WHAT IS OUR OWN
R. D. Plant
Ephesians 5: 22–29; Acts 4: 23, 24, 31–35; 2 Kings 4: 12, 13
The brethren will see that these scriptures speak of what is our own. The scripture in Ephesians speaks about “your own husbands”, and “your own wives”, in Acts “their own company”, and in Kings “mine own people”. It is very affecting, beloved brethren, that as Paul parts tearfully from the company at Ephesus he speaks about ““the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. It is a wonderful thing when love operates. Christianity is a system which is dominated by love, by affection, and it is a very wonderful thing when we are moved from our hearts as to things.
Sometimes our conscience tells us we ought to do certain things, and sometimes we do things as a duty, but the greatest motivation of all is when we do things from our heart. I believe these last days in which we are, the last days of the assembly’ history on earth, are increasingly to be marked by persons who are doing what they are doing because they are doing it in affection; not only because it is the right thing to do, not only because it is the right place to go, but because they are like Jonathan of old who loved David “as his own soul”, 1 Samuel 18: 3. I believe that at the end of this dispensation that will be the distinctive feature, that things are done out of affection rather than only from our intelligence. Of course, we need intelligence in divine things, but you consider our beloved young brother and sister, who have yielded themselves to each other in marriage and all that that will involve, and there is a bond of affection there. Beloved brethren, I do believe that the Lord may be saying something to us about “your own husbands”, “your own wives”, “their own company”, and “mine own people”. Certainly the enemy is attacking all those things.
I could not read a better chapter than this in Ephesians. It is not a corrective book but gives this wonderful setting out of things from the highest standpoint. It says, “as the Christ also loved the assembly”. What greater standard could, there be than that? But it is a very fine thing for our young brethren to work out this matter of ‘my own husband’ and ‘my own wife’. Let there be something special in that, beloved. It is not that things are held selfishly, but there is a strong bond of affection; there is something that is not to be easily let go. Let us not in Christianity easily let things go. In Judges, where people went on crooked paths, the roads were not used (Judges 5: 6); it is almost as if everything was falling into decay; places were falling into decay; persons were not visiting there any more, and what happened? You get one woman who says, “until that I Deborah arose”. She moved in affection and the decline stopped. Beloved, it is a very heartening thing to see every evidence among us of affection because I believe that is something which must be seen at the end of the day.
So I do not speak about the teaching of the chapter, but it is a precious section of Scripture. It speaks about Christ as Head of the assembly; He is Saviour of the body, and “even as the assembly is subjected to the Christ, so also wives to their own husbands in everything”. These are very precious things. Things are held lightly around us, as our brother has said. Marriage is held lightly; every institution which God set up at the outset, so precious and so perfect, has been intruded on by the will of man, and sin, and spoiled publicly, and yet here we may in some little measure in our own circumstances work out the preciousness of these thoughts. Then, “Husbands, love your own wives”. We all know what it is to have our own Saviour, now our brother and sister in this relationship can touch upon something that is new—her own husband and his own wife. This is something I would commend to our brethren that they might seize this special opportunity, as taking a fresh step, to make a fresh committal; indeed it is an opportunity for all of us to make a fresh committal in affection, where we might leave aside some of the wretched and mean things that sometimes can occupy us. The reason we are here, beloved, is because God has moved in so great a way, as in that wonderful hymn that we sometimes sing—
‘What was it, blessed God,
Led Thee to give Thy Son?’
We are here today, beloved brethren, because God has operated in wonderful love that has wrought and secured each one of us. And now let our young brethren, in the near relationship they now have, and as being with God in it, enjoy it to the full, and as having something precious from God which can be worked out, become an asset in the local assembly.
In Acts you get this reference to Peter and John, “And having been let go, they came to their own company”. What a company it was! They had all things in common there. “And the heart and soul of the multitude of those that had believed
were one”—What a company it is! I will not only say, What a company it was, but What a company it is. You do not need a chapter and verse exactly to understand what this is; it is something that lives in the affections of every one of us here. So if “they came to their own company” we know what it means. We understand what it means in our own experience, beloved, and what a privilege it is that we can speak of it in such a simple and humble way, as our brother has just indicated. Let us be committed to it, not just as a matter of duty, but as coming to our own company truly to enter into the experience of what it is, where in a sense everything is put into one substantial whole and all benefit from it.
The unity of the Spirit is to be maintained by us, but we have to be lowly about it; we will have to be longsuffering with one another, we will have to bear with one another in love; that is what the Scripture says. Why is it that sometimes as time goes on some seem to become less committed to this thought of our own company? May we be stirred in our affections today and yield ourselves again freshly, as our brother and sister I am sure will do, and be glad to be amongst those who make up this wonderful matter of “their own company”.
Finally this woman in 2 Kings; she says, “I dwell among mine own people”. You may say it is the same thing, but I think it is a little bit different. She says, “I dwell among mine own people”, and gathered here are some of them today, beloved, young ones, older ones, coming to a meeting like this, speaking to one another, knowing one another. What a fine thing it is—some have gone through sorrowful exercises, some through joyful experiences. We can come here and enjoy not only the gatherings but we can enjoy one another. I commend this to our young brethren as one of the blessings that we have at the present time. It is not only our own company, not only this near relationship that they have, but they have a privilege that they can speak about “my own people”. Let us go in for that; find out what our own people are, share with the saints what life involves, and learn the blessedness of how the Lord Jesus has operated in the hearts of young and old; and believe me, beloved, there is a lot of His work in the hearts of young people today. Thank God for it, that even though there is much smallness in many places there are many young people who are interested in the Lord Jesus. Thank God for that! Let them, and let us all, grow in our interest in one another, not working upon the weakness that you find, but finding out the strengths of His work in each one. What a privilege our young brother and sister have in this day, in these last days of the church’s history here; what a privilege we all have, beloved, in these things we can call our own, not selfishly, but in the bonds of affection. May we each be encouraged in it for His name’s sake.
Words at the marriage of Mr. J. Bedford and Miss M. Hawkins. Richmond
8 April 1989