UNITY
[p. 389] UNITY
The two chief thoughts that are presented in this passage are unity and completeness, and these two go together. Unity in the true sense cannot be unless there is completeness. In the case of man and wife they are complete, and they are one. In the universe there is unity and completeness, unity pervades the system (the sun, moon and stars), but intelligence is lacking. They move in relation to one another perfectly and exactly, but they are not themselves intelligent. But in the case of man and wife there is unity, completeness and intelligence, and in the body of Christ you have the three also.
I want to bring before you the thought of unity and completeness with regard to Christ: all is working to get unity and to the measure of the stature of the completeness of Christ, that really refers to the church (see chapter 1: 22), the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. The church is His completeness — nothing is lacking. Eve was the completeness of Adam, there was no quality lacking that was in Adam; but with completeness you get unity, and unity is not incompatible with individuality, as may be seen in man and wife. There is a contrast between objective unity and subjective unity. Objective unity is seen in verses 4 and 5, it is what is presented to us; subjective unity is seen in verse 13, it is what we arrive at. In verse 4 it is one body, one spirit, etc., unity is brought forward so as to enforce the exhortation to endeavour to keep the unity. Everything around us is seen to be in great confusion, there is neither unity or completeness, so it is a great thing to come back to the truth that there is one body. These truths have to be held abstractly;
[p. 390] we have to stand apart from these systems of man because we see the truth that there is one body, one Spirit, etc.
We have to take account of the truth of divine Persons; the presence of the Spirit is a great reality. It is sad to stand apart from the great bodies around us, but it has to be done: if we are to endeavour to keep the Spirit’s unity we must separate from them, because we see that there is one body, one Spirit, etc. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, the gifts are directly given of Christ: officialism will not do. Undoubtedly there is much gift buried in the systems around, but gift is there, and it is given by Christ. Whatever gift there may be in christendom it is a witness to an ascended Christ; all gift has come from an ascended Christ, and the thought is found in the expression “that the Lord God might dwell among them”. Gift witnesses to an ascended Christ, therefore gift is of great importance as witness to Him. All these gifts exist or have existed, and all witness to an ascended Christ. They all give proof of the ability of Christ to fill all things; the sun fills our universe, there is nothing hid from the heat thereof, so Christ is able to fill all things. He descended into the lower parts of the earth, and the One who ascended is the One who descended. He descended, He laid down His life; this is applicable only to Christ, not to us; the great point is, that the One who descended is now ascended: the same ability or power is seen in Him descending as in Him ascending. As the Son of God it is more wonderful for Him to go into the lower parts of the earth than for Him to ascend. He went into the grave for the will of God, and that morally was greater even than ascending. Christ — the term implies fulness, and He fills; all fulness was pleased to dwell in Him, that God might be made known to man, but He also fills; go back to the thought of the sun that fills [p. 391] the universe with light and warmth, so Christ fills the moral universe with light.
Luke 2: 8 and end of chapter read. In the first of these passages you get the thought of heaven — glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace and good pleasure — all this is presented in Christ, He is able to fill earth and heaven; but in the passage at the end of the chapter He is seen full of divine intelligence; now as to the thought of Christ filling all things (John 20: 19; Acts 2: 44; Revelation 21: 22), these passages give an idea of Christ filling all things; in John 20 you only get a small circle, but He fills it with peace, joy and the Holy Spirit; Christ is able to fill all things if He could fill that circle, that is clearly seen and seen directly when He rose from the dead, righteousness was there in His death, and peace and joy and the Spirit, they were brought into attachment to Himself. In Acts 2 the circle is greatly expanded, but Christ filled that circle, they overcame all the natural tendency to selfishness that there is in all of us. What a blessed scene! that circle was filled with divine light, they had passed out of lawlessness into attachment to Christ, and as a result were shining as lights in the world. In Revelation 21 we see all filled with Christ, the whole city is pervaded by a light greater than the natural light; the nations bring their glory into it, and waters flow out of it for the healing of the nations; kings, etc., walk in the light of it. You must see thus that Christ is able to fill all things. He that descended — that was a mighty stoop — He has ascended and He has given gifts; ministry is dependent on this, not on officialism. Gift only it is that can bring light to bear on the moral being. Gift is given to bring us to unity, to unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God. All ministry must act on us individually. I would not be connected with anything that would not do for God; but [p. 392] what I want to see is piety in individuals; we want to be before God in secret, and then the effect will be seen in our lives; we shall come out as light in the world, and we can only do this as we are in the shining of Christ. Gift has great importance, because it is really the virtue of an ascended Christ.