An Extract.
WE are not to imitate 1 Corinthians 12-14 or play the part of Corinthians, as though we had all the gifts of Corinthians. Nor are we to assume to be the only light in our place, as the Church then was at Corinth. But we must have faith to know this, that the scattering the lights, or the judgment of the candlestick is not the withdrawal of His Spirit from His temple, the gathered saints. We must hold to God’s principles in the judged place, or the scene around us. In typical language, we bow to the sword, but not to the image of the Chaldean, we own the head of the ten tribes, but not the calf at Bethel.
We are not to expect, it may be, such corporate power as would have been, had no divine judgment come upon the candlestick; but we are not to be a congregation without faith, to regard it as a habitation of God through the Spirit, with power to order and feed it in the Spirit.
And again, as we are not to surrender God’s principles to the corruptions around, neither are we to give up because of some disappointed efforts in asserting them. “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” We are to distinguish things that differ. We are not to give up principle because it is hotly assailed, neither are we to do so because it has been poorly and faintly illustrated. The principle outlives a thousand disappointing attempts to exhibit it. The light is not to be judged because of the soiled lamp through which it may shine. We are no more to identify it with that than with the darkness around. I may be grieved, disappointed that the candle has been, as it were, under a bushel, but I am to remember that it is a candle still, able to give light to all that are in the house.