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Scripture Reading: Col. 3:16-17; 1 Tim. 6:3; 1 Thes. 1:8; Heb. 1:2
In prior chapters we have seen the divine speaking in God’s old creation and in His new creation; the divine speaking in our daily life, ministry, and meetings; and the divine speaking in the Holy Spirit and by the spirit of faith. In this chapter we come to the divine speaking with the word of Christ.
To speak, we surely need the word. I often have pondered on the wonderful fact that God created man with vocal chords for speaking. It is really foolish to say that there is no God. If there were no God, how could we have vocal chords? If there were no God, how could we have two lips and a tongue? We all know that these three members are not only for eating; they are also for speaking. Even teeth are not only for biting but also for speaking. We have vocal chords with a tongue, two lips, and many teeth for speaking. Furthermore, we not only make sounds, but we speak meaningfully, with denotation.
God created us with vocal chords, a tongue, lips, and teeth that we may be filled with Christ, who is the Word of God. When we are filled with Christ as the Word of God, we speak. We speak Christ in a language such as Chinese, English, Greek, or Hebrew, not in nonsensical utterances. We speak Christ in our mother tongue. We speak Christ in our borrowed tongue. All the denotations of our speaking concentrate on one person, Christ.
The Bible, which in history is called “the Book,” concentrates on Christ. Christ is the center. Christ is the denotation. Christ is the meaning. Christ is the reality. Christ is the centrality and universality of the Book of books. “In the beginning was the Word...And the Word became flesh” (John 1:1, 14). This Word who was in the beginning is God. The Word is God. Our God is just the Word. The word is for speaking, speaking is for understanding, understanding is for believing, and believing is for receiving the Triune God as the speakable word. When we receive Christ, we receive the Triune God as the word for us to speak. This word is Spirit and is life. The word is God, God is the Word, this Word is the Spirit, and this Spirit is life. All these are equivalent. The Word, God, Spirit, and life are equivalent. All are one matter. The word is good for us to speak, to understand, to receive, and to believe. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from proclaiming, from speaking (Rom. 10:14-17). Not only is our God the speaking God, but we are the speaking beings. The wonderful thing is that today our God speaks to us, and we speak to Him. We not only speak to Him; we speak Him to others. We speak Him forth, we speak for Him, and we foretell and predict concerning Him. Saints, do not forget that you have been created by God to be His speaking organ. Therefore, exercise to be such a living organ.
In Colossians 3:16 Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” The word dwell is a strong word meaning “to make home,” to make His home in you. Can anything that is lifeless dwell? We do not use such a predicate for a lifeless thing. Dwell is a predicate used for something living. We do not say that a bed or a nightstand dwells in our bedroom. We do not even say that our dog dwells in our bedroom. We only say a person dwells — my father dwells there, I dwell there, my wife dwells there, or my little boy dwells there. We use the word dwell only for a life with the highest person. Let the word of Christ dwell in you indicates that the word of Christ is a personified word that dwells as a person. Do you not believe that all the words of Christ are personified, since Christ is the Word? He is the Word of God. Phrases in the Bible such as the life of God, the light of God, the love of God, and the word of God always denote an apposition. The life of God means that life and God are one thing. God is in apposition to life. In the phrase the love of God, love is in apposition to God. God is love, and love is God. In the same way, the word of God means that God is the Word and that the Word is God. In John 6:63 the Lord Jesus said, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” The word, the Spirit, and the life are all one thing.
Therefore, dear saints, to have the divine speaking is not a small matter. To have the divine speaking is to speak God. When you speak His word, you speak God. When you speak the gospel, you speak God. When you speak the glad tidings, you speak God. When you speak grace, you speak God. This is why I use this term, the divine speaking. This is not a natural human speaking but a speaking constituted with the element of God, hence, a divine speaking. It is a divine speaking for a young boy to say that a man is made by God as His vessel to contain Him. For him to say, “You have to realize that you need Jesus — only Christ could satisfy you,” is not a human speaking but a divine speaking, fully constituted with the divine elements.
In 1 Timothy 6:3 Paul speaks of some foolish ones who were not consenting to “healthy words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Some words in this universe are healthy, and these healthy words are of the Lord Jesus Christ. These healthy words heal, enliven, and raise people from the dead. In 1 Thessalonians 1:8 Paul says, “From you the word of the Lord has sounded out; not only in Macedonia and in Achaia, but in every place, your faith toward God has gone out.” In these verses we have the word of Christ, the healthy words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the word of the Lord.
When I studied these verses, I wondered what were the words of Christ, since at Paul’s time the New Testament was still being written. First, the words of Christ were verbally passed on from the mouths of the apostles to others. Second, as the apostles did a lot of speaking in their messages, no doubt notes were taken down by the listeners. Those notes, no doubt, were passed on from one to another as the word of Christ. Third, probably many early disciples wrote different gospels — not only four. The four Gospels were selected from many, perhaps from over one hundred biographies written by the early disciples. History tells us that there were a lot of writings by the early disciples, besides what was collected into the New Testament. Since most of them were not so accurate, not many of them were selected. Even by A.D. 325, when the Council of Nicaea took place, seven books were still not recognized, not fully selected, including Hebrews and Revelation. They were not selected until A.D. 397, in the council at Carthage, North Africa. That final selection completed the entire New Testament. Those many books written by the apostles were full of the word of Christ. Hebrews 1:1-2 says that God in ancient times, in the Old Testament times, spoke through the prophets, but now in the New Testament times, God speaks in Christ. In the entire New Testament age, not only in the three and a half years of Jesus Christ’s earthly life, God speaks in the person of the Son. Today we have to realize that the Son has been made a corporate One. We the believers of His Son have all become the parts of this corporate One, a corporate Son. Therefore, God is still speaking through the Son, that is, through the church. I believe that while we are speaking here, God speaks in us. God speaks in us because we speak the Son of God.
Now we know where the words of Christ are. Today we have the completed New Testament of twenty-seven books with many words of Christ. I hope that you dear young saints would spend some time to find out and to figure out how many words and sentences in the New Testament are the direct words spoken by the Lord Jesus. In Matthew 5—7 are the direct words that came out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus. In John 14—17 are the Lord’s message and prayer. These are the exact words that came out of His mouth. Spend time on these seven chapters. Consider John 17:17: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” After your four years of study, I will give you four questions: What does it mean to be sanctified? What is the truth? How can the word be the truth? Is the truth sanctifying you, or is it the word? After speaking chapters 14 through 16, the Lord looked up to the heavens and prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (17:1). What does this mean? How could you explain it?
Do not be disappointed; be encouraged! Even if you do not understand or cannot explain these verses, just say, “Father, glorify Your Son that Your Son may glorify You!” Try to say this; try to speak this in your home meeting. When five or six of us come together, you say to me, “Glorify the Son that the Son may glorify You. Father, glorify the Son.” Then I respond to you, “That the Son may glorify You.” If you would just speak this, you would feel nourished, and you would feel sanctified. You may not know what it is to be sanctified, yet you feel sanctified. Wonderful! In a good sense you do not need to understand it. Up to the very present day I do not know what a detergent is. But I do know that when something is dirty, I wash it with detergent. Do you know everything concerning your food? I learned the term protein, but I really do not know what protein is. I also learned the terms B-1, B-2, B-12, and B-complex. I learned all of this mostly from my wife. She taught me, but neither of us really know what these are. Yet every day she gives me vitamins, saying, “This is B-2, and this is B-complex.” I do not understand, I cannot explain, but I use it, and I get it. We do not know much about the food we eat. If you would say, “I have to study for four years as a dietician before I eat,” then you will soon die. Do not wait until you understand to eat. Just eat! Do not try to understand the Bible. The Bible is understandable, but it is not to be understood to the uttermost. We will need eternity to know what the Bible says, yet we can eat. We can say, “Father, glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You. O Father, sanctify us by Your truth; Your word is the truth.” You speak it, and you get it. It is wonderful.
However, do not say this formally. Do not say it religiously. Do not say it habitually. Say it in the Holy Spirit, and say it by the spirit of faith: “Father, sanctify me by Your truth; Your word is the truth.” Say it this way. Even if you do not understand it, you will get the nourishment.
I just cannot tell you how much time I have spent on John 14—17. But still today when I come to these four chapters, I am just a new reader. I have written quite a few notes on all these chapters, but I still admit that I do not know much. What does it mean that the Lord is the true vine? In the Life-study of John I did tell you that this vine is the organism of the Triune God to dispense Himself into all the branches of this organism. Yet I still admit that it is hard to know these things adequately.
Therefore, dear saints, do not be bothered or disappointed; just learn to speak the word of Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in you. Colossians 3:16 first says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Then it goes on to say, “In all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another.” You teach me by the word of Christ that dwells in you, and I teach you. You admonish me, and I admonish you. Furthermore, it says, “With psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” In this verse the words of Christ become psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Does this mean that the words spoken by Christ in Matthew 5—7 are all poetry? Is John 14—16 all poetry? It is possible; do not be quick to say no. I read an article which says that 1 Timothy 3:16 is a short psalm: “Great is the mystery of godliness: / He who was manifested in the flesh.” Paul, in writing 1 Timothy, quotes that psalm. To “let the word of Christ dwell in you” and “teaching and admonishing” are not two things. Even in the English translation the grammar indicates that these are one thing. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing.” While you are letting the word of Christ dwell in you, you teach, you admonish. Yet you teach and admonish one another not in plain words but in psalms. Therefore, the words of Christ now are psalms, hymns, and songs.
Colossians 3:16 is a parallel portion to Ephesians 5:18-19, which says, “Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” These verses prove that when you are letting the word of Christ dwell in you, you will be filled in your spirit. In other words, when you are filled in your spirit, surely your spirit will be full of the word of Christ. The word of Christ is God, the Spirit, and the life. These four — the word, God, the Spirit, life — are synonyms. When you are filled with the word, then you are filled with God. When you are filled with God, you are filled with the Spirit. Then you are filled with life. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you” means that you are being filled with God. “Do not be drunk with wine...but be filled in spirit” with God. This very God is the word of Christ, and this word of Christ is the Spirit and the life. Oh, dear saints, it is hard to explain in words, but if you consider your experience, you will say, “Amen! That’s right. I cannot explain, but I say Amen!” When I let the word of Christ dwell in me, I am just full of God, I am full of the Spirit, and I am full of life.
This filling is not only for your nourishment; it is for you to dispense. It is for you to generate. Every human being is made by God to propagate, to generate. Therefore, everyone has to bring forth children. Now we all have to learn how to generate, how to dispense, how to impart into others what we have received into our being. This is to reproduce; this is to generate; this is to bring forth new Christians by speaking. Therefore, speaking is generating; speaking is imparting; speaking is dispensing.
Let us add all these things together: speaking in the Holy Spirit and by the spirit of faith with the word of Christ. Where is the word of Christ? It is filling you within; it is dwelling in you. And who is the One dwelling in you? He is God, and God is the Spirit, not just in the heavens but dwelling in you. You must say, “I believe it, so I speak! And I speak by the spirit of faith.” Christ’s words dwell in me; therefore, I am full of God, Spirit, and life. This is why I can speak to you by the spirit of faith. While I am speaking, I am infusing, I am imparting, I am dispensing, and I am generating. I have the assurance that even some new ones who have never heard this kind of thing, who have never believed in the Lord Jesus, will be regenerated while they are listening to our speaking. Sometimes my unbelieving friends, who did not know anything about the divine speaking, said to me, “Why are you so powerful and so attracting? How could you attract so many, not only the Chinese but also the Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Brazilians, Germans, British, and French?” I said to them, “You may not know, but I hope that you could be attracted also. Then you will be blessed.” It is so pleasant to be infused. If a ball were to become flat, it would feel very poor, but when it is filled with air, it would feel so comfortable. Similarly, if you do not come to the meeting but remain at home, you will feel bad, you will feel flat, not able to bounce up. If you speak when you come to the meeting, you will be filled up. If you do not speak, you will be regretful and ask, “Why didn’t I speak? There was a good chance for me to speak. Why didn’t I do it? Then I would have enjoyed the meeting.” I am the best enjoyer of the meetings because I speak the most. However, I should also be fair, just, and righteous to let you have some of the time. I should not rob you or occupy your time. Enjoy yourself by speaking. God spoke in His old creation, and He spoke in His new creation. Now it is our turn to speak in our daily life, in our ministry, in the meetings, in the Holy Spirit, by the spirit of faith, and with the word of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit in whom we can speak, we have the spirit of faith by which we can speak, and we have the word of Christ, which is God with the Spirit, which is life, with which we can speak. We have something that we can speak in, speak by, and speak with. We all can speak in the Holy Spirit, by the spirit of faith, and with the word of Christ. Now, do it! Amen.
