CHAPTER 4: 1 - 7
CHAPTER 4: 1 - 7
FER At the close of the second chapter we find Jew and Gentile builded together for an habitation of God. In the third chapter we get the state by which we can enter into the privilege, “filled even to all the fulness of God”. In the fourth chapter we have the exhortations founded upon what comes out at the close of the two previous ones. If God has a house, the great point is that there should be no obstruction to the shining out of God; hence it is that saints are to be filled to all the fulness of God. All that in which God has been pleased to express Himself, is to come out. It is not a material house that God has set up, but a living house, a spiritual house, composed of living stones — that is, people who are filled to all the fulness of God. God never entertained the thought of having a house of professors; what was in His mind was a house of living stones.
The mere apprehension of the light will not enable you to walk worthy of the vocation. The house is the external part — it is like the dial of the clock; but what gives character to the house is the body, which corresponds to the works within. It is one body because it [p. 240] is one Spirit, and it is Christ’s body because it is Christ’s Spirit. Our conduct and ways down here have to be ordered according to the vocation. When those who constituted the body lost the sense of this and came under the power of the world, the house lost its character. The dial ceased to witness truly for God. So long as it remained in the sanctification of the Spirit, it was God’s house. 2 Timothy speaks of “a great house” with vessels to dishonour in it. The Spirit is the Spirit of God, but characteristically it is Christ’s Spirit, as in Romans 8: 9. “The Spirit of God’s Son” is connected more with our standing in Him ‘a heavenly band’, in relationship, but “the Spirit of Christ” is character: “Christ in you, the hope of glory”.
At the beginning the outward corresponded to the inward, the hands answering to the works. There is great good in getting God’s thoughts; I feel quite lifted up when I get a divine thought. However little we may see the answer around, it is a great thing to get God’s original thought in regard to things; you get it by the Spirit. His pleasure is to communicate His thoughts to us. Abraham had God’s thoughts communicated to him; at that moment he was morally higher than ever Adam could be. He was called the Friend of God. There is no greater favour; but He communicates His thoughts as we are able to bear it; He does not crowd in upon us what we are not up to.
Rem It would be a terrible thing to think you could not get any more light than you had at a given time!
FER Yes, and absurd, too. The fact is, you get some little light on a point, and then you have to modify your ideas of the whole truth you have — things have to be re-cast for us. We still hold the coming of the Lord, but in very different bearings to formerly.
[p. 241] What comes out in the third chapter is in anticipation of what is to be displayed in glory in the heavenly city, but here we get what is suitable to the circumstances in which we are. It is “the fulness of God” that comes out, but in the heavenly city it will be displayed in different ways to that which could be down here. Christ came out here in all that was morally suitable to man in the midst of circumstances of weakness and humiliation. What will come out of Christ by-and-by in the saints is morally the same thing, but it will be displayed in a way suitable to the new circumstances. The third chapter shows how the state can be effected by which the fulness of God can be brought out.
In the first chapter it is God’s calling; in the fourth it is our calling; but we could not get the idea of what the calling is (although stated in chapter 2: 22) if we had not the third chapter.
We are to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, but to do this intelligently we must know the truth of the body as brought out in the third chapter. Unity does not depend altogether upon the body, though it accentuates it. There was a unity which held together the saints in early days, before they knew anything about the body; but the truth of the body greatly helps. Everything then depended on the power of the Spirit; they were “of one heart and of one soul”; this was a unity brought about by the Spirit. We could not have the truth of the body till the Gentile was brought in, for it was essentially that Jew and Gentile were one body, in contrast to two.
Their fellowship in early days depended on the Lord and the Spirit. We do not need the truth of the body to maintain unity and discipline; but what is done in the way of discipline in the Antipodes is binding on us here, because it is done in the name of the Lord, and there is but one Lord. Letters of commendation do not maintain the truth of one body:
[p. 242] they maintain practical fellowship, and this depends on one Lord. Bethesda is a practical ignoring of the truth of the one Lord and one Spirit; each meeting exercises its own discipline, and they are independent the one from the other. Discipline is never connected with the “one body”, but with the Lord. It is for this reason, I think, that the apostle in 1 Corinthians so constantly brings in the title of ‘Lord’, because he wanted to arouse them to their responsibility; it is a question of fellowship.
When all you see around is so completely contrary to God’s thoughts, you have to enter into them abstractly, in order to have before you an unseen sphere, as it were, in which you see an order of things entirely different to and outside the whole course of things down here.
In great religious bodies such as the Church of England and Dissent, they do not exercise discipline at all; in fact, things are in such a state they could not do it. Perhaps if it is something ostensibly and flagrantly wrong they may exercise discipline, but it is for the maintenance of their own respectable front more than for the Lord’s honour. I feel their lack of discipline is a good and sufficient ground for leaving them; you depart from unrighteousness.
How many of us know what the true spiritual character of God’s house is? You cannot know how to behave yourself in the house unless you know what it is. Nothing comes up to it but “filled even to all the fulness of God”. The terms are known — Jew and Gentile builded together — but if you do not enter into the thought of being filled to all the fulness of God, you do not rise to the height of the thought of God’s house.
People may see as light what they do not enjoy; for the latter you must have state. You might have all the light of Romans 5 and yet have no enjoyment. There are great things that God intends me to enjoy,
[p. 243] but the enjoyment is dependent on the Spirit and deliverance. We may get glimmers, but God’s thought is to set us free from all that would impede our enjoyment. The natural office of the Spirit is to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, and if we have the Spirit we have the power of enjoyment, but it is another thing to be able to say, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life ... shall be able to separate us from the love of God”; that is the man who has enjoyment!
There are three circles in verses 4, 5, 6 — three divine Persons in relation to the Christian circle. The Spirit must have a vessel; that is why the ‘body’ is put first. The last is God in the display of Himself in grace. ‘Father’ is the character God has taken in the administration of grace.
The “one hope of your calling” is the heavenly city; what is expressed in the body will come out in the New Jerusalem. In the first chapter the hope of the calling is more heaven.
Saints are to be characterised by longsuffering, meekness, forbearance. If you are conscious of being in God’s presence, you cannot but be meek and lowly. Love and peace is to characterise the saints.
The best way to contend for the truth is for you yourself to be in the light of it. These exhortations are very wide in their application, for we all come under them. We are all responsible to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace; we need to give diligence to it. The Spirit is bent on unity; the moment the flesh comes in, it brings in grit. The power for unity depends upon the Spirit, it is not unity in the flesh. “How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” but that will be the effect and influence of the Spirit upon Israel — the precious ointment upon the head that went down to the skirts of his garments. There might be agreeable cliques, but that would not be the [p. 244] unity of the Spirit. You must keep flesh out; that is the only way to maintain unity, the unity of the Spirit. It is by forbearing one another in love. If we had more love, we should not find it so difficult to get on with other Christians. The church may be broken up in ruins, but the unity of the Spirit remains to be kept; the unity of the Spirit is not affected by the ruin of the church. Those who keep it are really answering to the mind of God. It is a moral, not an ecclesiastical, thought. J.N.D. points out how intensely moral Scripture is!
Ques What is the uniting bond of peace?
FER Refusing disturbing questions. God has so wrought in the cross that questions need not come up between the saints. In the cross man has gone — Jew as well as Gentile. In the brazen serpent God went back to the garden of Eden, when there was neither Jew nor Gentile. There is no more vital point for us than that ‘the man under judgment has gone in judgment’. The righteousness that ended that man remains, but the man has gone — all gone! Peace, favour, reconciliation, all for us depends upon the man having been removed. If the flesh works in any of us, as sure as possible it will bring in a jarring element. The principle of the flesh is, Every man for himself! That does not bring in unity. In the unity the Spirit it is, Every man for others.
There is a great difference in Scripture between ‘for’ and ‘because’. ‘For’ accentuates the previous statement, and gives a little further light, as here: For “there is one body and one Spirit”. ‘Because’ simply gives the cause, the reason for the former statement.
Verse 7 shows there is diversity, but it is all to serve unity; even in the natural body there are very diverse organs; there is nothing in common between an eye and a hand, and yet they both serve the unity.
Ques What is the force of “through all” ([p. 245] verse 6)?
FER The Christian sees one God and Father; nothing happens apart from Him. He is supreme. All things work together for good because God is above all, through all, and in us all. “In us all” is in the sense of life; it is more limited.