The Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4: “Seeing we have this ministry.”
There are two words which will be the key to our meditation and consideration, and probably, if the Lord wills, for several evenings to come: “This ministry.”
As you know, we are using these few evenings for the purpose of restating and clarifying what we believe to be the Lord’s meaning and purpose in the charge, and in our having been, by His grace and mercy, brought under His hand as a people here.
It is very necessary that, from time to time, as the years go on and the company changes, we keep very clearly before us that full purpose of God into which He has called us. While we are always seeking new light, and to be open to new instruction and counsel of the Lord, we must preserve the original vision and keep in line with that which has been the object of our apprehension.
And it is the church’s ministry: a ministry for which the church is chosen of God, and for which the church is equipped by God. It is a ministry.
So far as we here are concerned, we feel that the Lord has laid it very much upon us to seek to be in line with the ministry of the counsel of God. As things are in these times, it is very necessary that there shall be preserved a ministry amongst the Lord’s people, for the Lord’s people, that they shall be the better vested with spiritual wealth and larger measures of Christ, to strengthen all the Lord’s people to the fulfilment of their holy vocation in this world.
Now Paul here says, “We have this ministry.” I think it is quite clear from the larger context of those words that, when he said “we,” he was including the Corinthians, as well as himself and his brethren who were with him in the ministry.
Later, for instance, he will say, “We all, with unveiled face.” It is the ministry of the whole church that the apostle has in view. This ministry is what the Lord would have the whole church fulfil.
And it is of very great importance that the whole church—and that includes every one of us here this evening, while it goes far beyond—it is very important that every one of us should realize that we are called of God not only unto salvation and unto ultimate glory, but particularly unto a ministry: a ministry for the Lord, from the Lord.
“We have this ministry.” And when the apostle says, “This ministry,” you notice that the whole context of this letter defines what he means by this ministry. It is a ministry of a certain nature, character, and constitution.
So that, if this is true—that the church is here particularly and pre-eminently to fulfil a ministry, and we are in that—we must know what that ministry is, and we must be in line with it.
The apostle first draws attention to what the church is in itself—the “we”—and then he proceeds with the vocation of that church. The church is affected as to its character by its calling.
If we were to clearly apprehend our calling, we should the more forcefully realize what we have got to be. The impetus, the motive, the dynamic of being, is found in the vocation—in the calling, in what we are here for. That is, in the divine purpose.
You have got that? Let me repeat that: we shall find our inspiration to be what we ought to be when we adequately apprehend what it is the Lord has called us for—that is, to do. Because we cannot do that and fulfil the vocation unless we are of a certain kind, of a certain character. It does not just happen willy-nilly.
The Lord requires a certain kind of “we” for this particular kind of ministry. That is the whole force of this letter, as you know. Paul is seeking to show what the ministry is and, by showing that, inspiring, encouraging, and admonishing the church to be worthy of that ministry—to be the kind of church necessary to fulfil it.
So we begin this evening to consider the nature of this ministry. What constitutes it? There is very much to be said, and I confess to you that I am so full that I am most eager to get on. My peril will be to overrun the matter. But we will seek to confine ourselves, for this little time this evening, to one aspect or phase of this ministry.
It is what the apostle means when he repeatedly speaks of God’s purpose. Notice that that was a characteristic conception in the apostle’s heart and mind.
We are very familiar, for instance, with the words of Romans 8:28, the last clause: “Called according to His purpose.” And again in Ephesians 1:9:
Having made known unto us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him.
That is, in Christ. Verse 11:
In whom also we were made a heritage,
having been foreordained according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His will.
It is with something which the apostle terms “the purpose,” “the eternal purpose,” in mind, that the church has its existence.
When we come to look at these Scriptures and break them up, analyze them, we find that this purpose has several aspects.
Firstly, it is shown to be, consummately and all-inclusively, a gathering together of all things in Christ. That is the purpose: comprehensively, to gather together all things in Christ.
And then, in the second place, the purpose is to manifest, or express, the fullness of Christ in and to this whole universe. That is the counsel of God’s will.
And then, in the third place, we find that, for that, God, before times eternal, chose, or elected, the church—that which is called the church—to be the vessel of this purpose.
Look at that a little more closely, those three things. It is put in several different ways, in different translations: to sum up all things in Christ; to gather together all things in Christ; to reunite all things in Christ; or, once more, to gather up into one all things in Christ.
That is the pre-eminent explanation of the Lord Jesus. Paul was mainly interested in the eternal significance of Christ and of His vocation in the purpose of God.
Therefore, there is very little indeed in Paul’s writings throughout concerning the earthly life of the Lord Jesus. Practically nothing from His birth onward to His cross. Paul does not give us any account of the journeys of the Lord Jesus when here on earth, of His miracles, or of His discourses.
He says practically nothing about that whole period. If he has anything to say about the Lord Jesus in that connection, it is almost entirely about the meaning of the incarnation: His self-emptying, humbling Himself, taking upon Him the form of a slave, and being found in fashion as a man.
Well, that goes back to the beginning. Thereafter, he has practically nothing to say until he comes to the cross. He has a lot to say about that.
Paul is not concerned with the historic Christ; he is concerned with the eternal significance of His Person and His work. That is very largely why he so often uses the title “Christ,” and “the Christ,” which is a larger title than “Jesus.”
He often speaks, of course, of Jesus, but Paul’s great title for Him is “Christ,” and “the Christ.” That relates to His anointing for His vocation to fulfil His great purpose in this universe. It is the eternal Christ that Paul is concerned with.
And He it is who, in this unique, peculiar, and particular way, brings us to that eternal vocation. He shows us that, in those eternal counsels, God the Son was intended to be the sum of all things, and all things to be the sum of Him.
He should fill all things, and in all things have the pre-eminence. In Him all things should consist, and everything in this universe should find its integrating centre and power in Christ. That was the divine intention.
Then things proceeded, as we only too well know, to the point where a mighty, determined counter-movement to that entered into this universe. It is something with which you and I ought to be, perhaps, more impressed than we are: that along every line of divine intention concerning the Lord Jesus, there is a counter-movement in this universe.
Did God intend and determine that in and through His Son the glory of God should be manifested in this universe? That there should be glory in and by Christ Jesus? Very well, says this counter-movement, we will make it our business to see that everything that relates to the Lord Jesus is brought into shame and dishonour.
What a history there is. You cannot bring anything of the Lord Jesus in for glory without this counter-movement bringing that under reproach, into shame, into disrepute, and seeking to thwart and frustrate the glory.
Is it the wealth, the riches of Christ, and that which is in Christ, that is to be displayed and enjoyed? Very well, says the counter-movement, everything that is related to Christ we will bring into poverty. We will counter that.
And there is a lot of history in that: the poverty, the poverty of heart, that has the name of Christ upon it in this world; spiritual powerlessness, poorness—like that. And so you follow it around the clock. At every point where God determines something concerning His Son, you find the counter-movement.
And here it focuses upon this matter of gathering together, coming up, reuniting, gathering into one all things in Christ. Very well, says that counter-movement, we will make it our business to divide everything that has the name of Christ upon it.
We will not stop short at anything to counter that uniting movement in Christ. We will break it up somehow. Oh, what a lot of history there is in that.
If the church is brought into being for that purpose, well, the enemy has not spared himself to spoil that proper symmetry. We will come to that again in a moment.
Here we find ourselves in a disintegrated and disrupted universe, in every direction and in every connection, not stopping short of what is called the church. I very carefully put it like that: what is called the church.
The purpose of God’s counsel and His predetermined counsel—the counsel of His will—will eventually and ultimately be fulfilled. He will sum up all things in Christ.
Now, you see, God is engaged, deeper than our sensing and our sight, upon this matter of reintegrating in His Son. And the basic principle of this integration, this reuniting, is Christ Himself.
You get hold of that, and you get past a great many difficulties. The ground of oneness is Christ Himself. Many, many things are thought to be the way to unity, or the grounds of unity, but no: there is only one ground of unity, and that is Christ Himself.
And where Christ is, there is, beneath and beyond whatever else may be present, unity. There is no doubt about it.
We have a lot that is extra—the attrition, the things that are built upon that which is not Christ. But get way down through all that, through the fundamental reality of Christ within by new birth from above, and you have got something in common. There is the unity.
Christ Himself is the law of this new integration. But it will depend upon how much of Christ there is, how much manifested unity there will be.
That, of course, would be a terrible indictment, would it not? Where there is disunity amongst the Lord’s people, we should say, “Well, there is not enough of Christ. If only there were more of Christ, that would not be.”
So it resolves itself into a matter of the greatness and the fullness of Christ.
If what we have said, and all the more that lies behind it, is true, how very great Christ is. He has the capacity for filling this universe.
And those are not just words. It is not just a wild statement. It can be worked out in various ways, which perhaps we ought not to take time to show this evening, except in one way.
You can take any manual of any subject in human knowledge. However great the manual may be—full, detailed, and comprehensive—you can master it. You can get the substance out of it so that it is in you, and you can put the manual away and have no further need to refer to it. You have got it.
It may be vastly comprehensive, but you have got it; you know all that is there. You can never do that with anything that relates to Christ.
A little fragment of written ministry, which you can read in fifteen or twenty minutes—a letter such as that called Ephesians, or Philippians, or Colossians—read right through in so many minutes. Yes, but men have been exhausting themselves over twenty centuries, and it is still deeper and other than all that they have ever been able to extract from it.
It relates to Christ. And it takes more than all time to comprehend Him, to fathom Him. He is still beyond us—still beyond them—vastly beyond them. He is a universe.
He has the capacity for filling all things. He is inexhaustible.
But not only in the matter of measure or degree: in the matter of character. It is not only that He is going to fill all things, but He is going to give character to all things.
What a wonderful thing it is when the Lord Jesus gets in—the changes He makes in character. And if it is true, as we have illustrated, that He is capable of filling all time and going beyond it as to measure, He can change this whole universe with His character.
He can give a character to all things which is different, and which cannot be found in any other but Himself. We know that. We know that. Where Christ is, truly, there is something different.
All the prophets of men, all their teachers, all their religions, all their philosophies—wonderful as they may think them to be—they do not change the character. They do not make this radical, constitutional difference in men. He does.
Therefore, in Him is not only the measure but the character of the coming unity. It will take its nature from Him. He is capable of doing that. That is the gospel.
There is not one remote figure, point, or creature in this universe who cannot be changed by Jesus Christ and be different.
He is the measure, He is the nature, and He is also the criterion. Everything in this universe is eventually going to be judged by Him, according to Him.
Not that He sits upon a judgment seat at some time, gathers all before Him, and passes sentence objectively. That is our mentality in thinking of the judgment.
Let us understand that it is spiritual, and that all things will be judged according to the measure of Christ that is there—according to how they measure up to Him. He is the standard. He is the criterion. He is God’s measuring line for everything.
And with God, all things are judged in this way: “What place have you given My Son? What place could you have given Him? What place did you have the opportunity of giving Him? What place did all that was given to you make possible for Him?”
What is the result? God will be righteous in His judgment. Men may have had very, very little of Christ; God will be righteous if they could not have had more. But, you see, in the little, after all, it comes back to this: it is Christ—Christ Who is the criterion of everything.
All that then, and so much more, is found in this first fragment of the purpose: to sum up all things in Christ, to gather together all things in Christ.
Then you come to the elect vessel—the elect vessel—that which we know by the name of the church.
What is the meaning of election, after all? Oh, it is this: that which is elected answers to this particular and peculiar thought in the mind of God from eternity.
What is the meaning of election? We have gone far wide, I think, of the real answer to that question in the Word of God. If only we did realize that election is related essentially to vocation and not salvation, we would be saved a lot of trouble.
It is chosen according to the purpose, in relation to a vocation. It is elect with a meaning. That is not just to be saved and to get to heaven; it is this ministry that governs election.
This ministry is the ministry of something elected of God to fulfil it. Let us get clear about that, and get our minds free of other thoughts. When the word “election,” or “foreordination,” or “predestination,” rises, at once focus upon this: it is purpose that is in view—not just salvation, but purpose.
What is the purpose of the election? That is the nature, or the meaning, of election: its vocation. What is the purpose of the election? Again, the purpose of the election is Christ—Christ.
Chosen in Him for this very purpose: being God’s vessel and vehicle for the revelation of Jesus Christ in the nations, and beyond, in the heavenlies.
I keep strictly to the Scriptures in all this. Now, unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies may be made manifest the manifold wisdom of God. It is in the nations, and over the nations, that this vocation is to be fulfilled. It is Christ.
We are, dear friends, chosen in Christ to reveal Christ, to manifest Christ, to show what Christ is.
Then what is the demand, if this is true? The demand is found in one little phrase:
Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
In other words, see to it that you are fulfilling your ministry. See that you really are in this ministry of Christ.
So this ministry relates to the fullness of Christ: first of all, filling its vessel—the vessel of the ministry—and then overflowing, or passing beyond the vessel, or through the vessel, to the nations.
What is required for this ministry? If this is what it is, what is required for it? Well, first of all, again keeping close to the Word, it can only really be fulfilled on heavenly ground.
It is absolutely essential that the church stands on heavenly ground to fulfil this ministry. It is on the ground of the heavenly Man. It is on the ground of a heavenly order.
“As it is done in heaven” was the phrase used by the Lord Himself. It is on the ground of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. You see, in every way, it requires heavenly ground.
Paul so constantly uses this phrase: “in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,” “in the heavenlies in Christ.”
Touch the earthly and the natural man, and what happens? At once integration changes to disintegration.
Let me put that another way. Here is something that is raised up of the Lord, used of the Lord, and then men put their hand upon it, take charge, begin to hold it, use it, and govern it. What is the history of that? It is the history of all the divisions.
At any rate, in most of the divisions amongst the Lord’s people, it can be traced to coming down to the earthly man somewhere—the touch of the earthly man.
The earthly man is in an otherwise heavenly man. There are always two sides to men. When men get onto their earthly side and touch the things of God, division comes. The glory fades. The fullness of Christ narrows down. Spiritual poverty comes where there was once wealth.
You see, touch the earthly man; touch the earth itself. At once you come into this realm of breaking up and dividing. Come down onto this earth-level of things, and it is like that. There is no oneness of integration on this earth.
If you like to change the word “earth” for “the world,” all right. Touch this world. Let the church come into touch with this world, and what happens? It breaks up. It divides. It loses its spiritual fullness and its glory, its effectiveness and its registration there. That is exactly what is happening.
Come down, come down. And I believe, dear friends, that if the letter to the Ephesians, so called, means anything at all as it comes to its consummation—that great warfare in the heavenlies—if it means anything at all, it means this tremendous conflict that the church has for maintaining its heavenly position.
For all these forces are bent upon forcing it down. Now, is that not true to your own personal experience? Pressing down, forcing down, dragging down—is this tremendous battle not to come down?
It is essential that we maintain our heavenly ground and not come down, if we are to fulfil this ministry.
We must keep off all ground that is man’s making, forming, shaping, and constituting, if we are going to have this fullness of Christ and minister it to His people.
A suggestion like that is enough, I think, without following it through. We are speaking about the ministry to which we are called, and it is an essential part of that ministry that we do not come onto man’s religious, traditional, historical, ecclesiastical ground.
We maintain a spiritual position in the heavenlies in Christ. And as soon as we lose that position and become something down here—an institution, a sect, a denomination, an organization, anything down here—we lose our wealth.
We lose our work, and we lose our glory, and we lose our measure of Christ. We lose everything spiritually, and we pass into being what so many things have become: just another thing down here, amongst many things, very little different from the rest.
Oh, no, the church of Christ is not that. It is not that.
And if we say, “Well, where should we find this?” Does Ephesians still hold good? I verily believe, dear friends, with all my heart, that if we are in the right position, we will find there the right and full resources of Christ.
Now you say, “How is all this to be? It is all perhaps very wonderful, but it is so much beyond us. How is it to be effected?”
I do not want to be occupied with setting forth great ideas and proofs and concepts. I am most concerned to solve some of the spiritual problems of this matter of spiritual fullness.
I take an illustration to try and help in this matter. You see, all this that we are thinking of—this ministry—is not going, in the first place, to be an objective thing at all.
Here you come to this Second Letter to the Corinthians, and you find how subjective this ministry is. We shall come to that on subsequent occasions: “God hath shined into our hearts.”
It is not, first of all, an objective thing. You will not find this in the first place in an outward way. You are not going to find this church in an outward way here and there, simply by going about looking for this kind of church.
“Where should we find this kind of church that corresponds to Ephesians and so on?” If you are just going around looking for something objectively like that, you will not find it. You will not find it.
You will not find this ministry in that objective way. There may be ministries that more or less approximate to this, but it is not to be found in the objective way in the first place.
How is it to be found then? Perhaps I can best illustrate it in this way.
Have you ever been inoculated? Have you ever had an injection?
Well, of course, it depends very much upon what it is, but it is characteristic and usual with injections or inoculations that you get a reaction. We say, “a flare-up.”
You have a bad time for a while. Something has been introduced into your system. It is either a supply to a deficiency in your system, or something that is antagonistic to what is there.
And so, a battle—until that which has been introduced has got the mastery, subjected everything to itself, and becomes the governing constituent in your system.
So that the old thing, the old thing against which the injection or the inoculation was made, does not arise again and take the mastery. It is under.
Now, that is known to most of you to be quite true, and it is quite a simple illustration. But do you recognize that that is exactly what is happening in the spiritual constitution of the Lord’s people?
We are all defective in Christ. There is a terrible deficiency of Christ in us all, is there not? And Christ is so other than we are, so different. Really, this heavenly Man is antagonistic to this earthly man.
Introduce Christ into the life, and it is not long before a battle arises, a flare-up. You have a bad time—a bad time. You go through a bad time.
Until that which has been introduced into your spiritual constitution, or system, gains the mastery, and that old man comes under. That other thing is made subject to Him, and He becomes the dominant constituent. That battle is over.
Now, in other ways and connections, that is what happens. You will have an injection for this, an injection for that, an inoculation for one thing or another—all sorts of things. These are multiplying today to such a degree that you do not know where they are going to stop. But there it is.
But you see, in our spiritual nature or constitution, there are numerous things that have got to be brought into subjection to Christ. And that never takes place without a battle.
And the more of Christ that is going to come in, the greater the battles will be. There is this antagonism for a time. Our nature does not take kindly to Christ.
There is something in us that, while we in heart want Him, there is something in us that does not like Him. And it means a battle.
Now, that is the sort of thing that changes the people of God and changes the church. Bring in Christ, and more of Christ, and you bring in, first of all, tremendous reactions—a good deal of inward conflict and suffering—until He has the mastery.
There is a larger measure of Christ which is dominant. I believe that is the real spiritual history of the church. It is like that.
The church does go through these tremendous strains. The Lord’s people go through these times of stress. And it is all what used to be called, in my young days, what the medical men would call now, growing pains.
It is an increase of another character, another order of things, and it never takes place easily. There is always a battle related to the nature of Christ.
That may explain a lot for you, but I believe that is the way in which we come to the fullness of Christ. That is the point. The way we come to the fullness of Christ is just like that.
It does not just happen quietly and kindly and gently. We only come to every little extra bit of Christ through some conflict, through some stress, through some flare-up, until He gets the upper hand.
You see, all things have got to be brought into subjection to Him, and the very word “subjection” means that there are rival forces. There are enemy forces, of course. There is a lot of subduing to go on, you know.
But He has the power to subdue all things unto Himself. He comes in; He will do that.
Now, how then is this ministry to be fulfilled? It is by, first of all, a church in which Christ has the largest possible place, which possesses the largest possible measure of Christ.
That can only be as everything in us and in the church becomes subject to Christ—only another way of speaking of His lordship, of His headship, of His absolute mastery.
You see, it opens up the Word so much. You can think of the apostles themselves, if you would like. Take one amongst them: Peter.
Peter, the man who, in the first place, had the most, I think, that did not take kindly to Christ. Well-meaning and all that, but he was all the time rising up in himself to oppose something of Christ.
“This shall never come unto Thee. This shall never be.” You see, opposing Christ in himself.
But this terrific battle was set up in Peter: who was to have the mastery? I believe that mastery was gained, you know, on that morning, on that shore of the sea, when Jesus said again and again, “Lovest thou Me? Lovest thou Me? Lovest thou Me?”
We have a very large measure of Christ in Peter afterwards—a very large measure. But you can see the battle, the inward battle through which that man went in order to make room for Christ.
And it was all along the line of absolute subjection to Christ: Christ having the mastery, being in the ascendant, those things in the man subdued to Christ.
And in all things He might have the pre-eminence.
The way of the fullness, the way of this ministry.
Oh, may the Lord go beyond what I am able to say to you, convey to you, and bring a mighty impression upon you. We are called, as His church, with a great purpose which only has its beginning here in time, in this life.
It will have its fulfilment, Paul says, in the ages to come—the ages to come, and unto the ages of the ages. We are called for that purpose.
The purpose is to begin now—begin now—the manifestation of the greatness of Christ, the significance and meaning of Christ.
Then, if we are to make our calling and our election sure, it is a matter of Christ in all things having the pre-eminence, the absolute mastery; all things being in subjection to Him in us and amongst us.
Therefore, “seeing we have this ministry.” Can you go on? Perhaps you are feeling now, “Well, we are thinking too much.” We think not. That is it.
May the Lord fulfil all His purpose of grace.