LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS
Luke 24:15-17, 25-35; Galatians 2:11-14; 3 John 1-5, 14
Dear brethren, I feel very tested standing here to speak, because we are in a time that is critical. I felt led to speak, if the Lord would help me, of how love and faithfulness go together.
Some will know that in 1896, a meeting was arranged in a place called Quemerford in the south of England. Mr Stoney wrote a message to the brethren gathered there; he wrote it from the heart because he felt grieved that the brethren at that time had not really got the gain of the truth that had been established as to Christ and the assembly, and the need for the recognition of holiness and separation. That was his message1. At the meeting, Mr Raven addressed the brethren about the need for each one to maintain the truth, as having responsibility to do that2. He pointed out the responsibility of each of us to maintain the truth; not only the most spiritual brother in the meeting, not only the brother who perhaps takes a three-day meeting, but the responsibility on you and me as the simplest brother or sister in our meetings. Mr Raven pointed out two things. One was the need to recognise the reproach of the Christ, and the other was the need to recognise that it is in the power of the Spirit that the truth is maintained. If we truly accept the reproach of the Christ, what does that mean? It means that our loyalty is tested, because the Lord Jesus is not publicly recognised. You know that and I know that. We are to go forth to Him without the camp bearing His reproach. If we are bearing His reproach, that means we are loyal to Him, loyal to the fellowship, and loyal to the brethren. We are also tested as to whether we love Christ, whether we love the truth, whether we love the brethren. These things go together. If we are to maintain the truth, it must not be in the flesh, because if we try to maintain the truth in the flesh, that is bound to fail; we will dishonour the truth, and dishonour what is of Christ. We need to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So I felt led to speak of faithfulness and love going together. I believe one of the efforts of the enemy at the present time is to suggest that we can either follow love or we can follow faithfulness, as if they are separate things. I do not think there is anything further from the truth, dear brethren. These scriptures that we have read show that they go together. We see that in the Lord Jesus Himself as He drew near to these two dear souls who were going in the wrong direction, to Emmaüs. How often I have gone in the wrong direction. I have to own that and I believe that we all would have to own it. But how faithful the Lord Jesus is. Have you experienced His rebuke? I have, sometimes through a faithful brother or sister. Maybe if you have experienced that, you felt wounded. In Proverbs we read, “Open rebuke is better than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend”, Prov.27:5,6. In this scripture in Luke, we see the Lord Jesus as a Friend. I may feel wounded, perhaps by someone trying to help me, but I find that he or she has really been my friend, and get the gain of it. So we see here that the Lord Jesus drew near. He listened to their complaint, and He saw that they were downcast. Maybe you feel downcast, maybe you feel disillusioned. Speak to the Lord Jesus about it. He might say to you, What have you done? What did He say to these two? Why have you ignored all that has been given to you? Why have you ignored the Scriptures? Why have you ignored the great inheritance of the truth that has been delivered so faithfully? Why do you not take that into account in your life? “O senseless and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” How searching that is, but as you get the gain of it, you see that His love is behind it. You can see that in the working out of this chapter.
I speak carefully, but sometimes, in order to contain evil, it might be necessary for the brethren to act faithfully in the last resort to withdraw from someone. Is that the end? No, it is not. What is going to help? It is all in view of that person being restored fully to their privileges, through repentance coming to light. That is what the objective is. Is the Lord able to recover persons? Yes, He is! We see His priestly grace here, we see His faithfulness as Priest through His rebuke and through His bringing the Scriptures to bear, and through speaking of Himself. First, their hearts were burning, and then their eyes were opened. Oh, that our eyes might be opened to Christ to see Him as we have never seen Him before. This recovery of these two dear believers was a wonderful thing. That is what we would look for. If we ignore the need for assembly discipline, we do not help the person concerned. But we should be in faith and expectancy that the Lord Jesus will come in His own way to recover. He is able to do it, He is our great High Priest. So that He goes with them in the wrong direction initially and He speaks faithfully, but love is behind it. What is the result? The result is that “rising up the same hour, they returned to Jerusalem”. They did not say, ‘Oh, it is not safe for us to go back to Jerusalem now, it is not convenient’. No; their hearts were on fire. They came straight back into the company where the Lord Jesus was owned, where He was loved; they retraced their steps. Oh, what a reception they would have had, what recovery it was! That is what the Lord’s love, the Lord’s faithfulness, would accomplish. How faithful He has been with me. As I look back over my own history, I see that He has been faithful, and His love has been there along with His faithfulness, so that I should be fully restored in appreciation of Himself and in appreciation of my brethren.
I read from the epistle to the Galatians because there was a crisis there. During the course of the testimony, there have been various critical times, when the enemy seemed to have the upper hand. In Galatia, the enemy was attacking the truth of the glad tidings, he was attacking the work of Christ, he was attacking through the dissimulation of these Jewish brethren, and Peter was about to be carried away. Dear Peter had often learned through the Lord’s own word to him, and here we see that this was a battle ground. Somehow the matter had to be met; and who was going to meet it? Someone had to stand in the breach, someone had to act faithfully, and we see that it was the apostle Paul. Paul “withstood him to the face”, that is, he spoke directly. And what was the result? The victory was won. If it had not been, where would we as believers have been? Where would we have been if this battle had not been won through the faithfulness of the apostle? But then, how did he do it? He did it in a wonderfully appealing way as knowing Peter as his brother, knowing him as already having spent time with him. They knew one another, and Paul knew that he could speak directly to Peter. We can say that it was done in love. How do we know that? Let me read to you what Peter wrote at the end of his second epistle; the brethren know it well but it is worth reading. Peter wrote, “according as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him, as also in all his epistles”, 2 Pet.3:15,16. So Paul not only secured the victory, not only was the battle won, but Peter’s heart was won. Paul did it in such a way that Peter’s heart was won, because otherwise Peter would not have written in this way, would he? And not only that, but Peter referred to Paul’s epistles. Peter might have thought, Well, Paul wrote those verses about me in his epistle to the Galatians. Did that concern Peter? No! Peter had finished with the way in which the flesh is offended. He had been wounded in his conscience, but he got over that because he saw that Paul was really his friend. He saw that Paul had Christ before him, and that he was protecting the greatness and the truth of the glad tidings, and that Paul was faithful. I think that Peter would have thanked Paul; think of the way in which he acknowledged him.
In the third epistle of John, we read of Gaius who, although a person of no obvious account, was faithful. That really comes back to what Mr Raven said about our individual responsibility for the maintenance of the truth. Who was Gaius? He was a convert of John’s. He was not an apostle, he was not perhaps the most prominent in the meeting, but he took it upon himself to be faithful. He made the truth his own, and it is a remarkable thing that John referred to him as “beloved Gaius”, then in verse 2 as “Beloved”, and in verse 11 he wrote “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil”. How faithfulness was seen in this dear brother. Gaius was faithful and he made the truth his own; and it was not just by what he said, but by what he was. In that address of Mr Raven’s, he said that we do not maintain the truth merely by clinging to its terms, but by being ourselves the exponents of it, so that the truth is seen in our walk. It was obvious in the case of Gaius. It was obvious to his brethren, so that they “came and bore testimony to thy holding fast the truth”. That was a remarkable thing. It was not just that Gaius held it loosely, but he held it fast. It meant that there must have been adverse conditions. It meant that his friendship was tested. It meant that he was loyal, “holding fast the truth”. In the note, Mr Darby says that the verse means holding ‘to thy truth’. Gaius made the truth his own, it was really his life. That is what is seen in Christ, and it was seen in this dear man, Gaius; he held the truth fast. John could write “even as thou walkest in truth”. So the brethren in my own locality would help me as to whether I am walking in the truth. In Gaius’ case, it was obvious and it was clear, and this gave joy to the apostle. Do we give joy to those who help us? Do we give joy to those who give an account? John wrote, “I rejoiced exceedingly when the brethren came and bore testimony to thy holding fast the truth, even as thou walkest in truth. I have no greater joy than these things that I hear of my children walking in the truth”.
At the end of the epistle, John wrote, “The friends greet thee. Greet the friends by name”. Not my friends, or your friends; the friends, those who have stood true, those who have stood loyal. As calling upon the Lord out of a pure heart, you find that there are those who are indeed likewise minded, the friends. Are we true friends? Friends are tested in adverse conditions. Are we true? Are we loyal? Knowing one another in days of difficulty, we find that there is that which we can rely on which is stable, which is going through until the Lord comes.
May the Lord bless the word.
Address at Glasgow
28 February, 2015.
J.B. Ikin