CHAPTER 5: 25 - 33
CHAPTER 5: 25 - 33
FER Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it. I think if I speak of giving myself for another, it is putting myself in that other’s place. He took upon Himself all the responsibility that attached to the church. He went into death where the church was, and took up all that lay upon it. The church is viewed even then as an object before Him. He loved the church, and gave Himself for it. It is viewed collectively as the antitype of Eve. The church was in His purpose, and is looked at in its entirety here; He gave Himself for it. He could do no more: He gave up all that He could give up; He [p. 267] gave Himself, to the end that He might sanctify it and cleanse it.
Ques When did that cleansing take place?
FER I think it is setting it apart, and in that mode — having cleansed it with the washing of water by the word. Two clauses hang on the statement that He gave Himself for it: (1) In order that He might sanctify it; and (2) In order that He might present it to Himself. (The participle “having cleansed” is used.) The church is looked at in the individuals who compose it. “The washing of water”, of course, applies to individuals. New creation does not change the individual. Washing must be practical, and takes place in time; it is not like cleansing by blood.
Ques Is sanctifying done once for all?
FER No. I think the means of setting apart is the washing.
Ques Is it the word of God that is contemplated?
FER What other word could it be? In 1 Peter 1, “Being born again ... by the word of God”, the word ‘logos’ is used. Then in verse 25, “The word of the Lord endureth for ever” it is another word; but the latter refers to the former, and therefore the connection is most intimate. The one is the utterance, the word spoken; the other (verse 25) is the revelation of God. The point in the washing is that it brings in what is new; it completely changes the nature of the thing whatever it is. “Born of water” brings in what is completely new. It is the clearance of the old by bringing in the new. You introduce, as it were, a new thread into the texture of the wick; that to me is the cleansing, and that is the meaning of “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you”, John 15. Ultimately the whole texture becomes completely new — nothing left but a little fluff! New birth is like the new thread introduced into the wick, but it involves all being made completely new eventually. People are not sufficiently alive to the complete [p. 268] moral change in the texture of the man. The individual remains, but God is bent on making all new. We get a strong word in Titus 3: 5 — the “renewing of the Holy Spirit”. It is an important thing to see the way the cleansing takes place; it is by introducing what is new, and all that is left is, as I said, like a little fluff. The interest of this passage is, that notwithstanding the complete change, the individual remains. The same church is presented that was cleansed.
Ques Would you distinguish between this service and what we get in John 13?
FER Here it is more abstract: it is the outcome of Christ’s love to the church. It takes in the church in its entirety.
Ques Is it not by the ministry of Himself to the church?
FER Yes, but I think water has reference to His death; water came from a dead Christ. Cleansing has been too much connected with cleansing the old from defilement, but I remember well J.N.D. connecting water with what is new. Water has to do with what is ‘born’; there is cleansing, but that takes place by changing. Here the whole thing is viewed as the expression of the love of Christ, and that is connected with “Husbands, love your wives”. The church is to be moulded by Christ, that is the divine idea as to husband and wife. A perfect husband will sacrifice himself to mould his wife to himself. The tendency is for the wife to assert her own individuality, but that is not the way of happiness. The church will never shine by its own light. If you put a precious stone in a dark place it will not shine; it simply shines by reflected light. There is not a single trait seen in the New Jerusalem that ought not to come out in the church now. The fact is, we are ten times more zealous for doctrine than we are for Christ. It was the snare of Ephesus; they became zealous for doctrine, but gave up “first love”. It ought to be a lesson to us.
[p. 269] Christ presents the church to Himself. It is Christ in His divine being. The thought is taken from Eve being brought to Adam. The light of all this is brought in that we might know what is going on now — what Christ is doing. No one can understand the relationship of husband and wife unless he understands the church. It shows how much the apostle was preoccupied with the church, when he lights up these relationships with the truth of it.
In this epistle the apostle is viewing all that comes under Christ; so we get the church first, in chapter 1; then we get these relationships because they are under Christ; it is a sphere where Christ rules. He does not rule in the world, but He does in the household. Baptising the household is the recognition of the Lord having a place there. I should not look to the Lord about the detail of my business; He has nothing to say to it except as it might affect His interests; in these things I should look to God. “Let your requests be made known to God”. It is a point of great importance to see the Lord in His own proper sphere. He has a great deal to say to the church, and to the believer, and to the believer’s household, but nothing to the world; He has left the world for the moment. Later on He will have a great deal to say to it.
Verse 27. It is a great thing to have before us now as our standard the end which Christ has in view — to present the church to Himself without spot and blameless. The effect would be, I should like to be that now. We get the two things here, the church as the body of Christ, and as the bride. In verse 30 we are “members of his body”. I think “of his flesh and of his bones” is interpolated. Two things come out in Eve; she was taken from Adam to be united to him, and this is a point of the last moment in regard of the church. The nourishing and cherishing is the Lord’s care for the church. Verse 31 would be more [p. 270] the thought of the bride. We are members of His body by having part in the Spirit. Every Christian who has the Spirit is a member of His body. The Corinthians were not very satisfactory as to their state, and yet the apostle says, “Ye are the body of Christ”. In the latter part of this chapter the mind of the apostle is completely absorbed with one subject, and that is Christ and the church. It is most important to see that nothing could be united to Christ save what came from Him.
Verse 31 is Christ leaving all natural links; He breaks all. If we had had the writing of this verse we should have put: For this cause shall a woman leave her father and her mother and be joined to her husband. But what was in view was Christ and the church. It just shows how foreign our minds are to what He had before Him. He had ulterior thoughts in all He introduced at the beginning. It is this which shows how flimsy all objections are to Scripture. The divine and ulterior thought is not apprehended. We have to be very simple in accepting Scripture; the simpler we are the more light we get.
“He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6) does not refer to union, but is brought in to show how intimate the link is; the link with Christ is in the Spirit; it is much more intimate than any link in the flesh can be as between man and woman. It is not one flesh, but one Spirit.
It is only as we are in heavenly light that we carry out the duties connected with our social relationships, for all the natural things are so marred and degraded. Even under the Mosaic system which God had set up, a man could give his wife a bill of divorcement and send her away, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But when Christ came He says, “But I say unto you”, etc.
I am perfectly sure the tendency naturally of a man is to be bitter to his wife; he will be pleasant to everyone [p. 271] else, but he will be bitter to her; it is the natural tendency, and he must get into heavenly light to learn how to behave to her according to God. Some people think light makes you unpractical; it is a great mistake; it never is really light to you until it affects you.
Now at last in verse 33 the apostle comes down to the actual exhortations, “Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband”. All natural ties have a peculiar place with regard to Christians: they do not lie in the wilderness, nor in the land. Christ takes the supreme place and these ties have to be readjusted; all come under Christ because they are God’s institutions.