DISCIPLES AND BONDMEN OF CHRIST
DISCIPLES AND BONDMEN OF CHRIST
Luke 6: 35 - 40; Matthew 10: 23 - 33; John 13: 12 - 17
These scriptures, dear brethren, all refer to the disciple and his teacher, or the bondman and his lord; the passage in Luke referring to the disciple and his teacher; the passage in Matthew bringing in both the disciple and his teacher, and the bondman and his lord; and the passage in John referring to the bondman and his lord only. The intention in each is the same, that whether we regard ourselves as disciples of Christ; that is, as those who are learning, for that is the idea of a disciple, or whether we regard ourselves as bondmen, which is surely the attitude of mind that each of us should take up, we are to keep in mind that the standard of what God is pleased with, and is working to in each one of us, is what is set out in our Teacher and our Lord. We are to remember that the disciple is not above his teacher, and the bondman is not above his lord. And indeed when we come to the passage in Luke it says that “every one that is perfect (or as it should read perfected) shall be as his teacher,” which is a remarkable statement, showing that there is a process going on with every one of us. Discipline will come in in connection with it as may be necessary, for it is a question of disciples, but “every one that is perfected,” it says, “shall be as his teacher.”
It is a great thing to keep in mind, dear brethren, the setting of the passage in Luke, although there is a certain similarity between these three passages. The setting of the passage in Luke seems to be on the line of what is moral; that is, we are viewed as in an evil world where men are unthankful and unholy, and may even be our enemies, but in that setting of what is moral the saints are to be disciplined, and to come out like God. Indeed it says, “ye shall be sons of the Highest.” The setting in Matthew seems to be that as committed to the testimony of God we may expect suffering, even persecution, and in that setting we are to remember that the disciple is not above his teacher, nor the bondman above his Lord; and that therefore the kind of treatment that has been meted out to our Teacher and our Lord is the kind of treatment that will eventually be received by us as saints if we are faithful. Then the setting in John’s gospel is what is befitting in the circle of love. But in whatever aspect we are viewed, the great thing seems to be that we are to learn from Christ on the one hand, and to understand that nothing less than that is God’s mind for His people; so the Lord in speaking in the passage in Luke’s gospel has in mind that we are to be sons of the Highest.
In the first chapter of this gospel the word which the angel said to Mary, speaking of the incoming of Jesus, was that He should be called “the Son of the Highest.” In verse 32 of chapter 1 it says “He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give him the throne of David his father.” The Highest is a remarkable expression, and refers, I believe, to the supreme moral excellence that is seen in God. He says in the prophet Isaiah, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” Isaiah 55: 9. God has been pleased to bring in the heavens in relation to the earth, to provide us, so to speak, with a means of measurement, a means by which we may come to an estimation of moral values; and if we can measure how much higher the heavens are than the earth, then we shall get some impression of how much higher God’s ways are than our ways, and God’s thoughts than our thoughts. Hence the expression The Highest, as applied to God in Luke’s gospel, is intended, I believe, to impress us with the supreme moral excellence that is found in Him.
It is no accident that in God’s ways the saints are found, and are left so long, in a world of evil. The presence of features of the world gives occasion for the expression, over against the evil, and indeed as brought into relief by it, of what is good, and that is what God has in mind. The present time, extended as it is, is a training time, a forming time. It is to culminate with each one of us in this, that “every one that is perfected shall be as his teacher.” The Lord brought into perfect expression what God was in the presence of evil. It is not here a question of opposition to the testimony exactly. It is a question of evil, of men being evil, and the fact of sin being in the world; and in the presence of it good, light from Christ, is to shine. The Lord says “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be sons of the Highest.” He Himself came in, announced as One who should be called “the Son of the Highest “; that is, He would be recognised as the perfect representation, in a world of evil, of what God is as “the Highest.” But now the saints are to be brought into the same position, or rather into a position which is characteristically the same. He, of course, would be pre-eminent in it, “the Son of the Highest,” but characteristically the saints are to be “sons of the Highest.”
Now, it may be easy, of course, to say these things in congenial conditions, but the value and power of them are proved in uncongenial conditions, and that is what is in mind here. In the presence of enemies, in the presence of those who are unthankful and evil, we are to be reminded of what God has proved Himself to be, and what He has been expressed to be in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, so the Lord says that He, the Highest, “is good to the unthankful and wicked.” That is a remarkable thing, that every day as the sun rises we are reminded of the impartial goodness of God towards all men. Every day as a new day dawns and the sun rises in its glory; one has seen it from an aeroplane, the glory of the rising sun showing itself behind the clouds, it is a wonderful testimony day by day of what God is in His impartial goodness, even to the unthankful and the evil. It is a good thing that we should be renewed in the sense of it, because as going out into a world of evil, this is what is to come into expression in the saints, “sons of the Highest.” It is a dignified position, a glorious position, and it is a training time which has in view that we should learn from our Teacher, that “every one that is perfected shall be as his teacher”; no less a thing than this is to be arrived at. We know how Luke loves to trace it in this gospel. He presents to us Christ all the way through as maintaining a perfect testimony to the grace and goodness of God, so that continually as a result of His service and activities we read that people glorified God. That was the result of His service, “they glorified God,” and you find Satan doing his utmost to extinguish the light that was shining. You find His disciples obscuring the light, so that as His enemies come to take Him one of His disciples drew a sword and cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest; that was really obscuring the light. It must have been a grief to the heart of the Lord when He Himself was going through so gloriously, to see one of His servants bringing His name into disrepute. The Lord says “Suffer thus far,” and then He put forth His hand and touched the ear of the servant of the high priest and healed him; a wonderful thing to do in the presence of His enemies. He was thus characterised right through.
It speaks in the Psalm about one who meditates in the law of Jehovah, “He is as a tree planted by brooks of water, which giveth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf fadeth not; and all that he doeth prospereth.” That is a kind of epitome of the pathway of the Lord Jesus as presented to us in Luke, that He brought forth His fruit in its season. Whatever position He was seen in, He would prosper, and His leaf did not wither. He carried the testimony of the grace of God right through to the end in greenness, so that even Peter’s failure and the opposition of enemies did not prevent the Lord carrying the testimony of God right through to completion in the greenness of life. That is what we are to be developed for. It is to eventuate, one may say, in the heavenly city coming down out of heaven from God. What an answer, dear brethren, to all the evil and wickedness that six thousand years will have witnessed in this world! - that there should come down out of heaven from God a vessel having the glory of God, really expressive of the Highest; and we are being fitted for that. That is the reason why we are left in a world of evil, that we might be forced to learn from our Teacher. “Every one that is perfected shall be as his teacher.” We are to be like Him, and the result is to be that we are to come out as sons of the Highest. Then when we come to Matthew’s gospel, the position contemplated is more definitely that of opposition on account of being here in the testimony. Luke’s gospel is simply what we are as of God in the midst of a world of evil, but when we come to Matthew’s gospel what is contemplated is definite opposition and persecution in relation to the testimony. And I might say, dear brethren, that from time to time the testimony; that is, the course of the maintenance of the truth here, takes on different features. It may be that it is to take on a feature when suffering will be called for, more than has been known hitherto in the lifetime of anyone here.
One is reminded of a time in the history of David when he fled from Saul to Ahimelech, the priest, and he gave him to feed upon the shew-bread taken from the presence of God. God knew the kind of experiences that David was about to have; he was about to be persecuted even by his brethren; he was about to experience what it was to be hunted as a partridge on the mountains, not by the enemies of Israel, but by the Israelites themselves, and in order to strengthen him in view of that position, he was given to feed upon the shew-bread. In view of the way that his enemies were about to treat him, God would set before David a view of His saints as He saw them according to divine order and divine unity. He would give David to get, so to speak, an abstract view of the people of God, and to feed upon it; and as having that view of the saints he would be strengthened and enabled to go through, even though their actual behaviour might be very different from what was becoming to them. Following that; the prophet Gad comes to him, when he was in the stronghold, the cave of Adullam, and the prophet tells him to go into the land of Judah. He was to take up a fresh position; there had been sufficient time for the feature of the truth set forth in the cave of Adullam, and he was to go into the land of Judah. Another feature was to come into evidence, the immediate result of which was the intensification of the persecution, and yet he was told to go there. The Lord was definitely leading him into that position, and if the Lord leads into a position you may rest assured that He will support the saints in it. I only mention that by the way, because we may well find as the days go on, that along with the development of the most precious features of assembly privilege, the Lord may lead His people into a position where suffering for the truth’s sake is called for. It seems to me that it is inevitable, not from the point of view of developments in the world, because God can easily check these if He wishes, but inevitable because the thoughts of God require it, because we are to stand by the side of the Lamb as the Lamb’s wife. In the purpose of God we are to have that position by the side of Christ as the Lamb’s wife; and that involves that we must be in complete correspondence with the Lamb, morally suited to the position, so suited to it as to enhance the occasion when the Lamb is publicly glorified. So we must not be surprised if the saints are led into a position where we must suffer for the truth’s sake, because it is God’s thought for us.
The Lord says here, “When they persecute you in this city.” You will understand I am not applying this in any literal sense, only to take it up broadly that the setting of this passage is suffering for the testimony. “When they persecute you in this city, flee to the other; for verily I say to you, ye shall not have completed the cities of Israel until the Son of man be come.” Then He says, “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the bondman above his lord. It is sufficient for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the bondman as his lord.” It is a remarkable thing that in this passage we get the double thought of the disciple and his teacher, and the bondman and his lord. The bondman and his lord are brought in for additional support in this process of learning and formation, because we might be inclined to evade education of so severe and testing a character. And so, to meet any tendency on our part to do this, the thought of the bondman and his lord is brought in to intensify the matter for us, and to make us feel that, as taking up in our minds the attitude of bondmen in relation to Christ, we must go through with it to completion. So he says “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of his household? It is as if to say, that God would encourage us to take account of the character of the sufferings of Christ for the testimony’s sake, and to understand that if in the ways of God suffering comes upon the saints for the truth’s sake, we are to bear in mind that “the disciple is not above his teacher.” There is no reason why the disciple should be better treated than his teacher, and “the bondman is not above his lord.” The bondman has no right to expect anything easier than that which was experienced by his lord, and then, not only so, but the Lord brings in what will, I am sure, appeal to every heart that loves Him. “It is sufficient for the disciple that he should become as his teacher, and the bondman as his lord.” That is to say, the more the disciple contemplates his teacher, the more the bondman contemplates his lord, the more he says in himself, ‘Well, I do not want anything less than correspondence with Him.’ In the understanding that this is the mind of God, the Lord goes on to assure us. He says “Be not afraid of those who kill the body.” I speak very diffidently of these things, dear brethren, as understanding what it is to be fearful, to be lacking in courage indeed. I do not mean in natural courage, because mere fortitude is of no value in the things of God. Only that which is produced by the Spirit of God and wrought through affection for Christ is really safe; nothing can be trusted but the work of God. It is a good thing to keep that always in mind. Nothing in myself or in the brethren according to nature can be trusted, but the work of God can be trusted, and it will go through. That is seen in the book of Job. In the first and second chapters of Job God speaks of “my servant Job.” God had placed something there that could be trusted. Then in all the long history of Job you hear no more about “my servant Job” until in the last chapter “
where you find four times over in two verses that God says “my servant Job.” He has been subjected to severest testing, but he comes through enriched by what he has gone through. God can speak of him in a greater way at the end than in the beginning.
In another passage the Lord says “Fear not those who kill the body, and after this have no more that they can do,” as though to remind us that, after all, that is the limit of man’s power against the saints and the limit of Satan’s power against the saints, and after that there is no more that they can do. That can only be faced in the light of resurrection. We have the light of resurrection not merely as an idea, but as an actuality in Christ. He is already victorious, and in the light of that we are not to fear “those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear rather him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The only thing that will deliver us from the fear of man is the fear of God. The Lord would bring that in as a stabilising factor. Having brought in the fear of God, He brings in the faithfulness and love of God, the Father’s care. He says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your Father; but of you even the hairs of the head are all numbered.” Think of the minuteness of this! We are usually extremely careful of ourselves, but not one of us has attempted to number the hairs of his head. The Father has infinitely more knowledge and care of us than we could have of ourselves. It is a remarkable thought. “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Think of the minuteness of the knowledge and interest of God in each one, that He has gone to the trouble of numbering the hairs of our head. He says “Fear not therefore; ye are better than many sparrows. Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, I also will confess him before my Father who is in the heavens.” The Lord brings in this incentive to confess Him before men. The brother or sister at work, whether old or young, the schoolboy or schoolgirl, however young he or she may be, everyone who confesses the Lord before men, the Lord will confess before His Father who is in the heavens.
In another scripture the Lord says He will confess such before the angels of God, Luke 12: 8. What a remarkable thing, that the angels, Michael, the archangel, Gabriel, and the rest, hear the names of brothers and sisters and children who confess the Lord. How real all this is! How important the day of testimony is, and the suffering for the testimony! It is going to result in glory being given to the saints. The Lord knows how to apportion it in that day, but then it is a question of learning how to be in the testimony, learning it from Christ. The Lord says, “The disciple is not above his teacher, nor the bondman above his lord.”
Now, in John’s gospel we have the example of Christ in feet-washing. From one point of view it is the expression of the love of Christ for His own, but then in performing this service the Lord had in mind to set in motion the working of love in the circle of the brethren, and the working of love in, a practical way, for love is of no value if it is not practical. Love is essentially practical, and shows itself in serving others. John 13 is very remarkable, and in a way one links it by way of contrast or comparison with Luke 4. I refer to the incident when the Lord was in the synagogue of Nazareth, and this incident, the washing of the feet of the disciples by the Lord. They are both remarkable for the minuteness of detail which the Spirit of God gives us. In the fourth of Luke Jesus “stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Esaias was given to Him; and having unrolled the book he found the place where it was written,” and then it says “having rolled up the book, when he had delivered it up to the attendant, he sat down.” You might wonder why all these details are gone into, and so again in John 13, we are told that “Jesus ... rises from supper and lays aside his garments, and having taken a linen towel he girded himself: then he pours water into the wash-hand basin, and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which he was girded.” Both incidents are remarkable for the minuteness of detail of the movements of the Lord Jesus which is recorded by the Spirit of God, and I believe the point of view in Luke’s gospel is that the grace and dignity of the anointing are to characterise everything publicly. It was the Lord’s first appearance in public, and He stood up as God’s Anointed. He says “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor.” It was not only what He said, but what impressed those in the synagogue was the grace and dignity and uniqueness, so to speak, of the way He did things. “The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him,” as though they had never seen anything in the synagogue like that. That is the idea for the assembly publicly, because the assembly is spoken of as “the Christ”; that is, what Christ was publicly as the anointed of God is now continued in the assembly. The assembly is the anointed vessel of testimony down here, and the dignity and grace, the intelligence and power of the anointing, are intended to be in evidence. That is the important thing, the intention being that nothing that is of man, of the first man, nothing that men are used to in man’s affairs, should characterise the assembly of God. It should have a dignity all its own, and there should be the absence of all that is rough or uncouth; all these things are the result of the anointing.
If you look at Exodus 30 you will find that the anointing oil is a compound, carefully compounded, not only with oil, but with myrrh and other ingredients carefully weighed and proportioned. The anointing as characterising all that is public in the assembly is that which is marked by a distinctiveness which is the result of exercises produced, indeed, by the Spirit; not merely the Spirit in a general sense, however, but the Spirit in many and blended features, involving, I have no doubt, intelligence and power, yet dignity and grace. All these different features are brought in in regard to the way things are done in the assembly.
By comparison with that, or perhaps in contrast to it, in John 13 it is not a question of the anointing characterising what is done publicly, but rather the Spirit of Christ as characterising the saints in their relations with one another privately. It is a question of the circle of the brethren, and what is to obtain there, the spirit that marks them in their relations towards one another, the same Spirit that marked the Lord Jesus in this incident. The Spirit of God, through the apostle John, goes into great detail, reminding us, first of all, of the glory of the Person of Christ, and then it says He “rises from supper and lays aside his garments, and having taken a linen towel he girded himself: then he pours water into the wash-hand basin”; doing it all Himself, “and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe them with the linen towel with which he was girded.” Every detail of His movements is recorded, as though John, as present on the occasion, was entranced by what He saw. He saw love working out in practical expression, and in a way that meant that the One who was serving was content, though fully conscious of His own greatness, to take on the most menial service in love towards His own. It was really a bondman’s service, so the Lord says, “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord, and ye say well, for I am so. If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet; for I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also. Verily, verily, I say to you, The bondman is not greater than his lord, nor the sent greater than he who has sent him.” He encourages us to take on in our minds the attitude of a bondman. Bondmanship has been glorified in Christ. We read in Exodus 21 of a Hebrew bondman who said plainly, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free,” and he serves his master for ever. Bondmanship has expressed itself in the voluntary movements of love; how far love will go in serving. The Lord says “I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also.” It is a question of the spirit that is to obtain in the circle of the brethren.
You will remember how Abigail, when she discovered that David desired to have her as his wife, that she was to be united to David and share with him in all the vicissitudes of the testimony, said, “Let thy handmaid be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of my lord”; not to wash the feet of my lord, but “of the servants of my lord.” Love to Christ finds expression in the way we treat the saints. You can well understand that (if you would allow the expression) when she came into fellowship she would cause no trouble to the saints. She would move in that attitude. She would be moving happily among the brethren, with nothing more in her own mind than to be a bondwoman, and her business was to wash the feet of the servants of her lord. That shows what she was in her own estimation. She was not making any demands on the brethren, that they ought to do this or that for her, but her whole attitude of mind was that she was to be a bondwoman to wash the feet of the servants of her lord. The Lord says “I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also. Verily, verily, I say to you, The bondman is not greater than his lord, nor the sent greater than he who has sent him. If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them.”
That is what I had in mind to present to you, dear brethren, and I leave it with you, desiring that we should be helped to work it out practically, and to keep before us that the disciple is to become as his lord. We are to have nothing greater and nothing less before us. That is the standard God has before Him, and as we are brought up to it, the pleasure of God will be secured in His people.