WEEK 1 — DAY 2
Morning
Nourishment
1 Cor. 1:9 “God is
faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord.”
Eph. 4:25 “Therefore
having put off the lie, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members
one of another.”
It is hard to find
many [believers] who are in the reality of fellowship. Positionally, we all are in this fellowship,
but in our daily living, very few of us are in the reality of fellowship. We
may have the matter of fellowship in name, but we may not have it in
practicality. I have tried to practice this fellowship, but I have to admit
that I have not been completely successful in maintaining this fellowship hour
after hour throughout the day. When we are not in this fellowship in a
practical way, we are out of the Spirit, out of the Triune God, and out of the
divine life. (The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, p. 145)
Today’s
Reading
Before we were
saved, we were sinners living in sin and dead in sin. We were not involved in
the fellowship of life. One day someone reported to us the eternal life (1 John
1:2), and we believed in the Lord Jesus. From that moment we were brought into
the divine fellowship. Two things are very striking about our initial
experience of the divine fellowship. First, it is difficult to find one person
who believed in the Lord directly by himself without the help of someone who
preached the gospel to him. Nearly everyone heard a report first and then
believed. Second, there is almost always a deep relationship between the one
who reported or preached the gospel and the one who received the report and got
saved. Our vertical fellowship with the
Lord is affected by our horizontal fellowship with others. If we do not have a
proper relationship with those around us, it is difficult to have a good
fellowship with the Lord vertically. The
reason for this is that the divine fellowship is one fellowship. Each day we
should be in the divine fellowship, vertically and horizontally. Most of us may
think that we daily start this fellowship according to its vertical aspect,
followed by its horizontal aspect. Most of the time, however, this is not our
experience....If we have a quarrel with our wife, husband, or roommate in the
evening, we will find it difficult to start our vertical fellowship with the
Lord in the morning. We must maintain both the vertical and horizontal aspects
of the fellowship in order to be healthy spiritually.
In Ephesians 4:25
the word neighbor refers to the brothers and sisters. We must be right with our fellow believers in
order to be kept in the divine fellowship. In our experience we often cannot
have vertical fellowship with the Lord without first having horizontal
fellowship with other believers. A saint
who has a proper living and who is victorious is one who is always in the
divine fellowship, vertically and horizontally, all day long. We must learn to
fellowship with the Lord more and we must also learn to fellowship with the
saints more. We must thank the Lord for those around us, and we must endeavor
to have fellowship with them. The brothers and sisters should have thorough
fellowship with one another, even concerning practical things related to their
daily living.
We may feel that we
should only fellowship with those around us about the messages we have read or
some other spiritual activity. Of course, our fellowship should include this.
However, our fellowship should also include many practical things. I have
discovered that the biggest shortage among us is fellowship. Our problem is
that we do not have the habit to fellowship, and many of us do not like to
fellowship. We must realize that when we fellowship,
the Lord is involved. When we turn away from fellowship or stop our fellowship
with our fellow believers, the Lord is kept away. We should try to have fellowship with our
fellow believers as much as possible. This divine fellowship not only corrects
us; it also molds us and even reconstitutes us. This fellowship brings the
divine constituent into our spiritual being, causing a change in our being.
(The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, pp. 145-147)
Further Reading: The Mending Ministry of John, ch.
7
CHAPTER
SEVEN
THE
FELLOWSHIP OF LIFE
Scripture
Reading: 1 John 5:20; 1:2-7; 1 Cor. 1:9; 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:1
JOHN’S EMPHASIS ON LIFE
“And
we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” (1 John 5:20). This verse is the conclusion to 1 John. It is a strong declaration that Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God and who has come, is the true God and eternal life. At the beginning of this Epistle we are told that the One who was with the Father in eternity and was manifested in time, and who was seen and handled by the apostles, is declared life to us. Then, at the end of the Epistle, we have this verse quoted above, which tells us that the very One who has come to us and in whom we are is the real God and life eternal.
What a bold word is this! Though Paul wrote fourteen letters in all, and though he did tell us that Christ is our life, he was not as emphatic as John here in declaring that this very Person is life to us.
There is a strong emphasis in the New Testament that God’s intention is to give Christ, His Son, to us as life. When we believed in Him, we received Him not only as our Redeemer and Savior, but even the more as our life. I keep repeating this because, even though the New Testament stresses it, it is almost unheard of in Christian circles.
What Christianity emphasizes to those who are saved is the improvement of their behavior. They are told that since they are saved and are children of God, they need to behave in a way that will glorify God. The Apostle John, however, in his mending ministry stresses life. We declare unto you…life! This is the thought with which he opens 1 John.
The same emphasis is found in the Gospel of John. “In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was God.…In Him was life” (1:1, 4). In 10:10 the Lord Jesus declared, “I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly.” In 14:6 He said, “I am…the life.” In 11:25 He said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” John writes boldly, telling us that Jesus Christ the Son of God is life to us.
THE INDWELLING CHRIST
Some
may think that we make Christ too low when we say that He is in us. Christ,
they say, has been highly exalted by the Father. He is seated on the throne far
above all. How could we demean Him by saying He dwells in us pathetic, low
human beings? They may want to keep Christ in His exaltation, but Christ would
respond, “Yes, I am far above all, but I am omnipresent. I am indeed in the
heavens, exalted to the throne. But don’t keep Me up here! I want to leave the
mountaintop and go down to the valley to be with My people. I like being in
them. I am in them! Whatever they are doing, wherever they go, I like being in
them!” To teach that Christ does not indwell His people indicates that some Bible verses are being ignored. At the end of Matthew before the ascension, the Lord Jesus told His disciples to go and disciple all the nations, adding “behold, I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age” (28:19-20). He did not say that He would be with them or that He had been with them. No! “I am with you.” Go with Me, because I am with you! The Lord is still on earth today. He is within us.
Those who reject the indwelling Christ claim that Christ is too great to be contained in small, puny man. Such logic must be condemned. The Bible clearly gives us the Lord’s words, “Abide in Me and I in you” (John 15:4). It also says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). Yes, He is great. No one is greater. Yet He is small enough for us to contain Him. Hallelujah! We can contain the great Christ. He is unlimited, yet He is within us. He is our life.
I am not trying to prove a doctrinal point. Doctrine without experience has no value. It is like going to a restaurant and studying the menu, but not eating a meal. It is like being in the kitchen reading and appreciating a recipe but not getting out the ingredients and preparing it.
Theologians may be full of Bible knowledge but without experience. Of what use is that? They need to learn to cook instead of just talking about the menu!
GOD’S DESIRE THAT WE LIVE CHRIST
Dear
saints, be deeply impressed that Jesus Christ is your life. God does not want
you to improve your behavior; He wants you to live Christ. He does not want you
to begin loving your wife and no longer hate her; He wants you to live Christ.
As you live Him, you will love others. Whatever you are doing, God wants you to
live Christ. Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”
(Gal. 2:20) and “to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). To me to live is not
love. It is not humility. It is not frankness or kindness. To me to live is
Christ. Christ is our life; He must become our living. We need to pray in a definite way. “Lord, I want to live Christ. Keep me in Your Spirit so that I never forget that You are my life. When I am about to lose my temper, remind me that You are my life. When I am about to love someone, remind me that You are my life. When I am about to act in a humble way, remind me that You are my life. When I smile, remind me that You are my life.”
This must be our prayer not just once but over and over again. Before we begin our day, we should tell the Lord, “Remind me during the whole day that You are my life. In dealing with my children, or in dealing with my parents, I want to take You as my life. I know You do not want me to try to improve my behavior. Your desire is to have Yourself lived out of me. Keep this before me all day long whatever I am doing. O Lord, remind me that You are my life!”
THE MEANING OF FELLOWSHIP
When
I was young, the word fellowship used to puzzle me. In Chinese the word was
usually translated fraternity, a kind of social brotherhood. Gradually, due to
our influence in the Far East, the word fraternity has largely been dropped,
and now the word used is fellowship. The Greek word for fellowship means mutual participation or communication. According to the New Testament revelation, like in 2 Corinthians 13:14, it can be likened to the term transmission, which is used for electricity and means a sending back and forth. When the electric lights in the ceiling are turned on, the electricity flows into them. When the lights are turned off, the current stops. Though the electricity is still there, the transmission has ceased. The electric current is the transmission of electricity from the power plant into this building. It goes back and forth.
Fellowship is like this. It is not merely friendly contact with others, as in a fraternity. It is instead a powerful, dynamic transmission from one place to another and then back to the original place. We have Christ in us as life. When this life functions, it is fellowship. Life corresponds to electricity; fellowship corresponds to electric current. Electric current is simply electricity itself in motion. Fellowship is nothing less than Christ Himself as life moving within us.
“God is faithful, through Whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). This fellowship into which we have been called is simply Christ Himself moving within us. While Christ remains in us, He is life. When He moves in us, He is the fellowship.
LIVING CHRIST BY FELLOWSHIP
We
live Christ by fellowship; that is to say, we live Him by His moving in us.
Before we were saved, we were alone. We may have had lots of schoolmates and
relatives, but we were actually by ourself. Even after we were married and had
our spouse with us, we were still by ourself. Once we got saved, however, we
were never again alone. Now wherever we go and whatever we do, we have another Person
with us. Sometimes we are pleased with Him and love Him. Other times we are
annoyed with Him and secretly wish He would go away and leave us alone. There are times when we want to be alone. Once in a while we like to go off by ourself and take a little break. When it comes to other people, we can do this. This One, however, our Christ, we cannot escape from After. we are saved, we may still want to go to a movie. Even if we do go, we do not go alone. Christ accompanies us. No Christian is single. We may not yet be married, but if we are saved, the Lord Jesus is always with us. It is impossible to be alone.
Christ wants to be our life. Formerly we were one person, but now we are two. With one person there is no fellowship, but with two there is the possibility. If we want to live Christ, we must not do anything by ourselves. To do even the best thing by ourselves is to fail to live Christ. We live Him by fellowship, which includes mutuality. We are not single. There are two of us; between us there is a mutuality.
NOT ACTING ALONE
When
I say that the way to live Christ is by fellowship, I am referring to this
mutuality between Him and you. Never do anything by yourself. If you keep this
one principle, it will be easy for you to live Christ. If you are about to talk
with your wife, you must do so with another Person. Brothers, let us all learn
not to talk to our wives by ourselves. Sisters, you must not go shopping by
yourselves. Do not write a check by yourself. Do not talk to others by
yourself. Do everything by fellowship. Always
have this other Person with you in whatever you do. Then you will live Christ,
not yourself. This is especially important in your talk. Do you want to pass on the news that a certain sister is pregnant? You may find that before the words can leave your mouth, that other One will not agree. You do not realize how accustomed you are to doing things by yourself. As soon as you meet someone you know, you begin to talk about who is about to get married or who is having what kind of trouble. This is gossip. By whom? By Christ? Never. It is by you when you are living yourself.
You would not think of stealing. You know this is sin. You need to realize that in the Lord’s eyes to do things by yourself is ugly. It may not be sinful, but it is ugly.
Always keep in mind that you have a Partner who is with you; in fact, He is in you. He says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” This is your position and your status, but you neglect it. In your daily life, you would not tell lies, but it may not bother you to gossip. You may think of it as common to pass on information to others. You may look at such things in that way, but what does your Partner say
You may be encouraged to love others. It is right to have love for others, but you must check whether you love them by yourself or by fellowship. It is not a matter of love or of hatred; it is a matter of living Christ or living yourself. Either you live, or Christ lives out of you.
CHRIST MOVING WITHIN
When
the life within, which is Christ Himself, moves, that moving is fellowship.
Fellowship means mutuality. It includes mutual communication, participation,
and enjoyment. Christ enjoys you, and you enjoy Him. There is a transmission
back and forth between the two of you. Within you there is a current for your
daily life. Rather than doing things by yourself, you must do things by that
current between you. You may feel at a disadvantage if you do not have a strong will and it is hard for you to make up your mind. Be assured it is of no help to make up your mind to live Christ. To make up your mind to live Christ does not work. You must realize that He is in you, moving in you. When He moves, His moving is the fellowship. He Himself is the fellowship. There is a flowing from Him to you and from you back to Him.
This transmission occurs even when you do what is not proper. You may have gone shopping even when you realized that the Lord Jesus did not agree with you. While you were on the way, there was some fellowship within, a current moving, which said, “Don’t go!” You may have replied, as I myself have done many times, “Lord, You are not really that narrow, are You? I don’t go shopping like this very often. It is not evil, like going to Las Vegas to gamble. I am going to buy something which is useful.” I am sure many of you have had such experiences. This indwelling Lord is dealing with you. As long as He is moving, the current is flowing.
In 1933 I went to Shanghai for the first time. As a young man, I had no love for the world, but I did have an appetite for spiritual books. Shanghai was a densely populated city. There were many missionaries there and a good many secondhand Christian bookstores. In those days I was hungry to read spiritual books in English. During those months my behavior was nearly blameless. My only fault was in going to the secondhand bookstores. Whenever the brothers did not occupy my time, I would slip away to those stores and buy those old books. All the while, I felt condemned. The fellowship within said, “You are doing things by yourself.” But I could not stop! Such books as George Müller’s autobiography and the writings of G. H. Pember I had heard of previously. Now I had the chance to have a copy of my own. When I got back, I would put them on the table, happy to have them on the one hand but rebuked on the other. The fellowship within was strong against me.
In buying those books I was in myself; I was not living Christ. I was doing what I loved. It was not evil, but I was living myself. While I had no heart for the horse races, which were famous in Shanghai, and no heart for the newspapers, I did find that going from bookstore to bookstore was a real entertainment to me. I did collect a good many books. Some of them I brought with me to the United States. While I was living in Los Angeles, one day I put out for the trash collectors five big cartons of books. These had been bought by me in Shanghai while offending the Lord.
Years ago I could not have told you how to live Christ. Now, because of my experience all through the years, I can tell you there is no other way except, firstly, by fellowship. Remember that you have a Companion who indwells you. He is always with you. You are no longer single. He is your life. When He moves, He is the fellowship. Do everything by this fellowship. If you have your being by it, you will have a wonderful life. All day long you will live only Him. You will not only be doing good and overcoming; you will be living Him. He will be lived out of you because of your living by fellowship with Him.
TWO SPIRITS
This
fellowship is the fellowship of Christ (1 Cor. 1:9). Since Christ today is the
life-giving Spirit, it is also the fellowship of the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14).
Since Christ indwells our spirit as the life-giving Spirit, it is also the
fellowship of our spirit (Phil. 2:1). The fellowship is a matter concerning
these two spirits. As you practice, you will realize that the Lord Jesus is in you. When He moves, that is His fellowship. This fellowship is, on the one hand, of the Spirit, and, on the other hand, of your spirit. Christ is the life-giving Spirit in your spirit. Here you enjoy Him and He enjoys you in mutual participation, communication, and transmission. Here you live by Him and He lives by you. You live Him out and He lives in you.