SPIRITUALITY IN DISCERNMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND RECOVERY
[p. 221] SPIRITUALITY IN DISCERNMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND RECOVERY
1 Corinthians 2: 12 - 16; Luke 8: 49 - 56; Galatians 6: 1
JT These scriptures in a general way are outstanding as affording instruction about spirituality. 1 Corinthians 2 has in view the discernment of things or persons; and the scripture in Luke is in relation to young people, how the thought is not to be detached from them, but rather attached, that they should be as far as possible in spiritual environment, so as to come into the assembly speedily, not hindered by literal age. Then in Galatians spirituality stands in relation to recovery or restoration, an important side of our position. There is so much delinquency and failure in general but the spirit of recovery should always be with us; it is here connected with spiritual persons. That is in general what is in mind.
ESH Very good; it is what we feel we need. You speak of spiritual discernment in regard to things and persons in 1 Corinthians 2?
JT It is what is much needed, for we are so affected by judaism in our relations with one another and even in assembly procedure, that we need to be divested of it in becoming spiritual and discerning; for we are in difficult times and times of limitation. Much is put on externally that is wanting in spiritual depth, power and discernment. We need, therefore, to have discernment; for it is said here, “The spiritual discerns all things”.
Ques Is there a reason why Paul speaks in the negative so much? “Wisdom not of this world” (verse 6); “not the spirit of the world” (verse 12); and then, “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God” (verse 14). Several times he seems [p. 222] to precede his remarks with some negative statement: is that because of their danger?
JT Quite so; and we learn by contrast very largely. One has thought of the Lord’s remark concerning Abraham, “This did not Abraham”, John 8: 40. You may find it difficult to find a scripture to apply to any particular thing, conduct or ways current, but it helps to examine spiritual men, whether these things marked them; so the negative helps there: “This did not Abraham”. Being the father of all believers, he is a model in that negative way, and so the ‘not’ here, and also in Colossians, “Have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth” (chapter 3: 2). That negative thought runs through this epistle; the apostle had to confine himself to certain initial or elementary features of the truth, whereas he had that which was more spiritual and was ready to bring it out when opportunity offered. He was compelled to be hindered in speaking to them, presenting the negative side, confining himself to certain fundamental truths; but he says, “We speak wisdom among the perfect”.
ESH Perfect in the sense of being those who have arrived at giving the Spirit His place and having Christ before them?
JT Yes. Spiritually their senses are exercised. The five natural senses are suggestive of spiritual completeness; the sense of perfection spiritually is that you are not wanting in the use of any of your senses, you have the use of them all. Natural features often dull the exercise of our spiritual sensibilities. So “the perfect” would mean, I think, that a brother can be trusted in his exercise, having all his senses and not dominated by natural feelings; you can trust him with the greatest things. One great need in assembly service, order and care, is trustworthiness, that the Lord can entrust us with things. You would [p. 223] not trust a man in certain positions who was blind, or without smell, or partly or wholly deaf; these are imperfections which cause us to be untrustworthy.
FI You have in mind that spiritual discernment is necessary to us in the two important features of reception in relation to young persons or fresh persons and recovery in regard to those who fail?
JT Well, that is an important side of our subject — the discernment of things and persons. The word ‘things’ is used, but then the spiritual man is said to be beyond the discernment of anyone; he is linked on with what is eternal, “the depths of God”. Well, you cannot fathom those depths, and yet you can see generally he is an honest person, a reliable person, but he is beyond the range of almost anyone, even Satan, which is an immense advantage. No one discerns him, but he discerns all things and is able to name what he sees. The first principle is, I suppose, seen in Adam naming the animals, discerning the qualities; so a spiritual man is able to discern what comes up by examination; he is not in haste, he is careful in his examination, but he finally reaches a definite judgment about a thing and he stands on that. He is a most useful man, not marked by vacillation.
FI In connection with the naming of the animals, “God ... brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them” (Genesis 2: 19); so God is taking account of every spiritual movement.
JT Quite so; you will get divine support as you stand by your judgment; God will be with you. That is an immense help in our care meetings and in cases where judgment is needed.
PHH Do you think Moses would be a help in connection with, “We speak wisdom among the perfect; but wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world”, and “We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God”?
[p. 224] Would he be a help to us as seen fleeing from Egypt, the world typically, and arriving at the well and sitting there? Would that fit in with the thought of “the depths of God” as ready to be revealed by the Spirit?
JT You mean, “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7: 22); and as seen sitting by the well, he is free from all that and would begin over again, learning by the Spirit. It is remarkable how that matter comes in there, because it is a ministerial book introducing the great service of the house of God of which it is said, “Moses was faithful in all his house”, Hebrews 3: 2. That is a most remarkable statement. How much that was needed at Corinth! Egyptian principles had to be disallowed and the principles of God furnished, as this chapter teaches: “For who of men hath known the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? thus also the things of God knows no one except the Spirit of God. But we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God: which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means”. That is remarkable, corresponding with what you say.
Rem Moses could discern aright, he speaks very definitely to Joshua, “It is not the sound of a shout of victory, neither is it the sound of a shout of defeat: it is the noise of alternate singing I hear”, Exodus 32: 18. He does not say, ‘I think it is’. Is that the mark of a spiritual man arriving at a judgment and standing by it?
JT I am glad you mentioned that, because there is too much of that when we come to care meetings. It is a question of what is really so, not what I think [p. 225] it is; and it is possible to have certainty about anything, according to this chapter discernment about all things. Joshua was a worthy young man; but, however worthy young men are, they are liable to be defective in the use of their senses; so he mistook the character of the noise.
Rem “For I, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged as present”, 1 Corinthians 5: 3. Is that a man standing by his judgment?
JT Exactly; it is remarkable how this epistle is based on that, “reported commonly”; common reports are not always reliable, but Paul had other reports, trustworthy reports.
ESH Much must take place in us to bring us to this in judging of evil; all that inward analysis that goes on in the presence of God to bring us individually to this point.
JT Just so; in Moses’ case clearly it was a matter of experience over against inexperience in a young man. He was an outstanding young man, but he failed in that point as over against an experienced brother. So it is well to bear in mind that experience is what young men have not much of. Discerning things is largely through experience with God and making room for the Spirit.
Ques Is that what is meant in Hebrews: “Who, on account of habit, have their senses exercised”?
JT Just so, that is what is meant, by reason of habit. When they should have been teachers they needed that one should teach them. If they had habituated themselves to these things, they would have been able to teach others, but they were in a low state, and so we have the epistle as a result. If we do not habituate ourselves to the things of God, we shall be stunted and unreliable in spiritual things; and, indeed, moral things too.
Rem Mr. Darby has a note as to “the natural man”; it is ‘the man animated merely by his [p. 226] created soul, without the teaching and power of the Holy Spirit’.
JT The other thing is Christ in us in the last verse: “We have the mind of Christ”. It is that which God can use.
PHH Will you say a word in regard to this matter of experience? I was thinking of what it says of Paul, in calling over the elders of Ephesus, and later saying to them, “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God”, Acts 20: 28. Would it be right to link up this thought of experience you are mentioning with the thought of elders in a practical way amongst us?
JT Yes, indeed; that is one leading thought in it. So with Paul and Barnabas it is said, “Having chosen them elders in each assembly” (Acts 14: 23); they themselves chose them; not as in Jerusalem in Acts 6, where the deacons were to be chosen from among themselves “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom”. Paul and Barnabas did not leave it in that way, they chose them elders in every assembly, meaning that they would discern what the men were; for in that very chapter Paul saw that the man who was lame, “who had never walked”, “had faith to be healed”, showing the power the apostles had to discern what was there.
So in selecting elders, they would exercise that power as to the men they would select; they would discern that they were suitable. They would discover these elders by their ability to discern, as shown in Paul in that chapter. Then in chapter 20, which is further on in the history of the testimony, the Holy Spirit had set them as overseers. The inference there is that the Holy Spirit has perfect first-hand knowledge of everybody; it is what is in the man that has to [p. 227] be discerned.
WHL Is that seen in chapter 13, where “the Holy Spirit said, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul”?
JT That is the same idea; where you get the Holy Spirit acting in that way, that is the point, not that He does not act in everything, but God comes down to our way of thinking. He knows us perfectly: “He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for saints according to God”, Romans 8: 27. So where the Spirit says, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul”, that implies, amongst other things, that the Spirit knows that the facts show that we are trustworthy men; but there was more than that needed for missionary service amongst the heathen. How few missionaries today think of it! The Holy Spirit alone knew what was needed.
WHL The matter of Elymas the magician immediately follows it.
JT Exactly: See what they had to meet! Who could meet that man but “Saul, who also is Paul”? Well, some of us heard in recent years of magicians being dealt with in China; what has come out of that? Those who attempted it were not true. Hardly anything has come out of missionary enterprise in the last hundred years, hardly anything for the assembly. It is because of the persons being unequal to it. Paul says we are “competent, as ministers” (2 Corinthians 3: 6); competent because made so, and the Holy Spirit knows exactly what men are.
Ques Is that particularly applying to eldership?
JT More than anything; the question of persons being admitted to fellowship and caring for them, and so on: “The flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers” — the word there is ‘overseers’.
Ques Is not the “wherein” a balancing thought? They were in the flock, but overseers [p. 228] there.
JT Quite so; set there as the stars are set in the heavens. What obligations rest on such men! because the Holy Spirit selected them. Think of the travesty today in what is called priesting people, and ordaining bishops and the like. It is a perfect travesty of the truth, features of what is apostate displacing the Spirit of God. He does it: sets them in the flock “as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”, Acts 20: 28. How much enters into that! How trifling is this hierarchical condition, to say the least of it.
EG Spiritual discernment may lead you into very painful circumstances as seen in Acts 15. I was thinking that with spiritual discernment, as being with God, you have to be spiritually courageous to act as Paul did.
JT Quite so; he refused to take Mark with him. That young man had failed. If Paul had not stood his ground there, Mark would not have been what he was afterwards. Barnabas failed because he was governed by natural feelings.
Ques Was there not spiritual discernment with Barnabas when he introduced Paul? The brethren were afraid of him.
JT One is ashamed to speak about Barnabas or Paul or any of the apostles; but still God does not fail to record failures so that we might see that no man in flesh and blood is to be absolutely trusted. We cannot trust a Samuel, or a Joseph, or a Moses, or a Paul, absolutely. It is that we might be balanced in our thoughts; Christ is the only Person who can be trusted absolutely. So, I believe, that Barnabas there at Antioch was discerning what even the apostles were afraid of generally; and he took him to the apostles and introduced him, gave him a status amongst them; and he never lost his judgment, though he failed. He was generally favourable to Saul [p. 229] of Tarsus, knew his measure and virtually said, He is the man for this work. He did not go back to Jerusalem and let Saul work it out by himself; he said, I will go back and help him, an excellent trait in a man.
AW The spirit of discernment comes out in Peter in Acts 5; he calls things by the right name, and said it was a “lie to the Holy Spirit”.
JT Very good; and the same thing holds in regard to his remarks to the wife.
Rem In regard to experience, a man must learn to rely wholly on the Spirit: is not experience sometimes the knowledge of principles with governing precedents, but this is the teaching of the Spirit?
JT One may have a reputation for wisdom, and perhaps sit down in it and become a dark guide. One, such as referred to here, goes on in the Spirit; “the spiritual” is a continuing thought.
Rem What the man is characteristically.
JT Just so.
ESH Spiritual persons often fail; is that to bring us round to what Christ is made to us, “wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1: 30)? All that is in Christ.
JT Quite so; many get a reputation for certain things and sit down on that, as if it were a little throne, and they cease to be spiritual and are not to be trusted. One has seen that over and over again.
ESH How does “Communicating spiritual things by spiritual means” come in?
JT Well, it is a good word; there is a note which throws light on it: ‘Or’,expounding:’’ it means literally ‘mixing or putting together’; as ‘interpreting or expounding’. So it would be just as we are attempting here tonight: “communicating spiritual things by spiritual means”. That is, we are recognising the Spirit of God spiritually among us, so the truth stands out. It is not relying on natural ability; that is what is meant.
[p. 230] Ques Is it right leadership, knowing things by the Spirit and then communicating those things by spiritual means?
JT Although Paul did conserve much and kept it back for spiritual reasons, generally the thing is communicated. If you get something from God, the thing is to communicate it, doing things in a way that is successful, mixing things, putting things together; one thing helps another thing to make it clearer. That is what marks the last days, the conversational principle of communicating spiritual things to one another. So if we have got anything, let us not keep it too long; do not keep it because you think other people will know what you know, because you will be richer after you have told them. The thing will become expanded.
PHH In Matthew 13, the Lord “went into the house; and his disciples came to him, saying, Expound to us the parable of the darnel of the field”. Is that in keeping with the thought of the house of God?
JT Quite so: “He went into the house”; and then in Luke 24 to the straying ones “He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”. I suppose the Lord compressed His instruction; ordinarily a great deal of time would be needed. What an exposition it must have been! the opening up of the types and so forth. So it shows that we may compress the truth. We may be only able to set it out in a wordy way, but it is a great thing to have the power of compression. That is what the Bible is, “The world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21: 25): the Lord acted on that principle of compression, I gather.
Rem The first thing is to have the thing in its substance; the terms will [p. 231] follow.
JT The more the brethren know a thing the more easily you can communicate, with the more confidence.
WHL With Stephen it is said, “They were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke” (Acts 6: 10); and then he goes over the whole history from the thought of “The God of glory” appearing to Abraham, right up to the moment in which they were.
JT Very good; it was a wonderful speaking in the power of the Spirit, but it corroborates what we have been saying, an outline, and yet nothing omitted for the moment.
FVW Are you making a distinction between the discernment developed here by experience, and the “unction from the Holy One” (1 John 2: 20) which the little children have, the intuitive knowledge from God?
JT The unction would have to be regarded as potentiality; you could not think that they had the knowledge of Paul, his knowledge of the mystery, what he knew. It is good to think that there is someone who knows more, however much you know, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things”, is the principle of the thing. It is not that the little children were all instructed as we are speaking of it now, but the unction would be the power of it rendering them independent of man: “Ye need not that any man teach you”. That is, we are independent of all religious teachers today. They would shut you out; you have not got learning, as they; but John shows that you do not need them. It is not simply the Holy Spirit, but “an unction from the Holy One”; a peculiar word that means, I think, the power of permeation, so that you have the thing in a subjective way.
Rem It is important for the ministers to recognise that the saints have [p. 232] that power.
JT That is it; in these meetings our principle is the “unction from the Holy One”, which is the opposite to man’s mind, which is corrupt, even though it be a religious mind.
So, in regard to Luke 8, one thought it would be well to have it before us, young people are to be in our minds, kept in the circle of spirituality, kept where it is; so the Lord had this child in mind in healing the woman, and in His mind they are linked together. What she needed was transparency; that was what she came to, and she is called “daughter”. She is recognised as in the family as a sister, a transparent person, who henceforth will not conceal things that should be known. It is a quality needed in the care meetings and all the meetings — transparency. The power came out of Christ and entered into her; she is of Christ. It is not simply light, but power for healing; so her spiritual condition now is that she is with Christ; she is in the family; He says to her, “Daughter”.
Now the time comes when He should help Jairus; so it says, “While he was yet speaking, comes someone from the ruler of the synagogue, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead”. Somebody says, It is all over, there is no hope. There is no idea of the power that is in Christ to deal with the condition of children. There is power in Christ to deal with children as well as with grown-ups; He even laid His hands on infants and took them in His arms; in another case. He leaves them with others, but He caressed them.
This person who came from Jairus’ house had no thought of this at all. He came from a house where people were occupied sentimentally: what else could he say but the natural feeling about that? He was respectful about the teacher, this someone who came, “Thy daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher”, as if the Lord could not do any more, you know. That is a solemn thing, because what underlies all [p. 233] this Sunday-school business is that you can do better than what Scripture indicates; it is a modern idea. So he shuts the Lord out as if He could not do anything; but the Lord hearing it, says, “Fear not: only believe, and she shall be made well”.
So the head of the house has to come to believe; without that the Lord can do nothing. The messenger was unbelieving; what else could you expect from these sentimental things that go on? “Only believe, and she shall be made well”; all that you have in mind for your daughter can come about, but faith is the basis. “And when he came to the house he suffered no one to go in but Peter and John and James and the father of the child and the mother”. That is, all that lay behind this unbelief in the messenger must be dealt with; it is in the way, it is interfering with the spiritual work. A state of unbelief in a household is begotten by these things. We learn from Matthew that there were flute-players, but here, “All were weeping and lamenting her. But he said, Do not weep, for she has not died, but sleeps. And they derided him”. Think of that state that derided the Son of God! They not only did not have faith but derided Him.
Over against that, He displaces all those people and brings in Peter and John and James. He puts John before James here, and includes the father and the mother of the child. “But he, having turned them all out, and taking hold of her hand, cried saying, Child, arise. And her spirit returned, and immediately she rose up; and he commanded something to eat to be given to her”.
It seems to me that that is a remarkable narrative by the Spirit of God as entering into our times in regard to the young. It is not the literal age we go by, but the spiritual state, because a person may prevent his age being despised by growth spiritually;
[p. 234] and that growth is contingent upon the parents and a refusal in the houses of what causes unbelief.
ESH Our faith is often tested; there was no faith in this messenger, but the Lord delaying to answer our desires often tests faith; so if we do not continue in faith we may not expect the Lord to come in. It is contingent upon our continuing in faith.
JT There is the man first: He has provided him; and between the time that the tidings of the illness of Jairus’ daughter reaches Him and His arriving at the house He provides the woman. If you want the children, you must provide the man and then the woman, assembly conditions, then the children.
Rem So that would be really the father and mother.
JT That is the idea; the child is brought into the assembly. These conditions would be spiritual; the child would be awakening to a realm of faith and spirituality.
AHH The Lord does it here, but He would help us to do it by ourselves.
JT That is the principle; that is how the work of God proceeds today. We may provide for the young people. The Lord was going to raise the child, but in the meantime He deals with the woman.
AHH Things are inclined to be brought in on the line of doubt.
JT Yes, because the children may hear their fathers and mothers criticising the brethren at the table. It is most important to keep out of their way that which would cause scepticism.
FI These were brought in touch with Christ, and as we are formed under the hand of the Spirit in the hands of Christ we are able to give evidence of this; and when a case comes forward for reception, there is that with us that would answer to them.
JT [p. 235] That is the idea; so the Sunday-school principle is acting the wrong way. The Lord began with the man, then the woman and then the girl. You can have Sunday-schools without assembly conditions; the thing is to have grown-up conditions, the man, “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind”; the woman has become transparent, not concealing things; she is called “daughter”. You have got faith, the article is in that person; then the child is brought into these things.
AW Jonathan “told not his father”, 1 Samuel 14: 1. He refrained from what was natural and moved spiritually.
JT That is right. If we went round and told the fathers today, those that Saul represents, they would soon put us out, obliterate us. We do not want to tell them anything.
These are the very best, the workmanship of God Himself is there; the responsible element is really related to the spiritual thought.
ESH This is how divine Persons are working in our localities?
JT I have often thought of this chapter as providing the composition of a local company, the man and woman and child.
Rem So the father and mother would represent elements permanently there; and would Peter and John and James represent those whom the Lord may bring in to give wealth to the position?
JT Well, just so, spirituality.
FHH The Lord “suffered no one to go in but Peter and John and James ...”.
JT In what a state in regard of evil that company was! but what a different element is brought in, and the child is brought into that. In Mark we get the very words the Lord used, “Talitha koumi, which is, interpreted, Damsel, I say to thee, Arise” (chapter 5: 41).
[p. 236] The words the Lord used show He did not despise the young person.
ESH We might well expect the young people to come in at the age of twelve years.
JT Where would you get a child like her raised up in such an atmosphere?
WHL “Immediately she rose up”.
JT Just so. The Lord “enjoined them to tell no one what had happened”. Do not make table talk all around; do not make much of young persons. If a Chinaman or a Frenchman is converted he is talked of everywhere, and in almost every case he does not come to anything. Do not make too much of him.
Ques Is there a link in that the woman had the flux of blood twelve years and the child was twelve years old? Even in a literal twelve-years-old child you would look for the spirituality that would come from an experience like that.
JT The child is not to be despised: “Let no one despise thy youth”, 1 Timothy 4: 12. The person who is young prevents the despising because of what is of God in himself. So the Lord would say, I call her “Damsel”; that word is carried down the ages to us, the very word the Lord used.
AW Does her spirit’s coming again mean that she is capable of responding to ministrations?
JT Quite so; “Immediately she rose up”.
Ques Is there some special food to be given to young people? “He commanded something to eat to be given to her”.
JT Oh, there is; John’s epistle is the guide to that; he feeds the young people and the young men and fathers, and it is in the same letter, the same food. They “all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink”, 1 Corinthians 10: 3, 4. The youngest child in the wilderness had the same amount [p. 237] of manna provided as the father; they were taken on potentially as men.
Rem It is said sometimes that there is not much for the children at the readings; why is that?
JT Well, we are reminded of these things. We have in this chapter, the man, the woman, and the child; the idea of the man is there superabundantly in the Lord Himself and the apostles; the man is there: the greatest spirituality you could get is there.
FI We should not say, There is nothing for the children.
JT No, indeed! If we were to ask the children what they had in the reading, perhaps sometimes we should get a surprise. The children discern more than you thought they did.
FI What about the scripture in Galatians?
JT There is not much time, but the thought of the spiritual is in mind for restoration: “If even a man be taken in some fault”. It is not the fault overtaking him, but he is taken in it. There is no question about it, it is there. Your mind about him is to restore him; “Ye who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted”. So that restoration is a feature that should be always with us, but it is connected here with spirituality.
Ques The man gathering sticks in Numbers was caught in it; those that found him “brought him unto Moses and Aaron” (Numbers 15: 33); is that the thought of bringing all the spirituality possible to bear on him?
JT Quite so; to get the mind of God about him.
Rem There it was declared by Jehovah what should be done, but the bringing to Moses and Aaron would be doing all that was possible.
JT Quite so. In Numbers 16, we have the great rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and Moses and Aaron fall on their faces; God would have consumed [p. 238] them all, and Moses urged Aaron to take the censer and run into the camp, “And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed”. Well, that is grace, you know, you do not want to lose anyone.
FI I suppose the thought of restoring would give the idea that the thing is broken; there is damage done in relation to the position in which the man stands. There is a note in the New Translation that the thought of restore is ‘mending’, as in “mending their nets”, Matthew 4: 21.
JT That is the word. It is a trait of the early apostles as the Lord called them, that they were doing this, they were mending their nets.
FI I was thinking that it comes in in relation not only to the person himself, but to the company he is associated with.
JT Exactly; there is a great damage done to the whole company, and as reinstating him in his position, there is a better man.
Rem The note refers to 1 Corinthians 1: 10, ‘Where all the members have each its own place, or make a whole; or, if broken, are restored to one complete whole, as “mending”, Matthew 4: 21’. That would confirm what you said, damage done to the whole.
JT Well, we have a “Repairer of the breaches”, Isaiah 58: 12. If a brother is taken in a fault, there is no question about it; even then you recover him if possible; but it is spiritual men that are needed, because unspiritual people are apt to have a mere natural conscience that would not restore him at all.
PHH Have we an illustration supremely in the woman in John 8 taken in the thing? The Lord discerned it, and, in principle, restored her.
JT Quite so; He was going to die for her; He wrote on the ground. He would not condemn her, He was there to [p. 239] save her.
PHH I was wondering whether this feature of restoring or mending is to keep pace with our activity in the glad tidings; in the passage referred to in Matthew there are those two brothers “casting a net”, and then immediately the Lord comes on to the other two who were “mending their nets”. Would those two features be subjectively parallel?
JT Quite so; what is the actual reading?
PHH “And going on thence he saw other two brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the ship with Zebedee their father, mending their trawl-nets, and he called them”, Matthew 4: 21.
JT You must not forget “Zebedee their father”; that is a further thought from what we have with Peter and Andrew — “their father”. I believe the family influence is needed, the father would be concerned about the mending part: they were doing it because they were with the father. Young people are not so concerned about mending their affairs in business. I believe we learn from that; the father does not want anything to go wrong. It is a business scene, the father and sons working together.
The father would say, We do not want to lose that brother: he belongs to the system, Christ died for him. There is no question about his guilt, but we want to save him. The spiritual man would stress that side and would not trust natural conscience at all. There are those who would condemn a man for some gross thing but let off a blasphemer. The natural conscience is absolutely untrustworthy.
FI Was that not the case with the man in 1 Corinthians?
JT That is what Paul says, “For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers” (chapter 4: 15).
Rem So he did not overlook the thought of party spirit, he dwells on that at [p. 240] length.
JT Quite so. This is an important feature, the power to rightly value a christian and save him at all costs, not at the expense of truth, but to have this saving element, “Ye which are spiritual”.
Rem So excision is the last resource.
JT Quite so, and even then it is to save the man.
FVW Paul, descending, fell on Eutychus (Acts 20: 10), is that the act of a father?
JT Well, it is going the full limit; he might have sent some remedy. Isaiah said, “Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover”, Isaiah 38: 21. That was a direction. Paul did not do that; it was a spiritual touch, going to the full limit of saving him.
Rem This is so that you do not have to withdraw.
JT You might have to do it to restore him; any way it looks as if he could be restored, “Ye which are spiritual, restore such an one”.