THE GLORY OF CHRIST (4)

THE GLORY OF CHRIST (4)

Colossians 2:6-10; Colossians 2:16-19; Colossians 3:1-4; Ephesians 3:14-19

SMcC The thought in mind in suggesting these passages to be read is to augment what we had this morning in relation to the glory of Christ and His headship, and these passages involve the place that Christ has in the hearts of the saints and in their affections. This is a very important matter because we so easily speak of Christ being supreme in our hearts, when He may not be supreme at all, when we may perhaps not be rightly delivered from things here and from ourselves. It is important therefore that we should see the quality in these letters that is in mind to be reached, especially when we come to Ephesians where the full thought of union is arrived at, involving, as it does, by the Spirit, our links with Christ in heaven. There is nothing more detaching than that, not only as to the world, and as to the man of sin and shame, but as to place, the earth, and all that is linked with what may detain us and hinder us in a more subtle and insidious way. Colossians has in mind Christ coming on to the view of our souls in such a way that we should be prepared and ready for the passing over into the realm where He dwells in our hearts by faith, the heavenly domain and realm where He has such a place, both officially and personally too, “the Christ” particularly pointing to the great operations, and the quality of the operations. So that what we began with in Philadelphia has in mind the thought of quality, and quality on assembly lines, and these letters have that in mind, because it is a question of what is near and next the heart of Christ in these letters. The brethren will remember Mr. Stoney once said, in that lecture of his, ‘The Nature, Order and Responsibility of the Church, the Body of Christ’, that you hear people say the corporate thing is all over, he says, it is quite evident that they do not know what is near Christ’s heart, and if they do not know what is near Christ’s heart, how can they understand any other feature of the truth? It is very important to see in that way how the presentation of Christ in all His glory has in mind what He is in relation to the assembly in these epistles, and especially the assembly as linked with Himself in the great domain of glory that He fills as in Ephesians, beginning with this passage in Colossians 2 which follows up Colossians 1, “As therefore ye have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him”. You will notice that in verse 8 Paul uses the emphatic ‘you’, and the Note points out that the ‘you’ is emphatic, but the verb ‘be’ is in the future, implying real present danger more than possibility. That is there was great danger besetting the Colossians, and therefore the conflict comes into view in a peculiar way in what Paul says about the combat. It is a great thing that we should be in the conflict with Christ and the assembly in mind, not giving up the great thought as in the divine mind. Mr. Stoney said, the harder the conflict the deeper or the stronger the virtue. He illustrated the matter of the conflict and referred to the man, when the colours were about to be captured, he pulled down the colours and wrapped himself in the colours, and said, if you take the colours you must take me. In these letters that are before us the teaching involves that, as we enter in our souls into the blessedness of our links with Christ.

AH In this verse 6, the word is “As therefore ye have received the Christ”, not believed the Christ exactly, but “received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him”. Would you say something about that?

SMcC It is very interesting the way it is put here. It would involve more than the reception of Christ as Saviour, the Christ involving the anointed, Jesus being His personal name, and the Lord bringing in the place He has in authority. I think it involves that we have made way for Christ in relation to the supreme operations that these letters, Colossians and Ephesians, have in mind. That is not only in relation to the moral question and our release from it, but in relation to the great operations concerning Christ and the assembly.

AJG Is not “the Christ” a very exclusive title? There is only one Christ, there are many antichrists, but only one Christ.

SMcC Very good, it stands out in that sense - there are many antichrists we are told, but there is only one Christ in that sense.

HW I hope it is not diverting you, in speaking about Christ and the assembly, and what the assembly is to Christ, but I wondered if it would be out of place to ask you to say a word as to why we see the assembly, the bride, by herself so prominently brought before us at the end of Revelation.

SMcC I think it is to remind us how divine thoughts go through. As we referred to in Mr. Stoney’s word on that remarkable occasion, the bride would have in mind that we do not lose sight of what is near and next Christ’s heart. The bride brings that on to our view as a feminine entity unaffected by the breakdown and the failure; she appears in all the freshness and ardency of what has been wrought in her, in perfect alignment with another divine Person, the Spirit, saying to the Lord Jesus, “Come”.

HW The great point, do you think, being to display divine workmanship in its beauty and perfection?

SMcC I thought so, because it is interesting that you get the bride also mentioned in the allusion to the eternal scene where God’s supremacy is seen; it says, as a bride adorned for her husband. The thought here of walking in him, “rooted and built up in him”, becomes testing to all of us, I think, because the faith, the system of the truth and the teaching are all linked with this.

AJG Does it mean that we refuse every other influence and wisdom, but that which is derived from Christ?

SMcC That is how I would understand it. The word ‘rooted’ is a remarkable word in this connection. We have it in other connections, but in this connection, rooted in this Person, the Christ, is important, “rooted and built up in him”. The ‘built up’ follows the rooting, because so often, especially with those who are more prominent amongst the saints, there would be the tendency to be built up in ourselves.

PHH Does the time at Hebron with David help at all as to this? In 2 Samuel 2 to the end of verse 4, where David himself and the house of Saul were somewhat against each other, it says of David, “but David became continually stronger” (chapter 3: 1); it says there also, “However, the house of Judah followed David”, chapter 2: 10. Would that be somewhat like the increase of the glory of the Person of Christ with us in this intermediary position?

SMcC I think so. David at that juncture bears very much on what we have here, it is a transitional moment, and Colossians is that, and it is fraught with real danger. It is not a matter of what may be possible, but there is real danger in the position, not so much from the external side of the world, but from the specious, insidious side where the capacity and power of man’s mind comes in in a reasoning way, therefore the need of being fully established on this line, rooted and built up in the Christ, Jesus the Lord.

EJH Do you think that the rooting refers to what is inward and secret, and the building up to what is outward and testimonial finally?

SMcC Yes, I think it would involve that, and I think it would involve more. It involves what we are under the eye of God as built up in that blessed One. Allusion has been made to David’s history, and a good deal of reference has been made to the rival head that is soon to appear in the world, and linked with it the apostasy. In the history of David we get a remarkable setting out of it, the specious and insidious working in a counter system to Christ, typically in David, resulting in his dethronement for the moment as David had to leave Jerusalem. But all the specious elements that were operating in Joab, the widow and Absalom, Ahithophel, whose counsel was as the word of God in those days, the specious side of the counter-system need to be seen and the importance of being rooted and built up in Christ in this sense, over against the counter-workings and operations of that specious system.

RHS Does this open up too the importance of right teaching, it says, “even as ye have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving”? I wondered if right teaching in that way, would always lead to the thought of thanksgiving.

SMcC Yes, and you notice how it begins, it says “rooted and built up in him, and assured in the faith, even as ye have been taught”. Now that is a great matter that we should all be assured in the faith, the faith referring to the scope of the truth as it has come out, as has been taught, and the importance of this word ‘assured’ in it. The Note says, “confirmed”, so that we are not at loose ends, we are not in a vacuum in our minds, at a loss and wondering whether what has come out is really so, or is not so. We are not affected by speculation or the mere vagaries of the human mind, we are confirmed in the truth,

assured in it, “abounding in it with thanksgiving”.

AEM I think the young people have to be assured that the devil has a whole system contrary to Christ. It is a perfected system in the world.

SMcC So that when we come to Ephesians 4, Paul uses the word ‘systematised’, showing how powerful that kind of thing is to deflect the believer from what has been reached in Christ, and what is before God in Christ.

AEM That is why when one gets away from the Lord one comes under darkness right away.

SMcC It is rather remarkable that. Some of us were referring to it in connection with some who got out of fellowship in our own part of the world. In speaking to someone recently who was prominent amongst us, some were amazed at the darkness in the person’s soul, showing that this specious counter-system that we have been referring to, that the enemy has, and will find its full-blown effect in the apostasy in relation to the rival head is operating now. It is a very real matter, and we need to see the importance of receiving Christ in this way and walking in Him, rooted and built up in Him.

AJG Is the appreciation of Christ as One in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, the great antidote to all that?

SMcC That is it. It is very affecting the way it is put here, standing over against the great thoughts of Gnosticism. It is a real substantial matter in that sense that we have to do with, how God is known in Christ. There is nothing, as it were, unreal about it, as in the philosophy of men and what they propound in the way of theory. The use of the word ‘fulness’ in Colossians is to affect our souls, that is it is not theoretic or academic, it is what God is in Christ in the blessed way in which He is known that is to affect us in the way of richness in our souls.

PHH It speaks of it in chapter 1, saying, “in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell” (verse 19), and in chapter 2, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in him” (verse 9), would you mind saying some more about this thought of fulness, because it has been noticed by all of us, no doubt, that Colossians and Ephesians mention fulness several times in different connections? I should be thankful if it could be pursued a little.

SMcC In Colossians, as you will have observed, in the first chapter it is used almost as a title of Deity, a title of God, a remarkable way in which it is put, and here we get the thought of the Godhead which we do not have in the first chapter. There it is bracketed, that is, it is added to give the force, but here it is, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. I think it should greatly impress us with the Person of Christ because in this 9th verse in chapter 2 it is not exactly mediatorial, that is it involves what Christ is, Christ is God, and Deity is presented in Christ, it comes on to our view in Christ, and this word ‘fulness’ carries us beyond what is arbitrary. It brings us to the great thought of what God is essentially as He has come out to be known by creature mind, in so far as creature mind and capacity can take in the thoughts of Himself.

PHH Does it mean the complete expression of God in Man in that Person?

SMcC It does, it is a wonderful thing to take account of it herein that sense ‘bodily’. The addition of the word ‘bodily’ brings on to our view the Lord’s humanity in its present glorious state, and how God, or the Deity, is apprehended in a Man and will be so apprehended eternally. That is, as has often been alluded to, the eternal subsisting state between God and man lies in a Man.

PHH I think I remember Mr. Coates saying that the fulness, especially here, referred to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all brought near to us.

SMcC Just so, brought near to us in a Man. We see somewhat the fulness referred to in the first chapter without the mention of the word ‘bodily’, and we recall that when the Lord did anything He referred to the Father doing the work. He also referred to the Spirit in the doing of the works, showing that in the presence of the operations we are in the presence of God, known in that way. The word ‘fulness’, I think, is especially brought into the Colossian epistle to combat the Gnostic idea, where vagaries and theories were being propounded, so we get this word ‘fulness’, that is, it is what God is as fully known in Christ, that is in mind.

WMB Would there be some link with the expression that the Lord Himself used, or referred to, speaking of the temple of His body?

SMcC I am sure there is, His body was the shrine of Deity. What a thought that is as we take account of Him in His humanity in that sense.

AJG And does the fact that it says, “ye are complete in him”, involve that in our response to the light in which God is known, there need be no lack, no disparity?

SMcC That is it. How remarkable the two sides are in that sense, the completeness of what is to be known of God towards us in this glorious Person, and then the completeness on our side in Him toward God, “ye are complete in him”. There would be a kind of a link with what we were referring to, the Lord’s renown in the mediatorial position in “my new name”.

PHH So that we need go outside of Christ for nothing.

SMcC That would be the point.

PHH In regard of response to God, do you think?

SMcC So that we are greatly helped in view of richness in the service in the light of these wonderful statements.

AH Is there added to that, do you think, “ye are complete in him” the thought that you were referring to yesterday as to the glory that attaches to the saints in Christ?

SMcC I think so, it is to show us the dignity of Christianity seen in the perfect answer in the saints in this way towards God, “ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority”.

AB Does the word ‘filled full’ or ‘complete’, imply that the saints draw on Christ, and that He is great enough to fill the mind and the heart of the saints?

SMcC The Note says, “filled full, referring to all fulness being in Him. The fulness or completeness of the Godhead is in Christ, as towards us; and we, as towards God, are complete in him”. That is, nothing is lacking; we do not need to go outside of Him.

JWD Is the experimental side of this always collective or can we enter into it individually?

SMcC I suppose when we come to the experimental side there is a certain sense in which we must go through it individually, like the river in Ezekiel. It would be what we can reach into in our own souls and say of it, what we have touched in relation to it.

JWD You mean as of the assembly?

SMcC As of the assembly, yes.

CH Does that not raise the question of our real links with Christ? I was thinking of the way the Spirit of God refers to the Lord in verse 6, it is not only “the Christ”, but “Jesus the Lord”. There should be no spiritual hiatus in our history; we should go on growing in apprehension of Christ, who He is as well as what He has done?

SMcC Exactly, and that greatly helps us in regard to the assured, being confirmed in the faith, because the whole ambit of the truth, the scope of the truth, is in that Person, the Christ. He is the subject of testimony from beginning to end of the Scriptures, and if we receive the Christ in principle we receive the whole testimony of God, and therefore we are challenged as to what our links with Christ really are.

CH We may have appreciated at the first, Jesus the Lord, but do you think the Spirit of God would lead us on to this greater glory, seeing Him who is the Anointed in this wondrous system?

SMcC Yes. In verse 8, it is remarkable the standards that are referred to, it says, “See that there be no one who shall lead”, notice that word ‘lead’; “lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, according to the teaching of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ”. That is the teaching of men and the elements of the world are contrasted to Christ, because the religious side is particularly in mind, and the operation of man’s mind in it, intruding into the things of God as if the natural mind had capacity for reasoning and measuring the revelation of God in Christ.

ECM Is the thought of substantiality in mind in the section?

SMcC That is what we were referring to, the thought of the fulness in contrast to Gnosticism where the vagaries of the human mind are so terrible in that system that was present in the earlier days of the assembly. Paul has that in mind, and he brings in the substantiality of what we have in Christ. “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”.

PHH Is this to make us at home in the presence of this great expression, “from God”, so that while we reverently hold God in our souls worshipfully, we are not set, so to speak, at a distance, but we regard Him as brought within our range in Christ?

SMcC Yes. The mention of it here, “the fulness of the Godhead”, would greatly help us in the latter part of assembly service, so that while in the presence of the majesty of Deity, as apprehended in Christ, in His glorious Manhood, there is a richness in our souls as filled full in Him in the responsive side towards all that has come out in Him in the fulness of the Godhead being presented to us in Him bodily.

HW Does John’s ministry come in to support Paul in this connection, particularly John’s gospel?

SMcC We shall see that tomorrow. We have in mind tomorrow to refer to the glory of Christ in John’s gospel and how divine affections come on to our view in His glory there. Now we come on to chapter 3 to rightly balance our time, which our beloved brother indicated in prayer, and which I am sure we need help on, to fill out the scriptures we have read. We read, of course, verses 16 - 19, we might just allude to “the body is of Christ”, and then “not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”. It is a great matter that we should see, and that the younger brethren should see, what the body of Christ is in this relation, the great thought of the organism, the organic side, because there is nothing saves us from independency of thought and outlook and isolationist view than this thought of the body, the body is of Christ. You remember the woman that came to the Lord and touched the hem of His garment, and the Lord was arrested immediately. He said He perceived that virtue had gone out of Him. What went out of Him went into the woman, and thus the body of Christ is formed, “the body is of Christ” in that sense.

AH So it says here “Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize”, a remarkable expression, is it not?

SMcC It is bringing out the value of these great matters, the prize brings in what is supremely valued and, in this setting, it is the body of Christ, “the body is of Christ”, and then the headship of Christ. We should be able to say something in ourselves and of ourselves as to what has come out of Christ and is in us.

ECM Is the body of Christ the link with what is heavenly? We do not get that in the wilderness epistles, “the body is of Christ”.

SMcC No, it is mentioned in Colossians. We have the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12, but it is a figure there that is employed. When we come to the reference in Colossians, we have the reference to the substance. He is referring to the things that were a shadow of things to come, but he says, “the body (is) of Christ”, that is the body is a substantial idea, it is not a theoretic or academic idea, it is a substantial idea; it is formed of what comes out of Christ, and in the body we have what is organic, organic increase, organic development.

EJB Would the form of the words confirm what you were saying as to the illustration of the woman, virtue going out of the Lord when it says, “the head, from whom all the body ... increases with the increase of God”, all that is in the body comes from Him?

SMcC Just so.

AB Would the holding the head imply what is drawn from Him in faith? Reference has been made to the service of God in view of our sustainment before God, and then also our readings, an occasion like this, for instance, are we maintained in that way in dependence in drawing from Christ?

SMcC Yes, it is important that we should draw from Christ in that sense, and the Spirit has a great place in this matter. We can hardly have the organic side linked with the body without the Spirit. A brother was asking this morning as to which comes first, the head or the body. Well, of course, actually the head comes first. In the matter of experience in Romans the body is alluded to, but on historic lines the head comes first. There was a Head in heaven before there was a body on earth. The Head was in heaven and the Spirit came in the second of Acts, and the body, the assembly, was formed. You must have the Spirit for the truth of the body.

EJH Is it not touching that it says of the Lord that “He looked round about to see her who had done this”, Mark 5: 32?

SMcC Just so, and He is interested in us in that way in regard to this matter, to see her that had done this thing, and it says, she “told him all the truth”. When we are affected rightly organically, as that woman in figure sets out, we shall be transparent, all the truth will come out, there will be no opaqueness, nothing to be hidden, the whole matter comes out. That is a true organic thought.

HW It says in Mark 5: “she knew in her body that she was cured from the scourge. And immediately Jesus, knowing in himself the power that had gone out of him” (verse 30).

SMcC Well, it is a remarkable illustration of how the body is formed from that viewpoint. We speak of the body in the light of divine counsel, for the Head and the assembly as the body is part of the purpose of God, but we want to think of it too from the moral and spiritual standpoint, how the body is formed.

AJG Is that seen in verse 11 of chapter 3; I think you referred to it earlier, where it says, “wherein there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision ... but Christ is everything, and in all”. All these different features of the first man have been displaced by the influence of Christ, and Christ is there livingly in all, is that so?

SMcC That is it. He is everything, that is a remarkable statement, “everything, and in all”.

AHG Would you say a word as to the increase with the increase of God?

SMcC That is a remarkable reference. As we know it is organic increase here. It brings out the wonderful value of the body, that is the body is quickened in the life of the Head, and you have got organic development in the body. Just as the earth, under the great derivative sources of supply in the sun’s influence upon it, produces and increases, so the body, under the great influence of Christ, deriving all nourishment and supply, “increases with the increase of God”. It is remarkable, it says, “the increase of God”, not the increase of Christ. Have you any thought as to that?

AHG No, I was just wanting help as to it. Would the thought be that there is the expression of God in this wonderful organism?

SMcC And also it would emphasise the great interest that God has in this wonderful organism, that He is pleased, as it were, to add His increase to it, “increases with the increase of God”.

PHH Why is the thought of resurrection brought in? It says in chapter 2: 20, “If ye have died with Christ from the elements of the world”, and then in chapter 3, “If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ”. Why is that expression of position brought in now? Is it to show that this kind of thing is really beyond the power of death, but we have to keep ourselves as to mind, and affection, in that position?

SMcC That is it, so that all we have been speaking of, and the order of things that is on our view is out of the world in character. It is the hidden side that we were referring to, and it lifts us out of what is natural and what is social. I was impressed by a remark of Mr. Stoney’s the other day, in the same article that we alluded to, he said that the social side was the most corrupting side amongst us. He was alluding to Balaam, and the way that in the transitional part of the journey of the children of Israel between the wilderness and the inheritance, that great influence came up; resurrection would take us out of all that in Colossians. We have got circumcision which is complete in the second chapter; we have resurrection which is positional and then quickening, that wonderful operation peculiarly known to the assembly, and no other family in this way, which puts us, subjectively, into correspondence with the position.

PHH That is beautiful to say that “he has quickened together with him”, you say that is putting us in the same position and in the same life, with Christ where He is.

SMcC That is it, the same life, so that there is complete correspondence with Christ in the position. It is not just a position without what corresponds to it, quickening comes right in to put us subjectively in correspondence with the position.

RGB Would you be free to say in that connection, a further word about Christ being our life as presented in this epistle?

SMcC I think it is a very fine reference to the way that the Person of Christ has so come into our lives spiritually, has so endeared Himself to us through His services, His many priestly and other services, and through what He is personally, has so affected us that He can be spoken of as our life - the Person is our life! That has a great detaching and delivering effect on us, because how could I go anywhere, how could I go into any company of people, however refined and wonderful they may be, if the One who is our life is not there. This is a very real matter, Christ our life, it is not a statement of the purpose of God. As to the purpose of God, I point to a verse in the scripture, well that is what it says. Christ our life is a substantial reference to what the saints enjoy as found in spiritual contact with Christ.

EJB Why is the day of manifestation brought in here just at that point? “When the Christ is manifested who is our life”.

SMcC It shows that He is not going to come out without us. If we will not be without Him in this world, as our life means, He is everything to us there in that wonderful temporary, transitional position, the right hand of God. He is everything to us there, we can accept the reproach and the ridicule of men in the sense of what He is to us in that way, and He is not going to come out without us.

AJG Is the light of His manifestation in glory given so as to make us content to have our life hidden with Him now?

SMcC That is it. It is to help us to accept a hidden position.

HW Does that incite us to move over Jordan and finally into the land?

SMcC The whole bearing of the epistle to the Colossians in that way has in mind that we should go over in the power of attraction, and go into the inheritance. We do not go over into the inheritance by faith exactly, we go over in the power of the Spirit as attracted to Christ, the ark drawing us over, as it were, drawing us out of everything here, and Joshua becoming magnified, and then the mysterious personage coming on to our view so that Joshua takes off his shoes and worships. All that bears on the position here.

DSH You were speaking about the matter of life just now, were the apostles, at the beginning of the Acts, in the appreciation of that when the angel appeared to them in the prison, and said, “Go ye and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life”, Acts 5: 20. Did they know something of the hidden thing within, and that was to come out in expression?

SMcC The question would be as to whether that reference to life is retroactive to what was seen in Jesus in the gospels. I think “the words of this life” that they were to make known, was linked with the ministry and service in the pathway of Jesus here in the gospels.

DSH You were thinking of the matter here in Colossians as being something different from that?

SMcC Linked with Him in glory, because our links with Him by the Spirit are in the present glorious position where He now is. Now we must just have a word as to Ephesians 3. We read this morning in regard to His headship in the first chapter, but it is felt we should not have time to refer to it again, but now just this reference in the third chapter to the greatness of this realm where we are brought through divine operations, and where the Christ is to dwell through faith in our hearts. So that as dwelling there, as it were, having the supreme place in our affections, wherever we are, His interests are ours, all that dominates us and controls us is His outlook and His interests. It is not our businesses, not our families, not the things that are around us, but His chief interest, what is near and next His heart colours our outlook.

PHH Is it like the ark in the tent which David pitched, not yet the permanent position, but the full thing there, and Christ in the ark as the centre of a great realm for God?

SMcC That is it, “through faith” would show that we are still in conditions where finality has not been reached.

PHH That is what I wondered.

SMcC It is in your hearts, not in your heart.

The life is singular in Colossians, but notice “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”, in this glorious realm and vast domain. We have not lost our individuality. Our individuality is still there, but Christ is dwelling, as it were, in every heart.

AJG Is that seen in the woman of worth at the end of Proverbs? Was her husband dwelling in her heart by faith, working out in diligent attention to all his interests?

SMcC Very good. How faithful she was to every interest of her husband, and the Christ dwelling in the heart involves that, that we are wholly coloured in our outlook by His interests. We need help, and I believe the Lord would help us as to this matter of our links with Christ in this glorious state by the Spirit, so that business should not have too much of a place, the Lord would help us in regard to getting lightened as to the world and the world’s goods. Over against Philadelphia, Laodicea is increased with goods and Christ is outside. We want to be delivered from the spirit of inflationary times, and the spirit and power of money and material things, so as to get the full joy of knowing Christ in this relation.

AEM Does verse 19 show what it is possible to know of God, even now in these mortal bodies?

SMcC Yes, it does, how great it is, what we are privileged and what it is possible to reach by the Father’s Spirit, and the Christ dwelling in our hearts, and knowing the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge. What a fine reference that is, alluding to His deity as we know, and yet His humanity is everything to us in the realm, and then it says, “that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”. Every individuality in this glorious realm held in divine fixedness as filled to all the fulness of God.

AH When the apostle was leaving these brethren, he says to them, “And now I commit you to God,

and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified”, Acts 20: 32. Would you think in the principle of the thing, this prayer is like that?

SMcC Very good, and I think that word “being rooted and founded in love” is embedded in that chapter; that is you can see that Paul is rooted and founded in love. It is not just a passing whim with Paul, a sudden show of love as you pass a brother or a sister, he was rooted and founded in it. So if a Eutychus falls, he is not concerned about going on with his address, he will interrupt for a moment and go down and embrace him, and resuscitate him for his life was still in him. I believe that “rooted and founded in love” is seen in that chapter, and it is a good thing for us all to take account of in our localities because we have got a lot to learn in our relations with one another, as to this matter of being “rooted and founded in love”.

RHS Does verse 18 help us in that way, “in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height”; I was thinking of his reference “all the saints”?

SMcC Not one of them is out of your mind. You are not partisan, you are not thinking of a sectional idea, you are not thinking of a few, of those that you get along socially well with, or those who are of your own social level; it is “all the saints”, heaven’s best are in your affections.

CWO'LM What is the object in view in the saints being “filled even to all the fulness of God”?

SMcC I think it is to show the glorious state of things in Christianity, that there is nobody there with a want in that realm, there is nobody there with something that has not been met, they are filled (that is the matter is complete), “to all the fulness of God”. It is not into it, but to it; it is all that God is as known in Christ in the outshining of Himself in His nature, we are filled to it.

GHSP Does it bring out the unique glory of the assembly that as the outcome of divine workmanship there is a vessel capable of containing what has come out as to God and answering to it?

SMcC That is it, that is what we should see, the glory of divine workmanship, and how it should touch our souls that the great Divine Operator, speaking reverently, has seen that we have a place right in the centre of this vast domain of glory with Himself.

FWK You referred to Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith as having an individual bearing, does “filled even to all the fulness of God” have an individual bearing?

SMcC I think our individualities are involved in it because the prime thought in Ephesians is sonship, and sonship involves our individualities, so that every individuality is in this glorious realm contemplated with nothing lacking, “filled to all the fulness of God”. The fulness of God involves infinitude as we have been taught, but we are not lost in the presence of it, we are filled to it.

AH And in being filled to it in this wonderful position, we are right alongside what is well-known to us, “the love of the Christ”.

SMcC Just so. It is what has engaged us every first day of the week so wondrously, and that which we have grown in the apprehension and appreciation of, we trust every first day of the week; it is right there.

JTS Would the word in John’s first epistle, “God is love, and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (chapter 4: 16), be at all like this?

SMcC Yes, that links with what we have here.