WHAT GOD HAS ESTABLISHED
[p. 176] WHAT GOD HAS ESTABLISHED
The special addresses which are given in this passage to christians in various stages of growth are well worthy of careful study, not only in regard to what is said as to each particular stage, but because what is involved in the whole really covers the whole ground of christianity. The prominent thought in the fathers is the One from the beginning, in the young men, the word of God abiding in them, and in the little children, the knowledge of the truth by the anointing. If the One from the beginning, the word of God, and the truth are put together, there is not much to be added.
It may be useful to take up these thoughts a little in their particular connection; we thus learn that which happily marks christians in various stages of spiritual progress, and, what is of more importance, apprehend that which God has established here so immovably that, though obscured, it cannot be shaken. It may be well in the first instance to touch on that which is addressed to the little children.
The apostle’s desire for the little children evidently was stability, that they might not be moved by any antichristian influences that were at work. The object of these was to neutralise the revelation of God in Christ, that which is designated as “the truth”. The Father and the Son were denied. The real test in regard to this is the Son, for there may be loose talk as to the fatherhood of God to men, which does not come out of the fact that the Father has been set forth in the Son. The unwary might be beguiled by this. Now the safeguard of the little children was, that they had received from the Holy One that which completed the truth, and made good in them the revelation. The Father had sent the [p. 177] Son, and the Son had sent the promise of the Father. The little children had an unction from the Holy One and knew all things. They had not need that any man teach them. Now this position ought to be clearly understood. Every soul begins with the faith of Christ, and consequent on this the gift of the Holy Spirit is communicated. And, in the Spirit, the believer has all the truth. The Spirit is the truth. The revelation of God was perfect in Christ, and the Spirit has sealed a complete testimony. There is nothing to be added to it. All that we want is clearer apprehension of what was expressed in Christ by the Spirit, and is now made good in our hearts by the same Spirit. Any addition to this must be false. Nothing can be more important for the simplest believer than to see that, in the possession of the Spirit, he has all truth, and that what is needed for the apprehension of it is the cultivation of relations with God as He has been revealed. Here lies the secret of all growth in spiritual intelligence, and man gets his true measure in our thoughts. Men may seek to accommodate the Scriptures to the results of man’s investigation, or to conclusions at which the human mind has arrived; but if this were possible there would really be no revelation. We must have the truth as it is, or reject it as a whole. There can be no compromise, for the truth professes to set forth divine Persons, who could not have been known if They had not been revealed. Thus the little children knew the Father in believing in the Son in whom the Father had been revealed. All this is confirmed in us by the Spirit, and from the time that the Spirit is received we are placed in relation to the Persons revealed; and in the maintenance of this lies the safeguard of saints and the way of progress in intelligence. They have to abide in that which was from the beginning. God is now revealed not simply [p. 178] in names which imply divine attributes, but in His nature, and this has involved the whole truth of the Godhead coming to light. It is a great point to bring home to young believers that they have the truth in having the Spirit, and that in giving place to the Spirit is the secret of advancement, and this in the knowledge of God. And the Spirit will always keep them within the lines of Scripture, so that they can always appeal to the law and to the testimony. But the truth lies in that the living Persons of the Godhead are livingly revealed. And this puts revelation outside of all that is or can be of man.
What more peculiarly marks the young men is, that they are strong and that the word of God abides in them. This does not imply that they had not all that the little children had. All had the unction, and the young men had overcome the wicked one, which refers probably to the false anti-christian workings of Satan. Now vigour is that which is commonly seen in young men. And in divine things it is expressed in the word of God abiding in them. A distinction may be made between the truth, and the word of God. The former perhaps refers to the revelation of God, and the latter to the making known His mind. It is true that the one hangs on the other, but the revelation of God in Himself is clearly distinct from the expression of His thought as to man. It is in the young men that the testimony abides. The little children need to be established by the Spirit in the truth; when this is the case, they are young men, and in such the testimony abides. We see the apostle Paul committing the word to Timothy, who may be ranked among the young men. The vigour is there, in which the word of God is maintained in witness in the world. It is not difficult therefore to see the importance that attaches to the young men. The truth is secured in the presence here of the [p. 179] Spirit, the word of God abides in the young men, in order that it may be kept before men. We are to preach the word, to be instant in season and out of season. And on the other hand, to beware of the things of the world, which are always at hand to ensnare us, and to obscure and spoil our witness.
The fathers had known Him that is from the beginning. The thought “from the beginning” clearly marks a point of departure; and the Son of God, become man, must of necessity be this. He could not simply be the crown of things that existed. He is the beginning, but He is also from the beginning. This may refer to the fact that the true light now shines. This is true now in Christ and christians. God has come out in light, and in Christ is the Sun of righteousness, not yet arisen, but hid beyond the horizon of this world’s vision. But the true light now shines, and the question is what may abide this light. Here it is that Christ occupies the place of centre and sun. As in Genesis 1 we have the light from the outset, and then on the fourth day the sun set in its place in relation to the earth, so in Christ we have first the light of the revelation of God, and then Himself as the appointed light to rule God’s day. He is both “from the beginning” and “the beginning”. I take it that the moral outset of all in the ways of God is the revelation of Himself in His nature. And the One who became man, that this might be, must of necessity take the central place in the universe of bliss. This was apprehended by the fathers, and in the apprehension of it their thoughts were diverted from all else. The world, in which man has glory, had passed from their regard. Another order of things had come into view in which, in result, God would be all in all. Not only had they believed in the One from the beginning, but they knew Him, and in knowing Him they had reached the eternal life. There is in Him a power [p. 180] and energy of life that can hold in impotence death and all the powers of evil. The fathers had realised christianity in the true power of it.
I think that it will be admitted that there is great interest in getting in our minds the sum, as it were, of what is embodied in these words to the various classes; the truth, as the foundation, assured in the anointing; the word of God abiding in those that were strong; and the One from the beginning appreciated here in the midst of a world that knew Him not, and knows us not. And all this combining to give to the christian circle a character which should make it agreeable in the eye of God, and to the praise of Christ. One may mourn how little it is realised at the present time, and any true heart would desire to be so in the reality of these things as to be an overcomer in the midst of the terrible defection.