I’d like to speak of what the Scripture refers to often as gold and silver and precious stones, the treasures that endure. A long time ago, it occurred to me that, among gold and silver and precious stones, silver is a little different. Because gold shines and shines and shines, and jewels, once you’ve got them set, can sit there for a hundred years and they’re shining away, right? Maybe you wash them once in a while, just rinse them off.
But silver is different. Silver… needs polishing. And if you don’t polish it, eventually, you remember that it used to be bright, but it gets a little bit dingier, then yellower, then darker, then right on toward black. It’s really kind of grim. And there are elements of the treasures the Lord has given us that are really in the silver class, that need polishing. I have been thinking of two passages in particular where we can do some polishing, I think to good profit.
Look in Ephesians 2:17, for about four or five verses. Then we will look at a couple of verses a couple of chapters later. Verse 17 speaks of Jesus: “And when He came, He delivered the good news to you who are far off, and peace to those who are near, because it’s through Him that we have—both of us have—an avenue of approach, by one Spirit, to the Father.”
Who’s the “both of us?” This is a Jew, writing to Gentiles. Jew and Gentile both having, by Jesus, through one Spirit—the Spirit of the Lord—access to God the Father. Sometimes, if you do your own amplified version, and add the other words in, it helps to remind you of just how large a thing this is, that Jew and Gentile, through the Lord God, are brought, by the Spirit of the Lord, right up to Him.
“You are fellow citizens with the saints. You are members of God’s household.”
So he’s speaking to us, we who are Gentiles, that “you’re no longer foreigners, foreign sojourners.” No. “You are fellow citizens with the saints. You are members of God’s household.” You are fellow citizens. You are members of God’s household. “You are built (just as a house is built) on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.”
Remember, “apostle” is not a religious term in the New Testament; it is a descriptive term, of God’s emissaries, God’s ambassadors. “And, Jesus the Messiah is the chief Cornerstone. In Him, the whole building is fitly formed together. And it grows into a holy temple unto the Lord, in which you, too (you’re included!), are built up together to be a dwelling place, a home for God in the Spirit.”
Yes, He means it. Do we need to polish it? If this is our calling—think about it: if this is not what we should be doing but rather, this is what we are, everything else sort of goes off the scale, doesn’t it? If we are fellow citizens with the saints…. By the way, what’s the word in the middle of the word ‘citizen’? City! We’re part of the same city. Which city is that, the New Jerusalem? Right! It’s the only city that never goes obsolete. It’s the only city that never has to have a renovation program. It’s a city done God’s way. He doesn’t change, and it goes on forever.
A city is people choosing to live a shared life, defined by a choice to share a common life.
And what is a city? A city is where people share a life together. People choosing to live a shared life, not defined by family, but defined by their choice to share a common life together.
That’s what a city is, and God’s City is one in which those who choose to share it together do so because the Lamb is the Light thereof. Because it is God’s heart’s desire—it is the supreme expression of His love—that He make His home among human beings forever. And that the Son Whom He sent, Who still has the marks in His hands from what He did for us, is the light and the center of that City. They don’t need a temple, because He is the Light of it.
And this is a view. This is, you could say, a house-view and a city-view of what God is doing. There are other views. We talk about the Bride of Christ, we talk about the Body of Christ. They’re one and the same with the City and the living Temple: different perspectives God gives us to make it richer.
This is where polishing really helps, because the more you get your towel out and you polish this, the brighter it shines in your heart and your eyes. And the more useful, because… it’s a wonderful correction so that we don’t get too much tangled up in other things. And remember that the best of our devotion is that the Lamb be glorified, that He be satisfied, that His heart rejoice with our lives…that we are doing our parts as fellow citizens and members of His household.
The interesting thing is, part of it is passive—in the sense that God is building us up on the foundation—and part of it is active, because we are doing the growing into a holy temple. So He is doing things for us; we are doing things in Him. This is a wonderful, active, pulling together and growing and doing. It’s just beyond description.
Be true to the very best you know of the Lord’s love for you and of your love back to Him.
That’s one view. Let me go to the other one, which is Ephesians 4:15-16. And this is where they usually translate it as “speaking the truth in love” in verse 15. It says what we’re about is speaking the truth in love, that we should grow up into Him in everything, in all respects. But the word for speaking the truth is a little bit funny, because it’s really the word “truth” made into a verb. It’s like “being true.” Being true. I think of a hymn, a beautiful poem with the line “be true”—be true to your calling, be true to your Lord, be true to His love for you. Be true to His word. Well, this is “being true in love.” That’s just way out past a whole bunch of maneuvers and a whole bunch of figuring. Be true to the very best you know of the Lord’s love for you and of your love back to Him as you respond to that. Be true. It’s really simple. It is.
Then we grow. It’s not “be true” and then we’re placed on the shelf somewhere. “Growing up into him in all things, into him, the one who is the head, the Messiah, our Jesus.” So we are organically growing into Him, joined to Him as solidly as your head is joined to your body. Where does one start and the other one stop?—it’s sort of hard to figure because one grows into the other. We are to grow into Christ, in everything. Not part of our life; the whole life.
“From Him [that’s from Jesus], the whole body [it’s not an individual thing only or even mainly], the whole body, fitly joined—and this means that the joints are put together, the joints are bound together. What’s a joint? Well, this shoulder of mine is a joint. One part is the arm, then another part is the collarbone. Where these two members come together, you’ve got a joint called a shoulder. This whole thing is one body, and God joining them together. And those joints aren’t just bumping into each other. They are bound together by God’s design in a beautiful, organic union, anointed: the unity of many members fitly joined by God.
Again, get your towel out and polish this. This is beautiful, practical, and heavenly. It’s not earth’s wisdom at all. This is God’s supernatural working.
So, as we are true in love we grow up into Him, the Messiah, from whom “the whole body, co-joined and made to go together by what every joint supplies, ….. produces the increase of the body, so as to build itself up in love.” Jaan, our brother in the Lord, has given beautiful messages on this one word, “supplies.”
It means to supply as a sponsor of a theatrical production would provide—the impresario, the person with the deep pocket, the one who provides all the supplies to make this happen. Well, what happens is that as we are true in love according to what the Lord has shown us, if our eyes are open to see this, then the whole body is strengthened, enabled and built up in love by what every joint supplies.
…bound together by God’s design in a beautiful, organic union, anointed: the unity of many members fitly joined by God.
But let’s slow down a little here. If God joins two members together, see how something good comes out of the fact that those two are connected in Him. Or three, or four. Try the wrist sometime—see how many bones and ligaments there are, and all of them connected. See how it is, and it all works beautifully: you can be a pianist with it; you can do all kinds of things with it. It’s amazing what you can do with hands!
Well, the Lord says that where the joints come together, He supplies something. He takes into account the fact that more than one are put together, by His design and love, and out come good things that strengthen the whole body. And that’s not the exception, that’s normal. Is that how it’s “supposed to be?” Is, not “supposed to be;” is. That’s the real thing.
So—“…strengthened by what every joint provides, according to the in-working.” The English word that comes straight out of that “in-working” by transliteration is the word “energy,” so this is not passive at all. “…According to the working and the measure of every single part.” And that makes for growth of the body. So all these joints, all these members, are pulling together as the Lord directs, and the whole body grows. It’s like watching a little child grow up to be an adult. It’s really beautiful, very special.
Again, we come back to the same thing as we saw in chapter two. “Building itself up,” the body building itself up in love. And the building-itself-up part is, again, a house, a home–God’s home that He’s building with His people. And the people that He’s building up—we don’t have all these hermetically sealed off partitions among believers.
All we know is, if it is God’s pattern, it’s like this. It’s joined together, not because ”Oh, I like this so-and-so, and I don’t like that so-and-so, so I’ll keep with this so-and-so.” Or “I like this,” or “I like this country,” or “I like this line of work,” or “I like this culture.” It’s not that. It’s when the Lord brings people together, and there’s that fitting, that’s where you see the City being built up. That’s where you see the Temple going up.
That’s where you see the Body—not only living, but growing, and producing, and enlarging, and maturing, and getting more and more articulated. I think we need a good session with the silver cloth, to get these things out and polish them.
Then say, “Lord, I don’t want to have this sink only about two inches inside my skull. I want this all the way down in my heart. I want this all the way in my spirit. I want to burn with the desire because if Jesus gave Himself at the Cross for His Bride—for this same One—different view, same story—then should not my heart burn as well? That this—the very one that He died for, the very life, the people, the coming together, the Redemption, the fulfillment of God’s eternal yearnings—shouldn’t that burn in my heart as well? And not just a little, but a lot.
We often sing a song, and I’ll close with its words: “Oh, the fire is burning, yes, ’tis brightly burning, oh, ’tis burning, burning in my soul!” A good old Gospel hymn—do you know the song? Let’s look at the words of “The Fire is Burning.”
“The fire is burning.” This sort of thing you can’t make up, but God will be happy to stir this fire up in you if you will stir it. If you stir, He will stir. Verse one of this hymn says,
“I’ve caught a glimpse of glory bright,
and my soul is burning with the fire.
I will walk with Jesus,
…To be like Him I every day desire,
For His love is like a heavenly flame,
And my soul is burning with the fire.”
Then verse three:
“I my all upon the altar lay,
As I to my closet lovingly retire,
And the flame consumes while there I pray,
And my soul is burning with the fire.”
That is to say, you can do a lot of polishing in a prayer closet. Very good! And then finally:
“By faith’s eye I scan the ocean’s foam
And beyond I see the haven I desire.
There I view the beacon light of home
And my soul is burning with the fire.”
You see the Lord pulling things together, and you want more, you want to see it until it’s all there.
A key founder of our fellowship here—our dear Hannah Lowe, now with the Lord—often characterized the Christian walk of faithfulness as being “satisfied with an unsatisfied satisfiedness.” You taste of the Lord at the first, it’s good; you taste the things of God and it’s wonderful!
But there’s more! You want more. And you do the will of God in this or that, and you see the Lord pulling things together, and it’s great, and you’re so satisfied—but there’s more! You want more; you want to see it until it’s all there.
And you know where to go every time. It’s the same Lord. The One who gave you the callings, the workings, and the satisfyings. He has the whole package, all together. And the result is going to be glory. We know when we shall see His face, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2) Amen.
© 2012, 2021 P. K. Chamberlain. All rights reserved. This message, lightly edited here, was originally given in a meeting of the New Testament Missionary Fellowship in Lerner Hall, Columbia University, May 27, 2007.
