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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:8-12; 1 Cor. 3:6-12; 1 Pet. 2:2-5; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:12-13, 15-16; Col. 2:19; Rev. 22:1-2
After the first two chapters I hope that we are all clear about one thing: in this universe God desires to build Himself into man and to build man into Himself so that God and man may be mingled together to be one entity. This is the spiritual building, the house of God, which God intends to build in the universe. It is not only the habitation of God but also the dwelling place of man. God dwells in man, who is in union with God, and takes man as His dwelling place. Likewise, man dwells in God, who is in union with man, and takes God as his habitation. Therefore, this building is produced by the building of God with man to be the mutual abode of God and man. All of God’s work among men for the past six thousand years is for this building.
Now we want to see how God accomplishes this work. In other words, we want to see how God builds this building. We have said that God’s building is arrived at through the mingling of God and man. God mingles Himself with man, and He mingles man with Himself; this is building. But how does God mingle Himself with man? God mingles Himself with us and becomes one with us by coming into us in the form of food to be our life.
The best way for anything to be mingled with us is for it to be eaten by us. For example, if you want a chicken or an apple to be mingled with you and to become one with you, the best way is to eat it so that it will be digested to become your blood, bones, flesh, skin, and all the elements within you. In this way you and the food that you have eaten are mingled together and become one. Therefore, the best way for something outside of us to be mingled with us is for it to be eaten by us.
Please remember that in order to be mingled and built with us, God takes this one way — He comes in the form of food to be eaten by us. God desires that man’s relationship with Him would not be characterized by man worshipping Him or doing things for Him; rather, God desires that man would take Him in as food so that He would be digested in man and become man’s inner constitution. According to the Scriptures, the first time God appeared to man was not as a God for man to worship but as a tree of life for man to eat. After man was created, God put him in front of this tree of life (Gen. 2:9). God meant for man to eat Him, to receive this life as food into him.
When we first read the Bible and came to Genesis 2, we may not have understood what it meant. However, in light of the New Testament, especially the Gospel of John, it is very clear. The Gospel of John says that “in Him was life” (1:4) and that the Lord came that we may have life (10:10). The Lord Jesus Himself also told people clearly that He is the bread of life and that he who eats Him shall live because of Him (6:35, 48, 57). The Lord’s word shows that just as food is daily eaten by us so that we may live by it, He also wants to be received into us in the form of food so that we may live because of Him. Therefore, the Gospel of John repeatedly uses the word in. For example: “You in Me, and I in you” (14:20), and “You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (17:21). These ins reveal that the Lord wants to come into us and wants us to enter into Him so that He and we may be mingled together and become one.
When God mingles Himself with us in the form of food, the result is that we grow in life. This matter is not difficult to understand. All of us are about five to six feet tall. When we were born, however, we were only about one foot in length. How did we grow to be so tall now? It is altogether because we have continually been putting things into us, and these things have been mingled with us. The more there is this mingling, the more we grow. These things that are mingled with us were previously different kinds of food and were not our constituents. But after they were eaten and received into us, they were digested to become our blood, our cells, and all kinds of elements within us. Through this process this food is completely mingled with us and causes us to grow.
The growth of our spiritual life is in accordance with the same principle. Colossians 2:19 says explicitly that we grow with the growth of God. If daily we draw near to God, enjoy God, and receive Him into us as food and drink, then He will mingle Himself with us. This mingling causes the element of God to increase in us, and in this way our spiritual life will grow more and more.
God’s purpose in coming into us in the form of food to be mingled with us as our life and to grow in us is to build a temple, which is the house of God. Therefore, in the Scriptures we often see that growth and building are linked together.
Nearly all the verses listed at the beginning of the chapter refer to both growth and building. First Corinthians 3:9 says, “You are God’s cultivated land, God’s building.” As God’s cultivated land, we need to grow; as God’s building, we need to be built up. Therefore, growth is building, and building is growth; these two things cannot be separated. Hence, Ephesians 2 says that this spiritual house, this dwelling place of God, is built up by growing (vv. 21-22), just as our body reaches its full stature by growing. Moreover, 1 Peter 2 says that having been saved and having put away sins, we need to long for the spiritual milk so that we may grow (vv. 1-2). Following this, it says that as living stones we are being built up as a spiritual house (v. 5). Ephesians 4:12-13 says, “Unto the building up of the Body of Christ, until we all arrive...at a full-grown man.” Without growth, there is no building up. The more we grow, the more we are built up. When we are fully grown, then the building will be complete. Hence, God’s growth and mingling in us are God’s building.
Brothers and sisters, this principle is very practical. Today many in the church are short of the building mainly because they do not have enough growth in life. Too many Christians are without adequate growth in life. We often meet some brothers and sisters who have the life of God in them, yet there is no growth. Sometimes when we meet such a one, we even wonder if he is saved. Yet he truly has been saved. He has confessed that he is a sinner and has received the Lord Jesus as his Savior. Indeed, his sins have been forgiven, and he has the life of the Lord in him. Nevertheless, he has no growth, no progress. Today he is exactly the same as he was five years ago. We sometimes refer to someone being an “old child.” What is an “old child”? A child who is one year old is not an “old child,” but after ten years he still looks like a one-year-old, then he is an “old child.” And after twenty years if he is still so small, then he is an “old child” even more. There are too many “old-child” Christians among the brothers and sisters! Sometimes we see a believer who looks like a newly saved one, but when we inquire a little bit, we are surprised that he has already been saved for twenty years. He is as immature as he was twenty years ago. Such a one is an “old-child” Christian.
One thing is certain — Christians who have no growth have never been built up. When you met such a one twenty years ago, he was either blaming this brother for being wrong or criticizing that sister for being improper. Today, twenty years later, when you see him again, he still has no other topic except the mistakes and defects of others. This proves that he has not grown one bit. As a result, we cannot see any building in him. Such a person who is without growth and building is surely a peculiar member in the church. You sense that he is not a stone built into the house but a stone lying beside the house. He is individualistic, secluded, and unable to be one with others. Therefore, he is a member who is detached from the Body of Christ. Furthermore, in the church he is as round, shiny, and slippery as a marble and therefore cannot be blended with others. I surely have met brothers and sisters like this.
This condition is due to the lack of growth. Experience shows that as long as you have a little growth in life, you can love the brothers and sisters and bear with them. In this way you will be able to be with others in the church. If in your eyes none of the brothers are good or lovable, this shows that you lack the element of God within you and are short of growth in life. This also shows that you have not been eating, drinking, and enjoying God for a prolonged period of time.
Thank God, however, that although man has so many difficulties, God still will do His work. We may refuse to grow, but God has a way to make us grow. For example, someone may suddenly be hit by a car and knocked to the ground while riding a bicycle. This accident may result in an injury that is not too serious but not insignificant either. As a result, while this person is lying in the hospital, he will begin to have a desire for God. At this moment spontaneously he will open his inner being a small crack to let God in. On his bed he will pray and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness, thus restoring his fellowship with the Lord. He may be sorrowful and even weep while he prays, yet within he will also feel sweet. As this is happening, the element of God within him will increase a little bit. At that time, not only will he love God, but he will also love the brothers. While he is lying on the hospital bed, he will look forward to seeing the brothers and sisters. If some brothers and sisters come to visit him, instead of feeling disgusted with them, he will feel that all of them are lovable. All of them will be blended and become inseparable.
Dear brothers and sisters, we have to see, therefore, that the real building comes from growth. The more growth there is, the more building there will be. Worldly people form associations and join themselves together, but this is absolutely not what we mean by being built together. Our being built together is altogether by the life we have in common. When this life grows in you and also in me, then we grow together with one another. The more you grow in this life, the more you will love your brothers and sisters and be joined to them, even glued together with them. When you and your brothers and sisters are glued together, it will be impossible to be separated. Hence, building comes from growth.
In order to grow in life and be built together, we must pay attention to this one thing — growing up into Christ in all things. Concerning the building of the church, Ephesians 4:15 says that we need to grow up into Christ, the Head, in all things. We have been saved, and we are in the Lord, but we have to confess that even up to the present, in many things we have not yet grown up into the Lord. For example, many of us have not yet grown up into the Lord in the matter of speaking, although we have been saved for many years. Please look at your real situation and consider how loose your speaking is. You may refrain from speaking defiling words and insulting words, but in the matter of speaking, your mouth and your tongue have never been restricted and regulated by God. You say things and spread words as you please.
One thing that often makes me sad is that words are spread much too quickly among the brothers and sisters. Many say that they cannot pray and read the Word properly because they are too busy. Someone may be so busy that he comes to the meetings only once a month. But the strange thing is that when the same person engages in idle talk and the spreading of rumors, this one can speak for three hours without end. Such a brother or sister does not know what it means to have a circumcised tongue. In the church much trouble is caused and much death is produced from idle talk. This means that our speech is unrestricted and has not been dealt with and that we have not grown up into Christ, the Head, in the matter of speaking.
However, if you have learned this lesson and have grown up into Christ in the matter of speaking, when you contact and speak with others, Christ will be your confinement and your restriction, and He will guard your lips. You will sense that the Lord is not only your dwelling place but also your prison. Just as Paul said that he was a prisoner in Christ (3:1; 4:1), so everyone who abides in Christ is a prisoner in Christ, and as such, he cannot act freely or speak loosely.
This one thing is certain: when a person who is restricted in his words testifies for God or offers prayers and praises to the Lord, his mouth is open and his tongue is quick. Whenever he touches the things of God and the testimony of the Lord, his mouth is enlivened. This is because he is a person who is in the Lord and is growing up into Christ, the Head, in the matter of speaking.
This is not only the case in the matter of speaking, but it should be so in every matter of our daily living. Husbands, are you in the Lord in your dealing with your wife? Wives, are you in the Lord and do you grow up into Him in the way you treat your husband at home? Children, does your attitude toward your parents show that you are in the Lord? Is it under His restriction? Masters, are you in the Lord in the way you treat your servants? The book of Ephesians shows that those who are masters must treat their servants with fairness in the Lord. In this matter, are we in the Lord in our words, in our attitude, in the tone of our voice, and in our intention and thoughts? Those of you who are government employees, how do you deal with your supervisors and colleagues? Are you loyal to your agency and to your job? Do you go to work on time? Do you perform your tasks faithfully? Do you bear your responsibilities seriously? Do you bear the difficulties with endurance? Do you really look like a person who is in Christ? This is the big question. Dear brothers and sisters, in all things we must grow up into Christ, the Head. If in a certain matter we are not growing up into Christ, then in that matter we cannot be joined to the saints. The more we grow up in all things, the more we are being joined to the saints.
We have to see, therefore, that the real building of the house of God depends on our growth in life. The more we grow, the more we are built up. Our growth in life is the increase of God in us. In the illustration that we gave earlier, the brother who was in the accident with the car was a saved person and had God as his life. Yet his heart was closed and hardened toward God, so God had no way to increase in him. God was put aside and had no place in him. However, after he was hit by a car and was hurt, while he was in suffering and in pain, he opened his inner being a little to let God in. When he prayed and fellowshipped with the brothers, the element of God in him increased, and he grew a little more.
Of course, this is an unusual illustration. God’s desire is that our heart would be open to Him, soft toward Him, and longing for Him and that we would draw near to Him, eat Him, drink Him, enjoy Him, and digest Him inwardly so that daily we would grow with the increase of God. Furthermore, God’s desire is that in all things we would learn to grow up into Christ, the Head, to submit under His authority, and to be under His ruling. If we would be serious about learning the lessons in all these matters, then God would be able to do the building work in us daily.
Let us now go back and meditate on the picture in Genesis 2. In this picture there was the tree of life in front of Adam, and there was also the river flowing. Wherever the river flowed, there was gold, pearl, and precious stones. Is this not also the scenery of the New Jerusalem? In the New Jerusalem we see the same three kinds of materials — the street is pure gold, the wall is built with precious stones, and the gates are pearls. Furthermore, a river of water of life flows in the middle of the street, and on this side and on that side of the river is the tree of life, producing and yielding its fruit each month (Rev. 22:1-2). These two corresponding pictures show that God does not use other materials for His building. He uses only gold, pearl, and precious stones. Gold denotes the nature of God, pearl denotes the new creation regenerated in Christ, and the precious stones denote the Holy Spirit’s constituting work. This means that the church must be built in the Triune God with His elements. Not only so, the two pictures also show that gold, pearl, and precious stones are related to the flow of the river of water of life. They are the issues of the flowing of the river of water of life. The constant flowing of the life of God issues in gold, pearl, and precious stones and in the building up of the eternal building of God.
May the Lord have mercy on us to show us this vision so that we may daily live in God, eat God, drink God, and enjoy God, allowing God to move in us and to become one with us. This is to allow the tree of life and the water of life to continually supply us and flow within us. As a result, the element of God will be constituted into us, and we will be transformed within into gold, pearl, and precious stones. The more the element of God increases in us, the more we will grow and also the more there will be the building. When we are full-grown and fully built up, we will manifest the glory of God and become the expression of the New Jerusalem.
