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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:1; 11:28-29; 7-10, 12:11-19
Thus far, we have seen eight aspects of people who live and walk in the spirit in the presence of the Lord: captives, letters, mirrors, vessels, ambassadors, co-workers, the temple, and the virgin. In this chapter we want to see the last two aspects of such people: lovers of the church and tasters of Christ.
If we have really been captured by the Lord, are under His writing in the spirit, are unveiled mirrors reflecting Him all the time, are broken vessels to express Him, mean business with Him to represent Him on this earth as His ambassadors, are bound with Him as one to be His co-workers, are the temple for His rest, and are the virgins to Him for His satisfaction, we are surely lovers of the church because the Body of Christ, the church, is what Christ is longing for. Nothing is so precious in the Lord’s eyes, in the Lord’s feelings, as the church. Ephesians 5 tells us that Christ loved the church to such an extent that He gave Himself up for her (v. 25). Some Christians would say that we should not consider the church so much. They feel that we should be careful not to consider the church more than Christ and not to make the church an idol to ourselves. But if we know what the church is and if we love the Lord and realize what His heart’s desire is, we will love the church more and more than ever before. Today the Lord is for nothing but the church. He desires the church, His Body, to express Him on this earth today among the human race. The church is not something in the future and not something merely in the heavenlies. In the future and in the heavenlies there will be no problems to overcome. But today here on this earth we need to overcome all the problems to realize what the church life is that we may fulfill the Lord’s heart’s desire. Second Corinthians shows us that the apostle Paul’s heart was fully for the church and on the church. The church was so precious to him because he realized what the Lord’s heart’s desire is.
Second Corinthians was not addressed to individual saints but to the church of God (1:1). It was not addressed to the church in the heavenlies but to the local church in Corinth. In 1:1 Paul said, “To the church of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.” Paul used the expression with all the saints, not and all the saints. We need to see the difference between these two expressions. To use the conjunction and means that the church and the saints are two separate entities, but to use with means that the church includes the saints. The saints belong to the church. If we are not one with the church, we are not qualified to receive this Epistle. For us to receive this book, we have to be in the position of being with the church. Second Corinthians was not written to any individual. We have seen that the temple is a corporate temple and that Paul betrothed the believers as one corporate virgin to Christ. If we are not with the church, we have no position to receive what is in 2 Corinthians because the entire book was written to the church with the saints. A letter may be written to a school with the students but not to the school and the students individually. The students do not have the position to receive this letter if they are not with the school.
Paul’s letter was addressed to the church in a certain city on this earth, not to the church in the heavenlies. You may say that you are with a church, but are you with an abstract, unseen, invisible church in the heavenlies or with a concrete, visible, practical local church today on this earth in the very place where you are? Many people who talk about the church are churchless. They are talking about a wonderful home in the future in the heavenlies, but today they are homeless. All the Epistles written by the apostles were dealing with the local churches on the earth. All of us need to be in a local church where we can practice the proper Christian life today.
The apostle Paul was a pattern of a lover of the church. The church in Corinth spoke evil concerning Paul behind his back. They said that he was crafty in making gain, indemnifying himself by sending Titus to receive the collection for the poor saints (12:16). If the brothers in your locality were to say that you were crafty and that you took them by guile, you might want to leave that locality. If you did leave, this would mean that you are not a real lover of the church. Despite the Corinthians speaking such an evil word about him, Paul still loved them. In 12:15 he said, “But I, I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent on behalf of your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved less?” For Paul to spend was to spend what he had, referring to his possessions. For him to be spent was to spend what he was, referring to his being. Paul was very frank, pure, and sincere, yet the church to whom he ministered said that he was crafty. He was not happy with this, but he was not offended. He still loved the church.
A real, proper mother could be unhappy with her children, but she would not be offended and leave them, because she loves them. If we would be those following Paul, who is a pattern of the believers (1 Tim. 1:16), we have to love the church in spite of the way that we are treated by the church. If the church in your locality treated you in a bad way, it would be easy for you to have the attitude to withdraw from the church. Some saints do not come to the church meetings because they are offended by a certain brother. This shows that they have never seen what the church, the Body of Christ, is. They have never seen what the local expression of the Body is. If you do see this, you would never be offended because of the way the church treats you. You would still love the church. It may be that the more you love the church, the less the church returns to you. You may feel that you are “losing face” to continue meeting and going on with the church in your locality. This shows that you are not a church lover but that you love to save your own face. If you loved the church, you would not consider how to save your face. If you have the vision concerning the local expression of the Body of Christ on this earth in the place where you are, you will never be offended by the church.
In 1942 almost the entire church where Brother Watchman Nee was rose up against him. Some brothers came to Brother Nee suggesting that they begin to meet in other places since the saints treated him in such a poor way. Brother Nee told these brothers that if the church treated him well, it was the church, and if the church did not treat him so well, it was still the church. He charged these brothers to meet with the church and go on with the church regardless of how the church treated him. I can testify before the Lord that Brother Nee still loved the church during this time. He did many things secretly to help the church, which was so much against him. Praise the Lord that after six years, in 1948, the whole church repented to him. If you love the church, you would love it regardless of how it treats you simply because it is the expression of the Body of Christ.
The apostle Paul said that he was so glad to spend whatever he had and whatever he was. He loved the church to such an extent. If we do not love the church as the apostle Paul did, we actually have no position to talk about the church. If we are going to practice the church life and we do mean business with the Lord, we have to love the church with all that we have and with all that we are. We have to spend all that we have and all that we are on the church and for the church. May the Lord be gracious and merciful to us. If we mean business with the Lord in having a local expression of His Body, we cannot have it in a way of indifference. We should be able to tell the Lord that we love His Body more than ourselves. If we are this kind of person, we are in a position to talk about the church. We do not need theoretical teachings concerning the church, but we need the practical life of the church.
One brother I know of, who came to know the local expression of the Body of Christ, would spend all his time for the church life, using just enough of his time to make a living for himself and his family. This brother and his wife wholly loved the church. They were willing to spend everything for the church and be spent. We should not be vain talkers concerning the church life, but we need to be involved in the practical life of the church. Do we really mean business to practice the church life on this earth today, or are we just talkers about some wonderful teachings concerning the church with no practicality? If we mean business with the Lord, we have to love the church with every drop of our blood. Paul was willing to spend and be spent on behalf of the church in Corinth in spite of the fact that the more he loved them, the less they loved him. This brother was a pattern as a lover of the church.
In 2 Corinthians 11:28 Paul said, “Apart from the things which have not been mentioned, there is this: the crowd of cares pressing upon me daily, the anxious concern for all the churches.” Paul loved all the churches in all the different cities. He had a real care and a sincere anxious concern for all of them. If we want 2 Corinthians to be our experience, we must be one with the church and love it unconditionally.
The tenth aspect of a person living in the spirit is that he is a taster of Christ. If we are going to love the church, we have to experience Christ. We have to be the tasters of Christ. Then we will have something of Christ to minister to the church which we love. In 2 Corinthians there is the aspect of loving the church and even more the aspect of tasting Christ, enjoying Christ, experiencing Christ. Paul received many visions and revelations; he tells us that he was “caught away to the third heaven” (12:2) and that he was “caught away into Paradise” (v. 4). As a man living on earth, the apostle knew the things of the earth. But men do not know the things either in the heavens or in Paradise, the pleasant part of Hades (Luke 23:43; 16:23, 25). However, the apostle was caught away to both of these unknown places. Hence, he received visions and revelations of these hidden regions. For this reason he mentions these two uttermost parts of the universe.
These visions and revelations, however, did not qualify Paul to be a lover of the church. It is not the visions and revelations that qualify us to be a lover of the church, but the experience, the tasting, the enjoyment, of Christ. After he had received the visions and revelations, Paul said, “Because of the transcendence of the revelations, in order that I might not be exceedingly lifted up, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he might buffet me, in order that I might not be exceedingly lifted up” (2 Cor. 12:7). Paul asked the Lord three times to take away the thorn in his flesh. The Lord would not take the thorn away, however, in order that Paul might taste, or enjoy, Him as grace and experience His power. The Lord’s reply to Paul was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (v. 9). This was not a vision or a revelation but experience.
Today what the Body of Christ needs is not a group of people who merely have the visions and the revelations, but who have the practical experience of Christ. The Body needs those who enjoy Christ, who taste Christ, in a very experiential way. It is through this experience that we have something of Christ practically to minister to His Body. Revelations and visions alone will not work. The apostle Paul had the visions, yet he had to be put “into the oven.” If you say that you have the visions and the revelations, be prepared to be put into the oven. Sufferings and trials are often in the Lord’s ordination for us, that we may experience Christ as grace and power. The Lord allows a thorn to come upon us so that we may experience the power of Christ in our weakness.
Today the church needs a group of brothers and sisters who are under the pressure, the thorn, to experience Christ in a practical way. We need to experience Him as the all-sufficient grace meeting our need in every kind of environment, and we need to taste Him, experiencing His power being perfected in our weakness. To magnify the sufficiency of the Lord’s grace, our sufferings are required; to show forth the perfectness of the Lord’s power, our weakness is needed. It is through our experience of Christ as grace and power that we will have something real of Christ to minister to His Body, which we love. If we are lovers of the church, we have to be the tasters of Christ. Otherwise, we will have nothing to minister to the church. What we have to minister to the church is only the very Christ whom we have enjoyed, whom we have experienced. We need the practical experience of Christ in the midst of our suffering. The ministry is constituted with, and produced and formed by, the experiences of the riches of Christ through sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work of the cross.
