BRETHREN OF CHRIST
John 20:17; Psalm 133:1-3; Mark 3:32-35;
I have been thinking about this relationship of “brethren” and the very great dignity attached to it. The description is used of saints by Christ, a very important thing, and is a title put on persons by divine Persons. It is one of the things that our brother has been speaking about which have been delivered to us. It speaks of a relationship that has been given to us by God.
I thought to read in John 20 to give the background to the dignity of the title. The Lord says, “go to my brethren”; He associates the disciples with Himself, they are His kin, they belong to that family. We belong to Him – we are intimately associated with Christ. What glory, what dignity to be associated with Him. That is not speaking out of turn, because this scripture says that is what we are; the Lord says “go to my brethren”. What intimacy there is between the Lord and those whom He would call His brethren. How much they mean to Him! In John’s gospel, there is nothing said in relation to the moral exercises connected with brethren. Rather, it is the title that is put on them according to the dignity of what they are in the purpose of God. So it is a very high level, but it is a wonderful thing to contemplate that we are His brethren without having to lay claim to anything; it is Christ who has made us that.
In the psalm, we have a description of what God sees. There is nothing mentioned here in relation to failure or in relation to responsibility. All it says here is “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”. That is what God is saying. He sees brethren who are dwelling together in unity and He sees what is there in accord morally with what Christ is Himself. What pleasure it is for God to see things worked out in persons who are in accord with Christ. How pleasant for God! Indeed how pleasant for those who are set together like that. They understand what they are; they understand the dignity of it and they understand the glory of the One who has put that name upon them, the One with whom they are associated in kinship. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”.
But then it goes on, “Like the precious oil upon the head”. That has in mind the anointing, it has in mind glory, it has in mind distinction, it has in mind how God has separated brethren to Himself. “Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments”. Aaron, as the brethren will be well aware, is the one who is the priest for God. At the time of his anointing, he was anointed first without blood, according to what God saw and what he would be, “Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments; As the dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion”. It is Christ where He is and His brethren with Him. It is not limited to us, but we should be in the enjoyment of it. “As the dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion”; we can take account of that. God established Zion. It is a wonderful privilege to be here under the eye of God associated with Christ, the Man of His choice. There is responsibility that goes with it, of course, but it is a wonderful privilege and there is wonderful glory.
Keeping those two things in mind, we come to Mark and this reference to the same One who bestows that title of brethren upon His own in John. There were those in this scripture who spoke to the Lord in relation to His natural family, who spoke to Him about what they felt were His family’s rights upon Him. They would like His natural family to have part in the company, but what does the Lord say? Is He hard? No, He is not hard. He puts everything into perspective, “And looking around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him”. He takes full cognisance of everybody and everything that was there. “And looking around in a circuit at those that were sitting around him, he says, Behold my mother and my brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and sister, and mother”.
Now we come to the side of responsibility that goes along with the dignity and the glory of what it is to be of Christ’s brethren. This is, or should be, true of all Christians. Is it true of us? It is “whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and sister, and mother”. To do the will of God involves piety; to do the will of God involves submission. It involves being subject to the Lord as Master and to all His rights. You do not do your own will, you do not touch what is contrary to Him, you do not set your own principles. Why? Because you are one of His brethren. You do not do these things because they are not in accord with the will of God. If you set yourself against the will of God, are you in accord with the dignity of the title that Christ has put upon you? That is the reality of what it is to be one of His brethren. So to do the will of God involves commandment. Where do the commandments come from? They come from the Lord, the One who is your Master. If you go to 1 Corinthians, you get instruction about what is proper to the body, what is proper to fellowship, what is proper to associations. If you go to 2 Corinthians, you get instruction about what is clean and unclean, the things you should touch and not touch, and persons you should associate with and those you should not associate with. If you go to Timothy, you see that all these things are divine commandments and they are in accord with the will of God. Are you going to set them aside? And if you do, are you in accord with the glory and the dignity that belongs to the relationship of being His brethren? It is a very searching thing.
The Lord says in John’s gospel, “He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me” (John 14:21), then He goes on to say “he will keep my word” (v.23). That is in line with how Luke takes up the thought of brethren because in Luke, the Lord does not say anything about the will of God. What does He say? “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it”. The word of God is like a treasure. You are going to take the word of God which involves the feelings and the mind of God, and you are going to hold it like a treasure, because of where it came from and because of whose it is. So it says “But he answering said to them, My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it”. You might say, This is what I think, this is what I should do. But we are to hear the word of God. What governs your actions, what governs your associations, what governs your links with persons that you are in fellowship with? What governs your links with other believers? What governs your relations with all of them? Not exactly commandments. If you are entering into association with Christ, you will understand that some things, while not exactly being against His rights, though they may be, would upset His feelings. That takes a great deal more intimacy, it takes a great deal more nearness to Christ, and your will can never enter into that. How can it? The Lord owns as His brethren those who hear the word of God and do it. He does not just put the title on them, He owns them to be such. That is a most remarkable thing, because the unity that it speaks about in Psalm 133 is a very precious thing in the sight of God. That unity is a hard thing to arrive at in a scene that is filled with so much that is contrary to God, and I include myself in that, but how do you arrive at this unity? By cleaving to Christ.
You can read at the beginning of 2 Samuel of what happened at the time when Saul was gone and David took the throne. What happened then is there were persons who did not cleave to the rights of God, and they did not cleave to David, or to the thought that David had been anointed, and that he had a right to exercise his rule. In chapter 5, there were Jebusites who were found to be in the land. They had been contenders with the people of Israel, had set themselves up in Jerusalem and were continually fighting against Israel. They had not been put out of the land (Judges 1:21; 3:5,6) and the children of Israel began to marry with them. God’s people were content to live with them, saying as it were ‘We will not fight any more if we marry together and everything will be fine’. But these Jebusites were the very persons who were in the city of Jerusalem and said that David had no place there and would never take it. David put them all out and then he began to build from the Millo and inward (2 Sam 5:9), and unity is arrived at. What does it mean? Everything that is contrary to the rights of Christ, all that is natural, every kind of relationship that is not in accord with the rights of Christ are put away, and this leads to unity. So David built and then there is prosperity, then you arrive at “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”. It is a wonderful thing, it is a great privilege to have that title and it is a great responsibility to carry it for Christ’s sake in a scene that is contrary to Him.
May we be helped and may we be encouraged to hold that in all the dignity of what it is when we are by ourselves and when we are with one another. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Edinburgh
26 May 2015
T.W. Lock