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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 7:10, 12, 25, 40; Gal. 2:20
In this chapter we will consider the experience of Christ in 1 Corinthians 7. Brother Nee once said that the highest level of spirituality for the New Testament believers is revealed in 1 Corinthians 7. He considered that Paul’s spirituality, as seen in this chapter, was on the highest peak, making Paul the most spiritual person. In 1 Corinthians 7 there are four crucial and unique verses. In verse 10 Paul says, “To the married I charge, not I but the Lord, A wife must not be separated from her husband.” The phrase not I but the Lord is similar to Galatians 2:20, where Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” The charge in this verse is a serious one since it concerns God’s ordination of marriage, so Paul has the confidence to say, “Not I but the Lord.” But in 1 Corinthians 7:12 Paul says, “But to the rest I say, I, not the Lord, If any brother has an unbelieving wife and she consents to dwell with him, he must not leave her.” In this verse Paul is bold to speak his own word to the Corinthians, yet what he spoke became a part of the divine revelation.
In verse 25 Paul says, “Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who has been shown mercy by the Lord to be faithful.” Paul gives his opinion concerning the important matter of virgins based upon his having received mercy of the Lord to be faithful. Paul seemed to say, “Up to this point, I have not received a commandment of the Lord, but I give you my opinion, my feeling, concerning the matter of virgins. I admit that what I have to say is my opinion, but my opinion has been constituted with the Lord’s mercy, making me a faithful one.”
In verse 40 Paul says, “She is more blessed if she so remains, according to my opinion; but I think that I also have the Spirit of God.” The word opinion in this verse may not seem to be so pleasant or sweet. When the Lord spoke, He did not have to qualify His word by saying that His word was His opinion. He simply spoke because as the Lord and Master, He is the “Boss.” But Paul, as a servant of the Lord, must first qualify his word when he speaks his opinion. Many so-called spiritual men today do not speak in such a way. Rather, they usually speak by saying, “I assure you that this is the right way. What I say is of the Lord.” Paul, however, did not speak in this way. He simply said what he thought according to his opinion. Yet in giving his opinion, he was not alone; he had the Spirit of God with him.
Before he was saved, Saul of Tarsus persecuted the saints and devastated the church. After he was saved, he became a different person and began to speak for the Lord in the way revealed in the preceding verses. The Old Testament principle of speaking for God (prophesying) is, “Thus says the Lord” (Isa. 10:24; 50:1; Jer. 2:2; Ezek. 2:4). But the New Testament principle of incarnation is, “I (the speaker) charge.” The speaker and the Lord are one. When Paul spoke, you can say not only that he spoke but also that the Lord spoke. Paul and the Lord were one in the principle of incarnation.
Incarnation is God entering into man to mingle Himself with man, making Himself one with man. God was incarnated in the man Jesus Christ. He is a wonderful person, a unique person, with two natures. He has the divine nature and the human nature, yet these two natures do not stand separately; they are mingled together. He is the unique God-man.
The two natures of Christ being mingled together can be illustrated by tea and water. Tea is composed of two elements: tea and water. When we say that we are drinking tea, we actually are drinking tea and water. Therefore, we can say that we are drinking tea-water. God can be likened to tea, and man can be likened to water. As tea and water are mingled together to make tea-water, God and man were mingled together to make a God-man, the Lord Jesus. This God-man is the mingling of two elements, two natures, into one entity without a third nature being produced. In tea-water the two elements of tea and water remain distinct but are not separate. They exist together in a mingled way. It is the same with the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-man with the two natures of divinity and humanity.
In theology the word coinhere has been used to describe how two things not only coexist but also exist within one another. In John 14:10 the Lord said to the disciples, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?” And in John 15:4 the Lord said further, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself.” Both of these passages indicate coinherence, which is the mutual indwelling and mingling of two elements for them to be one entity, and these two mingled elements are distinct but not separate.
The matter of coinherence is often missed by Christians in their reading of the New Testament. As a result, our relationship with the Lord is often misunderstood. Some have said that we as Christians live an exchanged life. According to this understanding, Christ replaces and discards our poor human life with His superior divine life. If we read Galatians 2:20 in a superficial way, we may be misled to think that the concept of exchange is spoken of in this verse. This is because Paul says that he was crucified with Christ, that he no longer lives, and that now Christ lives within him. Many Christians, in reading Galatians 2:20, have held and still hold such a concept. The biography of Hudson Taylor has helped many Christians over the years, but the writer of this biography, Hudson Taylor’s daughter-in-law, Mrs. Howard Taylor, promoted the mistaken concept of an exchanged life.
The proper concept concerning our relationship with Christ is coinherence — Christ lives in us and we live in Christ (John 15:4-5). God in Christ put Himself into us (Col. 1:27; Rom. 8:10) through regeneration (John 1:12-13; 3:6), and then we were put into Christ through baptism (Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3:27; Matt. 28:19). We were not thrown away or discarded, but we were put into the Triune God (v. 19). Instead of being thrown away, we have been put into Christ. Christ is now within us, and we are in Christ. This is really wonderful!
In John 15 the fact of our being in Christ and Christ being in us is clearly revealed (vv. 4-5). But in John 17 the Lord prayed for our realization of this fact (vv. 20-21). He prayed so that we would realize that we are in Him like He is in the Father and that He is in us like the Father is in Him. With the Divine Trinity there is such a wonderful coinhering oneness. This coinhering oneness has been duplicated by Christ with His believers. Today Christ is in His believers, causing His believers to be in Him. This is like the Father being in the Son, causing the Son to be in the Father. The prayer of Christ in John 17 is a revelation of such a coinhering oneness. According to John 15 and 17, our relationship with Christ is one of coinherence, not of exchange.
In the New Testament the one with the strongest disposition was perhaps the apostle Paul. His disposition inwardly was very strong, but his stature was probably small and thin. Although Paul’s disposition was strong, in reading 1 Corinthians 7, you cannot see his strong disposition. Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth who were of the logical and philosophical Greek background. He wrote in a very logical manner, but you cannot discover a hint of his strong disposition. The person of Paul was there, but the “snake” of his disposition had been dealt with. In 1 Corinthians 7 the person who was Saul of Tarsus with the strong disposition had been dealt with, but the regenerated Paul remained. According to Paul’s word in Galatians 2:20, he was crucified with Christ. His being crucified with Christ dealt with his disposition.
In Galatians 2:20 there is the old “I” and the new “I.” The old “I” included the disposition of Saul of Tarsus. Although his disposition was crucified, Saul was not thrown away. On the contrary, through regeneration Saul of Tarsus was uplifted. As the sand on the seashore is sifted in order to find the precious things, Saul of Tarsus was sifted. All the negative and fallen things were put away, but the regenerated person of Saul was uplifted and purified. As saved sinners, our negative aspects have been put away, but our positive aspects are being uplifted. Through regeneration we have an uplifted humanity. This does not mean that we have exchanged our old humanity for a new humanity. We still have the humanity we received at birth, but before regeneration our humanity was old and of a low standard. After regeneration our humanity is being sifted, and through such a process it is being uplifted and purified. This uplifted and purified humanity is the new “I” in Galatians 2:20. Paul says, “And the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith.” Paul lived by the life that is Christ Himself.
In 1 Corinthians 7 the person of Saul who became Paul still remained. Through the sifting process, Saul became Paul, a person who had been uplifted and purified with a high standard of humanity. Such a person is joined to the Lord and is one spirit with the Lord (6:17). While Paul was writing 1 Corinthians 7, he was joined to the Lord as one spirit. Therefore, he could give a command saying, “I charge,” and he could also say, “Not I but the Lord.” He could say such things because he was one spirit with the Lord. His strong disposition had been sifted away through the cross of Christ, objectively in the fact of being crucified with Christ and subjectively in the experience of this fact. Paul experienced the subjective cross of Christ by experiencing the subjective Christ. Paul was a person who lived under the shadow of the cross all the time; thus, when he wrote 1 Corinthians 7, he was a regenerated, sifted, uplifted, and purified person who was joined to the Lord as one spirit.
Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 7 in the principle of incarnation. The principle of incarnation is that God enters into man and mingles Himself with man to make man one with Himself. Thus, God is in man, and man is also in God. This can be illustrated by grafting. When two trees are grafted together, both trees must be cut. The cut in the first tree is an opening to receive the other tree. The second tree must also be cut in order to be put into the first tree. Then the two cuts are put together, and the two trees begin to grow together. In order for us to be grafted into Christ, Christ and we must be cut. This cut was made at the cross of Christ. Christ as the good, cultivated olive tree (Rom. 11:17-18; cf. John 15:1) was cut through His death on the cross. We also were cut by our crucifixion with Christ on the cross (Gal. 2:20). When we believed into Christ and were baptized into Him, we were grafted into Christ, the two cuts were put together, and we began to live together with Christ. There was no exchange of lives; rather, two lives were joined together and began to grow together organically (Rom. 6:4-5).
A stanza in a hymn written by A. B. Simpson (Hymns, #482) speaks of the matter of grafting:
This the secret nature hideth,
Harvest grows from buried grain;
A poor tree with better grafted,
Richer, sweeter life doth gain.
In the grafted life on Christ’s side, there is no need of sifting because there is nothing negative with Him. But on our side, we need a lot of sifting because we are full of negative things. After we were saved and came into the church life, we brought a number of negative things with us. These negative things can be considered as sand for sifting. All the sand must be sifted away. The trials we experience in the church life are used by the Lord to sift us. Wives, husbands, children, and even all the brothers and sisters in the church life are sifting means. In human life and in the church life, we all would prefer to have a peaceful life without any turmoil or storms. Many of the elders of the churches would certainly prefer a glorious church life without any troubles or problems. We may prefer such a church life, but often we have just the opposite. It is difficult to tell which is the best. When we get into eternity and look back, we may say that we had too little turmoil and too few problems that could have sifted us.
Paul’s church life was often full of turmoil (2 Cor. 11:23-33). On Paul’s journey from Caesarea to Rome in Acts 27—28, there were many storms and hardships. Brother Nee’s life in China from the beginning of his ministry to the end of his life was full of turmoil. In the eighteen years that I was with him in the work, there was hardly ever a peaceful time. The last twenty years of his life, from 1952 to 1972, were spent in prison; those years in prison ended in his death.
Turmoil is a blessing because by it we are sifted. This sifting is related much more to our disposition than to our sins or mistakes. If by His mercy and grace, we all can pass through the sifting process, we will remain useful to the Lord. Our usefulness does not depend upon our good disposition by birth. Our usefulness is determined by how much we have been sifted. It is better to have a strong disposition that passes through the sifting process day by day and year after year than merely to have a good disposition. Paul was a person with a strong disposition who had passed through a long term of sifting through many storms; therefore, he could write a chapter such as 1 Corinthians 7.
First Corinthians 7 is the writing of a man, yet this composition became the divine revelation. He could say that his word was not the commandment of the Lord, but the word he gave became the divine revelation. At the end of this chapter Paul concludes by saying that what he had given was according to his opinion and that he thought that he also had the Spirit of God. He not only had his opinion, but he also had the Spirit of God. These two things speak together in the mingled way: the Spirit of God speaks in his opinion, and his opinion expresses something with the Spirit of God. God mingled with man as one person with two natures, living together in one life and one living, is the experience of the grafted life in the principle of incarnation. This is the real dealing with the disposition.
