Notes of an Address at Leeds, 1937, on Psalm 133; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 10-12
Psalm 133 a short psalm of but three verses indicates a truth of the very first magnitude. There is a very great call nowadays for unity amongst God’s people and this Psalm indicates that all real unity comes from above. It gives a very interesting illustration of it. It speaks of Aaron, the High Priest of Israel, and the precious ointment, poured upon his head and beard, descending to the skirts of his garments. It is surely a very charming illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ on high, shedding forth the Holy Spirit upon all believers—the youngest and the oldest—exerting a divine influence, outside of which there can be no true unity among God’s people.
It is good to emphasize that unity only comes from above, from Christ Himself. There may be, and alas! is, a great deal of divergence about ecclesiastical matters, but there is one thing that is absolutely vital, and that is contact with the Lord Himself, and one thing is wanted today, and that is Divine power, and that can only be where room is made for God and His Word. It is not sufficient to correctly understand certain doctrines, but hearts must be under the living influence of the Word and the Holy Spirit, before we can be drawn to the Lord, and to each other, and walk in Divine unity.
It may be that you wonder what connection our succeeding chapters have with Psalm 133. There is a connection, however, that speaks to us very definitely as individual Christians, for it is only as we are right individually that we can be right collectively.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonian believers, “Our Gospel came not to you in Word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; … and ye became followers of us and of the Lord.” What an extraordinary phrasing—“followers of us and of the Lord”—putting himself and his companion in front of the Lord. Why should they be put in that order? It seems strange on first reading. We may disabuse our minds at the outset that Paul was a conceited man. He was very humble-minded. Why then did he say, “Ye became followers of us and of the Lord”?
There is a real reason for this. You will have to put yourselves in the shoes of those early Christians to understand the position. Imagine that you live in Thessalonica; you have been brought up in all the blackness of paganism and idolatry. One day there comes into your city the Apostle Paul, and a companion. They come without any introduction or committee behind them. They have no Bible and no hymn book. Christianity is not a continuation of Judaism. It is something fresh, and those early Christians were dependent upon what they heard and what they saw in the deportment of the preachers. When these heathen listeners were brought under the power of the Gospel and became Christians, they might say to themselves, How can I have any idea of what Christianity really is, or of what Christ is like? The only chance we have of knowing what Christ is like is by watching carefully the lives of the men who brought the good news. They would look at them very carefully, their lives would impress them, and they would imitate their ways, and they would thus become followers of the Apostle, and really of the Lord. And, if they become followers of the Lord through the Apostle in an intermediate way, it would lead to the following of the Lord in a very immediate way. That is why I read 1 Corinthians 11:1. That states the whole matter in a nutshell. All Paul wanted was that they should so see Christ in his ways, that they would follow the Lord Himself.
An illustration may help. About forty-one years ago two brothers, known to most of us, went to Central Africa and pitched their tent amongst savages. They did not know what sort of treatment they would get, but sat down in the midst of these people, not knowing their language, and the savages not knowing theirs. They learnt their language, and began to preach the Gospel to them. These savages had no Bible, they were dependent on the two brothers for any idea of what Christ was like.
Nowadays, we have our hymn books, we have our Bibles. Things are very different today. That is just what I want to come to; for things in reality are not vitally different. It has often been said very truly that we Christians read our Bibles, and the worldlings read us. It makes a very searching question as to how far we are really exhibiting Christ in our lives.
2 Timothy 3:1-5, 10-12 teaches us the lesson that doctrine and practice should go together. The one thing, which is wanted today is power—power not merely with our tongues, but power in our lives. You will remember that when the Apostle John was writing to the children of God, he said, “I write to you young men because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you.” That is not just reading the Bible and memorizing it, not merely getting hold of the Scriptures in the mind, but it is the Scriptures getting hold of us in our lives.
Now the Apostle Paul is set forth as a pattern saint; the Spirit of God took him and held him, so that he should be the one we should mark and learn, so that we should get our eye on Christ. Paul wanted to be a stepping stone to Christ.
He says, “Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life.” Here lies the difficulty with many of us. We have doctrine. By God’s grace to us, we have got light from the Scriptures in a very full way. We have plenty of doctrine, plenty of teaching. All this may be said without boasting and in humility, for it is really a searching admission. I want everyone here to put himself alongside this test—“doctrine and MANNER OF LIFE.”
Some people say it does not matter what doctrine you hold; behaviour is everything. But, as a matter of fact, people take their character from the doctrine they believe. Wrong belief can never produce right behaviour. It is a very great thing to see this. Can I say, I have got this teaching, please observe my manner of life? Does my manner of life correspond with the teaching? It is a very searching question, and you may say we do not need it because we have the Scriptures, but we need it as much as ever.
We want the individual to be right, for if the individual is right the company will be helped. This is where Psalm 133, comes in. If we are right with the Lord, if we are walking in the Spirit, if the ointment descends from Aaron’s head, to the skirts of his garment, then all is blessed and happy. If I do not know how to behave myself as an individual, I shall certainly not know how to walk aright with the company.
May I appeal to the young Christians here? You are young, life is opening up before you, you will have temptations that older ones have not. What opens up before you is alluring and seductive, but if you have a set purpose, and put first things first—not thinking that domestic or business affairs are the most important things in life—Christ first in everything, you will not be the loser, but the gainer by far. May this be so with each one of us.