THE PRACTICE OF THE TRUTH (4)
B.M.D. We have read a good deal but we can feel our way in what the Spirit may engage us with, particularly in regard to the race. This chapter puts us back on individual ground and committal. You will notice how the chapter begins: “For the rest, my brethren”, which is quite characteristic of the way Paul writes his letters. I often think of the expression as like a postscript. In this case it is nearly as long as his letter! Most of us when we get a letter are inclined to read the postscript first. I only say that to bring out the importance of what this chapter may engage us with. Really, Paul, the writer, is just absorbed with one Man. If we took in the point of chapter 2 where we were this morning, our affections would be absorbed with the glory of that one Man, and in practical result from that, how can such a person rest until they reach it? And He is on resurrection ground; He is in glory. Therefore comes the devoted committal of each of us individually to reach Christ. It is by faith now. We are not actually there, not till our bodies are changed, which, of course, Paul covers at the end of the chapter. So in the race there are certain dangers and Paul points them out faithfully, both in the beginning—certain things to see to—and then, in verse 18, he speaks of certain as “enemies of the cross”. There are dangers on the way. They may hinder us. They may divert us. We may drop out of the race if we are caught in them. Therefore we need the warnings so that we can see just the one object, the one prize, and that is that we arrive at the resurrection, one Man: “But one thing—forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal”. I wondered if we could explore this a little and stimulate one another in the energy required. We do not want to fall out of the race.
W.A.M. Would you say a word as to the difference between what is eternal—I mean there will not be anything lacking: we will gain Christ eternally and our departed brethren are already with Him—but gaining Christ at the present moment.
B.M.D. Well, they have in their spirits. That lies in the area of mystery to which we alluded yesterday. They await their bodies of glory which they will receive in the resurrection. They will be raised. That is a wonderful thing, not that you could say that they lack anything personally, but there is mystery connected with that. In eternity there is nothing to be added. Their bodies are changed and, when the Lord comes, our bodies are changed and the dead in Christ are raised. There is nothing to be added to that.
W.A.M. But the present moment is very important.
B.M.D. We are still in the time of faith and dependence and this raises a sense of dangers. Some would speak of non-starters. Thank God—we look round here—thank God we are committed to the Lord—but we need stimulation. That is why Paul brings himself forward here as a model: “let us walk in the same steps . Be imitators all together of me”. Thank God for models!
H.G.H. Are some of the dangers in verse 2?
B.M.D. “See to dogs, see to evil workmen, see to the concision”. It is a very concentrated warning: “See to dogs”.
H.G.H. The dog turns back to his own vomit, see 2 Pet 2: 22.
B.M.D. He has no conscience. “Without are the dogs”, Rev 22: 15. That is a danger—not that our consciences are reliable, save as we are selfjudged, but they are a guide; so you see to dogs. First of all we want to see that we are committed to the race. I suppose at some time in your life you have read John Bunyan; I still do. He tells us about the race and he does not fail to expose its dangers. You get clubbed to death if you do not keep on the right highway. We will not explore that any further. Then “evil workmen”—what damage they can do!
H.G.H. Are they those that are after their own glory rather than the glory of the Lord Jesus?
B.M.D. Well, we cannot judge persons’ motives, but I expect what you say could be true. Evil workmen: they build with hay and stubble. Paul was a true workman. He worked in metals, did he not? He was “a wise architect”, 1 Cor 3: 10. He had the blueprints of the assembly and he worked it out, he did not deviate from the model. We have to beware of evil workmen; they may pervert. There may be some truth in them and some error in them. We need to learn how to distinguish and look in a straight line. If you have the goal before you, you see just one thing.
T.E.D. I wondered if the practice of Mephibosheth might bear on this a little. He could speak of himself as a “dead dog”, yet he was available to maintain the divine standard of things when David had to go into captivity. It is like the present time. Things are in captivity, but am I maintaining the divine standard as true to Christ in His absence?
B.M.D. That is a very fine example of what we are speaking of. He was not diverted from the race even when David was in rejection. He is one of the moral greats in the Old Testament is he not, along with Urijah the Hittite? They stand out in that way and are examples for us. And then he was misunderstood, even by David. That would have been difficult for him, but what does he say? ‘The king is back’. He is not diverted from his loyalty to the king. Now who of us could claim such loyalty? I could not but I would like to.
Rem. He said also, as to Ziba, “Let him even take all”, 2 Sam 19: 30. That is like Paul here.
B.M.D. Yes, very good, but it is hard to accept being misunderstood.
W.A.M. I used to feel sorry for him but I think his was the best part.
B.M.D. I understand what you mean. He is morally great and he is at the king’s table. I think he reached the goal though he was lame.
J.A.H. What you say is interesting because Mephibosheth could keep on travelling light. In the race you have to travel light. You cannot have any burdens on you. So Ziba could have all the overheads, but Mephibosheth would keep on with David, would he not?
B.M.D. Very good. Ziba really missed out, but the one who was crippled in both his feet reached there first. No one is at a disadvantage. It is loyalty to the one Man that keeps our sights on the goal and refuses to be diverted from it.
A.P.D. Why is the goal linked with resurrection?
B.M.D. It points to what is on the other side of death. You wonder why it does not point to the Lord in His present position, but, of course, it leads to that, and His body of glory; but it is a question of getting across the Jordan, getting into a realm where death cannot invade. That is resurrection ground. We referred this morning to the forty days. It is a question of reaching Christ on new ground. We alluded to Mary of Magdala who would have retained Him as she had once known Him. Many would do that, but we no longer know Christ after the flesh, Paul says. The Lord said, “Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended”, John 20: 17. She had known Him in wonderful intimacy in the days of His flesh. He is really saying, Know me now in a new way, in a new position where the shadow of death can never fall. Is that not the incentive for us to reach Him on resurrection ground? It is attraction; it is love or the Person: when you see the ark, go after it.
H.G.H. But we are constantly reminded of what the flesh is and we want to get rid of it. We would be rid of it on resurrection ground. In resurrection we would not have the flesh any more.
B.M.D. It is left behind. That has to be maintained. There is no question but that the Lord intends that the close of the dispensation should be marked by what is spiritual. How do we become spiritual?
H.G.H. In dependence. I would not claim to be spiritual but one thing I am doing is asking to be spiritual. We will not do it without the desire, but we need deliverance in its full aspect.
B.M.D. It is by thorough self-judgment that we become spiritual. We have no confidence in the flesh.
Ques. Is that guide in verse 3—“For we are the circumcision”? It is through circumcision that we arrive at this.
B.M.D. The flesh is cut off. The concision is mixture, perhaps the greatest danger—part way, compromise. Beware of that danger! “For we are the circumcision”. It had been neglected apparently in the wilderness. Joshua had to see to it at Gilgal. It was a painful matter. They had to do it again and the reproach of Egypt was rolled off. Now this is a constant thing; it must not be neglected. If you are going to reach heavenly ground and the enjoyment of eternal life, there is to be no evidence of the reproach of Egypt. Its ways and its fashions and all the things that connect with the world would be a reproach to those walking in the light and truth of the assembly.
H.G.H. Circumcision at Gilgal was collective. It is heavenly ground, as you say. If you are going to enjoy eternal life you need your brethren; the Corinthians were not in the good of circumcision collectively.
B.M.D. Well, they had to face it, I suppose, in the way they dealt with evil in their midst. The leaven had to be cast out. The Galatians had been running well; what stopped them? The concision. Judaism crept in again.
H.G.H. Yes, the mind of man at work.
B.M.D. That is right.
W.A.M. I think it would be good if we heard from some of the brethren that have not been speaking, some of our younger brethren.
B.M.D. That is fine. I have been looking for that for a long while. What do you do about it?
W.A.M. Make room for them: I think they are all free to speak, even just to ask a question.
B.M.D. They can do more than that; they can tell us something too.
Ques. Can you open up what you mean by ‘spiritual’? We each have a certain personality. What do we lose? What do we get rid of? Some personalities are more quiet, some are more loud.
B.M.D. I can follow you exactly. Where do you get that personality from? You have your own personal links with Christ, have you not? They are not the same as mine or those of anybody else. We have our own secret impress of Christ: that develops by the Spirit into your own personality. That is what will go through into eternity. That is how we will know one another in eternity. It will not be the natural. There is no resuming of natural links. Does that help you at all?
Rem. Yes, that is good. Sometimes I think it is a sort of outward thing. I guess being spiritual is being sensitive to the Spirit and allowing Him to affect you in all you do.
B.M.D. Making room for Him. Therefore you find in your experience that the weights you do not need to have you can cast off. In a race you cannot be loaded down with leaden weights all round you, can you?
H.G.H. Earlier you said that in order to be spiritual we have to be in self-judgment. There is that in the personality of each of us that can be offensive and which we need to have a judgment of. Every time it shows its face, judge it! Condemn it!
B.M.D. Each of us knows the thing that hinders us. It might not be the same with me as it is with you, but you know very well in your own conscience what it is that hinders you. It might be light reading.
H.G.H. By the Spirit’s help.
B.M.D. By the Spirit’s help you say that is not going to help me and you say ‘No’ to it.
H.G.H. But the Spirit helps us to come to a right judgment of what we are by nature.
B.M.D. “The Spirit joins also its help to our weakness”, Rom 8: 26. He is the greatest comfort, but we need to be definite and say ‘No’ to certain things; like Joseph who said “How should I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”, Gen 39: 9. Let us be definite in our judgment, and the Spirit is there to help us. Do not toy with these things! Do not toy with the world! Do you remember what that beloved sister Lady Powerscourt said years ago? ‘Put away your toys; the world is in flames’. Well, if our dear sister were with us today, what would she be saying? We should be saying, should we not, ‘Put away your toys’? That does not mean we are unnatural, does it? When the little children are playing with their toys, you like to join them; that is all right.
H.G.H. She had a judgment of these toys and she did not carry on with them. She made room for the Lord and His things.
B.M.D. It does not mean I am unnatural. A spiritual person would enjoy the natural relationship far more than anybody else. Is that right?
Rem. Say more as to that.
B.M.D. Well, what is of nature is of God. It has largely been corrupted through sin. If we lead a life of piety and purity, we enjoy the relationships of nature as God intended them.
Ques. Do we need to see that this is how we should be? I get occupied with the outward things which I might think are spiritual and that is no help, is it? It is, as you say, just allowing the Spirit to work on your conscience and follow the unction.
B.M.D. That is right. You come into a wonderful sphere of liberty. It is hard to explain. You have to find it for yourself. To explain it might spoil it.
W.A.M. The only thing that goes through is our identity, is it not?
B.M.D. Our spiritual identities. That is right.
W.A.M. “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”, Gal 2: 20.
B.M.D. That “I” stands by itself.
W.A.M. That is what we were taught: other things have to go. Everything else we receive sovereignly from divine Persons.
J.A.H. Does dealing with the flesh have its reward in that we become worshippers? “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God”. It is like Jacob; he had problems to deal with but, as he went through these experiences, he became a worshipper.
B.M.D. His walk was over and he finished leaning on his staff. He did not begin like that, did he? He only gave a tenth to start with; then he made a bargain. He is a lesson book for all of us—begin even with a tenth but he finished with ten tenths, fully committed, a worshipper. I think we can encourage one another and our younger brethren to be committed to the race. Be absorbed with this one Man, Jesus Christ.
A.P.D. It is important that Christ becomes supreme in our affections. Paul was able to count all things to be loss “on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”. We cannot live in a vacuum, can we? We must have some object to absorb our interest.
B.M.D. I am glad you say that. Something has to go because something greater is emerging into your life. “On account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth”, or dung: what Christ must have meant to that beloved servant!
W.A.M. These were not the bad features of the flesh; they might even be called the good features.
B.M.D. They might in a sense be legitimate and yet he says, they are hindering me in the race. Some of the things would be quite legitimate.
W.A.M. “In the law, found blameless”.
B.M.D. Well, you could not fault him as to the law, but it did not help him in the race. It had to go.
Ques. Being practical, what would help me to turn away from the books of this world would be to get a taste for the spiritual ministry that the Lord is giving to us. Is it not a very practical thing that it does not happen all of a sudden? Our taste does not change all of a sudden.
B.M.D. It is good to bring in that practical side; one of the most subtle things the enemy uses is light reading. I felt that in my youth as a very real snare and found it was robbing me by destroying a taste for spiritual things. I would urge our beloved younger brethren to say No to that; it will displace the room Christ is seeking in your affections. The enemy has introduced other things into the world; TV and the video can become a snare that destroys our taste and maybe will divert us from the race. We may become fall-outs and not finish the race. Is that a bit severe?
Rem. I think that is helpful but we need to develop a taste for what is spiritual.
B.M.D. How do we do that?
W.A.M. “And no one having drunk old wine straightway wishes for new, for he says, The old is better”, Luke 5: 39. That is natural with us. As you say, we have to develop a taste and, as we persevere, we find we get a taste.
Rem. We begin to enjoy it, do we not?
W.A.M. That is right. I remember when I used to find certain ministry very dry, but finally I began to see something in it that really affected me.
B.M.D. I could be beside you in that. What you do find is that the more you read the more you want to read. “Give thyself to reading”, 1 Tim 4: 13: that was Paul’s word to Timothy. Give yourself to it! Make time for it! You hear people say there is no time for it, but however busy you are, you will do the things you want to do. If your tastes are there, you will do the things you want to do.
J.N.C. Paul speaks of those that “have their senses exercised for distinguishing both good and evil”, Heb 5: 14. The good can be chosen.
B.M.D. So exercise our spiritual sensibilities.
J.N.C. It says also “on account of habit”. That would require self-judgment, would it not?
B.M.D. A right habit very much helps on the practical side. Set time aside for reading and for prayer. I should put prayer first perhaps. Order your life methodically. It is piety. Piety is not spirituality, but I question if we would be spiritual if we are not pious. Many may rest on their piety and think that is Christianity. Let us get our taste into what eternal life is. Get a taste of eternal life and we will not be content with our lives. Is it all right to say that?
J.N.C. That is right: “if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good”, 1 Pet 2: 3.
B.M.D. There is something that can come into a meeting—in a sense you cannot describe it. It is a collective experience of something when the Lord comes into a matter and you say, That is it. We have had it in some measure, I think we could say simply and humbly. Let us get our taste for that! You would not miss a meeting. Now, we must get to work here and get some more contributions. I will not go round the circle like we used to, but I would like to ask what you are thinking about.
M.S. Do you think that Ruth is a very fine example? She thought everything had failed and was lost for ever but then she gains a wealthy man.
B.M.D. Yes. Well, I think Paul is the model here. Keep your eye on the model—but there are models among the brethren. Thank God for fathers. If there were not many of them at Corinth—“not many fathers” (1 Cor 4: 15), plenty of instructors; ten thousand of them. Think of ten thousand instructors in your local meeting! What sort of hall would they have? “Not many fathers”. I think Paul brings out the spirit of a father here. We did not touch it earlier; being “poured out as a libation on the sacrifice” (chap 2: 17) was the depth of the feelings of a father.
D.F.H. Can you enlarge on verses 13 and 14: “stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”? I was thinking of what was said earlier about the goal in resurrection.
B.M.D. Well, he says, “I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing—forgetting the things behind”. They can hamper us. We can be over-occupied with the things that are behind. We have to look forward and onward. The way is upward still. If you are occupied with the things behind, you get depressed.
D.F.H. I value what you said about having a judgment of past history but not lingering over it
B.M.D. Not lingering over it: exactly. You are pressing on. I seem to remember hearing once that Mr Wigram said to Mr Darby in a time of assembly crisis, ‘I am trying to look up’, and Mr Darby said, ‘I am not looking down’. There is something in that: are not over-occupied with what could overwhelm you.
W.A.M. That is Revelation after chapter 3: they are up, looking down.
D.F.H. That is a practical thing. If you are driving in stormy weather, you do not notice anything that is around; you keep your eye on a certain object all the time and forget about the trucks and the lights and so on. I suppose in sailing a ship it is the same thing.
B.M.D. That is right. You have to keep your eye forward. That is what the ploughman had to do when he set out his furrow. If he looked apart from the object at the end he had a crooked furrow. That is the principle, is it not? Let us run a straight course that is leading directly to where Christ is. We did not finish your enquiry about “stretching out to the things before, I pursue; looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. What a goal that is! I suppose it is new creation, is that right?
A.P.D. I am interested in what you say; l wondered if it was sonship, but you say some more.
B.M.D. Well, that is the same thing: that belongs to new creation. What a wonderful scene is ahead of us: sonship, new creation, the assembly! And they all go through collaterally into eternity. What a goal to reach! It is by faith now and presently it will be an actuality.
H.G.H. But can we define it? Did not the apostle Paul here have a goal that in one sense cannot be defined? The thing is he was pressing on at all times; no matter how far he had reached he was still pressing on.
B.M.D. That is right; you could not stop him. He had one Man before him; everything is in Christ Jesus:
In Christ Jesus—new creation.
(Hymn 37)
So you can tell how tenderly he would say, Do not be otherwise minded. The heart of Paul is coming out here: “and if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you”. I think there should be a tenderness developing that would encourage and attract others in the race. While it is individual, you are watching others. Everyone is going to reach the goal; every one is going to get the prize.
Rem. It speaks about the “same steps”. We had earlier the “same conflict” (chap 1: 27, 30) and then the “same thing” (chap 2: 2) but now it is the “same steps”.
B.M.D. Yes, so you may find someone walking shoulder to shoulder with you, running together; but essentially this is individual. Then we get another set of warnings here: “fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model”, but then “for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction”, and then they are described.
Rem. I suppose the weeping would be a test to us. The apostle Paul would go to a locality and have a judgment of it and then he would be before God as to it, would he not, in some cases weeping, at other times rejoicing. He could rejoice with the Philippians, could he not?
B.M.D. I think we could have a few more of that kind of tears. How are the brethren getting on?
Rem. In some cases that is all you can do.
B.M.D. It may be the most effective way of meeting it.
Rem. That is right.
B.M.D. Intensity of feeling and affection would lie behind those tears. There is a great need for assembly tears.
Ques. Would that be part of the sufferings that Paul had to go through to make up for others?
B.M.D. Yes, and yet he is not delaying the race. Probably the most effective way you can help others is to go on yourself.
W.A.M. Why does he look so seriously on earthly things? I mean in the Old Testament they were rightly engaged with earthly things, but what is heavenly has come in.
B.M.D. No doubt it has a prophetic edge to our very times, more materialism than ever—“who mind earthly things”; their mind is on earthly things. If I am absorbed with them, they become a hampering influence on the race.
Rem. These would be the old wine that spoils our taste for the new. You find many things that in themselves might be legitimate, but you say to yourself, Is this going to help me to acquire a taste for the new wine?
B.M.D. Well, earthly things held rightly, if we can be entrusted with them, are useful in the testimony. God has used such, but it is the love of them that is the trouble. Then there is this beautiful touch as to our commonwealth having its existence in the heavens. That is where we belong; we do not belong to this world. Our associations of life are somewhere else. That would help us to hold earthly things in a balanced way.
W.A.M. And awaiting the Saviour—you are looking for Him.
B.M.D. Yes, every day looking for the Saviour: “we await the Lord Jesus Christ”.
J.R.B. I was just thinking for the young people that what has been proceeding here yesterday and today is really what we are enjoying as belonging to this commonwealth. It is what we enjoy in common in the inheritance.
B.M.D. This is the wealth to go in for. It would be over against the wealth of earthly things: it is a “commonwealth”; there is a mutuality of affection developing among those walking in and loving the truth. Then “who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory”.
J.N.C. That is an affecting touch, is it not, as to how the Lord is presented here? He is presented in His full title—Lord Jesus Christ—but then what is added is “as Saviour”. We have known Him as the Saviour of our souls; now, Paul says, He is going to be the Saviour of the body. We can have body salvation.
B.M.D. Yes, and He has directly to do with our bodies. It would seem that the Spirit has directly to do with the change of our bodies.
J.N.C. Yes, that is also very moving because it seems in that scripture (Rom 8: 11) that the Father is moved by the Spirit: “on account of his Spirit which dwells in you”.
B.M.D. Yes, it seems He has to do with the change of our bodies. The Lord directly would have to do with the raising of the sleeping ones. As we think of the body of humiliation we can call on the Lord as the Saviour of the body. In weakness, in suffering, in sickness, we call on the Lord as Saviour of the body. It is a great comfort.
W.A.M. And yet our bodies are “the temple of the Holy Spirit”, 1 Cor 6: 19.
B.M.D. Yes, exactly. Again we are in an area of mystery. We cannot exactly explain it, but you prove it in the way of life.
E.F.C. So there will be tremendous power exercised at the time of the rapture. I was going to ask you about verse 14: “the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. Would that not wait for the rapture too as well as what we presently enjoy, as was said earlier, in sonship and all that is in our possession now? “The calling on high of God in Christ Jesus” seems to be a tremendous instrumental matter. It would link with what will take place at the rapture, would you think?
B.M.D. That is very interesting, linking it with the idea of the calling on high, because He will call out the sleeping saints, will He not? So in a sense it synchronises. Is that what you were thinking?
E.F.C. Yes, we used to think of it as our high calling—well, that is what we have in sonship and new creation, as you were saying—but it reads “calling on high”. I wondered why it was rendered that way.
B.M.D. I think it is a very useful suggestion. It really synchronises with the moment of the rapture and then things will be absolutely complete.
E.F.C. So that is the last verse of this chapter: “according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”. We see the exercise of that power in Revelation, do we not?
B.M.D. Exactly, and it will be seen in the resurrection. In a way it was anticipated when the bodies of some of the saints arose after the Lord arose. There was an evidence of power and, of course, supremely so in our blessed Lord Himself: “the surpassing greatness of his power ... which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”, Eph 1: 19, 20. Think of that: from among the millions of the dead, He was selected; one blessed Person, one Man, was raised from among the dead. Think of the folly of man questioning the resurrection, saying it is a myth.
W.A.M. It speaks of “the working of his power”, Eph 3: 7: I suppose that power is going to work in the millennium subduing every man.
B.M.D. Well, you cannot limit that power: “even to subdue all things to himself”. Everything will be subjugated to the one Man.
Rem. We had this morning “what we shall be has not yet been manifested”, 1 John 3: 2. I suppose “conformity to his body of glory” is the greatest manifestation that we do have. Is that right?
B.M.D. It would appear that His body of glory is the final matter, not that we can limit a divine Person, and it would appear there could be a change between His body of glory and the body in which He appeared in the forty days. Whether there would be any marks of His suffering in His body of glory would be a question.
A.P.D. One of the great triumphs of God is that these bodies are changed. It is not exactly that we are given new ones, is it?
B.M.D. Well, what do you think about that?
A.P.D. I thought it was a triumph of divine grace, a triumph of divine power, that these bodies of humiliation will be changed. The Authorised Version reads ‘vile bodies’ which is hardly the thought. It is not a moral thought here exactly, but what we are in weakness, “humiliation”. They will be changed; they will be glorious.
B.M.D. Yes, it is more than “put on immortality”, 1 Cor 15: 54. It would be a final condition. Yet there is mystery about it now. How did Moses appear on the mount? You have to leave that. In what bodies did those who arose from the tombs appear? It is unthinkable they would return there. They would be somewhere. It is mystery.
W.A.M. It is the same when Samuel appeared to Saul.
B.M.D. Well, you have to leave that—it is mystery. There was such a condition; you have to leave that. We are not yet in a condition to understand these things and I would think it is better not to intrude into areas that are beyond us.
W.A.M. As to our departed brethren, we do not know what has been happening. We know they are with the Lord.
B.M.D. We have to leave that. It is “the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself”. Now that should make us restful. He will do that. The passage we read in Hebrews just supports what we were saying as to the race. We have “so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight”—perhaps we have touched that—“which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”. That would be a stimulation, would it not, to continue stedfastly in the race?
J.R.B . I have often thought about this verse. I suppose primarily it has in mind those who have been delineated in the preceding chapter, but we are not without witnesses currently. You cannot help but be affected by what is in expression in the lives of many of the dear brethren.
B.M.D. I am sure of that.
J.R.B. We are surrounded by them.
B.M.D. So we need one another. We value one another. You go to the elderly brethren, the elderly sisters. We are bound together in this race. And then the confession in John’s epistle where we read: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God”. What is this confession? I link it with this way of life, this commonwealth. It must express itself by way of a confession. It is a way of life.
E.F.C. Would you say the life of God here on earth enjoyed by persons?
B.M.D. God has been expressed, has He not? This is the family setting in John’s writings and He would be reflected and represented in His children, children of God. Is that how you understand it?
E.F.C. I think so. At one time we were “estranged from the life of God”, but now having the liberty of sonship and the gift of the Spirit and the redemptive work of Christ all in our possession, we might say on the principle of faith, we are set up to live here for God.
B.M.D. Yes, and express God in witness represent Him here. Is that not the idea, as a witness?
W.A.M. And you overcome the world, do you not?
B.M.D. Exactly.
W.A.M. It says, “who is he that gets the victory over the world?”, 1 John 5: 5.
B.M.D. Yes, it is your faith that has overcome the world.
A.P.D. How do you understand what it says: “God abides in him and he in God”?
B.M.D. I would link that with the way the Lord prays in John 17. We could just allude to that in verse 23: “I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me”. Do you see any connection?
A.P.D. God abides in us: that would be in our affections.
B.M.D. Surely, that is how He would be there, and His very nature is coming out there. It says “God is love”—that is His nature—“and he that abides in love abides in God, and God in him”.
E.F.C. Would it refer back to verse 13 where it says, “Hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, that he has given to us of his Spirit”? Does God not dwell in us by the Spirit?
B.M.D. That brings out again the glory of the Person of the Spirit; God is dwelling Spirit-wise in the .saints.
W.A.M. Is it a question of our abiding in God, so it is the home of love really.
B.M.D. That is what it is, getting to the very centre of things, the very origin of where love is. No one made God love: it is what He is. Were you going to say more?
A.P.D. I was going to ask, if it would not be a diversion, do you understand that the Spirit will indwell the assembly eternally?
B.M.D. Surely I would say that, would you not?
A.P.D. Yes, I would.
B.M.D. When would He leave? You could say that for every individual Christian too: He does not leave.
A.P.D. Does that not have to do with the distinctive character of the family, the assembly, as in a sense the nearest to Deity of any family?
B.M.D. Because she is indwelt by a divine Person. She is creature, but she is indwelt by a divine Person. So individually our link with the Lord is by the Spirit: “But he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”, 1 Cor 6: 17. It is like the germ of union, really, in the same way as Romans 7 is the germ of union—married to another. We are perhaps making the subject a bit wide, but you can see the essential meaning of these things in leading us to one conclusion, one end, that is what the assembly is for Christ, and the glory of God is there. Well, we can think of these things. We have touched things that are beyond our depth—and they all are in any case—but the Spirit of God is here and He will lead us into the great things of God.
VANCOUVER
December 1990
Key to initials for the preceding readings -
(identification of the speakers was not available in all cases)
J.R.Bellamy, Vancouver; E.F.Cary, Los Angeles; J.N.Castle, San Francisco; B.M.Deck, Motueka; A.P.Devenish, Edmonton; T.E.Druckenmiller, Plainfield; J.A.Hibbert, Calgary; H.G.Holt, Chicago; D.F.Hugill, Vancouver; W.A.Moseley, Vancouver; J.Pollock, Vancouver; M.Schubert, Cologne
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