(2) THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHRIST IN 1 CORINTHIANS

(^[p. 471] 2) THE TESTIMONY OF THE CHRIST IN 1 CORINTHIANS

Rem We thought it would be well to continue the subject of the testimony as seen in the epistles, and that we might now take the first epistle to the Corinthians.

FER We had Romans last time, but we really ought to have taken Corinthians before Romans. There is much more positive ground in Romans than in Corinthians, and the gospel is further developed. In Romans we begin with the mercy-seat, which speaks of all that God purposes to establish; but the point in Corinthians is the wisdom and power of God by which God has intervened to bring to nought the things that are, and at the same time to establish all that is of Himself. Of course there must be the two sides. God intended on the one hand to bring to nought certain things, and we see the way in which He did it; but on the other hand He intends to establish certain things.

Certain things existed here by which men were affected and governed, and these things had to be brought to nought. The Corinthians were not clear of the influences which dominated men; they were under the influence of the world and of idolatry. It is a wonderful thing to think of what christianity effected; it did what nothing else could have done; it brought to nought all the influences that affected men. Philosophy was brought to nought for one thing; it may not have governed the mass of people, but it governed many, and it was brought to nought. We have got accustomed to the presence of christianity here and we fail to see the greatness of the ^[p. 472] revelation of God, and its mighty effect in overturning the influences that existed here. The philosophers of those days were not fools, they were men of very great activity of mind; but the light of God in Christ came in and brought their philosophy to nought.

Ques Is it not a solemn thought that the very influences which were brought to nought by christianity in its purity are now found passing under the name of that which at first destroyed them?

FER Yes; they have revived because christianity has been corrupted. It is dreadful to see how these things have reared their heads. The moment the presence of the Spirit was ignored things went at a fearful pace. The rise of ecclesiastical rule followed upon the setting aside of the Spirit of God. That is quite sufficient to justify one in standing apart from systematic christianity; in those systems there is no place for the Spirit of God, and there is no hope whatever of amendment, they are going from bad to worse. The clerical element is really the rule of man in the house of God, and that is deadly.

Ques Might not that come in even among us?

FER Yes, but who are the us? You must stick to your individuality, and not make too much of the company. We seek to walk together, but we ought to resist the idea of forming a community of any kind. This would not weaken exercise as to the desire to rule. Self-judgment ought to be maintained by each one of us.

I very much admire the way in which Mr. Darby went on; he went on himself, and if others walked with him well and good, but if not, he went on. He felt the path to be a very individual one. He did not go with those who said it was all up. You can never say that, because the Spirit of God is here, and while He is here it will never be ‘all up’. None of us will ever be left completely alone; we walk together in ^[p. 473] the light of the relationships which exist, and cannot be broken, but we must maintain the idea of individuality. The church as a whole is here; it is obscured, but it is here, and the only place we can take in connection with it is the individual position; we could not build up a sect.

Rem You do not mean to say that our consciences cannot take knowledge of those who are walking uprightly?

FER If christians are not going on rightly, I cannot walk with them. I am bound to walk with those who follow righteousness. You might get a state of things which necessitated our stepping outside of it. I am afraid of maintaining a low state of things, and forming a community.

Rem The breaking of bread identifies you with others.

FER Yes; you go on in the light of the church, but even with the breaking of bread I would like to maintain the sense of individuality. I am thankful to find others with whom I can walk, but my fear is the practical forming of a community with its own interests, missions, and so on.

Ques What do you mean by a community?

FER A body of people held together by certain things, and having their own separate interests — practically a sect.

Ques How does that bear on the unity of meetings in a certain city — London, for instance?

FER It is all simple enough; you must be guided by the truth, and act in the light of the church. You have to follow faith as well as righteousness, and following faith involves acting in the light of the church.

Ques Do you commend to those known to you in a place?

FER That is the idea of the thing to me, and so it was with ^[p. 474] Paul apparently.

Rem There are christians there in whom you have confidence.

FER Quite so.

What we get in this epistle is the bringing to nought things that existed, things that held man spiritually in bondage; but then, on the other hand, things of vital moment are brought in; the temple and the body are established down here, and there is victory over death. This is the effect of Christ having come; the temple and the body have been established here in the power of the Spirit, and it is really a continuation of Christ down here. The temple is the seat of the oracles of God, light and truth are there; but the body is that which diffuses light and truth.

Ques Is the body necessary to the temple?

FER Yes, necessary for the diffusion of the light. It is just the difference between John and Luke; in John’s gospel Christ’s body is the temple, but in Luke He is the anointed Man that He may preach. In John all the light was there, His body was the temple of God, but another thing was needed, and that is a Man anointed to preach the gospel.

Ques In what sense were the Corinthians an expression of the temple?

FER They had the position of privilege because the Spirit of God was there; it was characteristic; but the body comes in more for the diffusion of light. Provision was made not only that the truth should be here, but that it should be diffused; there must be the two things.

Ques How would you account for his bringing in the thought of responsibility in connection with the temple?

FER The temple was the standard, and that impresses in a solemn way the sin of those who corrupted it. Light and truth are connected with the temple; the thought of the house is more social. The idea of the oracles is connected with the temple, and ^[p. 475] the temple was formed by the Spirit of God, and hence the very great responsibility of corrupting it. The temple would be corrupted, I should say, by the introduction of evil and corrupt principles.

Ques Can you find the temple today?

FER There are great difficulties today, but we have to accept that the temple is here. The oracles are dependent upon the Spirit of God. There is no doubt that those who give place to the Spirit of God in the present day have got a good deal of light. The ablest men in system have got very little light; but you will find light with those who have accepted the presence of the Spirit, and have acted on it.

Rem If people cleave to system, and are determined to go on with it, how difficult it is to impart light to them.

FER Quite so; and if they seem to have a little light, they play with it and lose it.

We have not got the tabernacle today, because the tabernacle represented Christ as He was down here upon earth; but the temple was built by David’s son, and had a permanent character. Christ speaks of His body as the temple; they would destroy it, but He would raise it up. Then the thought of the temple is carried on to the church, and there again it has the thought of permanence; it “increases to a holy temple in the Lord”. In a sense the saints at Corinth were locally the temple of God, but if you look at the thing abstractly, it is the whole building fitly framed together, which grows to a holy temple in the Lord. The last verse of Ephesians 2 is more the house character. The tabernacle was continually taken down and had to be carried about; it was not permanent. Permanence is connected with the temple; the ark of the covenant was carried into the temple and placed there. God employed the figure of the tabernacle because He had to move with the ^[p. 476] people. They had not come to the land, and they had no city, but God moved with them. There must be a city before a temple; there was no city in the wilderness, no permanent order of things, but David brought the ark up and established it in the city of David. The wilderness does not describe everything for us, for we have a divinely-appointed Centre now in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The tabernacle set forth typically the principle of divine ways, but all these things are continued in the temple. It is a wonderful thing that the temple is here, that the oracles are here; it gives a living character to the whole thing. It is not simply that we have the Scriptures, which is a matter of vital moment, but we have things vitally and livingly in the Spirit. The great thing is to retire into the region of the Spirit from all that is of man, and specially from all that is of the religious man. A great deal of what goes on in christendom is very attractive to religious flesh. I would not like to go into a cathedral, because I know what is in me; there is that in me which may be acted on by what goes on there. These things have a very bad effect on people; they are sensuous and impress the religious imagination. The great thing is to retire from all such things into the region of the Spirit. Human sentiment is a dangerous thing, because there is much in it that pleases the flesh. I think we allow much that is pleasing to the flesh, but the important thing for us is to get into the region of the Spirit.

Ques What did you say as to the Scriptures just now?

FER I was contrasting it with the fact that the temple is here, the truth of God is here livingly in the Spirit. We ought to hold tenaciously to that; the Spirit is the truth. But Scripture is divine; you cannot separate between the Spirit of truth and the Scriptures.

^[p. 477] Rem If you are in the realisation of the truth of the temple of God and the living oracles, it will save you from any idea of a party.

FER Yes, I think so; it gives enlargement because it takes in all the saints of God; it makes one greatly dread attempting to form any community or sect.

Rem So that the more individual you are, the wider you are.

FER Yes, exactly. You comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height. You refuse to take account of anything short of what is here in the unity of the Spirit, all that is for God here.

Ques Are you not afraid of getting into the habit of praying for your own concerns rather than for all saints?

FER I am very much afraid of it. It would give an entirely different character to our prayer meetings if we prayed for all saints. We are not concerned to keep brethren going; the great point is that the truth should be here, and the truth is for the whole church. If God has given us any little bit of light, it is for the whole church, and we ought to keep that in view.

Ques You would not set us praying for all the organizations in christendom, would you?

FER No, but I would pray for all saints and for the truth. I do not know how the truth is to reach them; it is very difficult to tell how things work with God, but if a stone is thrown into the water, it makes many widening circles, and I think the truth spreads much in that way.

Rem A brother was saying that he looked very largely to written ministry to reach people.

FER I quite think so too, if we get to God in prayer about them.

^[p. 478] The tendency of our minds is towards forming an order of things according to Scripture with all its varied interests, and when this is accomplished we think we have secured a very fair representation of the truth, but that is not what God has called us to. Mr. Darby said that if brethren were witnesses to anything they were witnesses to the ruin of the church. The ruin is here, and the very fact that we stand apart from the great organizations around us is a protest against them.

Ques How does that apply to those who have left us?

FER Well, they have refused to walk with us, or we with them, as the case may be. Nothing would make me walk with the followers of Newton. It is a question of righteousness, and the same thing applies to Bethesda. Mr. Darby and others gave good and sufficient reasons for separating from them, and the course which they took was simply a question of righteousness. When the question was raised about Christ, the Spirit of God took a certain line in order to maintain the truth as to His Person, and He very largely used Mr. Darby to this end. Their course was in the way of purging themselves, and so it is generally now; it must be so in the present state of things. If you find that you cannot walk with people in the truth, you purge yourselves from them.

The temple and the body are two very comprehensive thoughts: the temple gives the oracles, and the body is for the diffusion of truth. In natural things light was created before the sun, but there must be something to put the ether, or whatever it is, in vibration, and the sun does that. The oracles are all here in the Spirit, but then the light has to be put in movement, so that it may be diffused and reach others, and in that connection the body is brought in here. It is the anointed vessel that the light may be diffused.

^[p. 479] Rem Any gift is for the good of the whole church of God.

FER It is for man; man is in the view of God. God has established the temple, and light has to be diffused for the benefit of man. God would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Ques Do we get anywhere here the way in which the light is diffused?

FER “But to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit. For to one, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom ...”, 1 Corinthians 12: 7 - 11. All the gifts are here in the disposition of the Spirit, and they are here that the truth may be diffused.

Rem The diffusion demands spiritual energy.

FER Yes, because all is entirely dependent upon the Spirit. The body is the anointed vessel; “so also is the Christ”. In the church to which I belonged years ago there were two thousand three hundred people, many of them really converted, and a great number of them might have been used of God to help others, but there was no place for them; they were all shut up, because only the clergyman could minister.

Ques How did the truth of the body come in correctively to the Corinthians?

FER They were dropping down into a kind of clericalism, giving undue place to particular leaders, but it might have been that they were not the leaders appointed of God.

In John’s gospel His body is the temple, but in Luke He says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. Both these things are true of Christ. There must be diffusion if the truth of God is to be known. The recognition of the presence of the Spirit, and of the truth of the body, has tended greatly to the diffusion of the light.

^[p. 480] Ques How does that bear on our individual pathway down here?

FER If you have part in the anointed vessel, and have partaken of the manifestation of the Spirit, you are responsible not to cloak the light but to use it. You must take good heed to your ways.

Rem Much more has been brought out of late as to the temple than formerly.

FER The fact is, people knew about the body long before they knew anything about the house. The truth is, that the oracles are in the temple, but the body is the divine provision for the diffusion of the light.

Ques If we get the truth out of order, has it to be re-learnt?

FER Well, things have to be readjusted; there must be a constant process of readjustment as we advance in the knowledge of the truth.

Rem I suppose the truth of the temple has continued right through the history of the church, in the dark ages for instance?

FER Undoubtedly the temple was there, and the body was there; in spite of all the darkness the Spirit of God was here.

Ques Would you contrast the thought of the body now and the heavenly city?

FER I do not know. In the body you get detail, whereas the heavenly city gives the idea of the church as complete. The heavenly city is like the sun which rules by its beneficent influence; but the body is the bride, and I would not like to say the body ceases. I think service is connected with the body, and service remains in the day of Christ. Just as we have gained ground now in the knowledge of Christ, shall we exercise a wonderful influence then. If you are appointed to rule over ten cities, or five, it means that you are to affect those cities by the beneficial influence of what you are. When the saints ^[p. 481] come out with Christ to reign, they will have an extraordinary influence on the universe. But with the body now, and the gifts in the body, there is the beneficial influence. My point is that it is not so very different really.

Ques Would you touch on the victory over death?

FER The fear of death is an influence by which men have been largely affected, but we can say, “Thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ”. Every influence which dominated man has been set aside. Philosophy and idolatry and superstition are influences which have dominated man, and they have their source in principalities and powers in heavenly places, but all have been brought to naught. I have no doubt whatever of the existence of an unseen world, and people here are affected by what has its source in the unseen world. I am convinced that man did not invent idolatry; the conception came from the unseen world; and so with many other things, such as the worship of saints, and the system of mediators. But Christ reigns that He may be victorious over every foe, and death is the last enemy to be destroyed.