01.06. Chapter 06 - The Question of Association

Chapter 06 The Question of Association In this section, I will turn from the question of the doctrine of Christ, since in connection with the division discussed in chapter five, there are counter-charges and later developments that cannot be ignored.

We must look at association in the light of Scripture to settle how far reaching is the guilt of denying Christ’s Name. Its importance demands a close examination. The question of association closely relates to the whole character of things today and should deeply concern us all. Scripture is strictly against principles that weave the Christian into the texture of ’society,’ making it difficult to gain his attention as to what is spiritually harmful to him. Yet “the world passes away … but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1Jn 2:17). The association of man with man is a divine necessity. The institution of the family recognized it from the beginning. The differences in capacity of men bring them together; the lack in one is met by the other’s efficiency. Union means ministry of each to each; the need of it being a most helpful discipline; the supply of it, an appeal to affection and gratitude. The Church of God is an organism in which this principle is fully owned — a union founded on both difference and unity, a body built up by that which “every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part” (Eph 4:16).

Sin, however, transforms all good into evil; the greater the good, the worse the evil. The religious unions of today often are mere ’confederacy’ or even ’conspiracy.’ In it, the individual, which God’s union always provides for and maintains, is interfered with. Conscience is suppressed, evil is tolerated for supposed final good, and morality is superseded by permissiveness.

Whatever motivates people to unite, the true fear of God is the only remedy for wrong union. This fear effectively will purge evil from all our unions, or else it will set God’s free-man loose from a desire for a wrong union. If we want to walk with God, we cannot hold the hand of one who refuses His will as sovereign. Our goal must be His goal, and the way to it, His way. To seek to unite God with evil is profanity. (One meaning of profanity is “to pollute, to make common,” i.e., to mix evil with good. Ed.)

Thus, our associations are of great importance. They witness to the path on which (whatever our profession) we are really walking. Scripturally, we can only “follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2Ti 2:22). In the true Church of God, where our relationship to one another is of His establishment and not of our own will, it is inevitable that reconciling holiness in our ways with the eternal bond that unites us with one another, will cause serious perplexity. The world in which the Church is, is the Church’s complete opposite, and the evil in the world constantly is appealing to the evil, old nature in the Christian. We should fear the world’s friendship much more than its hostility. Not even a truce is possible between its prince (Satan) and our God.

Already in the apostles’ time, the wisdom of the world, the lust of the flesh and the power of Satan were invading the sacred enclosure. Paul again had to define its boundary lines and repel the intruder. The foundation doctrine of the resurrection was being denied. The Corinthians’ whole profession of Christianity was being brought into question. If such things could come in so soon in Corinth, in the very presence of an apostle, how can we expect better times and be permitted to escape necessary warfare? It is in Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians that he insists so earnestly that any yoke with unbelievers forfeits the enjoyment of our relationship to the Father. We must come out from among unbelievers and be separate and not even touch the unclean thing. Only then will we have the assurance, “I will receive you and be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord almighty” (2Co 6:14-18). The peril of evil association could not be more emphatically affirmed.

Some say that the unequal yoke has only to do with unbelievers and thus does not define our attitude towards Christians. Before looking at specific Scriptures, I want to deal with an argument that connects itself with such an objection. It is urged that we must have direct Scripture, not inference, to guide us in all these matters.

But, Scriptures gives us principles and not a complete code of divine law. This necessitates inference at every step. Inference can’t be separated from a rational life, and God condescends to reason with His creatures, “Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord” (Isa 1:18). The argument against reason in God’s things has been carried to lengths that are as unscriptural as they are irrational. Scripture nowhere discredits any God-given faculty that man has. In speaking against what God has given, we necessarily speak against the Giver. God is honored as Creator when His creation is honored.

Sin has come in and perverted every faculty, but the work of God is to purify and not destroy. When one begins to realize his relation to God, reason becomes most reasonable in accepting the creature-limit, and rationality fills the life and character of the new man in Christ. One might as well say that, if we have light, we don’t need our eyes, as to discredit reason in the things of God. It is only in the light that the eyes are of any use!

Moreover, God tests us by our use of reason. He holds us responsible to have our eyes open and to use them honestly. The apostle speaks of this exercise as being what he found necessary to have “a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man” (Acts 24:16). Exercise shows that a man is morally and spiritually awake; and by it, he is kept in spiritual health and vigor. Therefore, God insists on the necessity of this and acts with a view to it being maintained. Scripture is so written “that the man of God may be perfect” (2Ti 3:17) — not all the world, and not even the drowsy and sleep-loving among Christians.

Now, let us apply these things to the unequal yoke and we shall see that the refusal of such texts as having an application to fellowship among Christians is unspiritual and immoral. Does the principle involved in the question, “what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion has light with darkness?” apply only to a yoke with unbelievers? Suppose we are all believers. Are we free to yoke ourselves with a believer who is walking in unrighteousness?

God’s personal holiness and the requirements of His holiness are the same for the saint and sinner alike, except that the sin of the saint is worse than that of the sinner in proportion to the difference in light and grace between the two. Thus, the unequal yoke fully applies to a yoke between Christians if one of these Christians is allowing in himself the unrighteousness which cannot be gone on with in the unbeliever.

Because men will not infer, in no way hinders the just judgment of God as to the matter. The consequences of our acts will as surely follow as if we swallowed poison in the belief that it was good food. Many have found the disastrous effects of alliances, whether social, commercial or religious, made under the pacifying illusion that the alliances were OK because they only involved Christians! How many, so deluded, have wakened up to find that after all, the question in Amo 3:3 was much deeper than they had thought: “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” The various ways that these principles affect our lives are easily seen. Wives go with their husbands in things they believe wrong before God because the verse “wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord” (Eph 5:22; Col 3:18) is supposed to release them from all moral responsibility. Likewise, “Children obey your parents in all things” (Col 3:20, Eph 6:1) is used to reverse the moral nature of things, placing the earthly tie above the divine one. We are also told that we have no Scriptural authority for judging assemblies. If this is true, then we can’t treat the sins of assemblies as we treat sin elsewhere. All the above are the fruit of an immoral principle. How can those who preach and practice such things escape the woe of the prophet on “those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isa 5:20)? The eternal principles of God’s government and the changeless holiness of the divine nature are against them.

Returning to the Scripture teaching on association, 2 Timothy gives us Paul’s last words when the Church already was far gone into failure. The Church is no longer called the house of God, as in 1 Timothy. Although it was still that, Paul rather compares it to both a great house with its vessels even for dishonorable uses, and to a house in ruins, except for its foundation. Notice the inscription on its foundation stone: “Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows those who are His” (2Ti 2:19). Precious assurance, but what does it indicate? It indicates that the Church was becoming invisible except to God who knows every person who has come to Him for salvation. But there is more to the inscription. Just when all the difficulties of the path are being shown, just when the evil might seem to have won, and laxity to be thus unavoidable, the directions — God’s road map for the path through all the tangle — are found, simple, straight and stable: “And let him who names the name of the Lord, depart from iniquity” (2Ti 2:19).

Thank God. Here is the answer! Here alone is absolute safety. Commit yourself unhesitatingly to this, no matter what is the question to be decided, individual, social, religious; no matter what the issue may be; no matter what may threaten you. Here alone will you find the path through the desert, up over the most rugged mountain, down in the valley of death, yet “the path of the just is like the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day” (Pro 4:18), because the light of heaven is upon it.

Notice how the Lord’s sacred name is here. If one only names “the Name of the Lord” (the correct word) — the Name of Him to whom, in the face of man’s opposition, one is to be subject — then he must depart from iniquity (unrighteousness). What is unrighteousness? Righteousness is all that is right in God’s eyes, and you can only measure this correctly as you think of the place that the blood of Christ has put you, of the grace shown to you and which you are to show, and of the blessed path in which you are called to follow Him. Unrighteousness is the opposite of all this. In all this, you will find plenty of daily exercise. The next verses (2Ti 2:20-22) say, “but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and fit for the Master’s use and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

These verses show us the disorder and the directions to follow in a time of disorder, regarding both separation from the evil (the negative) and association with what is good (the positive). “Those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” are the same as those who, “naming the name of the Lord, depart from unrighteousness.” Thus, the man who purges himself from the vessels to dishonor, finds his own class. But, are the vessels to honor and the vessels to dishonor the only two classes found here? If only those who purge themselves from the vessels to dishonor are vessels to honor, then all who are unpurged must be classed either as vessels to dishonor, or there must be a third class, simply left aside as not fit (not prepared) for the Master’s use — a solemn condition in either case! Are we to apply this to fellowship in the assembly? There are no exceptions made to these words. The following of righteousness, faith, love, peace with those purged from evil associations, implies that the unpurged cannot be righteously breaking bread in the assembly. If these are unfit for the Master’s use, they cannot have their part in that place of responsibility and privilege where God uses each and all as He sees fit. The members of the body are, by the fact of being such, responsible to edify (build up) one another. If they are unfit for this, they are disqualified for the responsibility and privilege of being part of the outward expression of that one body — the local assembly. If they cannot call on the Lord out of a pure heart, they cannot really call upon Him at all. The local assembly, if of one mind with the Lord, has to approve His judgment. This principle again is shown by the question, “What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness?” (2Co 6:14). By being put as a question, a clear and positive answer is implied. Every conscience is expected to respond.

Assembly fellowship must be based on righteousness. The voice of the Holy and True is heard there. Permit evil to be allowed in one person or many, and full practical fellowship with Christ must cease. We cannot walk with God and go on with sin!

Thus, the entire Corinthian assembly, with the immoral person in its midst, was leavened (made part of the evil) by their allowance of it. They had to purge out the leaven (evil) by self-judgment and separation from it, that they might be a new lump (1Co 5:1-13). As long as the sin was allowed, they were not a new lump because the leaven was in the lump, not just in the individual. In Christ, they were unleavened, but they were to represent in their practical condition what grace had made them, positionally, to be.

However, some people say that even though Corinth allowed evil in its midst, it was unleavened. Even if it was leavened, some add, it would be too late to purge out the leaven. The last assertion denies the power of divine grace for every condition that can be found among God’s people. Yet, there was something exceptional in the state of things at Corinth which cannot be pleaded for in any other assembly since. They may not have known what to do since such a case had not been provided for. They might have mourned over it to God. God then tells them what to do, that none might again be able to say that they didn’t know what to do.

They were to “put away from among themselves that wicked person” (1Co 5:13). Some object to saying “from the Lord’s table,” but, in fact, the command goes even further, saying, “from among yourselves.” To only put someone away from the table might, for the careless, be perfectly consistent with treating the person as one of themselves in other respects. But the apostle Paul shows how much farther this ’putting away’ is to go, by adding, “with such an one, no, not to eat” (1Co 5:11). There was to be the refusal of all association, even to an ordinary meal! A leavened lump means that every part of it is capable of spreading leaven. That is the idea in old leaven — a piece of the old lump that could be introduced into the new so that the new lump would become leavened too. It shows that every one who approves the retention of evil, is really a partaker of the evil. He, in practice, denies the holiness of God and thus cannot himself be holy. I’m not speaking of physical contact. One might work in the same factory or office with the evil person, without defilement. Rather, I’m speaking of a corrupt and corrupting principle that associates the Name of Christ with that which dishonors Him, and in that sense, denies His Name. Thus, the Philadelphian is reminded that God is “the Holy and the True,” but holiness is lost in communion (association) with evil.

Purging out the evil means separation from it. Here in 1 Corinthians, the assembly acts. In Timothy, one who would be a vessel to honor must purge himself from the vessels to dishonor: that is, he must, at all costs, personally act. If the local assembly stands in the way of this, then, to keep a good conscience, he must separate from the assembly. In this, there is the judgment of an assembly. If one rightly has separated himself (and the rules are well-defined; not just some whim or something we don’t like), we too must separate ourselves and thus judge the assembly. If we do not, we are not with God. Thus, we are forced to judge every individual in this leavened lump. To go on with those who deny the holiness of God is to be, ourselves, unholy. To deny the Name of Christ as the Holy and the True is to cease to be Philadelphian!