Search
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:17-20; 2:10; 10:1; 11:10; 12:9; 3-5, 13:14
We have seen that the apostle Paul shows us in 2 Corinthians how he was a person absolutely in the spirit. He was a person taught by God, tested by God, and even trained by God not to live in the flesh but in the spirit. In previous chapters we began to see that what the church needs today is not a person full of knowledge, full of education, or full of gifts and power, but a person who is reduced in the natural, outer man (4:16). The outer man has to be consumed, reduced, all the time. Then we will be reduced into the spirit, and we will learn how to live absolutely in the spirit. This is the kind of person the church needs today. Throughout the history of the church, there have been many spiritual giants, gifted persons, and great teachers, but the church has not been built up. The Lord needs some people who have been reduced to the spirit for the building up of the church, His Body.
We must realize that the Lord is coming back soon. The Lord told us that He would come quickly (Rev. 22:20), but one may think His coming has been slow because it has been nearly two thousand years since His ascension. But do not forget that to Him one thousand years are like one day (2 Pet. 3:8). Through my study of prophecy, I was deeply impressed that the prophetic writings stressed the re-formation of the nation of Israel [see Matt. 24:32 and footnotes]. The nation of Israel was re-formed in 1948, and Jerusalem was returned to Israel in 1967. This was the marvelous doing of the Lord. No one dreamed that the nation of Israel could be re-formed or that Jerusalem could be returned to Israel in such a way. The fulfillment of this prophecy shows us that the Lord is preparing Israel and the church for His coming back. The Lord has done something to fulfill His prophecy concerning Israel, and I do believe that the Lord will do something quickly to prepare His bride. We have seen that the Lord prepares His bride not merely by gifts or by teaching but by the working of the cross and the anointing of the Spirit. We have to be reduced, and we have to be conquered, captured, by Christ.
We have to be reduced to the spirit. Our spirit is not empty, is not vacant, but it is occupied by Christ. Christ is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). When we are reduced to the spirit, we meet Christ. Therefore, to be reduced to the spirit means to be reduced to Christ, to be reduced to live by Christ. Second Corinthians 3:17 is a vital and precious verse telling us that Christ the Lord is the Spirit. Christ today is the indwelling Spirit within our spirit. As the indwelling Spirit, He is now living, moving, acting, and even waiting for us to be reduced to the spirit. We have to be reduced to the spirit. Once we are reduced to the spirit, we meet Christ. Second Corinthians, on the one hand, shows us that the apostle Paul was reduced to the spirit. On the other hand, it shows us how this apostle lived, acted, and worked in the spirit by Christ.
Second Corinthians 2:10 mentions “the person of Christ.” The American Standard Version translates this phrase as “the presence of Christ.” In the original Greek text the common word for presence is parousia. But the word for person here is prosopon. Paul said, “Whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; for also what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sake in the person of Christ.” Paul forgave a brother in the person of Christ. This Greek word means the face, the part around the eyes, which is the index of all the inward thoughts and feelings to signify the presentation of the whole person. The part of the face around the eyes is the index of all the inward thoughts and feelings, signifying what a person is thinking and how he feels within. Paul forgave that brother in the person of Christ, according to the index of His whole person expressed in His eyes. Paul lived not only in the presence of the Lord but also in the index of the inward feelings and thoughts of Christ. This is so deep, so tender, and so delicate.
Once, I was invited to the home of a dear Christian couple. As I was there, I observed that the brother behaved himself not only in the presence of his wife but also in the person of his wife. Just by looking into her eyes, he could tell whether or not she approved of what he was doing. Not a word needed to be spoken. This particular husband had learned to move in the person of his wife.
I cannot fully express the feeling I had within when I discovered the meaning of this word person. I bowed before the Lord and said, “Lord, for all these years I have never realized that I have to live not merely in Your presence but in Your person in such a tender way.” It is not just to live in His presence but even more to live in His person. I do not think that we Christians behave ourselves in the person of the Lord in such a tender way. We may say that we live, act, and behave in the presence of the Lord, but who behaves himself in the person of Christ, in the way that brother behaved himself in the person of his wife? But here in 2:10 there is a phrase telling us that Paul was such a person, behaving himself all the time in the index of the Lord’s eyes, the index of His inward feelings and thoughts, in His person.
Paul looked at the index of the Lord’s eyes, and he knew that he had to forgive that brother. He forgave him not according to his feeling, not according to his thought, but according to the feeling, the thought, of the Indweller within him. He was behaving himself in the person of Christ. When he forgave, he forgave in the person of Christ. He wanted to let the Corinthians know that he did not forgive according to himself or according to his flesh but in the person of Christ. This is what it means to live by Christ. The apostle Paul had been reduced to such an extent that he never behaved himself in his person. He behaved himself in the person of Christ, in the face, in the thought, in the expression of the feeling of Christ. To live in the person of Christ is so tender and so deep. Paul was a person reduced to nothing except taking Christ as his person. He behaved himself in the person of Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 1:17 Paul says, “This therefore intending, did I then use fickleness? Or the things which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there should be Yes, yes and No, no?” Paul did not purpose things according to the flesh so that he said yes at one time and no at another time. He was not a fickle person of yes and no. Paul was a person with whom there was no fickleness. When he said yes, he said it with Christ. When he made a decision, he made it with Christ. When Christ said yes, he said yes. When Christ said no, he said no. There was no fickleness, no changing with Paul because he said yes not by himself, not according to the flesh, but according to the indwelling Christ.
In 1:18-20 Paul says, “But as God is faithful, our word toward you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you through us, through me and Sylvanus and Timothy, did not become yes and no, but our word has become yes in Him. For as many promises of God as there are, in Him is the Yes; therefore also through Him is the Amen to God, for glory through us to God.” With Christ there is no changing. Since the Christ whom Paul preached according to God’s promises did not become yes and no, the word he preached concerning Him was not yes and no. Not only his preaching but also his living was according to what Christ is. He was not a man of yes and no, but a man who was the same as Christ. He was a person living by Christ. When he said yes, he said it with Christ. In himself Paul had been reduced to nothing, so he could say that the yes of Christ was his. Christ is not yes and no, but He is always the same. Paul was always the same because he lived by Christ.
We need to pray that the Spirit would help us to realize and to see what kind of person the apostle Paul was when he was on this earth. He was a person absolutely reduced to nothing but taking Christ as everything in his spirit. We all have to be reduced to such an extent that we are in our spirit taking Christ as everything. When we say yes to people, we should say it with Christ. If Christ would not say yes, we should not say yes. We have no position, right, or standing to say anything apart from Christ, because we have been crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20). Paul had been reduced to the spirit. He had been excessively burdened, beyond his power (2 Cor. 1:8) so that it was no longer him but Christ who lived in him. Even when he said yes, he said it with Christ.
We may love the Lord and try to live by Christ, but how many of us practice this whenever there is a question for us to answer? Do we consider answering it with Christ? This is why some of the brothers are always changing — in the morning it is yes, but in the afternoon it is no. They are changing all the time. But if we would take Christ as our answer, as our Yes, as our Amen, there would be no changing. Christ is always the same (Heb. 13:8), and the apostle Paul took Christ as his Yes.
In 2 Corinthians 10:1 Paul says, “I myself, Paul, entreat you through the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” We may be meek and gentle, but is our meekness and gentleness something of Christ? We all agree that we have to reject or repudiate the character that is not meek and gentle. But have we ever realized that we have to reject our meekness and our gentleness? Some brothers and sisters may be proud of their meekness and gentleness. A certain sister may have an inward attitude that she is more meek than other sisters. But the apostle Paul said that he entreated the Corinthians, not in his own meekness or gentleness but in the meekness and gentleness of Christ. This again shows us a person living in the spirit, always taking Christ as his everything. He experienced Christ not only as his power but also as his meekness and gentleness. He was a person living by Christ.
In 11:10 Paul says, “The truthfulness of Christ is in me.” We all would say that we have to reject the lies and speak truth, but have we ever asked ourselves whose truth we speak? Do we speak the truth of Christ, or do we speak our own truth? Paul said that the truth of Christ was in him. We have to speak the truth of Christ, not the truth of the human nature, of the old man, of the self. We have to learn to not only repudiate all the lies but to also renounce, or reject, our truth. We have to repudiate our truth as well as our lies; then we can take the truth of Christ. Paul forgave in the person of Christ, he entreated in the meekness and gentleness of Christ, and he said that the truth of Christ was in him. Since the apostle lived by Christ, whatever Christ was became his virtue in his behavior.
In chapter 13 Paul told us something concerning the power of Christ (vv. 3-5). The power of Christ is experienced not when we are powerful but when we are weak. Paul said, “When I am weak, then I am powerful” (12:10). It is harder to be weak than it is to be powerful. Paul said that Christ was “crucified out of weakness” (13:4). We realize that Christ was the almighty God, but at the time He was crucified, He became weak. If He had not become weak, how could human beings have crucified Him? As the almighty, all-powerful God, how could He have been arrested? Who could put Him on the cross? But He was willing to be weak, and He became weak. Therefore, the apostle Paul said, “We are weak in Him” (v. 4).
Have we ever learned the lesson to be weak in Christ? We always like to talk about being powerful in Christ, but have we ever tried to be weak in Christ? The power of Christ could never be perfected or manifested until we are weak. The power of Christ, which is His grace to us, is perfected in our weakness (12:9). When we are weak, we may experience the power of Christ in our weakness. Again we see that 2 Corinthians shows us a person who has been reduced to nothing, with no strength, that the power of Christ might be perfected in his weakness. Here is a person absolutely reduced to nothing but taking Christ as everything.
In 13:14 Paul refers to the grace of Christ, and in 13:3 he says that Christ is speaking in him. Again we see a person who has been reduced to nothing but Christ. Christ speaks in him. Christ’s person is his person; Christ’s meekness is his meekness; Christ’s gentleness is his gentleness; Christ’s truthfulness is his truthfulness; Christ’s power is his power; and Christ’s grace is his grace. Whatever he is, is Christ. This is a person who is living in the spirit.
