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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 5:4-5, 9-10, 13-17, 20; 6:1, 4-10
In this chapter we want to see the fifth and sixth aspects of a person who is living in the presence of the Lord, in the Holy of Holies. Thus far, we have seen that such a person is a captive, a letter, a mirror, and a vessel, a camera. The fifth and sixth aspects of such a person are an ambassador and a co-worker.
The apostle Paul was an ambassador of Christ. An ambassador is one who represents the highest authority. The United States government has many ambassadors sent out to many different countries. These ambassadors represent the government of the United States. The highest authority in this universe is God, and God has given all authority in heaven and on earth to Christ (Matt. 28:18). God has appointed Christ to be the King of kings and the Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 17:14). Today Jesus is the Christ, the Lord of all, the highest authority. For this highest authority there is the need of some ambassadors on this earth who are qualified to represent Him. The Lord’s ministry is not a matter of merely being a preacher or a teacher but of being one who is authorized with the heavenly authority, representing the highest authority in the whole universe. First, we need to be captured by Christ, and eventually, we need to become a representative of Christ on this earth to deal with the earthly nations as an ambassador.
Some Christians have the title “Ambassador of Christ” printed on their witnessing card along with their name. Many years ago I had a card that said “Bondslave of Christ — Witness Lee.” At that time I did not dare to entitle myself an ambassador of Christ, but now I have a fuller realization that we all have to be ambassadors of Christ on this earth. We are not only the captives of Christ. Eventually, we have to be the ambassadors of Christ representing Him on this earth for His interests. We may think that this is something too great, too big. Maybe some of the sisters would think that they are just the weak vessels. They may wonder how they could be the ambassadors of Christ, representing the highest authority on this earth. Regardless of whether we are a brother or a sister, all of us are members of the Body of Christ. The highest authority is Christ as the Head, and we as members of the Body have to be representatives of the Head. As representatives of the Head, we are ambassadors. We should not consider that we are little or that we are too weak. Being ambassadors is not a matter of whether we are little or weak. Actually, we have to be more weak, even weak in Christ (2 Cor. 13:4).
As an ambassador of Christ, Paul realized that whatever was within him, whatever he was, and whatever he had was mortal (5:4). Anything that is subject to death is mortal. Our wisdom is mortal, and our ability is mortal. Whatever we can do, whatever we are, and whatever we have is going to die. This is why we should not have any trust in what we are. We have to realize that we are mortal beings, but God has wrought into us something which is eternal, something which will never die, something which will last forever. Because we have received the Lord Jesus and He lives in us, we possess His eternal divinity. Eventually, all that we are that is mortal will be “swallowed up by life” (v. 4). Mortality will be swallowed up by the divine life.
If we are going to represent Christ on this earth as His ambassadors, we have to be clear that we are mortals, that whatever we can do, whatever we are, and whatever we have will die. We should not have any trust in ourselves, nor should we live by ourselves. We need to realize that someone else is within us. This person is the eternal life, the divine life (John 14:6). We should trust in this life, live by this life, and behave ourselves by this life. This life qualifies us and equips us to be the ambassadors of Christ. A person is not qualified to be an ambassador of Christ by power, by gift, or by knowledge, but by the eternal life within him. We need to forget about ourselves, to give up whatever we can do and whatever we are, and put our trust in this eternal life, which is God Himself in Christ. This is the first qualification equipping us to be the ambassadors of Christ.
Since I realize that I have Christ as the eternal life within me, I have to endeavor with an ambition to please Him all the time (2 Cor. 5:9). If we are going to be an ambassador of Christ, there must be one day in this whole universe in which we make a decision, calling the heavens and the earth to be the witnesses, that we are now absolutely for Christ, that we have only one ambition — to please Christ. God has wrought Himself as the eternal life into us so that we should not live by ourselves but by this life. Now we have to be ambitious to please Him.
I do not want to say that we have to merely consecrate ourselves. Consecration is somewhat popular in today’s Christianity. Many people in revival meetings may answer the call to come to the front and consecrate themselves. They may consecrate themselves and yet still be ambitious for themselves and not for Christ. Therefore, although they have consecrated themselves to Christ, they cannot represent Christ. We need to ask ourselves what our ambition is today. If we are going to represent Christ on this earth as His ambassadors, we should pray, “Lord, I call the heavens and the earth to witness that my ambition is one — just to please You.”
In 5:14 Paul says that “the love of Christ constrains us.” Because the love of Christ constrained him, Paul was a person who lived to the Lord (v. 15). Another item which equips us to be the ambassadors of Christ is the constraining love of Christ. We must be persons carried away by the love of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Paul tells us that the dying love of Christ is like the rushing of great waters toward us, impelling us to live to Him beyond our own control. To be constrained is similar to being carried away by a tide of water. The love of Christ is as strong as a tide of water which overcomes us and carries us away. We need to be flooded by the love of Christ. We need to be constrained by His love so that we have no choice. We should be able to say, “I have no other way to go. I have to love the Lord because His love has constrained me. What can I do?” When the flood waters come, we do not have a choice as to whether we will receive them or not. The flood waters give us no choice. We all have to be constrained by the love of Christ in such a way.
I must confess that I have prayed day by day for years that the Lord would show me His love so that I could be constrained by the love of Christ. I prayed in this way: “Lord, constrain me with Your love. O Lord, flood me with Your love.” All of us need to pray in this way. The young saints among us need to realize that although they love the Lord today, they are still at the crossroads of their Christian experience. There are many directions for them to choose, to take. They may have many choices, but once they are flooded by the love of Christ, they lose all the choices.
The fourth aspect of a person who is an ambassador of Christ is that he does not know people according to the flesh but according to Christ in the spirit. You should never consider anything or try to know a person by the outward appearance according to the flesh but always according to Christ in the spirit. Suppose that you hear a brother speak who is very eloquent, inspiring, and who has a great amount of knowledge. You may admire his eloquence and think that he gives marvelous messages. If you say this, this may mean that you recognize people or acknowledge things by the outward appearance according to the flesh and not by Christ according to the spirit. While you are listening to the speaking, you have to realize how much of God has been wrought into the speaker. You should not know him according to his eloquence, his knowledge, his gift, or what he teaches, but according to the spirit. You have to realize whether or not there is something of Christ, of God, wrought into this person. Another brother may share without any eloquence, yet you realize that with him there is a weighty measure of Christ. This is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:16, “So then we, from now on, know no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer.” To recognize things and realize persons not according to the outward appearance in the flesh but according to the measure of Christ in the spirit is the fourth qualification of an ambassador of Christ.
The church needs a group of people who can practically represent Christ on this earth. If you are going to be such an ambassador, you should not live anymore by what you are or by what you can do. You have to live by the eternal life, which is Christ Himself, and you have to be so ambitious to please Him. You also have to be flooded and carried away by the constraining love of Christ and learn how to recognize things, how to discern things, not by outward appearance but by the inward measure of Christ in the spirit. Then you will be the ambassador of Christ representing His authority and interest on this earth.
The sixth aspect of a person who lives in the spirit, in the Holy of Holies, is that he is a co-worker of God (6:1). It is not an easy thing to be a co-worker of anyone. You may work together with others and yet still not be a co-worker. If two brothers are going to be co-workers, God has to bind them together. For two brothers to be co-workers is similar to binding their legs together so that together they have three legs instead of four. It is hard for people to run together in a three-legged race. If two brothers can work together in this way, they are co-workers, or you could even call them “co-walkers.”
To be a co-worker of God means that you have to be bound together with God. You have to lose something of yourself into Him. For one to merely be the Lord’s servant is easier than being the Lord’s co-worker. It may be easier to serve a brother than it is to be his co-worker. To be a co-worker causes much bondage. I may want to rise at 6:00 A.M., but the brother I am with wants to stay in bed until 7:45 A.M. Since I am his co-worker, I have to wait for him. You may have the burden to go to Seattle, but the other brother may have the burden to stay in San Francisco. What shall you do? You cannot run away, because you are bound to him. You are his co-worker.
A co-worker of God is one who is bound together with God. When God works, he works. When God walks, he walks. When God stops, he stops. You may be a diligent person who wants to do more work for God, but God may say, “I do not want you to do more work for Me right now; I want you to rest with Me. I am resting, so you have to rest with Me.” So many so-called servants of the Lord simply cannot suffer resting together with the Lord. What the church needs is not a group of able workers but a group of people who are bound together with God, who are co-workers with God. When God works, you work. When God rests, you have to rest. When God withdraws, you withdraw. When God goes on, you go on. You do this because you are bound with Him as one.
Now we need to see the signs that prove that someone is a co-worker with God. Second Corinthians 6:4-10 gives us these signs. In 6:4-7a Paul lists eighteen qualifications of a minister of the new covenant: in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in a holy spirit, in unfeigned love, in the word of truth, and in the power of God. From the middle of verse 7 through verse 10 Paul speaks of three groups of things and seven kinds of persons. Paul said that he was commended as a minister of God through three groups of things — through the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left, through glory and dishonor, and through evil report and good report (vv. 7-8a). He was also commended as a minister of God in seven ways, as seven kinds of persons — “as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as dying and yet behold we live; as being disciplined and yet not being put to death; as made sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things” (vv. 8b-10). Verses 4 through 10 of chapter 6 show us the qualifications, the proofs, and the signs that a person is a co-worker of God.
If you consider that you are a co-worker of God, you need to ask yourself whether or not there have been evil reports about you. Have you ever been evilly spoken of? If you have never been, I am afraid that you are not a co-worker of God. To be faithful to co-work with God causes people to speak evilly about you. If you are really faithful to God and behave yourself as one with God, there will be many evil reports concerning you. Only a politician tries to please everyone. Many people may give a good report about a politician. But if you are a co-worker of God and are faithful to His aim, you will offend many people. When we were co-working with the Lord in mainland China, some people would say, “They have a wonderful piece of work in China, but there is a ‘dead fly in the ointment.’” When you asked these ones what the dead fly in the ointment was, they had nothing definite to say.
The evil report comes from the opposers and the persecutors (Matt. 5:11). The good report comes from the believers and those who receive the truth preached and taught by the apostles. Through the years this has been our situation. We have received both evil reports and good reports. If you always receive only a good report, probably you are not honest and faithful to the Lord. If you are faithful to the Lord and honest with the church and saints, you will receive evil reports as well as good reports. Because you are co-working with God, you will receive the evil reports.
We need to learn to be faithful co-workers with God. We need to learn to suffer and to accept all these signs and proofs of being a co-worker with God. May the Lord raise up saints in many localities who are co-working with God. Through these people, God’s interest will be taken care of on this earth.
