THE FAMILY AND TEACHING
[p. 253] THE FAMILY AND TEACHING
What has been before us is the truth as presented to us by Paul; the truth as presented by John runs pretty much parallel to it. Paul speaks of the house of God, where God dwells by the Spirit, and John gives us the same in its moral features, as a family or household. In verses 3 and 4 you get the privileges, in the latter part of the chapter the tests. The first two chapters of this epistle present the common platform of christian fellowship and the stages of growth into which the apostle divided the saints. Chapter 3 is privilege: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God”, that is, the place of privilege. So in the gospel, chapter 1: 12, “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”. It is probably in contrast to what belonged to Israel as a nation. The children of God compose the house of God; the habitation of God is His family, composed of Jew and gentile, “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit”. A house is a common thought in Scripture; we get, for instance, David’s house, or the house of Onesiphorus. It has been said that John does not give us the beginning of the gospel; the prominent thought in the mind of John is state. He does not look at people simply as accepting the proclamation and receiving the Spirit, but as born of God by the revelation of Himself in His Son. You arrive at the same point in Paul, for the Spirit given is the Spirit of God’s Son; but John begins with, “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”. Every christian has really been begotten by [p. 254] the revelation of God in love. In that way God has been pleased to come in, in order to undo the work of the enemy. There have long been the children of the devil in the world, and the answer to it on the part of God is to bring in the children of God. The question really is, as between God and the devil — What is going to meet the children of the devil, but the bringing in of the children of God? The children of the devil have to be made manifest, and this is consequent on the introduction of the children of God. The children of the devil are marked by lawlessness, the children of God by righteousness; they are like planets, kept by rule in their orbit, in contrast to wandering stars. The Spirit of God has lifted up a standard against the enemy. Christ was that in perfection. “Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself”. It is wonderful that God has come out in the revelation of Himself in love, to beget children to Himself. Those born of God must have been affected by His love, therefore such must have received the Spirit. The moral feature of the generation is righteousness, the acceptance of obligation — “we ought” — and what proceeds from this is love; if you are begotten of God’s revelation, you partake of God’s nature.
Christianity is in large measure a question of the way in which God has been pleased to come out to meet the power of evil, that is, the children of the devil could not be manifested as such, until a perfect standard of right and wrong was brought in, and that is Christ. The two generations are now contrasted: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil”. There was the same opposition previously between what was of God and what was of the devil; but the generations did not become manifest until the perfect standard was brought in in Christ, and is now brought to an issue. “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the wicked one”. If we could look at things as God sees them, we [p. 255] should be able to divide the world into the two classes. The point is that the children have been manifested, but all people are not yet declared; the time is coming when all will be made manifest. All is consequent on the introduction of Christ as the perfect standard. The sifting has begun already, and it will work out until the final determination in the new heavens and the new earth and the lake of fire, but the sifting is going on. “Again I write a new commandment to you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is passing, and the true light already shines”. There is a great system down here of which the moral characteristics are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; we can all judge of it. There may be a covering of christianity, but underneath we can see all the principles of the world, and whatsoever is of the world is not of the Father. We can detect the world by what John says of it, and we can even find it in ourselves, for the principles of it are there, and we are only delivered from these principles by the love of the Father; love is the contrast of lust and pride. In chapter 4 the great thought is divine teaching. It runs in a way parallel with the new covenant; so John speaks of manifested love: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us”. All this is used as an incentive to love one another, because God is to have His expression in us. “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us”, that is, in the way of expression.
In confessing Jesus Christ come in flesh you have the thought of another man brought in; all for God is set forth in Him — it is headship really. Nobody truly confesses “Jesus Christ come in flesh” who connects christianity with this world. “Jesus Christ come in flesh” is the reality of Christ having become man. If you have the Son of God as man, you have the Head and beginning of another world. It is an [p. 256] absolute moral impossibility that Christ could connect Himself with this world. When the Son of God comes in, by the very fact of His being man, He becomes the Head and Centre of another system.
The tabernacle was anointed before the priest; God always had in view a system of things which Christ should fill. God had in view a universe of bliss and the One to fill it. The spirit of antichrist is the opposite of confessing “Jesus Christ come in flesh”. It is a point of the last moment that God has been pleased to bring Christ in. He has come in as the test of everything here (John 3: 18, 19) — not to be the consummation of things that existed, but the true outset of everything. Hence you get the children of God manifested and the children of the devil: “To this end the Son of God has been manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil”. He has revealed God perfectly, and the true character of the world and its prince is manifested. If we apprehend what the children of God are, we ought to be in rigid separation from the system in which the prince of this world operates, and for that we must be in the enjoyment of the privileges and blessing attaching to our position. It is a wonderful thing to be in righteousness. “This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment”. Righteousness is not exactly nature; it is, so to say, a rule and relative, and being righteous is the apprehension of where you are relatively to God, to Christ, and to the brethren and the acceptance of the obligations. The outcome of it would be practical righteousness in the way of love to God, to Christ, and to the brethren.
There is a great defect amongst christians on the point of righteousness. They poorly understand the relations in which they are placed by God. The star must travel in its own orbit; that is being righteous; then you get the practice of righteousness. The thing [p. 257] that would come out down here would be love to the brethren.
What you get through this epistle is Christ as the measure of everything. “Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure ... he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous”.