It is written of Enoch that he walked with God three hundred years. How far have we walked with God during the year that will soon be past? To walk with God is surely to do His will. But in order to do His will, it is evident we must know what that will is: what the present mind of God is. As the apostle says, to all who have been justified by faith, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Now in order to know the present mind of God, we must have spiritual intelligence to understand the dispensation, or period, in which we are found. Many things which were strictly according to the will of God, His very commands during the dispensation of the law, are now spoken of in the inspired word during the period of the church on earth, as “ weak and beggarly elements,” and to return to them would be to act exactly contrary to the will of God. (Gal. 4:9.)
If we read the scriptures, is it not most clear that, for fifteen centuries, Israel, as a nation, occupied the ways of God dispensationally? Now during the period from Pentecost to the coming of the Lord, what is His mind? Is it not “the assembly which is his body?” (Eph. 1:22.) Is it a fact that the present work of God, according to eternal purpose, is the assembly, the one body of Christ? And is not this stupendous fact greatly forgotten?
Well, in keeping with this fact, in order that we “may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God,” in all humility of mind, the Holy Spirit presents the truth of the one body as a formative power of walk, even in the Epistle to the Romans. And we shall find that the spiritual apprehension of this will affect the perceptive instruction that follows. “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” (Rom. 12:4, 5.)
Have we walked with God during the past year according to this foundation truth? Have we regarded all believers on earth as members of the one body of Christ? Have we written, have we spoken and acted as those who believe it? “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:12.) Have we then been “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”?
Let it also be observed that the full statement of the truth of the assembly, the one body, is that on which precept is founded in the Ephesians. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism.” And when the ascended Christ gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; was it not for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ?
Yes, this is the present thought of God—the one body. Through the year that is nearly past, yea, for eighteen hundred years, God’s thought has been the assembly, “the one body,” chosen in Christ before the world began. Oh, think of the love of Christ! “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.... that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
Have our thoughts and ways been in harmony with this blessed fact, That all believers on earth form this one body of Christ? Or have we been forming other bodies, in opposition to the plans and thoughts of God? Take a simple illustration. A certain nobleman gives out an order for the building of a mansion. The architect draws the plans exactly to scale, with its elevations, sections and quantities, &c, as they say. The materials are provided: workmen are employed to carry out the plan of the nobleman, as described and drawn by the architect. The nobleman expects care and attention, for the mansion is for his son. Now the workmen forget the plans of the one mansion, and behold them hard at work building, ten or a hundred houses of their own, each according to his own taste. One says, This is my house, another says, and this is mine; another says, it does not matter what house you are building, all that you see are the materials of the nobleman. How would all this appear in the eyes of the nobleman? Would anyone of these be doing the acceptable will of the nobleman? Surely not. If we go back to the beginning, it could be said of all believers, “and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone: in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:20-22.) The thought here is one building, not many buildings. This was not an invisible building, or an invisible church, or assembly. Oh, let us examine the plans, the eternal design, the drawings of the divine architect, the Holy Ghost, of the one assembly, the one body of Christ. All the material, that is all the redeemed on earth, designed according to the revealed will of God, yea, and baptized into one body! Can we grasp this stupendous fact? It is quite true that every act of man, apart from the guidance of the Spirit, spoils and denies this.
We should expect the architect to inform the “builders that it is one mansion which is designed to be built. This fact would be the very base of all his instructions. In like manner we find, both in Ephesians and in Romans, that there is one body, and this is a foundation statement affecting subsequent instruction and precept. Have we been in fellowship with God in His present special work during the year nearly gone? Have we been remembering that the one assembly, the one body, is to be the bride of the Lamb. It is God’s one great thought and purpose in this world at present. It is the taking out of the bride for His beloved Son! Or, if viewed under the figure of a building, the one temple holy in the Lord; not many buildings, but an habitation of God.
Now if it were utterly wrong for the builders to lay aside the plans of the one mansion, and each build a house to his own liking; can it be right for us to lay aside the distinct instructions of God’s word as to the one body, and be occupied in forming a body of Christians, a party, a sect, each one to his liking? Has the evangelist taught every convert that he belongs to the one body of Christ, and now should show it? Or has he led that convert to one of the bodies of men? Has the pastor’s heart taken in the whole of the one assembly, the one body? or, like the builders, has he forgotten the one mansion, and merely cared for his house, his church as men say? So of the teacher; and so has every act of service been either right or wrong according to God, or contrary to His revealed will. It will be profitable for both writer and reader of this little paper, to examine their course during the past year by the word of God.
To return, and, by the grace of God, to seek to do His will, may involve the giving up of very many cherished plans of our own. No doubt the builders, who had laid aside the nobleman’s plans and instructions, would have to cease building their own houses with his materials. And if we learn our mistakes in building different religious bodies, and thus setting aside both the will of God the Holy Ghost, and the instructions of the word of God, we must certainly “cease to do evil,” and then “learn to do well.”
We can say this has been the desire of our hearts, however feebly accomplished, or however much we may have failed. We have sought to write for the comfort and edification of the whole church of God. We desire in our hearts, in the love of Christ, to embrace every true Christian on earth as a member of the one body of Christ.
It may be said these are difficult times in which to show out the unity of the Spirit. Can it be otherwise in a world where all is against God? Were there ever more difficulties in the way of righteousness and christian holiness in business? or even in ordinary life? Is this any reason why we should give up practical righteousness in all our ways? Far be the thought. “But we have so failed in the past!” Surely past failure should awaken us to more earnest prayer and watchfulness, and more unfeigned dependence on God. For builders so far to have forgotten their instructions as described above, would meet with instant dismissal: not so with our God and Father. He waits to be gracious. But let every man take heed how he buildeth. Is it not a sad thing for a Christian to be building wood, hay and stubble, though he will be saved so as by fire, and all his works burnt up? (1 Cor. 3)
Not only is another year almost gone, but “the night is far spent, the day is at hand.” Yes, the long dark night of man’s self-will, and Satan’s rule in this world is far spent; compared with eternity, it is but a moment, and we shall meet the Lord in the air. This is the blessed hope of all the redeemed. It is the next event. As surely as January succeeds the end of the year; so surely the coming of the Lord succeeds this night now far spent. And whilst we hold most sure and dear to our hearts the perfect acceptance of every believer in Christ, for this is wholly of God, yet is it not also true that we should labor, that we may be acceptable to Him? For we must all appear (or be manifested) before the judgment-seat of Christ; and though accepted in Him, yea, in Him as the One that died for our sins, and rose again, yet, as to reward or approval, it is “that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Cor. 5:9, 11.)
Beloved reader, how will you, how shall we, meet His face? Can He say, “Well done;” if we are walking contrary to His revealed will? Oh, how much that is highly esteemed among men will be utterly disapproved by Him! Is it not high time to awake? Is it not high time to test everything we are doing by the word of God? There, like the architect’s plans drawn to a correct scale, so the Holy Ghost has revealed the eternal plan, purpose, thought of God: the predestined assembly of God—the one body. Not a body, but the “one body.” Every believer a member of that one body. All the gifts of the ascended Christ for the edification of that one body. (1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4) It is the will of Christ, yea, we hear Him pleading with the Father telling out His desire, that the practical unity of those given to Him should be shown, “That they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 17) May He grant that all our ways may be molded by the desires of His own heart. And to Him now, and when we see His face, be all praise! Worthy is the Lamb.