"In The Lord"

by G.K. KFNNEDY, Sydney (Australia). | Category: General | Apr 1959

" Ye call Me, Master, and Lord : and ye say well ; for so I am " (John 13.13). Thus spake the Lord Jesus in the night of His betrayal as He was alone with the twelve. Soon afterwards that same One passed through death and rose again from the dead, victorious and triumphant, having received from God the Father

ALL AUTHORITY in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28.18).

"God hath made Him both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2.36). God bath highly exalted Him that every tongue shall be made to confess, while every knee is bowed, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2.9-11).

The Lordship of Christ is not an empty title, devoid of significance. Many kings of earth have borne titles that in reality carried little or no authority. But He who is Lord of lords has all authority in heaven and on earth; and those who have been redeemed by His precious blood should be the first unreservedly to acknowledge that authority. When we think of Him as Lord we must think of the authority this implies. Truly, to call Him " Lord " is to say well. " Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6.46). Being Lord, He has authority; having authority He requires obedience. He may be honoured with our lips, but where is our subjection to His authority? Where is the doing that answers to our profession? And where is the place in which the words that head this article find their application ?

Every born-again person is" in Christ." This is the work of divine grace. " If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature " (2 Corinthians 5.17). Such a place is not conditional, and continues even after death, for it is written " the dead in Christ shall rise first " (1 Thessalonians 4. 16).

" In the Lord " is something different. It means our subjection to His authority, by obedience to the Faith contained in the Scriptures. It is not a position reached once for all the moment we are saved. It has to do with walk, life, obedience, indeed, the sanctifying of Christ as Lord in our hearts.

The Scriptures use the name " Lord " in particular settings that are very instructive. Very early in the Acts it becomes apparent that God's will for believers was that they should be baptized and added to the church of God which was in Jerusalem. Therefore, it is written, "The Lord added to them (or 'together') day by day those that were being saved " (Acts 2.47; see also verses 41, 42). Here the mind of the Lord is clear - He would add those who are saved to churches of God after baptism. And not only did the Lord add, but in being added the believers were added to the Lord. "Believers were the more added to the Lord" (Acts 5. 14).

In 1 Peter 2.3-5 the apostle taught those who had not only been redeemed (1. 18, 19), but were " elect ... unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ " (1.1, 2), concerning a present coming to the Lord, not for salvation, but to be built up a spiritual house, God's house. "If ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious: unto whom coming ... ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house." Here, as in other portions of Holy Scripture, the person of the Lord is inseparably linked with the house and the churches of God.

The apostle Paul, writing to the church of God in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1.2), reminded them of those early days when he had planted the Assembly. "I planted," "I laid a foundation" (3.6, 10). And to those who were thus planted and gathered together as the church of God in Corinth he wrote, "Are not ye my work in the Lord? The seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 9.1, 2). The church of God in Corinth was God's building (1 Corinthians 3.9). And "each several building (wherever churches of God are found), fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2.21).

The foregoing scriptures reveal a use of the Lord's name that has no wider application than the house of God, which is God's dwelling place on earth, and wherein is carried out the will of God on earth.

When these early churches therefore commended a saint from one church to another, e.g., Phoebe (Romans 16.1, 2) and Epaphroditus (Philippians 2.29), or sent greetings (Romans 16.8, 11, 12, 18; 1 Corinthians 16.19) such was done "in the Lord" as befitted assemblies where the authority of the Lord was acknowledged. Churches of God must necessarily carry out the revealed mind and will of God, giving effect to the Faith which has once for all been delivered to the saints. With this, viz., the Faith, the Lord has co-joined His great name. "One Lord, one Faith" (Ephesians 4.5). And exhortation is given to stand fast in both. "Stand fast in the Lord" (Philippians 4.1; 1 Thessalonians 3. 8); "Stand fast in the Faith " (1 Corinthians 16.18). It would be a fallacy to claim that one was in the Lord where the Faith was being denied by disobedience to its teaching. There will be a practical application of being "in the Lord" in carrying out God's will and giving effect to the pattern of His house. This involves our subjection to the authority of the Lord, both in our relationships to one another and to those who are outside the house of God.

Various eases are briefly given for consideration

1.Oversight. " ... over you in the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 5.12). If the authority of the Chief Shepherd is to be exercised, it is necessary that there should be those "that labour among you, and are over you," "and admonish you." These "have the rule over you" and " exercise the oversight "and " tend the flock of God," who must also be obeyed in the Lord by the saints for the well-being and continuance of the Testimony upon the earth. Where both overseers rule and the saints obey in the Lord, happy and blessed indeed will be that people.

2. Wives. "Be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord" (Colossians 3.18). For those who find their place in God's house there is an attitude that befits such a position of being " in the Lord." It is one of subjection, where such is not in conflict with the will of God.

3. Children. "Obey your parents in the Lord : for this is right" (Ephesians 6.1). Here again is that subjection to authority, which is declared to be right. How quickly and effectively is the Testimony marred by disobedience! Let those that would be "in the Lord" learn obedience even in young years. "In the Lord" is right; insubjection or disobedience is wrong and not honouring to the Lord.

4. Estrangement. "Be of the same mind in the Lord " (Philippians 4.2). Differences, clashes of personality and such like, if let go loose will soon cause differences of mind in spiritual things and coldness of brotherly love. Where the rule and authority of the Lord are heeded through the cleansing word, where there is subjection one to another and where there is due regard for "labour" (verse 8) then "in the Lord" will bring about the blessed unity so needful in the house of God.

5. Marriage. " Free to be married ... ; only in the Lord (1 Corinthians 7.39). This does not mean that a believer within the house of God and a believer outside the house are free to marry.

In the Lord " are restrictive words that include only those who are obedient to the revealed truth of God, having been baptized and added to the churches of God. Marriage is between two who both firstly obeyed the Lord to please Him alone. It is not to be entered into as an inducement to seek fellowship.

Other matters (e.g. Colossians 4.17; 1 Corinthians 15.58) have been brought within the terms of " in the Lord " and the principles set out above will apply. In fact, it can safely be said that, wherever the name of the Lord is used in connexion with that in which believers may engage, it carries the weight of obedience and subjection to the risen Lord in the doing of the revealed will of God on the part of those who would be so engaged (e.g. in the Remembrance).

"Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light ... proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord (Ephesians 5.8, 10).

G.K. KFNNEDY, Sydney (Australia). | Apr 1959
General