Morning Nourishment Eph. 4:15 But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ. Col. 2:19 And not holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God. New believers are short of God. They have God within them, but they are short of God in their conversation, in their expression, and in their attitude....They do not have that much of God’s element within them, so they need to grow. To grow in life is to have more of God in us. Life is God in Christ as the Spirit. God is life to us in Christ and as the Spirit....The growth in life is the increase of God in Christ as the Spirit in us. Growth, increase, and building up are [not] three different things. With organic matters such as a tree or a person, growth, increase, and building up are synonyms. They are also synonyms in relation to the organic Body of Christ....The organic building up of the Body of Christ is the increase of the Triune God in the believers, and this increase is the believers’ growth in Christ. (The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, p. 51) Today’s Reading On the one hand, we are members of the organic Body of Christ, and on the other hand, we are the builders of this Body (Eph. 4:16). We, the members of the Body, are the builders of the Body. The growth of all the members of a man is the building up of this man....The growing members are the building members....All the Body causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself. The Body grows to build up the Body. (The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, pp. 51-52 Ephesians 4:15 says, “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.”...According to the words of Solomon, everything under the sun is vanity; there is no reality (Eccl. 1:2). But there is One who is real in the universe, God Himself. If God occupies the proper position in everything, then everything is true. Otherwise, all things are but vanity of vanities. As Romans 3:4 says, every man is a liar; only God is true. In this true God there are three things: the economy of God, the Christ of God, and the Body of Christ, the church. In the whole universe only this group of things is true. If you take them away from the universe, the universe will become vain. When we hold to truth, the first item to hold to is God’s New Testament economy. God’s economy is His dispensation of the mystery hidden in Him....[God] arranged to create the heavens and the earth and to create man according to His image and likeness that man would be like Him, be His vessel, and be prepared for the day when the Creator God would enter into man to be mingled with man, to become the many members of Christ, and to constitute the Body of Christ to express Christ, which is to express the Triune God in Christ. Second, we have to hold to the all-inclusive Christ. This Christ is the One who fills all in all. He is not only in all but also fills all. The universe is immeasurable, and Paul compared the breadth, length, height, and depth of the universe to the measure of Christ (Eph. 3:18). This shows us that the measure and riches of Christ are unsearchable....[Paul] used the highest expressions such as “the breadth and length and height and depth” (3:18) and “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (3:8) to describe Christ. Third, we have to hold to the church. The church is the Body of Christ as the fullness of Christ to express Him. Hence, the church is not an organization, but an organism....It is constituted by those who are regenerated, saved, and have received Christ as their life....All the genuine members are grown into the church; they are not added in by organization. (The Perfecting of the Saints and the Building Up of the Body of Christ, pp. 32-33) Further Reading: The Perfecting of the Saints and the Building Up of the Body of Christ, ch. 3; The Advance of the Lord’s Recovery Today, ch. 3
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 22:24:02 +0000
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