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Generally the position amongst Christians is that they do not

want Paul because it is too testing. You cannot have the light

of the assembly without circumcision. Mr. Stoney said that our

position was not that we were more correct doctrinally, though

he said he thought that was true, through grace, but that is not

our position. If that were our position, many would, be

prepared to join us on that ground. He said that our position

must be that the truth of circumcision is applied unsparingly.

Not many want to move on that ground.

You cannot have part in the assembly without being prepared

to go out of sight yourself, without being prepared to deal with

the flesh inwardly. Persons say, ‘Well, as long as I am

separate from the world’—that is baptism. But circumcision is

more testing than baptism.

Circumcision deals with what I am inwardly. I have to maintain

a judgment of that or I cannot have any part in .the function of

the, assembly. I have to be a self-judged person. That is why

Paul is so testing. That is why he was in prison, because the

enemy was set against Paul’s line. The enemy does not like to

see what is here for Christ—the assembly—finding concrete

expression. It is all right for it to be held in doctrine, but for it to

be found in living expression in the power of the Spirit—the

enemy does not want that. Paul was in prison and

Onesiphorus was not ashamed of his chain.

Well, you have to accept the restrictions. Paul loved his chain,

you know. He could speak of himself as being “the prisoner in

the Lord” (Ephesians 4: 1),

and he said in Ephesians 3: 1, “I Paul, prisoner of Christ

Jesus”. It cost Paul something that the truth might be

maintained. Paul had to be faithful all the way down, including

the truth of the gospel. At one point even Peter was not true to

that. Paul, in order that “the truth of the glad tidings might

remain with you” (Galatians 2: 5), took a stand against the

Judaising principle and was prepared to be faithful to Peter