EPHESIANS 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 322] EPHESIANS 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
Ephesians 4:4-12 (1st clause)
CAC I suppose the calling referred to in verse 1 would refer to what he had spoken of at the end of chapter 2. That is, we get the thought of the one body and one Spirit. But this great truth is to be worked out in conditions of imperfection.
Ques Is that why we get the earlier verses of chapter 4?
CAC I thought so, the necessity for lowliness, meekness and forbearance, etc. It always suggests an imperfect condition of things and that is how we are tested. If the saints were altogether perfect, we should not have to exercise long-suffering in relation to them or bear with them. So that the unity of the Spirit should be worked out in spite of everything that would hinder it.
Rem And it is an exercise that devolves upon us all, every one.
CAC I think so. Each has to see that he or she does not bring in something contrary to the unity of the Spirit. There are all kinds of things that militate against this wonderful truth of unity: our natural proclivities, temperaments, etc. Satan is behind this, for God is after the unity, for “there is one body, and one Spirit”. I think it means a good deal of self-denial for every one of us.
Rem We are inclined to expect more consideration from our brethren than we are to give it.
CAC We are all naturally characterised by self-concern and self-importance in some degree, but they are foreign elements and we are to walk worthy of the calling.
Ques Would you link up the calling with chapter 2?
CAC I thought all was connected. It speaks of the one new man and the one body, and access by one Spirit to the Father, and brings in the fellow-citizenship of the saints,
and being “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets”, etc. — all seems bound up in the thought of the calling, and we are to walk worthy of it.
We have often been reminded of the parenthesis in chapter 3, so the beginning of chapter 4 really links on with the end of chapter 2; and if we kept these great and wondrous thoughts of God before us, we should feel there was a great and worthy object to pursue.
And those are subsisting facts: the one body and one Spirit. They are great divine subsisting realities. It implies that there is ability in the saints viewed spiritually to work in a perfectly harmonious way with one another. We are competent to walk in perfect harmony as members of the one body and as energised by the one Spirit. People would tell you that it is a beautiful conception, but impracticable. But then we ought to confess that it is a possibility, and that there is competence in the saints for it, if they would but recognise it; so that all friction is eliminated. It would be a wonderful sight to see fifty people walking together in the truth of this, a wonderful thing in the sight of heaven.
Ques Is this what is pictured in Isaiah 11? “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb”, etc.
CAC Well, that is very good, because I think those features very aptly describe us naturally — “hateful, and hating one another” (Titus 3: 3). Fancy God taking up creatures of that character, so that they harmonise in the one body! The whole of christendom says it cannot be done. Well, God says it can be done. Which side are we to take? It comes to that, does it not?
Rem A little child leads them.
CAC If I am meek and lowly, I shall not bring in any grit. As to awkward people who do bring in grit, well then with them we must forbear; we must exercise forbearance with those as contrary. We have very little idea of how wonderful the body is.
Some years ago a brother visiting remarked, ‘The saints [p. 324] in T. do not understand the body’. Still that is no reason why we should not make a beginning, is it? If we only accepted that we are in this matter, what a difference it would make in all our lives, our way of speaking of the brethren, and in our practical walk. I believe fifty people being in the light of this would shake the world.
Rem People often say how difficult it is to control matters and make them work.
CAC And particularly for want of material! Wise men put out wonderful theories, but there is no material. The greatest reality in the world today is the body. All is to work harmoniously, that is the conception. We want the love of it and the faith of it. It has pleased God to break up the thing in small pieces, locally, so that it should be known all over the world. It all hangs on the fact that the Lord took a body Himself; He took a vessel prepared. And now He has set the saints together in one body, so that all that is of Himself should be expressed. If we really entered into it, it would give us sleepless nights, and then we should get up in the morning and try to work it out!
Rem And it should be recognised by all.
CAC That is, it is a substantial thing. The thought of the body was wonderfully expressed when the Holy Spirit came down at the baptism, to become tangible in Jesus. So in the saints He becomes tangible in His operations. That is the conception, this uniting bond is peace. It is not exactly from this point of view that the Spirit is the bond, or even the body, but the uniting bond is peace. We are to be set in peace with all the brethren. There is to be no friction between any brother or sister; I take it that is what is meant. So that the Jew and the Gentile, the most contrary elements in the world, are made one. So here it is the thought of the saints moving together and resisting every element contrary to peace in our spirits. I feel what a great undertaking it is.
Rem The note in the Darby translation to verse 3 is good: ‘It is not only “bond” but the “bond-together”. It is [p. 325] not the power of union — that is the Holy Spirit; but the practical uniting in fact, as amongst men on earth’.
CAC That is very helpful, and confirms what has been said. It is no good to speak of one body and one Spirit if I am out at elbows with my neighbour!
The Lord said to His disciples in Luke 10, You ask if the son of peace is there; if not, do not go in where the son of peace is not, you will regret it if you do. It is very practical advice for us. It is disregard of this wonderful teaching that has brought christendom to where it is. All the sects etc. have grown out of disregard of this chapter.
Ques What is the hope of the calling? “One hope”.
CAC Well, I suppose in the teaching of this epistle it is the heading up of everything in Christ, that God is going to head up all things in the heavens and upon the earth in Christ. We have the thought before us as a matter of hope, that all is going to be gathered up and centred in Christ. Well, the only family that finds its centre there at the present time is the assembly.
Ques There is great emphasis on “one” in this chapter; “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”, etc., emphasising, would you say, the general oneness of things marking the whole dispensation?
CAC Yes, I think so. It has often been said that the unity really depends on God being one, so we get one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father. There is one Spirit, i.e. the inward thought, it is a purely spiritual thought. And then there is a circle where there is one Lord, which takes in the whole of the profession — one faith and one baptism. And then there is a wider thought still — one God and Father, etc. It is the widest thought possible and takes in all mankind.
Ques Does “in us all” refer to believers?
CAC “In us all”, yes, I thought so. There is the wide scope of relations in which God stands to all, but He is only in the saints.
[p. 326] Ques In what way would you say it is true of the saints, “in us all”?
CAC I suppose in view of the Spirit and the divine nature, God is in us. “He that abides in love abides in God, and God in him”, John says (1 John 4: 16).
Ques What is the force of “through all”?
CAC Well, I suppose there are operations of God through all men; He operates in some way through all men.
All men have a knowledge of good and evil and all have consciences, and there are divine operations. Every man has a spirit in relation to God. His natural spirit as a man came from God, and He operates by way of good and evil, and conscience. He operates through all; all creatures are taken into the field of His operation; that is, God has not given up His relations with all men; men have given Him up, but He has not given them up. There are operations of God going on through all men. Of course, the solemn thing is that men refuse these operations of God and trample them under foot. His Spirit is pleading too, and He says, “My Spirit shall not always plead with Man” (Genesis 6: 3).
Ques In what way is God the Father of all? He is not universally Father?
CAC No, men have gone astray in that thought. God is Father of all in a creatorial sense; all men got their spirits from God, we all come from God. The universal fatherhood of God is the terrible fallacy that all men are the children of God without redemption. But they are not truly so without conversion and the divine nature. Still there is the universal fatherhood in a creatorial sense.
Of course, in preaching, men are addressed as responsible creatures of God, and any preacher should have a sense of the greatness of men, for they are creatures of God; the fall does not take away that fact. James says, you “curse ... men made after the likeness of God” (chapter 3: 9), and he is representative in that likeness now. Of course it is a sad thing if he dishonours it.
[p. 327] Rem Even, it is said, the young lions cry to Him, and man is on a higher plane.
CAC It is very striking that God should look upon the brute creation in relation to Him. “He giveth ... to the young ravens which cry” (Psalm 147:9).
Rem It says of the lower creatures, “The young lions ... seek their food from God” (Psalm 104: 21).
Ques Why is it brought out here in this epistle?
CAC Is it not in connection with the greatness of the calling? We stand in relation to God who is so great, and great in His operations. So that all this wonderful truth should characterise the saints, and there are adequate supplies to work it out. “To each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”. So every believer has a supply to work out these things in a practical way, so it is no use saying we have not. “To each one of us”.
Ques The gifts given are for that?
CAC But the grace is given to each one; the gifts are a speciality, but then they are for all the saints.
Ques “According to the measure of the gift of the Christ”: what is the meaning?
CAC Well, I think it means grace adequate for the working out of the matter in hand. It is not a wonderful picture merely, but to be worked out. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”, etc. How is it to be done? Well, “Unto each one of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of the Christ”, so it is illimitable. It might be rendered, ‘the beneficence of the Christ’, so it is according to the largeness of His grace. The object of the gifts is that the saints may be perfected. The grace given in measure is measureless.
These gifts are furnished from above the highest point in the universe that the saints may grow up to the full measure of the thought of God. This chapter is full of the most wonderful conceptions. These things are to be worked out [p. 328] by the power of the grace that comes from Christ, not naturally. The gifts come in to help us in an external way, if that is to be understood. The gifts are received “in Man” (Psalm 68: 18), in that order of being; of course in the Person of the ascended Christ, and so they are for man.
The gifts reach out to all men. They are external helps; the grace is supplied within. They help us by bringing us something that we should not otherwise have known; so we become intelligent and perfected. So many saints are dwarfed and stunted in their growth today, because they do not get the benefit of the ministry and what it brings.
[p. 329] NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 4: 10 - 16 Is the ascent of Christ the measure of the descent in a certain sense, no one could have gone higher? “He that descended is the same who has also ascended”. Why is it put that way?
CAC Well, these great movements are to be considered. Do both refer to Him as Man?
Ques Do you think that “He that descended is the same” shows that there might be a question as to whether it was as Man on both occasions?
CAC Yes, it seems to be His own act in each case; “He ... descended” does not seem to have in view exactly His incarnation; His descending movement as Man would cover His death and burial. It is striking it is “the lower parts of the earth”, referring to His burial.
Rem “My bones were not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth” (Psalm 139: 15).
CAC He has been in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.
Rem In that way the death and burial of Christ are linked together.
CAC The full depth of His descent is brought out in His burial.
Ques The object of His descent was that He might fill all things?
CAC Does that not show what was in the mind of God in it all? He is going to fill all things in the power of what is brought about in His descent and ascent. There is not a spot in the moral universe where He has not been. He has been found in every spot between the dust of death and the place where He is as ascended up above all heavens.
Rem So that God will never see anything empty again.
[p. 330] CAC That is a very beautiful thought, and would you say that the assembly is the first circle to be filled? That would involve that the assembly is a wonderful vessel. We were seeing earlier in this epistle there is to be glory to God in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages, and we can understand the assembly being filled.
Ques. Filled with what?
CAC Well, filled with what is exactly the opposite to all those powers that needed to be led captive. Would not the thought suggest that there are hostile powers which are found in that scene but are all met? All those powers that have brought God’s creature into captivity are all overcome and dispossessed, so that Christ takes the place of every power hostile to God and is able to fill the universe with what is of God. It is a most wonderful scope of things. Great powers have been active in God’s created universe which are contrary to God, and men particularly have come under the power of those forces of evil. We have been under their power, but here is a blessed Person able to go to the highest and lowest points to overthrow those powers and fill all to the pleasure of God.
Rem The woman in John 4 is an illustration, “If thou knewest the gift of God”, etc.
CAC That is how we must all begin, surely. We have heard it was the power of corrupted affections which held her, so that she could not possibly be a worshipper, but the Lord could free her from that to know God and become a worshipper. She becomes a waterpot with a spring in it never known before; it will never be empty.
It is very striking that this should be linked up with the giving of gifts, as if the divine intent was that all this should be brought into the hearts of men by means of gifts.
Ques Is the idea that He has removed the bondage of the old man and set man up in riches through gift?
CAC And the thought of gift would link itself with what we were saying, “If thou knewest the gift of God” — the word used to speak of the munificence of a king. And Christ has received certain gifts as the ascended Man that they might be dispensed, all having in view the enrichment of man, his enrichment in the great thoughts of God, not only evil powers displaced but all that is blessed brought in and made the positive substance of man.
Ques What would be “the gift of the Christ”?
CAC I think we were saying before that we thought the gift of the Christ, of the grace of Christ to each one, would help us to work out the earlier verses of the chapter. The truth of the body is to be worked out in unfavourable conditions, so that meekness, etc., is required. The gifts are external, but the grace given is what works in particular members to enable us to correlate with one another notwithstanding the difficulties. When you come to these great gifts of the ascended Christ they are external; the end in view is that they act to the edifying of the body of Christ, so that each of these gifts is a remarkable enrichment to us, from the ascended Christ towards the body, bringing something of the fulness of the ascended Christ. So that there is the power of the ascended Christ in each of these gifts, whether apostle, evangelist, shepherd, etc. They are an expression of the power of the ascended Christ, so that, as I understand it, there is power in the exercise of these gifts to subdue the hostile powers that are amongst us. The evangelist comes along and the power of all these influences is broken, and by the power of a gift from the ascended Christ. It is by the power of an ascended Christ because, I suppose, that is not quite His headship.
Ques Can we preach the gospel without reference to the death and burial of Christ (verses 9, 10).
CAC No, but you might have a very good preaching without literal reference to it. For instance, Paul gave a very good address at Athens, but he did not introduce the gospel into his preaching at all, but that God commandeth men to [p. 332] repent, and he just mentions the resurrection. He did not preach the gospel, yet it led to the conversion of several interesting people.
I was thinking that here it was rather the immense distinction of Christ as the One who had died and ascended to the highest point, and it is as this Person that He receives gifts and dispenses them. It is an immense range of power, it seems to me. I do not know that we connect power with His headship. These gifts are positive power. Any babe could preach Christ, but then the gift is effective; Christ is so preached that everything is broken down in the soul and room made for Christ in all His saving power — but it is effective. I think the gifts are the evidence of Christ’s victory, and certain gifts operate as the agents of that power. For instance, “These men that have set the world in tumult, are come here also” (Acts 17: 6). It had overturned idolatry, the whole Roman empire and the philosophical system; it was done through that power! We have little idea of the power of the gifts. What an extraordinary result there was from the apostle’s labours. The apostle John was the only one who died a natural death, yet they overturned the world. Everyone in the prison at Philippi was convicted on the spot, they did not try to escape. The power goes through. An evangelist comes and people are delivered out of the world system, and that is effected by the gifts. And wonderful things are effected among the saints by the prophetic ministry. It is not so obvious but it is the same kind of thing; something is standing in the way and the prophetic word touches it, goes right home, and a divine element is brought in so that there is a change in the constitution of the saints. It is going on all the time, something is actually done; it is not merely a means of comfort. It is going on in obscure conditions, but that does not make it any less the power of the ascended Christ.
Rem The test is the result, not what is said.
CAC All is for the perfecting of the saints. This [p. 333] whole operation of power from the highest point in the universe is going on for the perfecting of the saints; that is the idea.
Rem It seems as if a man could not teach unless he were a shepherd.
CAC I think that is right. A shepherd has a knowledge of souls and the needs of souls; that has to be met and is a matter of shepherd care.
Ques Is “the perfecting of the saints” the idea of completing?
CAC The perfecting of the saints would seem to imply that there is nothing left to hinder the normal working of the body. The work of the ministry is the service that would be going on continually in the body, not so much the ministry of gift but the mutual working in the body so that no element is left unfinished; there is nothing to hinder the service that goes on normally in the body.
Rem The evangelist brings in the material.
Ques The work of the ministry would be the normal activity among the saints?
CAC I thought so. If the saints were all perfected, the mutual service would suffice for the edifying of the body. I think the reason for the gifts is to make us independent of them. So the gifts have in view a condition that will never actually be reached on earth, a wonderful end that will never be reached. The gifts are that nothing should hinder the harmonious working of the body. Every member of my body serves every other member, so as the saints are perfected every member is set free to serve every other member — a wonderful ministry that goes on in the body itself. We get lost in these great things.