379] heaven. That is an additional glory of Christ. He comes from above, and John gives Him a place under that heading, and says, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30); we see thus one going out of view in full vigour in appreciation of Christ. In the light of these facts you can see that more than subjection is needed for this gospel. Without it, as I said, there is no hope at all, you can be of no use to God or to the saints; whatever you may think you have, however much information or light you may have, subjection is imperative. But there is more than subjection contemplated here, and I have selected these three women from among others in this gospel to illustrate what God has in view for us.
I take the Samaritan woman first (in her own order, indeed, in the book), and what I deduce from the instruction is that she represents the thought of a vessel. It is a very simple suggestion, and one that fits in peculiarly with this gospel, because the idea is prominently introduced in chapter 2 in connection with the marriage at Cana of Galilee. You will remember that there were six water-vessels, as they are called; they were stone “water-vessels”. They were there, but they were empty, but vessels are not made to be empty; they are made to be used. In truth each one of us is a vessel, and is to possess it, according to another scripture, in sanctification and honour; (1 Thessalonians 4:4). So we get this woman, an unlikely person to be a vessel from the point of view from which I am speaking, an unlikely person, I mean, to the natural mind, but what is unlikely to that mind is quite likely in God’s mind, for He thinks not as man thinks; He looks at the heart. And moreover God looks at us potentially, that is to say, not only according to what we may be now, but what we shall be; He takes us up from that point of view. And so, as I said, there were those six stone water-vessels unfilled. They were for the moment [p. 380] useless, that is, they were not being used. There may be some here like that, and the Lord would say to you that He has need of you. Indeed, the earliest instruction that we get in the epistle to the Romans implies this idea of a vessel; we have it presented in a most exalted way in that epistle, for we are said to be “vessels of mercy ... prepared for glory”. What vessels!
Now to illustrate what I have in my mind briefly I would remark on the Lord’s reference in Luke to Elijah. He says, that there were many widows in Israel in his days, but “to none of them was Elias sent but to Sarepta of Sidonia, to a woman that was a widow”, (Luke 4:26). He was sent to Zarephath, Jehovah saying to Elijah, “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”, (1 Kings 17:9). He had already commanded the ravens to feed him, but maintaining is a very different thing; it signifies that he was to be looked after suitably, and some of the most important things in a household in connection with the maintaining of a guest are vessels. I just touch on the woman of Zarephath as very striking and illustrative of what I have in my mind. She is gathering sticks outside the town as Elijah reaches it, and he calls to her and says, “Fetch me a little water in a vessel”, (verse 10). You might say, Why mention the vessel? If she is to bring water, she cannot bring it in the palm of her hand. But the point is, the water is to be brought in a vessel. In replying, she tells Elijah about her poverty, but she had the idea of a vessel; she says, I have “but a handful of meal in a barrel” — it was in a barrel, in a vessel, where it should be; “and a little oil in a cruse” (verse 12) — where it should be. I mention that because if we are to be spiritual in regard of ourselves and our vessels, we must apprehend that the vessel is to be used by God; we are to be vessels unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Master’s use. And so you find in the chapter referring to that widow that [p. 381] the meal in the barrel remained — it never failed, and the oil in the cruse never failed. Emphasis is laid on the thought of vessels throughout.
And so under Elisha’s ministry (his being the counterpart of Elijah’s) the widow of one of the sons of the prophets was in straits; the creditor was about to take her sons; she had not anything at all in the house but a little oil in a pot — she too had it in a vessel; that was what she had in the house. Now the house is mentioned, that is to say, the believer’s establishment, it is a question of what I am myself. The house refers to my own establishment, and it is how things are there. What have you got there? You say, I have got much in heaven. Thank God! Christ is in heaven. But what is down here? The Holy Spirit is down here. But where is the Holy Spirit? He is not in the air; He is not in the elements; where is He? He is in you, if you are a believer; He is in believers, He is in the house of God. On the day of Pentecost, it says, It “sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3) — not elsewhere. The sound filled the house, and cloven tongues as of fire sat on each of them, and then the effect on them was that they spoke with other tongues. The Spirit had come and He was in them. “These are not drunken, as ye suppose”, Peter said, (verse 15). They were filled with the Spirit; He was in them.
Now the prophet says to the widow, “Go, borrow thee vessels ... not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door ... and ... pour out into all those”. It is a question of vessels, that is to say, room for the Spirit. She shut the door, the vessels were brought, and all were filled, and she says to her son, “Bring me yet a vessel”; but there was not one more, and the oil stayed. Every vessel was filled; the instruction is that we should make room for the Spirit; that is the mind of God. You will see thus how important these vessels were. When the vessels were filled the [p. 382] oil stayed. Do you not see the importance of the vessels? Is it not a voice as to whether I am a vessel, and whether, as once empty, I am now full of the Spirit? I am enjoined to be filled with the Spirit. Think of the magnitude of being a vessel for the Spirit of God, as the apostle says, “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you”, (Romans 8:9). Mark you, that means that there are no rivals. If the Spirit is dwelling, there are no rivals to Him in the house. Think of the magnitude of this! I have dwelt upon it because it is so important for young people that there should be room for the Spirit. Think of the vastness of the thought, that the Spirit of God has come down from heaven and is here in vessels — in one great vessel — the assembly — but also in us severally!
This woman of Samaria answered to all this. The Lord spoke to her about herself. It is a well-known scripture, and I need not enlarge on it. The Lord says of the water, it “shall be in him”, (John 4:14). The Spirit of God had already said that the Lord Jesus directed that the stone water-vessels should be filled to the brim; that is the mind of God. There is to be nothing else but the Spirit, as the apostle says to the Ephesians, “Be filled with the Spirit”, (chapter 5:18). “Fill the waterpots with water”, the Lord says, then, “Draw out now” — as if there should be no drawing out until one is filled with the Spirit, otherwise there will be a mixture, partly Spirit and partly flesh. And so here the thought is carried forward; He says, “The water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. That was what the Lord said. What a marvellous statement! And He also says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. That is the position. Now this woman listened to the [p. 383] Lord saying these wonderful things to her, and the last thing He said to her was, “I that speak unto thee am he”. Do you see what is meant? You will remember what I have been saying about the Word. The woman would, no doubt, later on trace that remark back to a past eternity. It was the same Person — the Word. “I that speak unto thee am he”. He was the Christ, but also the Son of God.
Well now, “upon this came his disciples”, they came as the Lord made Himself known. Thank God they did not come earlier! Sometimes we interfere with the work of God in souls instead of helping it. The disciples came on that word, but the Lord had finished what He had to say. They began to speak to Him about food, and they wondered why He talked with the woman; they were unspiritual. We may be seeking to serve God and be unspiritual, we may interfere with the Lord’s words, but this woman was not hindered or restrained. Natural curiosity would no doubt have detained her to hear what these disciples were saying, but she was not detained; she had got her word, “I that speak unto thee am he”. What a word that was! He had already told her other things; He had reached her conscience; He had said enough, and instead of waiting to hear what the disciples were saying to Him, it says, she “left her waterpot”. Indeed, what she left was in keeping with those disciples, for that was what they were occupied with — material things, as if it was just in keeping with them. She left the material things represented in the waterpot and went her way into the city. She is spiritual now. What is the evidence? you inquire. She left the waterpot.
It is negative so far, but negatives are important, for you will never reach positive things apart from the negative. There must be the giving up of material things; I mean that we must learn to abandon the natural for the spiritual. She had what was [p. 384] positive before she left. She left the waterpot; she abandoned the natural thought she had been occupied with and went her way into the city, as much as to say, I have the Lord’s mind about myself — I am a vessel. I am a vessel of living water, and so I am to be used for the help and refreshment of others.
May God grant that every one here, especially the young people, may get that thought clearly. How did the woman show that she was a vessel? She went her way into the city and said to the men, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” She did not say He told her He was the Christ; she said something stronger, “He told me all that ever I did”; that is to say, He was a prophet; she had said that already. She spoke according to her apprehension of Christ; He “told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” That was living water, I mean in the principle of it. See the effect of it on the men of the city, those who knew her well. They went to see the Lord, and many believed on Him because of her word. What kind of a word was it? It says she “bore witness”; it was not a casual remark. The Lord would have us, as vessels of witness, to be definite.
I invite you to look at that word; she witnessed of Him, that is to say, she gave formal testimony as to Christ. Every true vessel will be definite in what he says. She bore witness concerning Him; and so, you will observe, many believed because of her word; she had said, “Come”, for morally she was with the Lord; spiritually it means that I am with the Lord in my soul. I say, “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Will not the witness she bore reach a conscience? It did with those men; they came to Him, and said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying”: (it was not only her words, though they had valued that), “for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world”. You will see how as a vessel she witnessed of Christ, and her service was strikingly effective.
I come now to the two Marys. Lovelier characters you can hardly find outside the Lord Himself than these two women. They represent a constructive line of thought in this gospel. Mary of Bethany, I apprehend, also represents the idea of a vessel, only what is emphasised in her is the value of the things she has and it is a measured amount; she is one who, like God, has come to measure things. Romans 12:3 contemplates believers learning to reckon according to “the measure of faith”; and 2 Corinthians 10:13, in keeping with that, brings in God as “the God of measure”, and 1 Corinthians 14:19 contemplates the principle of measurement in the assembly — “five words”. In nothing is the idea of measurement so fully represented as in the assembly; it presents a cube, as many of you know — a remarkable thing, an immense six-sided structure. It is immense, but yet compassable, or finite. That is one great feature in a vessel that it can be conveniently used.
Now, among other things, Mary of Bethany represents that side, the principle of measurement; she represents progress from the woman of Samaria; in her we have intelligence, measurement, and excellence of quality. She had, too, a local setting. The woman of Samaria is more general, although she goes into the city, she is called a “Samaritan woman”; but Mary with Martha had a local setting; Bethany is said to be their village — “the village of Mary and Martha her sister”. It was the Mary, as we are told, “who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick”; that was the one. But it was the town or village of Mary and Martha. What I want you to [p. 386] notice is that it says the sisters sent to the Lord — a word that we ought to note.
Sisters in a town are extremely interesting. Of course we know they were sisters in the flesh, but they were also sisters spiritually. There were sisters who in earlier days were not very congenial to one another; I refer to the two at Philippi who are enjoined to be of the same mind in the Lord (Philippians 4:2); not one in regard of some social link or object, for it is remarkable how we are brought together by the most wretched things, so that, we are of one mind to that extent, but the point is to be of “the same mind in the Lord”. So here it says, the sisters sent to the Lord; two sisters sending a message to Jesus is very beautiful, and the message was this, “he whom thou lovest is sick”. Surely we can see the appropriateness of a message like that sent from many of our gatherings — the needfulness of it, for many are spiritually sick.
That word reaches Jesus, for it says, “When Jesus heard that” (He heard it undoubtedly from the two sisters), He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby”. A magnificent answer! “This sickness is not unto death”. Some sicknesses are very solemn indeed; “There is a sin unto death”, John says; (1 John 5:16). You may be a sick person, and the sickness may mean that, but not so in the case of Lazarus. Such things in John’s gospel are not governmental. The man in chapter 9 was not blind because he had sinned or his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. God is working from Himself, and if there be the sickness of a loved one, it is not unto death, it is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.
Now the sisters are to wait for this result. It is a wholesome thing to wait on God. Sisters are not, perhaps, generally patient, but it is an excellent habit [p. 387] to wait, I mean spiritually. From the very outset the people of God waited. Jacob says, “I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord”, (Genesis 49:18). That is the principle of faith. Here the Lord waited two days where He was. Then He said, ‘Let us go to him’. Lazarus had died; it gave time not only that he should die, but to be buried and even to become corrupt. It seemed an unheard-of way, but it was love’s way. “Dead four days”, but the fourth day was necessary for the glory of God. Although corruption had set in, Lazarus would be raised — the sisters should see the glory of God; whether it be four days, four years, or four millenniums, it is the same thing. The Lord Jesus takes the dead out of the graves, and that is the glory of God and the glory of the Son of God. Think of what these women had in store for them! and so it is with us, there is wonderful spiritual instruction in waiting on the Son of God. But let us wait for it; and so Mary sat still in the house — a fine attitude.
Martha was active and she went to meet the Lord, an act in itself acceptable to Him. He had no complaint; He stays where she met Him, and He tells her wonderful things. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live; and every one who lives and believes on me shall never die”. The Lord addresses these words to Martha, and says to her, “Believest thou this?” What a question that is! Do we believe it? He is the resurrection and the life, that as a believer, though you die you live, and if you live you never die. Marvellous! Do you believe it? He inquires from Martha, and she answers, “Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world”. She is learning; and then she went off secretly and called her sister. She did not make any ostentatious show of the matter; she was becoming spiritual.
[p. 388] And then Mary moves; she is more spiritual, and so has more influence, for as she moves the Jews move with her. That is the effect of spiritual influence; they move with her, they follow her. She had affected them much more than Martha; but still, Martha met the Lord and He stayed where she met Him; they all had to come there. Thus the Lord honours one whom we may regard unspiritual. But the Jews follow Mary, and as Mary arrives she is weeping and the Jews following are weeping, and Jesus wept; He groaned in spirit. Marvellous thing! He was deeply moved, as if resentful of what the loved ones were suffering, and thus death had to go. “What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?” (Psalm 114:5). It was the presence of the Lord — the Son of God was there, and all this in the presence of these women. But I cannot enlarge on it, wonderful as it is.
God is glorified there. The Lord lifts up His eyes to heaven and speaks to the Father; it is the Son here in manhood speaking to God; doing always the things that pleased Him. He says, “I knew that thou always hearest me; but on account of the crowd who stand around I have said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me”. He was here as the sent One, He was glorifying God, and He was being glorified in doing that; the Son was here in manhood carrying out the will of God, and God was glorified, and all that in the presence of these sisters. What a learning and growing time for them! And so we can understand how Mary had this ointment; she had her “pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly”, and as the opportune moment arrived, she is there with it. Spiritually, the reference is to herself as a vessel and what she had; she is available for worship. The whole person is there, her spirit, her soul, and her body. All is in intelligent, spiritual control, and she ministers to Christ. See how she anoints the Lord’s [p. 389] feet and wipes them with her hair; and the ointment, being of such quality and on the Lord’s Person, the house is filled with the odour of it. There is a full vessel for you! That is what I understand to be a worshipper according to John. She filled the house in worshipping, and yet it was measured, not like Nicodemus’ hundred pounds weight, valuable as that was in its place. This was just one pound, but, oh, how precious! The odour filled the house.
But Mary Magdalene completes the picture of spirituality from this point of view. Chapter 20 introduces the first day of the week and Mary is in full view, as if that is the thing the mind of God is set upon for the coming eternity. The chapter begins thus: “The first day of the week ... Mary”. There she is; and she moves in agility as did the Lord Himself; He was moving like ‘the hind of the morning’, as depicted in the psalm. She runs to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. It says, too, that she remained without at the sepulchre, as they “went away again to their own home”, and she looked into it and saw two angels sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. The picture, as I understand it, is this — these angels represented Old Testament administration, wonderful administration, but they are sitting now at the head and the feet of Jesus. That is where they were, as if all else was given up, and they were now taken up with the glorious Person who had come in. But He is not there. He was there, and these angels show what heaven thought of Him, and the woman is to understand it; she saw it. As she saw it, they spoke to her, and it says, “she turned backward”. One of the greatest features of spirituality is instinct; so here it is as if instinctively she turned backward, for Jesus was not there. Angels were there; but it was to call attention to the dignity of the Person who had been there. She looked backward [p. 390] and she saw Jesus, that is to say, that direction is to be given up. We are not to look in that direction again; we are to look in another direction. Spiritually it means that there is a complete turning round from what you have been occupied with; I do not care what it is, religiously, or whatever it may be, there is to be, from John’s point of view, a complete turning-round. First she turns backward; then she sees Jesus, though she did not recognise Him. Presently He says, Mary; then she turned herself round. That is a complete change. Turning backward was more negative; turning round, as the Lord called her by name, is positive. Are we prepared for it? Spirituality, according to John, requires a complete change of outlook. Are not these angels worth looking at? Yes, beloved friends, they are wonderful beings, but they call attention to the termination of the old order of things. Their position in the tomb called attention to the dignity of Him who lay there; but He was not there, and they are not going to stay there; their business is Jesus. A multitude of them came down in a host when He was born; now two are present; a testimony to His Person and to what He had effected in His death. So Mary turns completely round, and she says to Him, “Rabboni, which means Teacher”. She is spiritual now. She says, as it were, I understand now that I need to be taught. And we all do. We need to look at everything from an angle different from the ordinary. You may have been reading the Bible from an unspiritual point of view, reading commentaries, it may be, but that in itself will not make you spiritual; you have to learn everything from Christ, so Mary turns completely round and says, “Rabboni, which means Teacher”.
Then the Lord says, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”. She is to be led into the greatest thoughts of God. Think of that! the [p. 391] very greatest thoughts of God for us, and that is what she is to be led into. Are we prepared for it? The very best and greatest thoughts God has about us are available to us, and the state of soul to which they are disclosed is seen here in Mary Magdalene. But He would detach her completely from the earth and link her with heaven. He says in effect, Do not touch me until I am ascended. Contact — links — with Him are now to be in relation to heaven — “I have not yet ascended”. It is all a question of elevation, and personal dignity. “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. Marvellous! That is her light. It is the light. It is no question of Israel’s privileges now; it is what was before the world, as Ephesians 1:3,4 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”. It is according to eternal purpose, “according as he has chosen us in him before the world’s foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love”. That is the thing, the very best thoughts that God has, the thoughts of His love about us.
Well, that is Mary Magdalene, and she stands out in the front of the picture in this chapter. The first day of the week — Mary Magdalene. The first day of the week in the mind of God represents something before all that has been, and that is John’s gospel. May God help us to enter into it!