THE AUTHORITY AND INFLUENCE OF CHRIST
[p. 52] THE AUTHORITY AND INFLUENCE OF CHRIST
Song of Songs 8: 5; 2 Corinthians 3: 1 - 18
JT It is evident in the Canticles that the apple tree alludes to the Lord, and that the feminine speaker had been awakened, or raised up, under Him; and I thought that that idea would have a connection with the epistles to the Corinthians in that the aim of the apostle in writing to them was to awaken them under the authority and influence of Christ, so that they should be formed, as it were, and brought forth. There is much that answers to the idea of mother in the religious organisations around, but wherever the assembly is recognised, wherever believers walk in the light of it, the aim should be that those coming in should be nurtured under the authority and influence of Christ. It is only thus that there can be right formation, that there can be children according to God. The bride earlier had said when she found the Lord, having sought Him that she brought Him to her mother’s house; that is, as finding the Lord she would connect Him with the assembly, so to speak.
Ques Is the assembly the mother?
JT Well, it is Jerusalem above that is said to be our mother, or the mother of us all. The Corinthians were disregarding the authority of the Lord and were making much of one another as men, so that the apostle had to say that they were ignoring the dignity of the Lord; so the idea of the apple tree, I think, enters into these epistles. It is seen in the first epistle in the way in which the apostle asserts the authority of the Lord throughout. In introducing the Lord’s supper he brings in that by which the Lord intends to influence us, so that we have His authority and influence over us, built up on what He is personally,
[p. 53] for we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ques Do you mean by the thought of the Supper that we are brought into the gain of the mother?
JT Yes. That is the means, I think, by which the Lord maintains His influence over us. It belongs to those who have come to recognise what He is “as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood”; such would say, “So is my beloved among the sons”.
Ques What are the things you refer to in saying there is much in the systems around that answers to the idea of mother?
JT Well, take any of them, particularly Rome. It is formally alluded to as a mother: “Her children will I kill with death”, we read; and so all the others in a lesser degree, of course, but nevertheless truly so. The thought of ‘mother’ corresponds with the idea of a system that gives character to those who come under its influence. Each system has its organisation and its peculiarity; it may be some distinctive doctrine that is laid hold of, but those coming under the nurture of the particular system take out of it its character and in every case its bondage. It answers to what is said in Galatians. Hagar “answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children”. Every earthly organisation is in bondage with her children, but we, brethren, the apostle says, “are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free”, so that we come under another system, a heavenly system and hence take on its liberty. The Corinthians were fast drifting back into that which was in bondage, but they were corrected in this way that the apostle asserted the authority of the Lord over them and brought them back under His influence. In doing that, by bringing in the Lord’s supper, he brought in the reminder that Christ and the assembly are inseparable. “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”,
[p. 54] but then it is also a symbol of the unity of the saints so that they are inseparable.
Rem So that the one loaf in that way would speak of the unity of the saints.
JT It would; it speaks to us of Christ and at the same time of the saints, and in holding these two thoughts we are brought up under right principles and right influences so that we are not bondwoman’s children. There is much therefore made of the mothers in Canticles and this is so, too, in the New Testament and that both in a bad sense and in a good sense. We have to be on our guard against the bad feature of it. We cannot correspond with the divine idea of children unless we are brought up under the right mother. To make it simple, a right mother is one who is truly in fellowship.
Rem Everything hangs on the apple-tree as Christ personally.
JT Yes. In chapter 2: 3 she makes the comparison “as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood”, but then that would be the result, I think, of what is stated in chapter 8, verse 5, which had already taken place — that is, she had been brought up or raised up under Him.
Rem I suppose the weakest meeting that ever was on earth is greater to heaven than the whole Roman system.
JT I am sure that is true, and very forceful, too. It shows how much moral value there is to be attached to a few who are governed by the light of the assembly. There you have the divine ideal, the paternal and the maternal combined. I think the apple-tree would correspond with the paternal side. Take the gospels, for instance, and see how believers were drawn to the Lord and gradually came to acquire a knowledge of Him, and as they did so He dominated them — they came under His influence and rule; and in gaining [p. 55] His place thus He brought in the love of God. It is in apprehending His dignity — His greatness, that you can see how He could bring in the love of God.
Ques Does that give an indication of “the glory that excelleth” in 2 Corinthians 3?
JT Just so, for Moses could not have brought in the love of God. It is true indeed that Israel came up out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved, and that there is an allusion to that in this verse. She came up out of the wilderness, as in the kingdom, supported, as it were, by Moses, but he was but a type of the Lord. She came up as having been under the apple-tree, because as having come out of Egypt she gradually acquired a knowledge of Christ typically. There were three things combined: first there was the ark, then there was Moses, and then there was Aaron; each presented to Israel some feature of Christ. But Moses rose in their estimation; God caused him to acquire a place from the period of the golden calf when the tables of the covenant were broken. He was bringing in a testimony to God into the camp but the golden calf was there. He broke the tables and then he says to the Lord, “Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book”, Exodus 32: 32. The Lord had said, I am going to destroy them and I will make of thee a great nation — a wonderful opportunity for man after the flesh — he would grasp at it, but Moses refused that. He says, ‘No, I have to think of Thee, what will the world say about Thee’. Then too he thought about the people and he knew God loved the people and therefore he does not say ‘blot them out’, but ‘blot me out’. There was the apple-tree in the spirit of it. Moses was qualifying there. He was showing the Spirit of Christ in self-sacrifice, and from that point onwards Moses rises and rises until God comes down to the door of the tabernacle that he has spread and talked to him, speaking to him as a man speaks to his friend, face [p. 56] to face. God honoured him and then He told him to come up again with two tables of stone, but he was to make an ark this time — “make thee an ark of wood”, Deuteronomy 10: 1. That meant that Christ would become man, it would be a question of Christ in manhood. And I will give you the law again, I will write on the tables and you will put them into the ark. They will never need to be broken again. It is a figure of Christ come in. He will have the law within His heart and will maintain it. He will bear the curse Himself of the broken law, and in doing that He will bring out not only His own love for the people but the love of God. Well, there is no one in the whole universe who could do that but Himself, and so He thus acquires a place in the soul of the believer as distinguished above all others. “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons”. You know Him thus. He has come up into your soul in that way.
And then Moses comes down from the mount. He comes down with this new law. It is in principle the new covenant and so his face shone. Thus Israel was brought up, raised up, under him. She was reinstated, you might say, under Moses but Moses with his face shining. Of course it was not a perfect state of things — “not as Moses”, we read, but here you have the perfect. The book of Deuteronomy, I think, unfolds to us what Moses was. The children of Israel were brought up under him. In reading Deuteronomy you will see what a place they had in his heart.
Ques Do you think that Paul in a way would answer in character to Moses when he speaks of himself here as competent as a minister of the new covenant?
JT I think that is it. “Has also made us competent, as ministers of the new covenant” as Moses was, in as far as he could be. It is a remarkable [p. 57] thing that these covenants are so much worked out in connection with Paul’s ministry.
Rem Moses had desired to see the glory of God, but they had gazed on the glory of the Lord.
JT The enemy was attacking the Lord through men in Corinth. They were attacking Paul, and Paul in the first and second letters labours much to establish what his ministry was.
Ques The ministry would beget confidence in God. Is that thought suggested in leaning upon the arm of her beloved?
JT Yes, that is so. In reading Deuteronomy you see what an influence Israel had been under all these forty years when God nourished them in the desert, by the hand of Moses and Aaron. He nursed them through that instrumentality — by the hand of Moses and Aaron, for God ever acts mediately through others — through Christ and through servants. Hence the apostle and those who laboured with him were competent as ministers of the new covenant. The minister would get competence from God. You get the competency leaning on the arm of the beloved.
Ques Do you mean that it is as being with God we can be for God?
JT Well, I think that is how it stands. Moses was with God and as he came down from God his face shone. In the ministry expressed in these epistles we have the effort to awake the saints under the apple-tree — he raises them up under Christ.
Ques You were speaking of finding the Lord. Is that the idea of our finding the Lord?
JT Yes, we do not want to see any other. All true ministry is to awaken people under the apple-tree. I think that is what is going on at the present time. All ministry of the Spirit has in view to create exercise and awaken people in regard of God. But it is under the apple-tree. You are not to move away from that. The Canticles show, I think, how the [p. 58] heart becomes attached to Christ so that you do not move away from the Lord. If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, that is the result of ministry. It leads you into relationship with Christ, and you want to remain there. If you are brought into touch with the Lord you soon want to stay with Him. The bride was awakened under the apple-tree. Her mother brought her forth there. We do not want to bring young people under any other influence, or to have any other influence brought to bear upon them. She was brought forth there. “There thy mother brought thee forth”. So that in chapter 2 she says, “As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons”. She is now comparing — she has found out some of His worth.
Ques Is it the spirit of things that would awaken us rather than the letter?
JT That is so.
Rem So the apostle says he had espoused her to one husband that he might present her as a chaste virgin to Christ.
JT Paul says “we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”. That is the ministry that tells. Young people awakened under that want to stay there.
Ques Would grace in contrast to law be part of the spirit of it?
JT Quite; not according to the letter but the spirit — not the able presentation of things but the spirit in which they are presented. That was what marked the apostle. He tells us in the first epistle that he is not speaking according to human wisdom. He wanted to bring in Christ; “I did not judge it well”, he says, “to know [p. 59] anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”. He knew that Man and if you want to introduce anyone you must know him. He does not say exactly I knew no one but Jesus Christ, but “I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, and I think that was how the apple-tree was set up, it was brought in there. They awoke under it and the second letter is to bring them forth under it.
Rem So he would espouse them to one man as a chaste virgin to Christ.
JT Hence the chapter opens with the query whether he needed a letter of commendation to them. They were his letter written in his heart, known and read of all men. They were to know that whatever they thought about Paul he loved them and that is really a reflection of Christ. Whatever you think about the Lord He loves you and all ministry is to bring you to know that. An able minister refers to an able minister of the new covenant — one who can bring it in in the spirit of it. You will observe here that it is not that Christ is the spirit of the new covenant but the Lord is that Spirit; it is a question of His authority, but His authority used to bring into your heart the best thing in the whole universe. When you see that that is what He is to do, you readily submit to His authority. He wants to bring in the love of God. The more authority He has the better, as it would become effective.
Rem So that coming under this authority brings liberty.
JT Yes; I think the more the Israelites knew Moses the more they recognised his authority. They saw it was in their favour, it says, “he was king in Jeshurun”, Deuteronomy 33: 5. When they saw how good a man he was, how helpful he was, too, they acknowledged his authority.
Ques In our case would that be to open our eyes to the glory of that Person?
JT Yes; and we come to see that the glory that excelleth is the bringing in of the love of God. He is making that effective and that is what Paul was doing as a new covenant minister. The first letter is [p. 60] really a letter of the minister of the covenant as much as the second, only Paul acted wisely in the first letter because he had to use severe language; he had to deal with things contrary to God there. But in both letters he is aiming at establishing the Lord as the apple-tree so that they should be awakened under Him, as He says to the Colossians, “As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him”.
Ques Would that verse in Colossians 2: 6 refer to those brought up under the apple-tree?
JT I think so. I think the Colossians were taken account of as wakened up under Him. They had received Him. The subject of ministry is perhaps very little understood by the people of God. As I was saying, the apostle interweaves it in these two letters to the Corinthians.
Ques Have we the thought of the maternal in the new covenant, that is, the thought of nurture?
JT Well, I think it works out in the way in which the love that the new covenant expresses is seen in the saints collectively. For instance, “confirm your love toward him” is a maternal thought. The apostle had dealt with the man with authority; “When ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one”. But now they had to restore that one and he had come under the influence of the ‘mother’ in the reclamation; and so when the love of God is in the hearts of the brethren and active, young people and young believers around who are needing help come under the influence of the mother, the new covenant.
Ques Would the thought of the mother be in the woman of worth (Proverbs 31) who looked well to the ways of her household, and whose children were all clothed and cared for?
JT Yes, just so.
[p. 61] Ques Would you say that is the power to expel what is evil?
JT Quite; so that her children arise and call her blessed, and her husband praiseth her.
Ques Would you say the spirit of the mother is expressed in Paul in Thessalonians — “as a nurse would cherish her own children”, 1 Thessalonians 2: 7?
JT Well, I think you see in Sarah more the divine thought of the mother, because Abraham is enjoined to hearken to her voice on that point. It was she who said, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son”, for the son of the bondwoman was not to inherit with her son — with Isaac; that is to say, the saints as possessing the love of God in their hearts will not admit of a legal thing. I believe all the systems around are more or less formed by legality, the human element expressed in that way. Now love refuses that. It takes away our liberty. We want to be free children. We are indeed as Isaac was — children of promise, children of the free woman — and we want to retain our liberty, so we refuse Ishmael; cast him out, as Sarah said.
Rem “So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us”, 1 Thessalonians 2: 8.
JT That is an excellent example of it, I think.
Rem So souls grow into liberty, they do not reach it on the principle of fighting, but by growth.
JT The mother should see to that — that is, each local company should see to it that the natural, that is the legal element, is not admitted.
Rem We need to take account of how the mother bears us under the apple-tree.
JT Yes, those who are brought up under the influence of the light of the assembly are free. It is evident there is something about them that is different. In the christians around there is something [p. 62] wanting. They are christians like others, but nevertheless there is something lacking. Paul, as a competent minister of the new covenant, expressed the spirit of Christ. The Lord is that Spirit. It was the Spirit of the Lord, only in the way of authority, and that is the paternal side, I think, but then they were to act. I have no doubt that the mother element was brought in in chapter 5 in dealing with the offending one. That is housekeeping according to God. We cannot keep house without dealing with evil. Housekeeping according to God means cleanliness, the expulsion of what is evil.
Ques Can we be active with regard to what is maternal without the paternal side? Does the paternal come before the maternal?
JT Well, I think Paul’s attitude all through is the paternal side, the authority of God in Christ. He was insisting on the evil being put out, but then they were to do it — that is how the mother was brought in. The assembly at Corinth had failed. It could not be said of her that “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her”. The apostle in his first epistle was therefore asserting the rights of the Lord without coming himself — he was asserting the rights of the absent husband. What is to be done is done by him paternally, but his concern was that they might do the thing, the virtuous woman in the absence of her husband, and that is what he wrote his letter for.
Ques Does the mother teach us how to do the things in a right way?
JT Well, these letters to the Corinthians are to teach the mother how to do things first and then young believers coming in would be received rightly. We want to do things as the Lord would do them, as he says, “Receive ye one another, according as the Christ also has received you”, Romans 15: 7. Now the Corinthians had not given evidence that the heart [p. 63] of her Husband could safely trust in her; and so His absence tests us. The first letter is to get them to do the thing. He tells them what to do but they had to do it. The principle of the assembly is the mother acting in the absence of the Lord — acting as He would act — carrying out His mind. The first letter asserts His authority and then brings in the Lord’s supper by which His influence might be brought to bear upon them. The two letters show their love to the offending one, first in carrying the thing out, and then acting like God, confirming their love to him when he is restored. The wife acts like the husband and knows his mind. Another thing that comes out in the first letter is wisdom, indeed that is interwoven in both the letters. We get an illustration of the effect of wisdom in 2 Samuel 20: 22, the wise woman of Abel who went to the people of the city in her wisdom and got them to do the thing. They cut off the head of Sheba and cast it to Joab. And that is what came to pass in Corinth. They did the thing — had to do the thing, for they were responsible to answer to the assembly universally in keeping the Lord’s commandment.
Rem The first letter to the Corinthians opens the way for love.
JT It does; so that a man restored ever afterwards would say, ‘Well, I was brought back under the influence of the Lord, the brethren showed great kindness to me. They had compassion and consideration for me’; that is the mother element active toward him.
Ques Would that be one of the ways in which we can gaze on the glory of the Lord — seeing a reflection of what is in heaven?
JT Well, there is certainly truth in it anyway. The assembly should be Christ’s glory and I suppose that would convey the thought. If you are taking up a brother who has sinned, but who has judged his [p. 64] course, and restoring him you are really reflecting Christ. That is on the mother’s side. I believe all the epistles and the gospels are to bring out this feature in the saints — a feminine reflection of Christ. So that every one that comes in comes in under the mother. The mother brings them up in the admonition of the Lord. She does it, “There thy mother brought thee forth”.
Ques Would that have a transforming effect?
JT Quite.
Rem That is to say you have to be under the influence of Christ yourself before you can help another.
JT Quite so, and young believers ought to be able to testify to the effect of Christ in the brethren and to learn more in that way. Presently, as knowing Him, they come directly into touch with Himself. Paul says they became followers of us and of the Lord. As they saw Paul they saw Christ in Paul.
Rem The power of this livingly in our souls would give the cup a different significance.
JT Quite. I think that as we come under the influence of the love of God and the love of Christ, which the cup would denote, the next thing is to ‘bring forth’. “There thy mother brought thee forth”. You bring in something for God. It is the idea of helping in the divine way, going on constantly bringing in something for God. This is brought about as we enter into the two things in the cup — the love of God and the love of Christ; it is “the new covenant in my blood”.
Ques Is His blood connected with the second giving of the law which we were referring to?
JT Yes. There it is the blood of the covenant — the new testament in His blood; that is to say. He died to make the love of God effective. The Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. We are changed from glory to glory by [p. 65] the Lord the Spirit. There you have the same image — you have the image of Christ, but it affects every one of us and thus we are qualified to reproduce. In helping souls we are bringing forth. There is a multiplying process constantly going on. In Acts 2 you have the idea of addition, in chapter 9 that of multiplication, addition by God and multiplication by ourselves. When it is a question of adding it is God doing it, but where the saints are edified they are multiplied. If the cup is rightly taken in, it would set every believer under the influence of the love of God and thus qualify them to bring forth — getting something for God. God does everything really, but nevertheless there is this side of the mother care working out under the influence of the love of God in us. “There thy mother brought thee forth” — there under the apple tree — under Christ as Lord making known the love of God to us.
Ques Would you receive strength to conceive seed?
JT I think perhaps many of us have overlooked that the seed of the kingdom — the good seed sown by the Son of man in Matthew 13 in the second parable — is persons and not the word of God as in the first parable. Look at that chapter, see verse 24, “Another parable set he before them ... The kingdom of the heavens has become like a man sowing good seed in his field”. In the explanation the Lord says, “He that sows the good seed is the Son of man ... and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom”. What do you say about that?
Rem That would be in keeping, I suppose, with chapter 1 — the generation of Jesus Christ.
JT It is very important to take account of the difference between the interpretation of the seed in the first parable of chapter 13 as given by the Lord. It is perfectly right that the seed is the word of God primarily, that is to say, the Lord in sowing sows [p. 66] the word in the gospel but then after that you have persons sown.
Rem So the state is there in a living person.
JT Well, quite. In Genesis 1 in the fruit trees whose seed is in themselves — “the seed of which is in them” — there is the power of continuation or increase. There is to be no intermixing — “producing seed after its kind”. Satan too sows persons — the tares are children of the wicked one. They are all around us spreading abroad evil doctrine, and leaven. What are we doing? God has said we should bear fruit. Fruit is what I am — what each believer is as a son of the kingdom. It is not only the light now but the thing itself. The divine thought itself is expressed in a concrete way in a man or a woman — a believer.
Rem The enemy sowing and the results of it ought to exercise us.
JT The question is. Are we sons of the kingdom in character? In Hosea the word “Jizreel” means ‘God will sow’ and so Jehovah says, speaking of Israel in the future when separated from all that is contrary to God and established in true relation to Him, “I will sow her unto me in the land”. When Israel is sown in relation to God the thought is that she should multiply.
Rem It is the Son of man who sows.
JT Yes. He has sown you here and me somewhere else, and it is to the end that there is a divine thing set up here livingly in a person and that is to increase.
Rem The influence of good is greater than the influence of evil. It is great encouragement that we are under the influence of the kingdom.
JT Quite. So that your influence and service are sure to produce something. That is what you are aiming at. You want to produce something, and what you produce is after yourself. So in the measure [p. 67] in which you are after Christ you produce something under the apple-tree. “There thy mother brought thee forth”. You want to bring a soul you may seek to help as near to Christ as possible so that it comes under His direct influence. We find in the gospels little children brought to the Lord that He might lay His hands on them and pray. Those who were responsible for the little ones bring them under the influence of Christ; they bring them to Him.
Rem If it is Christ, it will remain.
JT Just so. We ought to rely on that. The little ones were brought to the Lord and He takes them over and lays His hands on them and departs, “and having laid his hands upon them, he departed thence”. But they were brought to Him. Those that brought them valued Him; they must have come into some knowledge of Him. I think it is a principle that what you have got you bring to the Lord and let Him put His impress on it, but the divine thought is that we should go and bring forth fruit and that our fruit should remain.
Rem In Matthew it seems a great decline from one hundred to sixty and thirty-fold.
JT Yes; it is declension in Matthew; in Mark it is the other way. I think that the collective testimony would distinctly diminish but the individual would increase. Mark would stand for the individual — the levite; but it shows what one man can do.