THE WAYS OF GOD IN THE GOSPEL
[p. 4] THE WAYS OF GOD IN THE GOSPEL
This epistle is addressed to one who was by birth a Jew. It was to establish on a broad platform the ways of God in the gospel. The reason is given in verses 15 and 16 of chapter 3. This is a very different idea from all that was in the mind of the Jew in regard to God. The Jew looked upon God as a kind of national God, but here all is on the broad platform of the gospel. Christ gave Himself a ransom for all, and it shows the place which the house of God has in respect of God’s ways in the testimony.
The first great thing for the servant was how to behave himself in the house of God — this is most important. Many think that because they have the Scriptures they are independent of the house of God. If a man has not learnt how to behave himself in the house of God, he cannot be an effective servant because the house of God is the pillar and base of the truth. The house of God is the assembly of the living God — it is still here. If a man receives light from God, He will put him in circumstances where he can carry it out. The two things go together — the enlightenment and the circumstances in which you can carry it out — where you can conduct yourself on the principles of the house of God. This is individual. One has to find out what the house of God is by the Spirit, which is innate in every christian. The house of God is soon found when people are conscious of the presence of the Spirit. It is astonishing how soon people are clear as to the house of God when they are clear as to the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit brings us into the house — it is a place of prayer, a place where God dwells and where you get acquainted with God and you learn what is suited to Him. You never find the house of God spoken of in any epistle to [p. 5] the church. It is spoken of either in the catholic epistles, such as Peter’s, or it is to the servant.
You have the temple in Corinthians, but it was characteristic there — it was their place and privilege. He was impressing upon the Corinthians holiness and unity. The temple is not so wide a thought as the house — the former being connected more with sanctity. The temple of God is holy. You get God’s family, which is God’s house or His household. The “house of Aaron” meant Aaron and his descendants — that is the idea of house now; those born of God are His house. Thus a christian is never out of the house for he forms part of it. Jew and gentile are built together, thus it covers the whole company of God’s chosen. This is why it is not a local assembly. It is the house of God because God dwells there. As a man is known by his house so God is to be known in His house as a Saviour God and a God of grace — His children are to be the expression of this. God gave testimony to Israel but very little testimony went out from Israel, but now the house is evangelical. The work of God through the evangelist should go on whatever the state of confusion in the world, because the house is still there.
Baptism brings you into the system of christianity in contrast to judaism. It brings you into the “court which is without”, Revelation 11: 2. John was to measure the altar and the temple and the worshippers — the true thing — but not the court without. Children do not form part of the house of God but they are in the kingdom, “for the kingdom of the heavens is of such” (Matthew 19: 14), and they come within the court of the temple but do not form part of the house itself.
The epistles are addressed to those who were on the ground of profession. What characterises the house of God is life, it cannot go beyond the limits of the Spirit; it is a spiritual house. The “great house” is the system of profession built up by man and it will be [p. 6] rejected. The house of God is composed of those who obey the gospel of God. Those who do not obey are left to judgment on account of the jealousy of God with regard to His children. There is no confusion in what is of God: the confusion is in what man has set up. What has been built by Christ has been obscured — but it is there all the same. Everything is of the living God — the christian is the child of the living God — everything is connected with the living God who has come out in the power of resurrection. You cannot connect a dead world with a living God — death is upon all else.
“My house” is the centre of approach for all the world (Isaiah 56: 1 - 8). It gives you the idea of it — a centre of gathering, not only for Israel but for all nations. Jehovah was the God of the whole earth. The Spirit of adoption brings you beyond anything of earth. A man goes up to the house of God in his own soul, in the apprehension of it. All progress must be spiritual. First we go into the courts of the tabernacle and eventually find ourselves in God’s house. We never can know God except in His own house. Every child of God who has the Spirit forms part of God’s house. Every justified person has the Spirit.
The point in 1 Timothy 2 is “testimony” — what suits God. If I go into a man’s house I study him because I would like to be in accord with that person and with his mind. So, in God’s house both the men and the women have to be in accord with God. The house of God is known by the prevalence of unity. The house of God is what God has set up here on earth — it is the work of God and no one had any hand in building it but Christ. Responsibility connects itself with the ground people take. If you take the place of a servant you have to be faithful. Christ is Son over God’s house but you are companions of Christ there. You could not enter the holiest save as in the house of God. The house of God will ultimately take in the whole universe;
“... whose house are we, if ..”. (Hebrews 3: 6) — that is we are tested. The Spirit of God will not own them unless they hold fast.
The thought of affection and love is proper to the house of God because God is there known according to His nature. Piety ought to be the great characteristic of the house of God. Faith is the introduction into God’s things, but piety brings God into my things and there is a lack of piety in christians generally. The knowledge of God in the house ought to beget piety and confidence. It is a mystery because the care of God to His children is not manifest! There is no moment of your lifetime when you are not of God’s house. It would be bordering on irreverence for any one christian to address God as “my Father”. In approaching God, as Father, you have to acknowledge that you are one of many children. You say ‘our Father’ — the Lord only could say “my Father”. God dwells in His house and His testimony is where God is. The saints in chapter 2 are looked upon as in a place of intercession in connection with the testimony of God to the world, and His mind and attitude to the world. In going out in testimony men ought to carry the sense of the house with them; and to enter into the mind of God who will have all men to be saved. We should take character from God. We testify that the “Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world”, 1 John 4: 14. You hold forth the word of life. Every christian has a certain responsibility with regard to evangelistic work; first in intercession and then in the conduct of the men and the women which often hinders the testimony. They may very easily hinder it — they must not falsify his testimony. If a man does not lift up holy hands and if a woman adorns herself in worldly attire, they give people the impression that God is going on with the world. But God is acting entirely outside the world’s order. God is one, and in regard to the testimony of God it is outside all nationality. The [p. 8] church looks at the world as a whole and prays for all, it has no national place. It desires the quiet of the world that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. No European country has any national existence in the eye of God, they form part of the fourth beast (the Roman power).
We should honour the Government and the powers that be. I am bound to honour the king and to submit to the powers that be. The house of God is world-wide, that is the great point. The relation of God in regard to His house does not recognise any nationality. We want to get an apprehension of the house of God as morally outside of the whole world’s system. Verse 4 means that there is nothing in God’s mind against any man. His nature is love and it is love toward all men. We must not stretch the passage to mean “purpose”. Why do not men get the benefit of God’s testimony? It is not God’s fault that men are not brought into the enjoyment of His grace: it is man’s fault. It is in the consciousness of this that we go out with the gospel, but the practical difficulty is that christendom knows it.