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I. The all-inclusive Christ being the divine dispensing as the foundation for the building up of the church, uplifting and supplying the believers with the nourishing element for their growth in life — 6-7, 1 Cor. 3:11:
1 Corinthians 3:11
For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7
I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. (7) So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth.
А. Not only as the foundation for saints to be built up — 1 Cor. 3:12a.
1 Corinthians 3:12a
But if anyone builds upon the foundation...
B. But also becoming the divine dispensing, which transforms the believers in the divine life into the precious materials for the building up of the church — 1 Cor. 3:12b.
1 Corinthians 3:12b
...gold, silver, precious stones...
II. The all-inclusive Christ equipping the believers with the divine dispensing of the Spirit, who dispenses the spiritual gifts to the believers, supplying them with the spiritual capacity, for the building up of the Body of Christ — 1 Cor. 12:4, 7-11:
1 Corinthians 12:4
But there are distinctions of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11
But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable. (8) For to one through the Spirit a word of wisdom is given, and to another a word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; (9) to a different one faith in the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing in the one Spirit, (10) and to another operations of works of power, and to another prophecy, and to another discerning of spirits; to a different one various kinds of tongues, and to another interpretation of tongues. (11) But the one and the same Spirit operates all these things, distributing to each one respectively even as He purposes.
А. Not only having a part in the Lord’s ministry in the building up of His Body through the gifts and functions of the dispensing Spirit — 1 Cor. 12:5.
1 Corinthians 12:5
And there are distinctions of ministries, yet the same Lord.
B. But also having a part in the operation by which God accomplishes His eternal economy through the same gifts and functions — 1 Cor. 12:6.
1 Corinthians 12:6
And there are distinctions of operations, but the same God, who operates all things in all.
III. The divine dispensing of the all-inclusive Christ in the beholding of His glory by the believers who seek after Him and serve Him, enabling them to receive His divine element and be transformed into His image from glory to glory — 2 Cor. 3:18:
2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
А. Constituting them ministers of the New Testament for the building up of the Body of Christ — 2 Cor. 3:6.
2 Corinthians 3:6
Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
B. Enabling them to bear the New Testament ministry, which bears Christ’s glorious image and which dispenses Him — 2 Cor. 4:1.
2 Corinthians 4:1
Therefore having this ministry as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart.
IV. The all-inclusive Christ being the divine dispensing as the treasure within the believers in their serving and preaching of Him — 2 Cor. 4:7a:
2 Corinthians 4:7a
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels...
А. Constituting them ministers of the New Testament — 2 Cor. 3:6.
2 Corinthians 3:6
Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
B. Enabling them with the excelling power to fulfill their New Testament ministry of the preaching of the gospel for the building up of the church — 2 Cor. 4:7b, 2-4.
2 Corinthians 4:7b
...that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.
2 Corinthians 4:2-4
But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God. (3) And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those who are perishing, (4) in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine on them.
V. The all-inclusive Christ being the divine dispensing as God’s sufficient grace to be Christ’s power — 2 Cor. 12:9:
2 Corinthians 12:9
And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.
А. Not only as the believers’ power for laboring more abundantly for God — 1 Cor. 15:10.
1 Corinthians 15:10
But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.
B. But also becoming the rich enjoyment and harvest of the believers in their labor for God — 1 Cor. 15:58.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
We have received a vision. Our God has a divine economy, which is to dispense Himself in Christ to His chosen ones, those who believe in Him. From the time that we were saved and regenerated, Christ who is the embodiment of God has been dispensed into us to be our life, our supply, and everything to us so that we are righteous, we are sanctified, and we are redeemed. This is not human ethics, philosophy, or religion. Rather, it is the Triune God processed and dispensed into us and then living out from us. Now we are children of God and members of Christ. Daily we receive the transfusion from Christ, and moment by moment we receive the nourishment of life. As a result, we grow in the life of God, and we are coordinated and built up together to be a corporate vessel, which is the church, the Body of Christ, and the habitation of God. This is the goal of God’s economy.
For this reason, after we are regenerated, we have to learn to not live by ourselves but to live by Christ, daily living a life of death and resurrection. In this way God’s element can be added into us day by day, and we can be gradually delivered from the natural self. When we live Christ in this way, the church will be manifested.
Now we will pick out some important verses from 1 and 2 Corinthians to prove that Christ becomes our life within and our living without for the purpose of building up His church.
First Corinthians 3:11 says, “Another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Christ is God’s unique foundation for the building up of the church. He is a living foundation stone that supports the church. At the same time that He is supporting the church, He is also supplying the church (vv. 6-7). He supplies the need of our life within so that we grow by Him. Through this, we are also being supported together.
From 1 Corinthians 3 we can see the growth and the building up of the church. On one hand, the church is God’s cultivated land. This cultivated land will produce plant life when there is planting, watering, and growth. On the other hand, the church is God’s building, with precious minerals, such as gold, silver, and precious stones, as proper materials for the building. From the growth of the plants to the building up of the minerals, there is a transformation process. Hence, Christ is not only the foundation for the believers to be built up (v. 12a); He is also the divine dispensing by which the believers are transformed in the divine life into the precious materials of the church (v. 12b). The more we receive Christ’s dispensing and grow in God’s life, the more our inward nature will be transformed by God’s element to become the material for the building up of the church.
First Corinthians 12:4 says, “There are distinctions of gifts, but the same Spirit.” From this we can see that the spiritual gifts are distributed by the Spirit. This is why we have to learn to live in the spirit and not in ourselves so that the Spirit will have the ground to spread within us. This spreading Spirit will become our gift. For this reason, when you come to the meeting, I would strongly exhort all of you to first learn to pray. This is the simplest thing to do. Second, you have to learn to testify. Third, you have to learn to prophesy for the Lord. If you would practice this way and would seize the opportunity to pray, testify, or prophesy in the meeting, the gift of the Holy Spirit will be able to spread within you, and spontaneously your function will be realized.
For many years among us, we have spoken about the church services, and we have encouraged the saints to participate in them. But the church services that we talked about were mostly business affairs, such as cleaning, hall arranging, ushering, and hospitality. These things do have their place. But the real service of the church lies not so much in the business affairs as in the spiritual matters. While you are taking care of this special conference, it is right for you to do your best to meet the needs in the business affairs. But when you come to the meetings, you should release your spirit, and you should pray in a strong way, one after another. Your testimonies should be to the point, and your prophesying should be with much content. If you practice this way again and again, exercising your spirit, your mind, your utterance, and your boldness, the meetings will be rich. Only then will the whole church be able to enter the spiritual service. The main thing with the spiritual service is the preaching of the gospel to save sinners, the feeding of the lambs, the mutual shepherding and perfecting, and the prophesying for the Lord. When all the saints have been equipped by the spiritual gifts distributed by the Spirit, the gospel will spread more prevailingly; more saints will be nourished, cared for, and perfected; and the meetings will become more living and rich.
First Corinthians 12 shows that Christ is the Head of His Body, equipping and supplying every one of His members with the Spirit, who distributes the spiritual gifts, that they would not only be able to participate, by the gift and capacity of the distributing Spirit, in the Lord’s ministry of the building up of the Body of Christ (v. 5), but by the same gift and function, would also be able to participate in the operation for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy (v. 6), unto the building up of the Body of Christ. For this reason we have to continually receive the dispensing of the Spirit within us and go along with the operation of the Spirit so that the gift of the Spirit can spread within us. By this, the spiritual function will be realized, and we will have a part in the ministry of the building up of the church.
Thus, we can see that today it is not a matter of our waiting for God or for the Spirit; rather, it is Christ, the Spirit, who distributes the spiritual gifts, who is waiting for us. Hence, in the meetings or outside the meetings, we have to move with the Spirit when He flows within us. By this way, not only will all of us be able to serve in the meetings, but we will also be full of spiritual service outside the meetings.
Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” When we behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, the Lord will also unveil Himself and will transfuse us with what He is. We all have this kind of experience. Particularly in the morning, when we open ourselves to the Lord and fellowship with Him face to face, the riches of the Lord will be dispensed into us, and we will be transformed gradually into His glorious image. In this way we will be constituted ministers of the New Testament for the building up of the Body of Christ (v. 6). We will be able to help others come to salvation and help them to grow and be perfected. We will also be able to have the New Testament ministry, which bears the glorious image of Christ and which dispenses Christ (4:1).
As we are being gradually constituted ministers of the New Testament, we will be able to take up the New Testament ministry. Only then will we be able to bring our acquaintances to believe in the Lord and to be saved. Only then will we be able to nourish the newly saved believers and to teach and perfect the saints one by one. In this way we will become a person with the New Testament ministry. Among us, if more are like this, the condition of the church will be greatly changed. Not only should we have some spiritual service in the meetings, but we should have spiritual service anywhere and everywhere in our daily life outside the meetings. For us to have a job is simply to make a living. Our real profession is to serve the Lord. The opportunity to serve in the meetings is limited, but in the daily life there are many opportunities for us to dispense Christ to others.
Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us.” The treasure here is the glorious Christ, who is the embodiment of God becoming our life and everything to us. He is living within us, the believers, and He is full of operations. He supplies us continually with the excelling power through His dispensing, constituting us, the worthless and weak vessels, as ministers of the New Testament (3:6) so that we can fulfill our New Testament ministry, which is the preaching of the gospel for the building up of the church (4:7b, 2-4).
Second Corinthians 12:9a says, “He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” The grace here is Christ Himself, who has passed through death and resurrection, dispensed into us in resurrection and becoming our supply and enjoyment. It is by this grace that Paul labored more abundantly than the other apostles. He labored much for God, yet he says that it was not him but the grace of God being with him (1 Cor. 15:10). Hence, for the living and service of the church, we need to daily contact and fellowship with Christ as God’s grace so that His riches can be continually dispensed into us as the grace that we enjoy. In this way we will have the power of Christ tabernacling over us; we will be able to labor more for God and to do what the Lord wants us to do. In the end the all-inclusive Christ will become our rich enjoyment in our labor for God, and we will reap an abounding harvest (v. 58), which is the perfecting of the saints and the building up of the church.
