“TOGETHER”

A. J. E. Temple

Genesis 22: 4–9; Romans 16: 3, 4

I am touched, beloved, by what our brother said

in prayer as to our brethren doing things together. That should always characterize the way we act. Our brother had in mind, of course, particularly our young brethren who have been married today, but it would be seen in the way we act in our local assemblies; it should be seen in that relation to which our brother was referring, husband and wife.

Before I turned to Romans 16, well used on occasions like this, I felt constrained to read from Genesis 22 where we have these two references to “And they went both of them together”.

What lies behind our being together this afternoon at the time of a marriage, a time of ministry, a time when we are happy to commend to the Lord our young brethren who have been married today? What marks an occasion like this off from worldly marriages? (What a low standard there so often is—with persons in the world and their marriages right from the day, of the marriage, and, alas, in these days, in the time before the marriages). Remember.

Abraham had himself been called out from the midst of idolatry, and now he is entrusted by God in this way, and Abraham and Isaac “went both of them together”. What marks the occasion of a marriage of believers, a marriage which we verily can see as a marriage in the Lord, what marks it out, beloved, is the work of God, and the way that God has gone on Himself. So I read of the Father and the Son typically, and the way that They went together to lay that great basis that there might be blessing for man. This would make us think of the way the gospel has secured so many. Were it not for the gospel our brethren would not have found themselves together; and were it not for the pathway we enjoy, what God has done, and the fellowship that He has given us, our brethren would not have found themselves together, but behind all that lies the way that God has acted, the Father and the Son have gone together to that great sacrifice. What a cost to the Father! What

a cost to the Son!

May we ever bear in mind that behind our being able to have a happy occasion like this is that we are together because of the work of God, the work of God in our brother and the work of God in our sister. But the fact that God has laid the great and glorious foundation, the precious work of Christ, lies behind it all. May our brethren ever keep that in their view in the whole of their pathway together, be it long, be it short—for we indeed look for the coming of our Lord Jesus to take away all the saints. As I said, I felt constrained to speak firstly of “And they went both of them together”.

In Romans 16 also we get persons who had done things together, who had thought together, moved together, been in fellowship together, served together. This had reached right to this point that Paul says, “who for my life staked their own neck”. It had reached such a point that two persons are seen as having one neck. Oh what profit there can be from such a marriage as is seen with Prisca and Aquila. We have often spoken of the three times in which the husband is mentioned first, and the three times in which the wife is mentioned first. I know of no other husband and wife who are mentioned six times together in the New Testament, and what is seen is that they had one neck.

O, beloved, I think that our brother’s prayer would lead on to this, doing things together. It may not come to hazarding the neck, as it did with Aquila and Priscilla in those dangerous days, but having one neck can be seen in our day, one neck for the testimony, one neck in support of the truth, for it was for Paul they staked their own neck. O, beloved, what potential! I thought as sitting here what potential there is from a marriage, right

through to this point of having “staked their own neck”, of having one neck. May our beloved young brethren who have been married today reach through to this, for the Lord’s sake.