PERFECT AND COMPLETE
W.F.Flowerdew
The hymn with which we commenced, and our brother's prayer following, have confirmed me to bring forward this verse because a great end to have in mind for the saints is that they should stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. I think that would relate to the inheritance of which we have been reminded in prayer, indeed it would relate to the whole scope of the truth viewed in an all-round way. So that to stand perfect and complete in all the will of God would be a complete thought; not just to repeat the word, but it would preserve us from being specialist in any particular line. We should have the whole scope of the truth, the whole thought of the inheritance in our minds and stand in relation to it. The epistle to the Romans refers to the mystery and relates the glad tidings to it, and it brings us to the great point of our standing in Christ: it sets our feet, as it were, upon solid rock so that we have an outlook before us. Chapter 16 would indicate that there is a great range of things lying ahead and we are brought into a position of stability from which we can view it. I think Epaphras would have in mind that we should not be diverted from it. Maybe we have been diverted, but divine thoughts stand; they centre in the Man of God's purpose and they can never be divorced from Him.
Our prayers should be in this relation: To cling to God's original thoughts for the saints and the Man in whom they centre and that we should stand in them in a complete way, with our outlook enlarged, our understanding increasing. What God has in mind for us in purpose is a glorious matter and the object is that we should arrive at what is perfect in the mind of God and what is complete in all the will of God. I think it would involve for us the liberty of sonship.
It says earlier in the epistle that "ye are complete in him", chap 2: 10. As we know, that means that there is no need to go outside of Him for anything. The truth is complete in Jesus, and we are complete in Him. What we need, therefore, is to have our minds more centred on what there is in Him and all that He is for God and for us, and all that He would bring us into. We need to stand in these things, as it says at the end of Ephesians, where the scope of God's thoughts is opened up to us particularly, "having accomplished all things, to stand", chap 6:13.
It was just this thought which came to mind that we should cling to this great matter and that our prayers should be in this relation, both as to our own enjoyment and for our brethren, that we should move into the extent and enjoyment of the inheritance and stand together in it. This would involve the working out of the mystery, the enjoyment of our links together. There is a great range of thoughts in mind, and the apostle's desire, and that of Epaphras too - and we might say the prayers of many are on this line - is that the saints should cling to these complete thoughts and that they should enter into the completeness of what God has in mind, stand in it and not let it go, not slip away from it but stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Much would enter into that, and there is much good teaching that we can follow up and enjoy; it may be some studying in this connection would be profitable in order to get a more real understanding of it ourselves. We should have completion before us and see that God wants us to arrive at nothing less. He has arrived at completion in Christ; how blessed that is! The Spirit is helping and I think the prayers of the saints enter into it too: it is for us to cling to these thoughts and to take our stand in a definite way so that what relates to the purpose of God may find its answer now among the saints, find its answer in the service of God, find its answer testimonially too. All this would enter into the matter so that God's thoughts as to Christ and the assembly, what He has in mind in purpose, would find representation in the way in which the truth works out and that locally too. It is for each one of us, the youngest, all of us, to hold to these great thoughts. According to our measure, as we allow the Spirit to open up more to us and we cling to Christ as the Man of God's purpose in whom all centres, I think we would find that there is an answer as we come together, so that assembly thoughts come into expression and some expression of what is in the mind of God, the scope of His will for us, is more and more enjoyed.
Well, one just presents this to the brethren as freshly impressed with this verse of scripture and the objective it would give us in our prayers and our exercises in our everyday walk, that we should stand in relation to these great things so that there may be, as it is in the mind of God, a complete answer now in the assembly to what is so perfectly found in Christ. Of course, it involves much on our side to move into, but it is a glorious objective and nothing less is in the mind of God for us, that we should enter into these things and come into the enjoyment of them and that they should find expression among us at the present time.
LONDON
18 September 1973