My Brethren - Early Ministry - G. R. Cowell

UNITY IN CONFLICT

Philippians 1: 12-14, 19-20, 27-30; 2: 1-5; 3: 12-17
Psalm 20: 5; Song of Songs 6: 4, 10
Address by G. R. Cowell, London, July 16, 1959

UNITY IN CONFLICT
Philippians 1: 12-14, 19-20, 27-30; 2: 1-5; 3: 12-17 Psalm 20: 5; Song of Songs 6: 4, 10 Address by G. R. Cowell, London, July 16, 1959

I wish to speak a word, dear brethren, on unity in conflict, and unity of purpose in the pursuit of our heavenly calling.

What is in mind in the epistle to the Philippians is unity of a highly practical nature, a unity that would flow out of the unity referred to in Paul’s earlier epistles.
The references to it are remarkable for in chapter 1: 27 he says, “that ye stand firm in one spirit, with one soul”.
In a practical way it is difficult to think of more complete unity than that, a company of saints standing firm in one spirit, and with one soul. It would indicate that they were in the truth vitally and unitedly.
The fact that it says “one soul” seems to me particularly impressive. The soul is the seat of longings and aspirations, and think of a company of saints with one soul, their very longings, their very aspirations entirely united; no divergency in any way as to what was before them.
And this is not the mind of God for one company only; it is the mind of God for all the saints on earth; that every local company should be thus unified.
And God also has in mind that there should not be divergence between local companies. His desire is that every local company should be a true expression of the unity of the whole.

In this passage unity is connected with conflict. It is essential, if we are to be available in the conflict, that we should be marked by unity. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

We must, if we are truly to be in the conflict, be in the gain of all that has been before us in these days leading up to this remarkable practical epistle.
Paul brings himself forward as a soldier. We are all called upon to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and one thing that marks a soldier is that he does not entangle himself with the affairs of this life: the Lord would help us all to get free from entanglements.
Let us get free from associations and every kind of entanglement. We each know what it is that is entangling us, and preventing us being one hundred per cent for Christ.
A soldier is entirely at the bidding of his commander; if he is a true soldier, there are no reserves at all, and that is what the Lord is looking for – soldiers with no reserves at all, but wholly at His disposal.
And Paul in this, as in other matters, is a great model. He was suffering, he was in prison as a soldier. But he rejoiced. All he was concerned about was the conflict, and the prosperity, therefore, of the glad tidings, and he rejoiced that his circumstances had turned out rather to the furtherance of the glad tidings.
One result had been that it had made most of the brethren more bold, they were better soldiers through Paul being in prison, as he says,
- “Most of the brethren trusting in the Lord through my bonds dare more abundantly to speak the word of God fearlessly”.
And that is what is needed, beloved brethren; what is needed in a soldier is boldness.
We are to have boldness in many ways. We have boldness to enter the holy of holies, to go in to God; but we also are to have boldness in coming out, like Paul.
He used boldness in coming out; he did not put a veil on his face. 2 Corinthians 3: 12, 13. Sometimes we put a veil on our faces to escape reproach.
We may not like the radiancy to be seen in us, the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ who is the image of God, and so we may put a veil on our faces.
Associations and entanglements have the effect of veiling our faces. They give us a status among men. God may prosper a man in business. But let not such a one permit his business prosperity to become a veil.

Paul said, if our gospel is veiled it is veiled in those that are lost. If his gospel failed to affect souls it was not because there was a veil on his face.

He was a true soldier, not seeking to escape reproach in any way. He was unreservedly for Christ every day of the week, and in every circumstance even in prison. And so, as a true soldier, he asks for their prayers.
Conflict is not an easy matter, we need prayers, we need to pray for one another continually. He says, “through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”.
Now that is available for every soldier, the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Man of the gospels, the great Warrior, the glorious Man who, here in humiliation, knew what to do in each circumstance, just how to meet it, and how did He meet it? With the word of God.
He spoke the word of God fearlessly in every circumstance. That was Jesus! Who could compare with Him as a warrior?
He went through every form of conflict until, finally, it became a matter of fighting a battle which He alone could fight. He fought the fight alone; there was no one who could be with Him in it.
Our conflict is a very minor one compared with His, there really is no comparison, and yet we are privileged to be in the conflict, and should be in it, we are needed in it.
But think of Calvary, what a battlefield, and how He confounded the enemy! The enemy could never foresee that, when he had done his worst, and had seduced and led men into committing a sin which could not be passed by, the crucifixion of God’s Son, so that judgment must fall at that moment, the holy Sufferer would then take the guilt upon Himself.
The enemy was completely confounded; he does not understand love and did not know what love would do. Judgment had to fall then, but the victory was won because Jesus took the guilt upon Himself.
So we can rightly extol Him as the great Warrior, the Captain of our salvation. Our part is to follow Him in the conflict by carrying the glad tidings, and, as I understand it,
- the glad tidings in this epistle embraces the whole truth of God, linking on with Ephesians 6: 19-20, where Paul asks them to pray for him that utterance might be given to him in the opening of his mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings, for which he was an ambassador bound with a chain.

And so we have Paul as a great example of a warrior, a great model, and he speaks about his earnest expectation and hope that in nothing he should be ashamed.

There is nothing, I suppose, that we are more in danger of than being ashamed of the gospel because of the reproach that attaches to it.
- In days of outward weakness and the breakdown of the church publicly, there is a special danger of being ashamed.
Paul was in prison. The enemy would, if he could, have crushed his spirit so that he would be ashamed, but he says, “that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but in all boldness”. It is a question of boldness. He wanted to be maintained in boldness till the end.
- “But in all boldness, as always, now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death”.
He wanted his body to be radiant to the end, the radiancy of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, radiating through his body, and thus Christ magnified in his body, till the end.
- It is for this great purpose that we need to be free from all entanglements.
They were standing firm in one spirit with one soul, labouring together in the same conflict with the faith of the glad tidings. If the spirit and soul are right, the body will be right, it will radiate the light of God.
The Philippians were united in this, and we, ourselves, should not be isolated soldiers. What is the good of an isolated soldier? He is some good. Paul was alone at the end, but the Lord stood with him and gave him power, that through him the proclamation might be fully made.
But, generally speaking, a soldier does not stand alone, and the idea here is that we should be united – united in the service of God, making one voice to be heard in His praise, and now united as coming out in the testimony in one spirit with one soul.
Thus the bodies of the whole company will be available. What a wonderful thing to be free from every entanglement, and wholly available in the testimony!
And mark you, they were in the real conflict, the Ephesian conflict, the same conflict as Paul, as he says in verse 30, “having the same conflict which ye have seen in me, and now hear of in me”. How honoured this company was to be in the same conflict with Paul.
The Thessalonians, though they were young in the truth were unified, and Paul says, “the word of the Lord sounded out from you”. How the enemy would like to spoil that.
But it is to develop, so that we are found in the same conflict as the conflict of Ephesians 6. It says at Ephesus “thus with might the word of the Lord increased and prevailed”, Acts 19: 20.

That brings me to another point. There is defensive conflict. There is both defence and attack. He speaks here of the defence and confirmation of the gospel.

An army must defend its base. We cannot afford to do other than have sentries on duty, because, though our enemy is a defeated one, Christ has annulled him, yet he is still very active, and he is not on the defensive all the time, he attacks, therefore we must never overlook the base.
The Levites were to encamp around the tabernacle, and their service, as the note says, involves labour, conflict, suffering. And so there is defensive warfare, Satan attacks, as at Corinth; and the point is, how are we to meet it?
Paul is the great model, Christ is the supreme model; and in that epistle, which is referred to as the Lord’s commandment, Paul says, “be imitators of me as I also am of Christ”.
Now that is part of the Lord’s commandment, so that we have to learn to meet things as Paul met them. If the enemy makes a Corinthian attack, we have Paul’s example as to how to meet it. He sends Titus, he sends Timothy.
He waits a long time before he goes himself, although he knew, on that account, he would be charged with weakness and vacillation. He was a good soldier, he knew what strategy to employ, what tactics, and we are to be imitators of him.
A good soldier wins the battle with as few casualties as possible. His master will not commend him if in seeking to reach his objective, he loses an army. David could lead out and lead in.

So we need to understand Paul’s tactics, and to be imitators of him as he was of Christ.

His aim at Corinth was to secure the rights of Christ and the rights of God completely in that locality, but with as few casualties as possible.

As I say, he would be charged with vacillation, charged with weakness. Grace is not synonymous with weakness. Grace is the reigning principle of the dispensation.

Mr. Darby wrote a tract, ‘Separation from evil God’s principle of unity’, a primary matter. But things cannot rest only on what is negative.
And so he wrote again, ‘Grace, the power of unity and of gathering’. Grace is the power of it. A negative in itself, though thoroughly essential, would not hold us. Grace is the power of unity and gathering. And so we are to learn from Paul.

As regards the Galatian attack, he said he would deal with the troubler, who should bear the guilt of it; but in true maternal affections he travailed again in birth that Christ might be formed in the saints.

In Colossians, where the danger was an attack through the Philistine mind, he is found combating in prayer. He had never seen them, maybe never did see them, but he agonised in prayer for them.
- If we cannot do anything else we can do that; it is part of a soldier’s duty.
Epaphras took character from him, combating always for them in prayer, that they might stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
The combat had in view the defeat of the Philistine element, so that they might be united together in love unto the full assurance of understanding, to the full knowledge of the mystery of God, in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
When we come to this epistle, we find him weeping. He had wept when he wrote the letter to Corinth. You say, that does not sound like a soldier. But a Christian soldier weeps; would to God we did it more!
He tells the Philippians, even weeping, that those were enemies of the cross of Christ who minded earthly things.
So there has to be the defensive warfare, because the enemy is on the attack, and there has to be vigilance. Sentry duty can never be given up.

But then we are to go over to the attack. In my early days it was often said that the conflict in Ephesians was only defensive, and it was a revelation to me when beloved J.T. said that the sword of the Spirit is an aggressive weapon.

We can go over to the attack. An army never gets on very well when it is simply on the defensive. The object of a general is always to go over to the attack. What hope is there of victory otherwise?
And the only weapon we need is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Who wielded it like Paul? Think of what went down before him! His conflict, as we see it in the Acts of the Apostles, was aggressive.
There was the defensive. He writes letters to deal with the way the enemy had got in. He looked after the base, the local companies.
But he also went over to the attack, and while he was on the line of attack in the fullest sense at Ephesus, he went through all the sorrow about Corinth.
But it did not stop him in the attack; he could defend and attack at the same time. He was defending the position at Corinth, dealing with the enemy’s inroads there, and at the same time going forward at Ephesus.
And in writing to the Corinthians, he speaks of Ephesus, saying, “a great door is opened to me, and effectual, and the adversaries many”. He was laying about him with the sword of the Spirit, and with might the word of the Lord increased and prevailed.
That was attack, the word prevailed, it brought everything down. “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians”, but the idolatrous power was overthrown. In the Jezebel system, the idolatrous power is revived in worse form. The virgin Mary has been made to replace Artemis.
This terrible power will be destroyed by God’s judgment; but it is to be brought down morally through the testimony of the saints now. We are not to stand by and do nothing. We are to go over to the attack in order to deliver our brethren captive in the systems.
Are we going to rest, how can we rest, while any of our brethren are in captivity? I am not suggesting we shall ever get them all out, but I am suggesting that we should be more militant.
I have already referred to chapter 1: 14, “that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord through my bonds, dare more abundantly to speak the word of God fearlessly”. That was attack.
They were speaking the word of God fearlessly. I believe, dear brethren, though no one is more weak than myself in these matters, that the time has come when we should go over to the attack.

But we must get things right inside, we must meet the inroads of the enemy and see that the base is sound, and then we can go forward, go over to the attack at the close of the dispensation.

John the baptist was a burning and shining lamp. The attack involves the shining of the light.
We are not up against small powers. Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, we are out to save men and to save the brethren. But we need to be aware of what we are up against; principalities and authorities, the universal lords of this darkness.
Do not let us be afraid of them! Do not let us be ashamed of the glad tidings! The enemy has been defeated at the cross, and he knows it. Our conflict is simply a matter of letting the light shine; wielding the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, which brings light into men’s souls.
That is all we have to do; the great Captain of our salvation has done everything else. We are to bring the light of God, by the sword of the Spirit, into the minds of the saints and into the minds of men, so that the word of God governs them, so that they are freed from the enemy’s power.
Therefore our concern should be that everything within is right. It is said of that early company, from whom sounded out the word of the Lord, that they became imitators of the assemblies which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. That is what is right.
The epistle to the Corinthians is written to the assembly of God in Corinth, and to all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours.
It is the will and pleasure of God that He should be rightly represented in His assembly in every locality; that there should not be divergence, but that local assemblies should act alike, saying the same thing, thinking the same thing.

In connection with the conflict I want to say a word about banners, because every army has its banners. In Psalm 60: 4 it speaks of God giving a banner to them that fear Him that it may be displayed because of the truth.

But in the psalm read it says, “we will triumph in thy salvation, and in the name of our God will we set up our banners”. I believe this is involved in the glad tidings as set out in Philippians. It involves the whole truth of God, and in His name we are privileged to set up our banners.
It is not a question of what we call a popular gospel, but the whole truth, we are standing in conflict for the whole truth, and we should not be ashamed to speak about it, as opportunity is afforded.
Think of the banner of 2 Timothy, “Let everyone that names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. We are not to be ashamed to speak about that to fellow-believers we may meet. It is an integral part of the testimony at the present time.
And think of the positive banners, not only the gospel of our salvation, but also the truth of the one new man, of the one body, of the heavenly citizenship, of the habitation of God in the Spirit. Why do we not speak of these things as we have opportunity? How can souls get deliverance if we are silent?
If we are in the gain of these things we shall be able to speak of them. They become our banners when we are in the gain of them. If people question us, and things are right, we can say, ‘Come and see’.
We are not to let statements pass unchallenged when people say to us, I go to this or that Church. We should surely say at once, There is no such thing. Scripture only knows of one church. Why not raise our banner?
These are not churches, they are human organisations. They have no right to use the name Church. Scripture speaks of one church only. Why do we not say these things? Why do we not stand for the truth? Whoever it may be, stand for the church of the Bible, the only church there is.
So in the name of our God will we set up our banners. In all these matters one feels that the Lord would have us, in a right way, to go over to the attack and not to keep silence about the great truths that have been recovered.

The reference to the banners in the Song of Songs confirms this. If we are recovered to first love, bridal affection for Christ, the banners will be in full display.

It is a magnificent view of the assembly, the church militant. “Comely as Jerusalem”, it supposes things are right within, but, in the conflict, “Terrible as troops with banners”.
First love for Christ would bring us out like this. And then it says, “Who is she that looketh forth as the dawn, fair as the moon, clear as the sun?” This again supposes things are right within. If we get things right within, then with what boldness we can go forth, “Terrible as troops with banners”.
The fact is, if we were in the power of these things no one could withstand us. In the case of Stephen no one could withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke. He wielded the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

Following on the idea of conflict in Philippians he goes on immediately to say,

“If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and compassions, fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul, thinking one thing”.

Now I would like to point out that the noun “mind” and the verb “think” in this epistle, are – I believe without exception – the words for “bent of mind”.
There are two words used for “mind” in the New Testament. One is the thinking faculty, as “We have the mind of Christ”.
Through the gift of the Spirit we are able to think the thoughts of Christ, and to think the thoughts of God, which is a marvellous thing. This would lead us to be perfectly united in the same mind, the thinking faculty.
But the bent of mind is another thing. I may have much intelligence as to the thoughts of God, and yet my bent of mind be on other things.
- “As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded”, Paul says; and again, “if anyone be otherwise minded”; it is the bent of mind.
The line of unity in Philippians supposes that we are united in the bent of our minds, that the very bent of our minds is one. And we shall never be fully successful in the conflict unless that is so, we shall be undermined in our capacity as soldiers.
So he goes on to say, “having the same love, joined in soul, thinking” [that is this word for bent of mind] “one thing”.
And then he says, “Let this mind” [that is the bent of mind] “be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” – the mind to go down. We are of no use in the conflict if we have not the mind to go down.
But then in chapter 3 there is correspondingly the mind to pursue the calling of God. And Paul says, “But one thing”, Philippians 3: 13. Can we say that we are unified as having the bent of our minds on one thing?
Mr. Darby said, a distracted mind is the bane of a Christian. “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways”. That is where our weakness lies – one eye on the things of heaven and one eye on the things of earth.
But here the apostle is exhorting that the bent of mind of the whole company be on one thing, thinking one thing, chapter 2: 2. And what is the one thing? There is the mind to go down in chapter 2, but in chapter 3 the pursuit of one thing, the only thing that is worth pursuing.
Paul was not only a soldier but an athlete. A soldier does not entangle himself and an athlete takes on no weights. And here is the runner; he says, “not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected, but I pursue”.
- What we need is unity in pursuit, the bent of our minds being one. How one would love to see this!
What a triumph it would be at the close of the dispensation, if all the saints walking together had got one bent of mind, pursuing one thing! We would be good soldiers then, good churchmen, free in the service of God.
Paul is again the great example “not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected, but I pursue, if also I may get possession of it”. What a prize! The calling on high of God. Who would not go in for this prize? How do earthly prizes compare?
You go in for this profession and that, this business and that, you have got a prize before you, you may get something, but what a delusive prize! You are never sure you will get it at all, and, if you get it, you will not hold it for long. Let us go in for this heavenly prize.
“I pursue”, Paul says. He was a man of one purpose in life, Christ his object, Christ his motive, Christ his prize. May the Lord help us to be on this line. “One thing, forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue”.
Some of us are getting old, we have not much more time. Let us then get on with the pursuit, the one thing. Let us get rid of other objectives. The calling on high of God is so great that to be double-minded is an insult to the God who has called us.
“As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded”, chapter 3: 15. Let us be perfect in this sense, perfect as to object and pursuit. “And if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you”.
- If anyone of us has had a double objective God would reveal to us tonight that His mind and will is that we should have one objective.
Everything is to be subservient to the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus. The true prize is to be before us.

And then he says, “whereto we have attained, let us walk in the same steps … Be imitators all together of me, brethren”.

Let us get our eyes off other men; let us, as he says, fix our eyes on those walking thus. We so tend to fix our eyes on those who are lowering the standard; and thus we get entangled in earthly things.
Let us fix our eyes on Paul, and be imitators all together of him. So we shall be true soldiers, and true runners in this great race to gain the prize.

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KEY TO INITIALS

Unity as Presented in Paul's Epistles
Meetings with G. R. Cowell, London, July 14-16, 1959
Names are from various sources and believed to be accurate.
? = uncertainty; initial ? = as to name; final ? = as to locality.
There are a great many initials for which names are not known.

A. P. Aris, Bournemouth
Harry Baird, Hamilton, Canada
Ralph G. Ball, Bromley
A. Paul Bodman, Bristol
Archie S. Brown, Detroit
George W. Brown, London
Hubert Calvey, Southport
E. Carrén, Hälsingborg, Sweden
W. Chesterfield, London
Chas. W. Cooper, Belfast
Gerald R. Cowell, Hornchurch
J. S. Ephgrave, Waltham Cross
F. J. Fletcher, Johannesburg
Cecil de K. [K] Fowler, Cape Town
Frank L. Fowler, Nottingham
Alfred J. Gardiner, London
Thos. J. Gratten, London
A. Horace Griffiths, Southport
Sam Gaw, Newtownwards
Charles Hammond, London
John R. Heggie, Toronto
Alfred Helen, Teddington
? Josiah Harper, Colwyn Bay
Wm. Henderson, Glasgow
David S. Hutson, London
Eustace A. Kelsey, Melbourne
A. P. Cecil Lawrence, Stornoway
Percy Lyon, London
Chas. A. Markham, Cranford
John Mason, Belfast
Wm. R. Mason, Londonderry
Alistair McGregor, Hertford
James McKay, Leeds
E. C. Muggleton, Croydon
J. A. Parsons, Haringey
Erik Petersson, Västboås, Sweden
A. Bufton Parker, New York
Alan C. S. Price, Barnet
L. H. Railton, Banbury
E. C. Remington, Watford
Lewis E. Samuels, Winnipeg
Jack T. Seville, Manchester
J. Owen Smith, Watford
W. S. Spence, Bournemouth
Robert W. Stollery, Plainfield
James Taylor Jr., New York
Joseph J. Taylor, London
Max H. Tucker, Guildford
? W. Tucker, ?
Arthur W. G. Turner, Calne
Alfred Wellershaus, Germany
? R. Wood, Chelmsford
Renwick M. Young, Melbourne

KEY TO INITIALS
Unity as Presented in Paul's Epistles Meetings with G. R. Cowell, London, July 14-16, 1959 Names are from various sources and believed to be accurate. ? = uncertainty; initial ? = as to name; final ? = as to locality. There are a great many initials for which names are not known.
A. P. Aris, Bournemouth Harry Baird, Hamilton, Canada Ralph G. Ball, Bromley A. Paul Bodman, Bristol Archie S. Brown, Detroit George W. Brown, London Hubert Calvey, Southport E. Carrén, Hälsingborg, Sweden W. Chesterfield, London Chas. W. Cooper, Belfast Gerald R. Cowell, Hornchurch J. S. Ephgrave, Waltham Cross F. J. Fletcher, Johannesburg Cecil de K. [K] Fowler, Cape Town Frank L. Fowler, Nottingham Alfred J. Gardiner, London Thos. J. Gratten, London A. Horace Griffiths, Southport Sam Gaw, Newtownwards Charles Hammond, London John R. Heggie, Toronto Alfred Helen, Teddington ? Josiah Harper, Colwyn Bay Wm. Henderson, Glasgow David S. Hutson, London Eustace A. Kelsey, Melbourne A. P. Cecil Lawrence, Stornoway	Percy Lyon, London Chas. A. Markham, Cranford John Mason, Belfast Wm. R. Mason, Londonderry Alistair McGregor, Hertford James McKay, Leeds E. C. Muggleton, Croydon J. A. Parsons, Haringey Erik Petersson, Västboås, Sweden A. Bufton Parker, New York Alan C. S. Price, Barnet L. H. Railton, Banbury E. C. Remington, Watford Lewis E. Samuels, Winnipeg Jack T. Seville, Manchester J. Owen Smith, Watford W. S. Spence, Bournemouth Robert W. Stollery, Plainfield James Taylor Jr., New York Joseph J. Taylor, London Max H. Tucker, Guildford ? W. Tucker, ? Arthur W. G. Turner, Calne Alfred Wellershaus, Germany ? R. Wood, Chelmsford Renwick M. Young, Melbourne

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