Search
Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 24, 30; Rom. 5:18b; John 3:6b; Rom. 6:19, 22; 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:17b, 30; 1 Cor. 5:7-8; 15:45b; 6:17; 9:24; 10:1-6a; 12:4-11, 13; 11:3a; 12:12; Heb. 10:24-25; 11-12, Eph. 4:16; 1 Cor. 14:3-5, 23a, 1, 39a, 31; John 15:5, 7; 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:14; 1 Cor. 2:15a, 16b
In the previous chapter we saw from the Gospel of John God’s dispensing as the supply to the believers in their preaching of the gospel and in their work for the Lord. The Gospel of John is a book on life. It tells us that God wants us not only to have life but also, after receiving life, to be supplied by this life day by day and hour by hour. For this reason the Gospel of John pays much attention to eating, drinking, and breathing the Lord. To eat, drink, and breathe is to take food, drink, and air into us and have them dispensed into the different parts of our being. These nutrients then become the constituents of our body. When we eat and drink the Lord in this way, we are joined to Him and abide in Him, and He in turn abides in us. This is similar to branches abiding in a tree. In such an abiding, the riches of the tree are transmitted to the branches, and eventually, the branches bear much fruit.
The other three Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — also contain records of the Lord’s commissioning us to preach the gospel. But in the Gospel of John this matter is presented in the way of life. John 15:16 says, “I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.” When the branches receive the supply of the life sap, this issues in the abundant overflow of life. This abundant overflow of life is fruit-bearing. When we go out today to preach the gospel by knocking on doors, outwardly it seems that this is a gospel activity and work, but inwardly it is an overflow of the inner life. In John 21 the Lord told us that if we love Him, we must feed His lambs. Strictly speaking, the feeding of the lambs is not an outward work; it is to dispense food into the lambs that they may receive the abundant supply and grow thereby.
In John 1 we see that the Triune God became flesh in the Son for the purpose of dispensing Himself into man as grace and reality. Then He was crucified on the cross, thus accomplishing redemption, removing our sins, destroying Satan, and releasing the divine life that was within Him. All these are for the dispensing of life. After He resurrected, He became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection. Hence, the Lord’s incarnation, birth, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are all for the dispensing of the Triune God as life into us. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” The giving mentioned here is a dispensing. Our Lord today is not merely the Redeemer; He is also the life-giving Spirit. He is not far from us but is in our mouth and in our heart (Rom. 10:8). He is like the air and like breath; we can receive Him into us in a most available and intimate way.
In John 4 we see that the Lord as the life-giving Spirit is the living water (vv. 7-15) for the believers to enjoy and to drink that He may become their satisfaction and inward reality. John 6 shows us that the Lord is the bread of life from heaven (vv. 35, 48, 51). Everyone who eats of this bread will receive the Lord as his life and life supply. John 7 says that out of the innermost being of those who drink of the living water from Him will flow rivers of living water (v. 38). After this we see in John 14 that the Lord is the Spirit of reality. Not only is He present among us, but He also will abide with us (v. 17). Furthermore, He said that He is in the Father, we are in Him, and He is in us (v. 20). This shows that the Triune God not only is living in us and is joined to us but also is mingled with us. This is the story of our salvation. When we were saved, not only were our sins forgiven, and not only did we receive peace and joy, but we even believed into the Lord, and the Lord entered into us so that we are mingled with the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). The result of this mingling and mutual abiding is the fruit-bearing in John 15 (v. 5). Then we can feed the Lord’s lambs. This is the Gospel of John. Everything in our work and in our preaching of the gospel has to do with God’s dispensing.
In this chapter we will see, from the book of 1 Corinthians, God’s dispensing as the supply to the believers in their meetings and service. Some Bible teachers have said that 1 Corinthians was written with the purpose of solving many serious problems in the church. But in that book Paul was dispensing to the Corinthian believers the rich, all-inclusive One for their enjoyment. If they would concentrate on Him, focus on Him, and take Him as their center to enjoy all His riches, all the problems among them would spontaneously be solved. This is similar to the way in which we solve the problems of a physically sick person; the best way is to supply him with rich and nutritious food.
First Corinthians 1:2 says that Christ is “theirs and ours.” This kind of identification is not objective but subjective. It is an identification in life. For example, when we buy a book, we may put a seal on it. The book then becomes our book. But the relationship between the book and us is merely objective. There is no union in life between the two things. Christ is ours. This means that when we receive this all-inclusive Christ into us as our enjoyment, He becomes our portion and our supply. This supply is the dispensing of God within us. It dispenses Christ into us as our portion. Since Christ is our portion, He also has become the portion of all the believers.
First Corinthians 1:9 says, “God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” In the original language, the word fellowship here has the meaning of participation and enjoyment. The more fellowship we have with Christ, the more we partake of Him and the more we enjoy Him. When we attend a feast, on the one hand, we have fellowship with others; on the other hand, we have enjoyment. This kind of feasting is a joint participation and enjoyment. This kind of enjoyment is not only an individual enjoyment but a corporate enjoyment and a mutual participation with all those attending the feast. We have been called by the faithful God into the fellowship of His Son for the purpose of participating in and enjoying Him.
First Corinthians 1:24 says, “To those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Here Paul tells us that to the called ones, that is, those who have been chosen by God in eternity and have believed into Christ, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. The all-inclusive Christ has become God’s power and God’s wisdom to us, not in an outward way but in the way of dispensing and transmitting within us. This is like the turning of an electric fan: it is turned not by the hand of man but by the transmission of electric power through a union with the power plant.
Christ’s being God’s power and God’s wisdom to us is based on His being life within us. We know that every kind of life has its own kind of power and skill, which is its wisdom. Through regeneration we have become the children of God. Within us we have God’s life. Because of this, we have the power and wisdom that God gave to us in Christ. This is not something outward but something inward. Furthermore, it is not a once-for-all matter; it does not cease being transmitted once it has been received. Rather, it is being transmitted to us continually. Today, all day long our Christian life is the story of a transmission from God to us. However, many Christians are closed to God. They are like an electric fan that has been cut off from the power source. Because of this, the fan will not turn. We must be open to the Lord so that He can transmit to us continuously. In this way Christ will become our power and our wisdom.
After this, Paul continues in 1:30, “Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Paul points out that Christ is both theirs and ours. At the same time, we have been called into His fellowship, that is, into the mutual participation in Christ. He has become our portion. In the second half of chapter 1, from verse 24 on, Paul shows us the different aspects of the enjoyment of Christ as our all-inclusive portion. Christ as the wisdom of God includes (1) righteousness, for the believers’ past, that they may be justified and regenerated in their spirit (Rom. 5:18b; John 3:6b); (2) sanctification, for the believers’ present, that they may be sanctified and transformed in their soul (Rom. 6:19, 22; 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18); and (3) redemption, for the believers’ future, that their body may be redeemed, transformed, and their whole being may enter into the glory of the Triune God (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:17b, 30).
In 1 Corinthians 5, although Paul was dealing with the problem of an evil brother, he was exercising his spirit to point out some additional crucial things. Verses 7 and 8 say, “Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, even as you are unleavened; for our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed. So then let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” We who have been chosen by God have passed through the Passover. In the Passover feast Christ is the Passover lamb. He is even the whole Passover feast. Christ as the Passover lamb dispenses to the believers the life of the lamb, to be their initial (Passover) supply of life and power.
We must not only eat Christ as our Passover lamb but must also go on to eat the unleavened bread of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a continuation of the Passover. It lasted for seven days, which signifies a complete period of time. This feast typifies the entire period of our Christian life, from the day we repented to the day we will be raptured. During the period of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we should eat the unleavened bread. To be unleavened means to be sinless. The bread signifies Christ coming down from heaven to be our nutritious food. Christ as the unleavened bread of the Feast of Unleavened Bread dispenses His sinless life to the believers that they may become a new lump to live a sinless life and to keep such a sinless feast all the days of their life.
In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul tells us that after the Israelites left Egypt, they “all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ” (vv. 3-4). After we enjoy Christ as the Passover, we enter into a race (9:24). In order to run the race, we need to eat the same spiritual food and drink the same spiritual drink as our daily life supply. The spiritual food and drink that we eat and drink in our Christian race come from the spiritual rock that was smitten by God and riven and out of which flows the living water for the quenching of our thirst. This rock is Christ (John 19:34). The living water of life is the Holy Spirit, who flows out to be our life supply.
According to the principle of Revelation 22, the water of life is always with the tree of life. We not only have the spiritual water as our drink, but we also have the tree of life as our spiritual food. The water of life that flows out from Christ as the riven rock carries with it the tree of life, which is Christ as our life. On the one hand, as water, Christ waters us, nourishes us, and quenches our thirst. On the other hand, as the fruit of the tree of life, He feeds us, supplies us, and satisfies us. The Christ in whom we believe is God’s portion for us. He has come into us already and is dispensing the spiritual food and the spiritual drink to us all the time, thus becoming the life supply to us who follow Him in the race.
First Corinthians 11 says that Christ is the head of every man (v. 3a). Here Christ’s being the head of every man refers to Christ’s being the Head of the members of His Body. On the other hand, chapter 12 says that Christ is also the entire Body (v. 12). As far as the human body is concerned, the head supplies all the riches to the body and meets the needs of the body. It is the head that leads the body and not the body that supports the head. Christ is the Head of all the members of His Body. He is also the whole Body. He supplies His divine life and element to every member that they may have the life capacity to be the many gifts in His Body (12:4-11). These gifts in the Body of Christ are dispensed by the Spirit. The gifts dispensed by the Spirit are present in order to realize the ministries dispensed by the Lord, and the ministries dispensed by the Lord are present to perfect the operations dispensed by God in the many members.
Christ has baptized in Himself, the pneumatic Christ, all the believers into one Body in order that the believers may be enabled to drink of Him as the all-inclusive Spirit. In this way He becomes their life supply, and they enjoy His life dispensing (v. 13). Baptism ushers us into an organic union with Christ and the Triune God, making us living members of the Body of Christ. Whatever race or nationality we belong to and whatever social status we may have, we should all be part of this Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. In one Spirit we have all been baptized into this living Body to express Christ.
First, in incarnation Christ became flesh for the accomplishing of redemption (John 1:14, 29). This is the first “becoming.” Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) for the dispensing of life (John 10:10). This is the second “becoming.” Today the Christ in whom we believe is the life-giving Spirit. He is dispensing to us the divine life of the processed Triune God so that we may become one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17) and may enjoy the divine dispensing of all the riches of the Triune God in Him.
We have seen from 1 Corinthians 1—15 that the Christ into whom we have been called is an all-inclusive One. He is the portion given to us by God. He is God’s power and God’s wisdom, becoming our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He is our Passover lamb and the unleavened bread of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He is the spiritual food, the spiritual drink, and the spiritual rock. He is the Head of all the members of the Body and is also the whole Body. As such a One, He is the life-giving Spirit that we may receive Him into us as our all. God has dispensed such a One to us to be our enjoyment. We should pay our attention only to Him and should not pay attention to any person, event, or thing apart from Him.
When all the members of the Body of Christ eat, drink, and enjoy Christ in this way, and when they love Him and set their eyes solely on Him, out of the members different kinds of gifts will be produced. These gifts are the different manifestations of the Spirit. Some will have words of wisdom. Some will have words of knowledge. Others will be prophets who prophesy or teachers who teach. Still others will render help and administration. Though the gifts are varied, they all issue from the operation of the Spirit and are distributed to each one individually as He purposes (12:11).
When we love the Lord, fellowship with Him, and walk according to Him, the indwelling Spirit will spontaneously distribute gifts to us through the inner life. These gifts are spiritual capacities, and they are developed out of life. At the time a baby is born, he may be complete in all his organs, but his feet cannot walk, his hands cannot work, and his mouth cannot talk. He needs the continual feeding of his mother before he will gradually learn to walk, jump, and talk. We who are saved have the life of God. Hence, we also have the life capacity of God. If we eat, drink, enjoy the Lord, and grow in life, this life capacity will be developed into gifts. From the time that we are saved and regenerated, this life capacity is in us. But if we do not receive the nourishment and the supply, we will not grow, the life capacity will not develop, and the gifts will not be manifested. Many Christians have been listening to sermons for decades, but they cannot speak with clarity concerning a truth as basic as justification. This is why we must practice the new way according to the revelation of the Bible. This will allow the brothers and sisters to have some practical training through the dispensing of God and will enable everyone to manifest his organic function in the matter of meetings and service.
First Corinthians 12 unveils to us the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit. After this, Paul shows us in chapter 13 that love is the most excellent way to exercise the gifts. If we pay attention only to the outward gifts and do not have love, the gifts will be empty and without life. But if we have love and we add to it faith and hope, we have something that abides. Actually, faith is the Triune God. Hope also is the Triune God, and love also is the Triune God. God is love. We are not love. Our love is in the flesh, and it fluctuates constantly. Christ is faith. We do not have faith. We are saved in the faith of Christ, and we receive Him into us also in the faith of Christ. Christ is also our hope of glory. We should fellowship with Christ, abide in Him, eat, drink, and enjoy Him, and allow Him to do the transmitting work in us, communicating into us His divine element. Then, if we need love, hope, or faith, Christ as our supply will spontaneously be expressed from us as love, hope, and faith.
When we come to 1 Corinthians 14, Paul begins by saying, “Pursue love, and desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.” To pursue love is to pursue the growth in life so that we may develop the gifts in life. Hence, the pursuing of love must be accompanied by an earnest desire for the most profitable gift, the gift of prophecy. Hence, prophecy does not come merely from teaching but from God being in man and man cooperating with God. Without God there is no prophesying, but neither can there be prophesying if there is only God without man. Prophesying is words spoken as a result of a cooperation and coordination between God and man. It is God’s speaking in and through man.
This is what the book of 1 Corinthians shows us. Today Christ has come into us and has become our life and eternal portion. He is our everything and has become our constituent. Now we are joined to Him as one spirit. By this, the capacity of His life is manifested in us and becomes the gifts in our meetings and service. Nothing we do is done by ourselves; everything is done by faith. The result of everything we do is hope. We do not do anything that is not in hope. The result of everything we do is also love. In such a situation we will spontaneously be able to prophesy, to speak for the Lord, to speak forth the Lord, and to speak the Lord into others. These are the factors of our meetings and service as described in 1 Corinthians. When we come to the meetings or to serve, we do not come alone or empty-handed. Rather, we come with Christ. Christ is the content of our meetings. Whether we sing, pray, or speak, we are full of Christ. Christ is also the content of our service. Whatever we do in the church must have Christ as its element.
When we enjoy this all-inclusive Christ every day, He will become our inward supply in everything. He will become the dispensing within us. Eventually, He will be manifested in our meetings and service, in our gifts, and in all our activities. This is the dispensing of God as our supply in our meetings and service.
To practice the new way today is to apply this life dispensing of Christ practically to our meetings and service. For this we must perfect the saints through the group meetings (Heb. 10:24-25) so that all the saints will be the same as we are, enjoying the life dispensing of Christ to become members who are the supplying joints in the Body of Christ for the perfecting of the other members (11-12, Eph. 4:16a), that every member in the Body of Christ may be able to do the work of the New Testament ministry, which is the building up of the Body of Christ (v. 12b).
Next, we need to learn and to practice prophesying. Prophesying in the church meetings (1 Cor. 14:23a) is the most excelling gift for the building up of the church (vv. 3-5). That is why Paul charges us to pursue and to desire earnestly the prophesying (vv. 1, 39a) and to learn to prophesy (v. 31). How can we reach the stage where we can speak for the Lord in the meetings? It is by opening to the Lord to fellowship with Him constantly in our daily life and to abide in Him unceasingly (John 15:5, 7). We also need to be soaked in the Lord’s word, to receive Him as the living water and the spiritual food, so that we receive His rich dispensing daily through His word. In this way we will have a deposit, a saving, of the Lord’s word (1 Tim. 6:20 and footnote 1, Recovery Version; 2 Tim 1:14) and will have the spiritual sight to discern all things (1 Cor. 2:15a, 16b).
This is the dispensing of God in us as described in 1 Corinthians. This dispensing will uphold us in our meetings and service. The result is that we will have the divine dispensing within and the organic activities without. It is by this way that our meetings and service can be one with our inner life and can have Christ as their content and reality.
