It does not at all follow that because we are at the Lord’s table, according to 1 Cor. 10, we “discern the Lord’s body,” as unfolded in 1 Cor. 11 Neither is it inevitably the case that because we are Philadelphians in our confession, Laodicea may not describe the condition of our hearts; nor, as I desire to point out, does the circle of the fellowship of the Spirit necessarily coincide with that of the unity of the Spirit? Alas, that it should be otherwise! But, Scripture on the one hand, and experience on the other, teach us that the condition of our souls too seldom corresponds with the ground of our profession.
Intelligence more or less depends upon natural ability; a true heart never. Most blessed it is when you see one possessed of a gigantic mind by nature, so completely under subjection to the Spirit of God, that his intellect is but a valuable weapon in the Lord’s hand, and that which would have commanded the attention and respect of all, is through grace taken up and used by God on behalf of all, to meet perhaps with the scorn of the majority. But instances such as these are few and far between, and for the most part, the wise and mighty find their might and wisdom but stumbling-blocks in their pathway, and that they are only cyphers in the circle of God’s interests. True hearts, however, belong to a different order of things, and are in no way indebted to the first creation. They, thank God, exist in far more abundant measure than capacity of intellect, and they are oftentimes the property of the humblest, most unlettered of God’s saints. They result from the exercise of the power of God the Father, rather than of God the Creator; possess no other object than God the Son, and are subject to no other influence than God the Spirit. The heart must be true before we can be discerners of the Lord’s body—in reality Philadelphian, or walking in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost.
In Gideon’s day it was not all Israel that God would use to overthrow the Midianites neither is it in the present day all the members of the body of Christ that would seem to be in the power of the Holy Ghost His instruments of testimony.
In Gideon’s day it was not so much their fearlessness of enemies that was the secret of their power, as their Nazariteship to God. At the present time devotedness to the Lord, resulting in separation of heart to Him, can alone make us fitting weapons for the accomplishment of His purposes.
Every one that has, through mercy, learned the truth of the “one body, and one spirit,” and the responsibilities attaching to it, will be found “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And of course this is the necessary precursor of the response to the call. But the heart must be true before we can be discerners of the Lord’s body, in reality Philadelphian, or walking in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, as we see the apostle Paul, in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians. Long time as he had been a prisoner, his chains had in no wise damped his ardor in divine things, or lessened his appreciation of that Son of God, who had first entranced his soul on his way to Damascus. The outward man might perish, but the inward man was renewed day by day, and his earnest desire to hold every thought in subjection to the power of the cross was responded to by his deliverance unto death for Jesus’ sake. God had helped him, and permitted his imprisonment only to make him the more evidently the reflector of the glory of His Son.