WASHING
WASHING
Titus 3:4 - 6; Revelation 22:14,15
JT What is in mind is to consider a little the scriptural suggestion of washing. These two scriptures were read, but only as basic. There are really others that will come under review. This time of the year tends greatly to affect the brethren, especially the young ones, because of conditions at resorts for bathing and the like. They tend to pollute and the brethren become weaker spiritually and need the application of washing in view of the service of God the first scripture read deals with the subject. It says, “But when the kindness and love to man of [p. 127] our Saviour God appeared, not on the principle of works which have been done in righteousness which we had done, but according to his own mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”, Titus 3:4,5. There are three things mentioned or used in the gospel, used by God and announced in the gospel here: washing, applied in relation to regeneration; and then the renewal of the Holy Spirit, so that the subject of the gospel enters into what is before us; and then in Revelation the application as to not one washing, not one primary washing, but continuous washing in view of defilement contracted.
AR There is a footnote to the word ‘washing’. It says, “a new state of things or a change of position”. Will you explain that a little bit for us?
JT The washing of regeneration is given in the note: Washing is right here. It is a bath, or the water for it. ‘Regeneration’ is not the same word as ‘being born again’, nor is it used so in Scripture. The force of the word is a change of position; a new state of things. The word is only used here and in Matthew 19:28 for the Saviour’s coming kingdom. The word ‘washing’ has to be regarded by itself. It is said to be a bath as we see in the note, and then the word ‘regeneration’ is a different idea altogether. The word ‘washing’ which is introduced first in the note, has to be regarded by itself, only allied with regeneration, and then the great thought of the renewal of the Spirit; so that there are three thoughts. The first one is washing. It is not in the daily or constant sense as in Revelation, but a complete thing, such as is involved in new birth. New birth was first introduced as born again, born throughout, without which we cannot see the kingdom of God; but then the Lord gives an additional thought, namely that unless one is born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. These expressions in John 3 are allied closely to what we have here, only the washing in Revelation 22 is more what the believer sees the need of and applies daily and constantly. He washes, in other words.
AAT The Ethiopian eunuch went into the water, but that was the water of baptism. That was not washing, was it?
JT Baptism is washing. It is the principle of it, and is applied to the deluge. Baptism is likened to the deluge, meaning that the earth was cleansed by the process and at the same time the believer goes through water.
ANW Would your second scripture have an external bearing, an outward bearing, and the one we are looking at in Titus more inward?
JT I would say that; yes. It is an accompanying thing to Revelation. It is not the application of a bath for washing or cleansing but evidently for water; that is, to cleanse the inner state of a man as regeneration takes place.
WWM Do you think that the application of the death of Christ in the water aspect is suggested [p. 125] here? Does Naaman suggest anything in this? He was told to go down seven times in the Jordan. It was a water matter there.
JT Well, it was; yes. In the antitype, however, I would think it includes redemption. The idea of washing is applied sometimes to sins as well as sin. What we are engaged with now is more sin as a state, describing the state in which man is as unregenerate. But what Naaman needed was more extensive, I would say. It was not simply water, but the Jordan; that is, death was brought into it in a peculiar way; and seven times. But Revelation 22 contemplates water in a constant application because of recurring defilement, but the sins are dealt with, too. We are told in Revelation 1 that the Lord Jesus loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, which is another phase of the matter.
JAP Is the kind of state that you are seeking to help us on emphasised in chapter 1? The Cretans were liars, evil wild beasts, and lazy gluttons, Titus 1:12. What you are stressing now meets that kind of thing.
JT They represent man in a certain state. These were given to a low state and conduct. No doubt the use of the word ‘washing’ would bear on that. Sometimes you get a golden thread but it bears on a particular circumstance, and no doubt the Cretan condition was in mind.
RWS Whereas the regenerate would be the positive position brought in following the washing?
JT I would say it is an accompanying, correlative thought. Washing is mentioned first, as if it was the one thing that ought to be stressed with such people as the Cretans. There are grades in the human race; grades of wickedness. Some persons follow a more respectable course but others wallow in the filth of this world, and the idea of washing has to be stressed to meet the condition; and so with the Corinthians: they needed the cross; that is what they needed [p. 126] because they were making something of learning, and what they were in that sense. The apostle says, “For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1 Corinthians 2:2. Then he proceeds to enlarge on the cross. He is dealing with man as at Corinth. And so, as it were, with the Galatians it would be a legal thing; the legal side of the world where ethics and the like are applied and insisted upon.
ANW I wondered whether that was not the point here largely, rather than evil things. “Not on the principle of works which have been done in righteousness which we had done”. Even that is to be offset by God’s own mercy.
JT That is stated. There is no doubt there is a suggestion as to the low habits of the Cretans — always liars; a remarkable thing. No doubt that was in the apostle’s mind. There are other things, of course. In fact the gospel, you might say, is fully in mind in the chapter.
Ques Would the thought of self-judgment enter into both of these scriptures, or is that a different thought altogether?
JT It would be in mind, because it is a question of washing. There is something to be washed, you know; that is, to be purified, and that would imply there is something of God that is affected; but at the same time the work of God in regeneration does not meet the whole matter. It needs the principle of washing. Regeneration is a new beginning; a new start, and washing is more negative, to remove something that is polluted.
CN So that verse 3 of our chapter is connected, is it not, with verse 4? Verse 3 says, “For we were once ourselves also without intelligence, disobedient, wandering in error, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared, not on the principle of works which have been done in righteousness which we had done, but according to his own mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit”.
JT Yes; he brings in these three things as stressed. He could bring others in. He speaks of other things that could have been covered by other features of the gospel; but we must not forget the need that exists. It is a sort of inner thing. Of course, it continues all the time — pollution in the world — but this season of the year greatly accentuates it, and it is lightly thought of, perhaps; whereas in truth these places defile us. We hardly realise it, and may be unable through the experience to take on the service of God.
RWS Is there a link between being born of water and this washing?
JT I think so. That is what I was thinking. The Lord adds that in the second word about new birth. If we look at chapter 3 of John, we shall see, perhaps, how the matter stands. After Nicodemus remarks, the Lord’s answer is, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born anew”, and that word ‘anew’ is ‘throughout’. It is a thorough matter. But it is positive, too. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God”, John 3:3. That is the first answer. Now Nicodemus comes back with another suggestion: “How can a man be born being old? Can he enter a second time into the womb of his mother and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily”. That is the second “verily, verily”, here, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God”, John 3:4,5. So that water is introduced in the Lord’s second answer and is to remind Nicodemus that it was not only that the idea of new birth should [p. 128] take place by the Spirit — but that man was polluted and the idea of washing had to apply basically. So that he would be cleansed in his mind and affections. But it does not go so far as what we have in Titus, because in Titus we have the added thought of renewal of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit effects new birth and applies the water, but then there is the additional thought of the presence of the Spirit; the reception of the Spirit; the renewal of the Holy Spirit which God shed on us abundantly.
AR Would it be like a new man for a new sphere?
JT That is right; a new man inclusive, not only of the positive effect of the Spirit, but the washing; that is, purification.
AR You do not bring any impurities in amongst the saints.
JT That is the idea. We are just calling attention to the unclean state of things that we cannot but be aware of at this season of the year, and whether it is taken account of and met in our souls by the provision of the water; because there are two elements: the water and the blood. The water is for cleansing the inward state.
AAT I did not get your meaning about the season of the year.
JT It is a season in which we attend those resorts or bathing places which are full of people and are unclean, peculiarly so; and the brethren go there with little thought of that and they are unable, at least in measure, to carry on the service of God unless the water is applied specifically in view of the conditions.
APT Ananias said to Paul, “Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away, calling on his name”, Acts 22:16. What do you think he had in his mind there? Would there be any link with [p. 129] this?
JT It would be a question of what he had been going on with. He says ‘sins’ there. That is, the law had been broken for hundreds of years and Paul came in on that. He was peculiarly guilty because he was violent in attacking Christ in it. He had to deal with his past history; not only his personal sins, although they were especially in mind, but the whole nation was in mind in the guilt of a broken law, and was he to continue in that? Why was he delaying? It would seem as if he was loth to leave the Jewish system. “Have thy sins washed away”. That is, it would be true baptism; the death of Christ in the sense of water.
Ques Would the washing in John 13 have any bearing on what you are speaking of?
JT Yes; it would. It is a more refined thought, because they were already washed. They were already clean, as the Lord Himself says, “by reason of the word which I have spoken to you”, but what was meant in the water that the Lord used is the new order of things which He was about to introduce and which they were to be brought into. It was to have part with Him. He says, “Unless I wash thee, thou hast not part with me”, John 13:8. It is a very high elevated side of our subject.
AR The man in John 9 was told to go and wash his eyes.
JT That was to clean off the mud that had been applied. The Lord anointed his eyes with mud. He spat on the ground and made mud of the spittle and told the man to go to Siloam and wash. It was a process all included in the death of Christ, so that he saw. He says, “I washed and I see”, John 9:15.
RWS Does this first scripture bear on the bathing resorts, or is it the second scripture or both? I am not just clear because I can see the washing of the robes is what I must do, but this washing in Titus — is not that done to [p. 130] us?
JT It would be an act of God, as you might say, to begin with, only that it is a necessity that is felt and accepted. That man not only gets his sins dealt with, as forgiven, but his state is dealt with; and the first word that is used is the washing. The Cretans needed their state dealt with. It could only be in effect by the death of Christ, because that is the only means of cleansing, whether it be from sins or from sin. Therefore, the two features are found or appear in the death of Christ. The first is the blood, which deals with our sins, and then the water which deals with the state. John speaks in his epistle of the water first.
AAT I notice an interesting reference to washing and bathing in Numbers 19 about the red heifer. In verse 19 it says, “and he shall wash his garments, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even. And the man that is unclean, and doth not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the midst of the congregation”. All the thoughts are woven in there.
JT They are. The first thought you allude to is what the man who slays the heifer has to do. It was an office he fulfilled, but he was rendered unclean because the thought was defiling. Therefore, he had to wash and be unclean until the evening. And so the priest had to wash, too. These are official thoughts, but the main thought that you mentioned last is the person who touches a dead body. He is not told to wash in the same sense. The point that is made as to him is that his guilt will be if he does not wash, and the water that he washes with is mixed with the ashes of the red heifer. Water is applied mixed with the ashes. It is not that he is guilty because he touches a dead body. Of course, that defiles him, but his guilt would be if he refrains from washing; applying what God provided for his cleansing, which is kept with the people all the time. The [p. 131] ashes are kept purposely for that. It is a unique sort of thing and, of course, it enters into this; but we will not get through with our point if we touch all the washings, because Solomon’s system had a sea. It held two thousand baths and ten lavers, showing how wide the subject is.
RM What is your thought as to “he saved us” in this connection?
JT It is just to bring out the gospel as Paul intended it to be applied at Crete.
RM It is not connected with eternal salvation, is it? It is for the active thing down here.
JT We can hardly omit that; “according to his own mercy he saved us”. And I think the great general thought of salvation is implied; hence Paul says, “to us who are saved”. The word ‘saved’ here would have that force.
AR I have wondered if we do not stress the word ‘salvation’ too much in connection with our sins before God whereas salvation is more in connection with the earth, saved from things down here.
JT It is, but at the same time the word ‘saved’ here is very wide. It implies that we are just saved from everything from which we have to be saved, so that “he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour”. We need that, too. The word ‘salvation’ is a very wide word. It implies that we are saved from everything we have to be saved from, whether it be our sins or our state or the world, or the judgment of God. We need salvation from the judgment of God.
JS Involving a change in position.
JT Quite so.
ANW In Luke it is definitely put in connection with the service of God. I am struck with your remark that what you are frowning on definitely hinders the service of God, but we are saved from our [p. 132] enemies that we might serve Him; serving Him all the days of our life.
JT You can see the word is very wide, and it involves the judgment of God. We have to be saved from that. But what we are at now — it would be well to confine ourselves to it, because as a rule the time runs away at these meetings and we, perhaps, sometimes miss what we had in mind. This idea of the washing of regeneration is very forceful as entering basically into our moral being; that the unconverted man is defiled in his very words. He is not particular whether he uses a defiled word or expression or profane expression. This principle introduced into the believer changes him and makes him different from the unconverted man, the ordinary worldling.
JS You can see a basic change.
JT It is basic. It is inserted in connection with new birth in John 3 and with regeneration in this chapter.
ANW While it is God who does it, is it not the thought of the scripture that it has a purifying effect? It has a reaction on ourselves in regard of what God has done.
JT If it is in your being or in your nature, then it shows itself, and if it does not show itself it is either that you are not converted at all or you are defiled.
APT So that one feels in oneself that in going to the beaches, finding some excuse for it in children and what not, this chapter would show me whether my moral being recoils from the unregenerate character of things present.
JT If it does not your conversion is questionable. It is questionable for the moment, anyway; if I am not conscious of the character of the defilement you just question my state. So that the Christian recoils. If he has to go — well, he has to go and God will help him if he is exercised about it. But if I go there without any exercise like the worldlings I [p. 133] get defiled.
PE To get some practical help for the younger ones, it is not the bathing you are speaking of, but the surroundings.
JT It is the surroundings, and all that enters into it.
AR You hear people say there is no harm in this and no harm in that, but there is a great deal of harm in bad associations. That is where defilement comes in.
RWS Is regeneration a family thought?
JT The way it is used in Matthew 19 refers to the millennium and, of course, points out the great change that will come about. What a change will come about if this principle is applied to millions of people as compared with what there is now. There is no change at all except in a few individuals, but then it will be general. It is called regeneration as applied in the coming day, the coming world.
FSC Do you connect it here with the word ‘man’ in verse 4?
JT “But when the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared”. It is a question of the philanthropy of God. It is not translated that way, but that is what is meant. It is the love of God to man; not the love of God to angels or cows or any being, but man. That is what is in mind.
JS Love unsolicited.
JT It would be that. The word ‘philanthropy’ is a good word.
FSC Does regeneration apply to man?
JT It does, but there is more than that here. The word that you are calling attention to — the expression “love to man” is really philanthropy. It is God’s consideration for man. It includes the gospel; that is, what God is doing for man. Some people may show a little philanthropy for men in a town or an institution or something like that, but God embraces the whole race of man in His movement [p. 134] in Christ. It was a big thing, you know, but it is a love matter with Him, but love in that sense. It is applied as philanthropy is applied.
RM Is there something of that in the scripture mentioned here? Our Saviour God and then Jesus Christ our Saviour?
JT Just so. You can see that in verse 6. Salvation is involved in that.
RM It is connecting two divine Persons with the thought of the Saviour. How does that apply?
JT God has come in in love to man; but, notice, it is love to man; not love to angels, but love to man. He has come in in that way, and the love would take care of everything man needed. It does not rise to the counsels of God but just in the sense of philanthropy.
RWS Are these three items of this philanthropy?
JT I would think they are very essential. That is what is stressed; the washing and the regeneration and the Holy Spirit. These are grand thoughts. “Shed on us” is the final word as to the Spirit; it is shed on us. It is like Romans 5:5, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”.
AR Would you say something about the renewal of the Holy Spirit?
JT That is the third great thing: your renewed state. Of course, the washing tends to renew, and the regeneration tends to renew, but the Spirit is a great general thought in the sense of renewal; the dispensation is freshened and kept fresh throughout by the Spirit.
ANW The pouring out was at Pentecost, as you may say, but throughout the whole dispensation there is the renewal.
JT That is the idea. It brings out what a great thing Christianity is; how the philanthropy of God [p. 135] considered for Him and in effect brought about the dispensation in its richness.
AR Renewal is going on in me all the time; something fresh every day.
JT Well, yes. It is the renewal of the Holy Spirit that is going on all the time. The Spirit has not only come in; He has come in for the duration, you may say, of the dispensation. He has come in for the duration, but He is active all the time, and that is what the word ‘renewal’ implies. It is a freshened thought; but what we are at now is the washing; that the saints get washed. Basically, they are at conversion, but we now want to get the application of the washing which is in the last passage read, “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have [p. 143] right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city”, Revelation 22:14. Notice — if the brethren have not got the New Translation they will not follow what I am reading. It is not a question of keeping the commandments, but washing. It is a great principle in the book of Revelation, and begins with the Lord washing us from our sins in His own blood, which is very touching. And then we have in chapter 7 a great multitude that no one could count who washed their robes. They have done it themselves, but they have done it with the blood of the Lamb; not with water, but with the blood of the Lamb. Here because it is a question of the believer washing, so that he may have a right to the tree of life and that he should go in by the gates into the city.
AR You would think brethren would come into fellowship under those circumstances. People who wash have a right to break bread.
JT Quite so.
APT “Wash their robes”. How do you apply “their robes”?
JT The externals, I would say. Robes or our clothes are intended to convey external things, so that anything of that character about you is pure. External things would, refer to associations; not things at a distance but near things.
AD Would it be things that door-keepers could take account of?
JT Yes; it would. That is a point that helps us, because they have a right to the tree of life and go in by the gates into the city, and of course, the gates have gate-keepers.
WCR If there has been defilement through bad associations or going to the beaches, is it not the service of the Holy Spirit that brings it to bear upon our conscience?
JT You ought to bring it to bear yourself. I mean to say, the sense of responsibility is not that the Holy Spirit does a thing. If I am to do it, do it; and you get the material; you get the appliances, what is needed. It is a question of what you do.
WCR I meant the difference in a person in whom there is a work of God and a person in whom there is not a work of God.
JT The washing of regeneration in Titus is basic. It belongs to the constitution, as it were, of the believer, but this verse in Revelation says a person is blessed because he washes. “Blessed are they that wash”. We cannot just say it is a question of the Spirit washing. It is not that. It is a question of the person. First you think of the materials for washing; the facilities and that, but it is not a question of God doing it for us or the Spirit doing it for us. It is what we do but the appliances are provided.
FHL Can we not link this with 1 Corinthians 11? Would not this characteristic of washing link up with proving oneself in relation to the Supper?
JT “But let a man prove himself, and thus eat”, 1 Corinthians 11:28. Yes.
ANW “That they may have right”. There is an objective in doing it. “That they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city”. The washing has a definite objective in it.
JT It is a means to an end. You want to partake of the tree of life. You want to go in, but not clandestinely; not to climb in as some did, but go in by the gates, openly and transparently.
ANW So that the gates may ask questions that they never asked before.
JT Quite so.
RWS Would Simon Magus in Acts 8 be like one who was washing his robes ostensibly but as it says here, did not have the washing of regeneration?
JT The idea of regeneration does not enter into this at all. Of course, it is a new man; but that is not the point; nor is it a question of blood here. It is this thing that is done; not that it has been done, but that it is being done. The word is in the present: “Blessed are they that wash”. Not that have washed, but that do it. “That they may have right”. They have an intelligent reason for it. They are bound up in the thing. They cannot afford, as it were, to be denied these things. I may deny myself of these things unless I wash, but if I value them I will see to it that I wash.
RWS So that the inside and the outside must be consistent.
JT Just so. The beginning is God’s work; the washing at the beginning is God’s work, at new birth. It is a basic thing. You acquire the thought of being clean. It is not exactly holiness; it is purity. God has given you that element in your constitution, and He looks for it. You do have it. It comes up when anything happens in your conversation; lying and [p. 138] the like. You discern it and immediately you settle it. But this passage here implies all that, but it implies an emergency condition; a condition that has arisen and has to be settled at once, because you deny yourself of these great privileges; that is, having part in the tree of life and entering in by the gates.
GL Had Dorcas neglected the matter in Acts 9? Washing is applied by others.
JT What is your thought? Is it that she was a garment maker or that she needed to be washed when she died?
GL I never have been able to understand why the principle should have to be applied to Dorcas in that state.
JT Do you mean when she died she had to be washed?
GL Yes. Is it a service by others in that sense?
JT I suppose it was a necessity for the manner of the Jews, so to speak. It is what they did. Let us see who did it. It does not say Peter ordered it. “And it came to pass in those days that she grew sick and died; and, having washed her, they put her in the upper room”, Acts 9:37. You see there who did that. There were several people around. I suppose it would be the custom to wash a dead person. I do not think there is anything moral in that at all. Anyway, there it is. “But Lydda being near to Joppa, the disciples having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, beseeching him, Thou must not delay coming to us. And Peter rising up went with them, whom, when arrived, they brought up into the upper chamber; and all the widows stood by him weeping and shewing him the body-coats and garments which Dorcas had made”. Those that washed her would be similar to those. There is no question as to the moral necessity as far as I can see. It was, I suppose, custom. But when he arrived, it says, “But Peter, putting them all out”. Of course he does not say, you should not [p. 139] have washed her, but what was needed was life. She was to be raised from the dead. “And, turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and, seeing Peter, sat up”, Acts 9:40. I do not think there is anything in the washing.
GL I never understood it. I never thought that we should not be able to apply spiritually any thought in Scripture. Should we not seek a spiritual application? Does not the process of her dying suggest a moral process that might have been consequent upon the neglect of washing?
JT I do not think there is anything in it except that it was suitable in the ordinary way. She would have opened her eyes after she had been washed in that case.
JAP We need to value our robes. The robes of the priests had a pomegranate and a bell around the hem of the garment, Exodus 28:33. The maintenance of that is something precious to the service of God basically; that there should be a good ring and fruitfulness.
JT Very good. The pomegranate and the bell would mean when the priest went in or went out he made a sound. All that should be in the gathering when we come in. Suppose we are down at the beach and come into the prayer meeting on a Monday; we do not, I hope, go to the beach on Sunday — but suppose we go down on Monday and come into the prayer meeting from the beach — I doubt very much if there will be a good ring of the bell or much pomegranate. Anyway, it is not that it is not possible, for if one judges himself he has right. He can do that if he is right with God, but is there not a danger of damaging the prayer meeting by that? Is not the idea of fasting necessary to avoid any damage to the service of God?
CN Do you think we lack in consciousness as to these surroundings that we are apt to be defiled by? In Crete there are conditions there that necessitated [p. 140] this washing, and then in Revelation the next verse speaks about these persons that are outside. I wondered whether we are not lacking in being made conscious of these environments that we often have to meet. If you were more conscious of them you would be more intelligent as to the need of washing.
JT Just so. If you have to go to the beach or a place like that — you have to in business matters — but then, do we have to go? We are endangering ourselves when we go. Here we have the kind of people: “Without are the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, and every one that loves and makes a lie”. They sit around there and read novels and maybe make them. I am only referring to one but it is a common thing and we think there is nothing in that. But can you come to the prayer meeting and join in in that?
AAT You are referring to public bathing places, but are there not private places where you are free from the worldly elements?
JT I would not like to be legal at all, but I have been here for half a century and I know pretty well what happens. There are not many that you speak of but then if there is, of course, what can we say? Go there and keep yourself clean, by judging yourself, but generally, how can you do it? When the beaches have become what they are today, how can you do it?
AAT I think your word has a direct application to brethren who live here in the east, but in the centre of the United States and Canada there are no beaches.
JT Well, they have lakes and they are just as bad. I know some who have been damaged, seriously, too.
APT Do you think Lot was one that was saved under certain conditions but he would hardly be a [p. 141] worshipper? It says, he settled down. Do you think he is one that did not seem to care about the service of God? Do you think he would enter much into the service of God according to the scriptural record? It says in Peter, he settled down. I wondered if his salvation was really only in the blood side in that sense. Would not the scriptural record of his life bar him in the true sense of the word from the holiness pertaining to it?
JT It is doubtful whether he would have any part in it. The only thing that can be said to his credit is that he had unleavened bread in his house, Genesis 19:3. He is the first one said to have had it. It is suggestive that Lot was singled out in that sense. Peter says, “Lot ... tormented his righteous soul day after day with their lawless works”, 2 Peter 2:8. But could he not get away from that? That is the question often that comes up in regard to Lot — his righteous soul. It seems to me the Spirit of God is very liberal and generous in speaking of him as a righteous man, but did he have to remain with them all the time? It would look as if he was a very ‘hail-fellow-well-met’ with the inhabitants of Sodom.
APT That verse is just the verse I have in mind. Another rendering says he settled down. I wondered as to whether I may become hard in listening to all these things and not move out of them. If not, how can I take much part in the prayer meeting or service of God? I do not see how I can, effectively.
JT I think there are ways and means of getting out of the way of those things. I do not think Lot used the means that were available. For instance, he calls the inhabitants of Sodom his brethren. He seemed to be on hearty terms with them; and when the men of God, that is, the angels come he took them into his house. They were very hesitant about going in, but he constrained them and they went in, and he set [p. 142] unleavened bread before them, which is a great credit to him. But why should there be such a state and he not know it was there? They came from every part of the city to attack him when the angels were found to be there. It is remarkable; as if God would expose the relations that he had maintained, and yet God covers him, as much as possible, through Peter in calling him a righteous man.
RD As doorkeepers, how much intelligence should we look for as to those coming into fellowship?
JT If you are thinking of the city that is alluded to here, the city is glowing with intelligence, glowing with heavenly-mindedness, and everything that you would expect in the city is there. There is nothing missing. Every gate is one pearl. You may be sure that these gate-keepers would be ready for anyone who drew near and would detect any garment that had not been washed. It might be good quality, but the point is not the quality but the washing. Do you not think so?
RD I think we need help as to the intelligence we should look for, especially in the young people, do you not?
JT I do. The elders would be able to instruct them. The real difficulty is just that — the gate-keepers, the door-keepers — they ought to be elders. In truth, that is what they would be and how can we hope to get on together and save the youth unless there are those who know how to detect those elements of unwashed garments? We have to detect them and then to speak of them.
AR There is a difficulty keeping them after they get in.
JT That is another thing, but this applies, too, even if they are in. This applies, because it is a question of the blessedness of the person. “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city”. That would be at any time.
TEH Would David be a man like that? After he washed his robes and came into the city, he says, “I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall return unto thee”, Psalm 51:13. He would be a man that washed his robes constantly.
JT Just so.
Ques Is it the local responsibility to insist strenuously on these things, as in verse 8?
JT I am sure that is the word; strenuous insistence on these things. I know well enough the difficulty of entering into it because we are all in it, and if we approach it in this sense as the Scriptures require God will help us and perhaps we will lose less, because the losses are rather serious and they come about just in this way: defilement acquired in bad associations, etc., and then we have to say we cannot go on with you.
ANW Genesis says it is the flame of the flashing sword. It seems to be in accord with the gate here.
JT Cherubim, it says. It is the government of God.
APT It is said in Psalm 87:2 that God loves the gates of Zion. There must be something lovable in our local administration carried out according to Him.
JT How pleasurable it is. On care meeting nights — how pleasurable they are to God. He knows that we are concerned about these matters.
FHL Is it not very striking that this last paragraph comes in between verses 12 and 16, as if it is a last hour challenge?
JT Yes; the list of things given of those that are without. How solemn it is that people leave the brethren because they do not find these things there. They go to where they can find them. But how [p. 144] remarkable — the character is that they are without and without forever.
JAP Should we look for this in persons coming into fellowship, that they should know how to wash themselves? A child growing up has to be taught to wash itself.
JT Just so.
APf It applies to every Christian.
JT It does, but peculiarly to the youth. We could go over the Scriptures and point out these things, because the Scriptures are full of them. “And remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth”, Ecclesiastes 12:1.
FSC The Lord says He has a few names in Sardis that have not defiled their garments.
JT That is another point that enters into this. We are alluding to Christendom. Protestantism really is in mind in Sardis, and the fact that there is such a scarcity of white garments in that church is very suggestive of the conditions that are around us. “I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead ... . But thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, because they are worthy”, Revelation 3:1 - 4.
AMacd Do you think this was the secret of Joseph’s blessing? As a young man he had no part in evil speaking. He had no part with the evil in Potiphar’s house.
JT Very good. One has often thought of that, how in the book that treats of fathers — because Genesis is really a father’s book, an old man’s book, I mean, they predominate — you have introduced into that a young man, seventeen years of age, and this is what marks him. How he took account of his own brother’s evil communications and then in Potiphar’s house he was true to the principles of purity and [p. 145] suffered for it. He is an example for us and especially for the young at the present time.
RDG Is there not a difference between the exercise of maintaining one’s garments without defilement and then washing them if they become defiled?
JT That is good. This verse would suggest that the person in mind has had to do it and does it. He knows something about the defilement, because it is not keeping himself from the evil so much as discerning that he has done it. “Blessed are they that wash their robes”. It is that side.
RDG Whereas in Sardis it is this: “Thou hast a few names ... which have not defiled their garments”.
JT I would think the allusion would be to religious circles or religious associations in Sardis. They have not got the assembly truth, but they are equal to it, ready for it, I would say. No doubt we could, perhaps, discern them in the history of the assembly; the history that we have — these names; some of them, anyway. Some of them whose hymns we have and who stood out against religious evil particularly. They did not defile their garments. It would appear as if they stood out throughout the whole period.
AB In Laodicea they are exhorted to have white garments, as if they were not white.
JT The Lord speaks to them as buying them from Him. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold purified by fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white garments, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not be made manifest”, Revelation 3:18, as if they were not suitable for fellowship, as we speak. It is remarkable in those who have suffered in Revelation how they are recompensed for having to wait a little longer for the final resurrection by getting white garments. The Lord recompenses them; as if awaiting the full result in resurrection He gives them a white garment. He says in Revelation 6:9, “And when it opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O sovereign Ruler, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth? And there was given to them, to each one a white robe; and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until both their fellow-bondmen and their brethren, who were about to be killed as they, should be fulfilled”. It looks as if the Lord would say, I know you valued the white robe when you lived, and I know you will value the thought until you are raised. So that that is the reward they have for waiting a little while for the full result.
RWS In Revelation 7:14 to which you alluded, it says, “These are they who come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. There is no cleansing agent mentioned in the scripture read in Revelation 22. Why is that? The blood is used in the two references in Revelation 1 and Revelation 7; here it is just the washing.
JT Therefore, I think it is implied that it is a continuous thought. It is not the blood but the water. The application of the blood is once for all. “Who ... has washed us from our sins in his blood”, Revelation 1:5. But here the Spirit tells us they did that themselves. They must have acquired that thought of doing it. But Revelation 22, I think, must allude to continuous washing, which has its own teaching in the Scriptures and it means the water.
TW Might that involve something I may see or hear causing evil thoughts? Would that be such an item that would require the washing?
JT Your state is the point. Of course, it involves confession and, therefore, it comes under [p. 147] the heading of individual sins, but with the sense of being defiled by them. Confession brings relief at once, as in Peter’s case, Matthew 26:75. He went out and wept bitterly. I am sure that brought relief to his conscience. He needed washing, but the Lord saw to that, in appearing to him; and then in John 21 He probed him so that he is relieved wholly from the thing.