John 2:13 - 22; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:5 - 12; 1 Corinthians 12:27; 1 Corinthians 3:16
G.R.C. In the brief time at our disposal we can only touch an outline of what is in mind, that is the relation between the family, the body and the temple. The truth of the assembly of God has to be arrived at that way if it is to be arrived at vitally: it is what we might call Paul's constructive way. And so, in writing to the Thessalonians, while he calls them the assembly of the Thessalonians, shewing what he has in mind, yet the epistle shews that his aim there had been to lay a basis in family affections; and that was really as far as they had proceeded at that time. We never leave family affections behind. They are to increase with us and they go on to all eternity; and our ability to move on to other features of Paul's ministry depends on a thorough basis of family affections amongst us.
In Corinthians he develops the truth of the assembly of God and shows that they were the body of Christ and temple of God. The passage in John is appropriate to our day, John's gospel having been written last. It says, the Lord, having made a scourge of cords, cleansed the temple. If we apply it to the last days it would refer to what He did through J.N.D. Every evil practice in Christendom was exposed. But in acting thus the Lord said, "make not My Father's house a house of merchandise"; that is, He brings in the family idea. He was not speaking of the Father's house as in chapter 14. Applying it to our day, it would mean "the habitation of God in the Spirit" here and now on earth. It is a sphere of family affections where the presence of the Spirit and
of the Son and of the Father is to be known. But then in verse 19 He brings in the idea of the temple. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up". And when the Jews raise difficulty it says, "he spoke of the temple of his body". So we find the Lord here describing God's habitation on earth as a sphere of family affections -- My Father's house. But then, speaking of the temple, the Spirit of God says, "He spoke of the temple of his body". When He was here His own body was the shrine -- the word "temple" here and in Corinthians means the shrine; now the saints form the shrine. "Do ye not know that ye are the temple [shrine] of God?" But if the saints form the shrine it is because they are the body of Christ. Now, as 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 shew, it is the saints as His body -- and functioning as such -- who are the temple.
In the first instance, we should see the importance of family affections because, if we try to rear the superstructure of assembly administration and order on any other base, it will become official and formal and, it may be, harsh. Furthermore, I do not think we can face body exercises properly without a foundation of family affections. And so Paul ministered in such a manner in Thessalonica that after three weeks' service he described them as the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. They were in the gain of the kingdom as in the Lord Jesus Christ, but they were also in the gain of the family as in God the Father. And he shews that if the saints are to be in the gain of the family it will be through the influence of men who are representative of God in parental character.
Ques. Would verse 13 be a dark religious background; the passover of the Jews, the sellers of oxen, and the money changers?
G.R.C. It is the current religious background. In the current revival the Lord made the scourge of
small cords and brought in a ministry which exposed the whole of christendom. Saints were liberated and an early feature of the revival was the bringing about of family affections amongst the saints which are not found in current religions. You can go into associations which profess Christ's name and you will not find family affections there. Persons gathered are simply congregations. But what strikes a person first, coming into contact with what is vital, is family affections. He finds a circle of love; "By this shall all know that ye are disciples of mine, if ye have love amongst yourselves", John 13:35. A circle of love cannot be found in current religion in the world.
Rem. John's point of view is that we are all children of God.
G.R.C. Quite so, and Paul says, "ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus", Galatians 3:26. The family is a basic matter.
Rem. Paul commences his constructive line by preaching Jesus, that He is the Son of God.
G.R.C. That is very good. He got two impressions at least, at his conversion. One was that Jesus is the Son of God, that is, he apprehended sonship and the family; and secondly that the church is the body of Christ. They are the two great lines of Paul's ministry, first his ministry of the gospel which brings in sonship, and secondly his ministry of the assembly.
Rem. This expression of the Lord "my Father's house" would set out in a supreme way the feelings that are proper to the family.
G.R.C. Feelings in the family originate with the Father.
Rem. So that Paul's word is "gentle". He says, "gentle in the midst of you, as a nurse would cherish her own children". That is very wonderful.
G.R.C. It is wonderful. He does not call himself an apostle in this epistle, he does not want anything official to intrude, for the time being, on family
affections and feelings. He wants the truth of the family thoroughly laid in the souls of the saints, and we need to see to it that it is thoroughly laid in our localities. The Father's affections came into display when the Son was found here in Manhood. In the presence of an adequate Object the Father's affections, in their glory, came into manifestation. "The Father loves the Son". That is the beginning of things from this standpoint; and the Lord says, "as the Father has loved me so have I loved you. This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I love you". The love begins with the Father. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves us as the Father has loved Him, and we are to love one another with the same character of love. Paul was actually carrying the new commandment out; he was loving these saints as Christ loved them and therefore as the Father loves them. The new commandment is fundamental to christianity.
Rem. So the relation between the affections and the commandments is very noticeable in John's ministry.
G.R.C. Quite so. Is not every commandment a necessity of divine love? Separation is a commandment because it is a necessity of divine love. But the new commandment is, I suppose, the greatest of commandments because it commands love of a character which has its origin in the Father and His love for the Son.
Rem. So that the Father's love for the Son is what impresses you in the beginning and then the Father's commandment, that is, His authority.
G.R.C. His commandment is life eternal and the conditions we are speaking of now -- family conditions -- are essential to life eternal, are they not?
Rem. The unofficial side, which we are speaking of, is what we should keep to. That is, we do not assume anything formally.
Ques. Is it not wonderful that in Mr. Darby himself we have not only authoritative ministry but
the real fatherly spirit at the beginning of this revival!
G.R.C. He moved amongst the humblest of people, he went along with the lowly. No one could be afraid of such a man. He was amongst them as loving them and loving to serve.
Rem. The first mention of love in the Bible is the father's love.
G.R.C. Exactly, and this is the source of love of this kind -- the Father's love for the Son. It is the great motive which will bring to pass the universe as depicted in Ephesians 3. In naming every family the Father's great motive is His love for the Son. It works down to His love for every family, but the great motive is His love for the Son. He will bring to pass a universe adequate for the Son as a centre.
Ques. Is it significant, therefore, that the top note, so to speak, of the Lord's prayer in John 17 is, "that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them"?
G.R.C. Is it not a great service of the Spirit to bring us into the flow of the Father's love for the Son, on the one hand, and into the flow of the Son's love for the Father on the other, "I in them", so that we see the necessity for the Spirit's service. Who else could bring us into the flow of the Father's affections for the Son and the Son's affections for the Father?
Ques. In John 13, when Judas went out, the Lord calls them children. Do the feelings of the Father toward them as children find expression in the Lord Himself?
G.R.C. That is confirmed in chapter 14 where He says, "He that has seen me has seen the Father". They had seen Him in chapter 13 as a father who would do anything for his children. The Lord would wash the feet of the disciples, taking the place of a slave. A true father would do anything for his children, so would a true mother and, of course, both features are seen in Christ, because both features
belong to God, and motherhood is included in fatherhood in that sense. The Lord said, "How often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings". Is that right Mr. T?
Rem. I see what you mean. You are speaking about the great thought of the Father, and so the mother is a kindred line.
G.R.C. It is the other side of the parental position.
Rem. Paul was mother to the Galatians. He could say, "of whom I again travail in birth".
G.R.C. Yes. He writes to the Corinthians as a father, but he writes to the Galatians as an outraged mother. Somebody was damaging the children, and his maternal feelings were thoroughly aroused.
Rem. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, Paul speaks of himself as a nurse who "would cherish her own children", and in verse 11, "ye know how, as a father his own children". Both features were found in Paul.
G.R.C. And it is interesting that the mother comes first. The first love that a child consciously experiences is a mother's love, and so Paul puts that first. It comes first also in the practical application of the commandment in Leviticus 19:3, "Ye shall reverence every man his mother, and his father, and my sabbaths shall ye keep: I am Jehovah your God". That chapter is very instructive because the assembly is in mind; "Speak unto all the assembly of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Holy shall ye be, for I Jehovah your God am holy". But the first thing is, "Ye shall reverence every man his mother". Now, in Exodus 20 it says, "Honour thy father and thy mother". The father is put first on the divine side; but, when it is a question of our coming into the thing practically, it puts the mother first. It is very tender on God's part to do so, because the place where authority is least irksome of all is in the mother.
Rem. In 2 Samuel 17:8, "as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field; and thy father is a man of war",
is the testimony of Hushai to Absalom with reference to David.
G.R.C. And the mother feature is first again; "as a bear robbed of her whelps".
Rem. The Lord's reference in Luke 15 to the woman that diligently sweeps the house would possibly link with what you are saying as to both sides being seen in God.
Rem. "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Matthew 23:37. Many a hen has killed a marauding fox. Motherhood is protective in that sense. The wife of Heber, Jael, when the enemy came into her home, slew him, did she not?
G.R.C. It shews what motherly instinct will do. Jael was a mother in Israel. But in Luke the Lord says "as a hen gathers her brood". The hen gathering her brood brings in the collective thought of the family.
Rem. Paul speaks about Timothy's mother and his grandmother.
Ques. Is it not interesting, in that connection, that John Mark went out with Paul and Barnabas on an official basis -- the word "attendant" there apparently refers to an official servant, Acts 13:5 -- whereas Timothy comes in on the line of the family.
G.R.C. That is very good. Timothy had a good maternal background. We need to be exercised about our own houses. It says the passover of the Jews was near; but if we think of the true idea of the passover, it was a lamb for a father's house. The assembly was in mind; "speak to all the assembly of Israel". It is the first use of the word assembly in scripture. Nothing less than that is in the divine mind. But the first thing is to secure fathers' houses;
houses patterned after God's house. So we have to look to our own homes as to how far parental affections are there according to God. But then we also need to examine our localities to see how far maternal and paternal affections are developed in the company, because, in one way, all the children belong to us.
Ques. All the children, all which children, all our own children?
G.R.C. All the children in the meeting. Not long ago I met a sister who had no children of her own but she said that she regarded all the children in the meeting as hers.
Rem. Mr. Taylor said that in Australia, years ago.
Rem. In Proverbs 31 the children call her blessed and her husband praises her.
G.R.C. Very good. We shall get praise from the Lord if, as local companies we have true maternal affection. There is nothing like it to hold the young. A child learns authority first in the least irksome place, in the mother. This makes way for the father. As a father, Paul exhorted the Thessalonians as to how they should walk. But the mother has had to do with children before there is any question of walking.
Ques. Was Sarah the true mother in Genesis 21 when she said "Cast out this handmaid and her son". God said to Abraham, "in all that Sarah hath said to thee hearken to her voice". Paul displayed motherly features in writing to the Galatians. He wanted to get rid of the legal system and the legal child.
G.R.C. Sarah was a true mother at that time, her words being referred to as scripture in Galatians 4:30. Is that so, Mr. T?
Rem. At that time, because she was not so until that time. Sisters are not spiritually mothers until a certain time, is that right?
Rem. She was right at that time when it was said, "hearken to her voice".
Ques. I want to ask about John 13"love amongst yourselves". We come together seeking light; and over the last fifty years we have had an abundance of light ministered to us. But the first commandment as I understand from your ministry is love. Would you put that ahead of light? Or how do you compare the two?
G.R.C. True light and love must go together. It says, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all". That is the message. And then it says, "If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another", 1 John 1:7. The truth is that a person could not afford to walk in the light unless love was his motive. Walking in the light involves transparency. I cannot afford to be transparent if I have mixed motives. To have hidden motives is darkness. But if there is only love in my heart I can afford to be transparent. To have hidden motives is darkness. But if there is only love in my heart I can afford to be transparent and to be searched through and through. God sees us through and through all the time, and it is in the consciousness of this that we walk in the light, as He is in the light. So that "God is love" and "God is light" go together. What we are saying about light, and how we get light as together, bears on the temple. We shall not get true light unless love is present.
Rem. Does it not bear on "body" exercises? We ought to hear about that. The truth of the body involves a different set of exercises from the family. In the family we are all loved with the same love -- "As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you" -- and we all have the same rank. We are all first-born sons, all the children of God; but the moment you come to the thought of the body you come to the sovereignty of God, not simply in calling us, but in the way He has set us in the great organism, the truth of which was hid in Him throughout the ages but has now been made manifest. God has set the members
each one of them in the body, as it has pleased Him, and there you come to something that brings in a different kind of test. The family tests us as to our loving one another as Christ loves us because of the necessity to disallow natural likes and dislikes. But when you come to the body it is a different kind of test. Every member has a place sovereignly given by God and I have got to learn what my place is and fit in. God has not consulted me as to my place or my brother's place. He has set the members in the body as it has pleased Him. Am I going to find fault with His sovereign will? If there is a good basis of family affection we shall not find fault. We shall love one another too much to be upset in anyway by God's sovereign will in connection with the body.
Rem. The Lord says, "He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me", and then lower down, "My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him". Would not a heart satisfied with the abiding presence of the Father and the Son, accept fully divine dispositions in the body?
G.R.C. That is right. Keeping His commandments involves all that we are saying now. The truth of the body is part of the commandment of the Lord according to 1 Corinthians; it is not optional. It is the proof of love to Him that we face body exercises. Some people, through the pride of false humility, fail to function in the body; others, through the pride of self importance, want too big a place. In both cases the working of the body is hindered.
Ques. Was the Lord adjusting Peter at the end of John's gospel when he enquired about John?
G.R.C. "Follow thou Me", He says to Peter, and thus turns him away from being occupied with John. The point was for Peter to carry out his commission.
Ques. How are you viewing Thessalonians; I am not quite clear.
G.R.C. That is the family setting. Paul had not introduced the truth of the body there, as far as we know. But he had been at Corinth eighteen months and he had proceeded further there. He had laid a basis of family affections because the saints at Corinth are called brethren. What marks Paul's ministry in Acts is that in place after place, the converts are called brethren. That is, he laid the basis of family affections in each place. But he had been long enough in Corinth to go further than that, and undoubtedly had taught them the truth of the body and therefore of the temple. 1 Corinthians 3 sets out his own work and that is why he brings in the temple in that chapter. It is a question of what he might be doing and what others might be doing in seeking to arrive at the end in view. But in view of the practical working out of the temple in chapter 14, he brings in the body in chapter 12. In chapter 14 light is shining through the prophetic word, and there is the consciousness that God is among them, which means that they form the shrine. But the working out of it is by the way of the truth of the body. So I believe the line of things is the family, and then the facing of the truth of the body, and then we shall begin to get the gain of the temple.
Rem. "Our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness; but our comely parts have not need. But God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to the part that lacked; that there might be no division in the body, but that the members might have the same concern one for another". 1 Corinthians 12:24 - 25.
G.R.C. The first reference to the body is in Romans. "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other", chapter 12: 4 - 5. Now the truth of the family, insofar as it is touched in Romans, is in chapter 8, where we come experimentally into the gain of sonship, "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God", and
then it says, "the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God". Until the apostle, in his doctrine, has brought us experimentally into family affections he does not touch on the truth of the body. But in chapter 12 he exhorts his brethren to present their bodies and the first and foremost reason for presenting their bodies a living sacrifice is in order to function in the body of Christ. "Do ye not know that your bodies are members of Christ?" he says to the Corinthians. The reason that we present our bodies -- the first and foremost reason -- is because our bodies are needed if we are to function in the one body; and so in Romans 12 he makes clear our responsibility to find our place in the body and to appreciate the place of others in it, because we are each one members one of another.
Ques. Why is it that God Himself has to do with the body, tempering it together, not the Father?
G.R.C. It is not exactly a family matter. The truth of the body leads on to the assembly, the great vessel in which God's all-various wisdom is displayed at the present time.
Rem. It is a very instructive matter that all this teaching as to the assembly comes out in relation to saints who were not quite right, the Corinthians.
G.R.C. It is. What a mercy God brings good out of evil!
Rem. The Thessalonians, you might say, were more or less right. They were in family affection and evidently living apart from idolatry, whereas the Corinthians were mixed up in a great many things; and yet it is to those that the truth of the assembly is opened up.
Ques. You referred to the fact that the body is a vessel; would you open up what is in your mind as to what is characteristic of the body as a vessel?
G.R.C. It is a corporate whole where every member has a part to play. The family is collective but the
idea of the family is not so much functioning in a certain position. A father has his sons before him and delights in them and they delight in him; but then the will of God is that there should be a corporate vessel, the assembly, to function in administration and in praise; and what lies behind this securing of that vessel, which is the vessel of God's glory, is our fitting together bodywise. The human body is used as an illustration because every member is so sovereignly set by God with its own function. The eye could not carry out the function of the ear, nor the hand the function of the foot. They are so diverse and yet set in one vessel; our bodies are spoken of as vessels. They are set in one vessel and each is needed for the functioning of that vessel. That is the figure used of the one body.
What I am especially seeking to say is that the body brings out the idea of God's sovereignty. Of course we know that it is only through His sovereign action that we are in the family -- we have been born of God. That is a basic matter which applies to us all. But in the body you get God's sovereignty in His disposition of each one, and, according to Romans 12, we are to think so as to be wise as God has dealt to each a measure of faith. Now that is faith for action, not simply faith for justification. God has dealt to each brother and sister faith for action, in order that we might fill out the function he has allotted to us in the body. So when I look round on my brethren I cannot help respecting them. I love them because they are of the family, but I respect them in a special way because God has had dealings with each one. He has dealt to each one something that he has not dealt to me. He has dealt to each a measure of faith to enable each to function in the place in which He has set him in the body. It is not right for anyone to say, I am not equal to doing anything, because God has dealt a measure of faith to each one. He does not give
you a place in the body without equipping you for it. Each is equipped for his place, but we each have to learn to act in it; and it helps, in the first place, to look round on our brethren and see what each one has. I shall see that every brother and sister is capable of doing something more efficiently than I can. Then let me encourage them to get on with their work. An active man might attempt to do everything himself but that would be clericalism. Let me encourage every brother and sister in my locality to get on with that which I can see God has equipped them to do and then I shall find my place. I shall find that God, in His matchless grace, has given me ability to do something. Then let me get on with that.
Rem. "And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, to the end that thou fulfil it", Colossians 4:17.
G.R.C. Quite so. Where the body is mentioned, it nearly always brings in the word "each". God has dealt to each a measure of faith, and we are each one members one of another. Then in 1 Corinthians 12, "to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit". There is no useless member in the body.
Rem. In Ezekiel 37, when the prophet prophesied, there was a rustling and the bones came together, bone to its bone. Is that how God has set us as members one of another?
G.R.C. Very good. That is what one would desire in a meeting like this, that we might be set together bodywise in a fuller way than ever before.
Ques. Is there some way in which the saints hold for me what I am in the body, if I am not filling it out? I was thinking of Thomas in John 20. The body was not formally set up there, but still the Lord had breathed into them and said, Receive ye Holy Spirit, so that the matter was really set on, and they held the matter for Thomas until he really came into it.
G.R.C. That is what we would do in love for each
other. But then, if any of us contract out, we are throwing an additional strain on the other members. They are having to do something which they are not primarily fitted for. If I lose an eye, my hands and my ears will do the best to make up for the loss, but they cannot fully compensate.
Rem. The apostle says to the Romans: "To have mutual comfort among you, each by the faith which is in the other, both yours and mine", Romans 1:12. He is a great apostle but he needs mutual comfort from their faith as they do from his.
G.R.C. So there are the special gifts that are referred to in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4; apostles, prophets, teachers; but they all need the body. You might say the body needs them, and they are indeed for the edifying of the body; but they also need the body. We all get more from the brethren than we ever give them.
Ques. As regards chapters 12 and 14 of 1 Corinthians, why does the 13th chapter close with faith, hope and love?
G.R.C. We cannot be in the body at all times without faith. We must have justifying faith to begin with; but then God has also dealt to each a measure of faith for action. And then, of course, hope enters into all our work. We function body-wise. Some may have hard positions to fill in the body, like Maria who laboured much for them -- Romans 16:6. God may lay it upon some sisters to do a great deal for the brethren in hard labour without much outward show. Well, hope enters into all that. The Lord is coming and He is going to assess all that has been done. But the basic thing is love and that is why chapter 13 comes between 12 and 14. The new commandment must be operating all the time. Family affections must be flowing all the time if we are to get the gain of the body.
Rem. It is interesting that he speaks in Romans 16 of certain ones who laboured in the Lord and others
who laboured much in the Lord. It does not say what they did.
G.R.C. No. But they all knew their work.
Ques. It says in 1 Corinthians 12:13, "in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body". Is that the divine, sovereign operation?
G.R.C. That is what we come to in Corinthians. In Romans 12 it is a question of our relations with one another. We are each one members one of another. That is the initial test. But in Corinthians the point is, on what terms are we with the Spirit? Whatever we may have been given faith to do according to Romans, we can only carry it out by the Spirit; and, according to 1 Corinthians 12:7, acts of the members of the body, when they are acting aright, are manifestations of the Spirit.
Rem. As to being content in the body, it is said, we have all been given to drink of one Spirit. We have been told in the ministry that that is what we do ourselves, we drink into it. Would that bring about contentment in the body, where we have been placed sovereignly?
G.R.C. The Lord speaks in John 4 of what He would give, the living water; but then He speaks of the one who drinks of it; that is our side. "Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever". Drinking means that we open our inwards to the Spirit. I have to open my mind, my soul my heart to the Spirit and let Him fill me; and then I shall gladly go along in the current of the Spirit. In one Spirit, we have all been baptised into one body. That is, we are immersed and moving together in the same current. Then the anointing will come into evidence. The three ideas, anointing, immersion and drinking, are all in 1 Corinthians 12:12 - 13. It begins at the top -- so also is the Christ -- a reference to the anointed vessel. We come into things in the reverse order. If we are drinking, and if we are in the gain of
the baptism of the Spirit, flowing along together, the Spirit will be manifestly upon us as the anointing; and that is what is involved in the manifestations of the Spirit, I think.
Rem. In those verses the oneness seems to be stressed. It is the one and the same Spirit, and even as the body is one, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body. Also in the power of one Spirit we have been baptised into one body, and again it says, and have all been given to drink of one Spirit. Is it because unity is needed amongst us?
G.R.C. It is an essential thing that we should "use diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit". That was not being done at Corinth. Although they, no doubt, had light as to the body, clericalism had come in and was displacing the Spirit. We have to learn first to get on with one another body-wise, as in Romans, and then to be on right terms with the Spirit, as in Corinthians, rejecting everything clerical. The way to make way for the Spirit is to keep the new commandment according to chapter 13. If fervent family affections are pervading nobody upon whose heart the Spirit may lay an impression will be afraid to speak. There will be an atmosphere where no one is afraid and yet an atmosphere of holy love, where all that is of nature will be held in check. What do you think, Mr. T.?
Rem. So it is, "If the foot say", in verse 15. That is the first one to say. The most unlikely part of the body is saying something. This is a question of what is external, as I understand it, and so it is what is seen, and if persons are not properly in the organism they would be out of order.
G.R.C. Do you mean that if we are recognizing the Spirit, we must be prepared for something through any member, even the most unlikely?
Rem. I think the foot is out of order here. You have got a head.
G.R.C. You mean then, that the first thing is that someone speaks out of place.
Rem. Quite so. "If the foot say".
G.R.C. That happens sometimes. Someone speaks out of place. What do you do then?
Rem. Put him in his place. I mean that is what should be done; but it should be somebody who can do it, of course.
G.R.C. It says, "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge". Is it right for those who thus have a right to judge, and who judge that the word was out of order, to tell the brother so?
Rem. I think that would be a very good way to get him right, instead of telling somebody else.
G.R.C. A lot may be said among the brethren and all may feel the same about it and yet the brother is never told.
Rem. So these ministry meetings really bring out what is external and you have those who judge. So let matters come out as to what the judgment is.
G.R.C. The extraordinary thing is that often a brother, who the saints generally feel has spoken out of place, will say when spoken to, I am sure the Lord gave me the word. That is he is presuming to judge. But scripture does not say that it is his place to judge. It says, let others judge.
Rem. I think therefore we need to feel what the brethren think and yet we do not want to be unfair in what we are saying.
Rem. Even Paul says, Do ye judge what I say.
Ques. As to the meeting for ministry and the temple, are they together, one thought, or is there some distinction?
G.R.C. The ministry meeting does not cover the whole thought of the temple, but it is the temple from the standpoint of inquiry and divine light, and that is what we are leading up to. The body covers more than what we do when convened. It involves all the
services which God has committed to the members for the edification of the body, and they are very diverse; but when we come together, certain services are specially in mind. We desire manifestations of the Spirit with a view to bringing in light. I regard manifestations of the spirit as divine light shining, like the oil in the lampstand of old. Now if we have family conditions basically, and body conditions worked out so that each is in his place and the Spirit is unhindered, then there will be light shining, and that is the idea in chapter 14.
Rem. So that when the saints are convened, it calls into play all that you have been speaking to us about.
G.R.C. Exactly. First of all there should be the warmth of perfect love which casts out fear. Otherwise fear of one another may quench the Spirit. But then there may be activity of mind which would grieve the Spirit. But where the Spirit is unhindered we shall experience divine light shining in the temple.
Ques. Would the three thoughts, the family, the body and the temple be included in Psalm 27:4? "One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire of him in his temple". Would there be an interesting order in this; first the house of Jehovah, then the corporate idea in the beauty being beheld and then to inquire in the temple? He speaks of one thing and then he refers to three things, but they are one in his mind and to be very much sought after; that is to say, the house of Jehovah, the beauty of Jehovah and the temple. Beauty has already been seen in Christ and is now prolonged in the saints here as forming the body.
Ques. Would you say that the body is universal, the temple local?
G.R.C. Both are universal and local. The body is
universal. It says, "we being many", that is the universal "we". Again, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, in "one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body". That is universal. But in verse 27 he says, "Now ye are Christ's body". That is local; but he does not say ye are the body of Christ. It is characteristic. Then as to the temple, in applying it locally he does not speak of it as the whole. He says, "Ye are the temple of God"; it is characteristic. The temple is the shrine where God is dwelling among men at the present time. But then these things which are universal in their fulness, are to be worked out locally. It is there we prove the reality of them in practice.
Ques. You spoke of judging what is said in the ministry meetings. Would you allow the possibility that the judgment of the saints may be wrong?
G.R.C. The state of the meeting would have to be very wrong for the saints as a whole to be wrong. The assembly is viewed as having priestly discernment. "Let the others judge". I suppose a meeting might be in such a bad state as to reject the prophetic word. What would you do then?
Rem. Of course these are days of brokenness, so we cannot do much. The ministry meetings continue and we are thankful they do; but we always find, I suppose, someone we do not like in these meetings.
G.R.C. That would be letting in natural feelings which we have to avoid. When the Holy Spirit spoke in Acts 13 it says they were ministering to the Lord and fasting. Would not fasting include the disallowance of every natural like and dislike?
Ques. Does the truth of the body underlie the functioning of the assembly for divine praise, each member finding his place?
G.R.C. The praise of God will never be what it should be unless we have been through these exercises, the family, the body and the temple as the place of
inquiry and divine light, for that makes way for the temple as the place of divine service and praise. The idea of the temple is in no sense absent from the morning meeting. It was in the temple that the seraphim were saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory". The temple is the shrine where God is, and the service goes on there. Even in the ministry meeting there is a certain amount of worship, the unbeliever worships; as affected by the prophetic word, he becomes conscious that God is there. The service of God in its fulness is the great climax of Paul's constructive line. To Him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus. If we follow this line we shall prove what the assembly is for God, which is the great point in Ephesians 3:8-end.
Rem. I am thankful you said that, what the assembly is to God. We have to keep in mind the assembly of God in Corinth. This book refers constantly to the assembly of God.
G.R.C. There was the assembly of God in Corinth. How much it means to Him to have His assembly in a city. But then in Ephesians 3 the assembly is functioning according to her status in heavenly places, under the headship of Christ who has unsearchable riches. The assembly is functioning in the service of God. That is the main thing; there is also administration manward, but the all-various wisdom of God is seen in its fullest sense in the way in which the true Solomon orders the whole service Godward. The final thing which left the queen of Sheba with no more spirit in her was his ascent by which he went up to the house of Jehovah. She was an earthly principality looking at the earthly Solomon, but heavenly principalities are looking at the assembly functioning according to her heavenly place and status as in Ephesians 3"In whom we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him". That is the ascent. It is in Him, in Christ Jesus our Lord, that we have all boldness to come before God.
He has unsearchable riches. He equips us in every way for the service, so that in Him we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of Him; and that refers to the present time. The word "now" in verse 10 governs the whole passage. It is God's purpose about the present time and the line we are on is the way to arrive at that.
Ques. Is the Lord's Supper in the family setting or the body setting or the temple setting?
G.R.C. It is in all three. These things run on concurrently. The Lord's Supper is in the family setting, for the Lord says, "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you". But then "we being many are one bread, one body"; and at the Supper we appropriate one another bodywise. At the same time the whole service is the service of God, standing related to His habitation, His temple. We begin with the Lord's Supper but the whole service is in mind leading up to the full response of Ephesians 3. While enquiry is not the reason for our being together, where do we get greater light than at the Supper? Where does light shine more brightly? The very service of song is prophetic. They prophesied with the lute and harp and cymbal. God speaks from off the mercy-seat.
Rem. The Lord coming in in the assembly is the great point, is it not, governing the whole position?
Rem. Simeon came into the temple in the early part of Luke; and the thought of the temple and true praise runs through that gospel. Christ is the theme, and fresh light came into Simeon's soul at the time, did it not?
G.R.C. When he had the Child in his arms it looked as though light flooded his soul.
Rem. You arrive at the assembly as one who knows what to do. Having enjoyed family relations you fit into the composition of the body and you arrive at the assembly.
G.R.C. Exactly. You know what to do; you are available under the impulse of the Head.
Ques. Is there a sober note in the fact that while it is characteristic as to the temple -- "Ye are temple of God" -- locally, it says, "If anyone corrupt the temple of God". I wondered if that were not a sober note as to what anyone of us might do, involving the whole universal position.
G.R.C. That is a salutary remark. There it is, the whole thing -- "If anyone corrupt the temple of God" -- and of course that can happen. We do something that damages the temple universally.
Brooklyn, New York -- November 5, 1957, G. R. Cowell, Reading, Green Haddad Booklets, The Truth, 9: 30 - 52