RADIATION OF DIVINE AFFECTIONS IN JOHN'S GOSPEL (2)
RADIATION OF DIVINE AFFECTIONS IN JOHN’S GOSPEL (2)
SMcC Pursuing the thought of divine affections as John the evangelist brings them before us, we come to this well-known chapter. I suppose it is one of the best known and most used chapters in ministry. I am sure the Spirit would help us to understand it better. We did not touch this morning on the passages in John 3: 35 or in John 5: 20. It might be of interest in passing just to refer to the fact that divine affections as referred to in those two passages introduce two important features of the truth in the dispensation. What follows the statement in John 3 is the administration of the Spirit in the 4th chapter - the living water, a matter of prime importance, the presence of the Spirit subjectively in delivering power in our souls. It would show what a prime matter the gift of the Spirit is, as typified in the living water, in that, reference is made in the end of chapter 3 to the Father’s love for the Son and all things being given into His hand. Divine affections are seen as moving in the ordered and arranged system of operation in relation to this matter of living water, the woman in John 4 becoming a subject of the administration - the Lord leading her in the course of the teaching into the great subject of the worship of God. Then in John chapter 5 what follows the reference in verse 35 to the divine affections is the great matter of quickening; one of the prime features linked with the saints and their part in divine thoughts. Quickening alludes to a divine sovereign operation whereby we are made to live in the divine nature, in divine love. The reference to divine affections and the Father’s love for the Son preceding the gift of the Spirit in chapter 4 in type in the living water, and the great feature of quickening in chapter 5 is all to impress us with the way that divine affections radiate, in what means so much to us and is of such prime importance with us in our part in the great things of God.
RGC Would you say a word on the two references to love in chapter 3 and chapter 5. It is a different word in each case.
SMcC Well, these words, as we know, are instructive words. They convey different thoughts, the love of chapter 3 in verse 35 is the love of settled disposition, the settled disposition of the Father towards the Son, specially prefacing the matter of the administration of chapter 4. Whereas in chapter 5 it is the love of friendship, implying attractiveness in the object of the activity of the love, the Son being peculiarly the attractive Object. I think it is of note that this should come into John 5, because John 5 refers to what the saints are individually as quickened and made to live in the divine nature and thus capacitated to enjoy the knowledge of God as coming into this divine arrangement, capacitated to serve God as quickened thus.
CFI Would it imply some touch beyond the Spirit’s operations? The Spirit’s operations are in mind in chapter 4, but here it says, “The Son also quickens whom He will.”
SMcC It is remarkable how John would throw into relief at given moments in different circumstances the varied operational activities of each of the Persons of the Godhead, whether it be the Father or the Son or the Spirit. It would seem as if we are to be impressed with the greatness of this ordered arrangement in which divine love is serving us that each of the Persons is operating in relation to the prime object in their activities, the saints being brought into conscious known intelligent relationship with them.
GH Does quickening enter into the service on the first day of the week?
SMcC Well, quickening is a basic thought. We could not rightly have part in the assembly service without this great thought of quickening. Quickening involves life. It is how we are made to live in the divine nature, capacitated for our part in the divine nature, by this sovereign activity on the part of the Son.
EWC Would you say how quickening stands in relation to faith?
SMcC Quickening is not a matter of faith. Resurrection is a matter of faith, but not quickening. Quickening has to do with the Spirit indwelling the believer, the Lord operating by means of the Spirit.
JC Is there any link with Ezekiel 37 - “Shall these bones live?”
SMcC Well, that would enter into it, although Ezekiel 37 would link more with John 3 the great matter of the new birth; but the principle of it extends forward into the matter of quickening in John 5; in Ezekiel it is more life viewed from a potential viewpoint, where life is viewed as a matter of power, “They lived and stood upon their feet an exceeding great army,” verse 10. Quickening in John 5 is not necessarily a matter of power, it involves enjoyment; we are capacitated through quickening to enjoy the divine nature, to live in it.
RL To live and have part in it.
SMcC That is what quickening is. Made to live.
EH Is not the great thought in John, life?
SMcC Yes, you have something else to say?
EH Well, I was struck this morning with it. I thought that the third and fourth of John come in on a parallel line with 21st Numbers, and we may be lacking in the truth of this.
SMcC Well, the matter of eternal life is of course somewhat different from quickening. We have to understand what each feature of life suggests. Eternal life involves a sphere in which we are made to live, but quickening in John 5 is a sovereign activity on the part of a divine Person in us, in our souls, involving that we inwardly and spiritually live in our relations with divine Persons.
JC Would chapter 4, verse 14, be parallel to it? “The water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” Would springing up be the quickening?
SMcC I think the springing up involves the Spirit’s activity in the believer on another line, leading to eternal life. It is not a question of the divine nature in that verse, but of the known presence of the Spirit in a subjective way in the believer involving delivering power, and emancipation from what would hold us, leading up to eternal life. But quickening in John 5 is that we are quickened out of a state of death, capacitated and made to live in the divine nature.
PB What is the difference between the divine nature that you are speaking of here, and what Peter speaks of “that through these (promises) ye may become partakers of the divine nature?” 2 Peter 1: 4.
SMcC Well, that would enter into it; partakers of the divine nature involves what we are made to participate in through quickening.
GRD Verse 20 of chapter 5 reads, “The Father loves the Son,” and then it goes on to speak of both the Father quickening and the Son quickening. Would the fact that love is referred to earlier show a perfect blending of these operations of quickening, that is the Father causing love to flow toward Christ and Christ causing love to flow toward the Father - would the love marking each of them mark that out?
SMcC Yes, exactly. John 5 stresses the relationship between the Father and the Son in this great matter. The Father quickens, and the Son quickens, and we learn from other passages that the Spirit quickens. But our attention is specially focused on the Son. “The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things which He Himself does,” and our attention is particularly focused on the Son as quickening, His voice involving quickening power.
EWC Does that involve the present operation of quickening?
SMcC Exactly. The assembly knows quickening and is the subject of quickening in a way that marks no other family in the universe of God. Quickening as we are referring to it involves an action in the saints of the assembly that no other family will know in the same way.
Ques Is that treated of in Colossians in view of our going over into the land?
SMcC Colossians, being a church letter preparing us for the full light of the heavenly position, brings in the thought of quickening. It is interesting to see its place in Colossians; the relative value of quickening and resurrection is to be noted; on the public side resurrection is the greatest testimony to the power of God that we have; but in John 5 on the inward side, quickening is an actual operation, not anticipative, but an actual divine operation involving that we are made to live in our souls in the divine nature.
REH Is quickening the result of divine speaking?
SMcC Well, the voice of the Son of God enters into it. He is the last Adam, a quickening Spirit.
WHW Is it in any way an answer to the contemplation of His glory as in the first chapter, and the desires that enter the soul as we are attracted to that blessed Person that we have contemplated?
SMcC That is how I understand it; and as coming under His hand in these relationships so glorious, divine affections radiating in them, as coming under His hand, we are made to live, hearing His voice we are made to live in the divine nature, capacitated to enjoy divine affections in the realm in which they are known.
WHW Is the incident at the beginning of chapter 5 to throw into relief what the Lord has given expression to here?
SMcC Exactly. In contrast as we might say at the present time to all that is around us. There is the professed carrying on of the service of God, the professed living in relation to God, but the absolute lack of power is so manifest everywhere. John’s ministry would help us to see that the economy in its formal operation means that as we come under the hand of Christ the Son of God we are quickened and made to live in the divine nature, so that the enjoyment of it is not merely a doctrinal matter, we are made to live in the divine nature. It is an actual inward result.
WHW Would the food in chapter 6 bear on this quickening, in the support of it?
SMcC Exactly. The food in chapter 6 is to sustain the life that is quickened, showing that it is a constitutional matter. Quickening is not just a matter of light. Quickening involves the Spirit in the saints and coming under the operation of the Son of God, so that we are made actually to live in our souls in relation to God.
RJS Is there any suggestion of it at all in Lazarus being brought forth from among the dead and then “loose him and let him go” and what comes to light in chapter 21? Is there any link at all?
SMcC The great teaching in regard to Lazarus is the truth of resurrection, and as we were referring to earlier, in Colossians resurrection comes before quickening, because resurrection in Colossians is the prime matter; but when we come to John quickening has a unique place in chapter 5.
SR Chapter 5, verse 21, says, “Even as the Father raises the dead and quickens them.” Both the Father and the Son are said to quicken.
SMcC The point in the teaching is to focus our attention on the Son as co-equal with the Father and as loved by the Father in certain relations. In this chapter, it says “For even as the Father raises.” It is not to focus our attention so much on the Father as on the Son in this peculiar glory.
RM Very interesting. Showing that it is a selective matter. It is not a general matter, but a selective matter, peculiarly applied to the saints of the assembly in this dispensation, at this present time.
EWC In its application to the saints in this dispensation, would it have a special bearing on our living in the joy of the relationship that we had before us this morning?
SMcC Yes, exactly. That is where it is in mind that we should live, in the enjoyment of divine affections flowing in these relationships.
WHW Is the truth here moving towards the point “That all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father?”
SMcC A very important thing, that we should see, that while the Son has come into a place involving a subordinate position for Him, a place of relative inferiority in the course of the mediatorial operations, we are brought to see the greatness and dignity of this Person who is as to His Person unchanged by any position that He comes into and so John 5 would impress us with His greatness, that He is co-equal with the Father.
MM In chapter 3 the Father honours the Son, and in chapter 4 the Son honours the Father. In chapter 5 they are equal?
SMcC Yes, in the economy. You can understand that in the abstract relations of Deity we could not speak of divine Persons honouring One Another. They love One Another as we are told in the scriptures, but you would not speak of Them honouring One Another in the way that we are alluding to it here. It is a particular reference to Their relations to One Another in the economy. It throws into relief the grace and dignity of the arrangement in which divine Persons are viewed as serving, that although Two have taken positions involving relative inferiority, yet in an abstract way Their place remains the same.
PB Would you help us as to verse 26 “For even as the Father has life in himself so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself?”
SMcC Well, that is to stress this prime matter of life in relation to the operational activities of divine Persons in the economy. The economy would be in mind in that verse, the Father being the Supreme One in the economy. The Father is always viewed as supreme in the economy.
SR So in that way we would note the word ‘even.’ You are directing our attention now to the affection flowing from the Father to the Son.
SMcC Exactly. So that this matter of quickening, as we pass from it, is an important thing that we should understand, because assembly service is not carried out in mere terms, it is to be carried out and sustained in the energy of a life that is the result of the quickening power of the Son of God. We do not enjoy the divine nature or relations with divine Persons just as a matter of light, while light governs us as to our enjoyment of them, but as the result of an actual quickening act within us on the part of divine Persons.
AP Would you be free to say something as to Ephesians 2 in regard to the matter of quickening. One would like to get a little clearer. I am thinking of verse 5 “God ... (we too being dead in offences) has quickened us with the Christ.”
SMcC Well. Ephesians 2 links on with John 5 with only this difference that Ephesians 2 involves in its scope what is anticipative, not what is actual, but what is anticipative. God can call things that be not as though they were, and the totality of the work of God from Pentecost to the rapture, is in mind in Ephesians 2.
CFI Do you link the thought of quickening with eternal life, or do you make it go further than that?
SMcC It links with eternal life, in that we could not fully enter upon the enjoyment of eternal life apart from it.
CFI That is most important, that whilst the Spirit is free to come and dwell with us, we do need this quickening touch from the Son Himself to live in divine affections.
SMcC Well, exactly, that is the whole point, in stressing the operation of the Son in quickening power in chapter 5. The Spirit in chapter 4 is viewed as delivering us from all the negative results connected with the operation of sin. You have a woman who is enslaved inwardly, she is a woman of remarkable affections, but she needs to be emancipated, she needs to be delivered inwardly and the Spirit comes in in the way of power, so that she is delivered inwardly; but then John 5 involves the operation of the Son of God by the Spirit, the Spirit being in the saints, by which we are made to live in relationships according to God and have part in the divine nature.
CR “We’ve heard thy quickening voice?”
SMcC Well, that enters into it. The quickening will apply to our bodies, the Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies, but what will extend to our bodies then, has been begun in us by this great act of the Son of God. So that in our part in the assembly service there is the side of faith in relation to resurrection, we take our part in sonship as in the faith of the mighty working of God’s power in resurrection, but then the quickening too involves an actual inward operation so that our enjoyment of our links with divine Persons is real and actual, not just a matter of light.
IW Does that give us another touch of Their affections, “The Son also quickens whom he will”?
SMcC Exactly. But the assembly has the prime place in this matter. It is selective quickening in that way in John 5, whereas the quickening of the dead may be viewed elsewhere; but in John 5 in that particular part the saints are selected as the present objects of divine quickening. Now in chapter 13 we come to divine affections entering into the closing phases of the Lord’s service. I think it important that we should see what comes to light in this chapter, the deliberate movements of Christ in relation to His own, as understanding what had been committed to Him (verse 3) looking back on all that we have been considering in chapters 3 and 5, “Jesus knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hand.” They were given on the basis of His love for the Son. It involves what was said in John 3 and John 5, and in the light of that the Lord proceeds with this great service in the light of what is so great in the economy.
WHW Is what is said in the end of verse 1, “Having loved his own who were in the world loved them to the end,” just a continuation of the thought that we began with this morning of the radiation of love and affections?
SMcC I thought so. Specially brought into this passage which says, “Before the feast of the passover.” That is, the shadow of the cross is coming in. The shadow of death is coming across His public path. “His hour had come that He should depart out of this world to the Father,” and then we get this statement, “Having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end.” That is, in the full light of the cross, in the full light of His exit from this world, the lifting up, we get the radiation of His Own love in His blessed activity towards His Own.
RMD Why does it say that “He came out from God and was going to God?”
SMcC I think to throw into relief what is involved in the cycle of mediatorial operations. This wondrous cycle of mediatorial operations involves that the Word becomes flesh, a divine Person becomes Man, including also “Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life,” involving that that divine Person should go into death, and too that He should go back to the Father, that He should return to the place whence He came. I think in that expression the majesty and gloriousness of the scope of mediatorial operations are set out.
WHW Is it necessary then, to get the gain of this chapter, to carry in our minds what the Lord has said in chapter 5, “All may honour the Son even as they honour the Father”?
SMcC Well, exactly. We are never to forget that while the Person whom we know as the Son has come into a lowly position in subordination to the Father, that Person is worthy of equal honour with the Father as to His Person.
WHW I was thinking of those words “He lays aside his garments.” He lays all that aside, to serve His own.
SMcC A very touching allusion to His greatness. It says “And that he came out from God and was going to God, rises from Supper and lays aside his garments, having taken a linen towel he girded himself.” As if the Lord, as we know, is leaving us an example. He says later down, verse 13, “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord and ye say well, for I am so; if I therefore the Lord and the Teacher have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example.” What an advantage we have, do you not think, in a divine Person in service in this matter of radiating divine love, leaving us an example so that we might profit by it.
RN The Lord refers later on to His going and they are now to be in His place.
SMcC The Lord leaves them in the place that He was in.
EBMc It says “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hand and that he came out from God and was going to God, rises from supper and lays aside his garments,” verses 3, 4. That is the spirit in which He takes it up.
SMcC It is His own distinctive movement in that way and He goes down to the feet of the disciples. This whole chapter is to stress love in activity. Not exactly love objectively, in a picture, but love in activity, love that we have participated in as being the objects of it, sharing in the service, getting the gain of the service, and the Lord would set it on amongst us in the way that we are to serve one another.
RGC That love might beget love. Would that be the consequence?
SMcC That would be the result. There are two features, two elements, appear in this chapter which have to be noted, one in Peter and the other in Judas. Peter, although he needs adjustment, has affinities with the Lord Jesus, affinities with the circle of divine affections in which love is serving the saints here. Judas on the other hand, is an element of darkness, right in the circle of affections ostensibly, but yet having no inward affinity with it, and one who cannot be helped. The Lord says, “Have not I chosen you the twelve and of you one is a devil.” What a solemn word! But then the Lord went on with the matter, and Judas is fully exposed in this chapter as one who has no affinity with the love that is operating in it.
CFI John would impress us with the way in which the saints would be viewed as His own. They have affinity, they are born of God, what there is substantially with them.
SMcC That is the point. It is having loved His own, a beautiful reference to what they were in their links with Him as having affinity with Him.
EBMc They were calling Him Teacher and Lord. He said, “Ye say well, for I am so. If I therefore the Lord and the Teacher have washed your feet, ye ought also to wash one another’s feet.” The laying of His garment aside, would bring that in, would it not? That is, He had the right to an official position, but He lays everything to one side to take this service up, and it is what we have to do, is it not?
SMcC Exactly. It is important that we should understand what the Lord is doing. There is definite intent in what He does. He has given us an example. He has done it with a view to giving us an example as to the way in which we are to serve one another, and divine affections in John’s ministry are to affect us to the extent that we should understand our part in the divine economy. It is not only the divine Persons are in the economy, but we are in the economy,
we are a part of the economy and love is to extend through us in its service to one another.
GRD Do you mean that the Lord in loving His disciples and in serving them like this was really taking account of the fruit of His own service in them, just as on the opposite line, the devil knew what was in the heart of Judas, he counted on something of himself being in the heart of Judas and wrought on that?
SMcC A very solemn thing. Showing how near the elements of evil are, how near the power of the enemy is in relation to the choicest features of divine affections in their activities toward the saints.
REH Does this then stress the need for this inwardness in us? Externally all the disciples were apparently the same, because Judas was not easily discerned?
SMcC Exactly. Therefore the importance of right links, vital links in the economy of love that we are referring to. Peter was adjustable. He had very defined ideas, as we have often noted, he is very fixed in what he says in verse 8: “Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, Unless I wash thee thou hast not part with me.” That touches a cord in Peter’s heart and he responds immediately.
REH Is he adjusted by the prospect of having part with Him?
SMcC Well, exactly. And that is what divine affections have in mind in their operations, that we should have part with Christ, whether in the testimony here below or whether on the upward ascending line in heavenly relationships as associated with Christ.
CFI What would necessitate the service of the feet washing in a negative sense? There is the positive side of part with me.
SMcC Well, I suppose it would involve our contact with things here; not so much the positive action of sin in us, as the mere contact with a scene that is defiled and the constant necessity, in having to say to divine Persons and divine things, of a purified state with us. The feet washing helps toward this end, do you not think?
CFI It would bear on the water in that connection.
SMcC Well, I think the water particularly applies to what is purifying, separative in that way, so that there might be nothing to hinder our part with Christ in any contact that we may have, even legitimately, with things here below.
EC With regard to ourselves, the Lord goes on to say “Ye ought also to wash one another’s feet” in verse 14. How is that worked out among us?
SMcC I think the Lord contemplates that there is capacity among the saints to take on this service. He is not raising any question as to whether they will be equal for it, or what they would attend to in the doing of it. He is treating the subject in the light of the capacity there is among the brethren to take it on. And there is this capacity among the brethren to serve one another by love in this way, and there is much need for it.
GA It is to be seen experimentally, you mean, not preaching love to one another, but to be seen experimentally, the practice of it.
SMcC Well, exactly. Seen by actions, seen by what we do. It may be through a word, but then the thing is done.
REH Could you help us as to what lay behind Peter’s objection, because as serving one another we might meet the same?
SMcC Well, I suppose Peter is like the most of us. He needs help all along the line. I do not think any of us would elect ourselves out of that, at least one would not, for oneself. We constantly need help. Peter is a representative man, and he represents one who thinks he has the right thing in mind, but he has not and the Lord has to help him, but He helps him in the simplest kind of way and yet the most definite way, by insisting that love’s service is going on.
RLP What about the strong expressions so frequently used, not only by Peter, but also by us?
SMcC Well, a strong negative is always a difficult thing. When you get persons who insist on strong negatives there is good reason to query what they are pressing.
WHW I suppose Peter would illustrate the necessity of this service of love.
SMcC Exactly. And therefore the constant need in our relations with one another as to love’s service continuing. Supposing there is a Peter and even supposing there were a Judas. Is love’s service to be held up? Are love’s activities going to be detained? The Lord would help us to see that He has given us an example that whatever may be the case, love is to go through. It says, “Having loved his own who were in the world, loved them to the end.” “To the end” means going through with everything. However situations arise and distance comes in between us we are to be prepared to continue with love’s service. The activity of love here means going through with everything whatever may be involved.
EBMc It means going down. That is the bondman. He brings in “The bondman is not greater than his Lord.” That means that we should be prepared to humble ourselves to take this on?
SMcC Well, how that would balance us, lest we should think more of ourselves than we ought to think. There is nothing more disastrous in our local gatherings than high thoughts as to ourselves, and thinking we should be given a greater position than we are capacitated for. Why cannot we be content with part in love’s arrangement, in working out love’s thoughts? But the official side humblingly comes in as we insist on something perhaps that we do not have the capacity for.
EC “Simon Peter says to him, Lord not my feet only but also my hands and my head.” The Lord does not take much note of that. I was just wondering why the feet are stressed particularly.
SMcC Well, it is a question of the last point of contact, the feet. When we go up the feet will be the last point of contact. It is not the head nor the hands that need washing but the feet, as the immediate point of contact with a defiled scene.
WHW Does Peter’s request that the Lord should wash his hands and his head not indicate the way in which we can bring the thought of demand in on the service of love?
SMcC Yes, it shows an element in Peter that we need help on in our souls. He withdraws on the one hand, saying “Thou shalt never wash my feet,” and then on the other hand he goes too far in telling the Lord what should be done, “Not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” Whereas the whole point in the service was that the Lord was doing it. He was carrying it on, not Peter.
EBMc In Philadelphia, “They shall come and shall do homage before thy feet,” so that the feet need to be attended to.
SMcC Yes, exactly.
EBMc As you say, they are the last point of contact with the earth. They need to be right.
SMcC It is an important thing that we should just restfully allow love to have its way with us. We would like to tell the Lord what to do perhaps. Peter misses the whole point in the matter, that it is love that is serving and love knows what to do.
GH Is it the same in the Song of Songs? The bride is urged not to “awake my love till he please.”
SMcC How often when perhaps a brother or sister may seek to wash our feet, we may try and tell them how they should do it, what we expect to be done in relation to it, how we think it should be done. That is not the point in the service. It is love that is doing the service, and love is intelligent in the way it should be done.
REH Was love’s service interrupted in Corinth and drawn attention to in chapters 13 and 14?
SMcC Exactly. Paul has to put it abstractly before them in chapter 13. Sometimes things have to be put abstractly before us when the concrete side is so lacking with us.
RM As to our service to one another, the Lord says “He who receives whomsoever I shall send receives me.” Is that not the way we should appreciate such service?
SMcC Yes, it throws into relief thus the importance of accepting love’s service as it comes towards us, that in principle we may not be receiving Christ, because Christ is there representatively in what is done.
RGC The expresser of His love is going to get gain also, as well as the one to whom it is expressed, as in verse 17 “If ye know these things blessed are ye if ye do them.”
SMcC Well, exactly. The Lord would help us to see that it is a blessed service to have part in.
RN Is it important that the objective that the Lord speaks of be in mind whether serving or being served? “Part with me” would help us, would it not? That is to be in mind in all service.
SMcC Yes, it is not in this service just a matter of our relief. There is a positive end in mind in our part in the things of God, that we should be free in the assembly, free in divine things, free as having part with Christ in these holy matters.
REH So that we should all have a concern that the brethren should be given the best out of all.
SMcC Well, exactly, that love might be in circulation. Not just love abstractly, in Corinthians 13, but love in positive circulation among the brethren in their relations with one another, in their actions and outlook toward one another.
EWC This service is “person to person” is it not? Not a matter taken up by the assembly.
SMcC Very good. Nor is it a telephone service. We speak of “person to person” calls. This is a “person to person” service. It is not done at a distance, but you are getting down to the feet of the saints, and how worthy their feet are to be washed, as we think of who the saints are and the greatness and the light of the operations of the divine arrangement.
FW Would you say a little as to the towel and the wiping?
SMcC Well, we need help on the accessories to the service; where the brethren understand the dignity and grace of sonship, and love is active in it, this service will be a very easy matter.
JC I was wondering if you would be free to say something as to what bearing the linen towel and wash basin have on the one who serves?
SMcC Well, the linen towel is absorbent. It is not irritating. It is easy to irritate one another, but in love’s service we want to bring in the absorbent quality, this quality that does not excite fleshly activity in the object of the service. Linen was a great feature in the priestly garments of old and does not excite perspiration.
REH Love bears all things.
SMcC Exactly.
REH Would it mean that the one served is comforted?
SMcC Well, it would, and it stresses the priestly side of service. That is, it is not a social activity, it is not an activity undertaken because I like you more than anyone else, it is a priestly activity that the linen towel would suggest, meaning that it is towards the saints without natural and social consideration.
ASk Would the expression “He that is washed all over” suggest the dignity of the saints?
SMcC Well, it is what they are basically. The new birth would be implied in that. That is, the new birth is a divine operation which brings something into our beings morally that affects us throughout. It is not anything more than that. It is the introduction of a thread into our moral being which affects us throughout our being.
WHW I was wondering if verses 31 and 32 do not show the answer in the Lord Himself in the liberty that flows from a service such as this being rendered.
SMcC I think it does, because where love is in activity among the saints in their relations with one another, just as it was here, it leads to expansion, to enlargement of thought and outlook in relation to divine operations. An immensity of scope is brought on to our view in verses 31 and 32 in relation to Christ on the cross, Christ on high and Christ in the assembly.
GRD Is that why the thought of “Teacher” comes in in this service of feet washing, and is it in view of going on in the understanding of what belongs to the Lord in other spheres?
SMcC Say something more.
GRD I was just thinking of the value of this service of love to one another in relation to the truth and teaching. “Ye call me Teacher and the Lord.” The Lord says “I, therefore, the Lord and the Teacher.” I wondered whether if there was, along with the feet washing, the atmosphere that love would produce,
paving the way for a development of features of glory that belong to Christ.
SMcC I think that is right, and the reference to “the Teacher and the Lord” and then “The Lord and the Teacher” would imply conditions present with us that are prepared to make room for these features, the authority of Christ on the one hand, and His ability to instruct us in the mind of God. It is a great advantage when you get an atmosphere like that among the saints as prepared to make way for what is conveyed in these thoughts, we are bound to get enlargement and expansion, do you not think?
GRD Yes, and the position as to Judas seems to become confined as love in this way is operating.
SMcC Yes, exactly. And especially is it to be noted the place of John in the bosom of Jesus in regard to the full exposure of Judas, as if to intensify in our minds and thoughts the importance of our being in the radiation of divine affections if the power and intensity of evil and its awfulness as in Judas is to be counteracted.
EBMc Why was it that Peter has to ask John?
SMcC Well, why should he not? Why should we not ask someone who is nearer the Lord than ourselves? We might as well be simple about it. We know that there are some that are nearer to Christ than others, though the door is open for this peculiar place for everyone of us, but we all know that there are degrees of intimacy, there is greater attractiveness and lovability with some than with others, and it is good to recognise divine selectiveness among the saints.
LI Is it to his credit that Peter was prepared to ask John?
SMcC Yes, I think it was. Why did he not ask the Lord? He asked the one who was nearest the Lord - John. And why should we not ask those that may seem to enjoy divine love more than the rest of us. Why should we not? We may say “Oh well, I want to get it direct from the Lord Himself.” But we may not get it direct from the Lord Himself. We may have to get it from someone else.
EBMc It shows that he was very near to John, if he trusted John, very good that he should ask him.
SMcC I think it is all to stress our amenability to help in this realm, whether it comes through Christ, or through one who is in conscious intimacy with Christ, we should be amenable to help and adjustment.
REH It is a continuation of serving one another, is it, not?
SMcC Exactly. It is love’s service. John is in the place of love and he would serve in love in this matter; so as it has often been noticed, here it says, “But he, leaning on the breast of Jesus, says to him, Lord, who is it.” In the synoptic Gospels the question is, “Is It I?” But in John 13 it says “Lord, who is it?” Who could it be in such a circle as this?
WHW What do we learn from the fact that John leans on the breast of Jesus before he asked this question?
SMcC I think it shows that he is leaning on the support of divine affections. The support that divine affections would afford. It is not a question exactly of intelligence here, it is a question of a believer such as John would represent, giving an answer to an enquiry on the basis of his contact and intimacy with Christ. Sometimes we depend a lot on the amount of ministry that we have read, on the book and papers and letters that we have read. We often depend a good deal on them to give an answer, but John is depending upon his intimate link with Christ to help him with a right answer.
EBMc We ought to know such.
SMcC We should. Heaven knows them - all about them.
RM It is very interesting that in chapter 21 this detail is reiterated. It says “Peter, turning round, sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following; who also leaned at supper on his breast, and said, Lord, who is it that delivers thee up.” It describes him, does it not?
SMcC Is it not remarkable how it is brought in in relation to Peter’s full adjustment. It was brought in here in chapter 13 in relation to Judas, an impossible element, but it is brought in in the completing of Peter’s matters in John 21, showing the prime importance of persons who live in this kind of environment, on the breast and in the bosom of Jesus.
REH Would you suggest that it, would be open to all to enjoy this intimate link? At the same time, we are not to overlook the service of the brethren?
SMcC Well, exactly.
Rem So John was dependent upon his intimate links with the Lord and Peter was dependent on his brotherly links with John.
SMcC So that now immediately you have the power of evil dealt with; Judas goes out and the circle of affection is free of that element and the Lord begins to expand on their view the most wonderful range of glory in relation to His going out of the world. In verse 31, “When therefore he was gone out, Jesus says, Now is the Son of man glorified,” alluding to the moral glory of the Son of man in relation to the cross. And then, “God is glorified in him,” alluding to how God is glorified in relation to the cross. Then “God also shall glorify him in himself” (that is, in God), a peculiar allusion to the greatness of the Lord’s Person in returning to heaven; and then “shall glorify Him immediately,” the great realm that is now opened up in the assembly, where, through the Spirit’s activities and service, Christ’s glory is expanded on the view of the saints. It is not that we have to wait till the millennium, when God will bring the firstborn into the habitable world and His kingdom glory will be displayed; but there is a sphere now in the assembly, consequent upon the Spirit coming and the forming of the assembly, where Christ’s glory is expanded immediately upon our gaze.
PB Would God glorifying Him in Himself go as far as John 17: 5?
SMcC Well, I think it involves that. The Lord in that verse asks as Man to be glorified with the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. And “God also shall glorify Him in Himself,” alludes to that, the Lord returning as Man to the greatness of His place in deity.
GA The working out of what we have looked at in the feet washing, would that not bring added glory to a divine Person?
SMcC Well, it would. That is how divine affections in their radiation would work out - in glory to divine Persons. So as we finish we would note that the Lord says, verse 35, “By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves.” What is it that is going to be a public testimony to the fact that we belong to Christ, that we are His? Is it the amount of light that we have? No. It is the amount of love that we have - the amount of love that is radiating among the saints.
GA Is there further radiation in the term that the Lord uses, “children?”
SMcC Exactly. He stresses, in the figure employed, the objects that we are, of such parental interest and care - the Lord Himself maintaining a fatherly influence in that way.
RGC Is it a two-way matter?
SMcC A two-way matter - reciprocal. We have to understand reciprocity, in John’s ministry. There is the reciprocity of affection between the Father and the Son, and the Spirit too, and there is to be reciprocity between divine Persons and the saints, and there is to be reciprocity among the saints themselves.
LI It says the world loves its own; “love amongst yourselves” would be a counter to that, would it?
SMcC A counter to that. What a wonderful thing it is, and how the young brethren should be more and more impressed with it, that they are vitally linked with a circle where divine love and divine affections are radiating. There could be nothing greater than what there is in the assembly at the present time in the presence of divine Persons.