THE HEAVENLY CHARACTER OF THE ASSEMBLY
2 Timothy 1: 8-15; 2: 3-6, 19-22; 3: 14-17; 4: 11-15
I think we could be occupied with the second epistle to Timothy this evening, because it corresponds to what was before us this afternoon with Nehemiah.
It is very important to consider these Scriptures as indicating the line on which we can enter into the recovery of the truth. It is very necessary for each of us to go over from time to time all that is set out in this second epistle to Timothy because it is in reality, as one calls it sometimes, our charter. It is the divine authority according to which we must occupy the ground of separation; the only one on which the truth has been recovered. When the apostle wrote, he was approaching the end of his course; he was in prison and even those in Asia had turned away from him. It was in Asia especially that his greatest works had been undertaken, for Ephesus was in Asia. So the apostle considers everything as outwardly lost. But at the time of his conversion on the way to Damascus, the Lord had said to him, “Why persecutest thou me?”; the Lord revealed the light as to the fact that the saints on the earth were His own body. What marvellous heavenly light! Never had anything like it been known before, and it is this truth which gives the heavenly character to the whole of Paul’s ministry. I am sure that we have to give more room to that in our hearts. The assembly is nothing less than the body of Christ. It is united to Him by the Spirit, drawing its character and features from Himself, and soon it will be raised up to be for ever with Him. When at Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended on the gathered believers, they were baptised into one body. While the truth of the assembly as being the body of Christ down here was not yet presented at that time, the things really existed thus. The saints were united in love, separated from the world. They were heavenly in character, bound to Christ. When Peter was used for the introduction of the Gentiles to the blessing, he had to be given a vision. He saw heaven opened, and a vessel descending as a great sheet, coming down to the earth, in which were all the quadrupeds and creeping things of the earth and the birds of heaven. And a voice was addressed to him: “Rise, Peter, slay and eat. And Peter said, In no wise, Lord; for I have never eaten anything common or unclean. And there was a voice again the second time to him, What God has cleansed, do not thou make common”. Then the vessel was taken up into heaven and Peter was led progressively to understand that God was on the point of bringing in the Gentiles into this heavenly vessel. This vessel belonged to heaven. Its origin and its destiny were there. For the moment, it came down from heaven to be a testimony down here, but it had never been envisaged that it would have to leave its heavenly character. Those who compose it are typified by these beasts in the great sheet. But as such, God has finished with our past history. He has sanctified us and established us in the life of Christ, and that by the gift of the Holy Spirit. The assembly, according to God’s thoughts, is entirely a heavenly vessel as living in the life of Christ. The apostle laboured to establish this truth in the saints, and to maintain it. When he wrote his second epistle to Timothy, the assembly was assuming a worldly character more and more. The truth of God had to be maintained; that implies exercise and suffering. The whole current of the world is opposed to the truth of the assembly as having a heavenly character. It is in such conditions that the apostle writes his epistle for Timothy’s encouragement, so that he might seek to accept the sufferings, the exercises, and the tests with the feeling that God’s thoughts would triumph in spite of everything.
In the first passage that we have read, the apostle exhorts Timothy to take part in the sufferings of the glad tidings. Paul had an elevated point of view of the glad tidings. He did not consider them only as a means to lead souls to salvation, but as that which God uses to take in hand those who are called according to His purpose, those who compose the assembly. That is very elevated in Paul’s mind and he presses Timothy to take part and “suffer evil along with the glad tidings, according to the power of God; who has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling”. In a day of general departure, the apostle felt the necessity to underline the holiness of the calling. In writing to the Hebrew believers, who were in danger of being held by an earthly religion, he speaks to them of the calling. When he addresses the Philippians, he makes reference to their calling and to its character as full of dignity. In these times of departure, the apostle underlines in his epistle the fact that the calling must draw its character from Christ. “God … has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages of time”. It is said of Abraham that he came to the oaks of Mamre, which is Hebron, a type of the purpose of God which must be in our hearts and in our minds. Abraham dwelling by the oaks of Mamre is the type of the believer having in his heart and in his mind the full purpose of God.
It is not only that which we have been given in Christ Jesus before the ages of time, but that has been made manifest: “by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”. The apostle speaks in a very encouraging way. Outwardly the circumstances were more discouraging, but Paul remained courageous in the face of that, and he desires that Timothy should maintain the truth, even if suffering must result. The apostle speaks here of incorruptibility as a present reality. For sure we will have incorruptible bodies, but incorruptibility is already seen in the light of the fact that there is before God in Christ an absolutely incorruptible Man. The devil did everything that was in his power to prevail over him, but the temptations of Christ in the wilderness and in His path down here finally testified that there was a Man who could not be corrupted by the devil. He said of Himself: “the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”. By redemption, we have life in Christ Jesus, and we have part in it as a result of the gift of the Holy Spirit, who will form us, so that we will also be ourselves incorruptible. When the Lord comes, the features of the flesh will be left, and what will abide will be the features of Christ in us, and these features are incorruptible.
Then the apostle brings in the great resources which we have in the Holy Spirit. He says to Timothy: “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted”. It is very encouraging to grasp the fact that God’s truth is entrusted to us as a marvellous deposit. How we need to be faithful as to that. If a person comes and entrusts a precious thing to you, you consider it an imperative necessity to be faithful to that deposit. God has entrusted the truth to his saints and we have the power to keep it faithfully, by the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. He has taken a place in us to this end. In chapter 2, the apostle introduces three figures for our instruction and encouragement, he uses first the image of a soldier. In recent years, the Lord has allowed that we should have experiences of war. By that very thing we can grasp what it is to be a soldier in the spiritual domain. The soldier is entirely under the orders of one who has enlisted him for the war. His natural considerations and selfishness cannot enter into such a matter. The first feature that marks him is that he is not encumbered with the affairs of life. Then he must be faithful to him who has enlisted him, and seek to please him. The Spirit of God applies that to ourselves, as also the second figure of one who is an athlete. One who contends in the games has the desire to receive the crown, but if he does not contend according to the rules, he will not be crowned. Many people participate outwardly in Christianity, but they do not answer to its rules. These people think that it is allowed to adopt certain worldly ways; they do not contend according to the principles of the truth of the testimony, and so they will not be crowned. We must be governed by these divine principles. The third figure used by the apostle is that of the labourer who must labour first before being able to enjoy the fruits.
The verses that we have then read are the very root of this whole epistle: “the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, The Lord knows those that are his …”. We are content to be able to leave this in the Lord’s hands: He “knows those that are his”. But the other side is in what follows: “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. Iniquity is the operation of the will of man in the things of God. Iniquity is a challenge to the Lord’s rights. It brings in corruption by its effects, and so it cannot be attached to the Lord’s Name. The apostle speaks of a great house; it is what Christendom has become. There are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also wood and earth, some to honour and some to dishonour. The apostle presses us to be vessels honouring to the Lord. But in order to be such we have to separate from vessels to dishonour. They may be true believers, but if they contribute in any way to what is dishonouring to the Lord, we have to purify ourselves from them. This is our authority, and we can be sure of obtaining a great compensation in taking such a way: “he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”, v 21. That is most remarkable! Some say, if I take this way indicated in these verses, I will be very limited. Such reasoning is opposed to the truth. But one who walks according to the truth is prepared for every good work. He takes up a way of faith, but before all, of righteousness.
The apostle says, “youthful lusts flee”. Timothy was a man of God, a servant full of devotion, appreciated by Paul, and yet the danger of youthful lusts was there for him too; and the apostle says to him to flee them. Then: “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace …”. But the first principle which must govern the believer is what is right in God’s sight. Whether in what concerns the assembly, or what touches our houses, our business, our own life, it is the great principle which must govern before everything else. But if we pursue righteousness, the path also implies faith. When Peter left the boat to go to Jesus, in walking on the waters, he was sustained by the Lord. In the same way, one who undertakes such a path of faith for the pleasure of the Lord will find support in it: “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. We find other people in this path with whom we can walk. It is the only light that governs their movements. The truth of the assembly has been recovered for the saints. We are characterised by righteousness, faith, love, peace, but righteousness must take the first place.
In chapter 3, the apostle calls upon Timothy to abide in the things he has learned. He adds, “knowing of whom thou hast learned them ”. We have the right to regard those whom the Lord has raised up for the instruction of His people. We find th ey have themselves been examples of the truth which they have taught. The apostle then turns to the Scriptures: “Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. Every Scripture, those of the Old Testament as well as those of the New Testament, is inspired and profitable for our teaching. This is of the greatest importance. So we can find in the Old Testament instruction as to the matter of our addressing the Holy Spirit, while we find less about that in the New Testament, and that puts our spirituality to the test. But the apostle says, “Every scripture is divinely inspired …”. In chapter 15 of the Acts, when the question of the circumcision of the Gentiles was raised, James read a passage from the book of Amos which in its principal bearing is an allusion to the world to come, but at that time, came by the Holy Spirit, to be used for the truth. It was so evident that this came from the Holy Spirit that, later on, in their letter, the brethren write: “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us …”.
In 2 Timothy 4, in the verses we have read, Paul mentions several names: “Luke alone is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me for ministry”. Paul is greatly concerned that the heavenly character of his ministry should be preserved. The assembly draws all its features from Christ and from His life. The two men mentioned here were not apostles, but they had considered Christ; they had contemplated; and they had been chosen and used by the Spirit of God to write two of the gospels. These two men are specially mentioned by the apostle. Luke would speak to us of what is priestly and Mark of the testimony, but the two are set before us as models. We have the tendency too often to fall from the divine level. Timothy was to bring the apostle’s cloak which speaks to us of the true measure of Paul. In Paul, we have before us, not absolute perfection, for that is in Christ alone, but a man like us. He was previously an insolent, violent man, but he had become heavenly, formed after Christ. And his cloak speaking of his measure must be brought. Paul could say “Be my imitators, even as I also am of Christ”, 1 Cor 11: 1. We must have not only Christ before us, so as to learn heavenly perfection, but we must also consider Paul. Then he speaks solemnly of certain opposers coming to light and he names Alexander. The apostle says on this subject: “The Lord will render to him according to his works”. All that is opposed to the truth is noted by the Lord. This epistle is of the greatest importance and very encouraging. The apostle says in chapter 2 that the word of God is not bound. However our circumstances may appear, it is a matter for us to be with the Spirit until the end.
May the Lord help us in all this for the glory of His Name.
LORIOL
9th November 1954
Translated from the French magazine, ‘Ondées’, August 1955
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