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I. The divine dispensing of God’s plan in His economy (dispensation) in preaching to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel:
А. To bring to light what is the economy (dispensation) of the mystery, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things.
B. To bring in the church for the manifestation of God’s multifarious wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies — Eph. 3:8-10.
Ephesians 3:8-10
To me, less than the least of all saints, was this grace given to announce to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel (9) and to enlighten all that they may see what the economy of the mystery is, which throughout the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things, (10) in order that now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies the multifarious wisdom of God might be made known through the church.
II. The divine dispensing of the apostles’ stewardship in ministering to the Gentile believers the riches of Christ as God’s grace, that:
А. The mystery of Christ — the church — may be manifested.
B. The Gentile believers may become fellow heirs and fellow members of the Body and fellow partakers of God’s promise in Christ — Eph. 3:2-6.
Ephesians 3:2-6
If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God which was given to me for you, (3) that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I have written previously in brief, (4) by which, in reading it, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ, (5) which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in spirit, (6) that in Christ Jesus the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the Body and fellow partakers of the promise through the gospel.
III. The apostles’ stewardship perfecting the saints unto the work of the New Testament ministry — the building up of the Body of Christ — Eph. 4:11-12.
Ephesians 4:11-12
And He Himself gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as shepherds and teachers, (12) for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the Body of Christ.
The apostle Paul wrote the book of Ephesians in a very meaningful way. In chapter 1 he shows how the Body of Christ is produced and exists out of the dispensing of the Triune God. Then in chapter 2 he begins from another angle to show the history of those who have been worked on by God’s dispensing to become the Body of Christ. With that as the background, he shows that the church, a precious thing that was produced out of God’s dispensing, is a masterpiece, a most beautiful poem in the universe, that the angels love to sing. Whenever the angels see a sinner saved, they sing. When they see the church, they will surely sing all the more. Then Paul shows that in Christ’s death and resurrection He used His divine element as the material to produce a universal new man. Finally, this masterpiece, this new man that can accomplish God’s eternal economy, is brought to God in one Spirit, having drawn near to God, without any barrier whatsoever, and remains in the presence of God to receive God’s continual and eternal dispensing. Like a steady stream, God dispenses Himself little by little into those who have a part in this new man. It is this continual, steady, eternal dispensing that coordinates them together, constitutes them together, and builds them up together. This built-up church is God’s kingdom on earth for the executing of His administration. It is also the household for the dispensing of His love, and as such, it becomes His eternal habitation in our spirit. After reading the first two chapters, we should have a clear view concerning the church.
In chapter 3 Paul goes on to show from another angle how God’s dispensing is executed and carried out. He speaks of God’s mystery in eternity, and this mystery is His economy. God’s dispensing is fully something that is in His economy, something in His plan, something in His purpose and arrangement. In order to carry out this dispensing and for the execution of this dispensing, the Triune God selected some with whom He was pleased and whom He could use and made them His dispensers, richly bestowing upon them His grace. Through God’s rich grace there was an operation of God’s power within these people. These apostles and prophets then fulfilled their ministry according to the operation of God. Under such circumstances the ministry of these ones is called the stewardship. They are the stewards because they are there to execute God’s dispensing.
In Greek the word for economy (oikonomia) denotes a household law, a household administration. The function of such a household administration is to manage all the riches of the household so that these riches will be distributed to the family members and that the lord of the house will be satisfied and have his desires fulfilled. In order to accomplish this, God has arranged to have many apostles and prophets to be stewards in His household management to manage the distribution of the riches of His great family so that all the members of His family, that is, those who have a part in this family, will be able to share in the riches of God’s great household and thus satisfy His desire.
The apostle Paul was indeed such a steward. He exercised his stewardship to dispense God’s rich grace, that is, the unsearchable riches of Christ, to others. Hence, Paul’s stewardship was the execution of God’s economy. In 3:9 the word oikonomia is translated “economy,” whereas in 3:2 it is translated “stewardship.” It is the same word, oikonomia, but it is translated differently. God’s economy, God’s universal household administration, is to distribute God’s unlimited riches in Christ. Paul says that he received a special commission, a special grace, and a special operation to transmit the unsearchable riches of Christ to the Gentiles chosen by God. This was his stewardship. Hence, the stewardship is God’s economy. The execution of God’s economy depends on the stewardship. Without the stewardship God has no way to execute His economy. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This means that it is built on the revelation and the vision that they saw. This is similar to what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 16:18. He would build His church upon “this rock.” That rock is not mainly the rock itself but the revelation concerning the rock. Peter told the Lord, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). That revelation became the foundation of the building up of the church. The revelation and vision that the apostles saw is the foundation for the building up of the church. Upon this foundation are built all the riches of Christ. These are the unsearchable riches of Christ. The unsearchable riches of Christ are the unlimited grace of God. However, these riches, that is, this grace, are not the direct material for the building; they must first be embodied in the individual believers, making these improper and useless believers the materials for the building up of the church.
For this reason there must be a process of transformation. First Corinthians 3 reveals that the believers originally are plants, but through the process of transformation by the riches of Christ and by His life, these plants become minerals. They are transformed from plants to be gold, silver, and precious stones. According to the scriptural principle, precious materials are not created but are transformed from some previous elements. This process of transformation is a process of dispensing. The apostle Paul and his co-workers bore the responsibility to be the stewards in God’s great family to execute this dispensing, which dispenses the riches of the great household, that is, the riches of Christ, bit by bit to all of us. This dispensing was given to those in the ancient times as well as to those in this age. After we enjoy all these riches, these riches produce a transformation within us. Paul also uses this term in Romans 12:2, which says, “Do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” We must be transformed from wood, grass, and stubble to gold, silver, and precious stones before we are qualified to be the materials for the building up of the church. Paul warns us that the foundation is laid and that another foundation no one is able to lay. But when we build upon this foundation, we have to take heed with what materials we build. Do we build with wood, grass, and stubble or with gold, silver, and precious stones? If there is not much gold, silver, or precious stones but much wood, grass, and stubble, the judgment day will come, and the Lord’s judging fire will be a test as to which parts will remain and which parts will be burned (1 Cor. 3:10-15). Paul says clearly in 1 Corinthians 3 that the work of some will be consumed. But this does not mean that these ones will perish. We are not saved by our works but by the redemption of the Lord. However, if one’s work is consumed, his salvation will be one that is “as through fire.” What will remain are the gold, silver, and precious stones. Gold refers to the Father’s nature, silver refers to the Son’s redemption, and precious stones refer to the transformation of the Spirit, which produces precious stones. Hence, to use gold, silver, and precious stones for the building of the church is to use the Triune God as the element for building. Today the Triune God is embodied in Christ. All the fullness dwells in Christ bodily. What we have received from the apostles is a divine dispensing, which dispenses all the divine riches in Christ into us. As we come to God’s Word, we receive the dispensing of this word, which dispenses the riches of the divine element of Christ into us. Within this dispensing are holiness, righteousness, redemption, and many other things. This is clearly revealed in the New Testament.
At the end of the New Testament we see the coming New Jerusalem. The entire city proper bears the golden nature of God. It is a golden city built upon a golden hill. The twelve gates are twelve pearls, which refer to the dispensing of life in the death and resurrection of Christ. This can be seen from the way an oyster produces pearls. When an oyster is wounded by a piece of sand, it secretes its life element around the sand, eventually producing a pearl. This typifies Christ secreting His life in resurrection to embrace us, making us the pearls. The wall of the New Jerusalem on four sides is built with jasper, which has the same appearance as God. Thus, the city fully transmits God’s glory and expresses God’s image. Such a city concludes the revelation concerning Christ in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. This Christ is ultimately enlarged and expanded to become a city. This enlargement and expansion is the church. The church is His enlargement, continuation, and completion. When we see and understand the New Jerusalem, we will realize that the result of the stewardship of the apostles in dispensing the riches of Christ is the church. The ultimate consummation of this church is the New Jerusalem. This is the dispensing that we are speaking of here.
The dispensing began with God’s economy. Before the ages God, in the universe, had a desire in Himself, which was to work Himself into His chosen, created, redeemed, and regenerated people that He might be their life and their divine element. Although they are human, these people are born of God to have God’s nature and God’s life and to thus become God’s genuine children. As such, these people become God’s expression, and this expression becomes the Body of Christ, which is also the fullness of Christ. This fullness is the riches of the Triune God fully worked into His chosen, regenerated, and transformed people. In order to accomplish this, God in His economy must have an arrangement and a plan, and He must find some faithful and useful ones and entrust this responsibility to them. Among them the most important group are the first apostles. God gave them the stewardship so that they would be responsible to dispense all the riches of Christ to God’s children, that is, to the Body of Christ. Paul’s fourteen Epistles are a full revelation. They show how Paul and his co-workers carried out the stewardship of distributing the riches of Christ in God’s great household through the writing of the fourteen Epistles. These Epistles bring in an unsearchable and ever-fresh dispensing throughout the ages, even until today. What we are doing and touching here is this same dispensing. We are gathered into His name; that is, we are in His Spirit. Here we gather around His Word to consider the revelation in the Word, especially the vision revealed in the fourteen Epistles of Paul. If we see this vision, we will realize that our need is the riches of Christ dispensed to us by Paul. We do not need any spiritual cultivation or any reformation. We only need to receive this divine dispensing from Paul again and again in a slow and steady way from morning to evening and from evening to morning. Practically speaking, Christ in resurrection is the pneumatic Christ. Hence, everywhere and all the time, He can enter into us, be with us, and be our life and our element within.
Most Christians today have left the proper truth and have turned from the inward dispensing of Christ to human work, merits, and religion. We ourselves have been under this influence and are not free from it even up to today. Whenever we read something from the Bible, we make up our mind to do and to fulfill it. However, such determination should be condemned and rejected. God does not want us to determine to do what the Bible says; He only wants us to receive His dispensing.
Here I would like to read to you Hymns, #501. This hymn expresses very well what I want to say. Stanza 1 says,
Such a One is for our enjoyment, not for our imitation.
He does not live in us to be our pattern. If that were the case, we would have to do something. Instead, He lives in us to be our blessed portion so that we can enjoy Him. Modern nutritionists tell us that we become what we eat. Americans eat a lot of beef. As a result, they even smell like a cow. Whatever we enjoy as our nutrition, we become that very thing. In John 6:57 the Lord Jesus said that he who eats Him will live because of Him. It is those who eat Him, not those who imitate Him. Those who eat Him are those who enjoy Him. The Lord Jesus is edible and drinkable. Those who eat and drink of Him will have Him within them as their life and life nutrients and will be able to live by Him. This is God’s economy and God’s dispensing. This is the goal of the apostle’s work on us — that through his Epistles, he would transfuse us, strengthen us, and dispense to us bit by bit the Christ whom he experienced, not as our example or even as our power but as our nutrition. This nutrition eventually becomes our strength. This is something that results not from our work but from the growth. Stanza 2 says,
If He had not become the Spirit, He could not be one with us. The New Testament says that he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. This is possible because in resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit. Stanza 3 says,
It does not say that He will become our pattern but our experience. His experience is my history. My walk today is a continuation of His history. Stanza 4 says,
He is not conceived as our standard but as our supply. Stanza 5 says,
This means that we have become His duplication. He is duplicated and lived out from within us. He and we become fully one. He is our life within, and we become His living without. In this way He is expressed through us. The last stanza says,
This is to be built up in spirit to become a habitation of God in spirit. This is what God is after, and this is what the stewardship of the apostles strives to attain.
I hope that all the brothers and sisters, whether old or young, whether they were saved recently or have served the Lord for a long time, would see a vision. Today God has no intention that we do anything by ourselves. It is true that whatever He wants us to do, we should do. But God wants us to do everything by depending on Him, by taking Him as life, and by allowing Him to dispense Himself into us. When we enjoy Him and experience Him, we can express Him. This is what God is after. After reading this, you do not need to make up your mind. All you need to do is sit quietly before the Lord. You do not need to kneel down. This does not mean that we must not kneel down. It means that to kneel down is not a necessity. If you remain quietly before the Lord and allow your spirit to reflect within you the light that you have seen in the last few days, you will realize that what you need and lack is not to do something but to receive His dispensing day by day. You need to receive the Lord’s word every day and contact His Spirit. In this way the Lord will become your supply. If you have a bad temper and are used to losing your temper at your wife and children, you may think, “After reading these chapters, I feel really shameful. I have been a Christian for twenty-eight years. Today I still get mad at my wife and children. This is to my shame. When I go home, I have to fast for three days and ask the Lord to save me, to have pity on me, and to change my temper. I do not have the strength in myself. I cannot do it. But I am willing to trust in the Lord and to ask Him to change me.” I can tell you that this prayer will surely not be answered. This kind of prayer is an insult to God. He wants to enter into you to become you and to replace you. You have to hand yourself over to Him. He will then give Himself to you. He will live a grafted life with you. When two trees are grafted together, they do not exchange their lives. Rather, the two lives are mingled as one life, and the two trees are mingled as one tree. Both are living, yet they do not live separately. Rather, they live mutually within one another. The grafted branch lives in the tree, and the tree lives in the grafted branch. The two lives become one life, and the two livings become one living. This is the grafted life, and this is also the mingled life.
Galatians 2:20 speaks of such a life. After saying, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live,” it says, “But it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith.” The life which I now live is a life in which Christ is living Himself out from me. It is true that Christ lives, but He lives in us. We need to see clearly that what the Lord desires is that we and He would be mingled as one. The Lord is our person, and we are His expression; the two become one. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). The center of all of Paul’s Epistles with their thousands of words and instructions is this: Christ living in us and being expressed through us. We do not need to do or to perform anything. This is the stewardship that Paul received. For the past two thousand years he has been doing this work of dispensing on earth. Although he is not with us today, his word is still here. Although he has passed away, he is still speaking. Through these speakings, the riches of the pneumatic Christ are dispensed little by little into us. In this way Christ increases in us, and through this increase we grow in life. In this growth our self, our natural man, is diminished and annulled, and we are delivered from our self and are joined to the saints to be built into God’s habitation, which is the church.
Furthermore, in Ephesians 4 Paul tells us that God has an economy. This economy is for the dispensing of His riches in Christ to His chosen ones who have believed in Him. This economy requires a group of people like the apostles for its execution and fulfillment. But do not think that in God’s economy the stewardship is only entrusted to the apostles and the prophets and that they alone will accomplish the work. The apostles’ stewardship is for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ. If there are some among us who have received this grace to have the apostles’ stewardship, they must remember that they are not here to do everything by themselves. They should learn of the apostle Paul. Paul says that the Head has given gifts to the Body, such as the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. These people are for the perfecting of the saints, that is, for the dispensing of Christ to the other saints, perfecting them to an extent that they may do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is to directly build up the Body of Christ.
Suppose there are three hundred fifty saints meeting here, and we have the church services. I am concerned that all that you understand as church services are just the cleaning of the floor, the washing of the windows, the ushering, etc. Let me ask you, can these be considered the church services? This is difficult to answer. I would like to consider with you if in these business affairs we are distributing Christ to others. In principle, only one thing counts in the church service, which is the distributing of Christ to others. To preach the gospel and to bring people to salvation is definitely to distribute Christ to others. That is surely a church service. After people are saved, they become the new believers, the lambs. We have to feed the lambs. This feeding of the lambs after the gospel preaching is also a distribution of Christ to others. After this, we have to continue to lead them. Not only do we have to feed them for two or three months; we may have to spend a year or two to care for them. Not only do we have to care for them in private, but we also have to bring them to the meetings. This is also to distribute Christ to them. First Corinthians 14 teaches that when the whole church comes together, everyone should have something to present to others. This is not the so-called “worship service” in Christianity but a meeting in which everyone has something to present. Paul says that we can all prophesy, that is, speak for God, speak forth God, and speak God into others one by one. Hence, whenever we come together as the church, everyone has to learn to speak for the Lord. What we see today in Christianity as the Lord’s Day morning worship service is a totally unscriptural practice. The Bible tells us that when the whole church comes together, everyone should have something to present. In other words, everyone should have something to say. To run errands and to manage affairs are not service. In type, those are not the work of the priests but the work of the Levites, the miscellaneous works. The work of the priest is to offer sacrifices, to light the lamps, and to burn incense. Is there a priest who does not offer sacrifices? If one does not offer sacrifices, he is not a priest. Today in the church service we must be able to distribute Christ to others. In the meeting, all you have to do is to say in a proper way, “Christ is my life. He is living a temper-killing life within me. I can never control my temper by myself. Even if I can do it, it does not count in God’s eyes. What God wants is to have Christ live out of me.” For you to speak these few words is for you to minister Christ. But today we have been influenced by our background and environment. We have the wrong concept that on Sunday we have to either speak a long message or not say anything. In the end the more some do not speak, the more they become unable to speak. We must create an atmosphere among us that encourages everyone to speak. If you cannot speak a lot, speak a little. If you cannot speak three sentences, speak one sentence. I say this to make you clear that the church service is to minister Christ to others. For this reason, at the beginning of chapter 3 Paul says that he received a special grace; God gave to him the stewardship of grace that he might minister and dispense God’s grace to others. By chapter 4 he goes on further to describe what the Head has given to the church — the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. All of these are for the perfecting of the saints so that all the saints can participate in the building up of the Body of Christ, the very work that the apostles are entrusted with. In this way does it not mean that after being perfected, every saint in the church becomes an apostle? Do you believe that everyone in the church can minister Christ and that every sister among you can more or less minister Christ and can dispense Christ to others? The answer is definitely yes. Hence, we can all build up the Body of Christ. All those who build up the Body of Christ are either apostles, prophets, evangelists, or shepherds and teachers. In this way all of us become these people. We will all become the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers.
God’s dispensing is for the fulfillment of His eternal plan, which is the building up of the church as His Body and habitation on earth. This is fully a matter of the divine dispensing. This dispensing in His economy is on three levels. First, God in His economy does the dispensing Himself in producing the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers. Second, these gifted ones fulfill their ministry by perfecting the other saints. Third, the perfected saints do the work of the apostles and the prophets, that is, the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ. In this way the dispensing of God can reach its ultimate goal — the building up of the Body of Christ.
