EPHESIANS 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
[p. 334] EPHESIANS 4 (NOTES OF A READING)
CAC It would help us if we kept distinctly before us that the object that God has in view, what He is working for, is not only for the future, i.e. not just for heaven, but to be aimed at as a definite object while the saints are here on earth. For it is clear from verse 13 that it is to be reached now.
Rem This is the time of growth. “The full-grown man”, it speaks of in verse 13, so it is for now.
CAC That is in contrast with the babe state in the next verse.
Ques Would you say more about arriving at “the knowledge of the Son of God”?
CAC I suppose there is nothing beyond what is set forth in the Son of God. The full revelation of God is there and the full answer to it in Man.
Rem There is also “the unity of the faith”.
CAC There is much that enters into “the faith”. I suppose all that is the subject of faith is included in that, but the Centre of the circle is the Son of God.
Ques Is “the faith” the full light of christianity?
CAC Yes. I think every element of “the faith” is there.
Ques Is the idea of “the unity of the faith” that every part of it is entertained and the saints are intelligently in it?
CAC It is one whole, so it is indivisible faith. And all the saints are to arrive at it by means of gift, by ministry and by the edifying of the body. “Until we all arrive” — that all the saints may arrive at it. It is outside the whole range of human opinion, I thought, and the thought associated with it is that finality is reached on God’s part in His Son.
Ques I suppose the “full-grown man” is a collective thought?
CAC Surely. The “full-grown man” views the saints collectively as having arrived at maturity of intelligence. The thought of the wife in the next chapter views the saints more from the side of affection; but this is a masculine thought, is it not? Paul had in mind that many evil teachings were about; “unprincipled cunning” and “systematized error” marked the conditions in the world: not only do men gratify their own lusts and seek their own pleasure in a fleshly way, but Satan is all the time working to bring in error in all those things relating to God, so that a “full-grown man” is needed to escape these things.
Rem It is very strong language, “unprincipled cunning” and “systematized error”, things which abound more than ever.
CAC Yes, indeed; so that the saints need maturity, they need the apprehension of “the fulness of the Christ”.
Ques Would “the fulness of the Christ” refer more to all that has come out in connection with Christ in this epistle, more personally, I mean?
CAC I thought so.
Ques I suppose the great bulk of Christians are “driven about” and lack maturity?
CAC All this shows the importance of ministry, as all this is looked at as the result of ministry, showing the importance of these things being maintained in the ministry — “the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God” and “the fulness of the Christ” — so that the saints are kept in the presence of these wonderful things.
Ques I suppose we are only preserved when in the living enjoyment of the truth?
CAC Yes, and then all these systems of error are seen to be utterly worthless. What do they give us? They give us nothing.
Ques Does it suggest that God has certain thoughts of His saints collectively down here, a sort of final development that is His ideal, if I might so say, and [p. 336] He is working to bring them to His ideal?
CAC Yes, indeed; so that we look for increase of stature, do we not? It has often been said that the body is looked at as complete at any particular time; that is not to say that it cannot increase. This is the divine ideal in relation to the body as a whole, and each individual assembly should be manifestly marked by increase. The saints who are gone are out of it. The saints who have departed have ceased to function as members of the body; so it is for us who still remain to see that this increase goes on normally, i.e. bodywise. We want it not only with two or three members, but we want uniform development all round. One member showing marked increase is not the divine ideal; one side of a body increasing only may be a monstrosity.
Ques “The fulness of the Christ”, does it suggest the assembly being the fulness of the Christ?
CAC You mean there is the thought of the assembly coming up to the measure?
Ques Is it God’s thought of what the assembly should arrive at; and we are to come up to that measure? It is our exercise.
CAC Yes. We can all recognise verse 14 as being in evidence, this false teaching, but then there is something going on that is exactly opposite to that on God’s part, the saints being enlarged in the apprehension of all according to God in its maturity and finality, for it is finality in the Son of God. There is no development beyond that.
Rem Men see there is something wrong and try to put it right by system, which is mechanical and not vital.
CAC So that the very system becomes “systematized error”.
Rem The two points you referred to, the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, would establish us.
CAC I think we are more familiar with the wifely [p. 337] thought than with the full-grown man. The Lord refers in John 17: 6 to “the men whom thou gavest me”. John refers to the bride more than any other, but there is also this masculine thought, the assembly viewed as having ability to hold divine thoughts as set forth in the Son of God, in God and in Christ. And this is to be held in love, it is not a system of theology.
Ques Would “the truth” there be a comprehensive thought?
CAC Yes.
Rem It would be almost synonymous with “the faith”: “Building yourselves up on your most holy faith” (Jude 20).
Ques “Holding the truth in love”, what does that mean?
CAC He speaks in verse 18 of certain persons who are “estranged from the life of God”. It has been said that is ‘love in activity’, and it is really in the divine nature that the truth can be spiritually held, in a nature kindred with God.
Ques Is that why Paul breaks off in a kind of parenthesis in the great chapter of love in Corinthians?
CAC Yes, it is what gives vitality to things; truth without love is very cold and barren.
Ques Would you say that the people in “systematized error” know anything of the faith?
CAC I should say they were enemies of the faith!
Rem Verses 13 and 15 would show this chapter is for setting forth things in love and intelligence; we have been a bit lopsided in them.
CAC The great point here is growing, “We may grow up to him in all things, who is the head, the Christ: 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, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”, which brings us [p. 338] back to the divine nature. Why should it say, “In all things”? What should we understand by the “all things” referred to? I should like to have some clear thought with regard to it.
Rem It is characteristic of this epistle, the comprehensiveness of it. The unity of the faith would imply that nothing can be omitted, everything must be held. We sometimes think detail unimportant.
CAC Yes, I think that helps, and he says about every joint of supply that it is “according to the working in its measure of each one part”. It is the body viewed as acting through many joints and parts, is it not?
Ques Does it suggest equal growth of a perfectly formed body?
CAC Well, that seems to be the thought, and in all things there is a growing up to Christ as the Head; increasing room is left for the headship of Christ. It is not exactly the thought of the Spirit in this scripture. In Corinthians the Spirit is made much of; here it is every single member in the body coming into the apprehension of Christ as Head, so that the Head comes into prominence in the way the body is working. So it is a spiritual advance on 1 Corinthians 12, the Spirit being prominent there, and the body learning to function by the Spirit. So there is a spiritual functioning in relation to the Spirit. But this would seem to be a functioning in relation to the Head.
Rem So that our development is on that line, in relation to Him as that, each member being conscious of being linked with Him.
CAC In the distribution of the Spirit we find great variety, to one is given one thing and to another that. The variety is emphasised of the distribution that lies in the power of the Spirit, but here it is more bringing all to one Centre, the centralising rather than the distributing aspect. It is helpful to distinguish between functioning in relation to the Spirit and in relation to the Head. Do you think we [p. 339] ought to know when we change from the Spirit to the Head? I think one can see that we are on a higher level in Ephesians than when viewed in the Corinthian point of view, where the Spirit is prominent to set aside what is of the flesh and of the mind of man. But everything growing up to Christ in the body, every member learning to function in relation to Christ, in relation to a glorified Man in heaven, is a wonderful thing. Well, that is a very great thought. It is not the Spirit exactly operating in one or two distinguished members, but the whole body moving together. “The whole body, fitted together, ... works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. It is the whole christian company viewed as the body functioning in relation to Christ as Head, so that every joint of supply can draw from Him. Joints of supply are not gifts, they are in the body, and sisters can be joints of supply. All draw from Christ in heaven. The point is, are we drawing from Him? I believe He is extremely ready to be drawn from. The woman in the gospel only needed to touch the hem of His garment. Well, can we touch Him? We are all in it, for sisters too can be drawing from Christ as Head. So there is a power of self-building up in love that is even greater than the [p. 340] action of gifts.
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 4: 17 - 24 I was struck in reading to observe how the mind and the understanding have a very important place. It speaks of the nations as walking in “the vanity of their mind, being darkened in understanding” and then, “by reason of the ignorance which is in them”. It seems to suggest the importance of the mind being right.
Rem “Being renewed in the spirit of your mind”, we get further on.
CAC I was thinking of it in connection with Romans 1: 21, 22 where he says of men that they “fell into folly in their thoughts, and their heart without understanding was darkened: professing themselves to be wise they became fools”, and so on. It seems that a wrong state of mind in reference to God is what leads to the vile lusts which degrade and dishonour man. This position comes about by not thinking right; is that not important to notice?
Ques Attention has been drawn to the mind, has it not?
CAC Yes, it is a most important part of man, his mind, and most important that as saints we should think rightly. Paul says to the Athenians, “We ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, the graven form of man’s art and imagination” (Acts 17: 29). It is a degrading thought.
Rem The heart is connected with the mind both in this passage and in Romans, and as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23: 7, Authorised Version); they are linked together.
CAC The heathen world was given up to uncleanness — “vile lusts” — but it began by having wrong thoughts about God.
Rem It is the work of Satan to darken and [p. 341] blind the thoughts of men.
CAC Yes, indeed, so that it is most important for us that we see to it that we think rightly, and if our thoughts were governed by Scripture, we should do so. How do we think? It is a most important matter. We walk and speak wrongly because we think wrongly. If the thoughts could be put right, all would be right. So that one great blessing of the new covenant is that right thoughts are put into the mind.
Ques The law is put in the man’s mind in Romans 7; would that be the desire to do right, but he had not the power?
CAC Well, but he had got nicely started on the road to it! If the mind is right and the thoughts are right, then a law is set up inwardly in the mind and he will never be happy until he can work it out. Nothing makes a man more wretched than having a divine principle set up in his mind which he cannot work out practically. No wonder he says, “O wretched man that I am!” So he sums it up at the end of the chapter, “So then I myself with the mind serve God’s law; but with the flesh sin’s law”. So that that has the upper hand. He says here, “estranged from the life of God by reason of the ignorance which is in them”.
Ques Does the expression “life of God” mean life characterised by the knowledge of God?
CAC It is one of the remarkable expressions of Scripture. The life of God is the activity of love. If we are really enlightened as to God, and our natural ignorance removed, and light has come into the mind, we see that the life of God is love in activity. Really the life of God is to be the life of the saints; we are to be on happy terms with it, as those on the same lines.
Rem It says that the apostles were to “speak in the temple ... all the words of this life” (Acts 5: 20).
CAC Yes, it was not all the words of ‘this doctrine’, but of “this life”. So that christianity is described in the [p. 342] Acts by a very suggestive term, now disappeared out of use and rarely alluded to, though I do not know why. It is repeatedly called “the way”, which signifies that certain persons are moving together in a certain way.
If we really understood that the life of God was the activity of love, we should see what a degrading thing it is to be governed by selfishness and self-gratification; so that we should be prepared to cast it aside as an unworthy life, unworthy of creatures of God.
Ques Does the apostle bring these debasing things in as a contrast to all that is of God? “But ye have not thus learnt the Christ”.
CAC Yes, it is really the dark background which sets off in a very wonderful way the contrast. There are persons who have learnt the Christ, it is still a question of the mind. Christ is a Person to be learnt. It is in the mind that we learn the Christ.
Ques Would you say how the mind can take in divine thoughts? We have always been afraid of it.
CAC Well, there is, as we know, the utter inability of the natural mind, or the mind of the flesh, to entertain what is of God, but still man as a creature is an intelligent being; he has a mind. And God intends that man shall be recovered in his mind. Romans speaks of the “renewing of the mind”, showing that the mind is not discarded, it is renewed. The mind determines a very great deal.
Ques The mind of the flesh — is that something rather different from the natural mind and intelligence?
CAC Yes, I think according to the flesh the mind is corrupted and comes under vitiating principles that incapacitate it for receiving. But when God comes in in new birth, that process affects the whole man, his mind and heart and will; there is a new beginning on a new principle altogether.
Ques Would “the spirit of your mind” be the intent of [p. 343] the mind?
CAC I think it is a remarkable expression, “The spirit of your mind”. You might have your mind renewed and not have the spirit of your mind renewed. To illustrate it, when James and John wanted to call down fire on the villages that would not receive Christ, their mind was right. It was a very good mind that desired that every village should receive Christ; but the spirit of their mind was not right. They had not had their spirit adjusted according to Christ. If they had learnt from His Spirit, their spirits would have been renewed and they would not have thought of burning people up.
I think it is most important about the spirit of the mind. You may find yourself saying something perhaps right, but you are not saying it in the right spirit.
It is a question here of learning the Christ, and hearing Him, and being instructed in Him; it all has to do with the mind. We have to be instructed, so that we learn from Christ how to think. And then the matter of communications, what we are saying to one another this afternoon, is by the mind; it is the organ of reception.
It is wonderful that he suggests that the saints have heard Christ. They certainly had not heard Him in the days of His flesh; these Ephesians lived far from Palestine. There is such a thing as saints hearing Christ.
Ques Is that how they came to a knowledge of the life of God, by learning from Christ?
CAC I thought so. Then there is the precious thought that Christ is still speaking. There is a moment in the history of the soul when the voice of Christ is heard for the first time — not sermons, or christian teaching, etc., but something quite new breaks into the soul, what J.N.D. describes as a ‘powerful, mighty Voice, so near’, calling from earth apart, and in tones of solemn sweetness captivating the heart. To hear His voice is a wonderful thing, and it is heard just as surely as Paul heard it from heaven.
Rem It says, “And, coming, he has preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off, and the glad tidings of peace to those who were nigh” (Ephesians 2: 17).
CAC Yes. It shows that Christ is teaching and speaking, and what He has to say refers to what has been set forth in Himself as here on earth — “As the truth is in Jesus”; that is what He has to say. What is set forth “in Jesus” really, so He is made to stand forth very distinctively. It has to do more particularly with His death, because it has principally to do with putting off the old man and putting on the new. And it was set forth in Him — it is wonderful.
Rem And not in the cross.
CAC Well, it is better than that when we see it. It is wonderful that God should teach us “in Jesus”. The putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man is “in Jesus”; whether we understand it or not, that is what it says.
Ques You connect that with “instructed in him”, how He moved here in this scene?
CAC Well, I think so. All the instruction that is worth having is set forth in Christ; and amongst other things the putting off the old man is set forth in Him. When He was on the cross He was there representatively; all that made up the constitution, and character, and history of the old man was brought before God so that it might be condemned when He was on the cross. The whole thing was there representatively before God; so that when He laid down His life in the flesh that was put off. He was there on the cross that it might be condemned and it was put off never to be resumed again.
It is the same teaching as Romans 6, but looked at in a fully developed manner, so that all the features and characteristics of the old man were before God for judgment when He hung on the cross. Then when He was buried that was definitely put off, never to be resumed, and the new man is patterned in Jesus raised from the dead.
[p. 345] Ques So that all for the believer is established on resurrection ground?
CAC We see it patterned in Jesus, not that He was ever the old man or the new man, but the thing was exemplified in Him.
Having apprehended it as set forth in Jesus, we see that there is absolutely nothing for it but the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new; and the Christian is accredited as having done it, and having come into the great result that has been set forth in Jesus. If we have not done it we could hardly be said to be Christians, could we?
Rem Features of the old man are seen in us as well, though, in practice.
CAC This scripture would regard that as ignorance, if we retain some features of the old man. This instruction is like the school books; it has to be taken in. It will then make a tremendous difference to, and will effect a revolution in, the constitution of the person who takes it in.
The power of it is in seeing it in Jesus; and He is called here (the only time, I believe, that He is so spoken of), ‘the Jesus’ (according to the footnote in the Darby translation), as if to stand out in His distinctiveness as the only One.
Ques Why is He so called here?
CAC Well, I think that God’s object is that there is only the One; Jesus had been a name in general use, but after the coming in of the true Jesus, it is remarkable how it was suddenly blotted out from the directories of the world. The Jews would not call their children by that name and the Gentiles did not wish to, so the Name really belongs to one Person.
Rem We read of Jesus who was called Justus (Colossians 4: 11). The name was changed.
CAC Yes, they altered his name. Christians saw the impropriety of using it. None of us wants to be called Jesus, but we want Him to stand out in His distinction before us, and we want to learn the putting off of the old man and [p. 346] putting on of the new in Him.
Rem “Which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness”.
CAC Yes, the new man is a divine creation; that brings out another thought, that he is a new creation, in righteousness, and it is in truth. This very truth especially produces righteousness and holiness, the old man having been put off, and it makes room for a creation of God in the moral sphere — not a material creation, but moral, and the new man is that, and all the saints make up the new man. It seems clear that the old man is not an individual. The old man is morally after the devil, but the new man is after God. It is a great conception of a new order of man created by souls coming under the influence and instruction of Jesus, so that falsehood and anger and stealing and bad feelings are all utterly inconsistent with the thought of the new man, and ought to be put off as inconsistent.
Rem We are free from these old-man products really, and they should not mark us at all.
CAC And yet in a practical sense we need these exhortations as to truthfulness. There is a great amount of untruthfulness and dishonesty. In a practical sense they remain unjudged and so the Holy Spirit is grieved and things are not in power. We complain of lack of power, but if we knew the conditions we should be surprised that there is any power. When we have professed to put off the old man, it is really a dreadful thing to retain his features. And why should we want in any way to deceive the brethren, for we are members one of another? There is no sense in it, is there?
[p. 347] NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 4: 25 - 32; Ephesians 5: 1 - 4 One has thought that these exhortations are needful because of the general tendency to revert to the original type, a manifest tendency in all nature; that is, you may cultivate any animal or plant or vegetation, and you may bring it under cultivation to a high state of development, but if left alone it will speedily revert to the original type. Well, that is a lesson in nature which has its corresponding danger amongst the saints, so that the Spirit of God would maintain holy exercise with saints such as the Ephesians, seeing that if spiritual cultivation ceased to be active, they might revert to the former things.
Each one of us knows what our original type was. It was a condition, however modified it might be by restraint or by christian influence, that was a vile type, and we are thoroughly ashamed of it. So constant exercises are necessary or we should revert to the original type.
Ques Is there a kind of parallel in 2 Corinthians 12, which begins with “a man in Christ” and then speaks of terrible features at the end of the chapter?
CAC Yes, so that light as to the highest possible position through grace will not preserve us; there must be the continual exercise, bearing in mind the truth as to putting off the old man and putting on the new, “as the truth is in Jesus”. We must keep that in mind. We cannot go through a single day without considering that it involves our having put off the old man and put on the new, and remembering too that we have been sealed for the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit of God.
Rem The putting on of the new man is not exactly a continuous thing, but the instruction is that the life is to be in conformity to that.
CAC Yes, it is a question of putting off the old man [p. 348] and putting on the new, is it not? I think we have put off the old man as Christians; as having come under the teaching of the Christ, our minds have been formed after a new pattern, after the pattern of Christ. Now continual exercise is needed that we do not admit something that is contrary; a lie admitted is a dark and devilish feature, and so with everything named here on that line.
Rem I suppose the two sides would be necessary; the putting off — the negative side — having been done in the death of Christ, and the positive side in being occupied with Christ, so that in feeding on Him we become like Him. While the new man is an abstract thought, there are features produced positively in new creation in the saints; there can be no deterioration in that.
CAC And we are to walk in that way. The test is, is it new creation? We all know that when we decline in soul and our converse with heaven is not kept up, we revert and these things command us again.
Rem So with Peter in his denial, for illustration.
CAC I think you see it in Peter then, and in other illustrations. How easily he fell under the influence of other brethren from Judaea, and I do not think I am any better than the apostle Peter!
We tend to revert to the original type. I think that is a sentence that might well be ingrained in our minds, for we go back to our own characteristics, and we are born liars, every one of us. And the old man is an order of being that has innumerable phases and comes out differently in different people.
Ques I am not quite clear about this. When do we put off the old man?
CAC When we come to the truth as set forth in Jesus; that is, it has been set forth in a Man; and in the death of the Lord Jesus there was manifestly the putting off of the old man; that is, He was in the place and condemnation of the old man, but He put off, laid down the [p. 349] life in which He could be made sin, and His putting on the new man really is His coming out in resurrection, with no sign of the old man on Him. He has put on a new order of life that can never be tainted by sin. We do it by hearing Christ and being instructed in Christ. “But ye have not thus learnt the Christ, if ye have heard him and been instructed in him according as the truth is in Jesus” .
It is thus we learn the absolute necessity of putting off the old man and putting on the new; and a person who has not done it is not a Christian; he could not be. What do you say to that?
Ques Oh, that is all right, but is there a point when we come to that position definitely, that we see it in Christ?
CAC Yes, and how can you take up your christian relations with God on any other ground? There is no other relation. If I am clothed in the old man I am just the same as if I had not the instruction.
Rem It seems to me that, though they are believers, many have not liberty because they do not see this very thing.
CAC The apostle presents the truth in a very concentrated form, and it may be spread over a very considerable experience, embracing such scriptures as Romans 7. He says, ‘Now you have heard Christ and you have been instructed in Him and what it means to put off the old man and to put on the new, and you have learned it under the instruction of Christ’. Whether you have been forty years or one year over it does not alter it; and if we have not come to it, we have not come to christianity.
Rem This could hardly be said of the Romans or the Corinthians, but of the Ephesians; but God has it in view for all His people.
CAC That is so. Of course it is presented first in the gospel; one part of the gospel is that our old man has been crucified with Christ. “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him” (Romans 6: 6) is presented in the [p. 350] gospel. No exercised soul would have any comfort or peace until he learnt that. It is a divine fact that no experience of mind can interfere with. Well, that is to be received as part of the gospel. That old man, I am disgusted with him, and I must be free of him to be happy in God’s presence.
Rem We are told to put on the Lord Jesus Christ in Romans.
CAC In Romans the babe in Christ realises what a privilege it is to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not take forethought for the flesh” (Romans 13: 14). He is made into a new dress for me and I am to put it on. To gratify the flesh you have to make provision, a mercy it is so, and if we do not, we do not fulfil the lust of the flesh. That is putting it in a simple way for the new convert to understand.
Is it not important to see that this is not at all a question of doctrine? He has in mind practice; you stole, you were a corrupt person. What has happened? Have you put off all that? If not, you are not a Christian. The whole point is intensely practical; it refers to conduct, not ideas in the mind, religious or moral. You might have them and yet be stealing. Nothing is really truth but the life of Christ in the believer. If so, I have practically done with all these things marking the man in the flesh. If not careful, however, I shall revert — a terrible thing. Then I must keep near to God and not grieve the Holy Spirit. It is not a question of grieving God in heaven, but One who has permanently attached Himself to me as a seal by the act of God, so He is very near to me and I must be careful not to grieve Him.
Ques What is meant by being “sealed for the day of redemption”?
CAC There is to be nothing about the saints that is not fit to be transferred to that scene of absolute redemption. The day of redemption will free us from the very presence of the flesh; so that you do not think of any moral change. I think that most believers look for the time [p. 351] when they have done with the flesh and infirmity, and any thought of it being beforehand is for them out of the question. The real truth of christianity is that we are free of all the things which do not correspond with God’s redemption thought.
Now take this epistle, what wonderful things are said: “Raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus” — what a position! Now, he says, you can be in moral correspondence down here with what you are graced in in Christ in heaven — it is wonderful.
Ques Speaking truth would be the current language between the members, would you say?
CAC It is a very good way of putting it.
Rem It says of Jews in Nehemiah’s day that their children spoke half in the Jews’ language and half in the language of Ashdod (Nehemiah 13: 24).
CAC Many believers are like that, speaking a few words of the heavenly language and a good many of the other.
Ques You said that there was no need for any moral change, that the church was fit for translation. There is no reference to the body here, I noticed; this is moral conformity to Christ here, is it not?
CAC Yes, and of course the body of Christ is the wonderful vessel in which the features of Christ are expressed. There could be no change in that. God is going to maintain Christ here in the saints, and He is not going to let any power turn Him out. Rebecca was made quite suitable for Isaac before ever she saw him. See what pains the steward took to make her suitable for Isaac, when she had never seen him.
Ques Would you explain verse 26?
CAC I think it puts the saints in a very tight place.
Rem We are all puzzled as to this verse.
CAC Well, it means that if we are to be like Christ,
[p. 352] we should be angry. It says distinctly that the Lord was angry, and we should not be like Christ if we were not angry sometimes, but we must be very careful, for it may degenerate into sin more than any other human movement.
Ques Is that why it says, “Let not the sun set upon your wrath”?
CAC Yes, that is, it is to be brief, you must eliminate it before you go to bed; otherwise it will damage your spirit.
Rem It would make room for the devil.
CAC I think anger in the human spirit is a most favourable state for the devil. Demon possession begins with a violent outburst of anger, which seems to give the devil an opportunity, so that we ought to be very sensitive and careful. It is the devil getting in instead of the Spirit of God. There are great supernatural powers contemplated here, and we are, as it were, between these two powers. There is the danger of falling into the power of the devil, and the possibility of going on happily with the Spirit of God. It shows what a wonderful person a saint is; the possibilities of evil and good are almost infinite.
Rem Job was a subject of it.
CAC Yes, and we might begin our anger in the Spirit and end in the flesh. Anger is a thing not to play with.
Ques Does God being angry with the wicked every day open up another subject?
CAC Yes, and corresponds with what we are saying, that anger is a christian quality.
Rem God makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, I link that up with God being angry with the wicked every day. Every day the sun shines; it is what He is every day.
CAC He shows grace to the people even that He is angry with.
This chapter ends up, after speaking of what we were, with what we are to be. “And be to one another kind,
[p. 353] compassionate, forgiving one another, so as God also in Christ has forgiven you”. It is the behaviour of divine Persons that is to regulate us now.
Rem It is striking that these things should come out in relation to the Ephesian saints.
Rem It is the law of gravity, the highest and the lowest. The foundation is right.
Rem I wondered if the higher the plane on which we are, the clearer we should be as to things.
CAC The thought of coming out in the character of God is wonderful. It is not only that we avoid these things; a man of the world would admit that they are to be condemned; but the Christian also has before him to exhibit the character of God; so that we come out as children of God, marked by His grace, because the word for forgiveness is really ‘showing grace to’, so that God is expressed, instead of the moral features of the devil, on the line of kindness and compassion and showing grace; that is, if things are trying to us — and human life is largely made up of contact with things more or less trying to us — let us be exercised to bring God in in reference to those things, to act as He would act. Well, that is [p. 354] a mighty triumph!
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 5: 1 - 13 It is important for us to keep ever in view that our associations are with divine Persons. It brings in the highest possible motive to keep us from the lowest, basest desires of the flesh. But the Holy Spirit and God and Christ are all brought in in this connection.
Rem In the way that we get in the end of the previous chapter the exhortation not to grieve the Holy Spirit and to bring in that which is good, it seems to show a very good state reached. After referring to giving and bringing in that which is good for edification, the Holy Spirit is mentioned.
CAC Suggesting the necessity to us of the Holy Spirit. It is not without significance that the Holy Spirit in taking a bodily form takes the form of a dove, one of the most sensitive of creatures, intimating to us the extreme sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit. And we are never to forget that the Holy Spirit is with us permanently.
Rem The things mentioned in verse 31 would grieve Him.
CAC It is certain that all the things mentioned from chapter 4: 25 down to chapter 5: 7 are things that would grieve the Spirit. They would grieve any one of us who was at all rightly constituted in thought and feeling, and how much more the Holy Spirit of God!
Ques Is there some specific reason in this connection why He is mentioned as the Holy Spirit of God here?
CAC Yes, it gives a very exalted thought of the holiness of the Spirit. The psalmist could say, “Take not the Spirit of thy holiness from me” (Psalm 51: 11). Well, that does not reach up to the height of the “Holy Spirit of God”. How wonderful to think of a divine Person being attached to us, for that is the thought here, I suppose, not exactly His indwelling but sealing, so that the Holy Spirit is attached to [p. 355] us as a seal.
Ques Is the seal connected with ownership, the claim of God upon those He has secured for Himself?
CAC Yes.
Rem I think that it all emphasises what you said at the outset, our having to do with divine Persons, so it is the “Holy Spirit of God”, and all these things are in contrast.
CAC Yes, and it would have a great effect upon us as to where we go and what we do. Think of bringing the Holy Spirit into contact with something that is evil; it is terrible to think of, is it not? And especially would this apply to our relations as brethren. They have all to be governed by the thought that the Holy Spirit of God is attached to us.
Ques How should we know if we grieve Him?
CAC Well, I have thought sometimes that a great many believers do not know.
Ques Would it bring a sense of distance?
CAC Yes, surely. If we do not know nearness we shall not know distance, shall we? I think it is possible for a saint to live at such a distance from divine Persons that it is not felt to be distant. People talk sometimes of being out of communion; no one knows what that is except those who know nearness; and we shall not if we have not known what it is to walk in company with the Holy Spirit, in companionship with Him, the comfort of it, the light of it, and the holiness of it, so that if anything occurs we should feel at once the effect of it. That holy Person is attached to me and He is grieved.
When I was quite young, an old man said to us, ‘Boys, whatever you do, keep on good terms with the Holy Spirit’. I have not forgotten it yet.
Ques Is it remarkable that the Spirit is mentioned in every chapter in this epistle? Does it indicate that the only power to enjoy the things of God is in connection with [p. 356] the Holy Spirit?
CAC The Holy Spirit needs to be much more of a reality to all the saints. I suppose nothing accounts for the departure and worldliness and all that has come into any christian gathering like the fact that the Holy Spirit is not recognised.
So God Himself becomes the Model after which the saints are to be patterned; they are to be patterned after God, as he says in verse 32, “so as God also in Christ has forgiven you”. God Himself is the Model, and this is so particularly when anything occurs that ruffles us a bit. Sometimes the brethren do things they ought not to do. Well, what kind of spirit are we to show? God is to be a model; am I like God? Am I to be like God or man? Man would resent it and retaliate, but God shows grace.
It is a dispensation of grace, for God is all the time showing grace to men. I have thought a good deal lately that even God’s government is subservient to divine grace. In such things as are going on in the nations today under the government of God, the sorrows and afflictions, even that seems to be the purpose of His grace. He has a definite purpose in it. It is not government on the line of judgment, but on the line of grace. The most terrible and serious ways of God in government all serve His grace. It is important to see this, that God is really superior to all the evil in the world, and He would have us superior to evil in one another. It is very practical.
Rem If it affects God I suppose we should think differently of it.
CAC These things are personal matters, and in regard of that we always have the privilege of showing grace. If it has to be brought before the assembly, it is another matter; but it always has in view the restoration of the offender. It is for his good, with that in view, never merely a judicial process. But it is a wonderful standard that we are to be imitators of God.
Rem To be like God we must know Him.
CAC [p. 357] We have learned God in the most marvellous grace; however shallow we are we have some sense of that. That is the model. We are to be as beloved children and then to walk in love “even as the Christ loved us”. Christ is brought in as the Model too. If we had to correct such things as are in this chapter, I doubt whether we should have begun on such a level; but that is God’s way, He brings in the very highest thing to correct the lowest.
Ques Would you explain chapter 4: 32, “As God also in Christ has forgiven you”?
CAC Is it not that God has shown the full measure of His grace in Christ?
Ques Would that be all that came out in Christ on earth?
CAC Yes, I think it is the extraordinary favourableness of God set forth in Christ, not exactly the forgiveness of sins absolutely taken away, never to be imputed any more, but in the sense of showing forgiveness. You can do that to an unrepentant man. So that God is on this footing: that He is not putting sins to account with anybody, not speaking to men about their sins, but about Christ, and it is a moment favourable to man.
Now we are always to be favourable in our minds towards one another; we regard everyone favourably, and we are quite safe in imitating God. You might go grossly wrong in imitating one of the brethren. So that however naughty a person is, you regard them favourably; you have no thought in your mind with regard to them except their good. Is that not right?
“Walk in love” brings in something higher than this. It is Christ as the burnt-offering here that becomes the model for the saints — He went to the greatest possible length. He “delivered Himself up for us”; that is, He went to the extreme point; and it was delightful to God, it all went up as a sweet savour to God.
Ques A saint suffering in love takes on [p. 358] that character before God, would you say?
CAC Yes, and this is to be characteristic; it does not always involve your life. You will remember a letter of commendation that two brothers had, saying that they had “given up their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15: 26). It is the same word as “delivered up” that is used. They did not die, we know, so that it describes their loving devotion of heart. So that nothing can deprive the youngest of us from giving up his life for the name of the Lord Jesus. It is stimulating, is it not?
Ques Is it akin to laying down our lives for the brethren in 1 John 3?
CAC It is exactly a companion scripture. That aspect is purely delightful to God. The sin-offering would hardly be brought in here. We cannot imitate Christ as the sin-offering, He was the only One who could bear the judgment of God, and there was no sweet savour in that. But the burnt-offering yielded sweet savour, and God looks that the burnt-offering should be perpetuated, does He not? It strikes me as exceedingly affecting to us that we are put into such wonderful associations with divine Persons; whether it is the Holy Spirit, or God or Christ. We should value this and covet it, for no such honour was ever before conferred upon creatures.
Rem It is no question of demand here, but He “delivered himself up”.
CAC “Even as the Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour”. It is entirely on His part, and becomes a model for us. It is possible for us to give up our lives for the saints, any of us may do it.
The saints are thus identified with the burnt-offering. It is said of the burnt-offering that the fire was never to be put out, and on God’s part He promised it never should go out.
Rem The fire was never to go out, not the offering, so that it was always available for the offering. All the time [p. 359] was the opportunity, and as long as the saints are here, is the opportunity of the burnt-offering.
Ques Does it go with what is expressed in 1 John 4: 12, “If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us”?
CAC Yes, quite so.
Rem We are to be children of light and love.
Rem Yes, I thought there was a flame about love, as we get at the end of the Song of Solomon.
CAC It is a delightful contrast to all that the Spirit of God is rebuking and warning the saints against; it is beautiful to think of the saints yielding to God this sweet-smelling savour.
Rem It is like coming into the fresh air on the cliff after breathing smoke.
CAC It is like that, and shows the saints so associated with divine Persons that the very mention of unclean things is repugnant.
Ques Would you say a word as to “the kingdom of the Christ and God”?
CAC I think it is to show that in moving on to heavenly ground we do not leave behind the truth of the kingdom.
Rem All is accumulative in that way.
CAC Yes. That is, we carry Romans along with us into Ephesians; and both aspects of the kingdom are preached: the kingdom of the Christ, the rule of God’s anointed Man; and then the direct rule of God Himself — two important aspects of the kingdom. It is on a lower level than what we have been speaking of; it is the kingdom side of the truth, but we need that. One at home in the higher circle that we have been speaking of can come gracefully down to the level of the kingdom without loss of dignity, so I suppose that an Ephesian believer would be an [p. 360] excellent Roman believer.
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 5: 7 - 21 It is noticeable how prominent the Lord is in this portion: “light in the Lord”, “proving what is agreeable to the Lord”, “understanding what is the will of the Lord”, and “singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord”.
Rem That seems to cover a pretty wide range. We have often thought of the kingdom as related to the Lord; this is the thought of what is inward in relation to the Lord.
CAC It is with the thought that He has become the supreme One to us, not exactly His official place as made Lord.
Ques Is it not more a question of affection?
CAC Yes, the Lord often seems to stand in that relation. It is an affectionate term, not simply that He has His claim and authority; but when Mary said, “They have taken away my Lord”, she was expressing a good deal, was she not? It is a title used in a very happy and holy connection. Elizabeth spoke of “the mother of my Lord”. Paul says, “Christ Jesus my Lord”. Thomas says, “My Lord and my God”. In all those connections it does not appear that it is quite an official title.
Rem I think that is beautiful to see; the Lord claims affection from His own.
CAC Yes, and love delights to address Him thus. We do not address Him in the assembly in any other way; even if we address Him as Head, we address Him reverentially as Lord.
Rem “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as to the Lord” (verse 22).
CAC Does that not confirm what we are saying? Peter reminds us that Sarah called Abraham lord. Well, it denotes subjection, all that is involved in it, yet it was an affectionate term, and we perhaps need to get over to that side.
Rem The Lord’s supper is a question of affection.
CAC I was thinking that there are seven references to Christ as Lord in 1 Corinthians 11 in connection with the Supper. It seems to imply that He has a place in the affections of the saints. It is not only our public confession of the Lord, that no one else has any rights, but more the reverent recognition of Him in affection, so that the singing and chanting is “to the Lord” here in this highest epistle, which gives us the full light of christianity, if we may so say, while in Colossians the singing is to God. There is instruction in that.
The Lord has a great place in this epistle. The Gentiles are built together in the Spirit, but it is “in the Lord”. “In whom ... also” (chapter 2: 22); it is not in Christ but the Lord. It is a question of our affections, and I think we are all concerned that we should be built up in the appreciation of the Lord in His greatness. We have noticed how Luke speaks of Him as the Lord more often than the other gospels. It seems as if Luke, in writing out of his own affection and appreciation of Him, cannot refrain from speaking of Him as the Lord.
One would like more of that spirit in the assembly, speaking of the Lord in the Holy Spirit. That is not merely referring to Him as “our Lord”, so that if a brother speaks of the Lord in the assembly you would like it to convey something of what we have been speaking of.
Rem John said, “It is the Lord” (John 21: 7).
CAC Yes, that is exactly it. How much is expressed in one word. So that the saints come into the region that is filled with that wonderful Person — so they are light. There is no element of darkness left in our souls if we are really in the presence of the Lord.
Rem In 2 Corinthians 3 we are transformed according to the same image as beholding the glory of the Lord.
CAC And there it is not a question of His authority [p. 362] quite but the radiance that shines, all the radiance of God in grace that shines in Him as Lord. I suppose one could hardly be in the light without some of the fruit appearing. It says, “for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth”.
Rem The contrast to that is these works of darkness.
Rem It explores the whole condition, “Ye were once darkness”.
CAC We were made up of darkness, but this is a beautiful contrast, “now light in the Lord”. Christians walking in the light of the Lord are light, they are luminous bodies.
Rem In the gospel we get “sons of light” (John 12:36).
CAC I think that is the one reference to sonship in John’s gospel, is it not?
Ques I should like to know more about “light in the Lord”. How does it come about that we become luminous bodies? There is no question that we were once darkness.
CAC It is stated here positively, and I suppose the quotation in verse 14 is to show us that what will come to pass for Jerusalem in a coming day has already come to pass for the saints, so they are in the shining of Christ and they become luminous. I think the verses in Isaiah 60: 1 - 3 help. It says, “Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen on thee. And the nations shall walk by thy light, and kings by the brightness of thy rising”. Is not the scripture we are reading a kind of commentary on that?
Rem In Isaiah 52 we get the awaking. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; ... Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, Jerusalem”. Awaking and arising, the two thoughts come in.
CAC Jerusalem for long centuries has been asleep [p. 363] and even dead, but the moment is coming when she will awake and rise from the dead and come into the light of Jehovah. This is one of the scriptures that would prove that Jehovah is Jesus.
It has come to pass already for us; infinite love has brought us into the shining of Christ, and just as the glory will be seen on Jerusalem, it is seen on the saints of the assembly in the fact that they appear as light in the Lord and as children of light.
Ques Why is it “the Christ” and not “Lord” there (verse 14)? Is it the official place of Christ as anointed?
CAC Yes, the shining as viewed here is in the blessed anointed Man, so that the thought of the Lord is magnified in this scripture, and the thought of Christ gets a peculiar lustre and glory. Both ideas are greatly enlarged here.
Rem This scripture in Isaiah seems to suggest more reflected light. “Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen on thee. And the nations shall walk by thy light”.
CAC It says, “The nations shall walk by thy light, and kings by the brightness of thy rising”. It suggests that they are luminous, the result of the divine shining upon them, but they shine. Hence the saints are viewed here as luminous, shining in the light of the Lord and of the Christ. It is a beautiful thought, because here it is a peculiar kind of gross darkness, as in Isaiah, of peculiarly dense character.
Ques Is this luminous condition the result of the work of the Spirit in the saints?
CAC Yes, surely.
Rem God is light, and you cannot be near to God without being luminous.
Rem Paul in addressing Agrippa speaks of the light above the brightness of the sun and then speaks of the Lord sending him to the nations “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God”.
CAC That is a beautiful connection of thought that fits in with this scripture. It is as risen that the Lord announces light to the nations.
Rem Of the heavenly city it says, “Her shining”, as if she were luminous.
CAC I think that is very beautiful, that the city is accredited with having a light of her own, and no doubt that is the thought.
For an illustration of a luminous saint, you could hardly find a better than the man of John 9. Yesterday he was darkness, but now he is light, so that every word now that he speaks shows that he is characterised by light, he is light. Well, we have only to keep where divine love has set us and we shall be like that. One has seen simple souls, with little knowledge of the letter of the truth, able to discern — there was light there. It all seems to hang together with the right appreciation of Christ. That Person will put everything right and make the saints luminous in the presence of the gross darkness in the world. It is very beautiful. ‘Shining’ is a word that refers to heavenly luminaries. The stars shine in their own light like the sun; the moon’s light is reflected light. And of course the sun is the most splendid figure of Christ that the universe affords, and the stars are the saints, especially the heavenly saints, for Abraham was told he was to have a seed like the stars.
Rem One star differs from another star in glory.
CAC They are all part of the display of divine glory. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse sheweth the work of his hands” (Psalm 19: 1). Now the saints are the display of the glory of the heavenly firmament.
I think we ought to be more concerned about what we are. Thank God, we all have light, but we want to be light.
Rem Having on the armour of light is what we are (Romans 13: 12).
CAC So that a man is that at all times; you cannot [p. 365] take him unawares.
Rem In making contacts in business, if a man is a believer there is generally something to be noticed about him, and I suppose there ought to be something distinct.
CAC We ought always to be on the look-out for these mystery men. There are some remarkable people to be found in the world and they are worth looking for; they have a secret quite unknown to the common run of people.
Ques “Wake up” — are we to take that to heart?
CAC It is put in a form that the Spirit of God can use to exercise anyone not in the shining. If I am not, this is a word for me. But the scripture supposes that we have woken up and that we have come into the shining. That is the christian position; it is not marked by darkness but by Christ shining on us. He is shining on us this minute from heaven. It is the blessing of the Christian that he is in the shining of a glorified Christ; that is the position, and we are here this afternoon to encourage one another into it.
It is like the putting off and putting on; he does not exhort us to do it, you have done it. So the saint was once asleep and dead, and he wakes up to be in the blessed shining of a glorified Christ, and that is transcendent, you cannot surpass it.
Rem It would be seen in goodness and righteousness and truth, as the fruit of the light.
CAC That is the moral side of it, how one is morally affected by it. This world is an abominably filthy scene, and in the midst of it the saints are found as light and luminous.
Ques Why does it say, “from among the dead”?
CAC Well, I think he is quoting the scripture, and that which is going to be true of Jerusalem in the millennial day is true of the saints of the assembly now.
Ques Do you think that one scripture includes the knowledge of another?
CAC “Wherefore he says”, and he quotes it as [p. 366] having present application. He does not suppose the saints are dead or asleep. They anticipate what Jerusalem will know in a coming day. And if I am not experiencing it, well, I had better look into [p. 367] matters.
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 5: 15 - 21 The thought of walking is referred to three times in this paragraph: “Walk in love”, “Walk as children of light”, and now, “See therefore how ye walk carefully”. I suppose it is easy to be careless in our walk. One of our spiritual fathers spoke of ‘high talk and low walk’.
CAC Yes, the need for wisdom is very great in connection with the walk.
Ques Is not the connection in relation to verse 8 as to walking as children of light the “proving what is agreeable to the Lord”, a parenthesis coming between? There should be that object with us.
CAC No reference was made last time to the light making manifest: “All things having their true character exposed by the light are made manifest; for that which makes everything manifest is light”. It is not just exposing what is contrary; does it not bring to light what is agreeable, what is good and precious?
Rem We see the principle in the pathway of the Lord here, everything was exposed. In John 8 those who brought the woman were exposed, and further on in the chapter it says, “He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (verse 12).
Rem We prefer the love side to the light.
CAC It does expose, but light in itself is a sweet thing and a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold (Ecclesiastes 11: 7). We should not question it in the shining of Christ, should we, Christ shining upon me? Our positive fruitfulness is the result of being in the light. Things grow in suitable conditions. The Lord has a great place in this section; it is a question of the appreciation of Himself, what is in Him.
Ques He is made unto us wisdom, it says in Corinthians. We are to be “not as unwise but as wise”; how would it be seen?
Rem There was a suggestion last week of the words of the wise being as goads and as nails, fastening the thing home upon us.
CAC It would come out in making the best use of one’s time, apparently.
Rem Redeeming it, the thought of purchase coming in, making the most of it.
Rem It means, ‘Seizing every good and favourable opportunity’ (note e, Darby Translation).
Rem And it says the more so because the days are evil.
Ques Is this the practical working out of the position of children of light? There is exercise required in relation to it, so that our walk and all we do is a matter of wisdom; we are concerned that we should live up to the position. That being our character, we should see that those things mark our character and that is unremitting, every available moment is made use of for the shining out as children of light. It is remarkable that in that way we are called upon to exercise care, to “walk carefully”.
CAC Righteous persons necessarily move in wisdom. God not only orders the circumstances but everything is done in wisdom. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Rem Moving in wisdom is the thing that we notice about the saints. Here it is a general testimony; it should be our general character.
Rem In the case of the ten virgins, when the cry went out only the wise were ready. Might we be awake but not in wisdom?
CAC According to the parable, wisdom would seem to be the great test, for those that are suitable to be companions of the Lord in His great marital joy are marked [p. 369] by wisdom.
Rem They took oil in their lamps.
CAC I was just thinking that. Wisdom would come out in our giving full place to the Spirit, for they not only have lamps, but they have vessels.
Rem It says of the woman in Proverbs 31: 26, “She openeth her mouth with wisdom”.
CAC Is the thought of wisdom that what is done in wisdom could not be improved upon? That is a fairly high standard.
Rem I am sure that divine wisdom is like that.
CAC That would necessitate our being filled with the Spirit and not energised by any other power.
Rem Of the woman in Proverbs it says, “Let her own works praise her in the gates”; it is beyond reproof.
Ques Wisdom is brought in in 1 Corinthians with a view to the adjustment of all things in the assembly, is it not?
Rem Christendom has adopted expediency; that is not wisdom.
CAC I think it is important that we should be exercised to move in wisdom, and as this scripture would remind us there is no need for us to go without the Spirit of God in anything.
Rem The more we hold Christ in affectionate regard, the more we should desire to be filled with the Spirit.
CAC I am sure that is so; and the result of that would be an increase of joy so that our communications would take on the character of joy. “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” indicates a joyful people.
Ques What would be the difference between psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? All seem happy.
CAC That seems the general character. A psalm would signify the utterance of inward joy, which is often lacking in saints. There is a difference, I suppose, in the three things. It supposes a capacity in the saints to compose [p. 370] these different expressions of joy. We ought all to take note of the fact that we have not a book of Psalms in the New Testament.
Ques Will you open out what is in mind in the thought of a psalm?
CAC Well, it would appear generally to be the result of the exercise that we have gone through with God. I suppose that every exercise we go through with God results in a particular psalm.
Rem They should be pretty common. In the ministry meeting it says every one has a psalm (1 Corinthians 14: 26).
CAC Yes, we are all looked at as capable of providing our own psalms. It is not so in the case of Israel. One hundred and fifty psalms have been prepared for the Jewish remnant; their hymn book is prepared for them. But we do not need this, we are expected to furnish our own psalms; and a person who has not any is hardly fit for a place in the choir, is he?
Ques Is it a completed exercise?
CAC Well, there were one hundred and fifty psalms, which suggests a great variety. Any saint walking with care and wisdom should have psalms; it all hangs together. We should then have plenty of psalms because we should get experience with God. The true value of any circumstance is that it affords experience of God’s ways with us. Saints commonly say, ‘I would not have been without it’. One who says that has composed a psalm — inwardly at any rate. And a psalm remains a permanent store. David wrote many of the Psalms, but on certain occasions he makes a selection. On one occasion he makes a new psalm from six pieces culled from other psalms.
Rem It is setting things together, and it is hard work to get it so that the expression is the best.
Rem A psalm was composed by the rivers of Babylon. “By the rivers of Babylon ... there they that carried us away captive required of us a song ... . How [p. 371] should we sing a song of Jehovah’s upon a foreign soil? If I forget thee, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill” (Psalm 137). It is a most touching psalm, but comes into the book.
Ques Have you any thought as to a hymn?
CAC It would appear that these utterances referred to as psalms are experimental, the result of how we have proved God in our circumstances, but there are utterances of praise that are independent of experience and stand in relation to the spiritual light that God has given us as to Himself. Speaking generally, you would not look for psalms in the morning meeting, but you look for hymns.
Ques In Psalm 22, as quoted in Hebrews 2: 12, it says He will praise God with singing. Is it the idea of a hymn there?
CAC Yes, “I will hymn” it is really.
Rem It says in Mark 14: 26, “Having sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives”.
Ques Why do they sometimes sing the Psalms in churches? How do you account for it?
CAC I think it is accounted for by their not having anything better. “Singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord”, shows evidently the singing is to be to the Lord as well as to God. Our hymn book would give the impression that we sing more to the Lord than to God, but I am not sure that is as it ought to be!
Ques What do you understand by “spiritual songs”?
CAC Well, I suppose they may be addressed to others or to oneself, as, “Bless Jehovah, O my soul” (Psalm 103: [p. 372] 1; Psalm 104: 1).
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 6: 1 - 10 Is the thought here that the christian household becomes a sphere in which the truth is worked out; that is, with the husbands and wives first, then children and parents, and then bondmen? It rather supposes household conditions.
Ques There is a good deal of reference to the Lord in these exhortations, is there not? Would the authority of the Lord provide the protection for the truth in which the epistle is worked out practically?
CAC It would be that He has the supreme place with us. Why should this be brought in in connection with children, “obey your parents in the Lord”?
Ques Does the expression “in the Lord” fix a boundary for us?
CAC What is in your mind?
Rem I was wondering as to whether the thought is to obey them as in the Lord, or that you obey as far as you can without transgressing the authority of the Lord over you.
Rem In Colossians 3: 20 in a similar passage it is, “Obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord”.
Ques Would this be a converted family?
Ques Does it bring in the moral authority of the Lord to bear on the actions — a moral qualification?
Rem The whole hang of it was as being part of the assembly, and so the authority is over the children too.
Rem In the case of the Lord Himself, on one occasion He was entirely regulated by His Father’s business; but after, it says, He went down and was subject to them.
Rem It was a recognition that the relation was a divine institution and therefore righteous under the Lord.
Ques You had some thought as to an affectionate [p. 373] appreciation of the claims of the Lord bringing it nearer to us than the claim of authority?
CAC It would seem that that element enters into it, wives being exhorted to submit themselves to their own husbands, as to the Lord. Children are addressed as intelligent as regards this matter. The children are to understand the peculiar setting of the believing household as in the Lord, whether they are converted, or unconverted, as we speak.
Rem The fact of baptism brings them inside.
CAC And does not the Lord very early impress the mind of children with the beneficent character of His lordship, the great advantage it is to be where the Lord is owned? So that it does not become a mere question of obedience on the line of authority, but as realising the value and gain of it. I think the Lord would support that in the children of the saints.
Rem To display in them a feature that belongs to the assembly.
CAC I was wondering whether the different relationships have their existence so that certain things can be worked out, so that what is spiritual has the predominant place.
Though I was not a good boy, I early realised being thankful that my parents owned the Lord, having a sense that it was good, though there was that in me which resented it, and rebelled against it. Would not the work of God begin with a child like that? Satan would encourage the spirit of lawlessness in children, beginning his work very early. It is good to think of the counteracting work of God in children so that they feel it good to be in a sphere where the Lord has influence, and which is a far better place than the world.
Rem It says in Deuteronomy 6: 20 that the children will ask their parents as to the ordinances, and in verse 25, “It shall be our righteousness”.
CAC And “for our good continually” (verse 24).
Rem The parents set the commandments before the children to be carried on. So that assembly principles are carried out in the family circle and carried on in the children.
Rem There seems to be a suggestive touch of eternal life in verse 3. The blessing commanded was “life for evermore” (Psalm 133: 3), and the promise to those who obey and honour their parents is to be long-lived on the earth, blessing enjoyed as life lived on the earth in this circle.
CAC It is rather remarkable that should be brought in in Ephesians.
Rem There is a strong element of righteousness in this epistle, righteousness in all relationships.
CAC If children want to live long and not die early, they had better pay attention to this, had they not?
Rem The moral side of the truth always underlies what is spiritual and affords protection for it, what is just, etc., providing for what is spiritual.
CAC I am sure that is very important; otherwise we might have a lot of printed matter in our minds which would not give us a link with God; but the moment we begin to move practically in relation to the Lord, we get helped. It is surprising what a lot of printed matter we can have in our minds without the enjoyment of the things or its giving us any link with God. Just one little thing done in relation to the Lord will help us more than all the books in our bookcase.
Rem To obey is better than sacrifice.
CAC The practical part of Ephesians gives us the actual photograph of persons who are in the good of the epistle; it comes out in a practical way. And we are tested in everyday matters, are we not? Parents are certainly viewed as having experience of the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so they can bring their children up in it. They have been self-willed and so it would include a certain [p. 375] touch of sympathy with the children. If a parent has a very self-willed child, how is it to be handled? Only in the sense that the Lord has dealt with our wills. This applies to all, not only parents, for we all have some sphere of influence. I do not think I am entitled to bring the Lord’s will to bear on another, except in so far as it has had its effect on me; and that is a weighty matter.
Rem I was thinking of the remark on baptism. The children are dealt with on that ground. A child is one that has been baptised and is part of the testimony, so that all the care of the Lord can be counted upon in regard to it, as for the parents.
Rem There is to be no provocation.
CAC Not to “provoke your children to anger”. There is a sympathetic touch about it, for the child has to learn all that I have had to learn. It applies to our general relations to one another. We ought to bear in mind that submission has not come to pass in five minutes with ourselves. The principle of parental care is set up in the assembly, is it not?
Rem The chief fathers come into view in every stage in Israel’s history.
Rem “For this is just”, reminds us of the Lord Himself.
CAC Yes, it is beautiful to think of the great principles brought in of universal application. The bondmen are to obey; well, it is a very precious feature of Christ.
Ques Why is it “the Christ” in connection with the bondmen? (verse 5).
CAC Does it not suppose a fuller development of the work of God than with the children? Those addressed in verses 5 and 6 are definitely believers, but the children would hardly be addressed on the ground that they had faith in Christ, would they?
Rem Bondmen and masters would be [p. 376] a relationship that the enemy might easily take advantage of.
CAC Yes, I suppose a bondman would be peculiarly tested; we hardly understand the position. And the Lord is pleased to say that “man acquired me as bondman” (Zechariah 13: 5). The Lord was pleased to take the lowest and most menial place, but how He glorified God as the anointed One, the Christ. It sets forth the wonderful character in which He filled the bondman’s place; every detail of the bondmanship was to bring out what He was as the Christ. All that comes into this.
Onesimus came back into his relationship as bondman with a wonderful qualification that was not there before.
Rem This makes menial relationships a wonderful opportunity for spiritual service.
CAC If we thought more of spiritual features it would help us. We think of such things as liberty and opportunity to have our own pleasure. Bondmen have great restrictions, and we need to get over to the spiritual side. If my conditions are a means to set forth Christ, it ill becomes me to resent them. There is no indication that the little maid in Naaman’s house wished otherwise. So you get, “In simplicity of your heart as to the Christ; not with eye-service as men-pleasers; but as bondmen of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul”.
Ques The little maid was marked by soul; is it feeling?
CAC It is very beautiful and illustrates it perfectly, because she had a soul.
Rem Paul’s circumstances turned out to the furtherance of the gospel. They were no hindrance.
CAC And all this widens out distinctly, as we see in verse 8. That is, he extends the principle, does he not?
Ques What does it mean, “Receive of the Lord” (verse 8)?
CAC Is it not the principle of recompense, often referred to, which God intends to govern us? It is not the [p. 377] very highest motive, but many of us need the lower motives. You are quite sure of your wages, are you not?
Rem It makes service a very dignified matter.
CAC Even the apostle says, “That we ... may receive full wages” (2 John 8). And it is absolutely certain. The person served may not appreciate it any more than the brethren, but it is sure of full recompense; it cannot possibly fail.
We need to think of all this continually in reference to all the exercises of the path. We need to find what is pleasing to the Lord and to Christ; and it is very profitable, but it is given as a motive. There is the thought too of being acceptable to men.
Rem The Lord keeps every one of us in our true place. What is taught today is subversive of all that.
Rem There is a beautiful example of this in the book of Ruth when Boaz said to the reapers, “Jehovah be with you”, and they answered, “Jehovah bless thee”, showing the right relations and the blessing in accord with it.
Rem Though, I suppose, the Scriptures ought to regulate the relations in which we are found, all the thoughts of God should come out in them, so that what is in His mind can be seen by the world.
CAC In God’s account the masters are exactly on the same footing as the bondmen. “Do the same things”, it says.
Rem “Knowing that both their and your Master is in heaven”.
CAC It is very beautiful. You cannot but see there is a moral beauty about all this that cannot be found in [p. 378] the lawless world.
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 6: 10 - 20 It occurred to me since sitting here that this scripture carries us back to Genesis 2.
Ques What had you in mind?
CAC Well, we read there in verse 15, “Jehovah Elohim took Man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to till it and to guard it”. I think that this chapter rather answers to the guarding.
Ques What is the difference between guarding the garden of Eden and this heavenly position?
CAC Well, I think there was that set forth in the garden of Eden which was for divine pleasure; Eden means ‘pleasure’. There was a scene for divine pleasure, but it needed to be guarded on account of the presence and activities of evil powers, foreknown of God as likely to molest the scene of divine pleasure. It was a warning to Adam that evil powers were about, and that it was a scene of divine pleasure that needed to be guarded. It should have intimated to Adam the peril of those wicked powers in the heavenlies; and hostile powers are jealous of God’s pleasure.
If you come to the antitype of the garden in the heavenly position, it is the assembly as holding things for the divine pleasure. God’s answer to those hostile powers is to set the assembly there in Christ Jesus, but that is a heavenly position that has to be guarded.
Ques Why is man put to guard?
CAC Well, it is a comfort and satisfaction to know that God always and under all circumstances uses the best means. It is not within the range of the creature to understand why God has permitted certain powers of evil in the universe, but He has, and is going to turn all to the great blessing and establishment of His saints in the knowledge [p. 379] of Himself. Do you not think that the previous chapter of the epistle carries our minds to Genesis 2 also very distinctly?
Ques Does this show that the assembly is thoroughly equipped to take up the service of guarding?
CAC Yes. It is as if the Spirit of God would not have this epistle finished before showing us that hostile powers are in being and are going to move against what is in mystery. So the word in this chapter is that we are to guard what is precious.
Rem We are to be brought into it; to care for what God cares for and to guard what He guards.
CAC It is entrusted to us. Paul is representative of the whole assembly. The revelation of the mystery and the unsearchable riches of the Christ were given to Paul as a representative man. He represents every one of us here, this afternoon. It is part of the honour put upon us to guard it.
Rem There is no thought of giving way.
CAC That is very fine. Scripture supposes the position can be held. The whole history of the church would lead us to think it cannot be held, but the Word of God would lead us to think that it can be held. If the church has given up everything heavenly, the Spirit would show us that even in the evil day it can be held.
Rem The overcomer can “eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God” (Revelation 2: 7); this is said to Ephesus.
Rem The tree of life is still guarded when Adam and Eve were driven out, by the Cherubim and flashing sword.
CAC As much as to say there was a scene of divine pleasure that was reserved.
Rem It says, “I will give to him to eat”; that is something vital and living, and it is for the overcomer.
CAC Yes.
Ques Is the thought of the glad tidings really the entrance into the enjoyment [p. 380] of this?
CAC Yes, because everything that God has in His purpose for man to enter into is bound up in the glad tidings. It is not one thing by itself and this another, as we often seem to think. It says, “The mystery of the glad tidings”: the glad tidings are a golden casket, but if you open it you find inside the mystery. If we are brought into the presence of God, we should have the assurance of victory; God could not be defeated! For God’s sons are all overcomers.
Ques Why are we so slow to get to God’s side?
CAC Because we are so small; we have to grow up to these things. The seed is there and the full corn in the ear potentially. It is in every saint potentially.
Ques Why is it called the panoply of God?
CAC Is it not that we are to be in the completely furnished condition, so that we are able to guard what is so precious?
Ques Is the idea in it that the sense of all that has come to light in Christ would make us want to respond to it and so to guard it?
CAC Yes. In the garden of Eden, man was furnished with armour, but he was not using it. He had not it on at any rate. That is, obedience to God was the armour. Obedience would have preserved him from all the devices of the enemy. Obedience was the armour of an innocent creature; it would have been a perfect defence against the devices of the wicked one.
Rem “Obey your parents”, “obey masters”, etc. Obedience is emphasised in this chapter.
CAC We were saying that these are principles of universal application. This question of obedience is of vital importance. If we only moved in the path of obedience, we should be a match for all the devices of the enemy. The Lord was furnished with armour in His place as Man; He was found with armour on.
JND said there were only two exercises of life to God;
[p. 381] one is obedience, the other is praise. That covers everything.
Rem I wondered if failure with Adam was made good in Christ. There seems a suggestion in verse 10 of something of that sort prior to taking and putting on the armour. The man must first be strong enough to carry it.
CAC I am sure that is very important. Were you thinking that in the Lord there is One who has met and overcome every hostile power? So now if we are strong, it is in Him. The Spirit of God never sets us up with conscious strength in ourselves.
Rem Christ showed perfection of obedience.
CAC And He spoke so beautifully of Himself. “As I also have overcome” (Revelation 3: 21). He has not referred much to His pathway here, but there are some very choice references, and this is one, as if to say, I want you to think of Me on that line.
Rem Joshua was told to be strong and of good courage.
CAC And the Captain of Jehovah’s host was there, which rather fits in here.
Ques Could you help us as to why the panoply is spoken of as a complete unit, before the details of each particular part is given?
CAC Is it not to show us that the complete thing is needed? “Panoply” is complete furnishing; we cannot dispense with any part — it is a unit.
Rem It is “that ye may be able to stand against the artifices of the devil”.
CAC Yes, and I think his artifices come out particularly in his quoting Scripture.
Ques What form would that take now?
CAC Oh, a brother gets up and gives an address, every word out of the Scripture, yet his object might be to nullify the word that the Lord is giving at the present time; anything that would turn the minds of the saints away from [p. 382] the present ministry of the Spirit would be artifices of the devil. All opposition is apparently based on the Scriptures, but all is to nullify the riches that God would give the saints. I think the devil often operates through the saints. Often he is careful to take up a capable and intelligent man for his purpose. Some of the greatest men in the church have been used to nullify the truth. That is some of the artifices of the devil.
Ques What would help us against this?
CAC I suppose a greater value in our souls of the ministry of Paul and John.
Rem So the great thought is the Spirit’s voice to the assembly.
CAC I thought so. In a certain sense there is no development from the ministry of Paul or John; you have the complete thought of God. There has been a bringing out of the complete thought of God in the last hundred years. If so, we shall be very fearful of anything being taken from that.
The importance of this panoply of God is that every part of it has to do with our state. You see the loins girt about with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the feet shod, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation all have to do with our moral state, and you will find it is want of moral state that leaves us open to be turned aside by the artifices of the devil. It is not exactly the absence of the truth, but the absence of moral state.
Ques “Having girt about your loins with truth”; would you explain that?
CAC I wish you would say something about that.
Ques In relation to moral state, is that why Paul speaking to Timothy stresses “faith and a good conscience” (1 Timothy 1: 19)?
CAC Yes, indeed, and we are to be inwardly controlled by the truth. Our loins would represent our inward state of affection. All is to be kept within the control of the truth.
Rem Peter says, “Having girded up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope with perfect stedfastness” (1 Peter 1: 13). John speaks too of his children walking in truth (2 John 4).
CAC Yes, it is most important, because the truth is a thing that is now fully out. You could hardly speak of truth in the Old Testament, because when you come to the real substance of the truth, Christ is the truth, and the Spirit is the truth. Truth in the Old Testament is more the quality of persons; the truth had not come out fully. It is one of those things that subsist in Jesus Christ. We are to be controlled in our feelings about things; our affections are to be controlled by what has come out in Christ and in the Spirit. The enemy cannot attack that state of things.
Ques Peter moved rashly. Is it something like that with us?
CAC Yes, I think so.
Ques Would it have to do with the revelation of God; would it bring God in?
CAC Yes, indeed.
Ques Would the latter part of chapter 4 have a bearing on it, “having put on the new man”?
CAC Yes, I think very much so.
Rem The answer to it brings in the new man.
CAC Yes, quite so.
Ques Is this holding the inheritance?
CAC I think it is included in what is to be guarded.
Ques Would you say a little more about the moral state? It is there we are very weak; we know how things should be, but are not up to them often, so is it the moral state underlying?
CAC Yes, the breastplate of righteousness is very important in that connection; it means that things are right with us.
Rem It is very like Christ loving righteousness.
[p. 384] Rem The breastplate protected the heart. It is what the heart is set for.
CAC And righteousness would extend to the spiritual realm. There are a vast number of things there that are unrighteous. Those things believers are to withdraw from. “Withdraw from iniquity” is really, ‘Withdraw from what is not right’ (2 Timothy 2: 19).
Rem In John 13, the Lord girds Himself there for service. I wondered whether “girt about ... with truth” would be for service.
CAC Yes, I think so, it is part of the armour. A soldier generally has a belt, has he not?
Ques Are you confining this to the heavenly sphere, strength required there?
CAC Yes, I think the object of the enemy is to rob us of what is unfolded in this epistle. The glory of God is seen in this epistle, all that is connected with Christ in heaven. Satan is particularly against what is set up in Christ in heaven. He is not particularly against a beautiful life on earth. It is one of his artifices to get persons occupied with the life of Jesus as a model for us to build up a human righteousness that shuts out the righteousness of God. It is not only that Christ is in heaven, but the saints are there.
Rem. The hymn says,
‘He’s gone within the veil,
For us that place has won’. (12:2)
CAC That is the truth, I am sure. So that righteousness in the saints would be consistent with the heavenly position. It is not righteous to take up a religious position on the earth. People who belong to sects, to systems on earth, are positively unrighteous.
I suppose the fact that our feet are to be shod shows we are intended to be moving about. It supposes that the heavenly company will be found in movement in connection with the glad tidings of peace. Perhaps it would [p. 385] preserve us from some of the artifices of the devil, if we were a little more active on our feet.
Rem Standing is stressed, but it is all in view of moving in what is to be maintained here.
Ques Why is it “of peace”? This is a state of war.
CAC Yes, but it is a warfare in which the service of the glad tidings has an important place, so that the truth is not to be maintained merely passively, but actively in the testimony of the glad tidings of peace. The thing is to be maintained.
Rem It is a question of mutual encouragement.
CAC Yes. It is part of the equipment. So the preaching of the gospel is an important element in the spiritual conflict.
Ques “Preparation”, it says. What is the thought of moral preparation?
CAC Yes, it seems to suggest that the glad tidings of peace have had an effect on the movements of the saints.
Rem It says in Romans 3, “Swift their feet to shed blood”; which is just the opposite.
CAC Yes, now the saints do know the way of peace, and they are active in it. I heard of where gospel preaching was given up because no one came in to listen. That is a bad principle.
Rem “How beautiful the feet of them that announce the glad tidings of peace, of them that announce glad tidings of good things” (Romans 10: 15).
CAC So that the gospel should be preached by those who have the whole precious truth in mind. So that it is a gospel preached, however simply, and however elementary the subjects presented may be, that is consistent with the full thoughts of God.
So that where the truth is held, people should have a different gospel from anywhere else. It should be presented differently.
Rem And the gospel is not limited to once [p. 386] a week.
CAC No, you must wear your shoes all the week.
Rem In Luke 15 the thought is that the father should have his son. There is something for the father’s heart in it.
CAC That is the idea.
Rem “This my son”; what it must have meant to him!
CAC Yes, [p. 387] indeed.
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 6: 14 - 24 We did not say anything about the shield of faith last time, did we?
CAC Had you anything in your mind?
Rem It seems a very important part of the panoply of God. It is the dispensation which is in faith, and I suppose faith is always being called forth. “With which ye will be able to quench all the inflamed darts of the wicked one”. Would you say something about it? If faith is living and operative these darts do not penetrate; is that it?
CAC It is evident the faith is protective. What are “the inflamed darts of the wicked one”? One would like to draw out some of the wealth present.
Ques Was the suggestion to the woman in the garden of this character? It came from the wicked one.
CAC Yes, I think that is helpful.
Rem When Peter said to the Lord, “God be favourable to thee, Lord” (Matthew 16: 22), the Lord recognised it was satanic, that it came from Satan.
CAC Yes.
Ques Would you say the attempt in the garden was to undermine the confidence of our first parents in God? “Ye will be as God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3: 5). You said last week the armour was there, but they did not avail themselves of it.
CAC Yes, showing that we are not protected by being passive; that is, taking the panoply with all its different parts is an active matter — something to do in an active sense.
Ques Is it taken up together or individually?
CAC Well, I thought it regards the saints as set together to defend the precious things which are deposited in the assembly. All the most precious and wealthy [p. 388] thoughts of God have now been brought to light and they are committed to the assembly, or to the saints who form it. It supposes a body of warriors, not simply one soldier, but Jehovah’s host.
Ques I wondered if in a way the enemy is against us as set together as in the faith order of things?
CAC I think we need to see that, for we tend to come under the influence of what is seen. Things outwardly may seem weak and small; they did to some of the remnant who returned in the time of which Ezra writes. What God was doing in their day they esteemed as nothing. “Is it not as nothing in your eyes?” (Haggai 2: 3). Satan would like us to think the precious things of God of no account, and so would occupy us with the weakness and smallness of things to make us discouraged and disheartened.
Rem Yes, and that is why you do not get anything about the greatness of God here. In chapter 1 you have the “surpassing greatness of his power”, in chapter 2 the “surpassing riches of his grace”, and in chapter 3 the love of the Christ which “surpasses knowledge”. They are the surpassing things.
CAC That is very good. The enemy’s attack is not exactly against us, but against what is of God. The wonderful deposit is of God. It has often been said if we are not in some sense standing in the truth in this epistle, we shall not get this conflict. So that the faith which would protect us is really faith in the heavenly. It is a particular quality of faith, not exactly the faith of the early stages of the soul. It is faith in a comprehensive sense as embracing the most precious thoughts of God. Nothing will ever be made known to us greater than what we get in this epistle; and the enemy will take it away, steal it from us, if he possibly can. But we are to guard it.
Rem There is a note to “inflamed darts” in the Darby translation suggesting their effect is to destroy.
CAC Quite so.
[p. 389] Ques Would you say that faith puts the soul in touch with God, is light in the soul in that way, and that this opposition would be dissipated by saints in touch with God as to the issue of things?
CAC Yes, and faith apprehends the present mind of God, so that it is not the same quality of faith that an Old Testament saint had, or that a millennial saint will have, but the faith that is proper to this wondrous moment in the ways of God, and what Satan will do his best to destroy. We might say that in the christian profession generally the precious truth of this epistle has been quite taken away, the faith of it is not present as an active principle.
Ques Is that how the darts would take effect?
CAC “In the evil day”, it says — “That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day”, which seems to look on to the day when these things would be challenged. That is the evil day, and we have fallen upon it, but just in this particular time there is a remnant to withstand. It is the greatest honour God has ever put upon saints.
We have the pick of everything. We have far more than the Old Testament saints had, and we are better off than the saints were at Pentecost, for they had not then the ministry of Paul at all, or the ministry of John. That is, the very choicest truth was not in the assembly at Pentecost. It came in after. I think Pentecost was the fulfilment of Old Testament promise. But we have got something that far surpasses all in the Old Testament. It was hidden then. It was something God cherished as a hidden treasure. He brought it out through Paul, and John could stand in it. And here we are with it as the substance of the faith in our souls today. Oh, let us be careful that we hold every particle of it! The more others do not value it, the more we should value it. Their not valuing it should stimulate us, it should stir us up to value it very much.
Rem “That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts” (chapter 3: 17); is that [p. 390] it?
CAC Yes, because it is clearly Christ in heaven, it is a glorified Man in heaven. It is a question of faith, and the highest quality of faith we could have, the top-stone of faith that makes the heart a dwelling-place of the glorified Christ. How wonderful to get into a believer’s heart, if we could dissect it, and find Christ enshrined there as the most precious object in it, and therefore the whole truth of the mystery and of the assembly bound up with it.
We start with the centre, God does not occupy us with an expanse of glory, but with a Person, glorified, who is the centre of the glory and of the mystery.
Rem And it is not only in Christ, but in the saints: “That now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God” (chapter 3: 10).
CAC Yes, a wonderful thing, because it is not only the saints looking up into heaven, but heaven looking down upon the saints. It used to be said that there was a particular mark of people in fellowship.
Ques Perhaps you would say what that is?
CAC That the epistle to the Ephesians was very dirty in their Bibles!
God is much before us in this epistle. In Colossians it is Christ that is much before us, so Colossians must be first. In Ephesians we come to the fulness of God — what is according to God in His present unfolding, the faith of that in our souls. We have no idea what a joy it is to the blessed God to bring us into His secrets.
This epistle contemplates the fulness and completeness of the divine thoughts, and the saints growing up together into the blessedness of them.
Rem The saints are put together in this epistle, “that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”; and it goes on to speak of the whole company entering into it: “That ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to [p. 391] know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”. It is “all the saints”.
CAC They are all necessary to it. All the saints are needed to fill out the great plan. It gives one a wonderful outlook on the saints. We are inclined to look at them after the flesh. That would be some of the fiery darts taking effect. It would be a distracting sort of thing to have fiery darts sticking into you. The enemy would use anything distracting. So we need to have the faith of these things, not only to look at and admire them.
Rem You get the thing in your heart. Caleb had all along the land in his heart, and God in his heart. All the rest spoke against it but Caleb and Joshua in their presence stood for it. Then the glory of God appeared; He would support that.
Rem It is not only that Christ is heavenly, but the saints are heavenly as linked with Him.
CAC This epistle would show that, and we love them always from that point of view; they are essential for the bringing in of all this.
Rem There is much in Colossians and Ephesians of faith in Christ and love to all the saints. It must take them all in.
CAC Even if you have no knowledge of them personally; it is not only those you are in contact with.
Rem The Lord took in the whole assembly when He went into death.
CAC The Lord represents them all. We sit down in relatively small companies, but there are the “many”.
The apostle speaks as if there was only one loaf and one cup universally. “The bread which we break”, “the cup of blessing which we bless” (1 Corinthians 10: 16). It is a very expansive thought. And there is an extension of the body in the saints. “We ... are ... one body”, it says. Now first in the loaf you would think of the personal body of the Lord; then you would move on to the thought of the saints as the loaf. “We, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf”. For all the saints morally partake of Christ. It is delightful to God that our affections should move on those lines in the assembly, and it should have an effect on us through the week.
I think the first impression that God makes on a soul is the value of the saints. My first impression was, what a wonderful company the saints were and what an honour to be amongst them. I think it works that way. The young believer has very great thoughts of Christ, and he thinks, ‘They love Christ better than I do; well, I would like to be with them’. Is not that the proper way of coming into fellowship? We had better keep on that line, too. You could not be nervous of expressing yourself in such a company, where what is said of Christ finds an echo in every heart.
Ques The helmet of salvation, does that come in in the same connection?
CAC It would have to do with your head. This epistle is full of glory; does not the sense of glory keep your head up in the sense of salvation?
It is said of the Lord Himself, that “he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head” (Isaiah 59: 17). It is salvation in a sense in which the Lord could know it.
Ques Had the enemy come in in destroy the inheritance of Jehovah?
CAC I suppose it refers to the time when the Lord comes out to subjugate all that is evil in a victorious way.
Rem That scripture seems to help the particular chapter we are looking at. He comes to Zion, and there is the thought of what goes through. “My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever” (verse 21). It is a triumph, that.
Israel’s day to Yes, so “the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word” comes in there.
Rem In 1 Thessalonians it is the “hope of salvation” (chapter 5: 8), a more elementary thought there, while here in this epistle it is a very complete thought of salvation.
CAC Yes, so that one is set free to handle the sword of the Spirit which is God’s word, with no fear.
Ques Does the Lord use the sword in the temptation?
CAC Yes, I should think so, and the sword of the Spirit which is God’s word is perhaps of wider bearing than the Scriptures.
Ques What have you in mind?
CAC Well, I think God’s word would be what expressed the mind of God at any particular time.
Rem It would have a wider bearing in Hebrews 13: 7, “Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God”.
CAC The word of God would include all that the Spirit says to the assemblies. “The sword of the Spirit”. The Spirit can give us the present mind of God with reference to any circumstance that arises as a question of the testimony.
If really full of the Holy Spirit we should have the right word for everybody, every caviller and objector. We feel our need for it, and we feel sad when we do not have it.
Rem It should be aggressive warfare.
CAC I thought so, so that any effort of the enemy to oppose it brings out the truth more clearly and fully; so that we ought not to be afraid of conflict. And personally we find it confirming. There is nothing like a little conflict for helping us to value [p. 394] the truth.
NOTES OF A READING Ephesians 6: 17 - 24 I suppose the armour is not much use unless there is the constant prayer spoken of here.
CAC I was thinking that. It is noticeable that after being fully equipped we should be exhorted to pray.
Ques What is the apostle exactly referring to when he says, “Watching unto this very thing”?
CAC I suppose he would have us to realise the importance of vigilance in regard of prayer. We not only pray, but we watch; that is, we are on the watch for answers to our prayers.
Ques Is there some connection between that and the previous verse, “Have also the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word”? The apostle links the sword of the Spirit with the helmet of salvation — I wondered whether it is in view of the testimony, and then there is praying and watching.
CAC I think attention is to be given to this matter of prayer. It is not to be a formal matter, but an active business of the soul, communication with God in reference to His will and His work.
Rem “I give myself unto prayer”, David said (Psalm 109: 4). It is a remarkable statement. Would that be it?
CAC Yes, and the apostles said, “We will give ourselves up to prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6: 4).
Ques Would it include the spirit of prayer, a constant attitude?
CAC He does not say, ‘Have a week of prayer or a special day of prayer’. It is praying at all seasons.
Rem Nehemiah seems to fit the case.
CAC Well, go on.
Rem He was concerned about Jerusalem, but [p. 395] he had to take up prayer in his captivity.
CAC Yes, quite so. It supposes that we understand what is in the mind of God for all the saints. It is great enlargement here; it is not at all our own matters we are told to pray about, it is God’s matters. It has all the saints in mind. It is praying in the mind of the Spirit, so it could not be limited.
Ques Why is it prayer and supplication, is that some definite and specific request?
CAC Yes, I thought so. Prayer is more general, but intercession and supplication are definite and particular. Perhaps the best word for it would be ‘petition’, a particular request like Epaphras made. He agonised for the Colossians that they might stand perfect and complete in all God’s will — a very definite petition. He did not simply say, ‘Bless the saints in Colosse’. We are often too general in our requests. That is better than nothing, but I think God would have us present special requests, something definite.
Rem It is valuable to know how our brethren are going on in different parts of the world so as to be intelligent in our supplications for them.
CAC It is very pleasing to God that we should have something definite to ask for the saints at any particular time.
Rem “If two of you shall agree”, the Lord says (Matthew 18: 19). It is something definite that you ask for.
Rem It seems to come in very fittingly at the close of this great epistle.
CAC It is as if the apostle would have all that he has ministered in this epistle turned into prayer and supplication. All the saints are in view in this epistle, it is not a local epistle exactly.
Rem We see the great scope of it in his own two great prayers in chapters 1 and 3.
CAC Yes. Well, they are very definite, are they not? He realised it was most important that the saints should [p. 396] have the things that he prayed for. It is a great privilege; there could hardly be a greater than to be brought into the current of God’s mind about all saints, it being not a question of circumstances, but what is His mind for all saints, and then particularly for the apostle. He would have them right at the centre of those interests; that is, Paul was in that sense at the centre, he was the one to whom this great ministry was committed.
Rem It is remarkable how the great operations of God seem linked up with and concentrated in the saints. They focus themselves there.
CAC Indeed, it is so, and we have to look at the saints from that standpoint, the standpoint of what is in God’s mind in regard to them.
Ques In that way would our prayers take character from the Lord’s prayer in John 17?
CAC Yes, surely that is the most wonderful prayer ever offered, and it shows how the Lord regards the saints — “Those who believe on me through their word”. It is first the apostles and then it widens out to all that believe on Him.
Ques “An ambassador bound with a chain”. Is that in connection with what the Lord says, “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you” (John 20: 21)?
CAC The great thoughts of God came out more fully when the apostle was outwardly restricted. How wonderfully God works. What seems to be the greatest hindrance to His work turns out to be what helps most. When Paul was in chains he did more than he ever did travelling from Jerusalem round about to Illyricum.
Ques Why is it “the mystery of the glad tidings”?
CAC Well, I suppose that all that is bound up in the glad tidings should be made known. The mystery of the assembly is all bound up in the glad tidings. The glad tidings are proclaimed, but there is a great deal bound up in them that is not on the surface. “Mystery” is a characteristic [p. 397] word in christianity and has a special place in the ministry of Paul. Certain things require to be looked into that are not obvious and have to be enquired into. The glad tidings are public.
Ques To what does this refer, “That utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings”?
CAC Well, I think he has in mind all that was bound up in the glad tidings. He looked abroad in the church and saw no doubt comparatively few who were intelligent in the great thoughts God had in mind in sending His Son; he realised that the secret bound up in the gospel was not much understood. I think he had the feeling as to the Roman saints that they must be established in the gospel and then go on to understand the mystery, which is really unfolded in this epistle.
Rem The Lord said, “To you is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mark 4: 11), when He was alone with His disciples.
CAC Yes, it required interested persons. If not interested we shall not get into these things that are known as mysteries. It is for us to see that we are intensely interested in everything that has its origin in God, not only the gospel but in all that lies behind the gospel. Paul does not pray to have greater knowledge of the mystery, but to have ability to open his mouth boldly to make it known; so I suppose that everyone who has tried to minister the word at all feels he has something to present and has been troubled with his own inability to get it out. I have known what it is to have something to present, but not to be able to get it out.
Rem Sometimes it is too great to put into words.
CAC Sometimes it is that, it is too great to express. It was not that the apostle had not got it all, for he had it by revelation.
Rem There was the question of the [p. 398] Gentiles being brought in.
CAC And I think it supposes it is going to be difficult to present it to saints. When you come to present it, it is a difficult matter to do it, so that people get hold of it. It shows how the Lord’s servants need our prayers, so that when they open their mouths they may be helped. They want special help then, and they will fail to bring out what is in their hearts if we do not pray for them.
Ques Would speaking loudly enough to be heard enter into it? It is desirable that what is said should be heard and known.
Ques How would you define the gospel, if asked?
CAC I think I should shrink from defining it; that is putting a line round it; it is rather too big for that.
Ques We rather limit it in our minds. Is it not all God’s thoughts in Christ?
CAC Yes.
Rem You once said it could be put into three words, “Behold your God” (Isaiah 40: 9). Wonderful words.
CAC Yes, it is the presentation of God, really what God is for man, a poor, ruined creature.
Rem Jehovah says, “I will work, and who shall hinder it?” and then He says, “I will give waters in the wilderness, rivers in the waste, to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people have I formed for myself: they shall shew forth my praise” (Isaiah 43:13; Isaiah 43:20,21). Nothing can hinder what God is going to bring about, the rivers flowing, etc.
Rem It is every divine thought that God has for His creature centred in Christ.
CAC And the assembly is the climax of everything. Now is the time when all the secrets are out, but they are only made known to interested persons.
Rem Many Christians are happy with having their personal difficulties solved, and the rest they put off to a day to come. They are lacking in the mystery, [p. 399] would you say?
CAC I think that is so, and God would be very pleased if saints would ask Him to show them His glory. Moses prayed, “Let me ... see thy glory” (Exodus 33: 18). That is a very good prayer. It is a great matter to pray about. I know of some who spent years in praying that God would show them His glory.
The most wonderful thing in the universe is the glory of God; and when everything is broken down on the side of the creature, God brings out not only His grace, but His glory. God is going to have a vessel suitable to carry His glory to the age of the ages; but it is His glory that is going to be there, and that glory is in the assembly now, it is really the vessel of divine glory now.
Ques Paul’s sending Tychicus to them was that they might pray for his definite needs, I suppose?
CAC It was important that the saints should be interested in Paul himself. He did not detail that in the epistle, “how I am getting on”; it was a most important matter for the saints to be interested in Paul.
Rem That points today to the saints being interested in a special way in anyone raised up to minister with gift.
CAC The more gifted a man is, the more claim he has on our prayers, you would say. We ought to take special interest in those who are particularly gifted in bringing out the mind of God. They are our property as belonging to us; “Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, ... all are yours” (1 Corinthians 3: 22); and if our property we should be greatly interested.
Rem It is sometimes difficult to know them.
CAC It is important to know, and our prayers should follow any who are special vessels of ministry in that way. It is most important for us to get a universal outlook, to look out at the saints as a whole, not only those in our locality, but to look abroad and see what the Lord is doing universally; we have a good deal of means of knowing. There is a beloved brother, well known to us,
[p. 400] who is hindered from being with his brethren in New Zealand; well, we should be enquiring why the Lord has checked his movements.
Rem It is not always easy to get information; perhaps more might be supplied.
CAC We should try and get hold of Tychicus, he knows. Well, get hold of him; he is ready to tell all he knows about Paul! The personal side of things is left to be communicated personally, it is not put in writing. Personal communications are most important among the brethren.
Ques “Our affairs”. Whom is he linking himself with there?
CAC I think he is using the plural pretty much as an application to himself. There was no other ambassador in Rome, he is the only one. The interests of Christ, of heaven, of God had been formally committed to Paul as an ambassador, so what happened to him was of vital importance to the whole assembly.
Ques Would you say a word on the last two verses?
CAC Well, it is like the apostle lifting up his hands in blessing upon us at the end of his ministry, is it not?
Ques Why is it “love with faith”? It is striking that faith should be put in this salutation, but it is here.
CAC I suppose it is a necessary blend, “love with faith”. If we love the saints, that concerns all that is in the mind of God in regard to them, and faith takes account of that, so love is accompanied by faith.
Ques “That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts” (chapter 3: 17). It seems connected with the whole vast system of glory; it requires faith. Is that why he speaks of incorruptible affections at the close?
CAC Such affections are found in the assembly.
They are not found anywhere else, are they?