Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

Unity of Action; Diversity of Operation: Joshua’s Spear.

Before we close, perhaps some practical thoughts on the living activities of the Lord’s Host may be helpful to some. May the Lord direct us in our thoughts. There is a sentence in the sixth Chapter of Joshua which has much power and significance — “The people went up into the city, every man straight before him.” There was no clashing with each other’s work or pathway, while the fullest unanimity, the most perfect fellowship and harmony prevailed amongst the conquering Host of the Lord. This is the divine order, and there is none like it. There was no one person had the same path, or the same work to do as another. God never repeats Himself I He never makes two leaves of a tree — two blades of grass — two faces alike. He never sets two members of Christ to do the same service in the Church of God. Each, however closely his work may lie with that of another, has his own work to do; and no person can do another’s work as well as he can do his own. Nay, he can, of all men, do his work best himself.

To be successful as the Host of the Lord, there must be the divine unity of action, while diversity of operation necessarily follows. The Lord guides all spiritually, and each one shows his confidence in his Lord and Master, and his obedience to His commands, by going “straight before him” in the pathway he has been ordained. Like the soldiers of a mighty army, we are moving right and left in the smoke and confusion and din of the battle-field; we do not, and cannot know the bearing of each act of ours on each other in carrying out the plan of the battle, or the purposes of the Captain, in the presence of the enemy. The mistake we frequently make is, instead of seeing to it that we are keeping line ourselves, we are watching the pathway and service of another; perhaps encroaching on it and hindering him, and in consequence not doing our own special work. Now this should not be. Wisdom is marked in each step of obedience; and each step of obedience finds each in his place with God. The confidence of each too, in his Commander is thus proved, and his work is done in quiet confidingness of heart in Him. The action of some unseen soldier of Christ, whose pathway lies in some secluded corner, who is perhaps only known to Him, has its bearing on the whole Church of God. He may think his actions are of no consequence, he is so humble and insignificant a member of Christ: he has yet to learn that “those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary … for God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to those parts which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:22-26).

Now this is strikingly illustrated in type in the eighth chapter of the Book of Joshua, in the history of the taking of Ai. We have the doctrine unfolded for us especially in Ephesians 4:1-16, Romans 12, etc.

When Israel had failed after the destruction of Jericho, and the solemn discipline in the case of Achan had been accomplished, Israel thus “proving themselves clear in this matter,” the Lord had directed that all the people of war should now go up. Ambushments are laid; some at the west and some at the north of the city, all under the direction of Joshua by the command of the Lord.

There are even now in the army of Christ (these, so to speak), outposts, pickets, and ambushments, as in another way there were then. Some are standing alone for Christ, far away from the fellowship of the saints. Like the lonely but watchful sentry, upon whose fidelity the safety of the army in measure depends — some have this lonely post. But whether his path be isolated, or amongst the congregated saints, upon the faithfulness, watchfulness, devotedness of each depends (as far as man’s responsibility reaches) the work of God in the whole.

The men of Ai are drawn into the snare; the army of the Lord in the forefront seem to them to give way, yea, to flee. There are times to do this even in this day in our spiritual wars. A time to let our yieldingness be so known to all men, as to make it appear to them that we have nothing to say. Such a moment may seem a triumph to the foe. But how short-lived! He is led to commit himself the more completely; but faith counts on the resources of God, and abides His time. Thus did the Lord in His day, and all seemed a complete triumph of the enemy. But O what wondrous resources lay behind! What a work was He accomplishing, when in His apparent defeat and desertion by all! The enemy seemed to have gained such a complete victory, when Jesus, despised and rejected of men, died a malefactor’s death; and wretched men could say, “Ah, so would we have it!” But what a downfall was his, when the bars of death — the “gates of hades” — were borne on the shoulders of this Mighty Conqueror, and the enemy’s last strong citadel — death — succumbs, abolished by the power of His resurrection.

We too may seem at times to be defeated — to yield, and flee before the enemy’s power, confiding in our Captain and the unseen resources — the armies of reserve which He can employ to accomplish His victory. But all this requires faith in Him, faith that thinks not of self, but of Christ. The watchful eye of Jesus marks all from the heights above; He withdraws not His eyes from His people. “And the Lord said unto Joshua, stretch out the spear that is in thy hand towards Ai: for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire” (Joshua 8:18).

Thus we find that the Holy Ghost produces under Christ, unity of action in the hearts of those who are thus under His mighty and constraining power. Wondrous Unity! past man’s comprehension; past his ordering. But no difficulty is felt when the Lord is thus at work, and an obedient people act in the current of His mighty operations. Joshua’s spear — and that by no preconcert — was stretched out by a hand which grew not weary till all was accomplished. This marks this lovely concert of action in the unity which is indeed of God. Each soldier on that day had his own special pathway; yet there was but one Joshua, with one spear, who ordered all. True unity; yet true diversity brought forth to fruition this victory.

If we turn to Ephesians 4:1-16, we find these activities unfolded in the church of God. Complete, sevenfold unity begins the chapter (vv. 1-6), yet diversity marks the place of each and all. The “prisoner of Jesus Christ” exhorts that we should walk worthy of this vocation which he has just unfolded. It embraces with its collateral truths three prominent features. The calling of God into Christ’s place as Son and Man before Him (ch. 1). Then our corporate relation to Christ, the Head, as His body (ch. 1). And in the close of ch. 2 the fact that here on earth we are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. All these wondrous things form the basis of his exhortation in chapter 4.

“Lowliness and meekness” become us most surely then, in God’s presence. To be lowly in truth we must be consciously there. “Long-suffering” too; for the greater the evil, the more must this divine quality be found in us. It is more than patience; long-suffering supposes outrage and injury, and our bearing it as God. Then too, “Forbearing one another in love;” it needs this much, for flesh is in each, and we have flesh in ourselves. It can never combat with flesh in another; thus there must be forbearance. It is wonderful when this forbearance is exercised towards the actions of flesh in another how he is ashamed, and how the soul is brought to self-judgment sooner or later before the Lord. All this then is prefatory to the great end in view, the glory of Christ, and in walking worthy of our vocation. We shall be characterised by the blessed qualities of lowliness and meekness, long-suffering and forbearance in love; this divine character crowning all, and qualifying (what otherwise would be but human amiability) with the nature of God.

The Apostle now names the sevenfold unity. First the essential real unity to which our corporate responsibility is attached. He begins by saying, “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace.” All diligence is needed for this in such an evil day as that through which we now pass. This is its scope. Then, when we come to its practice all should be “using diligence to keep” it, in the uniting bond of peace, in “one body.”

The first two unities are connected with the Holy Ghost, “There is one body and one Spirit.” This is the real thing formed by the presence of the Holy Ghost, “one hope” — it can have none other. There can be but one for that which is held in living unity by the “one Spirit” of God, in “one body.”

The next three are connected with Jesus as “one Lord.” Here we find His place of dignity as owned in profession by all who call on the name of the Lord, “both theirs and ours.” Such have but one common confession of His name — “one faith.” It is this is in his thought. Elsewhere there is also “the faith,” as the truth held between the soul and God; or “faith” in itself, as a divine gift and power in the soul. But here it is the common confession and profession of “one faith” in “one Lord,” and this expressed by “one baptism” — of water.

The last unity brings us in connection with “God,” as such; He who is “Father of all” (cf. chapter 3:15), or supreme Author of them; who is “above all;” here we find His supreme place; He also permeates all, and lastly, He is “in you all” — thus He dwells in the saints.

This then is the administrative place of the Spirit, of the Lord, and of God. The revelation of the Trinity we find elsewhere. We have these unities connected with the Holy Ghost, real, essential, and vital. Unities connected with the Lord — those of profession and confession. And with God as Father and supreme.

He then turns to the great source of divine diversity in the Church, to Jesus — the true Joshua. “But unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ;” here are contemplated the Hosts of the redeemed on earth — the whole church of God. Every one in the mighty army has his place. What business would he have to be in and of that Host if he had not some office to perform? “According to the measure of the gift of Christ” determines all. He sees fit to give, and He is Lord of all. He is seen here in His glorious exaltation, as “ascended up on high.” How then did He reach that wondrous place? First He went down into the stronghold of Satan’s power — death; but He did so as one who overcame this power of the enemy by apparent defeat, as we sing, “He death by dying slew.” Then He burst the bars of the grave asunder, and “ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” At another day a little rehearsal of this wondrous victory, in an earthly way was celebrated in the song of Deborah. “Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam” (Judges 5:12). But its effects only lasted for a little moment, and then passed away. Now this eternal victory of Jesus is so complete that He can turn those who were captives to the power of the enemy and as thus set free, and make them His Host against all his power in the energy of that day of glory, in which He will bind Satan and cast him into the bottomless pit, and fill the earth with the full results of His victory and glory.

Shall not His Hosts then gladly publish His victory? Israel’s first great salvation is ever a type and sample of their last and greatest deliverance. In the day of their redemption from Egypt they had to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord;” in their final deliverance it will be the same story. Their extremity is God’s opportunity, as is ever the case. The Church can say “Thou hast ascended up on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts in the man” (Psalms 68:18). The day will come when it will be said, “Yea, for the rebellious also (Israel), that Jehovah God might dwell among them.” Meanwhile, “He gave gifts to men,” He has not only “received gifts in man” according to the Psalm, but given “gifts to men” — members of His body. The same power that will free the world from Satan’s power, He now dispenses in His members, in order to free others from that power, and build them up by the word of His grace.

What a wondrous Christ is He with whom we have to do! One who first descended “into the lower parts of the earth,” i.e. the grave. The creature fell with the first Adam, and became subject to Satan’s power and to death; Jesus — the second Adam — went under death, and then ascended far above all heavens.” I look down to the deepest depths of ruin where the creature lay; I look again up to the highest heavens, even “the heaven of heavens which is the Lord’s,” and I behold a Man filling it all! From the extremest depths of ruin, to the highest heights of glory He has traversed, “that he might fill all”! and this as Man. It is such a Christ with whom we have to do; such a Christ we have to serve, in the consciousness of the breadth of these wondrous fields of glory as realized by faith; in the depth of the creature’s misery as fallen, and under Satan’s power.

Then we learn the diversity of the special permanent gifts which He has given: “And he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ” (vv. 11, 12). Apostles did their own special foundation work, and then passed away. Their special power and foundation ministry is continued to none: none could now say, “Have I not seen the Lord?” a necessary qualification for this work; nor could any now say, “And so ordain I in all the churches.” Without these special qualities there are none. Their work then was done and ended when the last apostle passed from this scene. He gave “some apostles,” and there it ended.

And He “gave some prophets” — Mark was one; Luke was another, may I not say? They were not apostles, but they wrote by revelation their Gospels and the Acts. Such like service, with the oral teaching as revealed then by the prophets, was their work; it has been accomplished, and they too have passed away; their work was done.

{Note: The gift of prophecy is continued now in another way. For those, who in ministering speak to the conscience of the hearer from God — whether to saint or sinner — are prophesying in the ordinary sense. (Cf. John 4:19; 1 Corinthians 14, passim). End of note.}

“And he gave … some evangelists,” whose work is to carry the “glad tidings” to the lost, in this evil world, and bring souls when delivered from the bondage of Satan, to the consciousness of their place in Christ, and thus as of the Host of the Lord to do battle against the enemy.

“And some pastors and teachers” to shepherd and feed the flock of God, and train them in the ways of the Lord. All these are special and permanent gifts attached to individuals; an evangelist is always an evangelist, even when he is not evangelizing. A pastor and teacher is always this, though not always at his work. They are the definite abiding gifts of Christ to the Church, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” This is the end and aim of ministry in the Church of God. Even when the Lord shows (v. 12) for what purpose He has thus bestowed these gifts, He puts the individual saint first, even before He speaks of the whole body. Just as the place and relationship to the Father, of the individual saint, is shown most fully in chapter 1 of this epistle, before his corporate place and relation to Christ as a member of His body is touched upon in its end; so here He adds, “For the perfecting of the saints (first; then) for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” And the end to be attained, “Till we all come” — that is, every individual saint of the whole body of Christ — “in the unity of the faith,” one uniform basis of faith in the understanding of the things of Christ, and consciousness of our place before Him; the standard of all being “the knowledge of the Son of God” — He for whom the Church waits; upon whose person as risen, she is built; “The Son of the living God;”in the faith of whom she overcomes the world, and who will take her to Himself for His Father’s house and the glory. The measure of growth in each being “a perfect (or full-grown) man,” in contrast with being “babes” (verse 14); the “perfect man” having still but one just measure and stature to which to attain, that of the “fulness of Christ.”

Then after those permanent gifts are treated of, we find the “whole body,” in the effectual working of the measure of each one part.” Here we find the place and function of all the members of Christ without exception. The expression “effectual working” is very beautiful; for not only on the individual growth to “full age” of each Christian, depends the prosperity of the whole body; but also upon the “effectual working of the measure of each one part,” hangs the healthy growth and edification in love of the whole.

The heart pauses for a moment to contemplate what the Church of God — the Host of the Lord — would have been, had these wondrously blessed thoughts of Christ been practically carried on to fruition. Still, blessed be His name, the thought is unchanged, and faith thinks His thoughts and faithfulness acts upon them, even were there but one or two acting in their truth on earth. What a wreck — what a ruin, has the Church become in the hands of Satan and men! Yet still the work of grace and truth proceeds, and it will be found, in spite of all the failure, that He who knew the eternal thoughts and counsels of God, and descended to carry them out in the power of divine love, will effectually do so, and present the Church to Himself “Holy and without blame before him in love.”

In Romans 12 we also find this “unity of action,” and “diversity of operation” — in living and practical power.

The chapter begins with the weightiest of all truths in the practice of a soldier of the Lord’s Host: personal consecration to the Lord (vv. 1-3). “I beseech you,” says the apostle, “by the mercies of God.” Wondrous basis of divine exhortation, of which the mighty mercies unfolded from Romans 3 to 8, see note, are the foundation in this chapter. “That ye present your bodies,” heretofore the slaves of sin and every folly, “a living sacrifice.” How touchingly does this point to Jesus as the perfect meat-offering — the sinless Man ever before the eye of heaven, and before His Father His perfection in this lovely character was only proved in its completeness by His death in obedience to His Father, and for His Father’s glory. Were we to enter upon the full beauty of its presentation of the Lord, in Leviticus 2, we should notice an ingredient which, while it formed no part of the offering, was never to be forgotten, that is, the “salt.”

{Note: The direct connection is between the end of Romans 8 and 12. Romans 9, 10, 11, are parenthetic, and refer to Israel in the past, in the present, and in the future. End of note}

Salt represents the separative power of holiness, which in Him was always perfect. There was a holiness in Jesus which He used to bring God’s love to man, because He could not be defiled. But it was that inward power of it which distinguished Him from all other men. It is this He presses at the close of one of His most deeply solemn discourses (Mark 9), “Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.” He exhorts to this inward power of holiness and holy grace which connects the soul practically with God, enabling it to refuse the evil and choose the good in this evil world. This renders this “living sacrifice” “acceptable unto God.” So far as in us lies, it is thus that the frankincense of His graces are seen in us. No one being ever was offered in itself to God but Jesus. But His was that intrinsic perfection ever presented to Him, and tried by the judgment of fire, yet only and always yielding its own sweet savour: all the frankincense went up to God. So far then as Christ liveth in us, this “acceptableness” is found. This is our intelligent service.

He then passes on to our relative place of separation from the world and its ways, and in obedience thus we find as Enoch, God’s good and acceptable and perfect will; or as Moses, having found grace in God’s sight, we seek His way, that we may find grace in His sight. Then He looks (verse 3) for lowliness, yet sobriety of thought as to ourselves, in the place of responsibility God has set each one. No false humility; but humbly yet firmly accepting the place and measure of gift which God has bestowed, and this in dependence on Him.

After this personal consecration or devotedness, he turns to the mutual relationship of all, as “one body in Christ” (vv. 4, 5); “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.” Then he passes on to the individual responsibility of each and all. If it be ministry, it is to be waited on; or prophecy; or teaching; or exhortation. He who gives is to do it with simplicity; he that rules (takes the lead) with diligence. He that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Love is to be without dissimulation, and from the bottom of the heart. Evil to be abhorred; good, to be desired and loved. Kindly affections flowing to others; each taking the lead in paying honour one to the other. Diligence in business, and without slothfulness, thus serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Distributing to the necessities of saints; given to hospitality, Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but associate with what is lowly. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as far as it lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves; but give place unto wrath: for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Blessed list of graces and virtues which God looks to find in the practical life and warfare of the soldiers of Christ! May they be engraven on the heart, and seen in the lives of all who are His, that His name may be glorified!

Thus, while we see how unity of action in “one body,” is imperative on the soldiers of Christ, when moving practically under His eye and command as Captain of the Host of the Lord; diversity of operation is maintained throughout: each having his own place and work assigned to him in the whole. As the members of our human bodies, though many, do not interfere one with the other in the discharge of their several functions; but each working in unity, form one harmonious whole, so is it in the Church of God!

May He give singleness of eye and purpose of heart to His people — to each and all; that we may know His mind and will, and, knowing it, be found effectually working in the measure assigned to us, where we can best glorify Him and carry out His designs and victories here. The day will come when the armour may be put off, and the girdle of service be laid aside for ever! Then He will put it on in His eternally blessed love; and, girding Himself afresh, will come forth to serve us with the best things from the table of the Father, feeding us with His own hand, to make us enjoy the more that House on high in which we shall dwell with Him and He with us, in its peaceful joys for eternity.