LOVE'S CIRCLE
LOVE’S CIRCLE
Numbers 10: 1 - 3; Mark 3: 31 - 35; 1 John 3: 14 - 24
I had in my mind to speak about the circle of the saints, regarding them as love’s circle. The passage in Mark suggests this thought because it speaks of the disciples sitting around the Lord, and of His looking round in a circuit upon them. The passage therefore affords the suggestion of a circle and I wish to show how that circle is formed and maintained.
The silver trumpets of Numbers 10, as we can readily understand, were intended for sounding out the testimony. The Lord having died for us has a right over us. He has the right of redemption. He has another right over us, as He has over all men, as Creator, He has thus creatorial rights. The trumpets were made of silver, suggestive of redemption. Christ having died for us has a right to call us to Himself. He calls us in His rights of love, and no one can rightly refuse to answer. Then the trumpets were made of one piece. This suggests that in calling us the Lord intends that oneness should mark us. The Lord had redeemed the people, and nothing can be more touching to the heart than the thought of redemption.
The passover lamb was taken from the flock by the Israelite in Egypt on the tenth day of the first month. It was taken away from its natural surroundings and brought into surroundings of another kind — brought into the house. It remained in the house, as you will remember, four days. It refers to the Lord Jesus coming out of His own surroundings, coming to earth, being among men for a full period of testing, a period of observation, so that it was apparent that He was without sin. The testimony was there, that He was “holy, harmless, undefiled separate from sinners” Hebrews 7:26 — such was Jesus — and He was [p. 63] put to death. The lamb was put to death and the blood sprinkled on the two door posts and on the lintels of the houses of the Israelites; it was for God’s eye, for the Israelite inside the house knew by the word of God that that blood sheltered him; and corresponding with that they moved out until they were on the other side of the sea and wholly beyond the reach of harm from the Egyptians. They were safe under the wing of Jehovah and under the leadership of Moses, who would typify the Lord Jesus.
Thus they were a redeemed people, a people who unitedly, under the leadership of Moses, sang the song of deliverance, the song of redemption on the wilderness side of the sea. “The Lord hath triumphed gloriously”. Exodus 15:1. They spent three months in these circumstances in the wilderness, nourished and nursed in the desert by God Himself. The water flowed from the smitten rock for them, and the cloud went before them and guided them, and for about thirteen months they encamped before the “mount of Jehovah”. Here God entered into a covenant with them. In proposing to do this He said, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself”. Exodus 19:4. As brought to Himself they were for thirteen months before the “mount of Jehovah” where He opened out His heart and mind (at least in type) to them. He would take them into relationship with Himself according to His own terms, for they were terms of love. For thirteen months, as far as one can reckon, the unfolding of the love and mind of God from the holy mount went on, and at the end He says, “Make two silver trumpets”, Numbers 10:2, as if to embody all that had preceded in these instruments of testimony.
As the blast went forth from these trumpets, what lay behind it, to a heart that loved God, was all the love He had shown in redemption, in deliverance, and in the opening of His heart to them. All that would [p. 64] enter into the blast of these trumpets, and so today the Lord asserts His right over us; oh, what a right! the right that He has as Redeemer, and not only so, but as the One who has disclosed the love of God to us in the death of his Son, He has made it known; He has attested it at the cross; He has brought it into our hearts by the ministry of the Spirit.
God said, “when they shall blow with them, the whole assembly shall gather to thee at the entrance of the tent of meeting”. I wonder if every one here has responded? The trumpet blast has been going forth, and its intention is to gather all the assembly; every redeemed person on the earth is in view in this blast. It is not for a limited few of the assembly. If we sit down to the breaking of bread and some are absent, we miss them; if we love the Lord and if we love them, we feel their absence. The trumpets’ blast has been heard in our hearts, and we have responded, but we may well say in the language of the Lord in Luke 17:17, “Where are the nine?” Where are the many of those who owe their all to Christ and who have heard the blast but have not responded? The Lord would have all the assembly. It says, “all the assembly shall gather to thee”, Numbers 10:3, that is, to Christ. Moses represents the Lord in His authority. We must recognise that it is the Lord’s supper, and that the Lord necessarily governs the assembly. Indeed, the whole first letter to the Corinthians emphasises that. If I respond, I must recognise the principles that govern the house of God. It is as if the Lord would say to us, Now what about your love? Have you come because you love Me? Yes; well, now I will give you a test. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me”. John 14:21. We can put that test to the whole assembly. That is the test that is being put forward today, and it is a question whether we are answering to it.
I come now to Mark 3. Mark in approaching this [p. 65] subject brings the natural relationships in. I touch on that because these natural relationships, alas! often operate adversely in regard to the assembly. The silver trumpets refer to you personally: salvation may come into a man’s house, as the Lord says, “This day is salvation come to this house”. Luke 19:9. All the house may be saved as a household, but the household is not called into the assembly. The silver trumpets refer to you individually. It is a call; it is a voice; it is the voice of the Lord speaking to you. Each one had to isolate himself from all his relationships according to nature. He respects them in their place, but now the Lord wants you. “The Lord hath need of thee”. Have you answered that call? Search yourself in regard to Christ; recognise that His rights are first. He has prior claim now, even before that of your father or mother. You can never understand the assembly unless you accept that natural relationships have to become secondary to the spiritual. The Lord would jealously guard the assembly from all “household stuff”.
You remember how in Nehemiah’s day the priest, Eliashib, was related by marriage to Tobiah the Ammonite, an enemy of God, who, as it says, had “no place in the congregation of the Lord for ever”. Deuteronomy 23:3. They had not shown the brotherly spirit and so were shut out. Eliashib was overseer of a chamber of the house of God, and he brought in Tobiah and set him up there. That happened when Nehemiah was away. When Nehemiah returned he cast out all the household stuff and Tobiah with it. All the natural element must be dealt with unmercifully. Mark brings forward this feature of the truth here. We read, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee”. Mark 3:32. There are many like that, who would influence one inside, but the Lord sets us the example, and so the truth of the circle here comes to light. He would take care of that and one would urge that each [p. 66] would see to himself that he is taking care that the circle is formed and kept free from all household stuff. It is preserved accordingly a spiritual house, which is added to by the thought of a holy priesthood. It is a spiritual house over which the Son of God presides, and He would have it maintained as a circle of love, a circle marked by spiritual relationship.
Mark says His disciples “sat about him”. Mark 3:34. There is a certain restfulness in their position, and they were occupied with what the Lord was saying. The mother and the brethren would have disturbed all that. We would often break up a spiritual state of things for our own personal ends but the Lord rebuked this. He says, “Who is my mother, or my brethren?” Mark 3:33. What a question that was; how testing for her who bore Him, as we read in another setting, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” John 2:4. How we need that sternness to refuse the natural claims when they interfere with the spiritual order of things, and spoil and rob us of our rich heritage; that is, this circle of love — that in which divine love has its place. So the Lord, it says, looked round the circuit of them which sat about Him. He is now marking out, by His own action and words, the love circle. He has marked it out for us so that we might know it, and this passage, as it were, marks out for us for all time the circle of love. The Lord Himself marked it out and it is distinguished by certain features. The Lord proceeds to indicate them.
The Lord looked on them as they sat round Him, and said, “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother”. Mark 3:34,35. He would, in saying this, show that every affection we have finds an object in this people. Our brotherly affection, our sisterly affection, and our affections for a mother find their answer in that circle. Some of us know this to be true; others do not, and it is to them I [p. 67] would speak. There is no affection begotten in you by the Spirit of God that does not find an answer and a sphere of expression in that circle. It is a divinely ordered and appointed circle. If I want a brother I find him there; or a sister, I find her there; or a mother, I find her there. I find her as I can find her nowhere else, in a spiritual way. So that we find a home in that circle. Morally there can be nothing like it on earth — the circle of those who do the will of God. As the Lord says, “whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother”. Mark 3:35.
Think of what it is for God to have here on earth a circle of people who do His will, it is heaven on earth! “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”, Matthew 6:10. That was surely so in Christ. The glory, one would say, shone in the Lord coming down. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork” Psalm 19:1. These refer, in a way, to Christ being wholly subservient to the will of God. The earth was lawless, but the Lord Jesus coming here as Man brought the glory here, so that the glory was seen as He moved about according to the will of God. Wonderful spectacle for heaven! that precious pathway of Jesus from the manger to the cross, a Man doing the will of God and now He has brought about a circle of those who have learned from Him, who do the will of God. What a great thing it is to see a man’s soul entirely submissive to the will of God, and that there is a circle marked off by the Lord, in which affections may be fully satisfied.
So in the passage in 1 John 3:14, the apostle calls attention to a means whereby we may know that we have passed from death unto life. It says, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”. John makes much of that. The Lord had indicated ‘the brethren’ in looking round, had marked them off. John develops that, and enlarges [p. 68] on love. I may confess to you in speaking of love, dear brethren, that I feel extremely incapable. There is nothing I know less of. I look at this epistle, I have read it many times, but the more I look at it the more wonderful it is, and one has to admit that one can hardly speak of love. In 1 Corinthians the apostle has to speak of it in the abstract — a very humiliating thing. They were a people among whom he had laboured for eighteen months, and he had exhibited in his manner divine love before their eyes, and yet they were devoid of it. He could not speak of it as among them, and so one has to admit that one is very weak in regard of love; but here it is, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren”. 1 John 3:14.
If I meet a man who does the will of God I must love him, I must not allow anything against that person, I must regard him in the light of the will of God. He represents a moral triumph; the Lord has brought that result to pass in him. It is well for us to look at things as they are. I see a man who was lawless but now is doing the will of God. He moves about subject to the will of God. It is a great moral triumph.
The silver trumpets’ blast brought the assembly to Moses. It was a lovely scene, that vast assembly drawing near to the door of the tabernacle, to Moses; as they heard those silver trumpets sounding the whole assembly moved. What would it be today if all the saints on earth came together on the first day of the week to break bread! That can never be, I quite admit, but the day is near when they shall all come. “The Lord himself, with an assembling shout ... shall descend from heaven”. 1 Thessalonians 4:16. It is a similar thought to the silver trumpets. He has a right to gather the people, “with archangel’s voice and with trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we the living who remain, shall be caught up [p. 69] together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and thus we shall he always with the Lord”. 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17.
We shall be gathered together. We can never hope now for all the assembly to come together on the first day of the week, but what we may look for are individuals who love the Lord’s coming. We may miss many. It is an immense thing to see one — one who does the will of God. It is a moral triumph, as I said. If you see any one doing that, mark him off and love him, you are obliged to do so; it says, “he that hateth his brother abideth in death” 1 John 3:14 — a terrible word, as if hatred is moral darkness, and death. We were all disobedient, “serving divers lusts and pleasures ... hateful and hating one another”. Titus 3:3. You see how things become intensified, “hateful and hating one another”. It is not to be wondered at, that the spirit of hatred is abroad in the world, because we are hateful naturally. “He that hateth his brother abideth in death” 1 John 3:14; it is really moral death, whereas the circle of love is outside all that.
It is wonderful what God has brought about in the very midst of darkness. The late war was the expression of the pagan state of things, disobedient and hateful, and in the midst of all that God has brought about a circle outside of it, in which love is. It is a wonderful circle, it is like the tabernacle of old, and made of such material as will survive wilderness conditions. In those who do the will of God are all the elements of the tabernacle, the spirit of rigid exclusion of evil, on the one hand, and appreciation and preservation of good on the other. There is a circle maintained where love is free. One of the evidences of it is that I love the brethren. I have passed out of the state of death and hatred into an atmosphere of love. I can say without any doubt, I have passed from death into life, for I love the brethren.