THE FULNESS (3)

^[p. 175] THE FULNESS (3)

Ephesians 1: 22, 23; 1 Corinthians 12: 12, 13; Colossians 1: 18

JT The scripture in Ephesians teaches us that the assembly as Christ’s body is the fulness of Christ who fills all in all, and that He is Head over all things to it. It suggests the wisdom of looking into the subject of the body in the different epistles in which it is mentioned, for it is a great feature of the truth. It is mentioned in Romans in a very elementary way in chapter 12, in which it is stated that “we, being many, are one body in Christ”. It is not the body of Christ in Romans; the truth does not take us that far. It is one body in Christ, our status outside of the world, for “in Christ” implies an out-of-the-world status. Then in 1 Corinthians we have the further thought linked on, that is in chapter 10. Paul says, “we, being many, are one loaf, one body”; then in chapter 12, we have the body mentioned, and that we are baptised by one Spirit into one body, and are made to drink into one Spirit. The chapter enlarges on the subject as the Lord may help us to touch on it. In Colossians the body is brought in in the verses read, as an element of the greatness of Christ, He is Head over it. We have the whole thought there. He is Head of the body, the assembly. All these scriptures are to be understood if we are to see how great a position it has in Ephesians in view of the future. The Lord Jesus is said to be given to be Head over all things to it, and then it is stated that it is His fulness.

CSP Is the thought in Ephesians, given to be Head over all things to the assembly, in contrast to what is put under His feet?

JT Quite so, but the assembly, as you might say, has part in the headship. It is the way in which ^[p. 176] the Lord expresses Himself. Indeed, it is His fulness. The fulness presented in a very concentrated way in the saints. It is what He is in the saints viewed as His body, that He has that which is directly affected by His headship, and the headship extended universally, in that way, so that the body becomes a medium. It is fulness of Christ towards the universe apparently.

JD Would you say a few more words on the setting of the truth of the body in Romans 12. You use the word ‘status’.

JT It is like all the features of the truth in Romans; it has a delivering effect, a saving effect, especially now when there are so many bodies, so many organisations of men: trade unions, Masons, Oddfellows, and a lot of other less notable organisations of men. It seems to be an element in our makeup naturally that we link on with others; indeed, at Shinar they said, “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower”. It was a collective idea. They were all having part in it, and all such organisations are inimical to the truth, particularly those secret ones. I think the allusion in Romans 12 is to bring out the status of the assembly; that is, of the saints viewed as a body. It is not said to be Christ’s body, it is simply that as one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office. Thus we, being many, are one body in Christ. I think “in Christ”, is to lift us outside the range of everything else. It gives it an out-of-the-world status, and has a delivering effect upon us. It is a degrading thing and unseemly for a christian to belong to any other body; there is only one body in Christ.

JD Do you think that it is the character of Christ coming out in the body in Romans 12? It is characteristic, such a body as that, Christ’s body.

JT It does not go so far as Christ’s body, but there are the many persons. As in Rome, that is ^[p. 177] how it should be taken up. A christian in Rome when this letter was read would say (some of them might be more or less social, some having different settings in the world), ‘Well, I see now that I cannot belong to any worldly affairs. I cannot be a member of any of these things, any of these guilds or whatever they may be called, secret societies or whatever they be’. I do not know that they existed then, but they exist now, and it is a question of the bearing of Scripture at any time. So that a scripture written then, though eighteen hundred years previous to our time has its bearing on us. The Spirit of God wrote the Scriptures having in view the variations of history, so that it is a question of our seeing the bearing of it on our times. Hence, a christian in any secret society or trade union would be uneasy when he heard this letter read in the assembly, as Phoebe brought it to the brethren. No doubt they came together and read it. They had the Bible readings in that way, especially when the apostle came for the first time. What great interest there would be and how everyone would be challenged by what was said.

HG-h Would the truth of Romans, being on individual lines, prepare them for the truth of the body later on?

JT That is right. The truth of the body works out in relation to the will of God. That is how the initial idea of it stands. Romans 12 says that we “may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”, and “present your bodies a living sacrifice”. That is how we prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Each of us is to come to that, that we are here for the will of God and to prove that it is good. It is a happy thing to be in, not an irksome thing. It is good and acceptable and perfect. That works out in the body, because when you come to 1 Corinthians it is stated that the ^[p. 178] bread which we break is the communion or fellowship of the body of Christ. That body was for the will of God here, the body of Christ, and then Paul goes on to say, that “we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf”. In partaking of the one bread, we are committing ourselves to the will of God so perfectly maintained in Christ’s body. “Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will”, Hebrews 10: 7.

We are said also to be “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10: 10), so that we are committed to the idea of the will of God in partaking of the Lord’s supper. That is a very important lesson. It comes home to us when we partake of the Lord’s supper. That is our profession in the partaking of the Lord’s supper; we are committed to the fellowship. In 1 Corinthians 12 we are said to be “Christ’s body”. That is the order in which it stands, that being amenable to the will of God we are morally equal to the thought of being Christ’s body. “The Christ” in 1 Corinthians 12: 12, is the body of the saints, viewed as anointed. God committing Himself formally to it as we commit ourselves to His will.

LES The body would prohibit any other will, would it not?

JT That is the idea. We are committed to the will of God in carrying it out, and God says, I will commit Myself to you. I believe that is the order of the truth, even seen in the Lord’s own path; where the will of God was everything to Him, and God committed Himself to Him.

MDF We are to keep free from every other fellowship.

JT It is consistent to do that. It is a matter of consistency that one holds himself in relation to the will of God as partaking of the Lord’s supper. The idea is that we are all partakers of that one ^[p. 179] bread.

JD As to the body and the bread which we break, connecting that with the passage in Hebrews, “a body hast thou prepared me”, it was in that body that the will of God was effected, and if we take that bread we are to follow in the steps He took.

JT It is worked out in Ephesians 1, that the assembly is in such a place that the Lord is Head over all things to it, not of it. It is not brought in there as part to which He is Head. He is Head to it, and it is evidently because it is His fulness, that it has part in the headship, you might say. A very great and glorious thought relative to us, and the Lord I am sure would help us to grasp it.

JF Would you say ‘head to it’ suggests our apprehension of Him?

JT That would underlie it, as a husband is head over the family, so he is head to his wife. That is the principle, that she has part in the headship. In truth she does come under the headship, as Colossians 1: 18 would teach us, but Ephesians is a greater thought that she has part in the headship because she is His fulness. The organism is so perfect that He is reflected in His body. Union underlies this. The two are one flesh, one idea in the two. All is in view of headship working out in the universe, and it comes out now in the saints in the assembly. You get what comes out from Christ immediately, the truth of the assembly. The universe does not get His movements directly; they get it through the assembly, His body, which is His fulness.

JD Going back to the partaking of the loaf, setting forth the body of Christ, and our communion with it, how in a practical way would that affect the practice of the saints? If for instance, a brother or sister not walking in the truth, in some sect perhaps, dies, would it be right, as brethren breaking the loaf, to attend the funeral services if a sectarian would be in ^[p. 180] charge?

JT It would be confusion; one would compromise the fellowship. Of course, if you are a natural relative of the person, you would show your respects, what is seemly, by visiting the place or house and maybe having prayer with them and the like, whether it might be a Presbyterian or any one. I would be free for myself, and have done so to help them as christians, and to have a little prayer with them, but not with a clergyman in charge of the funeral. That would involve the truth, and we would have to bear that in mind. The Lord said to the man in Luke 9: 59, “Follow me. But he said, Lord, allow me to go first and bury my father”. The Lord said, “Suffer the dead to bury their own dead”. I do not like to make it too strong where they are christians, but suppose it is not a christian. You would have to have some respect for them and you would have a way to show interest, but you could not go beyond that. It is a question of letting the dead bury their dead.

JD If, for instance, it was some of the sects, such as open brethren or other independent companies of brethren so-called, if they were in charge of the services, you would not be free to go to the burial service.

JT I would be less free to go there than anywhere, because there you have imitation of the truth, which is the worst kind of opposition.

WGH The practical working out of 2 Timothy would have to come into consideration.

JT Quite so. That is how we must arrive at all truth today. All collective truth, relative to the assembly, has to be approached now through that avenue. We have to learn how to cease to do evil before we can learn to do well, and that involves the working out of the truth of the body, because it is the will of God initially. The Lord coming into His body said, “Lo, I come ... to do ... thy will”,

^[p. 181] that is to be continued down here. The Lord personally has gone to heaven, but the will of God must go on here, and Romans teaches us how we come into that. In Romans 6 our very hands and feet are members of Christ as they come under the will of God, and in chapter 12 we have the increased thought of presentation. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God”. That is what everyone desires and it leads up to our being one body in the sense of so many persons of that kind. Not yet called the body of Christ, but one body in Christ, so as to get the status outside of the world.

LES It is mentioned to elevate our thoughts and minds and help us in regard to our responsible history here; that is the setting in Romans.

JT I think so. You feel you can see how it would work in your town in regard to all societies, school clubs, young people’s clubs, golfing clubs or may be other sports, countless things that take on this character. I may be linked up; you may say it is harmless, but it is below the status I am given. I am brought into, something called a body that is in Christ, lifting up a christian in Rome above the status of the emperor even, and what goes with this is newness of life, newness of spirit, and that sort of thing. It is to give us a status outside of those things, for it is degrading for a christian to have part in them.

RRT The essential thought in a body is a vessel for the will of God. That is, whether it be in Christ in taking a body, or the assembly viewed as the body here, or our natural body individually, it is a vessel for the will of ^[p. 182] God.

JT That is it exactly. You can see that we can be of no use to God in this world in a disembodied condition. It is a great moral feature in Romans that a believer rescues his body in this way from being linked up with anything here.

RRT So that in Ephesians here it says He is “head over all things to the assembly, which is his body”. The Lord in His body was the perfect expression of the will of God, and that fulness is to be expressed in the assembly, which is His body.

JT We have the fullest position, the greatest position of the assembly in these verses, but what is more needed by us here this morning is to get the initial idea so that the thing is not a theory. I am a part of this, and to be that I must learn to yield my members unto God. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin”. It has ceased to respond to the workings of sin. It is dead in that relation. That is what Romans 8 says, and I believe the best illustration of that is the woman in John 4. The result is seen in her body; there was what she had been, and how she was affected publicly. She leaves her water pot. She brought that to carry water home, but she left it and went away by herself. The teaching is that she understood what the Lord said as to her body, that it would be a vessel of living water and she goes to the men of the city and says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ?” Anybody could say that this woman had another Man in her mind, not men, not five husbands or six, but one Man, and that leads to 2 Corinthians 11: 2, “for I have espoused you unto one man”. She is really affected by that one Man so that her body is immune from the influence of the men of the city. She influences them, that is, Christ is in her. She is the best illustration of one who fits into the body. She has learned ^[p. 183] the truth as to her body, that it is to be a member of Christ.

TA Where does risen with Christ come in?

JT That comes in Colossians where we reach the thought of headship in Christ; as understanding that He is the source of everything, the whole body draws upon Him. It leads up to that, but the verse read from Colossians is to bring out the whole idea of the assembly as under Christ’s headship. He is Head of it, not to it. It is governed by His wisdom directly, but in Ephesians He is Head to it, so that the headship works out in it towards the universe.

ADS In connection with Christ being Head to the assembly, is it the thought that impulse flows from the head of the body in relation to the will of God?

JT Yes, that is Ephesians. I think it is the thought that it flows out indirectly to the universe. It is direct in regard to the assembly. Headship is direct, in fact it is one thought, “The two shall be one flesh”. I believe “to the assembly” works out so that the operating is in unity, the assembly being the fulness of Christ.

JLF Do you see it worked out in the heavenly city?

JT That is the counterpart of what we are speaking of. It is John’s way of putting it. The heavenly city is really the assembly, only viewed as a city, but it has the glory of God and it governs or influences the universe, and we can understand how that would flow out of Christ’s headship. John does not treat of the body, but it is a collateral thought.

JD Do you think there is the thought of Adam and Eve in this verse in Ephesians, “Head over all things”, “The two shall be one flesh”? Head of all things to the assembly places it alongside of Christ.

JT That is the thought. She is the counterpart, and the added thought of one flesh, it really means the word ‘union’. We have the thought in the New Testament, and the thought enters into these two verses, headship flows out of one idea, but through the assembly, so it comes to the universe indirectly. Not simply the assembly as under headship, but the medium of headship, as if a husband is absent and the wife expresses his feelings towards the children. The children are never of the same status as the wife in the household.

JD Do you think “over all things” would enforce the great thought as to Christ’s headship?

JT That is the way the thing stands. What has been alluded to in Revelation helps. You see how the city coming down works out. How marvellous it is!

HG-h Then you view headship in the light of Ephesians, as the assembly really, the administrative body?

JT That is how it works out. The word ‘administration’ would fit better as applied to the city than as applied to the body, for headship is the working out of the mind of the head, not simply enacting something, but the working it out so that the whole universe comes under the direction of Christ, but the operation is through the assembly. How important that young christians should see how we come into this, beginning with the idea of the will of God.

You have the assembly which is His body. What is in mind here is the body, because it is a question of union. The word ‘assembly’ really stands in another setting, but it is to identify the one thing viewed as the body. The word ‘assembly’ means persons called out, and intelligent persons, but the word ‘body’ implies an organism. It is extremely fine and delicate. Our own bodies are illustrations of it. How wonderful that your members respond! that is the idea. Every saint is contemplated as so free from ^[p. 185] extraneous matter, his own will, that he moves under the impulse of Christ. It is a marvellous thing. It is a figure, it really refers to the number of saints formed after Christ, innumerable, as we say, but all under His headship. How marvellous! Now it works out, for brethren in Australia, England or New Zealand are all actuated by the same impulse, and I believe God is helping us through the wonderful things that have been disclosed in His creation. By what we call radio power — these things are inscrutable — you can speak to a brother ten thousand miles away. That is not man’s invention; that is God’s. There may be wonderful things that no one knows of but God Himself. But I mean these things show how real the thing is. They are practical evidence of what is possible, and much more so of an actual living organism where things are so tender and delicate and sensitive that the least movement of Christ is felt and reflected in the spiritual brethren all over the world.

JD Would it be right to look here at the body as the rib taken from Adam?

JT That is Ephesian truth, the actual type in Genesis 2. The animals were brought to Adam and he named them. God delighted in what this creature of His could do. What delight God had in that, as He saw Adam naming each creature! He did not alter the names in one instance. I think it is to bring out what a wonderful being Adam was. But then it says there was no one his like, his counterpart, not in all these creatures. Adam was alone and God says, “It is not good ... I will make him a helpmate, his like”, his counterpart, and hence the deep sleep when God took out of him a rib and builded a woman. It is the first use of the word ‘build’. He brought her to man, who had a wonderful instinct of what God was doing, and so he says, “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall ^[p. 186] be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”. That is wonderful intelligence, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh”. That is Ephesians.

GC You made a distinction between the anointing in Corinthians and Romans.

JT The anointing is not mentioned in Romans. It is as I understand to bring out the status of the assembly or the saints viewed, not under headship but under the common word ‘body’. That word applies to other bodies. This body is taken out from the midst of them and set up in Christ, that is Romans. In Corinthians the idea comes in in connection with the bread, that each of us commits himself in partaking of the bread, and professes to be a member of Christ in that way. So that we are all partakers of one bread. The term “the Christ” is applied in 1 Corinthians 12: 12, in a peculiar way. It really alludes to the body, the saints. We are anointed collectively.

GC It is an important point to see.

JT It is a question of God committing Himself to us. We take the place of Christ down here, and carry out the will of God. The anointing means that God commits Himself in that public way. I believe, in the Lord in Luke, the idea of the will of God is there, and God says, “In thee I have found my delight”. The Lord could say, “Yea, thy law is within my heart”. And God anointed Him. God commits Himself to Him. He is a divine Person, but nevertheless the word ‘found’ alludes to that Person.

RRT Viewing man in Genesis 2, as you were saying, as head over all things to Eve, is that the thought in Ephesians, “Head over all things to the assembly, which is his body”. Christ as Head in that way makes available His fulness through the body, for the will of ^[p. 187] God?

JT Well, I think that is the way it works out. There are other allusions to the body in this epistle. It is said “There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling”, (Ephesians 4: 4), and that is to govern us in relation to the unity of the spirit, that we should be universal in our outlook. Then it says that the gifts, in the same chapter, are for the edifying of the body of Christ. That would mean, that gift, ministry in the power of the Spirit from an ascended Christ, is to edify or to build up the saints viewed as the body. That is what gift does. It is the effect of ministry, but it runs on down to verse 16 where we are told that the body edifies itself. That is, you gradually come on to the thought of independency in the organism. Independency of all else, for it is self-edifying in love. You can see how that leads up to the great thought in chapter 1, so that the Lord can take that on and use it, it being so sensitive that it builds itself up. It is in itself a means of edification, a great thought for us in our local gatherings and meetings for ministry, as we call them, and all our relations with one another, that we will be self-edified in love. You can see how it reaches on to the Eve condition, where she is viewed as a perfect creature, being taken out of Ish, being formed and built by God Himself. The word ‘build’ corresponds to the word ‘edify’ in this epistle. It is the same idea. She is brought to the point where she is brought to Christ and united to Him. The two shall be one flesh.

JLF Is the thought in Corinthians the same as Romans 12, there is one body?

JT It goes further. We being many are one body in Christ, is what is said in Romans 12. In Corinthians it is said we are all baptised in the power of one Spirit into one body. That certainly goes beyond.

JLF I was thinking of the word “there is one body and one Spirit”. Does that go back and include the thought in Romans, on the same level as one body in Christ?

JT I think Corinthians would be more in mind, for they are all lifted up to a higher level in Ephesians. You would get the scope of the truth in Corinthians and Romans. The more you look at Ephesians the more you feel yourself in the third heaven, as it were. You are placed in a certain place with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies; you are taken out of this world altogether.

JD Ephesians 4: 16 speaks of the headship of Christ, “From whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love”. That the saints come to the knowledge of the Head is absolutely essential to the working out of the last part of this verse?

JT The scripture is leading up to verse 16 which we had yesterday, the fulness of Christ. We arrive at that, and then, holding the truth in love, we may grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head, the Christ, and then “from whom”; He is the source of supply. But it all develops, and there is the working out of the thought, so that it refers to the power of self-edifying. There is power of edification even if you do not have special gift. It is the organism in itself; it is not Christ; it is edification.

JD It is fitted together. Would you say that underneath all this is the work of the Spirit in forming the saints together in this workable way? It really has a local application.

JT It has. It begins in Romans in the recognition of the law of God, but when you come to the organism you get very fine thoughts, so that you have here, for instance, the working in its measure ^[p. 189] of each one part. That is a very fine thought, the idea of measure as fitting into the body. I must function and you must function according to measure. Everything in the human body must be on that principle, every member must function according to its setting and what it is called upon to do, according to the working in its measure of every other part. The assembly works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love, every member being in his place, not simply in a public way as in Romans, but in the organism. The body in Romans hardly goes so far, although it is a figure of the human body, but the organism is stressed in Corinthians and Ephesians because of its fine sensitiveness in the Spirit, and the members in self-judgment denying and eliminating all the action of will, so that a brother may be sitting beside me and as I am speaking about the Lord, I become conscious that he has something. I become conscious it is the organism, and I sit down and then he gets up. It is a wonderful suggestion of the elimination of our own wills, all selfish feelings and ambition. It is loving each other better than ourselves. You let another have part in it.

LES Would you say that it is an organic unit? The Spirit suggests light within, but under the impulse of headship.

JT It is an organic unit, it is like the word ‘union’. He shall be united to his wife and the twain shall be one flesh. The greatest possible conception in the universe viewed spiritually or physically is the relation of Christ to the assembly.

HG-h Is that effected here by what is administered by the gifts? Here is the working out of it.

JT Ephesians 4 shows how it works out, by ministry or gifts, and it is self-edifying. The saints are so affected by the ministry, that they eliminate all selfishness, pride and ambition, and think of each ^[p. 190] other in love, and the whole sensitiveness of the organism is free to operate.

JD Would you distinguish at this point between union and sonship?

JT Yes, but there is little time for that. I was going to say our subject this afternoon should be the fulness of time, which begins with sonship, and it will afford us an opportunity of taking that up, but I might say here that sonship is an individual and a family thought. It is not what enters into the organism at all. The idea of the organism is worked out from the will of God. It is the elimination through ministry and the power of the Spirit of all fleshly feelings and ambitions, all that emanates from the flesh, so that the believer is entirely secured for the Lord, and he has a place in the organism.

RB Would you make a distinction between the assembly and the body? The two words are constantly connected, and I wondered if there is any distinction in the value of the two words.

JT The word ‘assembly’ is used to designate the company as known here. It is linked with the word ‘house’, “that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God”, 1 Timothy 3: 15. Then we have here “that He is given to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body”. The assembly is the word used in Matthew. He says, “my assembly”. It is viewed as something the Lord has in the way of intelligence and ability for warfare, that hades’ gates shall not prevail against. In Corinthians it is the public thought, generally God’s assembly or Christ’s assembly, or the assembly. It is a wonderful thing that God has here for administrative purposes. There are other things too, but regarded as the body of Christ, it is more an inner thought. It is a sort of secret thought. It is a mystery, really, so that there are secret workings ^[p. 191] that the man after the flesh is utterly unable to take account of. In His people the Lord has a vessel in which His very thoughts and feelings are expressed and reflected, as you might say, organically. The saints express what Christ is. He is expressed in them, as His fulness here, and in the future too, so that the whole universe learns Christ, I believe, through the assembly viewed as His body.

LES Would you say that the practical effect of Ephesians 4 is seen on the seashore in Acts 20 where they fell upon Paul’s neck and wept sore when he departed?

JT That would be quite so, and in other similar instances. It begins practically in one’s experience as to how he takes account of the brethren that are nearest to him. That works out as to how you take account of the brethren as we partake of the Lord’s supper. Where there is intelligence, but without love, these truths cannot be realised. It would refer to fine sensibilities and developed spirituality.

WGH Would you connect the thought of display with the thought of the body?

JT Yes, in the organic sense, the Lord as expressed in His members. Ephesians is in mind, not only what you are but what you say.

WGH In Corinthians would you get the thought of testimony as presented in wilderness conditions?

JT That is the idea of anointing; it is our present position here below, I think: it is Christ too in relation to the testimony here. I do not think the idea of anointing goes into eternity. You get it in connection with the tabernacle, but not the temple. The tabernacle was anointed, but not the temple. I think it means that it is not a question of God dignifying us in eternity, but what we are, and that is the relationship of sons, what the saints are personally, the dignity that attaches to them. They are in relation to God as sons.

^[p. 192] JD The idea of the body in that sense ceases with the end of the thousand years, and the thought of sonship goes on into eternity.

JT The family thought will prevail. I would not like to say that the thought of the body will cease. The idea of the anointing attaches to us as down here, and will go on into the millennium. Wherever testimony is in mind you get the anointing.

JLF Would you say whatever may come out in the assembly publicly, the secret behind it all is the body?

JT Quite so. The organism is the centre; there is that working which is hidden for the reason that the assembly is Christ’s body. I would not think the nations or even Israel will have the same view of Christ. There will be the holiest and the holy place. Then we have an immediate relation, in our union with Christ. No other body has that, no other family of God has that status.

JAT How do you connect the body with the assembly?

JT It is just another word used to designate the same thing, only it conveys a different thought. The idea of the assembly is very largely order and administration here, whereas the body is another view implying organism. It applies to the same persons, but implying the spiritual refinement and peculiar setting that we have as united to Christ.

JAT The house was provisional and the assembly eternal.

JT That is true. The house is another phase of it. It is a provisional thought down here because it extends back to Jacob. But we have “my Father’s house” in John 14: 2 which is another thought altogether and covers all the families including the assembly.

WB Would you say a few words on the parts of the body that Scripture brings before us, like the head, the heart, the bowels, and the feet, just so ^[p. 193] that we might understand in reading the Scriptures, like “bowels of mercies”, for instance.

JT These are called automatic organs, alluding peculiarly to the saints viewed as the body. That they work automatically, means that the Holy Spirit produces these different feelings and affections and sympathies without the head. There are things happening constantly with us without the action of the head, but the head and brain must be brought in in speaking. But things are occurring all the time which are automatic.

LES The introduction to Corinthians and Ephesians is very interesting. One is addressed to the assembly of God, and would be more on the lines of public order; the other to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus.

JT So you can see it is the saints themselves personally that are in mind. Is that the thought? This thought that has been suggested about sonship ought to come up in our afternoon reading. It bears on what we are saying, but it comes in in connection with the fulness of time, a very interesting thought, and sonship stands related to that, so that if the brethren are satisfied with what we have had this morning, we could resume from Galatians 4.

RRT Is it digressing too much to ask you to say a word as to what it means by growing up to Him in all things, which is the Head, even the Christ (Ephesians 4: 15)? It comes in in connection with this passage in Ephesians, in the increase of the body to its self-building up in love. Is that the way it works out, we grow up to Him?

JT That is what is in view in the chapter. You can see how union becomes a practical thing in the saints. In our intercourse with one another, growing up together in relation to the great idea of Christ being Head to us. How we gradually fit into the idea of the organism.

RRT ^[p. 194] That seems a most precious thought, the increase of the body. That is linked up with growing up to Him who is the Head. It is a living thing, the body; there is the self-building up in love; it is self-increase in that way.

JT You can see the effort of the devil which the apostle is aiming at here, the systematised error, the terrible influences Satan would work, so as to counteract the influences of this wonderful organism in testimony here.

RRT It is a wonderful thing to view this organism, and the power in itself to increase and edify itself in answer to the thoughts of God.

LES What a mighty testimony to the triumph of God is the body in Ephesians as over against the efforts of the seven sons of Sceva. I was thinking of the sense Paul had of the power of Satan, and how he brings in the highest character of his ministry, that which in itself would be a witness to the power of God to overthrow Satan’s efforts.

JT We see in that instance how God can come in for us in dealing with systematised error and break up the combination; combined evil is the most potent evil. In Matthew it speaks of the assembly. We have more about twos in that gospel than in any other. It is because the assembly is an organism. It is systematised. The Lord says, I will build my assembly, and Satan’s effort is to counteract it by systematised error. I suppose Rome is the greatest illustration of systematised error, the antiquities and ramifications exceed those of any other system that ever existed in the world. We do not perhaps see it, but it is working. The organism, the saints held together, growing up in love and holding the Head, is evidence of the full victory over all that, and the saints will be preserved. Without love there is no possibility of anything being ^[p. 195] preserved.

EMcG Is there any difference between that and “For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works”, Ephesians 2: 10?

JT That is another view. All these things work together; they are collateral lines. Workmanship of God, the building of God and all these things working towards the same end, so that God is going to have a perfect vessel. He has it now in principle, but presently every member will be there perfected. It will be complete and the universe will see what Christ is as reflected in the saints, His body.

GC The Lord speaks of ascending up on high that He might give gifts to the assembly. Is that an additional thought?

JT That is in this chapter. We speak of the members of the body, and the body of Christ, and the gifts, but the gifts seem to be an additional thought. The effect is the perfecting of the saints until we all arrive at the unity of the faith. How do we apply it? The measure of the stature of the fulness, and the body drawing from the Head, edifying itself in love, so that the gifts are not in view when the saints are functioning together in love. You may feel a brother is a gifted man, but he is a member. It is a great thing for us to know the gift and distinguish him as part of this wonderful organisation.

GC The Lord has entrusted the assembly with gifts to this end, and it seems to involve responsibility upon the whole as to how we treasure what the Lord has given.

JT It is a sort of endowment. The Lord will hold us accountable for what they have been to us. In Colossians Christ is Head of the body. Verse 18 of chapter 1 is to bring out the greatness of Christ. He is Head of the body, the assembly, but as to the working of it, we have to go to chapter 2, where we have the reference to “holding fast the head”. It ^[p. 196] enables us to shut out philosophy and ceremonialism, legality and all that. It is really on lower ground, more limited ground than Ephesians, but it is on the same line, holding the Head from which the body draws. In Colossians 2: 18, 19, it says “Let no one fraudulently deprive you of your prize, doing his own will in humility and worship of angels, entering into things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh, and not holding fast the head, from whom all the body, ministered to and united together by the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God”.

JLF It does not go so far as self-edifying. It is just a statement as to increase as the Head is held and ceremonialism is shut out.

HG-h He should have the first place in everything. I was wondering if that would lead on to what we have been speaking of in Ephesians.

JT I think it does. Colossians is certainly leading on to Ephesians. Colosse was a remarkable assembly and one of those in Asia. It was not included in the seven assemblies in Revelation; it was an additional assembly, but intimately linked up with Laodicea. It was a remarkable assembly, and yet in danger of letting in philosophy and ceremonialism, and hence chapter 2 is to check that tendency. We do not get that in Ephesians. The increase of God would be the idea of divine fulness. That kind of increase could be seen in it and promoting it in the saints in their holding the Head so that God is brought into it. We must come back to God in everything. God is the great ultimate of all things. It is in all the epistles.

CSP In Ephesians it is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything culminates in God, and the apostle prays to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ends with the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.