CHAPTERS 13, 14
CHAPTERS 13, 14
Chapter 12 contemplates the christian’s place in relation to the body, chapter 13 looks at him as in man’s kingdom, and chapter 14 as in God’s kingdom. The exhortations in chapter 12 hang on the fact of [p. 127] our being one body and members one of another; we are set thus in relation to one another down here, that is how the truth of the body is introduced in this epistle. The mystery underlies the truth of the epistle, but it is not specifically taught. The mystery explains how it is possible for Christ to be here in the scene from which He has been rejected; here it merely states the fact that the saints are one body in Christ; and it follows that there are certain obligations and functions dependent upon us in relation to one another; the truth of the body was carried out before the saints knew much about the Head, they were one body in the power of the Holy Spirit without much intelligence about the Head; the possession of the Spirit necessitates the body. We get an idea of it in what the Lord said to Saul, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”. The Lord could hardly have said that, if there had not been a representation of Himself in the saints, but there was by the Holy Spirit, so that He could say it. In chapter 12 there is not direct teaching as to the one body, but the apostle assumes the body as a fact.
In chapter 13 the question is of our conduct and testimony in man’s kingdom, and in chapter 14 we have the thought of God’s kingdom. “Weak in the faith” is faith in the sense of belief of a system of truth. It is the description of a man whose conscience is not up to his light. A man has to act according to his conscience or he would get a bad conscience. Exercise about things brings the conscience up to the light. A man’s light usually goes beyond his conscience. There are two things with each one of us, namely, what we know, and what is written in the fleshy tables of the heart; what we know may be much beyond what is written in us. If a man has the revelation of God in his hand, as a christian in system, that christian is responsible by reason of it, yet after all he can only act according to the grace given him.
[p. 128] There is divine wisdom in the order of these chapters. The apostle takes up our conduct in man’s kingdom, but goes on to the point in the end of the chapter, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ”; which brings us to God’s kingdom. You honour the king, you love your neighbour, and you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the last brings you to what is of God’s kingdom, you are ruled by a greater authority than any found in man’s kingdom. It is in the sphere of man’s authority that the christian’s testimony comes out; he honours the king and loves his neighbour, but more, he puts on the Lord Jesus Christ and does not make provision for the flesh. It is evident that he is under greater authority than a human king. Only the Lord is entitled to control the conscience; if any human authority directs a christian to do what he cannot do conscientiously, then he cannot do it; but the Lord can direct him in all things, because He is the light of God, and the more you have to do with the Lord and His glory, the more light you get; and that affects and liberates the conscience.
The epistle recognises the times of the gentiles when power is committed to man; and the christian has to accept this; we recognise that we are in a scene that is subject to man; if a demand is made we submit to it. We have to be obedient, not loyal, though not disloyal. If a different form of government were established, it would be our duty to submit to it, which if loyal to the queen we could not do — the authority is the ordinance of God. Government in itself is never bad, in its nature it is good; there can be no worse calamity for a country than anarchy, there may be abuse in government, but it is always good in principle. Circumstances may occur when man’s government intrudes into the things of God, so as to come athwart a christian’s conscience, and then it is plain that the christian must not do evil.
Verse 11. The authority of man is really carried [p. 129] on in the night, in the time of darkness, and the point for the christian is that he is already in the day. It must be night here if Christ has been rejected, but the night is far spent and the day is at hand, and we are to walk decorously, for though it is night as to the world, the christian is in the day. The moment you bring in the Lord Jesus Christ, you bring in the light of the day. He is the sun of righteousness that arises, but in the meantime He is the day-star in the heart of the christian, so that we are to walk becomingly as in the day, though actually in the night. The armour of light is that you bring the light of day into the night, you meet everything here in accord with what the Lord will administer when He comes. It is in contrast with the works of darkness. In Ephesians the armour is to enable us to stand against all the devices and forms of spiritual wickedness, here it is that you do not meet men with their own weapons, but with arms of light. If a man smites you, you do not smite him in return, but meet him with the weapons of light.
“Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed”. Salvation is the complete deliverance of the christian from all that is contrary to God; it is now morally nearer, it could hardly be actually nearer, for what difference could a few years make? but there is a moral deliverance now from all that from which the saint will in result be absolutely and actually delivered. Then what accompanies that salvation is that we are formed positively according to divine purpose, conformed to the image of God’s Son.
Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ connects itself with what is true in Him now. You cannot go in walk beyond what He was morally when here; but it is a very different matter when we look at the Lord’s administration. Peace with God is through Him, so too joy in God, grace reigns unto eternal life through Him. It was when He went to the right hand of God [p. 130] that He was made Lord and Christ. What He administers to us now and gives us the enjoyment of, He will administer publicly when He comes. In principle the kingdom is not different to us now from what it will be when He comes; righteousness, peace and joy will then fill the earth. We have them now in the Holy Spirit, but the Lord will establish them publicly in the earth. One is conscious of the blessing connected with the Lord’s authority and administration, and the more you come into the light of day the nearer it is to you. It is a great point for everyone to realise that the night is far spent. There are many for whom it is not far spent, they are too comfortably settled down here. You cannot have christianity apart from the moral state of christians, there is no objective system in Scripture apart from the subjective state, they are so bound up that if you separate them you have lost christianity.
Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ is the being conscious of what He is, and of the administration that belongs to Him, it characterises the one that is sensible of it. The putting on Christ in Galatians 3: 27 is more as of profession, the bearing of their baptism was that they had repudiated Adam and put on Christ. In Romans the idea is more spiritual. Salvation is always salvation. At the coming of the Lord where will be the world, and all the artifices of Satan? All displaced, the God of this world and all his wiles will be gone in a moment; so with regard to sin and infidelity, all will be dissipated in a moment by the coming of the Lord, deliverance is complete the instant He comes, the power of the enemy all gone. The end God has in view in this salvation is the accomplishment of His counsel. We get salvation for the first time in Exodus 15; but the setting up of the tabernacle was a consequence of salvation, and the bringing the people into the land was of God’s purpose; salvation was that they were delivered from [p. 131] the Egyptian, redeemed from the power of the enemy, but it was in order to be introduced into the purpose of God. We wait for sonship, and what is necessary for it is the redemption of the body.
In chapter 13 there is no mention of the Lord, or of the Spirit except in the last verse; chapter 14 is full of the Lord, and in verse 17 you get the Spirit, and both connected with the kingdom. Chapter 14 insists upon individual responsibility to the Lord because we are in the kingdom; then, in connection with the same subject, the Spirit gives us the moral characteristics of the kingdom — righteousness, peace and joy. The thought of the kingdom is that it is the sphere and scene where the Lord has sway. Each one is responsible to the Lord, therefore we do not attempt to lord it over one another’s conscience. Conscience refers to the Lord. “For this cause Christ both died and rose that he might be Lord”. The authority of God is presented to us in the Lord in the kingdom. A man as he goes on gets much more light, and the more He is in the light of the Lord, the more liberty of conscience he gets, he is less hampered; but then his conscience is not a rule for another man. If a man has a morbid conscience, and is highly scrupulous about trifling matters, it only proves that he is not fully in the light of the Lord. If a man is in the light of the Lord he has the Lord before him; and if a man is legal you must seek to bring him more into the light. The apostle’s great anxiety is to preserve individual responsibility to the Lord; the Lord is the christian’s judge, and therefore conscience must refer to the Lord.
It is a most serious thing if you embolden a man to do what he has not faith to do as being the will of God. You put him on the down-grade. It is the ultimate bearing of such an act that the apostle looks at when he says, “Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died”. Verse 18 is very beautiful, “He [p. 132] that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men”.
“Whatsoever is not of faith is sin”. If a christian cannot do a thing as being the will of God, then it is his own will, it is sin. Faith is that you have the light of God’s will, and you act according to it. If you have not the light of God’s will, you have to wait. This is the opposite to what is in the world, there man without scruple acts on his own will. Conscience keeps pace with faith, what a man has faith for he can do with a good conscience. What a man knows intelligently may be beyond his conscience, he has not made it his own, it is not written in him. You are to have faith as to yourself before God, that is intelligible enough; faith does not refer to man, faith is really acting before God. Righteousness, peace and joy are practical, they are the moral characteristics of the kingdom, to be universally enjoyed when the kingdom comes in power. “Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord”.