SPIRITUAL YOUTHFULNESS
[p. 75] SPIRITUAL YOUTHFULNESS
1 Thessalonians 1:1 - 10; 1 Thessalonians 2:13,14
JT I thought this scripture might help to fix the view of believers on the order of growth in a young assembly. In the Old Testament God says that when Israel was a child He loved him. This assembly at Thessalonica seems to correspond in the New Testament with Israel’s childhood. Then He says, “and called my son out of Egypt”. Hosea 11:1 Childhood is not the full thought of God for us; it is very lovely in its place, but the purpose of God is sonship. “Out of Egypt have I called my son”. God did not say anything to Pharaoh about children, but about His son: “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. Exodus 4:23.
Ques What is involved in “in God the Father”?
JT Just what I have been remarking. These Thessalonians are viewed in their youthful condition; it is the only assembly that is addressed in this way, and I think refers to their loveliness of character as representing the early work of the Spirit in an assembly. I suppose each of the assemblies addressed by apostolic ministry represents some feature of truth, and it would seem the Thessalonians represent the feature of youthfulness, youthful freshness.
Ques Why does he not refer to himself as an apostle here?
JT I think it is addressed more personally in that way. There was nothing to rebuke, nothing special to require apostolic authority. He could give thanks for their affections. Here the personal feature as distinct from the official is interesting. Where things are normal, as in a family, there is no need of insistence on what is official.
Rem There is a verse in the next chapter in which he refers to himself as an [p. 76] apostle.
JT Yes. Here he is establishing personal links; it ensures more mutual feeling, which is a great thing. It promotes family feelings and affections more than reliance on what is official. He links Silvanus and Timotheus with him.
Ques What is the distinction between children and sons in the word you quote?
JT I had the word in Hosea in my mind: “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt”. Hosea 11:1 In referring to Israel as a child, God alludes to the freshness of youth. It is well known that wherever man is found, youthfulness, whether in little children or in children more advanced, has a great attraction; so Jehovah alludes to the early freshness of affection for Him that marked Israel. He says, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”. Jeremiah 2:2 There was freshness with them. But His purpose was not in little children, but in sons, or in the son.
Ques With the believer should not the two continue together?
JT I think we should retain the freshness of youth; you see in the heavenly city how it retains its freshness. There is no element of decay or corruption in the heavenly city. So that whilst we begin as children, that which is expressive of beautiful freshness, we are to go on and retain that freshness, but at the same time develop into manhood. I think ‘children’, whilst it conveys youthfulness, is also used in Scripture as covering the whole family of God as the objects of His care, and therefore includes all christians, however far advanced. It says in John 1 that those who receive Christ have the right to take the place of the children of God.
Ques Can you be a child without the Spirit [p. 77] of sonship?
JT No, I think not; every child of God has the Spirit. One is not regarded as a child of God, or of the children of God, save as having the Spirit.
Rem So sonship is more stature than the thought of child.
JT Just so; though, as I remarked, the term ‘children’ is used as embracing all believers, including the whole family of God in John’s gospel, however advanced some may be. “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God”. John 1:12 So, too, “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God”. 1 John 3:1 It is a term that refers to us in this world as objects of divine care; but the word ‘child’ in Hosea has reference to youthful freshness, so it would correspond with the Thessalonian assembly. It was a very young assembly, but it had all the features of life — of youthful freshness, and that is what God delights in.
Ques You speak of the features that mark the Thessalonians. What are these features?
JT First of all you have that they were an assembly in God the Father, which is an expression not found elsewhere, save in this epistle. Jude 1 is very similar.
Rem You would make a difference between being “in God the Father” and being “in Christ”?
JT Yes; “in Christ” is the normal position of the saints; “in God the Father” alludes to the peculiar affection He had for such an assembly. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him”. Hosea 11:1 Do you think that they were happily conscious of that on their side?
JT Evidently; for it goes on to say, “Remembering unceasingly your work of faith, and labour of love, and enduring constancy of hope, of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father” — it was what was before Him — “knowing, brethren beloved by God, your election”
— [p. 78] not as we have it in the common version, “your election of God”, but knowing your election as beloved by God. The other expression is hardly clear. The point emphasised is that they were beloved by God. What they were, they were before God, hence the force of the expression, “in God the Father”.
Ques In the second epistle it is “in God our Father”. 2 Thessalonians 1:1.
JT In the first epistle it is ‘in God, Father’, really; ‘the’ has to be put in to make sense in English. I suppose in the second epistle he links himself more with them.
Ques Why in both epistles does he speak of them as “the assembly of Thessalonians”, not as at Corinth, “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”? 1 Corinthians 1:2 It is to call attention to local growth.
Ques Would the epistle to the Thessalonians give a more elementary view of the assembly than that to the Corinthians?
JT Yes, I think so; there it is “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. Paul views the assembly in a more official capacity there. Here it is a local growth; they were not imported. At Rome the assembly was largely made up of people from other parts; but it was not so at Thessalonica, they were of local growth. You have it in Philippians, too, persons in the locality. The best material usually in a locality is persons of local growth.
Ques In view of what you have said about children, why does it say “to await his Son from the heavens”?
JT It says they had received the gospel; following that, they turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. The main thought is God in the epistle. So too, “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus”. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 They turned to God. The gospel had been presented by Paul as [p. 79] the gospel of God, corresponding, I judge, with Romans — the gospel of God concerning His Son; but the apostle had added here the truth of the Lord’s coming. They did not know as yet the truth of the rapture, as we speak of it. The coming of the Lord is alluded to in every chapter in this epistle. They waited for God’s Son from heaven, meaning He would come back to earth. They evidently did not understand the hope of our calling, which involves the rapture, but they did understand that the Lord would come back to earth again.
Ques Though addressed to the Thessalonians, would the fact that they were spoken of as the assembly of the Thessalonians mean that their links morally with Thessalonica were broken, and that they had new links with one another?
JT I think so, and we shall see in the second chapter that they become catholic; they became followers of the assemblies of God, which are in Judaea; that is another very important thought. Undue localism shuts out the truth of the assembly, and renders it null and void, but the epistle to the Thessalonians shows that they were of local growth, and good material for the development of the assembly in its local character. But then we must not overlook the catholic character, the universal aspect, because what God is doing in this assembly He is doing elsewhere, and He does not intend His people to be purely local. When we come to Ephesians it is “With all lowliness and meekness ... forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit”. Ephesians 4:2 That is not the local idea; Ephesians conveys the catholic idea of the assembly, the universal aspect; hence there is only “one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”. Ephesians 4:4 - 6. Then the gifts are given to lead [p. 80] the saints up from the babe state into manhood, “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. Ephesians 4:13 That is universal, but we must begin locally, and I think we may see here that the Thessalonians, beginning locally, developed into universality. Paul shows they had a wide outlook, they looked at the assemblies in Judaea, meaning they were not national; they looked abroad into Judaea.
Ques Would you make it a little clearer what you said as to local material making the best assembly material?
JT I mean persons converted in the place; they have grown up there, That is the best kind of material. Then those who are so regarded are looking at Judaea, which was far away from their own country in that day, for in those days Judaea was a long way from Thessalonica, much longer than it is now because of the means of travel. These Thessalonians did not even consider the labours of their own apostle; they were not hero-worshippers. They might have inquired what was the result of Paul’s ministry, but they did not; they thought of the assemblies in Judaea.
Rem So the apostle preached, and so they believed, was true of these Thessalonians; they turned to God, and so could take up the interests of God in other countries; they got to the centre.
JT I thought that; and that is the normal result of the gospel. If God is presented (God in Christ) then He is the Object for us, and we cannot connect Him with a mere locality; He will work in any soil.
Rem I suppose the question is whether in any other locality there is a centre there for God.
JT So if you love God you love your brother also, meaning your brother anywhere, whether your neighbour or otherwise.
[p. 81] Ques Is there not a tendency to be happy in the thought of the Lord Jesus, and not quite at home with God?
JT Well, that may be; the thought here is that everything must refer to God, and I think it is greatly to the credit and honour of these Thessalonians that God was before them. What they had was before God, they turned to God, and then they were beloved of God.
Ques Could you tell us what is the bearing of the hope referred to in verse 3?
JT The hope of our Lord Jesus Christ — I think it is the hope of His return, not our hope. It is not the hope of our calling; I do not think they understood that. The hope of our calling is a heavenly one.
Ques Do you mean that their hope was that the Lord Jesus Christ was coming back to establish His kingdom on earth?
JT Yes; but that we should be taken out of this earth up to heaven was another thing; that belongs to Colossians and Ephesians.
Ques In what way were they to be the imitators of the assemblies in Judaea?
JT In regard of the order that marked them. There should be no diversity amongst us; I should find a certain order at Thessalonica, and if I went into Asia Minor I should find the same order there.
Ques If you were to go into a company today and not find the same order as in other places what would you think?
JT I should think they were not catholic.
Rem “Ye became our imitators”.
JT They learnt from Paul first. That brings out the great importance of leadership amongst the saints. How are young believers to get an idea of order except as they see it? Christ is the great model for us: to “learn from me”. Matthew 11:29. You learn as seeing it in Him. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. Matthew 11:29. The Lord when here was the model for all that followed Him, not only by what He said, but by what He was. Now it is remarkable here that Paul says, “Ye became our imitators and of the Lord”. I can understand a man saying, ‘That will never do, why put Paul before the Lord?’. It is to bring out the great advantage of leadership amongst the saints — the importance of models. If anyone learnt from Paul, he would say, ‘You see the thing in me, but you can only see it in perfection in Christ’. That is the effect of all right leadership — like John the baptist, who transfers his disciples to Christ; so does every true leader. I see a little of the thing in you, and I turn away from you to Christ.
Rem So in seeking to set forth the truth, you would desire that it might be set forth in the spirit and grace that came out in Christ, so that those who come under it might be attracted to Christ in you.
JT If they see a little of it in those who present the truth, they will say, I want to see that in perfection. “Ye became our imitators, and of the Lord”. I think it is God’s way to have a model in every gathering. “Seest thou this woman?”, Luke 7:44 There was a model the Lord would call attention to in Simon’s house. It is an exercise whether you in your locality can be called attention to by the Lord as exhibiting in some degree in your walk and ways what He is. So with Timotheus at Corinth; they had gone astray as to the word of the cross; and Paul says, ‘I send to you my child Timotheus so that you may learn in him my ways which be in Christ’. Christ was in Paul in a greater measure than in Timotheus, but He was in Timotheus too; so Timotheus was at Corinth as a model.
Rem That comes out here, “Ye became followers of us”; it is very gracious of the apostle to link the other two with him as “us”.
JT Apparently they were brothers formed like Paul.
Ques Do you link this up with freshness?
JT It is the normal features of a young assembly; a child grows.
Ques Why has election such a place here?
JT I suppose it has always a place when it is a question of God’s sovereignty.
Ques Would the glad tidings be always presented with election in view?
JT I think so. “The elect of God”. “I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory”. 2 Timothy 2:10.
Ques Did he present things with that assurance in his heart?
JT I believe he did. The daughters of Jerusalem are viewed in responsibility; the daughters of Zion are viewed as daughters of election.
Rem Verse 7 speaks of the Thessalonians being models.
JT That shows how they had learnt of the apostle and those with him.
Rem I suppose very young children learn from those immediately above them, so that the principle of the model may be present at all stages of our growth.
Rem In that way the apostle in Philippians says, “Brethren, be followers together of me”. Philippians 3:17 Yes, just so.
Rem “And fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model” Philippians 3:17 shows he anticipates many leaders, or models. Would you not expect many in a locality?
JT Yes; but certainly God would have one.
Ques Have you any thought in your mind about “Work of faith, and labour of love”?
JT I think the work of faith is that they were not working as a man does, by sight, but on the principle of faith; though so young they had laid hold of the principle of the dispensation.
Ques Do you mean that those features should be present where the gospel is simply entered into?
JT You know how young people’s disposition is to be seen by others, and to be praised by others; that is not exactly faith, which is labouring in view of what is unseen.
Rem So you would not be labouring for results to be seen outwardly?
JT No; you would have the unseen before you, what is in faith: “Work of faith, and labour of love”; the word ‘labour’ is to be noted there; “Know those who labour among you”. 1 Thessalonians 5:12 It is the time of labouring, meaning heavy toil, as the Lord says to the disciples in Luke 17, “Which of you, having a servant ploughing or feeding cattle”, Luke 17:7 indicating what they were to expect — they were to plough. You will never get any result without ploughing. They were to plough and take care of the sheep; but after that toil they were not to sit down, but to gird themselves and serve. “Thus ye also, when ye shall have done all things that have been ordered you, say, We are unprofitable bondmen; we have done what it was our duty to do”. Luke 17:10 That is the principle of the present time, the principle of labour. The Lord Himself says in the prophet Zechariah, “I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground”; Zechariah 13:5 it is a remarkable word. Christian work involves real labour. “For man acquired me as bondman from my youth”. Zechariah 13:5.
Rem So young believers might take this up.
JT That is the point. The Thessalonians were only a few weeks old. It shows how thoroughly these things had laid hold of their hearts.
Rem There is a tendency to a lack of definiteness with us [p. 85] oftentimes!:
JT I fear there is very little labour. Merely preaching the gospel on Sunday evenings is not real labour; the thing has to be taken up on the point of labour. Ploughing is the most onerous practice of the farmer.
Rem It takes time to labour.
JT Yes; the ploughman knows that.
Rem “He that goeth forth and weepeth” Psalm 126:6 gives the idea of deep interest.
Ques Would ploughing have to do with the deepening of the work of God in souls?
JT Yes.
Ques What would you apply to labour, if preaching is not labour?
JT Preaching is labour, but not just once; labour is to go on, it is your chief concern.
Rem The interests of God.
JT Yes; the interests of God are your chief concern; the interests of God are bound up with His people; you have not got them all, you know there are others.
Rem Of course prayer would come in in connection with labour.
JT It would indeed; it is a most valuable service; even a person who is ill can have part in it.
Ques How is it a young christian will often have greater results than an older one?
JT That may be, as we have been saying, that others learn from young ones more quickly than from old ones. I do not think there is any premium on youth in Scripture, at the same time those who are young have energy.
Rem God does not keep young ones waiting so long as old ones.
JT It is so in a family; you say with regard to the older children, they ought to know better than to ask; so it is with older christians, they ought to know better, and God does not answer them. Here [p. 86] it is on the principle of what marks the assembly, it is on the principle of what your hand finds to do, you do with your might.
Rem On the principle of bees and the hive; each one should feel his part in that.
JT Just so. Another feature of the assembly is they had excellent nursing. The apostle was not only a preacher to them, but he was a nurse. This largely accounts for their development. Good nursing is a great thing in bringing up children, they are not left to look after themselves. It says in chapter 2:5 - 8, “For we have not at any time been among you with flattering discourse, even as ye know, nor with a pretext for covetousness, God is witness; nor seeking glory from men, neither from you nor from others, when we might have been a charge as Christ’s apostles; but have been gentle in the midst of you, as a nurse would cherish her own children. Thus, yearning over you, we have found our delight in having imparted to you not only the glad tidings of God, but our own lives also, because ye had become beloved of us”. 1 Thessalonians 2:5 - 8 He was as a nurse among them, and not a paid one either, “as a nurse would cherish her own children” — the skill of a nurse combined with the affections of a mother. The next verses (9 - 12) would show the character of the labour of the apostle: “For ye remember, brethren, our labour and toil: working night and day, not to be chargeable to any one of you, we have preached to you the glad tidings of God. Ye are witnesses, and God, how piously and righteously and blamelessly we have conducted ourselves with you that believe: as ye know how, as a father his own children, we used to exhort each one of you, and comfort and testify, that ye should walk worthy of God, who calls you to his own kingdom and glory”. 1 Thessalonians 2:9 - 12 So that he was father and mother to them; they were wonderfully cared for whilst he was with them, but it was only a short time.
[p. 87] Ques What was the power on the side of these converts that led them to turn to God from idols as we read at the end of chapter 1?
JT I think the presentation of the truth by Paul affected their hearts; but then God was working.
Ques You mention their hearts, that means love, does it not?
JT Yes, but God was working through Paul; they would not be affected by him otherwise. It is very interesting to see in the second chapter, following upon the nursing and fatherly care, how God was brought in for them, so that they received the word of God “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe”. They did not connect what was presented to them in testimony with the vessel, though Paul had his own place with them, but they connected it with God; it was the word of God in a universal way; they saw that God had universal interests. “That ye should walk worthy of God, who calls you to his own kingdom and glory. And for this cause we also give thanks to God unceasingly that, having received the word of the report of God by us, ye accepted, not men’s word, but, even as it is truly, God’s word, which also works in you who believe”. There you have the power, the secret of their formation, the word of God brought in; they were affected universally. Their outlook became universal, therefore it goes on to say, “For ye, brethren, have become imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus”. They could afford to be linked up with God.
Ques Why does it say they “received the word ... of God”, but when it speaks of what sounded out from them it was “the word of the Lord”?
JT The word of the Lord involves the testimony of the Lord as the King. There is the word of God, the word of the Lord, and the word of Christ. The [p. 88] word of the Lord is His authority, the place He has in heaven. We have to view the kingdom as connected with the Lord, with His authority, but we have to view it in its moral features too; there is the kingdom of God, so it says, “The kingdom of God is among you”, Luke 17:21 that is, though its moral features are not discerned by the natural man, still it is there.
Ques If these saints received this word as the word of God, would it be in the way the apostle presented it in his manner of life?
JT That is an important remark. Paul was the great vessel; the word was commended to them — the word of God; so too 1 Corinthians 2 says, “that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God”. 1 Corinthians 2:5.
Ques Do you mean that God had got His place in the heart of the one who was the vessel?
JT Yes; I think if you had heard him preach you would have been affected by the sense that he had God before him.
Rem I suppose the idea is that he would be Godlike in the way he would present it.
JT It says of him in Acts that “he went in among them” — not as a great recognised preacher — “and on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, opening and laying down that the Christ must have suffered and risen up from among the dead”. Acts 17:2,3 It was careful, laborious work, bringing to their attention that the Jesus he preached was the Christ.
Ques Why is it there is no reference in this epistle to the Old Testament?
JT I do not know; he certainly must have alluded to the Old Testament in his service amongst them.
Rem They were gentiles.
JT [p. 89] But there were Jews too; he entered into the synagogue first; he always linked himself with the synagogue.
Ques What is the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven?
JT The kingdom of heaven is a term peculiar to Matthew, meaning that heaven is to rule. It is intended to set aside Jerusalem, and the pretensions of Jerusalem. The rule of God is in heaven, not in Jerusalem. Mark and Luke and John present rather the kingdom of God, connected, I think, with the Spirit of God here. The kingdom of God is more connected with God here morally.
Ques What is implied in their having become “imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judaea”?
JT What we were saying; it shows they were not affected by local feeling, or national feeling, they had God before them; they said virtually, God has assemblies in Judaea in Christ Jesus; these are the ones that have had the greatest advantages; they are older than we are; we had better see how they do things. “If anyone think to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the assemblies of God”. 1 Corinthians 11:16 “And thus I ordain in all the assemblies”. 1 Corinthians 7:17 The same principles, customs and order are to prevail everywhere. There were no independent assemblies, or meetings, as there are today, but the same order everywhere.
Rem That is one great evidence of unity.
JT It is the great evidence of unity. If you had gone into Corinth before Paul wrote his letter, it would be a question whether the assembly was there at all. They assumed to have the Lord’s supper, but he says, it is not it, because of the disorderly way they observed it. “It is not to eat the Lord’s supper”. 1 Corinthians 11:20 It may be your own, but it is not the Lord’s.
[p. 90] Ques Would it apply to details as to the Lord’s supper?
JT Certainly, every detail. As soon as you establish local rules, and hold to them, you are in danger of being regarded as the owner of the place; it is your house.
Ques Is it not a serious exercise, as you go about the country as you do, that things are conducted in some meetings differently from others?
JT It should not be so.
Rem It would be important to take account of what other assemblies do.
JT You want to know what God is doing. It is “the assemblies of God which are in Christ Jesus”; that precludes all human arrangement.
Ques When it speaks of their having become “imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judaea”, would it relate to assembly matters?
JT To the order in which things were done.
Rem In chapter 1:6 it would relate more to individual matters.
JT Yes; when you come to the assembly of God, it means all that marked them as such.
Rem Not the assemblies of the Jews, but the assemblies of God.
JT Very good.
Rem It is not the assembly at Jerusalem, but the assemblies of God which are in Judaea.
JT If he had alluded to Jerusalem only, they would have been in danger of metropolitanism. They were entirely free from national feeling.
Ques What do you mean by metropolitanism?
JT Well, Jerusalem represented that. It seems to me to be very remarkable that there is no allusion to it specially; doubtless it would be included because it was in Judaea, but it was not Jerusalem as a metropolitan centre.
[p. 91] Ques What is involved in the change from “the assembly of Thessalonians” to “the assembly of God” in a place?
JT I think representation. The assembly of God at Corinth would mean that it would represent God there; the order of God would be seen there. “The assembly of Thessalonians” would mean that they were of local growth, and manifesting these beautiful features that would delight God. They were distinctly a work of God in the place where they were converted; they were not imported.
Ques Would you suggest that it would be right for a local assembly to imitate assemblies at a distance without regard to district assemblies?
JT I think it is quite right wherever there is a work of God, and it is known that they are marked by godly order. I think it is quite right to go and see what the thing is like; it is all one piece.
Rem On the other hand, not to be a mere copyist.
JT You cannot go wrong in copying what is of God.
Rem The practical recognition of one Lord would lead to similar order in every place.
JT It would; that is the ground on which Ephesians 4 rests, “one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”. Ephesians 4:4 - 6 That is a universal fixed order of things, and every local company should fit in with that, or it is disjointed.
Rem In Corinthians it says, “to the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints, with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours”; 1 Corinthians 1:2, that would link them on with the universal order you spoke [p. 92] of.
JT Ephesians is a higher platform, “one God and Father of all”; Ephesians 4:6 every local company should fit in with that, and every person in it should fit in with it too.
Rem So the city is foursquare.
JT That is right; it is universal in its aspect, and the same measurement every way.
Rem The universality works out from within; it is not mere outward conformity.
JT There is no value in mere outward conformity without inward exercise. I was in a place some time ago, and a brother said, as to a matter, that ‘It is a custom here’. Customs should be universal if they are of God. As brethren we ought to know what is God’s order; He has given us His Spirit that we might know the things, and be careful how we do them.
Ques Would that be the Berean spirit? The Bereans were put in contrast to the Thessalonians.
JT They were put in contrast to the unbelieving ones, not to the believing ones. The Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica; the lowest rabble were opposed to the truth, whilst the upper classes were in favour of it — the chief women.
In the working out of the assembly locally we need to have an idea of what the assembly is.
Ques You have referred to the thought of freshness several times, did the apostle himself show the way it was maintained?
JT I am sure it was so. He was very simple; there was no assumption with him; he laboured with his hands.
Ques Do you mean that each one is to be livingly what he presents in testimony?
JT The thing presented is not only to be in teaching. Christianity is not a system of doctrines,
[p. 93] but a living system, composed of persons; so he says to the Galatians, “To whom, as before your very eyes, Jesus Christ has been portrayed, crucified among you”. Galatians 3:1.