“I LOVE MY MASTER, MY WIFE AND MY CHILDREN”
A.J.G. In reading these passages of Scripture, my desire is that, by their means, we should be helped to acquire a more extended knowledge of the incarnation of Christ, and of His love.
The expression, “If he came in alone …” in Exodus 21: 3 speaks to us typically of the incarnation. The love of Christ is manifested clearly by this fact. The first object of this love is God Himself: “I love my master” and “he shall be his bondman for ever”. We are impressed by the love of Christ first towards God, but also embracing His wife and His children. “I love … my wife and my children”. His wife, the assembly; His children, the children of God, the saints. The Lord has secured them and He maintains them for ever so that they should be with Him in the service and in the testimony, during the present time, but also in view of what corresponds to that in the world to come. Christ maintains the assembly for the service of God; she will express (in the holy city) what God is as to man.
This passage envisages the great result that there will be for God, the result of the fact that Christ has been brought in as Man with the object of serving. Having expressed His love, and while He does not retain His humiliation for ever, He keeps His position of Servant in order to serve God. It is a glorious service.
In John 14, we find the only verse in which the Lord says openly, “I love the Father”, although it would be perfectly clear that He always loves the Father: “that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do”, v 30. His love for the Father determined all that He did.
In John 17, the Lord expresses the desire that those whom the Father had given Him should be with Him. This links with the words, “I love my wife”. He would not be separated from her, He desired to have her with Him in the service of the master. Christ has secured the assembly for God.
The verses read in chapter 3 of the first epistle of John speak to us of the importance of “the children of God”, of those who have been begotten by the expression of divine love in Christ, those who are partakers in the divine nature and available under the Lord’s hand to maintain the light among men. The world knows them not, because it did not know Christ.
In the epistle to the Ephesians, among many other requests asked of the Father, the apostle prays that we should know the love of the Christ.
The passage read in Exodus brings out the great extent of the love of Christ as well as the results which are secured. It is good to notice that the wife is given to the bondman by the master. This thought is linked to the Lord’s words, “Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me”, which would never have been possible if the Lord had not positively said, “I love … my wife … I will not go out free”.
Ques. Can we compare verse 6 of Exodus 21: “his master shall bring him before the judges” with this expression in John’s gospel: “that … the world may know that I love the Father”?
A.J.G. Yes, there is a correspondence between these two passages. Being led before the judges shows indeed that the matter is made public.
Ques. Why is it necessary that the world knows that?
A.J.G. It is a demonstration that God has sent the Son to manifest His love. Christ did not want to bring out His own demands, but He desired to present His movements as having their source in the Father.
Rem. At the beginning of the passage read in Exodus it is said, “if he came in alone”; in the epistle to the Ephesians it is a question of the assembly, and in the epistle to the Hebrews we read: “ Behold, I and the children that God has given me”.
A.J.G. The wife is secured in the love of Christ to be with Him in divine service.
The thought of “children” belongs to the testimony; verse 13 of Hebrews 2 is a quotation from chapter 8: 8 of the book of Isaiah: “Behold, I and the children that Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel, from Jehovah of hosts”. It is clearly a question of testimony; testimony that has a bearing not only on the present world, but also on the world to come: “the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God”, Rom 8: 21.
Rem. We have often attached the position of sons to the thought of the service of God. We would like to be helped as to the thought of “children” relating to service.
A.J.G. The thought of children does not exactly attach to service towards God, it is rather a question of testimony. In chapter 3 of the first epistle of John, our position towards the world is that of those who are expressing characteristics of God.
Two thoughts are introduced in chapter 8 of the epistle to the Romans, which refer to the world to come, in verses 19 and 21: “sons” and “children”. The “anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God” (v 19) and “the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God”, v 21. In the holy city, the saints will be in the dignity of sons and, as children, they will be the expression of God.
Ques. Do we find this same thought in verse 15 of chapter 2 of the epistle to the Philippians? There is the question of children and testimony: “that ye may be harmless and simple, irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation”.
A.J.G. Yes, it is always the same thought: children in relation to the testimony.
Rem. In the assembly, we are sons and serve as such.
A.J.G. Yes. The great vessel of service to God in the present time and in eternity is the assembly. Its service is fulfilled under the direction of Christ; she draws her character from Christ, so that it is a service of sons, great in dignity and in liberty.
But what was especially on my mind was to speak of the result of the incarnation of Christ and of His love.
The love of Christ, as we have already said, has God as object; He says first “I love my master”, and “he shall be his bondman for ever”. He also loves His wife and desires to have her with Him in this service. The fact that he loves His master and will not go out free impresses the wife; how blessed the master must be!
Rem. It is indeed necessary to contemplate the incarnation of Christ.
A.J.G. Yes indeed. I think that in a day of small things the contemplation of the incarnation will help us. We would have profit from considering the gospel of John and especially this verse: “The word became flesh”.
Rem. It is remarkable that love shines like this.
A.J.G. I think that this impresses us sometimes at the Supper. We begin with the thought of the love of Christ for us. But it is important to consider that the love of Christ for the Father is what has set Him in movement. It is by this love that all the will of God has been realised.
We are sustained in the contemplation of this love. Chapter 17 of the gospel of John is the expression of the love of Christ for His own: “I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”, v 24.
The more we appreciate Christ in this light, the more we will appreciate the counsels of the Father. If we are led by Christ and with Him to discern the Father in glory as the Source of all the counsels of love, we will be in a spirit of spiritual adoration.
The expression, “my glory which thou hast given me”, speaks of the glory of Christ as Man, the only Man who has revealed the whole mind of God, and who has expressed it and by whom it is sustained.
Rem. The expression, “I desire” is only rarely found in the Scriptures; it expresses an ardent desire.
A.J.G. It is a very touching word, expressing the love of Christ for His own and for the Father.
Ques. Could we see the rights of love there?
A.J.G. I think so.
Ques. Do these words, “they also may be with me”, speak of an experience that is possible to have in the present dispensation?
A.J.G. I think that that refers to the future, but by the Spirit we can enter upon it now, because the Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. He is the power for us to know now what will be our future part. And it depends on us to realise how far this power goes.
Rem. At the end of chapter 17 of the gospel of John the word know is often used.
Ques. Are we included in “those thou hast given me”?
A.J.G. Certainly. I think that this is linked with the thought of the wife given to the bondman by his master. While the thought of “children” has the testimony in view above all, those whom the Father has given to Christ form the assembly, united to Him, having part with Him in the service of God. The result of the contemplation of the glory of One whom the Father has loved “before the foundation of the world” is the worship of God. The Father Himself is before us as One who is the source of all these thoughts of glory, and we worship, finding ourselves in the presence of God.
Rem. “Those thou hast given me” are the persons who constitute the assembly.
A.J.G. There is in fact no mention of the assembly either in the gospel of John or in his first two epistles. However, John has the assembly in view in his writings. But it is for the last days that he writes and he does not name the assembly; he has in his mind that the persons who compose it are to be prepared, adapted to the place which they are to occupy in the assembly.
In verse 6 of chapter 17 of the gospel of John, where we are: “I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world”, the word “men” has the testimony in view. These men are those who are able to hold themselves in the testimony.
The word “children” supposes nothing less than a full knowledge and does not suggest a state of childhood; the children bear their Father’s character, so that there is a testimony. God is represented by those who are of His own nature and who express His character.
Rem. Is the general thought in chapter 17 expressed by verse 22: “that they should be one”?
A.J.G. It is a great feature of testimony. In verses 24 and 26, it is a question of the assembly’s choicest privileges. We read in verse 23: “thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me”. But there is even more in verse 26: “that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”. That is to say, that we are led to share with the Father His love for Christ. The Father is ready to share with us His greatest joys. When Peter, James and John were on the holy mountain, the Father desired to communicate to them His own thoughts as to Christ. In chapter 3 of the epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle prays to the Father that they should be “strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man, that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts”, vv 16, 17.
The Spirit of the Father desires to produce in our hearts the thoughts and feelings of the Father for Christ.
Rem. We can realise this in some measure on Lord’s day morning. Could we link verse 17 of chapter 3 of the book of Zephaniah, “he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will exult over thee with singing”?
A.J.G. That is one of the most touching Scriptures; it expresses into what blessed nearness we are brought!
The Lord says then, “and I in them”. And the result of that appears to be, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. We are led to take part in the Father’s greatest joys, but also those of the Son. The Son’s joy is to serve in view of the joy of the Father’s heart. Thus we are to have part in the Father’s joy and also the Son’s joy as a result of the fact of being united to Christ.
If the bondman had not positively said, “I love my master, my wife and my children”, the time would have come for him to be separated from his wife. But he has chosen not to go out free. Just as the Lord says: “I desire … that where I am, they may be with me”, and this for eternity.
Ques. You would say that at the Supper the Lord makes us to realise the significance of the expression, “I love my wife”, and that this is indeed what allows us to continue in a blessed service?
A.J.G. The power of the love of Christ secures us and links us to Himself, and we have part with Him in the service of God. But it is also the will of God that there should be a testimony in this world and the saints are necessary to this end; and considered as children. This is the viewpoint in the epistle of John. He addresses saints as children, sometimes even as his children, begotten by means of his ministry; but in this passage that we have read we find the special thought of “children of God”. It is the position that we have in the world where there are two very distinct generations.
When Christ is manifested, we shall be manifested, and as sons and as children, Romans 8.
Ques. Is the testimony of children a testimony of love?
A.J.G. I think so; of righteousness and love. Children must be marked by practical righteousness. I am referring to verses 7 to 12 of 1 John 3, where the children of God and the children of the devil are put in contrast. God can have in testimony here children who have been secured for Him by the incarnation and the love of Christ. We learn love from the fact that He laid down His life for us. This shows that righteousness and love must mark us.
Rem. The best testimony is that we love one another.
A.J.G. Yes, the most excellent testimony is love and the unity of brethren in the power of love. Such a testimony cannot be contradicted. God is love and God is one. It is the unity of love.
Rem. If we realise practically through the whole week what it is to be “children of God”, we will be in a suited atmosphere to come together on Lord’s day morning, and we will go from strength to strength.
A.J.G. That will strengthen us to take part in the reproach of the Christ. “The world knows us not, because it knew him not”. We are here as those whom the world does not know and does not want.
In chapter 53 of the book of Isaiah, we read that “he is despised and left alone of men”.
The world has not known Christ, and it does not know us in the measure in which we express Him.
BEAUVOISIN
6th November 1949
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’,
November 1950
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