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I. The divine dispensing of God the Father strengthening the believers with power, according to the riches of His glory, through His Spirit into the inner man, that the believers may experience and enjoy:
А. The dispensing of the riches of the glory of God the Father.
B. The dispensing of the operation of the Spirit of God the Father.
C. The dispensing of the strengthening with the divine power — Eph. 3:14-16.
Ephesians 3:14-16
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, (15) of whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, (16) that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man.
II. The divine dispensing of Christ in His making His home in the believers’ hearts through faith, that the believers:
А. Being rooted for growth and grounded for building up in love.
B. May be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth of the universe, which are the immeasurable dimensions of Christ.
C. And to know and experience the divine dispensing of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ.
D. That they may be filled unto all the fullness of God to be the corporate expression of the Triune God — Eph. 3:17-19.
Ephesians 3:17-19
That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) may be full of strength to apprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth are (19) and to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
As we have seen, depending on the context, the Greek word oikonomia can be translated either “economy” (or “dispensation”) or “stewardship.” In God it is a plan, a purpose, and an economy, but when God’s economy comes to the apostles, it becomes a stewardship.
God’s economy is a great matter. It included, first, the creation of the heavens, the earth, and all living creatures to produce the old creation. The work of producing the old creation was done by God Himself alone. But when God comes in to produce the new creation, He works through the principle of incarnation. In other words, He cooperates with man and needs man’s cooperation. God has everything in Himself. But in the new creation He must have man’s cooperation before He can produce anything. He needs man to become one life and one spirit with Him and to be joined and mingled with Him before the new creation can be realized. God must mingle Himself with man in order to realize the new creation. God’s economy is a great matter. In order to carry out such an economy, God must have stewards to serve, to minister, to manage, and to execute His economy. First, this stewardship was entrusted to the apostles. God entrusted His economy to the apostles. When the apostles took up God’s economy, it became a ministry, a stewardship, in them. Our concept may be that only the apostles and other gifted ones are worthy to bear the stewardship of God’s economy and that we, the “small potatoes,” are worthy to do only the cleaning and the ushering work but are unworthy to bear such a stewardship. However, in the light of the New Testament teaching, all the believers are priests, whether Paul or Peter or any other brothers or sisters, old or young (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:5-6). Thus, God’s economy has become the stewardship of all the believers. The apostle Paul and we bear the same stewardship. Although his stewardship may have been greater, he was still just a steward. We are also stewards, being on the same level as he was.
Ephesians 4:11 shows the Head giving all kinds of gifts in ascension. These gifts include the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. In verse 12 there is a sixth title — the saints. The gifted ones mentioned earlier are not there for themselves but for the perfecting of the saints. The saints are not for the apostles. Rather, the apostles are for the saints. If the saints are for the apostles, the same mistake as that committed by the Corinthians will happen. Some will say that they are of Paul, and others will say that they are of Apollos, and there will be division among us (1 Cor. 1:12). This is why Paul says that the saints are not for him but that he is for the saints. They do not belong to Paul. Rather, Paul belongs to them, because all things are theirs, whether the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs (3:21-22). The saints are the “princes,” the ones who will inherit the earth (Rom. 4:13). The apostles are the slaves of the saints. The apostles, prophets, and evangelists are all there to perfect the saints and are all slaves (2 Cor. 4:5). Furthermore, the goal of the apostles and the prophets, as the gifted ones serving the saints, is to enable everyone to do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ. Every saint can do the work of an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, and a shepherd and teacher. This is the difference between the God-ordained way in the Bible and the traditional way of Christianity. The way of Christianity is for the minority, the clergy, to become more and more able, while the rest of the saints become the laity; they have been laid off and are there only for the worshipping services. To put it not so nicely, they have all been written off. This is something that God hates (Rev. 2:6). Although we have come out of the denominations and the sects to practice the Lord’s recovery, unfortunately, we have not rid ourselves fully of some of the germs and poison of the denominations and the sects. Yet we are not aware of this. We may still hold the concept that the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers, and also the elders are the able ones and are of a higher rank than the rest of the saints. However, the word of the Lord says that among us there is no distinction of being high or low, great or small. Everyone is a brother. If anyone wants to be great, he has to be the slave to everyone. The elders are the head sheep among the flock. They should even take the lead to clean the toilets. They should not stand on the side, ordering others to work. Among us we should not have any concept of a hierarchy. The Bible says that we all are members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30). Since we are members, we all have a function. The Bible also says that we all are priests, and we can all offer spiritual sacrifices, light the lamps, and burn the incense. Everyone can do these things. Whatever the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers can do, they should teach, train, and perfect us so that every one of us will be able to do the same, perhaps even better.
The Lord’s “new way” today is that the gifted ones would perfect those who are not gifted so that, after a period of time, they all will become gifted. In the first year of his study in the university, a student is inferior to his professors. But after passing through four years of university study, two years of graduate school, and three years of a Ph.D. program, a student will become a Ph.D. and may become better than his professors. We need to see that the service in the church, on one hand, is to supply Christ to others and, on the other hand, to perfect others. After we perfect others, the perfected ones will be able to do the same work that we can do, and perhaps they will do it even better. This is the standard that the Bible has set for us. We need to find a way by all means to realize Ephesians 4:11-12. If all the brothers and sisters among us are perfected and can minister Christ for the building up of the church, what an increase the church will experience! After a person is saved and helped by us for four years, he should be able to participate in all aspects of service; he should be able to preach the gospel to minister Christ for others’ salvation; he should be able to shepherd the new believers as the lambs in the church; he should be able to teach and perfect them in the group meetings; and he should be able to gradually help them to prophesy and speak for the Lord for the building up of the church. These are the four steps of our new way: the begetting, the nourishing, the teaching, and the building. Eventually, when we come to the meetings, we will not need to look to the preachers. Every attendant will be able to speak for the Lord. The meetings will become very fresh, living, and rich.
In chapters 1, 3, and 4 of 2 Corinthians, Paul describes how he and the other apostles became dispensers of Christ. He uses at least four illustrations to describe how the apostles pursued and grew. First, in 1:21 Paul says that the apostles had been anointed by God. The anointing ointment symbolizes the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, who as the ointment of the compound Spirit anoints us. The more this Spirit anoints us, the more we gain the element of God. Second, in 1:22 Paul says that this Spirit had also sealed the apostles. This means that after they were sealed, they were continually saturated, permeated, and filled with the Spirit. Then in 3:18 Paul says that the apostles were like mirrors who, with unveiled face, beheld and reflected the Lord’s glorious image and fellowshipped with the Lord face to face. They did not behold only once and then go away. They beheld repeatedly. In this way the Lord’s glorious image was reflected on these mirrors, and they were gradually being transformed into that glorious image by the Lord Spirit. Finally, in 4:7-16 Paul says that the apostles were earthen vessels with Christ as the treasure within, through whom they received the excellency of God’s great power and were able to experience the daily putting to death of their outward man so that the treasure within could daily radiate and be magnified from within. As such persons, they became ministers who were able to minister Christ, transmit Him, and dispense Him to others. They were also able to fully execute God’s economy through their ministry, which is the preaching and ministering of the unsearchable riches of Christ for the producing of the church. In this way they fulfilled God’s economy. If apostles as the perfecting ones are such persons who are learning all the time, those whom they perfect and help should become the same as they are, learning all the time also. Thus, in the churches of the Lord’s recovery we need to create an atmosphere in which the gifted ones constantly do the work of perfecting the saints. They should take every opportunity to perfect others. At the same time, all the saints are constantly learning. In the end every saint in the church will be able to speak for the Lord, to preach the gospel, to shepherd, and to perfect others. Everyone will be a priest and will be able to carry out the stewardship for the execution of God’s New Testament economy. This is what the Lord is after today.
The apostle Paul was very capable of doing the work of perfecting the saints. In Ephesians 3 he shows how he taught and perfected others. First, he prayed for all the saints whom he perfected. He bowed his knees unto the Father and prayed that the Father would strengthen the saints with power through His Spirit into the inner man. The power with which the Father strengthens the saints is the power that enabled the Lord Jesus to resurrect from the dead, to ascend to the heavens, and to become the Lord and Christ. Whether our spiritual life is proper or not depends on our inner man, which is our regenerated spirit. There is a hymn that says, “Spirit begets spirit, spirit worships the Spirit, / So that the Spirit fills me; / The Spirit also has become the word with life abundant, / Flowing out as rivers of living water.” This hymn conveys the thought in John 3, 4, 6, and 7. John 3:6 says that our spirit is begotten of the Spirit: “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 4:24 says that our spirit worships the Spirit: “God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit.” By such worshipping, we are filled with the Spirit. John 6:63 says that the Spirit becomes the word: “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Then John 7:38 says that with this spirit, there is the abundant life flowing as rivers of living water. The more one sings this hymn, the more he will become living, and the more his inner man will be strengthened.
When our inner man is strengthened, spontaneously we will be open to the Lord, and Christ will be able to make home in our hearts through faith. To make home is to settle down. It is not to be a guest or a temporary boarder. The Lord is often like a guest within us; He cannot settle down. Although we love the Lord, in our mind there are still corners that the Lord cannot touch, in the will there are still parts that have not yielded to the Lord, and in the emotions there are still other loves that block the Lord from entering in. Because of this, the Lord cannot do anything. Paul’s prayer was for us to be strengthened into our spirit so that the Lord can gain every part and can settle down in our hearts. Our heart is like a house with a few rooms. It has the mind, the will, the emotion, and the conscience. When our spirit is strong, we will allow the Lord to occupy and to fill every part. The Lord will then be able to make home in our whole being comfortably and properly.
When Christ makes home in our hearts, in His love we can be rooted for growth and grounded for building up (Eph. 3:17). When we are rooted and grounded in the Lord’s love this way, we will be able to receive the Lord’s inward dispensing again and again. When the Lord makes home within us, He will spread within us, and His spreading will be His dispensing. The more He spreads Himself, the more He will dispense Himself to us. When He spreads to our mind, emotion, will, and even our conscience, all our inward parts will receive more of His dispensing. More and more we will realize the Lord as the lovable One and will be rooted and grounded in His love. In this way we can be an apostle as Paul was. Paul’s prayer can be considered as a prayer for the saints to become the apostles. Throughout the ages countless numbers of saints have been perfected by his prayer.
When we are rooted and grounded in Christ’s love, we will be full of power and strength to apprehend with all the saints the breadth and length and height and depth of the universe, which are the immeasurable dimensions of Christ. There are these four dimensions in the universe — the breadth, the length, the height, and the depth. But no one can say how broad is the breadth, how long the length, how high the height, or how deep the depth. These immeasurable dimensions are the dimensions of Christ. The more we are rooted and grounded in His love, experience and enjoy His love, the more we will apprehend with all the saints His immeasurableness. This proves not only that we have received His dispensing but that we have received it immeasurably. The more we receive Him, the more immeasurable and unlimited He becomes, and the more we realize that He is immeasurable and His riches are unsearchable.
After we are rooted and grounded and have become strong to apprehend the immeasurable dimensions of Christ and to enjoy and experience the divine dispensing of His knowledge-surpassing love, our whole being will be filled unto all the fullness of God, and we will become the corporate expression of the processed Triune God. If all of us are like this, surely we all will be perfected to become apostles and prophets.
In these verses Paul shows how he perfects the saints until every one of them becomes the same as he was. He was a person who experienced Christ; he was strong in spirit, and the Lord could make His home in every part of his heart. He was full of the sweetness of Christ, full of His love, and experienced all His dimensions. Since he was such an apostle, his perfecting will make us the same as he was. In this way the souls are saved, the sheep are led back to the flock, and all the saints are perfected to be the gifted ones to do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy.
