"YE WHO ARE SPIRITUAL"
“YE WHO ARE SPIRITUAL”
1 Corinthians 14:37; 1 Corinthians 15:46; 1 Corinthians 2:15: Galatians 6:1
These scriptures speak of what is spiritual; indeed, this first epistle to the Corinthians uses the word ‘spiritual’ more frequently than any other epistle or book in Scripture, and by this we are reminded of the importance of spirituality in our public position in relation to the assembly as here in the presence of this world, for this letter so contemplates it — the assembly — as in the presence of the world, treated as something by itself alongside the Jews and the Gentiles.
There was at Corinth that ancient religion with which God had been connected; there was a Jewish synagogue there, with its ritual and connection with Jerusalem. Then there was the Gentile temple — the religious centre of the idolatrous places of worship; then there was the church of God. Had you lived there, you might have visited the Jewish synagogue. There you would have found a copy of the Scriptures — the Old Testament — you would hear them read, too, on each Sabbath as was customary, but you would be made conscious, if you were spiritual, that there was the total absence of all spirituality in the true sense. It was a dead system. Scriptures read were merely the letter which ‘kills’ — without the spirit. You would find, too, intense hostility to Christ. You might in turn visit the Gentile temple. There you would find sacrifices offered to heathen deities, and you would be conscious of spirituality in the bad sense, for what the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed “to demons and not to God”. 1 Corinthians 10:20. As a Christian you would recoil from that, and you would leave it for ever behind. You might then turn into the place in which the Christians met. You would find there immediately after Paul’s departure, or while he was present (he was there eighteen months), believers convening as intelligent persons. You would find them waiting upon one another, and marked by a total absence of all mere religious ceremony — a total absence of all that marks human religion and religious customs. You would find the Lord’s supper as Paul had delivered it to them. He had received it from the Lord, and he had delivered it to them. They would thus be marked by great simplicity, just as if Paul were present, as doubtless he was on many first days of the week. On such occasions, besides extreme simplicity, there would be great spiritual power, as the apostle spoke to the Lord in regard to the bread and to the cup. No one present could fail to be impressed with spirituality, with the sense of holiness, with divine love. And then presently the brethren would be found together for edification, and one after another would rise and prophesy, or take part in some edifying way in the assembly. Only one impression could be conveyed in the presence of all this — that God was there — not only Paul or other gifts were there, but that God was indeed among them. So we have thus in that city a company of men and women marked by divine intelligence, by spirituality in which God is known, so much so that an unbeliever coming in would fall down and recognise that He was there.
Now it was the continuance of this which I have endeavoured to describe, that the apostle laboured for in writing this letter. There had been a departure from it. A partisan spirit had set in — rivalry between leaders and other sorrowful conditions, so that he is obliged to write this letter, in which he embodies for them, and for the assembly for all time, the law that is to govern the assembly of God as a public body here, and that should therefore govern every local company professing to walk in the light of that [p. 182] assembly. And so, in closing what relates directly to the order of the assembly, the apostle says, “If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord”.
Now, dear brethren, we have the thing brought down and put directly before all who profess to prophesy or who profess to be spiritual. As it was brought to the door of every such one in Corinth, so it is brought to the door of every such one at the present time. If there be any one who presumes to be spiritual, let him recognise this letter as the Lord’s commandments. And so I bring in this feature at the outset. Without it we cannot have spirituality. We may assume to be prophets, to be ministers, to be spiritual, but, unless we recognise this epistle as the Lord’s commands, we are disqualified and out of fellowship. You may say that is very sweeping; it is a most solemn test applied to every one in Christendom. Every one who assumes to be a minister of Christ, who assumes to be spiritual, has to face this test. Does he recognise this letter as the Lord’s commandment? The word ‘commandment’ is in the singular; it is one idea, or as I may say, the law of the house — to use the Old Testament expression. In coming to that expression I would say that I know of nothing of greater practical importance than that there is such a law. No one who loves the Lord is afraid of law, even the law as we call it — the ten commandments. The Lord had that in His heart. Some put it on the shelf and see it no longer. The Lord had it in the most sacred spot. He said of it: “One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled”. Matthew 5:18. It is, in the essence of it, love, as He defines it in His own inimitable way as He briefly expresses it. The first commandment is: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”. Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30.
[p. 183] Does anyone who loves God shrink from that? No one. You may fail in it, but you face it. As one says, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man”. Romans 7:22. As delighting in it, he is in correspondence with Christ. Like the ark of old which had the law within, so every true believer corresponds if he delights in the law The second commandment “is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”. Matthew 22:39. So Paul says, the law is spiritual. The word ‘spiritual’ is little used in Romans, but the law is said to be spiritual. No spiritual person would shrink from what is spiritual.
Then to come to the law of the house, the expression is found in the prophet Ezekiel 43:12. “This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy” “Behold, this is the law of the house”. He repeats it. In dwelling on law, I have arrived at the law of the house, and I want to say that in the Old Testament the priest was especially responsible for it: “They should seek the law at his mouth”, Malachi 2:7. He did not formulate it, for usually the Lord spake unto Moses, that is to say the law comes out by the apostle. It is a question of the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the great point in the first epistle to the Corinthians. If you look at Romans which deals with the believer individually, and then at Corinthians, you will be impressed with the recurrence of the word ‘Lord’. It is a question of authority, and the authority of God, whether it appertains to the individual believer, or to the assembly in its public position in this world, comes through our Lord Jesus Christ, and hence the importance of recognising that the things which the apostle wrote to the Corinthians were the commandments of the Lord. So the law in the Old Testament was given to Moses, but the priest was responsible for its [p. 184] maintenance, for its enforcement, and for its application.
Moses had strictly no successor. There was one apostle. Joshua would follow on, but he was not an apostle. Moses in that way is a type of the Lord. He stands alone as representing the authority of God, so we have the testimony of the Scriptures — the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. Moses represents the authority of God, the prophets the patience of God, and the Psalms the experience of the people of God with God. These are the divisions of the Old Testament. The first is the greatest, and that is the law. The priest, as I said, was charged with the enforcement of the law. Little is made of Moses’ children — of his house, but a great deal is made of Aaron’s house. Aaron represents Christ as high priest, and his house represents the saints as priests, and the priests are responsible for the law. And so, dear brethren, it is obvious that if we are responsible for it, we should know it. Every priest, therefore, that is every brother and sister, should understand the law of the house, for each one is responsible. You will find in Leviticus, in the first five chapters, the Lord speaks to Moses and directs him to speak to the children of Israel. In chapter 6 He directs him to speak to Aaron and his sons, because chapters 6 and 7 give the laws of the offerings, and the priests were responsible for the laws governing the offerings. And so, as I said, it is obvious that every believer should be versed in the law of the house. I have cited to you from Ezekiel the expression “the law of the house”, Ezekiel 43:12 and it corresponds with this passage in Corinthians, that every one that is spiritual, that is to say, every true priest of God, will recognise that this epistle is the law governing the assembly in its public relations.
In the next chapter we are told that that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and [p. 185] afterward that which is spiritual. To enforce this statement, you have also, in this chapter, that the body of the Christian as buried is natural, but when it is raised, it will be spiritual. This verse 46 is dealing with what God had introduced in Adam. He had introduced the natural man, but it says, although that was first, and afterward that which was spiritual, yet it is that which is spiritual that is to remain. Death terminates what is natural. When we are raised we shall be raised as spiritual, and how I wish to apply this to ourselves, dear brethren, is that if we are spiritual we shall not put the natural first. Now that has a very wide bearing. We may recognise the law of the house and be accurate in its application, but when we come to our families the tendency is to place them before the saints. This will not do. If I place my family — the natural — before the family of God, I am spiritually defective; and I am disqualifying myself to that extent in the assembly. So this fifteenth chapter — one of the most remarkable in Scripture, deals with the resurrection, and introduces this thought, that that which is first is natural, afterward that which is spiritual. And so it is written, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” 1 Corinthians 15:45; “... and we shall as we have borne the image of the earthy, also bear the image of the heavenly”. 1 Corinthians 15:49. A wonderful prospect before us. I only dwell upon it, dear brethren, as a corrective against what we are all so prone to — not excluding myself in any sense — to consider the natural before the spiritual. In doing so we are doing injury to ourselves, to our families, and to the saints, and thus proving ourselves to be defective spiritually.
Well, now, I go on to the second chapter, and I want to show how spiritual persons have power of discernment — a most important element — for we are confronted constantly with baffling things. Now it [p. 186] may be a matter of doctrine, or it may be a moral issue, or again it may be a person who is in question, and hence the importance of the power of discernment. “The spiritual”, the apostle says, “discerns all things”. 1 Corinthians 2:15. He might have said the priest discerns all things, for the spiritual in the New Testament is the priest in the Old Testament. The priest in the Old Testament is a type of those who are spiritual. It is not that believers who are not spiritual are not priests, because they are. Priesthood is not attained. I am a priest, because I am of the house of Aaron; in other words, I am a priest because I have received the Holy Spirit. Every one who has the Spirit is a priest, but every one who is a priest is not necessarily so in a practical sense. The Corinthians had the Spirit; the Galatians had the Spirit, but they were not priests characteristically; indeed, the apostle says to the Corinthians, that he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual but as unto carnal, and I fear, dear brethren, that such a word may be applied in a very extensive way at the present time. We are not spiritual. If brethren were spiritual, why all these local difficulties? Why all these questions that hang for weeks, and months, and even years without settlement? The apostle says, “Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you?” 1 Corinthians 6:5. One wise man would settle the matter. Consider the wise woman in 2 Samuel 20. She went to the people of the city in her wisdom. She was confronted with a serious problem. The armies of Joab were investing the city, threatening to destroy the walls, and there was one man there named Sheba, who was a rebel and he had to be dealt with, and to this end Joab was investing the city — an able general about to destroy it. It is but a type of what exists, alas! in some places that I know of at the present time. It was not a rebellion like Absalom’s. Absalom carried a great part of the nation against David, but Sheba was shut in in the [p. 187] city Abel. The evil was more limited — it was confined to a locality. I have been impressed in moving about, dear brethren, that that is the character of things at the present time. Satan is creating a rebellious state of things. He operates in localities: saints are disturbed, and the local company is in danger of disruption and moral destruction. What is to be done? In these matters wisdom is the principal thing, as it says in Proverbs. So this wise woman, as she is called, went to the people of the city in her wisdom. A sister, or a young brother, may look on with folded arms and say, ‘They do this and they do that’, but what are you doing? That is the thing. Have you no responsibility? Do you own no allegiance to the Lord for His interests here?
Well, this woman Calls to Joab over the wall, and refers him to what happened in olden times. She tells him to enquire at Abel, and it was the city that was in question. He enquired at Abel. Every local company ought to be a place of enquiry. If you look for a moment at the passage in 2 Samuel 20:18 you will see that every local company should be a place of taking counsel. It is well, of course, to take counsel at any source where divine wisdom may be found, for there is only one assembly really, and every one in it is available; thus whatever wisdom there may be is available to us, and we should avail ourselves of it. But then, what about taking counsel at Abel? The apostle teaches in this epistle that the saints are the temple, and the Spirit of God dwells in them. “Know ye not”, he Says, “that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16. Why not resort to that? Take counsel. You see this woman refers Joab to this old time principle, and this principle is as old as the epistle to the Corinthians. We are not governed by modern things at all. Christians are not to be governed by present-day ideas and improvised laws. People say [p. 188] the times have changed. God has not changed; the Spirit has not changed; the divine principle has not changed. The flesh is the same, and Satan is the same. It is all a delusion. We have the same conditions to deal with, and this old time principle still holds good. The saints are the temple of God and the Holy Spirit dwells in them, and there should be a humble taking counsel, as the wise woman says at Abel, “And so they ended the matter”. 2 Samuel 20:18. That was the thing, but announcing the principle was one thing and carrying it out was another. Many of us can unfold principles, but fail in the application of them. But this wise woman did not fail in carrying out the principle set forth. She went unto all the people of the city in her wisdom. You can understand her going to an old brother or sister, to a young brother or sister, and saying, ‘You know how they did at Corinth; you know what Paul said. Let us apply it’.
She went to them all, we read. The assembly is composed of all the saints. It was never intended that the assembly should be governed by a group, nor even by all the brothers, but by all.
The offending person at Abel was located and dealt with. The head of Sheba was thrown over the wall. This is the way the principle works, if wisdom is active. The offending party is dealt with, and no one else suffers. Why should they suffer? Why should the meeting be held up for years, all because of a few offending ones? Why cannot they be dealt with? I know very well, dear brethren, how difficult it is, but I repeat again, The woman went to all the people in her wisdom, and we read, “They cut off the head of Sheba”. 2 Samuel 20:22. She did not do it. No one person ought to do things in the assembly. The people did it. Then the army of Joab retired and the city was spared. The local company was saved. Well now, that is what you get in this epistle. One who discerns is one who has wisdom; he discerns all things. He can see through this brother [p. 189] or that brother. He discerns what is at work.
Now another important thing is that we have to act on testimony. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established”. 2 Corinthians 13:1. Surely the assembly of God should be equal to any court in the land, but one knows of things passing as right that are not right. Things ought to be established on the basis of accredited testimony — “in the mouth of two or three witnesses”. But then, in that the priest is to adjudicate. Everything is at the word of the priest, according to Deuteronomy. Anyone who does ‘presumptuously’ resisting the word of the priest, is to be cut off; Deuteronomy 17:12. It is the spiritual element that should mark us. If any one resists the judgment, he is not fit for fellowship. It is the voice of the Lord announced in the assembly.
The judgment of the priest is according to the law. Deuteronomy 17:11. It stands and must not be set aside. So you see, dear brethren, the importance of spirituality, that there may be spiritual discernment. The spiritual discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned of no one. That means, I apprehend, no unconverted person can understand a spiritual man; as it goes on to say, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?” 1 Corinthians 2:11. No unconverted person knows the spiritual man; then it adds, “But we have the mind of Christ”, 1 Corinthians 2:16 and that means that we believers, having the Holy Spirit, have the thinking faculty of Christ, that is the means of understanding and judging things that He had. The believer has the faculty, the mind of Christ.
Well now, I need not dwell further on this. I turn now to Galatians 6:1. It is obvious, I am sure, that this first verse is really important, if we are to go on together according to God. The power of discerning things leads to judgments being arrived at in the assembly that are the mind of God, and that must stand. If you look at Deuteronomy [p. 190] 17 you will see that what I am saying is right. The priest is to judge according to the law, and his judgment must stand. Anyone who did not hearken to it, or set it aside, is cut off; “that man shall die”, Deuteronomy 17:12 it is said. What a serious thing it is for Christendom in the light of all these things! As the apostle says: “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?” 1 Corinthians 10:22. Are we stronger than he?
Referring again to Galatians 6, what is enjoined there is for the priest. It is the principle of Deuteronomy 17 over again. It is a verse for the priest, for the spiritual. What is in view is not only that the fault has overtaken the man, but that the spiritual have overtaken the man in the fault. What are you going to do? Are you going to deal with him in a summary way? No. Those that are spiritual, the priests, are called in to judge him. It is a question here not of ex-communication, nor of withdrawal from, but of recovery, of restoration, and hence the great need of the spirit of the priest — one who can have compassion on the ignorant and erring, since he himself is compassed with infirmity. We are all capable of the thing, whatever it may be, so we act toward the erring one in the spirit of meekness, considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted. You are sympathetic. As a spiritual person you are not going to judge according to the flesh, nor according to man, but according to the priest. The priest should reflect what God is, not only in His authority, but in His compassion — His consideration for man. So, “ye who are spiritual restore such a one”. How important it is, therefore, dear brethren, that in our localities there should be spiritual persons! How can we hope to maintain things for God in the presence of such pressure of evil around us, unless we have priests, those who can discern between both good and evil, and who can choose the good and refuse the evil?
May God bless these thoughts to us.