The Responsible Witness

1 Tim. 3:15 and 2 Tim. 2:201TI 3:15 2TI 2:20
Both these passages present to us the church in the same aspect, though in very different conditions. We have "the house," and the "great house." The foundations of "the house" are laid in pure grace. Paul was a minister, and himself personally a witness of this great and blessed truth. "Christ Jesus," he says, "came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. 1:15. When we remember that the church is "the pillar and ground of the truth," and consider the materials out of which it is formed, it is the more marvelous, and makes it plain that grace, and grace only, is in action as to those who "by one Spirit are baptized into one body.”
The church's presence on earth, as the responsible witness for God, is what we have before us in these scriptures, and this is proved and enforced by the way in which Timothy is instructed as to how he ought to behave himself in it. We are the living stones of which the house is composed, but we are also in the house, having, like Timothy, to behave ourselves in a manner suited to Him who dwells there.
In Heb. 3:6, we also read of the "house," and again, in 1 Cor. 3:16, where it is termed the "temple." Both are based on redemption, though conduct is in question too. It is important to see that it is only consequent on redemption that God dwells with man. Ex. 15 plainly shows this, where the habitation of God is anticipated by Israel as consequent on their redemption out of Egypt. "Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation," sang Moses and the children of Israel.
We, too, have been redeemed and led forth by Him, "who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world." Gal. 1:4. We, who once were blasphemers and injurious (1 Tim. 1:13), are now by grace, transformed into vessels and living stones of that which is growing "unto a holy temple in the Lord," and hence the exhortation, "Be ye holy, for I [the Lord your God] am holy." He is holy, so must we be.
Then notice that it is the house of "the living God." Do we know Him thus? Are we journeying on through the wilderness in the consciousness that He is with us as He was with the children of Israel, meeting our daily need, as He did theirs, with manna fresh every morning, and making the flinty rock gush streams of refreshment all the way along. It is a great thing to walk with "the living God," and while having Him to turn to in every trouble and necessity, to remember that He is the holy Lord God.