EXCELLENCE
[p. 244] EXCELLENCE
1 Corinthians 12:31; Philippians 1:9
One is impressed, dear brethren, with the grace ministered to us from heaven at this time, so that we feel a little rich, not in any pretentious way, of course, through grace, but rich as according to our calling and according to our companionship, according to our heavenly relations. We have the sense of the Father, of whom every family in heaven and earth is named, having to say to us and working in us, so that there is a state of buoyancy and victory, which is becoming; becoming, however, in humility for the Lord resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Now I wish to speak of these verses having the word ‘way’ in mind and love as entering into it. You will all know that the word ‘way’ is used to indicate Christianity. It is said to be ‘the way’ which would mean really that there is no other, no other of value. And then, too, it is called the way of God, which would mean that it is of a moral character as exhibiting the divine way; the way God is in as in revelation, the way He takes, what marks Him. This is of extreme importance, I need not say, and it is found, and we have already dealt with it today — the way of God. Then there is the way of the Lord, which we have already noted, involving not simply a way but a military way, and we are enjoined to be in that, too; to know how to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and properly armed and equipped with suitable weapons, or at least a weapon, which is the sword of the Spirit. The sword of the Spirit is not simply a defensive sword; it is an aggressive one and, therefore, the word ‘Lord’ is rightly connected with it: the way of the Lord. And then we have also ‘the way’ which, as I have said, indicates that [p. 245] there are no two ways spiritually; there is only one. We read of the Lord Jesus as here taking a certain way and that certain followed Him, and they followed Him in the way, as if there were no other.
Well now, these are all important suggestions and definitions and they lead us to what I have read in 1 Corinthians 12, namely, the more excellent way. The apostle says, “But desire earnestly the greater gifts”, 1 Corinthians 12:31. That is, as having and rightly having desires to serve, we are entitled to desire gifts. Some have them. There is a very fair distribution, one may say by observation, of gifts among the brethren, and it is quite right and legal spiritually to desire them if we have not got them; not to make play toys out of them as, alas, the Corinthians were doing, but to use them with dignity. They are not greater than the persons who have them although they come from above. It is said that the Lord Jesus ascended and passed beyond all the heavens. Think of that elevation! And He has received gifts there. He has received them up there, received gifts, as the original of the old text would say, gifts in man, for men in man. The One who has received them is a Man Himself, and exercised them all and maintained them all; but He received them and has distributed them to men here below so as to use them. They are to be used, moderately and effectively, of course, but they are to be used in love. And the apostle in saying that proceeded to something: “yet”. The word ‘yet’ would be somewhat suggestive that he wanted to say something else, and that there was something better, something to be coveted more, and it is to be shown and demonstrated how important it is. Hence he says, “a way of more surpassing excellence”. Now that is what I would rest on for a moment. It is shown. The apostle is not saying he is giving it to the brethren. It is shown. He is showing it to the brethren, and it is for them to aspire to it if their [p. 246] feet are not on it yet. Possibly some here have not got their feet on it. As soon as they get out of this hall they may place their feet elsewhere and, of course, one would rebuke that if one had the power to do it, because it is a difficult way, whereas here the apostle is saying that there is something that I can show you, and it is a way of surpassing excellence, which would plainly indicate that it has no rival. There is really no other. I am mentioning it now hoping it will become attractive to us and that we will get our feet into it. It is a way of more surpassing excellence.
Well now, that way is enlarged on. It is as if the apostle, having touched it, proceeds in chapter 13 to define it. Someone has called it the picture on the wall in this book, and we are not just content with pictures on the wall. We want the things that are spoken of, not pictures on the wall but pictured in Christians, pictured in those who value what is excellent. No picture on the wall is excellent; it is the person that is depicted that is excellent. The way can only be in the person who is depicted, and that is the next chapter. The apostle brings in the abstract in a very full way and he speaks of love, which is the thing he is talking about in chapter 12:31, “a way of more surpassing excellence”. In having come to this point I am reminded of Philippians. That is my next epistle, the only one I have read from besides the epistle to the Corinthians, but the epistle to the Philippians suggests other epistles, that is, others like itself; and I would name Hebrews. You get the idea of excellence there. It is a delivering epistle. If I may be simple, it is a ‘get-out’ epistle. If you are in anything unworthy of you, Christian brother or sister, if you are in anything unworthy of you, whatever it may be, whether it be social or business or educational — if it is unworthy of you the thing is to get out of it; and the epistle to the Hebrews is a ‘get-out-of’ epistle. A great many Christians [p. 247] remained in what is called the Hebrew fellowship; that is, the Jewish situation in the early days of Christianity. It was unworthy of the name Christian. It had lost its right to it. God patiently waited on the Hebrew Christians at first, waited patiently on them and allowed His heavenly people and the apostles to go back to the temple, and they moved in relation to the temple for a while. God honoured them and supported them, but the day came when He led his servant Paul — for undoubtedly Paul was the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews — to write an epistle so as to unsettle the persons who really belonged to heaven, that they should get out of the Jewish or earthly and legal situation. It was unworthy of Christianity. That is really the whole point in the epistle to the Hebrews. And, hence, you have words denoting excellence by way of contrast. It is a great book of contrast and, dear brethren, if we are in any of those ‘isms’ that are too small for us, or that are unfit for us because of our heavenly calling, the thing is to move out, become unsettled. Let yourself become unsettled; not let others do it, but become unsettled by prayer and by reading the Scriptures, and companying with spiritual people and learning from them. Become unsettled. Do not stay there.
Well, I was saying that I was connecting Philippians with Hebrews, because Hebrews is so full just in that sense, full of contrast; some words denoting excellency brought by contrast over against what would defile them, so as to unsettle the persons who have read or who read the epistle to the Hebrews. Then I was thinking of Peter. He is a great person, a great writer, a great servant called an apostle for better things, for greater things. One of the most striking words he uses is the word ‘precious’. He speaks of the precious blood of Christ, 1 Peter 1:19 — and other things that are precious. And when he comes to his [p. 248] second letter, for the first time in his ministry he refers to the sonship of Christ. Now, the sonship of Christ has acquired a peculiar place in the hearts of the brethren during recent years, and the thought of it grows amongst us — the sonship of Christ. And Peter for the first time uses it in his ministry, a remarkable thing, although the sonship of the Lord Jesus was revealed to him by the Father. It was a revelation; not simply that he heard it from others. It was a revelation from the Father. And as we think, you would expect that he would say a lot about it but he does not. He does not speak of the sonship of Christ except, as I said, in the second letter when he was about to put off his tabernacle; and it looks as though the Spirit of God caused it to come into his soul in freshness and power in his second letter. And in that second letter he would seem to bring forward the excellency of spiritual ministry in which the idea of sonship has become exalted and extolled and magnified. John says in his gospel, “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, John 1:14. Let us think of that, as to whether we have ever sat down and contemplated the glory of Christ as Son. That is how John was impressed to speak of it. “We have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. It is not the Son simply by Himself, but the Son as an only One; not with all the other sons, but that only Son, the supreme Son, the Lord Jesus, God Himself, but in the relation of a Son with a Father. That is how John speaks of Him. I was speaking of spiritual ministry — how God has granted to us in our times such a ministry, away back for one hundred and fifty years nearly. We become accustomed to spiritual ministry. Earlier, of course, there was ministry; there was ministry from the time of the Reformation, remarkable ministry, and men were converted and women were [p. 249] converted, and children were converted in thousands, thank God. Away back in the eighteenth century and the seventeenth century and sixteenth century they came in in thousands. God wrought in that way. In the German Reformation and in the Swiss Reformation and in the British Reformation and the Scandinavian Reformation and all the other reformations, the Spirit of God wrought in men; many with D.D. attached to them. They were below their dignity with such initials, but still God used them nevertheless. God uses what is available to Him, but later on we become accustomed to more spiritual ministry and that ministry involves the glory of the Son of God. It will not stop until the Son of God has His place, and I believe it came into Peter’s mind before he put off his tabernacle that he would exalt the Son of God in his ministry. And alongside of that he makes a reference to the man who afforded the best ministry, the most spiritual ministry, and that was Paul, and he calls him a beloved brother. That word ‘beloved’ became very familiar in the years I have just alluded to when the word ‘brethren’ became elevated and used for communications between brethren. Dear brethren, that is an important thing, that our communications are couched with suitable expressions, expressions that refer to the dignity of the saints. There are no others as great as the saints of this dispensation, not even angels. And so Peter, before he put off his tabernacle says, ‘our beloved brother Paul’, and he likens his ministry to Scripture. Of course, it was Scripture and Peter’s epistles are Scripture, but he speaks of Paul, a contemporary with himself, as a brother and implies that his ministry was as great as Scripture. He would exalt Paul. That is to say, he would exalt spiritual ministry and Paul was a representative of that in practice and habit. He represented the great idea of spiritual ministry and that ministry will exalt Christ supremely.
[p. 250] He will make Him supreme, and hence it is, as I said, that the glory of the Son of God and Paul were bound up together in the last epistle of Peter before he put off his tabernacle. Therefore, I venture to link up these epistles, that is, the epistle to the Philippians besides the epistle to Corinth — not that it is characteristically linked up. The epistle to the Corinthians is a low-down epistle, so to speak, although having the highest truth, but, as I said, like pictures on the wall, because they were so low-down in their souls. They had not advanced, and the apostle is afraid of them. After a short time, on his leaving them, he has to write this epistle to them in order to save them and he uses the strongest language but yet the most gracious language; but it was to save them. It was in love. And now he is saying, I want to show you; he is not saying, I am going to write you about the more excellent way. I am going to show it to you and no one on earth could do it as well as Paul. If anyone wished to see it, they only needed to go about with him, and if anyone talked to him about the Corinthians, he would say, They are wonderful. That is what he would say; known and read of all men. The Corinthians acquired a reputation that no others had, because Paul spoke of them everywhere he went. He extolled them. Let us learn, dear brethren, to extol the saints; let us learn to love them. Think of raising questions of years back to discredit the saints. It is not our business to do that. Our business is to exalt the brethren, and they are to be exalted. They are exalted. They are the greatest of all the families of God. They have the heavenly calling; that is what Philippians tells us: “the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”, Philippians 3:14. And that is why I have spoken at length as I have on this remarkable epistle of Paul to the Philippians. And then I have spoken of Peter’s epistles, particularly the last one. I have spoken of the Hebrew epistle,
[p. 251] and I do not need to go further. Paul is dealing with divine inspirations and it becomes us to be very lowly and reverential and humble and simple in dealing with divine things so exalted, so precious and so holy.
And so I come back to my first scripture, and that is the more excellent way, and as I have been saying, it is the way of love. One is impressed to say that if we have not got love we are nothing. In the language of Paul here we are simply nothing, parading about knowing the saints and this, that and the other thing, and yet we have no love at all. He is saying in this whole chapter that if we have not got love we are nothing; not only are we naughty but we are nothing, and we do not want to be nothing. It is a question of relative quality and distinction, but to be nothing is to be nothing. If I am not converted and not redeemed and have not the Holy Spirit, I am simply nothing because I have not love. And so this chapter 13 is full of negative instruction, I might say, and it is, as I said, a picture on the wall when it should be in the saints; when every saint at Corinth should be marked by it the apostle simply has to put it down in writing. But then it is not simply that although he says I show it. If anyone wished to see it they would have to go around with Paul for a little while at least. Some did go around, and in some epistles it is mentioned that several persons moved about with him. Indeed, it is called ‘Paul and his company’, Acts 13:13. Everyone in that company would have an opportunity of discovering what the way of love was. It was in Paul; that is where it was. It was there par excellence. Not that it was not in any others, but certainly not to a very great degree at Corinth, and now it is a question of each of us challenging himself as to whether he has the thing, that is, love; whether he has it. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if he have love amongst yourselves”, John 13:35; those people [p. 252] you keep company with, that they have love. What kind of people do you keep company with? People who have not love? They are not fit for you. Renounce them; separate from them. It is where love is, “amongst yourselves”. Therefore, I have to look about and see the persons I am keeping company with. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”. So that we seek their company. The brethren seek their company characteristically, and that is the reason they separate from others. “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”, 2 Timothy 2:19. And then God says He is becoming their Father. “Wherefore come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you; and I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”, 2 Corinthians 6:17,18. Is it not worth while? Come out from among them. You cannot carry love there. I mean to say, it may be in you but the unbeliever has not got it at all, and yet you are keeping company with them and heaven is looking on and you are not in the excellent way. That companion does not belong there, and you must leave him or her, because it is an excellent way. It is a way of surpassing excellence. Paul is the very servant who tells us to come out from among them and be separate, and that God will receive us. “And I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters”. You may say, He is a business friend of mine, and I do not like to cut him off. But you can get along without him. He is not essential to your existence, nor even to your food and clothing. God can supply them. He supplied them in the wilderness. There were not any tailors in the wilderness, because none were needed. There were no clothes needed. Their clothes did not wear out. God did that; He can do [p. 253] it yet, so that you do not need that companion who is not a Christian. Give him up and be with the good company, be with the company of heaven, the associates of Christ, the brethren of Christ. It is your privilege, and it is due to them and due to you to mark all these things.
And now I want to go on to Philippians just to enlarge on what I have said, because it is a matter of prayer. Paul prays in verse 9, “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day, being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness, [p. 257] which is by Jesus Christ, to God’s glory and praise”, Philippians 1:9 - 11. That is a prayer. Now notice, dear brethren, it is love he is talking about and love is to increase in all these characteristics; and he is praying about this. I have already pointed out he is not able to do that in the letter to Corinth. It was simply a picture on the wall although he said he would show it and did show it, but he could not pray about it like that at Corinth, the conditions did not warrant it. He had to take a rod, or at least the spirit of the rod in writing to them to correct them. But he did not have to do that in writing the epistle to the Philippians. And so as I said, it is love he is praying about in a certain sense. “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day, being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ, to God’s glory and praise”. Now in order to help further I will read the note on these verses. It is at the bottom of the page under the letter h. ‘It is a question how far the abounding applies to the love itself; or,
[p. 254] supposing the love, that it should grow in these qualities. It is, I think, determined to be the latter by Ephesians 1:8. It means “grow in these”, yet love that would grow in them’. These remarks are important, because it is emphasising the matter of love, almost impersonating it; and, indeed, we sang a hymn here this evening which implied that. ‘Love divine, all praise excelling’. It is as if the quality is personified, and in truth it is love in the sense in which God is love and Christ is love, and in which the Holy Spirit is love. ‘Love divine, all praise excelling’. So that these verses are to the end that this great thought of love that the apostle wrote about as the more excellent way should be amplified in these Philippians. He prays about them, and I would advise everybody here to pray about them as to this matter of love and how it spreads out. We were speaking this afternoon of Christianity: how it carries in itself what sustains it and magnifies it and purifies it. It is a development. Through the Spirit of God in us things develop and spread out into glory. So it is that Aaron’s rod budded. That is the way it is spoken of. That meant life operating in the rod. It was a bare stick or staff and it budded. Are not the saints liable to be like that? They are that. They bud and bloom and blossom and bear almonds. Buds indicate something further. That is the idea.
So, dear brethren, you see the possibilities of Christianity. There is nothing like it. There never has been and never will be. Christianity excels in every sense, and so love is the very basis of it, for God is love. Love is in God. I am not in any way deifying love. It is a quality just as wisdom is a quality, but at the same time it marks Christianity. It is a vital thing in Christians, and only in Christians. No one else has it. You say, That is not so, because we know very well that the idea of love is prevalent,
[p. 255] but is it? How has it become known? You search your books or your reading and see how love became known first. In whom was it seen first? “Hereby we have known love”, 1 John 3:16. We have known it. How? Because Jesus laid down His life for us. That is how. That is Christianity. You cannot get it in any of the eastern religions. It is not there; nor in any religion except as we call Christianity a religion. We only get it in Christianity. It is in God. It is in Christ and the Holy Spirit. And, of course, I would not deny that the angels are marked by love. No doubt they are, but not as Christians are. Christians are like Christ; they are the working out of Christ, the amplification of Christ. That is the idea. So we have known it in Christ. “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves”, John 13:35. Not simply that you are a lover, but that you have it in a company that you love and who love you. It is a thing by itself in the Christian company, and you can see from what I have read how it works out. “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge”. Notice, it works out in persons who know. Paul says, he wanted the Ephesians to understand his knowledge of the mystery. That was because he loved at the bottom of it; basically he loved. How can one speak of the mystery of the assembly save as he loves God, and loves Christ, and loves the saints? That is the first thing, “that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge”, not partial knowledge but full knowledge, “and all intelligence, that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day”. Now you can see, dear brethren, that if you have the thing called love, it is going to enter into all these things, whether it be knowledge or intelligence or purity or completeness. It is a thing that is working itself out in all [p. 256] these qualities. You can see how great it is. It is not a mere accidental thing that you find in a book and leave it there or carry it in your head. It is a growing thing and works out in all these beautiful branches in all persons, for it takes the whole assembly to see Christ coming out in all His glory. She is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
Now you can see, as I said, how love is to be nourished. Let it be nourished and it will work out in these beautiful features called intelligence or judgment or discernment or purity. There it is; nothing else but love basically in all these things. It is what I might say, the basic thing. If I might use a technical term the basis is love. It is the basis of everything. God is love. That does not mean that God is not other things; but He is that. God is love. What a great thing that is. God is light, too, but He is love. Love is unlimited; it is what God is infinitely. And here we are, dear brethren, a few of us here. There are thousands more in this country and in all countries, in so-called Christian countries, and the principle of love is there, and it is to be nourished. These beautiful branches are all spreading out and purifying the person and everybody around too. That is the idea. That is what Christianity is, and what I am saying, although very poorly, no doubt, but what I am saying is the kernel of things, and it points to each of us making much of the truth, of the ministry, what there is available to us, whether written or spoken, and then, too, the fellowship of the brethren, the company of the brethren, the companionship of the brethren, those with whom I live and move and have my being, so to speak. Where that is these beautiful things will develop and the apostle will have his result, as he says, “in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ’s day”, Philippians 1:10. For it is a question of glory and shining in it; “being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness,
which is by Jesus Christ, to God’s glory and praise”, Philippians 1:11.
Well, I thought I could not do better than to take up these two epistles tonight, linking on the others I have spoken of and enlarging a little on the wording of the verses read, so that each might settle down in the position, get into the setting of it, because there is the idea of setting, like the precious stones in the tabernacle. They were set as in the breastplate, for instance. We are all set, set according to God so as to shine in the position, and the shining is not a fixed thing. I mean to say, it is a development; it is an increase. I do not say that we grow on eternally, because that would make us a monstrosity. That would make us like God. God did not intend that ever. We are always in creature limitations, so that the apostle says, “the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”, Ephesians 3:18,19. That is, we are always creatures, and the growing time is now, say sixty or seventy years for each of us or much less in many cases — the growing time is very limited, and hence there is no time to be lost. We are to purchase the opportunities, buy up the opportunities so as to grow, not miss anything, that we should be full grown and be perfect and complete in all the will of God. You do not want to be undergrown. There are lots of them on earth, but God does not intend them to be in heaven. But then we must make allowance for what God can do in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. But at the same time, the obligation on each of us is to go in for these things and grow yet more and more, and it is to the end that we should be perfect and complete in all the will of God. May God bless the word to us.