THE LIBERTY OF SONSHIP (5)
THE LIBERTY OF SONSHIP (5)
JT In the readings before us today we should keep in mind the points that direct upward in the remaining part of the epistle. These really begin with the Spirit as received in chapter 3, and then the Spirit of God’s Son in chapter 4, sonship itself being involved, and Christ being formed in the saints. Then particularly “Jerusalem above”, the word “above” pointing to the higher levels to which God would lead us. Then, in chapter 6, we have such thoughts as “ye who are spiritual”, and “eternal life” and “new creation”; all these points embrace the truth in its higher levels, for it is only thus that the relatively lower features of the truth can be maintained according to God.
We reached yesterday afternoon, in chapter 4, the subject of formation, which, as was remarked, is perhaps the crux of the subject, for without it there can be no building up or elevation; and formation — Christ being formed in us — belongs to the phase of the truth that deliverance requires. There can be no stability or maturity, and hence no real foundation for building or entrance into heavenly or exalted thoughts, aside from Christ being formed in us. And what may be further remarked as to this great subject, is that it arises from the apostle’s own service to the Galatians, and their relation to him as children. He addresses them thus in verse 19 of chapter 4: “my children”. He purposes to speak from a maternal point of view; and the figure would carry with it the desire of a mother that the features of the father should be seen in the children. That is what the apostle aimed at. He had brought forward the paternal side of the truth in his announcing the glad tidings to them, and he had travailed, as he says, in birth, because he had to do it again now; hence, he had already travailed for them, as ministering among [p. 368] them. He not only presented the truth in the gospel, but laboured before God in the exercises of a true mother, that the features of the father, so to speak, should be there, that there should be an all-round formation in the children, for the full expression of the father; that is figuratively, the full expression of Christ in Galatia. Therefore the allusion to travail is ministerial. It is a question of what those who minister are to have in mind; not only the presentation of the gospel or the truth, but the travail, the concern that those who are ministered to should be affected, in the sense that the features of Christ should be there, and there in a fixed way, as formed in them. That makes the ministerial side solemn and testing. Preaching or ministering the truth is comparatively easy, although there is the exercise one has in getting things from the Lord; but the watching over the saints who are ministered to, that the effect may be all-round and normal, that there may be no stuntedness or malformation in those ministered to, but a full formation of Christ in His moral features — this is no easy matter.
ASL Would you say that Christ formed in the saints was the commencement, as it were, and until that was the case there could be no building up?
JT Yes; it is really foundational in the saints, as to what God has in mind in the reproduction of Christ in them; just as a mother would wish the father to be reproduced in the family. Evidently the enemy began his work in Galatia immediately after the apostle’s work, and alas! the conditions were only too convenient for such work.
ASL Then there is the formation of Christ going on all the time. It is progressive and continuous.
JT It is more initial, but then there is growth in it: “until we all arrive ... at the full-grown man”, Ephesians 4: 13.
Ques Would what you spoke of as the principles in chapter 3 be preparatory to this in an external [p. 369] way?
JT The principle on which the apostle ministered, on which the miracles were performed, the Spirit ministered and the gospel announced, was that of faith; and not only faith possessed by the person who ministered, but faith assumed to be in those ministered to. There can be no bringing in of Christ aside from that, for in truth it is Christ as He is now, apprehended by faith.
EuR Did I understand you to speak of a certain relation between what we speak of as deliverance and this thought of Christ formed in you?
JT It is deliverance from oneself and the formation that had been there. Of each one born into this world naturally, the parents have some ideal, and the desired formation is according to that, and so it involves displacement.
LDM In verse 19 it says, “of whom I again travail in birth”: does that show that something had been done, but the work had been spoilt?
JT That is clearly the inference. He has to go over the ground again. He is at a distance now, not there to see what malformation had taken place. Not being actually present when he writes the letter, he says, as it were, I would like to be there and see how you are. But in a general way he assumes that his work is more or less spoilt, and he has to go over the ground again. The letter shows how he did this. What feelings were stirred up in him in view of all this!
LDM Would that bear out the thought of fickleness you have spoken of?
JT It shows how fickle they were and how easily turned aside; he uses the word “bewitched”, and hence the greater difficulty in the formation of Christ in them.
FJF Would the examples we have in the Acts, of those born in a certain condition and who never had walked, be in contrast to this — the complete thing being brought to light?
JT The man at Lystra who may be alluded to as [p. 370] in the district, would convey the thought of formation; he “had never walked”, it says; chapter 14: 8. In connection with the man in chapter 3, there is a distinction to be noticed. It says, “a certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb” Acts 3:2. The man in chapter 14, it says, was “impotent in his feet ... lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked” Acts 14:8. There is a difference in that the gentiles never had walked; God does not take account of them thus. The lame man in chapter 3 may have been able to limp along, which possibly is an allusion to what might have been seen amongst the Jews, but the gentiles are not regarded as ever having walked. So that the lame man at Lystra is a more apt subject for Paul’s line, and he is wholly recovered. He has intelligence; it says that he heard Paul speaking, the Spirit noting that. Others heard him, of course, but the Spirit would not pay attention to any hearing that was not effective. This man heard Paul speaking, and the way that Paul is mentioned in chapter 14 would indicate he was a model in the way of speaking. He was the chief speaker there, and this man is noticed as having heard him. Then, on the other hand, Paul saw “that he had faith to be healed”, that is, there was a state there for complete deliverance or recovery. Over against the characteristic Galatian, this man was a subject for the work of God in its full thought, both as regards his intelligence and his faith.
Ques Would Titus be a concrete example of one in whom Christ had been formed as a child of Paul?
JT I should think he was. As we have had it already, he was taken up deliberately as a representative of the work of God amongst the nations.
GJE In the gospel of John, in teaching His disciples of the coming of the Spirit, the Lord Jesus brings forth all the wonderful features of Christ in chapters 13 to 16, and then at the end of chapter 16, He says, “ye will be grieved, but your grief shall be turned to joy. A woman, when she gives birth to a [p. 371] child, has grief because her hour has come; but when the child is born, she no longer remembers the trouble, on account of the joy that a man has been born into the world” John 16:20. Is that the completion of the formation of Christ in us?
JT It is. “A man” would be the fruit in the disciples of their exercises, and the great sorrow they went through, and hence the joy, the answer to Christ. It is not His sorrow that is in mind, but their sorrow, so that it would issue in a man. I believe that was in mind from the outset. Eve is the first human being to use the word “man”; she says, “I have acquired a man with Jehovah” Genesis 4:1. Evidently she had gone through her sorrow, for that was imposed upon her on account of her sin; she would bring forth in sorrow, but she said she had acquired a man with Jehovah. It was not a babe, but a man, in her mind.
CSS Is the man-child caught up in Revelation, the same thought? Is that the end of it?
JT That is Christ personally, but the idea of a man is there; it was a man-child. But I would like to get a little more clear on Mr. E.’s remarks, because I believe they convey the fulness of what we are dealing with. The disciples had their sorrow, and the Lord encourages them by bringing in the allegory of a woman suffering in childbirth, but the suffering is swallowed up in the joy that a man is born.
FGW Could you help us as to a remark made by J.B.S. as to the necessity for changing your man? How does that fit in with what you are saying?
JT Changing your man is what the apostle had in mind in his travail; that the right Man should be in the minds of the Galatians — that is, Christ.
ASL Was that what was lacking with the Galatians, to use the expression, that they did not understand the change of man?
JT That is right, and I think the minister ought to make that clear; that Christ is the kind of Man that [p. 372] is to be formed in the saints. At Corinth, the apostle had the full thought: “I have espoused you unto one man”, 2 Corinthians 11: 2. There it is more in view of the assembly, but this is for the expression of Christ here in His fulness amongst the saints; as a mother, as I was saying, would desire for her children to have the life and demeanour of her husband; that would be her ideal.
Ques Do we get a figure of that in the birth of Benjamin? His mother said he was the son of her affliction, but his father called him the son of his right hand, bearing the basic features of the father.
JT The exercises of the father and the mother are brought in there.
ASL Do you think that on the personal experimental side, the truth of Christ formed in one is expressed in chapter 2: 20? “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”.
JT Yes; that is the fulness of the thought in Paul. So that the minister is an example of what he is agonising for. You are yourself, and you would like the saints to be formed after Christ, and so, I do not wish to be anything different from Christ. If I desire to be a true minister, I should be like Him; because the saints helped through me are pretty sure to take on any characteristics I may have, and if there are any malformations with me, they are apt to be affected by them.
HD'AC If Christ is not formed in the brother who ministers, you would hardly expect the formation of Christ in the convert.
JT That is just the point here. He says, “my children”. I have to bear in mind that if I am to beget children they will be pretty much like me; and if I am like Christ, they will be like Him.
ASL Is that the point of “Christ ... crucified among you” here?
JT First of all, Christ was portrayed there. That is the kind of Man you have seen, not only spoken of [p. 373] but portrayed. That is the kind of Man that came under the eye of the Galatians. It was undoubtedly in Paul himself, but may have been in others also. But there it was, and that One crucified.
JRS Does the malefactor crucified with the Lord in Luke 23 illustrate it at all? On his own part he said, “we indeed justly, for we receive the just recompense of what we have done; but this man has done nothing amiss” Luke 23:41.
JT The thief would have the foundation in his soul of “this man”; Christ came into his soul; He had done nothing amiss. Affections would be very small in him, of course, but still, that is the idea.
HES When you speak of formation as such, do you leave room for growth and development?
JT Yes. Christ formed in you is somewhat initial, but I should not like to limit it. Development is what the mother is concerned about as soon as the children are born, so to speak; it is her concern, and the apostle has the maternal thought in mind in the figure he uses, that, as soon as the children are born, they should have a right example before them, that the formation should be according to her ideal. The ideal of every minister of Christ is Christ, and not only the ideal, but there is the reflection of Christ in him.
LDM Mark’s gospel opens with the full thought of the “Son of God”, and brings out the feelings of the Lord Jesus in His service. Is that a pattern for us?
JT It is the levitical gospel, and the apostle’s remarks here are really ministerial in that way. The minister takes account of his children in a maternal way, agonising or suffering for them under the figure of travail, until Christ shall have been formed in them. There is no cessation of the agonies in the matter until the thing is reached; it goes on, and that makes the position of the servant so solemn; that in having to do with the Lord’s people there should be this concern as to the reproduction of Christ [p. 374] in them.
AFM Would the climax be in Ephesians 4, in the elements brought in in verse 13? “Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man”. Ephesians 4:13 Is not that the end of it?
JT Yes. There must be growth, but the mother’s anxiety is to get the thing instilled. I think that is what is meant by formation, that Christ as the ideal of faith has a footing so to speak in all His features in the children.
MWB Should this be reached in the soul, in view of the complete thought? That is, it should be definitely reached in soul history by every christian.
JT That is right, and there is no cessation of the minister’s concern until it has taken place.
HMS How does this exercise of the apostle contrast with the exercise of Moses in Numbers, when he says to God, “Have I conceived all this people, have I brought them forth, that thou sayest to me ... ?” (Numbers 11:12).
JT That was a poor statement on the part of Moses. I have no doubt in his normal exercises he had something of Paul’s thought in mind. The people were nursed by God in the desert for forty years, we are told in the Acts (chapter 13: 18), but through whom did He work? I have no doubt it was through Moses and Aaron and Miriam. They were sent before Israel. The formation was in them; the divine ideal was in those three, and their exercises normally would be that the people should come to that. I believe Deuteronomy has that in mind especially.
HMS We do have in Deuteronomy the thought of God being both father and mother to Israel. “Of the Rock that begot thee wast thou unmindful, and thou hast forgotten God who brought thee forth”, Deuteronomy 32:18.
JT Quite so. Then we have in the prophet Isaiah: “look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the [p. 375] hole of the pit whence ye were digged”, Isaiah 51:1. Abraham and Sarah are in view here. These thoughts run right through.
GAvS Would you say that the Thessalonian saints had been formed through paternal and maternal exercises, as we read in the first epistle?
JT I was thinking of the apostle’s remarks as to his service there in his letter to them, as bearing on what we are saying: “as a nurse would cherish her own children” 1 Thessalonians 2:7. There was the skill of the nurse with the feelings and affections of the mother. That was how he laboured amongst the Thessalonians, but notwithstanding, he had grave anxieties lest Satan might get in there, but he did not.
WCG Does the initial work that you have suggested develop under the principle of hope? In verse 5, it says, “For we, by the Spirit, on the principle of faith, await the hope of righteousness”. Is it the hope of conformity to Christ in glory?
JT No doubt, but this agonising is the thing, and the presentation of Christ in yourself before those to whom you minister; and then the agony, the suffering and the travail that it should come about in the saints too.
Ques It says in relation to the saints at Philippi that Paul had great joy: “A wise son maketh a glad father”, Proverbs 10:1. This epistle speaks of the fickleness and shallowness that marked the Galatians: “A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bore him” (Proverbs 17:25), bears on that.
Ques Would this exercise as to formation be seen in Hannah, and the thought of growth in the bringing of the coat from year to year?
JT That is a very good reference. She would be aware of the extent of his growth in every coat she made, because she would make it to fit. It would be in her mind all the time, How much has he grown?
Ques Would you say the children, the young men,
[p. 376] and the fathers set forth the varying degrees in which Christ is formed in us?
JT I suppose so. There are the gradations of the family from John’s point of view.
CAC Is there the thought of a pure strain being secured without admixture, that will spiritually correspond with what has been presented ministerially? This freedom from admixture was not seen in Ishmael; there was admixture; and there was not a pure strain secured in the Galatians, notwithstanding what they had received. There was necessity for the production of a pure strain as the result of holy travail, which would correspond with all that had been presented in ministry and was seen in Paul. I was wondering whether this exercise would not have very special bearing upon us in view of the remarkable way in which the truth of sonship has been brought before us in recent years whether there does not need to be the accompaniment of holy travail, that we may be a seed with no admixture which would lead to vacillation and instability.
JT So that the desire of old was for “wholly a right seed”, Jeremiah 2: 21.
Ques The “children of the free woman”, is that the idea?
JT That is what we are leading on to now. The apostle brings in conveniently an allegory, as he calls it, from Genesis, in the two women, amplifying the maternal side. “Hagar”, he says, “is mount Sinai in Arabia”, which genders to bondage. “She is in bondage with her children”; she has no right seed, no right ideal; it is not the wholly right seed. The book of Malachi brings in the figure of marriage in youth: “And did not one make them? and the remnant of the Spirit was his. And wherefore the one? He sought a seed of God. Take heed then to your spirit, and let none deal unfaithfully against the wife of his youth”, Malachi 2:15. Husbands are to look after their spirits, as if God had [p. 377] in mind at the very end of the Old Testament this thought, to have a right seed, not a mixed seed.
MWB So for the right usage of the name Father there would necessarily have to be the formation spoken of here, and the Spirit of adoption operative.
JT So if we are to keep on the high level which I believe the Lord would have us to keep in these readings, that is the thing. It is complete deliverance; and not only so, but power to have part in the divine realm.
PL Those sleeping in Gethsemane on that occasion had no part in the divine realm, and they did not hear the words, “Abba, Father”.
Ques Would Psalm 22 fit in with what has been said? After the Lord’s great sorrow, it says, “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born” Psalm 22:30.
JT They will be born and brought up in the light of what is presented in that Psalm.
JJ Then, would not this verse that stands alone verse 27 — being a quotation from immediately after Isaiah 53 (it is the first verse of chapter 54) also show how great was the travail of the Lord that the children of the desolate might be more numerous than those of her that had a husband?
JT It is brought in to show that all those who have faith are accredited to Jerusalem, but not through her travail. She is, alas! desolate, but God in grace will in due course accredit all to her. The travail really was the travail of Christ.
HMS To her astonishment she will say, “Who hath borne me these?” (Isaiah 49:21).
MWB Will you say what part “Jerusalem above” has, as connected with your remarks yesterday, that the lack of power to enter on to the line of privilege conveyed in the relationship of Father is possibly owing to [p. 378] our lack of apprehension of the covenant? Is there a link between “Jerusalem above” and the covenant?
JT There is. It is not exactly the new covenant that is in mind here. There are two covenants mentioned, but it is the promise to Abraham that is in mind; nevertheless, it is a covenant, it is a disposition of God, and may be rightly connected with the Lord’s supper, because it is what God is. “God is one”, and the promise was by Himself, and wholly depended upon Himself, and the bearing of it was liberty. Hence “Jerusalem above is free” and she is our mother. She was “the free woman”, as she is called here, as formally united to Abraham, in view of a wholly right seed. She was equal morally to her husband, and she is honourably quoted here, “Cast out the maid servant”; her very words are called scripture, showing what a woman she was, and how worthy to be a type of the assembly, looked at in this way — not Jerusalem in heaven, but “Jerusalem above”. The moral elevation is seen in Abraham and Sarah. Her name was changed with his, showing that they were equal in the suggestion of moral elevation; and that, I think, is the point; it is “Jerusalem above”.
EuR So deliverance known and enjoyed, must lie at the threshold of our relations one with another assembly-wise all the time.
JT You can see how it works out in a gathering of saints in whom Christ is formed. A brother speaking is not in the front of the picture; he does not want that, he wants Christ there.
Rem You are not content to see a few bearing these features; but there are so many who are not bearing them that this travail goes on all the time.
JT That is right, and hence if you look abroad on the field and say, Well, this meeting or that meeting is in a poor way, and saints in that district have never got on well — that is a matter of information only; there is not travail in that. I have to face this matter.
[p. 379] Why are conditions in that district so weak? And if I begin to suffer about these matters, then something will happen.
Rem I was thinking in relation to the brethren of Gideon, how their features were so much alike, the one to the other, that they were easily recognisable. It was said, “As thou art, so were they”. And he said, “They were my brethren, the sons of my mother”, Judges 8: 18,19.
GAvS Is the point, “Cast out the maid servant and her son”, the securing of that pure strain that was referred to earlier?
JT Yes; he “shall not inherit with the son of the free woman”. The influence would be most detrimental — that is what you had in mind? What a detrimental influence such a young man as Ishmael, who may have been thirteen years older than Isaac, would have in the house; and that is exactly what happened in Galatia; Ishmael was brought in. Even Abraham failed in it: “Oh that Ishmael might live before thee!” Genesis 17:18 He would retain the man born after the flesh. It is an older thing, and developed, and more difficult; hence the word, “Cast out the maid servant and her son”. That is, she represents the covenant that genders to bondage, and her son is the product of that.
JHT Would John 8 suggest that Abraham came into the joy of this at the same time as Sarah made that remark?
JT The Lord alludes to that incident in Genesis 21 in saying, “Abraham exulted in that he should see my day, and he saw and rejoiced”, John 8:56. Paul might have rejoiced in what had been produced in Galatia, because they were very full in their appreciation of himself; they would even regard him as an angel. It was Christ’s day in Galatia, you might say, and so, it is Christ’s day wherever He is formed in the saints, and He is made everything of. Isaac was made everything of on that occasion, and, I believe, the Lord alluded to that when He said, “Abraham exulted in that he should see my day, and he saw and rejoiced” John 8:56; he had been looking forward to God’s promise. But then, this other boy in the house marred the situation, and Abraham was not equal to that; but Sarah was, and that is the reason she is honoured here. It is the assembly viewed normally; she is equal to it, and refuses Ishmael. Paul and Barnabas and Titus represented this principle when they went up to Jerusalem together; “Cast out the maid servant and her son”; that is really the effect they had in mind.
Ques Do you see the wholly right seed in Jabez? It is said, “his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that thou wouldest richly bless me, and enlarge my border ...” 1 Chronicles 4:9 There is a reference to the “Israel of God” in the last chapter of this epistle.
JT That is a helpful reference. He called upon the God of Israel, that he might be blessed and enlarged. I suppose his mother had the God of Israel as her ideal, and she passed it on to her son.
WC In that way, would Jabez represent one that was weaned? He does it himself.
JT Quite so. Ishmael remained under the direction of his mother, she took a wife for him; but the child of promise — where there is formation according to God, the full-grown man — acts in personal liberty.
PL The boy Samuel ministered to Jehovah; is that the result of weaning? Does Hannah, too, travail in regard of her day; and then in her song, does she reach Christ’s day: “he will give strength unto his king”, 1 Samuel 2:10?
JT It is a prayer, but really is a song; showing how jubilant and full she was of the thought when she had weaned him. But it is not put that way with Sarah. As regards Isaac, it is that he was weaned; meaning that the principle of weaning was in that household, so [p. 381] that the child of promise, born after the Spirit, comes into a developed state and acts for himself. The parents of the man in John 9 say, “He is of age: ask him” John 9:21, and he was, although he was only a young convert.
JJ Is there anything important in the fact that Abraham and Isaac are the only two masculine names from the Old Testament mentioned in this epistle? Would it set forth the thought of the Father and the Son, and emphasise the thought of sonship in this epistle?
JT I am sure it does. Someone was speaking lately about his own son who is sixty-three years of age. Well, I do not think that is quite the idea of father and son as presented in Scripture. Abraham and Isaac present the idea of father and son, the son coming up in youthful freshness in his relations with his father.
PL And Isaac speaking to Abraham his father said, “My father!” and he said, “Here am I, my son” Genesis 22:7.
JT Is that not beautiful?
PL Is that “Abba, Father”?
JT I think it is; and the answer is in keeping with it: “Here am I, my son”, the beautiful relations and affections in father and son according to God.
Ques Would it be opportune to say a word about Abraham’s reluctance? God has to say to him, “Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy handmaid”, Genesis 21:12.
JT It represents the danger with the most spiritual of us of coming under influence; not that he came under the influence of any person, but he was influenced naturally. He was the father of the boy, and had affection for him that Sarah could not have naturally, and it is the natural that swayed him. That has to be watched, because you may be sure the natural element is part of the material that Satan has in mind to work on, in these matters.
GAvS Is natural feeling the one element that hinders the freedom that is spoken of in the next [p. 382] chapter?
JT Yes. It is sometimes found in persons who are mature and spiritual, as, for instance, in Abraham, in Joseph, and in Samuel. The most distinguished men in the Scriptures failed on this point. It is the only point in which Joseph does fail, as far as Scripture shows, and he failed, very seriously too, showing that the most spiritual of us is exposed in this way.
MWB I suppose the thing in itself is not sinful, but may be used to that end.
JT It is an element that Satan may use, and hence the instruction is more for those who may be spiritual and distinguished in that way, to watch lest natural influences are allowed.
EuR It is seen in Peter’s word to the Lord in Matthew 16, “God be favourable to thee, Lord; this shall in no wise be unto thee”, Matthew 16:22.
JT It was mere natural kindness which Satan would use to turn the Lord aside from the path of obedience.
ASL Is Sarah’s word, “Cast out the maid servant and her son”, a point for each to reach, and the evidence that Christ formed in one is a reality?
JT Just so, and not only what one may say oneself, but to see that the principle is maintained collectively in any gathering. It is characteristic of the assembly; it is “Jerusalem above” which, I believe, is the moral elevation that attaches to any local gathering, or the assembly as a whole, and, if that is to be maintained, Ishmael must have no place.
LDM Is that the thought in “stand fast therefore”?
JT Now we come to the hortatory part of the epistle, which is to strengthen us in regard to what we have been having. What am I to do? “Christ has set us free in freedom; stand fast therefore, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage”. First, standing fast in the liberty, and then the warnings as to the opposite of that — “fallen from grace”, a terrible suggestion. “Fallen from grace” and fallen from first love — these [p. 383] are sorrowful suggestions, because falling in the full thought belongs to Satan; whereas moral elevation is the great thing in christianity, holding fast what we have.
ASL It is an interesting distinction you have made between heaven and “above” — not Jerusalem but “Jerusalem above”.
JT It ought to be linked on with Abraham, for that is what comes out in God entering into covenant with him; his name had been “High father”, and he was true to that. A man that is characteristically elevated is the man to have children, and so his name is changed. He is to have children under another name the amplification of that name, “Father of a multitude” Genesis 17:4.
JJ Would you connect Psalm 87 with the thought of elevation in the end of chapter 4? “All my springs are in thee”, Psalm 87:7.
JT Quite so; that expression really alludes to Zion.
CSS In connection with what you have said, do you think we need to know more of the depth of the words, “Holy Father”, before we can understand the blessedness of “Abba, Father”?
JT That is a wholesome remark, for how can we say, “Father”, save with holy lips?
PL So it is a separated people to whom God says, “I will be to you for a Father”, 2 Corinthians 6:18.
HMS You have it in Peter: “Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye invoke as Father him who, without regard of persons ...” (1 Peter 1:17).
JT Yes. I would suggest again that we keep the elevated thoughts in mind, that we might finish up in that way.