THE VALUE OF BRETHREN DWELLING TOGETHER IN UNIT
A. M. Brown
In the meeting for prayer and thanksgiving yesterday evening a brother gave thanks for the conditions that generally exist among the brethren with whom we walk in terms of love and confidence among them. I trust we can say that that is generally true. The brother who prayed certainly felt that, and he thanked the Lord for it and asked for help that we might be maintained in happy unity together. Then Psalm 133 was what I read this morning when I got up. There is an obvious connection between what our brother had said in his thanksgiving and this psalm. I thought about what this means for God. The psalmist, David, speaking prophetically by the power of the Spirit, draws attention to the matter of brethren dwelling together in unity. “Behold” he says. These are really God’s words although spoken by David, so God is drawing attention to this—“how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Two sides of the matter are drawn attention to. What is good is good in the sight of God. He takes account of it and it is morally good. God took account of things in the creation and it says that God saw these things and it was good (see Genesis 1: 25). It is clear that saints dwelling together in unity is a matter that is good in God’s sight. It has His positive approval. We might think about why that is. Unity is a testimony to the work of God in souls and it is a result of the activity of Christ Himself. It is a result, too, of formation after Christ. It is the fruit of these things and it would also relate, I am sure, to the fruit of the Spirit. What our brother has just drawn attention to as to the list in Colossians 3: 12, 13 can only be worked out as believers are relating to one another. It could not be worked out by a hermit in a cell. He would not have the opportunity to be kind to someone else or to do
them good. But believers working things out together have the opportunity to display the fruit of the Spirit. God takes account of that and in His sight it is good.
Then you get what is pleasant, which would be our side. The fruit of practical Christianity being worked out in subjection to the Lord Jesus is pleasant, it is blessed. These two sides come together. What is good in the sight of God is pleasant for His saints, for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now dwelling is not just something that happens for an hour in the evening when we are at a meeting, or on a Lord’s day. Dwelling is something that is settled. The psalmist had that in mind, he refers to the day to day conditions of life, dwelling together in unity. Now think what this means to God, what God can take account of in it. We rightly are exercised, and we must be exercised, to maintain these conditions. One thing to bear in mind is that unity among believers is a fruit. That is, it is an organic result of right moral conditions. The key condition, I believe, is subjection to the Lord Jesus. In putting Christ first, I am displaced and so I do not have my elbows sticking out to create a distance between me and the sister or brother next to me. God looks upon conditions like this and they are good in His sight.
One thing that we can say about God seeing brethren dwelling together in unity, is that the calamitous effect of sin coming in is reversed. The first result that sin had was that it made Eve distrust God’s word. It brought thoughts into her heart as to whether God had really said something and whether He had meant it. But then it brought in enmity between Cain and his brother Abel, and the result was death, because Cain murdered Abel. Dreadful thing! God spoke to him about the matter, and he said, “am I my brother’s keeper?”, Genesis 4: 9. The brotherly bond was broken in a most dreadful way as a result of sin coming in. Now we do not want to be occupied with that. But God looks on brethren dwelling together in unity, and what He sees is a result of His work through Christ, that the effect of sin in that respect is undone. It is reversed. Instead of being at enmity, brethren are dwelling together in unity. God sees that and it is good.
The psalmist goes on to say in verse 2—“Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments”. You might wonder what is the connection between verse two and verse one. David would be familiar with what is said in Exodus as to the anointing of the priesthood. He would know about the holy anointing oil that was to be made (Exodus 30: 22–33). It was to be made of precious ingredients. It was a large quantity. It says about it that it was “a perfume of perfumery after the work of the perfumer” (Exodus 30: 25). Perfume and perfumery and the perfumer are all mentioned. There is a sweet odour associated with the anointing oil that was poured out on Aaron’s head. David would have known all about that. Another thing he would have known about was that that oil was never to be poured on man’s flesh (see Exodus 30: 32). Furthermore, none of the children of Israel were to try to make anything like it because it was holy. David, in writing this psalm, when going on from verse one to verse two would have thoughts in his mind as to the preciousness of the oil and its uniqueness, speaking reverently, in the nostrils of God Himself. That perfume was appreciated by God more than anyone else could ever appreciate it. David would know that and he makes a connection. He likens brethren dwelling together in unity with the anointing oil that was put on Aaron’s head in all its preciousness and beautiful attractive fragrance. That is what David thought of, and we could say, that is what God thinks of. The matter of brethren dwelling together in unity is fragrant to God. It is appealing to Him and He loves it.
Then we have the thought that it was not to be poured on man’s flesh. That would exclude what we are naturally from any consideration of this matter. Unity can only be enjoyed as saints are conformed to Christ and are subject to Him.
But as the oil runs down it starts on Aaron’s head, then to his beard and then to the hem of his garments. The anointing that so marks out Christ in His distinctiveness, in His pre-eminence, the fragrance of that as it is appreciated spreads. The brethren are brought into the circle of it and there is unity there. It is organic. It is not because saints try very hard to be united, although it is very important that we use “diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace”, Ephesians 4: 3. How important that is—it means that we would subject what we think ourselves, to what the Lord would say. And we are to esteem one another as being more excellent (see Philippians 2: 3). How important it is to give one another honour and to give one another the first place. These are the conditions, and we see these features in Christ Himself as the One who humbled Himself, as we read in Philippians 2. The mind that was in Christ Jesus is to be among the saints. The Scripture says, “let this mind be in you”, and the footnote says, ‘Or ‘be found amongst you’’. These are the conditions that follow from Christ being given His pre-eminence. There was One upon whose head that holy anointing oil was poured, but then the effect of it is appreciated and felt and experienced and enjoyed in the circle of the saints. The result of such conditions, the fruit of them, is unity.
And then David, the psalmist, goes on in the third verse to speak about “the dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion”. Again, you might wonder why the psalmist associated brethren dwelling together in unity with the dew of Hermon that descends on the mountains of Zion. The dew came down. Where did it come down from? It came from heaven. Conditions that saints of God enjoy as abiding together in unity come from heaven. If they are the product of our own attempt to be nice to one another, they do not come down from heaven and they will not last. The links that bind saints together are not social. They are heavenly, and they are in Christ. He is the heavenly One, and as saints are committed to Him and devoted to Him then
certain qualities of life come into evidence, like the dew of Hermon that descends on the mountains of Zion. Zion, as we are often told, refers to what is elevated. It refers to what God has chosen and what proceeds from God’s own thoughts. Sometimes we speak of God’s sovereignty. But particularly it relates to what God has chosen and where He is going to dwell. God loves to dwell, to associate Himself and to take up His place, in the midst of saints dwelling together in unity. Why? Because He sees features of Christ there. That is what He enjoys. And there He has commanded the blessing, life for evermore. We often speak of that as eternal life. Conditions of eternal life are found where believers, subject to the Lord Jesus, and desiring to be subject to and guided by the truth, work Christianity out practically together. God is pleased with that.
May we just see how precious these conditions are in the sight of God. May we therefore be set devotedly in a committed way to maintain these conditions, and to maintain the underlying healthy, moral and spiritual features that lead to this fruit being in evidence and being enjoyed. We think of it as being enjoyed by us, and so it is, and as our brother did last night we give thanks for it; but it is enjoyed by God too, which is an even greater thing. As we contemplate these things, may they help us for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
16 August 2011