THE PLACE WHERE THE LORD HAS SET HIS NAME
[p. 367] THE PLACE WHERE THE LORD HAS SET HIS NAME
We see here that the saints assembled on the first day of the week to break bread. In doing so they left, for the time, what was merely individual, or of household character. To use the language of Deuteronomy 12: 5, they came from their own gates to the place where the Lord had set His name. I have no doubt that each of them could have truly said, “The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to thy memorial” (Isaiah 26: 8). Scripture assumes that all believers eat the Lord’s supper, for Paul speaks in 1 Corinthians 10 of “The cup of blessing which we bless”, and of “The bread which we break”. The “we” is the universal christian “we”, like the “we” of 1 Corinthians 13. The breaking of bread is the divinely ordained rallying-point in christianity. It is undoubtedly characteristic of the normal coming together of the assembly of God, as we may learn from Paul’s epistle to “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. Anything that ignores this, or the assembly order that goes along with it, fails to answer to the place where God has set His name. It is for the Christians who break bread to see that they do it with pure heart, and with due regard to the honour of Christ, and in the holy separation from all that is contrary to the light and principles of God’s assembly.
The Spirit of God would teach us in 1 Corinthians 10 that the communion or fellowship which is involved in breaking bread is universal in character. To break bread locally without regard to the universal fellowship would be like eating the hallowed things in our own gates instead of in the place where Jehovah’s name is set. We must come spiritually to a “place” which speaks of the unity of all Israel in fellowship and in approach to God. As to the actual coming together to eat the Lord’s supper, it is in “every place” where His name is called upon, but fellowship and approach to God are universal in character. While our assembly relations are taken up locally, it is important to see that they are taken up in the light of what is universal, so that in taking them up we embrace, in mind and affection, all saints.
Viewing the saints according to what is of God would lead to our being exclusive of every principle or practice that is contrary to the universal truth of God’s assembly. We should tolerate neither sectarianism nor independency. We are reconciled to God “in one body”; therefore assembly approach to God must be in the recognition of this. There could be no stronger expression of unity than “one body” formed by “one Spirit”, and that the Holy Spirit of God. “In the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bondmen or free, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12: 13). The consideration of this raises exercise that we should be careful to be in accord with the character and unity of God’s assembly. It calls us to self-judgment, and to serious enquiry as to the existing state of things in the christian profession.
We cannot accept that there is no longer anything that answers to the place where Jehovah set His name.