SPIRITUAL PERSONALITY
M. B. Thompson
Judges 5: 7; 2 Corinthians 10: 1 (first clause); Revelation 1: 9
I was thinking about the idea of spiritual personality. It is interesting that the dispensation began with personality. Acts 1 gives a list of names and then speaks of “the crowd of names”, as though the Spirit is drawing our attention to spiritual personality. It is superfluous to say that it has been seen in this city. You come here and you think about the long history of spiritual personality that has been here. One rejoices in it! It is a thing that we should look for at the close of the dispensation.. I think the dispensation will close the way it began, and I would like to look to my local meeting and to myself, for instance, to see that the features that were seen when the christian dispensation was inaugurated are there at the end. You would not like things to go out in decline, would you? We would not like our local meetings to go out in decline. I think the way things will be maintained will be by spiritual personality among the saints, personality that can be identified.
Here in Judges is a woman who says, “Until that I Deborah arose, That I arose a mother in Israel”. You might say that was her identity, a mother in Israel. That is a very needed feature; you can see the need for spiritual personality in the feature of the mother. How much that is needed in local meetings, that there are those in whom is the identifiable feature of a mother in Israel. I think it is very remarkable that here is somebody who is doing things because there is a need of things being done. She says, “I Deborah arose, That I arose a mother in Israel”; she obviously had some concern about the situation, and she arose and did what was needed. I think that feature needs to be cultivated and nurtured in our local meetings, the feature of the mother. Mr. Taylor pointed out, regarding the work of God in those that come in in the Revelation, that they can be identified (N.S. Vol. 48 p.124). He takes up the idea of the one hundred and forty four thousand and says there are features about them that can be identified. Well, can I identify myself with those features? It says of that company that they follow the Lamb wheresoever it goes (see Revelation 14: 4). Is that characteristic seen with us? It is personality, so that the work of God can be identified in us. I think that is the way things will be maintained. I think this scripture proves that that is the way the position was saved; somebody had a concern and did the needed service. Does it not say that about Phoebe that she did the needed service?—there was something to be done and she did it (see Romans 16: 1, footnote).
Paul shines out in a distinctive way wherever you see him. Is that not fine? He is able to say, “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ”. He is able to identify these features in himself. He must have been a very personable, a very presentable, man. It says of David that he was of beautiful appearance (1 Samuel 16: 12); he must have had great personality. Think of how they came to him; they felt safe with David as they came to him in the cave of Adullam—persons who were in debt, of embittered spirit, yet they all came to David. He must have been a very personable man that they came to him and put their trust in him. Paul would be like that; you could trust him. He says when speaking to these beloved saints, “I entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ”. He says, ‘I am speaking to you myself’, and yet in the way he does it there are identifiable features of Christ, “the meekness and gentleness of the Christ”. Chapter 10 and onwards has been called the militant ministry of Paul, and yet he says, the way I am going about it is with the meekness and gentleness of the Christ. I think that is very wonderful, the features of Christ coming out in somebody, and that is their personality. He says, “I myself, Paul”; is that not fine? Would you not listen to his words if he had written to you? Philemon received that letter in which Paul uses such skill. He says to Philemon, ‘Just take it from me; I am an old man’—“Being such a one as Paul the aged” (Philemon 9). You could hardly think of Philemon doing anything else than accepting Paul’s admonition.
I thought of John because he is a follower of Christ. Would you not like that to be a characteristic of your personality, that you are a follower of Christ? Peter saw the one whom Jesus loved following and he says, “What of this man?”, John 21: 21. John just seems to be a characteristic follower of Christ. That enters into his personality. Here he says, “I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus”. He says, I am just your brother. You will have noticed that the Lord does not give him any commission at all in John 21. He says to Peter, “Feed my lambs”, “Shepherd my sheep”, “Feed my sheep”, but He does not say anything to John. John says, ‘I am just your brother’. Is it not a fine thing to have a brother like that in your local meeting? Are you not thankful many a time for a brother in your local meeting, a brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus? He says, I am not with you in body, yet I am “your brother and fellow-partaker”. If that was moulded into your personality, that you were just a brother, what a fine thing that would be! There it is, that you have a brother in your local meeting, somebody who, whatever you are going through, enters into it with you. We had a touch recently about the difference between sympathy and comfort; you might express your sympathy to somebody, but for somebody to come along and give comfort—that is the feature of the brother. Whatever the saints are going through he is alongside of them, and the saints are going through some very grievous things. We have had some very grievous exercises on our side, very serious illnesses, sudden deaths, and things like that; well, you need the brother, somebody that is partaking in the same things. We hear of the sorrows that have come in in New Zealand through departure, deep family sorrow; you might say that what is needed is the brother, somebody that realises what the saints are going through, “your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus”.
Paul says, “Sosthenes the brother”, 1 Corinthians 1: 2. Is that not a fine thing? I feel the need of these features; and in some sense as you see a lack you would like to fill it out. After all, spiritual personality is developed on that line. It is what you get from Christ.
There has been a tremendous amount of sorrow, and what the brethren need is encouragement. Think of the disciples after having gone through the sorrow of the exercises when the Lord was taken from them, and then to be all together in the upper room. The Spirit seems to delight in bringing, forward the spiritual personalities; one hundred and fifty three great fish were in that net in John 21. I think it shows that there must have been spiritual quality and personality, and that comes out in the book of the Acts. I think the Lord looks, and He is entitled to look, for something of the same character in the last days. May we be encouraged on that line for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Brooklyn., N.Y.
10 April 1979