(ii) THINGS NOT SEEN

David Hutson

2 Corinthians 4: 17, 18; Acts 11: 22-24 (“… and of faith”)

Our brother has referred to our looking towards the goal and I have been thinking much of this reference to looking not “at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen”. As has been said already, we are in wilderness conditions, but we are not to be occupied with them in the sense that they would hinder us in the pathway to which our brother has referred, but we are to look at the things that are not seen, “… but those that are not seen eternal”. I thought of it as pondering what the things are that we can see that are not seen. This scripture has often come to us and we have thought of those blessed realities that are spoken of in the Scriptures. It says, “have your mind on the things that are above”, Col 3: 2. They would be things that are not seen but they are where the Christ is. Our brother has referred to the way that He is coming and then it says, “we see Jesus” (Heb 2: 9), not seen by natural sight, but nevertheless very real to faith. I have also thought in relation to what we had before us on Lord’s Day as to our position – this wonderful relationship that we are brought into – as sons. I think it was said that if we really realised this, and took account of one another in this way, what unity it would promote among us. That would be a question then of what we see, what we see in one another. There are things that are not seen by the natural vision which are to be seen in persons. For instance, regarding the man in Lystra, it says Paul “seeing that he had faith to be healed” (Acts 14: 9); there was something there that he saw, not with his natural sight, but it was something which was there, very real. Paul saw it and reacted in relation to it.

I read of Barnabas in that regard because it says, “seeing the grace of God”. What he saw was the persons there who had been affected by the word of those “announcing the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord”. It does not say that Barnabas saw all the people who had been converted, but he saw the grace of God. There was something there that he saw, the result of the grace of God, but it was finding its expression in those persons. One thought of the word when David was chosen, having been left outside, how even Samuel at first thought that Eliab was the man of God’s choice, but the word to him was “man looketh upon the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh upon the heart”, 1 Sam 16: 7. I was thinking of that in relation to the question that was raised as to how unity could be promoted among us. Surely it would be if we look at one another from the divine view point and see one another according to what is not seen to the natural eye. We see something in one another which would be in accord with the way in which God sees us as in Christ and, as in that blessed and wonderful relationship of which we were speaking on Lord’s Day, the greatest relationship into which a creature could be brought in relation to God Himself, “sons of God”. Can we look at one another as seeing one another in that way? Of course these things will be seen and our brother has referred to the time when these bodies will be changed and transformed according to the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then sonship will be seen in reality and we shall actually see the relationship in which each stands to God Himself. Now it is not evident, although there should be some evidence in one another’s countenances that there is something there which is different from the man in the street, something which is very real because of this relationship, persons who have the Spirit of God’s Son. Can I, I say it for myself as feeling challenged by it, look at the brethren, as looking upon what is not seen. If we were all to be doing this, surely what unity it would promote among us, and we need help in this. Barnabas was a man “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith”. It is what we would see in one another as we count upon the Holy Spirit to help us, and what we would promote in one another. Faith also lays hold of that which is not seen but nevertheless is real. Our brother has spoken of what is real, “our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens” (Phil. 3: 20), how real it is. Faith lays hold of it and by the Spirit we come into the gain of it. We are able by the Spirit and by faith to look upon one another as seeing what is not seen by the natural eye so that we might hold one another and see one another as God sees us and surely if we were all on that line, what unity it would promote and how it would be for the promotion of the unity of the Spirit so that we might be, “thinking one thing”, Phil. 2: 2. May the Lord help us, in seeing what is not seen, not only seeing it in an abstract way in relation to what is heavenly and “above” but actually seeing it in the brethren. As we do this I am sure unity and love will be promoted among us and relationships will be as they should be. May we be helped in it. In the Name of the Lord Jesus.