MAINTAINING THE COLOURS (2)

MAINTAINING THE COLOURS (2)

We have had a great deal of talk about maintaining the colours. I am often asked to define it. If I am living, not the man that is here, but the Man in heaven who ^[p. 271] is not here, that would, I doubt not, ensure the right colour. But this could not be, unless I know that I am united to Him in heaven, and have entered into the fact that I am of His body on earth. Owning the unity of the body, without the heavenly colour, without maintaining the Man in heaven, on earth, where He is not, is merely a skeleton, without life or muscle. It is faith without works, the body without the spirit. And you cannot be the heavenly man here without learning that you are in union and company with the glorified Man.

And here, I think, some have failed very much in this day. They have adopted the unity of the body as a doctrine, without the deepening sense that there can be no unity that has not its beginning with the Head; and that it is only as we realise our union with Christ, that we can truly be the practical expression of the unity of His body on earth. Any member of our bodies not in contact with the head because of paralysis is really incapacitated to be of any use to the other members. The strength and value, as to all benefit, of our union with one another is in the ratio of the strength and value of our union with Christ.

It is only as I realise my union with Christ that I can live Christ; and as I do, I impart the benefits derived from this wondrous union to His body on the earth. But if the union which I assert as a fact does nothing for me, and I still walk as a man of the earth, then the unity of the body is only a theory with me, and no benefit either to myself or to the saints.