PILLARS
It is evident that I wish to speak about pillars. The passage in 2 Chronicles relates to the building of the house: then pillars are made, pillars to go in the entranceway. They seem to be decorative, refined work attached to them. Solomon is given the credit for building them: “he made two pillars”, that is Solomon. If you went along to the house, the temple, in Jerusalem at that time, you would notice these two pillars. He set them up in front of the temple. It does not seem that they are for strength in the house. They are an addition to the house. Christ is the great Builder, dear brethren. It says in Hebrews 3 that He is Son over the house (v 6) “but he who has built all things is God”, v 4. Christ is the Son over the house, but He is also the Builder. Matthew’s gospel brings Him out as the Builder: “I will build my assembly”, chap 16: 18.
But in addition to the house He in the type makes the pillars. He must have something in mind in two pillars. They are there as a testimony to the One who built the house. It says that the meanings of their names are ‘He will establish’ and ‘In Him is strength’. That is, the pillars are a testimony to the Builder, a testimony to the One who built, that is Christ: these pillars represent persons. Two is quite often witness in scripture. As you pass those pillars, they are a witness to the work of God, to what the Builder has in mind. ‘He will establish’ and ‘In Him is strength’: there they are, persons at the entrance to the house. The Lord would have us to be those kinds of persons, dear brethren, persons that are for adornment. Their strength is in Another, ‘He will establish’ and ‘In Him is strength’: that is in Christ, but it is wrought out in the pillars. The work of God in us belongs to God but it is worked out in ourselves and it is a refined work. It is something that comes on to view. There is something in the saints that comes on to view and is meant to come on to view for our consideration. The glory would be His. The glory would be the glory of the Builder; nevertheless it is wrought out in man. The great thought in the divine mind is men: it is worked out in men. So that as coming into the house of God, you come in contact with persons in whom there is a divine work, in whom there is refinement. There is also a capital, the crowning touch, which would suggest the Philadelphian thought: “that no one take thy crown”, Rev 3: 11. There is a crowning touch, that adorns the house of God, adorns the doctrine.
In Galatians we have it illustratively. It was quite an exercising time concerning the matter that Paul brings up. The truth was at stake, the truth as to whether Christianity was being cumbered by Judaism, cumbered by circumcision. He speaks about conspicuousness. There are two kinds of conspicuousness in the chapter. Earlier on he speaks about “those who were conspicuous as being somewhat—whatsoever they were, it makes no difference to me …”, v 6. That is conspicuous as men, men after the flesh. It speaks about persons who came in to “spy out our liberty” in verse 4 of chapter 2. That is the wrong kind of conspicuousness, dear brethren, not the kind that the pillars represent.
In verse 9, we have “conspicuous as being pillars”. That is commendable. It is noticeable too that Peter’s name is not given as Peter; it is given as Cephas, which is instructive, because the Lord brings out, in John’s gospel, “thou shalt be called Cephas”, chap 1: 42. It is the work of God in him, so I think it is commendable, “James and Cephas and John, who were conspicuous as being pillars”, that is they adorned the doctrine. Acts 15 brings out their conspicuousness as being pillars, how they were able to influence the brethren into the truth and adorn the doctrine. There they were like pillars at the entrance of the house, how God used them to “keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace” (Eph 4: 3), and the unity of the faith, to maintain the unity of the faith. These men were helped of the Lord to maintain the doctrine, they were conspicuous as being pillars. You could look to them. It was not for their own aggrandisement. There was a witness to what Jachin and Boaz bring out, as we have said already: “He will establish” and “In Him is strength”. These men counted on the Lord that He was able to establish the truth and establish the testimony because at the time of Acts 15 there was a serious situation in which there could have been cleavage in the church, but through the influence of these pillars—not just the setting out of the matter doctrinally, although they were helped in applying scripture—setting the truth out in their persons, “conspicuous as being pillars”, that is the influence they carried in relation to the work of God in them.
That is why I suggested that Cephas rather than Peter is mentioned. It is the influence of the work of God in persons. What an influence we can have, dear brethren, at the entrance of the house. When persons come in amongst us, what do they see?—conspicuousness as being pillars, I trust, not conspicuousness after the other order of man. That man has been ended in the death of Christ, but the conspicuousness in relation to being pillars, new creation, something shining out testimonially that is God’s handiwork, the Lord’s handiwork.
So they gave to them “the right hands of fellowship”. What a strengthening bond amongst brethren, to be able to extend “the right hands of fellowship”, the dignity that attached to it. That is what persons who are conspicuous as being pillars can do, they can extend that hand with all the affirmation that marks it. What an affirmation is in “the right hands of fellowship”, confirmation and affirmation, the signal of the consecration of the heart to Christ, are dignified thoughts. I just commend them to the brethren in relation to their gatherings, that this kind of humanity comes into evidence which displays something of the dignity that attaches to the Lord. May it be so for His Name’s sake!
EDINBURGH
19th March 1996