THE ADMINISTRATIVE FEATURE OF CHRISTIANITY (1)
[p. 63] THE ADMINISTRATIVE FEATURE OF CHRISTIANITY (1)
John 3: 35, 36; John 4: 10 - 42
JT We have come to the administrative side of the dispensation in this section of this gospel, and it opens up fresh thoughts which the Lord may, we believe, help to bring out — the rich thoughts to be administered in the books of Kings and touched on earlier. This section is to bring out the administrative side, how it is based on love. “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”, John 3: 35.
AS When you say ‘the administrative side’ do you say that because it says, “the Father ... hath given all things into his hand”?
JT That is what I was thinking.
AS He is the great Administrator.
JT Yes.
Ques Do you connect that with chapter 4, “if thou knewest ... who it is that saith to thee ...”?
JT Yes. That is how the thought is combining one administered to. The woman has to be taken as representative of those administered to, those who were the objects of the administration. So the Lord says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (verse 10). That is how the great administration of God is set in movement. The objects are set in movement asking, and then agents come, too; part of the administration. For the woman left her waterpot and went away into the city, meaning that she was part of the administration. That is what entered into her movement. Not that she would [p. 64] understand. And then the Samaritans came into it, recognising the Lord as the Saviour of the world.
JS Is the administrative side seen earlier in the first chapter, “grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”, John 1: 17?
JT Those earlier parts bring out what there is.
“Grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”.
This is to bring the thing into view. That is a great principle in the moral universe. Like all other principles, they have to be made effective. And this is to bring the thing into view. We see grace and truth working in the fourth chapter.
ANW Have we neglected John’s ministry in looking at administrative matters?
JT Well, perhaps. I thought, maybe, these meetings might serve us in that way, and bring us all into the thing. We have what is set up in the earlier chapters, grace and truth by Jesus Christ. That is, it is one idea. It is what is so needed in the administration. Grace is the first thing needed in God’s approach to man. It is in the singular, meaning that it came into being in Christ. As any other great principle in the universe, whatever it be. You may take electricity. It is a great principle. It exists. It is there. Well, the next thing is to make it effective. And grace and truth is the leading thought in the administrative side, because, being sinners, we need that. We need that principle applied. So that John says, “for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”, John 1: 16. Not only is it a principle, but they have received the thing. “For of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. It is a steady thing coming in. Persons are the subjects of it.
WB That word ‘subsists’ — does that carry it through this present dispensation?
JT That is what is meant. The law came by Moses. It did not subsist in him. That is, it had no [p. 65] concrete expression. It came in as an abstract thought. In Christ you would have a concrete expression of it. It subsists there. Grace and truth is one thing, and it is in a Person. And this case in chapter 4 illustrates the point. Chapter 3 brings out the last and greatest of the Old Testament ministers, John the baptist. He speaks about the greatness of Christ, and that he must decrease and Christ must increase. So that approaching the administrative side, the greatness of Christ comes before you, He is from heaven. John defines His position. There is no question about His position administratively; and then finally, “the Father loveth the Son”. That is a great fact to lay hold of, “and hath given all things into his hand”. And then this solemn fact — “He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him”. That is the position of the believer and the unbeliever. They are divided. The one has eternal life, and the other has the wrath of God abiding on him, that is, an insubject person.
Ques Is it meant that administration is carried on by the Spirit through the saints?
JT Well, it is. We shall come to that when we come to the official side, the agents that are used. Here it is the great central thought, all things in the hand of one Person. We shall have subdivisions later. We shall see other agents later. And we are apprised of the fact beforehand that He gives not the Spirit by measure. But the first great thing to take into our souls is this great Person — it is the question of the Father and the Son. It is a dispensation of pure grace.
AM'd Do we see this in type in Pharaoh giving to Joseph? He put Joseph over the land.
JT Well, yes. But you have the thought here of the Father loving the Son. It does not say that Pharaoh loved Joseph. There is no language of [p. 66] relationship, no family relationship at all. Here it is a pure family relationship.
HE Do you get the thought in Paul committing to Timothy?
JT That is good.
Ques Would you say that grace and truth subsist in the Son as having been here in time to set it forth, having been sent by the Father?
JT It is a great general principle. What John says does not simply refer to what He was here in the flesh. This was written after Christ had gone to heaven. That is, it is the present time. The gospel was written after Christ had died and had gone into heaven.
Rem Grace and truth did not subsist in Moses.
JT No. It had no concrete expression. But now we have the great moral system subsisting in one Person, up there, so as to be effective. The system is now set up and it is being effective.
JS And the exemplification of it was set forth in chapter 4.
JT That is to illustrate how the thing works out. “Of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. They are witnesses of the great fact that grace is there. One wave after another. Chapter 4 shows how a poor sinner is administered to. She becomes part of it. You have the idea of a vessel in her.
Rem Your speaking of electricity is a good example, because it speaks of an abstract element that has to be harnessed, and that comes in in chapter 4.
JT Quite so.
Rem Would you say that it is “Come, see a man”? It is not an official position.
JT That is very beautiful, how she becomes interested in the Man so as to speak of Him. She becomes a servant. And the object of these meetings [p. 67] is to bring us into line with the administration. It is worked out in us in measure.
JS He filled vessels in chapter 2, and how He fills this one.
JT That is right. There were six waterpots empty, and He filled them to the brim. And now she is filled. That material waterpot is not the idea. She is the idea.
JS She is filled and overflowing.
JT Quite so. She went to the men and told them that.
AFM Were you not struck with the speediness of all this? The woman coming to the well with an empty vessel and going away almost immediately. Are you not struck with the speed of it?
JT Very strikingly so. She took time to get rid of her natural thoughts. “Art thou greater than our father Jacob ... ?” Well, He was greater. That is the point He made. “If thou knewest ... who it is ...”. She says, “I see that thou art a prophet”, showing she was coming into the thing.
WN Was the thought to bring her into a place of administration?
JT Well, yes. She says, “Come, see a man”.
But she has the official thought. “Come, see a man ... is not he the Christ?” And they went further and said He was the Saviour of the world. It is the Person in the administration that is in mind; how He is going to make effective what is being administered.
Ques Does the Father give all things into His hand because the principles subsist in Him?
JT John himself is the ideal witness in this gospel. He tells the Jews in Jerusalem who the Lord is, and as he sees the Spirit come down he says, “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”. And then we have this great fact that the [p. 68] Father loves the Son. And God gives everything into His hand because He loves Him.
Ques And does the fact that it is committed into the hands of His Son become the background of the anointing side?
JT Well, that is the way it is worked out. First she says, “is not he the Christ?” They say, “this is indeed the Saviour of the world”. We have these administrative features.
CAM We reach this by the way of need. But what impressed me was the allusion to the fact that the vessels were filled. There is a fulness to fill the universe.
JT Quite so. He is full of what men need so much. He came by water and blood. But He is full of grace and truth. The vessels are filled by His appointment. Then she is filled. “Is not he the Christ?” She is filled with the thought of Him. And the Samaritans come round to another thought. So that we are coming into the administrative thoughts of God. They are the subjects of the administration, so that they become part of the administration. “Of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”.
EP Would the thought of the promises of God, “In him is the yea, and in him the amen” (2 Corinthians 1: 20) enter into that at all?
JT I think so. “Glory to God by us”. “Me and Silvanus and Timotheus”. They were part of the administration. And “glory to God by us” would be in that way. Glory to God by the Samaritans. She represents Christ in you. Christ was in her. She is full of Him.
CAM The very fact that there is a question raised, whether the thing is yea or nay, and whether there exists need, these things seem to have served a wonderful purpose.
JT Well, that is your history and mine. God [p. 69] met us in our need, on the principle of grace. Grace is that which meets need; and in turn we become part of the administration. So that John says, “one of the two who heard this from John ... finds his own brother Simon”, John 1: 40, 41. He immediately becomes part of the administration. He finds his brother and Philip finds Nathanael.
AFM Do you think that there is a coincidence that He “has given all things to be in his hand” and the Samaritans, having heard and believed, knew that He was indeed the Saviour of the world?
JT You can see how their mind widened. She says, “is not he the Christ?” They say, “we have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world”. They go beyond her. “And we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world”. What witnesses they were!
JS So that the presentation of the truth would be universal.
JT That is how it works. “The Christ” did not go beyond Israel in her mind. Her mind did not travel as wide as the world. It is remarkable that their minds travelled beyond it. A young christian sometimes comes into the thing in that way. They see the position at once.
WB It says, “Philip, going down to a city of Samaria, preached the Christ to them”, Acts 8: 5. He would be a vessel, too.
JT Quite so. He took up the very thought that she had.
Rem Where He says in the end of Matthew, “All [p. 70] power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”, does He emphasise the same point?
JT Quite so. That is an important point. At the top of the mount some doubted. They were not like this woman. Some of us are not nearly so fresh and vigorous as the youngest believer. He did not stop to prove this to unbelievers. He says, “All power has been given me in heaven and upon earth”. And then He charges His disciples. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations”, and “behold, I am with you”. That is the position in Matthew.
WB Because some doubted, that did not stop the flow of the administration.
JT Not at all. He did not stop to correct or rebuke them. It is a very important matter that we have got to go on with the administration. This woman became a part of the administrative side. At first she was the object of the administration, then she became part of it, in that the Lord used her. She was ministering Christ. She went and told the men about Christ. She was really preaching the gospel. And it is more significant because she had come with a vessel and left it, as much as to say, ‘That is not the thing at all’.
CAM Perhaps some of our minds, when thinking of administration, instinctively refer to Matthew’s gospel. But what I noticed in that reference to it is that power seems to be the great word.
JT That is the thing. To make disciples of all the nations. That is not how the thing actually occurred historically. Paul and Barnabas made disciples. Making disciples is an act of power. Later on so-called evangelists emanated from Rome. But that was not the Lord’s thought. The Lord’s thought was to make them.
WB So in the first verse of this chapter, the Pharisees heard that Jesus made and baptised more disciples than John.
JT Quite so. A question has been raised about the administrative side there. It is a great administrative gospel. Matthew says, one who gives a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple shall not lose his reward. Not only giving it in the Lord’s name, but in the name of a disciple, and then he speaks about a righteous man, too, in chapter 10. The Lord says, “He that receives you receives me, and he that receives me receives him that sent me. He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man, shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward”, Matthew 10:40 - 42. That shows how the thought of administration descends to the smallest thing, doing it in the name of a disciple.
AFM It is not forgotten.
JT Quite so.
ANW I suppose the little matter becomes an important victory in the soul.
JT Very good. It is remarkable how the Lord brings it down to the name of a righteous man.
EP Do you mean that the name of a disciple would supply the motive for it?
JT That seems to be the thought. Carrying the idea of administration down from Christ to the apostles, and then to a prophet, in the name of a prophet, and then a righteous man, in the name of a righteous man; and then in the name of a disciple. It is to bring the thing down to an ordinary disciple.
EP So that the act would really be the act of a disciple.
JT Well, it would be. A cup of cold water only; it is to be done in the name of a disciple. It is a very small thing, but the point is the name. All these different persons are officials, you might say. Apostles, prophets — the gradation from Christ down to a disciple. The name holds, and is to be honoured.
RWS How does this differ from John’s presentation?
JT John works the thing out from instinct. He does not make much of office. So that you will [p. 72] notice in verse 27, the disciples come. They had gone into the city. The woman left as they came, and went and told the men in the city. And then it says in verse 31, “But meanwhile the disciples asked him saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat which ye do not know. The disciples therefore said to one another, Has any one brought him anything to eat? Jesus says to them, My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work. Do not ye say, that there are yet four months and the harvest comes? Behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest. He that reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together. For in this is verified the true saying, It is one who sows and another who reaps. I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured; others have laboured, and ye have entered into their labours”, John 4: 31 - 38. Now, I think we shall see in this paragraph from verses 31 to 38, that before the Spirit of God finishes the subject of the woman, He brings in the actual servants — those who were actually engaged at that time, and shows their position. They are in line with all this. There are the fields, white to harvest. You did not sow for that harvest. He is putting it upon us. A young christian who believed yesterday may be fresher and brighter than most of us. The Lord would bring the truth home to us. There is the field, white to harvest. What about the reaping?
Rem Is it intended thus to expose those who are serving? This woman acts instinctively; she does things on that basis.
JT That is what I was thinking. She works from instinct, not from official appointment. She represents John’s way of bringing in the truth. But there were those there who had official appointment.
[p. 73] How were they occupied? They were all in the town buying bread. One might have done that. Not one of us reaping a sheaf today and the fields are white to harvest!
NW What was the defect in the administration?
JT They were occupied with mere bread. They did not all need to go into the town to buy a loaf of bread. That is brought up to test them several times. They had left the Lord alone.
ANW You were speaking of a day-old christian having a right instinct. What is the secret of the instinct getting blunted? Why is our instinct blunted?
JT That is the point. Here we are, and the Lord would say to us, ‘Well, where have you been today?’ Here is one here. “Lift up your eyes ... the fields, for they are already white to harvest”. You didn’t sow for it, and will not even reap. But here is a soul here. She has just been converted, and she is off reaping.
JS So that their spiritual conception of it was not in line with it at all.
JT Quite so. They were putting it off. “Do not ye say, that there are yet four months ... ?” That is what the officials are apt to say. We are apt to say, ‘Well, there is nothing much to do. We can do something else. All of us will go into the town to buy a little bread’. That is their attitude. That is what they say, ‘It is four months ahead’. But He says, ‘The harvest is already here’.
CAM They were going by a calendar.
Rem Very helpful. They would say, ‘We have got to wait a certain time’. Today things are not done on that basis at all. So that nothing is done in a cut-and-dried manner.
JT No. John would bring in the living side of things. From the standpoint of administration, it is to be worked out from the persons who are the [p. 74] objects of the administration. They immediately become part of the administration, and the official ones are set aside.
Rem Would you say that Peter was helped in being in association with John? In Acts 3 he says to the lame man, “rise up and walk”.
JT Quite so. He was ready there to reap the harvest.
CAM Does this account for the Lord using an agricultural illustration here? It is not like commanding an army. He is speaking about agriculture.
Really, this is something we have to observe that is independent of us.
JT It is suggestive of life. The first suggestion of life in Genesis 1 was the agricultural side. And that is what John is dealing with here. There is the fruit; there it is, already there.
JS So that in the opening of the gospel we have, “In him was life ...”. Now we see actual development. Is not the key seen in the will of God? My meat is to do the will of God.
JT Quite so. “He that doeth the will of God abideth for ever”.
Rem About our care meetings: is there not a tendency with us to put the things to be done on the behalf of appointment rather than on the behalf of those who are willing and ready to do them? When we appoint those to take charge of the gospel, or the money, or whatever it be, we must have a care meeting as to who they should be.
JT The point with John is that the work is to be done. Here is a person doing something she is not sent to do at all. Philip is not sent, he goes. So what she represents is the instinct that would lead a christian to do something because it needs to be done.
JS The point is to keep near to Christ.
JT Well, you can see how she gradually came on here. She says, “Art thou greater than our father Jacob?” He had explained that He was greater. He had already said who He was, but she did not take it in. He did not answer that at all. He simply says, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”. Now He was dealing with her soul. That was the point. It is a question of grace, dealing with the need that is there. And therefore, she says, “Sir, give me this water”. She is becoming interested. The Lord says, “Call thy husband”. The moral side is dealt with. And then she begins to talk about worship. She had already said that He was a prophet. Now she is most interested and the Lord is deigning to talk to her about worship. And what we should see is that worship here is a question of the public position in the dispensation. It is not only that man is met in his need, but there is something for God. There must be return to God.
JS He had planted in her a well, making her a living fountain.
JT Quite so. And, I believe, that is why He deigns to speak to her about worship. All things are in the hands of the Son. He is administrator in the soul. The dispensation requires that God should have something. She is ready for that. And she says to the Lord, “I see that thou art a prophet”. She is coming into the thing and seeing it. I wonder if everybody here sees that. There was no New Testament when she said this. That is the idea. And that is the reason why He deigns to speak about worship.
CAM Do you not think it emphasises this matter of prophecy, and the great value of a prophet? It seems to be so stressed; and evidently is in view of worship.
JT Well, that brings up the whole question of [p. 76] prophecy, our ministry meetings the Lord is helping the brethren on that point. I hope the brethren will go on with it. In the great prophetic book, Samuel, everyone in Israel knew he was a prophet. He is the characteristic prophet. And in the anointing of Saul what comes to light is the prophetic ministry. He says to Saul, ‘You will meet a company and they will be prophesying, and you will do the same thing. You will come into the thing, too’. Saul was to come into the service. I believe that is the position.
JS Do we see that repeated here? The woman takes it on and goes into the city. There is nothing official. And her work is effective in the city.
JT Quite so. She told the Lord He was a prophet, and now she says, ‘Do not you believe He is the Christ?’ That is the idea of prophecy.
CAM The stimulating thing about prophecy is that a wonderful range of things comes unexpectedly before you and you are delivered from a calendar altogether. It seems to dispense with all that sort of thing.
JT The basis of the Lord’s remark about worship is prophecy. She is morally clothed.
Rem The prophetic ministry must have its effect in our souls before we worship God.
JT That is the order.
JS Would you say the Lord cut across the Jewish calendar in order to bring to light the true worshippers?
JT That is the way it stands. We read in 1 Corinthians 14: 23, “If therefore the whole assembly come together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and simple persons enter in, or unbelievers, will not they say ye are mad? But if all prophesy, and some unbeliever or simple person come in, he is convicted of all, he is judged of all; the secrets of his heart are manifested; and thus, falling upon his face, he will [p. 77] do homage to God, reporting that God is indeed amongst you”. There it is.
CAM The eunuch went up to Jerusalem to worship, and when he got the prophetic word he was not able to do it.
JT Quite. He did not worship at Jerusalem.
AFM Would you say that produces self-judgment?
JT Well, how can we worship God unless we fall down and judge ourselves? The Lord deigns to speak to her about things that we do not get anywhere else. She says to Him, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ...”. Now, she had already said that He was a prophet, and the Lord deigns to take her on on this line of worship. “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth”. That is the whole position as to worship, and He tells it to this woman.
CAM In reference to the matter of the secrets of the heart being manifested, your connecting it to John 4 is very helpful.
JT Well, this is pure grace. The Lord was rising above what this woman was. She sees that He is a prophet.
CAM That seems to be one of the great marks of a prophet. Jonah searched all Nineveh.
JT Quite so.
GF He “told me all things that ever I did”. Does that refer to her life up to that point?
JT That was to bring out her whole history. She is like the man in Corinthians, and she falls down and does homage to God. I am only speaking of the actual state of her soul. He knew what was going on in her soul. She had already said that He was a prophet. She sees it. She has not read it out of Scripture.
CAM Clearly she had worship before her. That is the matter she brings [p. 78] up.
WN We do not always seem to recognise the prophet. We might gain by recognising this.
JT The man in chapter 9 says, “He is a prophet”. She tells Him,”I see that thou art a prophet”. He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan.
Rem And you could not have worship, really, until that takes place. I was thinking of 1 Samuel 10. The men prophesy, and it goes on to say, “And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee. And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt-offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings ...”. That does not come in until after that.
JT Quite. It is a remarkable verse on this subject. It deals with this great prophetic subject. Samuel is one that is known to be a prophet from Dan to Beer-sheba.
EP Do you think it is a great point to acknowledge that I have no husband?
JT Quite so. You can see how the Lord became her husband. I believe that she represents “if Christ be in you”, Romans 8: 10. She had come to that. He was in her. She had nothing else to speak about. “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?”
GF The Lord did not reprimand her. He says,”Go, call thy husband”.
JT That is to bring out the state that she is in. One would just wonder how many of us can say truthfully, ‘I see that’. Of course we have the Scriptures to read, but she did not. And she spoke of it. She turns round and becomes part of the administration.
JS Completely emptied, she now becomes a vessel of the Spirit.
JT Quite [p. 79] so.
ES Is not Abigail like that? I was thinking of how the disciples failed. Nabal, the official side was failing, and she came in unofficially taking things up.
JT She discerns David. “My lord”, she says.
EP She was willing to admit that she had no husband. She came in for a new one.
JT Quite so.
AFM Is that why you emphasise the prophetic side in our meetings for ministry?
JT That is the end of them if that is neglected. It is the prophetic side that is necessary. It will cause a sinner to fall down and do homage to God.
Rem We may look for a prophetic word in any meeting.
JT It may come in in a meeting like this.
RS Is the homage in 1 Corinthians and the worship the same? I wanted some help on it. It is the highest word used in this section.
JT Well, it is the habitual word used. It is this very word used everywhere in the New Testament. It means prostration before God.
CAM I suppose the reason we might be so poor in expressing ourselves to God, in some outpouring to God, is because God has not really come into the secrets of our hearts sufficiently.
JT The searching out of the inward parts is very important here. Because we call upon all that is within us. So in the types, in the sacrifices the inwards is so much stressed. It is the workings of the affections Godward.
NW It is to bring me before God, not only to bring God before me.
JT Yes. That is the effect of it. She confessed about her life. That was God coming into her soul.
But then she reverts back to that. God becomes her [p. 80] object. The way God comes into my soul is the way grace has come into my soul. It is God made known in Christ. “Come, see a man”. That is the new husband. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin”.
JS Would you see this earlier in Nathanael? The Lord says, “When thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee”. He in principle falls down.
JT Well, he does. He says, “Thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel”.
Rem Would you say the substance of Genesis 24 is seen in the servant of Abraham stooping and bowing down before Jehovah, and then you get the remnant of Rebecca’s family willing to let her go? She was ready to go, as the object came into her soul.
JT Quite so. She finally comes into the thing herself. “Wilt thou go with this man?” When Isaac comes into view the man says, “That is my master”. “If thou knewest ... who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink”.
WN The thought of worship does not reach the standard it should. The prophetic ministry has not been attended to.
JT Well, those are the lines we all need at the present time, to make Himself everything.
WN So that prophetic ministry and worship go together?
JT Quite so.
RS “One God, the Father, of whom all things, and we for him”. Is that worship?
JT That is right. “One Lord, Jesus Christ ... and we by him”.
Rem Prophetic ministry clears the ground.
JT Yes, it does.
JS The matter of bringing it right into the presence of the person — is not that [p. 81] the point here?
JT Yes. Worship is induced. God comes before you.
WN I thought prophetic ministry was more than clearing away. It is a building up.
JT Well, yes. God is brought to us. So that in 1 Samuel 19 the prophets are prophesying and Samuel is presiding over them. It is being carried on in great power, so that Saul, a murderer, is brought under the power of it. I believe it is our great stay at the present time when the world is in apostasy.
It is our great stay. Saul comes into the power of it. He comes to take David and slay him, and in doing so he is exposed. Well, we should see how the official servants, the disciples, are not made much of, still the Lord says, “Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest ... he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together”. What a beautiful thing that is, that you are reaping. He that reaps. Well, if the fields are white to harvest, why do not I reap? And you will gather fruit to life eternal. He that sows and he that reaps rejoice together, if you do what your hands find to do. Do not wait to be sent. If the harvest is there, reap it, and you will get life eternal; and then rejoicing together.
Rem While it is true the Son was sent, He also comes. He came of Himself.
JT That is what comes out here. “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”. He does not give up at all. The disciples were not doing it that day.
EP Do you think it brings you intimately into touch with the One who sowed? I was thinking of Paul and Silas in prison. Their hearts were touched by the One who had sowed in that field.
JT Yes. And they were rejoicing with Him. We must keep our eyes open for anything that God is doing and reap it.
[p. 82] Rem We should not be behind the seasons. We may miss the whole thing.
CAM Evidently the fruit was unexpected. The answer the prophet had to all his words — the man shows up with the fruits of life.
JT When Naomi and Ruth came back to Bethlehem the reaping was going on. Paul speaks of the glad tidings of the blessed God.