THE FUNCTIONING OF THE BODY BY THE SPIRIT
Acts 2: 1–4, 42–47; 1 Corinthians 12: 7–27;
AM The simple thought that I had, beloved brethren, was that with the incoming of the Holy Spirit, there was that on earth which was functioning, and I thought we see it as the history develops in the truth of the body. When we read the Acts of the Apostles, in the first chapter the Lord Jesus ascended up on high, the disciples gathered together and it says, “These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer” (Acts 1: 14). That was their occupation, continual prayer in those days. Jesus was on high in glory, and the disciples were left here and those days were spent in continual prayer. Where we started reading the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost; it just struck me as looking over these scriptures that it says, “they were all together”. That was a complete thought. Every one of those who had been secured through the work of Jesus, every one of those who were His disciples, were all together and then this great momentous event took place; the Holy Spirit came, and after that there was a change. Towards the end of the passage we find that something started to work. You could not identify it exactly, I am sure none of them could have put a name to it but suddenly there was the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, the breaking of bread and prayers, and there was this expression of care and love for one another; they sold their possessions as any one might have need. The spirit that was shown was a spirit of love among the saints; something had begun to function consequent on the Holy Spirit coming. This was the germ of things. To see the full thought of the body you need Jew and Gentile brought together, but here was something beginning to work, and the features that came to light were characteristics of the body. I suppose in chapter 9 we get the first inkling that there is such an entity as the body, “why dost thou persecute me?” (Acts 9: 4). There is the body, and that ministry was given to Paul, that is something that Paul developed in a special way, and we see in Corinthians that he is speaking of the body as the region in which the Holy Spirit operates. The Holy Spirit is operating here, distributing. We have been baptised by one Spirit into one body, we have been made to drink of one Spirit. The Holy Spirit is operating, and the body is an entity in which the Holy Spirit has freedom of operation. It is something that I do not think I have given sufficient attention to. When I think of the body I think of it as that which sets forth Christ. He is the Head, and that is the aspect we get in Colossians and Ephesians. He is the Head and the body is the expression of Him. In Corinthians the apostle is using the figure of a human body, and he is saying we have this entity in which the Holy Spirit is pleased to act, and in which He exercises His sovereign will, and then he says, “Now ye are Christ’s body”.
He is raising the minds of the Ephesians to something far greater than any human body on earth. In Ephesians we find an exhortation relating to the functioning of the body, “to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love; using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit”. “There is one body and one Spirit”. The two are linked. We know that there are these circles that represent different expressions of unity and, you might say, the most spiritual of all is, “There is one body and one Spirit”. It is a blessed thing to take account of, and as the chapter proceeds we get this presentation that the body draws from the Head, “the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply”. I hope we will experience that in this reading today—it “works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. I hope these thoughts will be of profit to us.
JS I think it is very important that there is something here on earth so that the body is functioning in reality by the Spirit. It is interesting that the first thing when the Spirit came was that the Spirit gave them to speak forth, and this
thought of speaking has continued.
AM Yes, that is right, and the character of the speaking is heavenly, is it not? The Holy Spirit came, there was a sound out of heaven that filled the house and then they were able to speak. In a sense that sound went out in testimony.
JS I think it is fine to take account of that, that the Spirit had just come from heaven freighted with heavenly thoughts. It is beautiful to see the way that you have something that actually functions. It is in operation, is it not, by the Spirit?
AM Well that is what struck me as being before the Lord for this occasion, that the Holy Spirit had come and now something is working on the earth. You could not say that the disciples were idle before, but something began to function that had never been before. Do we appreciate that? We are living in a day when there is something functioning on the earth among believers such as we are. There was a time when nothing like this had ever entered into man’s heart.
JS Do you think in a way it had been anticipated typically, in the last chapter of Exodus, where it speaks of the whole system being anointed and all the parts functioning?
They were filling out the part that was allotted to them and now we have the actuality of what was there typically.
AM That is good, I am glad you refer to that; we read that on Lord’s day at home.
Every part of the tabernacle was put in place and it was working. He put the ark in and covered it with the veil, he put the table in and arranged the bread on it, and then he put the candlestick in and lit the lamps and so on; every part was working and it was working in its own place and the result was that glory came on it, there was divine approval.
RG Is this all the more important in a day of brokenness when you cannot point to or identify the body publicly, but there is still what was set up at the beginning that the Spirit can use, and be available and be active in for our blessing.
AM I think that is very helpful. We cannot say that any company fills this place but we hold the truth of it. We can hold the light of it, and we can desire to make way for the
Holy Spirit, that He should be free to operate according as He wills so that we can experience it.
MGW Would you say something about the fact that “There appeared to them parted tongues, as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them”?
AM I can only say what we have heard many times, that the fire was necessary because of the condition that they were in, and we have to accept that for ourselves. We are in flesh and blood conditions, mixed conditions, and therefore we have to accept that which has the character of the fire, but nevertheless it sat upon them, and it was tongues in order that there should be that which is expressed.
MGW I was just thinking of the way the Holy Spirit descended on the Lord Jesus, the precious character of that, coming down on that holy vessel of God’s pleasure; but here we have something that was not by human arrangement or human organisation. The power and all that was due to God in His holiness was involved in this, for the setting forward of a testimony that would be according to God’s pleasure, would you think?
AM Yes, that is very fine. Divine feelings were involved in both. We have the Father’s expression from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son”, Luke 3: 22. Think of the divine feelings that were contained in that expression, and the Holy Spirit came down and abode upon Him. There was nothing in Him that the Holy Spirit could not relate to; there was absolute consistency in Him and total compatibility with God’s mind, and here too we have divine feelings. We have the violent impetuous blowing with regard to souls of like passions as ourselves; the Holy Spirit was coming and you see God’s feelings in relation to this; there was something here that had never happened before.
GBG Does the parted tongues suggest that if you trace back the parting it comes from the one source?
AM Yes, that is good, so that there is unity about it all. When these persons went out there was one message, and that is what follows. They heard them speaking the great things of God. It did not matter what part of the world they came from they heard it. It was one message and it came from one source.
GCMcK Is it noticeable that it says that the parted tongues of fire sat upon each one of them? The apostles are necessarily prominent in Acts, and they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, but it is clear from the beginning that the thought was that each one should be a vessel of the Holy Spirit, is that right?
AM Yes, I think so. So the apostle says, “If any one speak—as oracles of God”, 1 Peter 4: 11.
GCMcK So you see right from the beginning, what you read in 1 Corinthians was in mind, that every one should have part in this.
AM Yes, that is good.
NJH While the mode of fire does not occur again, we will see later as to the baptism of the Spirit, does the moral intent of the fire carry through?
AM O yes. We are still in these conditions. You could never think of the Holy Spirit coming upon the flesh unjudged. We have to hold ourselves in the light of the death of Christ and what He bore, do we not?
NJH The jealousy of Christ is that only His own moral characteristics should mark the body, so the idea of the fire should sober us, is that right?
AM Yes, that is absolutely right.
JCG It would be quite significant that the Holy Spirit never came on the twelve separately. There were about a hundred and twenty in the upper room, and stress has been made on the fact that He sat upon each one of them, bringing in brothers and sisters, showing that the potential of the assembly, or the body, was there immediately, despite the fact of the authority of the twelve apostles.
AM Yes, and that is how they proceeded. It says that at the end of the chapter, they were all together, “all that believed were together”. It was not just the apostles by themselves; it was all who believed. You see the beginning of an entity coming to light; we know through Paul’s teaching that it is the body of Christ.
MGW Would you say the origin of this was divine, it was from heaven, it was in the power of God by the Holy Spirit? It was not a human gathering together of persons who had set up another religion. I was looking at what Gamaliel says in Acts 5. He says, “if this counsel or this work have its origin from men, it will be destroyed; but if it be from God, ye will not be able to put them down, lest ye be found also fighters against God” (Acts 5: 38, 39).
AM Yes, well that is true. You might say it was a pity that one of his students did not take heed of that! Light came out later that we do not lead a communal type of life. Light came out through Paul that the saints were to accept responsibility for what they have, things that are to be handled, but we see the spirit that was marking the saints here. “And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and substance, and distributed them to all, according as any one might have need”. They were demonstrating that their life was not bound up with the earth, their life was heavenly.
MGW Would you say more about that? What was working out here was not the result of councils, consultations or anything like that. The Spirit was there and this was functioning, as you were saying.
AM It seems to me that nobody told them to do this. They had the light in their souls of a Man in the glory, and they had the power of the Holy Spirit here, and it was almost as if they are saying, ‘What need do we have of all these material props?’
GCMcK In 1 Corinthians 12 the members have the same concern, and here it says,
“according as any one might have need”. You can see the spiritual instincts that really are going to lead on to the development of body feelings, is that right?
AM Yes, that is the word, instincts, and that is what caused it to function, that there are instincts there; the instincts were shared, they did not have different instincts. They were working together in order that there should be a body functioning.
JCG This need that is spoken of would extend beyond what we have in the special collection, do you think? Quite clearly there must have been an interchange of private means in relation to those who required it. Would that be justified?
AM Yes, I think so. And do you not think that is a blessed thing? I mean in the special collection there is a dignity about the giving of the saints, and is it not also a blessed thing if somebody sees some need, and just draws alongside a brother to meet that need quietly, nobody else need know; there is something very precious about that. That is one member of the body thinking of another.
JAB What do you have in mind as to the use of the word ‘persevere’ right at the very beginning? You might say that the character of perseverance was needed later when things began to get difficult. Here three thousand had just been added, and everything was in the first flush, you might say, of the church being established. Why did they have to persevere in these great conditions?
AM Well help us please, what is your impression about that?
JAB I have just been struck by it as you have been speaking. It could have said that they were together for teaching and fellowship, but they persevered in it, so that even from the very beginning the Spirit saw to it that there is this character of things that would be sustained whatever happened. We might be sitting here saying, Well it is all very well for them, three thousand converts in one day, it is not like that now, but still they had to persevere even then.
AM Yes, there was no thought of flagging. When we think of the three thousand, there are other temptations, are there not? I mean, quite simply, prosperity brings out our weaknesses. If there were over three thousand brethren I might be looking for a back seat and let others get on with it. But they persevered, they continued, sustained in the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit having come.
JAB So that what was operational, as you have been bringing before us, has in mind the sustaining of that right
through whatever the circumstances may become. The Spirit would see to that and He is still seeing to it.
AM Yes, after two thousand years, there is no diminution in His power. If there is to be a testimony today, how is it going to be continued? In man’s power it would have died out long ago. Are there going to be souls who are true to the Lord Jesus? It is a testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit, and we are to persevere as having our part in that.
JS Along with the teaching and fellowship of the apostles you get the breaking of bread and prayers. Do you think these latter two are very important elements in the continuation of what the Spirit is doing in a functional way? Take the matter of the breaking of bread, for example, it has been recovered to its true place in our day; it is a very important matter and what follows from it, do you think?
AM Yes, I think the breaking of bread is a great matter in relation to continuance.
We come together on a Lord’s day morning and we have physical emblems before us, something physical that we can take account of. That is a gracious touch of the Lord that He should give us something physical like that. We can sit and look at those emblems and our hearts are quickened as we think of the One who went that way for us. Think of the way He has been in order that we should be brought into the greatest blessing. Every week we have that. What a great matter that is to enable us to continue, and prayer would keep us in dependence so that continuance should be in dependence on Him.
JS So that as we learn later in the Scriptures, the breaking of bread is intended to be on a weekly basis. There are places where it would not be that way, but normally it is on a weekly basis, on the first day of the week.
AM Yes, the first opportunity. I think there is something in that. In the western world we are so privileged, we are able to gather together on Lord’s day morning. It was not always the case. In Tehran, the brethren used to break bread at 5 o’clock in the afternoon because that was the first time they could get together, as the Lord’s day was a working day in that country; but generally in the western world the brethren are free and we come together on Lord’s day morning to remember the Lord. That is the first thing before us.
APG So what is expressed here can be added to, “the Lord added to the assembly”.
What is added is the same as what is there, is it not?
AM Yes, that is right. We do not know how many, it says it was “daily those that were to be saved”. I suppose literally that would refer to those of Israel who were marked out for salvation in the assembly, but the Lord was adding. He was working in order that what was here functioning on earth should increase.
In Corinthians we see the activities of the Holy Spirit acting as a divine Person in His own prerogative. It is according as He wills, His dividing to each in the body, He gives to one a word of wisdom, to one a word of knowledge and so on. The Holy Spirit can act in this way.
He finds in this wonderful and great entity that there is a sphere in which He is free to act, and it is all in view of there being that which is maintained for the pleasure of God.
JS Do you think there should be an exercise with every believer to find out what their part in the body actually is?
AM Yes, help us about that. How would you do that?
JS I think you look around and see if there is some particular need, and find there is something that you could do to fill it with the Spirit’s help. I think practically we find where our part is in that way.
AM And do you think it is useful to ask the Holy Spirit to show us what our part is, what we should be doing, because then there is that which is functioning as under His hand?
JSp Under the old system everything was put in charge of the priesthood. Do you think the element of responsibility would come into anyone in whom the Spirit was operating?
AM Yes, I am sure that is right. You mean if the Spirit has been given, then there should be an answer to that. You might say what is the purpose? Please say some more.
JSp You get some sense of the glory of Christ, a sense of the glory of the divine system, and the Spirit’s operation would give us a part in that in a way that involves that we take responsibility. Paul says, “This charge, my child Timotheus, I commit to thee”, 1 Timothy 1: 18. Every believer rightly in the testimony would be under charge, would that be right?
AM Yes, I am sure that is right. As believers we should feel there is what is laid upon us.
NJH 1 Corinthians 10 relates really to what is without, our walk, etc. before the Supper, but is this more to our service within? Even if it does extend to what is without, it is all from within, is that right?
AM Yes, the Holy Spirit is operating here in the body; we have been baptised into one body, we have been given to drink of one Spirit, that is something that we would experience within, is it not? I mean the world would know nothing about that.
NJH Otherwise we would be independent in what we do.
AM Yes, exactly. I think that is right. In relation to what our brother was saying, we need to know our part in the body as having learnt that from Christ and from the Holy Spirit.
We do not just think ‘It would be a good idea to do this’. The Lord may have someone else in mind to do it, but there is what He would have for us to do.
MGW Is it particularly encouraging that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each for profit? That is for the whole body, not for the distinguishing of a particular part of the body.
AM Well, you think of that word in Antioch. We do not know who gave it, but the Holy Spirit said, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13: 2), and that was for the profit of the whole assembly. The Holy Spirit was operating there in a sovereign way in order that there should be blessing for the body.
MGW Would the encouragement of that be, let me find out what I can do as near to the Lord and guided by the Spirit, there would be a happy feeling in my heart that, feeble though my contribution might be, and very little that I can do, but it does contribute to the profit of all? There is something very precious about that.
AM Yes, that is good.
JCG I always think that in Jehoshaphat’s day there is a fine example of the one who spoke from the midst of the congregation when there was a time of problem which came up and questions were raised and it says, “And upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah ... a Levite of the sons of Asaph, upon him came the Spirit of Jehovah, in the midst of the congregation” (2
Chronicles 20: 14), and this was a word that Jehoshaphat accepted and the people; it was in the midst of the congregation, indicating that there should be freedom. It is a pointer really to obey, that there ought to be freedom by the Spirit that He may bring out something rich and good in one and another. We are not dependent on several, we are dependent on each one, are we not?
AM Exactly, yes. And if that took place in Old Testament times how much more we should expect it in the day in which we are.
RT So what power comes into the chapter, there is power throughout the chapter. Is that to deliver us from things around us that we may depend upon?
AM Yes, I think that helps. Say some more.
RT The body becomes independent of anything that is from the material world, does it? There is a power there that is working that is directly connected with divine Persons.
AM Yes, that is right. It is really drawing from heaven. The power comes from heaven, does it not? Divine Persons and divine resources, the Holy Spirit’s presence here and Christ on high. Their power is available. It is working in the body, it is functioning.
GBG It says, “to one, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge”. Is that a fixed thing, or would it be to one at one time and to one at another time?
AM The Holy Spirit is sovereign. He is able to give to any one a word at any time, is He not? Later in the chapter there are definite gifts which are set in the assembly, but here it seems that the Holy Spirit is sovereign and is able to act. I
remember a time when I was young, when we had a word from a brother who could hardly read. It took him a long time to read through one verse of the Bible, and he stood up and gave a word. The power of that word was such that it was felt by everybody; in fact it was prophetic.
RG That would be five words with the understanding, would it?
AM Exactly, it certainly was.
RG We rely so much on other things, our own mind for example, or whatever, but the power of the Spirit is available here to demonstrate that the Lord is still here. The Lord is in heaven of course, but His body is here, and there is demonstration of every feature that was manifested in the Lord, by the Spirit now in this body of persons, do you think?
AM Yes, that is good, and really the body is to be the expression of all that He is.
DCB So the body has not broken down. It could not break down because of what it is, and really it is the same as we have been reading about in Acts.
AM Yes, and although we are living in a day of breakdown publicly, the body does not break down; there is no division in the body, there is no failure in the body. It remains, it goes through; it is a great thing to lay hold of, and we experience it. That is not saying too much, but we experience it in our pathway here, in circumstances the brethren go through, they experience something and they say, that is the body working.
RG And that can even work where two or three are gathered together. Mr Taylor had to combat that, he had to point out that the body, even in a day of breakdown, is still here and it can be worked out in these small conditions.
AM Yes, that is good.
GCMcK The matter seems to be greatly dignified in what it says, “so also is the Christ”.
Does that not elevate the whole matter?
AM Yes, that is right. That is not Christ personally in heaven, that is what is down here, “so also is the Christ”. Someone might say, Can you really apply that title to what is
found down here? That is what the apostle says, “so also is the Christ”; that is how it works.
GCMcK When He was here He was, as we have been taught, the anointed Vessel, the wonderful speaking and activities of the Lord Jesus. Now there is an anointed vessel down here which we can describe as “the Christ”.
AM Does that not make you respect every one of His own? You can take account of any believer, those we know, those we used to know, and we wish we knew them closely today as being part of that anointed vessel, “so also is the Christ”.
JCG It would exercise us to look at this matter of having “been given to drink of one Spirit”. That should keep us in freshness and persevering, that there might be contact and communion with the Holy Spirit, and the drinking in of what comes from our gatherings together, and what we might read in private and the Scriptures; it is drinking of one Spirit, it is what the Spirit would give, is it not?
AM Yes, it is, and as doing so you find it is a joyful matter. We have all been given to drink of one Spirit, we are taking in, absorbing that which He would provide, and it becomes joy and satisfaction. I enjoy that expression, have all been given to drink of one Spirit”.
JS Do you think the matter of satisfaction comes into that very forcibly, that we are content with the place that we have in the body? We are not wanting somebody else’s place, we are content. This idea of drinking of one Spirit has a unifying effect.
AM That is right, and we have all been baptised into one body. Again that is the harmonising, the unifying of the saints.
JS I think that is very important too that we are merged, it is the fitting into the body in that way, do you think?
AM Yes, that is right. It is an interesting expression that you have used, merging together.
NJH Was Eutychus given to drink of the one Spirit? He would find his place in the body, would he not, after that?
AM Yes, “his life is in him” (Acts 20: 10); he was fully restored.
NJH You would like to see that even in a meeting like this that persons might drink into it.
AM Yes.
JSp Should we not gain spiritual things by spiritual means? We use our knowledge and our faculties, but there is an inward depth that is beyond that, “spiritual things by spiritual means”, 1 Corinthians 2: 13.
AM Yes, that is right. I am sure there have been times when you have found that what you were saying was not quite what you had in mind, but it was something fresh. Or maybe a brother had said something to you, and you may have heard these expressions all your life, but suddenly there is something fresh in that. It is the Holy Spirit communicating by spiritual means, men cannot explain that.
JCG Is variety connected with the functioning of the members in the body, as he illustrates in the references to the human body? It is not all eyesight, and it is not all hearing, and it is not all smelling, but all these functions are there and the Holy Spirit is active in the body to maintain watchfulness and the spread of love and so on.
AM Yes, that is good. He presents it from two points of view here, does he not? He is saying that no member can say that he is not part of it, and neither can any member say, Well, you do not matter, I can do without you; we cannot do without any. Mr Stoney said,
‘I must go on without many;
I cannot do without any’. (JBS Vol. 2, p.192)
GCMcK These are the two sides of clericalism, are they not? Someone can go ahead without the body, and others say, Well, I am not part of it, so you can see this delivers us from anything like that. The clerical side just destroys all of this blessed system that we are speaking about.
AM Yes, indeed.
TCM Is it interesting that in verse 22 he speaks about the members “which seem to be weaker”? We cannot go by the outward, can we?
AM No, we cannot. The occasion I referred to has stayed in my thoughts for thirty-nine years. There was a brother
whose natural abilities were so limited, and as you looked at him, he was the one who seemed weaker, and yet God was able to make him strong. He was a member of the body. To him was given a word of knowledge.
DTP You have been speaking about what the Spirit has done in the body, and as it has pleased Him too, but we find later as to the members in the body that God is pleased to set certain members of the body. Could you say something about that?
AM It is interesting the way it is presented that there are those who are set in the body for the edification of the assembly, and God has acted in His own way but in the body.
But in the body the Holy Spirit is pleased to act in order that it should function. God has set the members in the body, but how are they going to function? You say some more, you have been thinking about it.
DTP I was just wondering. I was struck earlier with the fact that it is spoken of as to the Spirit giving faith. We think of faith as given of God, but do we see something of divine Persons operating together in this formation that is pleasing to Them?
AM Yes, and that is a very precious thing to see, divine Persons each distinct in His own way but working in perfect harmony to one end.
In Ephesians 4 I think the apostle is firstly exhorting the brethren encouraging them that the features of the body should be expressed. The word ‘diligence’ has impressed me. We are very thankful generally for the spirit there is and the love that there is among the brethren; we do give thanks for it, but he says, “use diligence” to keep it. Do not become complacent, use diligence, and that word ‘diligence’ implies that it might be easy just to drop below that level.
He is saying, now let this work, and immediately he says there is one body. There is the standard, there is one body, and there is a divine Person, one Spirit. He is bringing out the features of the body, “lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love”. These are all features which come to light in the operation of the body.
Later in the chapter we find that the body is drawing from Christ, “each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”.
RT Do these features prove the fruit of the Spirit?
AM Yes, that is right. It is the evidence of the Spirit working here and these are features which are to be manifested constantly.
RT It is the testimony that renders from the body. There is a testimony to something working secretly, is there not? There is something hidden operating that you could not really point to officially, but there is something working in secret that comes out powerfully in the testimony.
AM Yes, I am glad you said that. A little while ago we had a question raised in the south as to what is the difference between the body and the new man. It seems that in the new man we have the features of Christ being expressed, almost for their own sake, but in the body there is a secret working together of things, there is something working and it is all of Himself, it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the saints working out but it results in the expression of Himself.
JD So would you say that the body is an organism, not simply an organisation, it is a living organism?
AM Absolutely, that is right. In an organisation the head might be removed and replaced; you could not do that with an organism. It is a living entity and it works, there is an inward working in the body.
MGW Do you think there is a background to this that we “walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering”? It is the underlying state and order of things that our brother has been referring to.
AM Yes, that is right, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another in love. These are genuine features, they are not things you can put on. They are features that have to be worked out and it is the result of the Spirit’s work.
MGW Yes, and it is infinitely blessed that we are the objects of the divine call, that we have been called. We do want to walk worthily of that, do we not?
AM Well, you just wonder! You think of the divine calling and you think, why me? There is nothing in me that would give Him cause to call me; I must walk worthy of that calling, I must honour Him.
GCMcK Does the beginning of chapter 4 link with the end of chapter 2, worthy of the calling? Does the calling include not only that we “sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2: 6), but does the calling not involve the great dignity of what we have been brought into at the end of chapter 2, the building fitted together and increasing? We are also built together, so therefore if we are going to work that out we need the beginning of chapter 4, do you think?
AM Most of chapter 3 is in parenthesis, so the reasoning goes from the end of chapter 2 on to chapter 4. The habitation of God in the Spirit; again it is that divine Person, the Holy Spirit here, and there is what is for the pleasure of God, a dwelling-place for God.
GCMcK It is the full Ephesians level of things, you might say, brought to bear in this most practical way, bearing with one another in love.
JS In this exhortation to use “diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace”, do you think that this matter of peace has a very practical bearing on our unity together? We are told of the glad tidings of peace in chapter 2 and it seems to be the practical working out of that in our path together, do you think?
AM He made peace and then He preached peace to those who were afar off and to those who were nigh. He has come preaching peace and now this feature, the uniting bond of peace. I suppose what the apostle is exhorting the brethren to is really the spirit of what we saw in Acts 2, the unity of the Spirit and the uniting bond of peace was really working out there. Then later we have Christ brought in as the Head. He is brought in earlier in Ephesians 1 of course, but we see the working out of it here and the functioning, “holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things, who is the head”, and then there is the supply “from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part”, every member, “works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. So we have been fitted together; there is no complaint about that, is there? We have been fitted together, that is a precious thing. I look at my local brethren and see that we have been fitted together. Thank God that He has given me such wonderful brethren to be fitted together with.
JCG Do you think that is the result of the uniting bond of peace? Mr Darby’s note says that the bond-together is the practically uniting in fact, as amongst men on earth. Man is accustomed to using, and in fact God has allowed intelligence in man to invent many bonding materials in a practical sense, some of which are quite amazing, but this bonding is of persons by the Spirit, and we need to really strive at that as the rapture draws near, do you think?
AM Yes, as you say it is the bonding together, an actual bonding; it is not the agreement of minds, it is hearts united in the uniting bond of peace.
RG Perhaps among these persons would be the twelve men from Ephesus who at one time only knew part of the truth, but when the Spirit came upon them, then they found themselves bound together for the working out of the features of Christ here on earth, that Christ has delighted in when He was here, do you think?
AM Yes, that is good. The features of Christ on earth, working them out, and that was to be in a practical way. There is what is abstractly of Christ and we rejoice in it. One of our brothers on Lord’s day morning was speaking to the Father and he said, ‘We could not even come into Thy presence unless we were like Christ’, a wonderful thing; that was choice, and this is the practical working of it out that there should be the features of Christ seen manifested in His own.
JS Could you say a word on “from whom the whole body”? Does that mean that the body is energised by what comes practically from Christ as Head?
AM Yes, I think so. It comes through the members, does it not? Every member has its direct links with the Head. That is a precious thing and each one is working together but all drawing from the one Source, so there is one motive, one desire, one goal, it is all coming from the one Source.
Reading at Dundee
14 March 2009
KEY TO INITIALS
D. C. Brown
G. B. Grant
D. T. Pye
G. A. Brown
J. C. Gray
J. Spinks
J. A. Brown
N. J. Henry
J. Strachan
J. Drummond
G. C. McKay
R. Taylor
R. Gardiner
A. Martin
M. G. Wood
A. P. Grant
T. C. Munro