FELLOWSHIP
[p. 77] FELLOWSHIP
1 Corinthians 1: 9; 1 Corinthians 10: 15 - 22; 1 John 1
JT I suggested these three scriptures to give us the three features of fellowship. There are three features and they stand out. First: we are called to the fellowship of God’s Son, that is the dignity of the fellowship; second, the fellowship of His death involving the exclusiveness of it; and third, with one another involving the personal distinctness of each christian. The Lord would have us to understand that we are called to something very plain. He reminds the Corinthians in this chapter and later that in visiting Corinth He did not take up the nobility specially: He had no thought that what was great in this world would add anything to what He was instituting so that Paul says, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things that are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”. 1 Corinthians 1:26 - 31 That is God served notice at the outset in Corinth that He had no regard for human greatness or distinction. What would be great in His order of things would be for Himself, so all the believer requires is that Christ is made to him wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption so [p. 78] that we are set up independent at the outset of the world’s greatness. So that it is nothing to us. And so, in calling us into this fellowship it is the fellowship of His Son and no fellowship can be greater than that. There are fellowships in the world sometimes distinguished by great personages at the head of them but no fellowship can be compared to the fellowship of God’s Son. It is well, for young people particularly, to notice this because there is a danger of young people becoming scandalised (as the word is) by the cross, stumbling at the outward smallness of the things of God: so that God gives us to know that these things are not really small: they are infinitely great.
Rem Do you think that we are fitted for the position by what we have set forth in what Christ is made to us?
JT Yes, we do need wisdom there, and we do need righteousness and sanctification and we do need redemption.
Rem So we get that at the beginning.
JT Yes, in Christ — a subject that is to be worked out later. But you are completely equipped at the outset. God has made Him to be that to us, knowing what was requisite for His own system of things; hence God has made Christ these things to us and that is encouragement for the feeblest believer.
Rem That is a contrast to weak things.
JT Yes.
GN Would you say that the Corinthians had departed from the dignity of the fellowship? They were reigning like kings.
JT Yes, exactly. The apostles were the full expression of the thing, it was what God had made them. The Corinthians had departed from that.
Rem So in the thought of fellowship you have no public distinction in this world.
JT You have to become a fool to become wise, weak to become [p. 79] strong.
GN I suppose there is great moral dignity in that in itself.
JT Yes, it is only as being great, as being truly great, in the light of Christ, that one can be truly small and so when the apostle came to Corinth he set aside all that would distinguish him naturally. He was a man of great learning, a man of celebrated ancestry, a man religiously without blemish, but instead of capitalising these things he lodged with poor people, tentmakers, not because they were christians, but because they were of the same craft, showing how completely he was identified with small things in this world.
I think it is dignity here. In the light of John 9 and 10 we know what the Son came to do. He sets up a system of His own; He builds the house and is over the house; but for the moment it is simply the dignity of the thing because the Corinthian saints were not equal to the truth of the house, to the truth of what the Son would do.
Rem Would it help us if we saw that the present is the time of fellowship?
JT Quite. There is no need for it in the millennium because there is nothing adverse.
Rem Would it call for sympathetic feelings in relation to what is before the Son?
JT Yes. It is a great thing for young believers to see that they are called to what is so dignified. It is before God you need dignity.
JF Is the idea of fellowship that we have a common interest?
JT It would amount to that only I think it is the character or distinction — that He gives character or distinction to the thing. We are part in that. The principle of fellowship is joint partnership, involving obligation.
AAT Is fellowship for the present time?
JT Yes. We shall not need it in the millennium,
[p. 80] but in chapter 1 here it is the dignity attaching to it.
GN Would you say a little more as to the dignity? Has it any outward aspect at all?
JT Well, it is well illustrated in the tabernacle. The outward appearance of the tabernacle was very insignificant. What you would see would be some badgers’ skins or rams’ skins, everything speaking of death outwardly, but inwardly there was dignity. Before God there was dignity. There was essential greatness before God.
Rem Do you think the outward results flow from that, but the thing itself is not for the public eye?
JT Yes.
GN You take the tabernacle as a figure here, because it needs to be viewed as in the wilderness?
JT Yes. It was set up by the apostle Paul. He began as a tent-maker; he was there eighteen mouths, we are told, teaching the word of God, meaning that the thoughts of God came out and through the apostle’s service they were put together in the saints. They were made to stand together in relation to God and one another. That was the thought, so that God was known there of a truth; there was the Jew, the gentile and the church of God. The church of God was that in which God was known, but outwardly it was a very insignificant assembly.
Rem I suppose the beauty of the tabernacle was only inside?
JT Yes. If you went to the meeting at Corinth you would not find the elite of the city there, but if they were there they would not be there in the light of their own dignity but of what God had made them in Christ. You would find in that assembly the bulk of them poor and despised. God deliberately selected them. Just as the tabernacle was made of what was insignificant in itself, so he chose what was insignificant in Corinth and set them together to be known amongst them. Anyone sitting down there would see the [p. 81] saints sitting together and would recognise that God was there. Although it was outwardly small God Himself was there. That is the thought. God would impress us with His own greatness. He placed Himself in grace within the reach of all and that gives the assembly a wonderful place, and hence the importance of understanding fellowship so as to preserve it intact and keep out evil. The moment evil comes in, God has to go out. You cannot have the two together. Hence chapter 10 is to show that the fellowship is the fellowship of Christ’s death. The apostle takes them up on what they were doing there.
- .W. What is the force of being called?
JT The word ‘assembly’ implies being called out. The gospel reaching you in the world implies that you are not to stay there. ‘Not only is this a wicked place’, He says, ‘but I have something infinitely better for you’.
Rem Abraham was called out. Here it is called into. That is more positive.
JT Yes. But it refers to your being called by the gospel because it really is the gospel of God’s Son.
Rem Do you think the curtains suggest the thought of fellowship?
JT Yes, they do.
- .L. Outwardly they were held together by links of brass. Is that the Corinthian side?
JT The first vessel is brass as you approach the tabernacle, meaning that in God’s enclosure there must be the constant persistent judgment of sin. The brazen altar stood right in front as you enter the gate and the fire was burning there all the time. We must be there according to what God is in Christ.
- .L. Would the curtains held together by links of brass be Corinthians and the links of gold John’s epistle?
JT Yes, quite. There was the love of Christ at Corinth; I mean although they were loose and allowing [p. 82] evil they were christians. They were said to be babes but they were babes in Christ.
AAT Were they in fellowship?
JT They were called into it, you see. He addresses them as intelligent persons and in addressing us in this way it is to bring home to us the necessity for consistency in what we do. They bless the cup and break the bread and now he says, ‘what you are doing is that you are publicly committing yourselves with your own hands to the death of Christ: and what then are your outward relations?’ - .W. Is that why the faithfulness of God is brought in?
JT I think the faithfulness of God is the background to fellowship. There is no excuse for saints to be found in evil associations. God will support you in giving up the evil associations.
- .L. Is the thought in Corinthians that you do judge it?
JT You have to judge it for if you do not you have to do with the Lord and you are not stronger than He. Those that are not consistent are contending with the Lord.
Ques Is that the reason why he says in chapter 11 that many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep?
JT Yes.
Rem Does chapter 10 bring in the responsible side?
JT Yes, chapters 10 and 11 both do.
Ques The first chapter is a question of purpose, is it not?
JT It is the privilege side, what God is doing, but chapter 10 is what you are doing. You are blessing the cup and breaking the bread and he points out that what you are doing is in connection with the body of Christ. The apostle is combating what has now become a huge system in the world.
[p. 83] And it opens the subject as to what the Lord will do. What we need to pay attention to is chapter 10. It is a question of our public associations and the Lord is against all evil associations.
- .L. Would it be correct to say that outwardly we walk together in the judgment of evil?
JT That is it.
- .L. Would that be the brass?
JT Yes, and there are boards all round and God is with us in that way. Outwardly we present another attitude towards sin. As God said to Jeremiah, ‘You are like a wall of brass against the hardened Israelites’.
Rem The Lord’s death is the solution of the question of good and evil.
JT Yes, but the point is that in the divine precincts there is no tolerance of evil.
Rem Christ has suffered that evil might be removed so what a serious thing it is to tolerate what He suffered for.
AAT Is this judgment maintained by the assembly?
JT Yes, by the assembly, but each individual maintains it for himself.
AAT But the instructions are for the assembly.
JT Yes.
Rem We have not the assembly now.
JT But we have the light now. God has brought to light the great principles that govern fellowship. There is one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, and that means that there is universality in our relations. There is only one fellowship, and the principles that govern it have been brought to light. And the question is, How am I taking them up? We read in the Song of Solomon, “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts”; that is, her affections are not [p. 84] developed but still she is a sister, in family relationship. “What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?” We must speak for our brethren even if undeveloped and the question is, “If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver”: that is, if she has the principles of fellowship with her, the principles that would exclude evil and preserve good. If she have not loved much she has begun to refuse evil and maintain good. Now you cannot build unless the wall is there. That is the principle of exclusion of evil and the maintaining of good. “If she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar”, Song of Songs 8:8 - 9 that is, we will dignify her. “I” is the thing, so if the saint is that you can take him on and build on him.
Rem That takes in your associations.
JT Yes. It is in the light of the death of Christ that you can refuse. You have the power in your soul and the Holy Spirit in you enables you. You begin with yourself. “If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live”. Romans 8:13 So that in the outward court it was brass right the way through, and was not the effort of the apostle in 1 Corinthians to bring the saints there into accord with brass?
JT Yes, quite. In chapter 13 he speaks of love. In chapter 11 he brings in the love of Christ but it was to beget love in them. I was thinking in regard to principles being recovered of what some of us were speaking of with regard to the type in Leviticus — the type of leprosy and the cleansing of leprosy. It says, “If a sore of leprosy is in a garment, … or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof”. Leviticus 13:47 - 48 In ordinary cloth it is in the warp and woof. I referred to it so as to see that if we do not apply the principles that govern fellowship, the leprosy will be in the warp even if you put in a good weft. Even if the weft be clear the leprosy is there. The apostle was there [p. 85] eighteen months teaching the word of God. It involved laying down definite principles for them: and what kind of warp did he put in for them? Now the warp is that part of the cloth laid on by him and it runs the entire length of the cloth, the weft is what is put in by hand — it is what I do, my daily experience and practice. The apostle says, “I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth”. 1 Corinthians 3:10 The apostle laid the warp for them and he says, ‘You have to put in a good weft’. They put in leprosy: their conduct was not right: they had an incestuous person with them. Their practical conduct was leprous.
Rem Principles bring forth a generation in accord with themselves.
JT Well, I think principles have been recovered to us. The truth of the house of God came out and was refused by a great many brethren. They lost, and God has ever since been asserting those principles: and brethren brought into the light of them, coming into fellowship as we speak, are really in the position of putting in the weft. And so the principle involved is that there is only one Lord, and the fellowship is one — the fellowship of His Son, of His death; therefore it includes all the saints in the world.
Rem So that even in the day of ruin those principles remain.
JT Yes, to the end.
AAT Here it is as if Paul had acted in chapter 5 and explains his action in chapter 10.
JT He is trying to get them to put in the right weft. This man has to go; he is not suitable for fellowship.
- .L. Would you say that we get the test of what the weft should be in chapter 10?
JT Yes, that is so.
Ques Would you say a word as to the distinction [p. 86] between the fellowship of the blood of Christ and the body of Christ?
JT The blood is the love of God to us, I think; the blood represents the life. Think of what a life that was for God! From its very inception to its end it was wholly for God, and God gave that up. He gave it up in love that we might live, and are we going to live a different life from that? The life of Jesus is to be continued — “That the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh”. 2 Corinthians 4:11 God will have no other life than that but it is recovered for the eye of God and I drink into that. It is a question of consistency; the body of Christ is that there was a vessel for God’s will here. I was saying the other evening, “In the volume of the book it is written of me”. Psalm 40:7 I am admitted into that — “The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” There was a body here for God’s will and I commit myself to that so that he says, “For we being many are one bread, and one body”. I think we should well note the remark “in the volume of the book it is written”. There was that which was delightful to God.
GN So that the Lord felt being cut off in the midst of his days.
JT You see how it is connected with the volume of the book in the breaking of the bread. The question is what is my body connected with? Can I wear a badge? Can I be linked up with a society in this world? I must use my body if I do; and therefore all one’s relations are tested. It is the bread which we break. Moreover I am connected with the Lord’s people: the “we” there is the ‘we’ of universality; I am linked with all the saints. We cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
Rem Before you come to Corinthians it is supposed that the body is presented already, that is in [p. 87] Romans.
JT Well, Romans runs alongside Corinthians; it makes you a board in the tabernacle. We are set up in relation to one another in the assembly; Romans is the kingdom and this is the assembly. It is that in which the order of God is to be seen.
Ques And what about John’s epistle?
JT John brings in the persons; it is persons we have fellowship with. And who are they? “If we walk in the light ... we have fellowship one with another”. John brings in the personal side. Each saint is personally interesting to me; it is not with this saint or with that saint but with any saint. He is personally interesting to me and if he is walking in the light and I am walking in the light we have fellowship one with another. Corinthians is ‘of’ but John is ‘with’. That suggests persons. It is with the Father and with the Son that ye also might have fellowship with us and with one another.
- .L. That would be the golden links that bind us together — the links of affection.
JT Yes, that is a very good distinction. It is a terrible thing if I do not want a christian. I want the saints with me, so he has raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenlies. Love values that. It is terrible to think that I would make up my mind to get on without the christian company; it is the opposite of love.
- .L. Fellowship would be impossible without the others.
JF What is the condition, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light”?
JT In John it is movement. Walking in it is that I move myself in it.
Rem You reap what is the result of consistency when you come to John.
JT Yes. Look at the number of persons you have to love. Love is the one thing that stands by you; it never fails.
[p. 88] Rem So that in a day like the present we would feel the loss of many of our brethren who are not available.
JT I do not think that we should be content until we get them. Keep on looking for them.
AM So Abraham looked towards Sodom.
JT Yes, and he armed his trained servants to rescue his brethren. He is a fine example of one in fellowship. I think it is very fine to dwell on Paul’s attitude towards the Corinthians. Whatever their attitude towards him, his attitude was the same towards them. There are many to whom you cannot speak because of their attitude. “O, ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you ... . Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers”. 2 Corinthians 6:14 Enlargement spiritually and an unequal yoke cannot go together.