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Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 3:6-12; Eph. 2:21; 4:15-16; Col. 2:19; 1 Pet. 2:2-5
In the verses referred to in the Scripture reading there are two main concepts — the growth in life and the building up of the Body. First Corinthians 3 speaks of the planting, the watering, and the growing. Paul said that he planted; he sowed the seed. Then Apollos came to water, to irrigate. Then God caused the growth (v. 6).
We all need the planting of the life seed, not knowledge. The things of life are always in the Spirit. Knowledge is in the mind, but life is in the Spirit, and the Spirit is the reality of life. The Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life...the words which I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). Romans 8:6 says that the mind set on the spirit is life. Life is in the Spirit, and knowledge is in the mind.
To plant is absolutely a matter of life in the Spirit, not a matter of mere teaching. This is why Paul told us that when he came to Corinth the first time, he did not use persuasive words of wisdom, but he exercised his spirit to demonstrate the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:1-4). His speech was in demonstration of the Spirit, not of knowledge. By this he sowed the life seed, planting something of Christ into the spirits of the Corinthians. Then Apollos came to water the seed. God goes along with this organic work. When we plant and water, God follows to cause the growth.
Paul told us that we are God’s farm (3:9). Planting, watering, and growing are all for the farm, the cultivated land. On God’s farm we have to grow something, and what we grow is Christ. Christ has been sown into us, and now Christ has to grow out of us. The Greek word for cultivated land in 1 Corinthians 3:9 means “farm” or “tilled ground.” The church is God’s farm to grow Christ.
Paul also said that we are God’s building (v. 9). This indicates that the growth on God’s farm is for the building. The church is built up by the growth in life. Whatever grows on God’s farm is for the building. In other words, God’s farm grows Christ, and Christ is for the building. The church is not built up by teaching or by organizing but by the growth in life. Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God caused the growth for the building up of the church.
First Corinthians is a precious book which follows the book of Romans in God’s sovereign arrangement of the books of the Bible. Romans starts with the condemnation of sins and then goes on to justification, identification with Christ, the walk and life in the Spirit, and the Body life. But how can we have the Body life? For the answer, we need 1 Corinthians. If we want to have the Body life, we have to realize that Christ is everything to us. This is what 1 Corinthians reveals to us.
Chapter 1 tells us that we have been called into the fellowship, the participation, the enjoyment, of this wonderful One (v. 9). God has put us into Him (v. 30), and He is the power and wisdom of God (v. 24). Now we are in Christ, enjoying Him as everything. Chapter 2 tells us that if we are going to enjoy Christ, we have to give up our soul-life. Otherwise, we will be a soulish person, who always considers the things of Christ to be foolishness (v. 14). We have to be a person in the spirit so that we can enjoy this wonderful One. For our past Christ is our righteousness, for our present He is our sanctification, and for our future destiny He is our redemption (1:30). He is everything to us.
But if we are going to realize such a Christ, we have to be in the spirit. We may use electricity as an illustration of this. The electricity installed in a building can be applied only by turning on the switch. In the same way, Christ can be applied to us only by the exercise of our spirit. We have to be in the spirit. Then we will become spiritual persons (2:15; 3:1). A spiritual person is a person living, moving, acting, and having his being in the spirit.
First Corinthians goes on to tell us that something of Christ has been planted into us. The real ministry of life is like the ministry of Apollos, who watered the seed. God goes along with this watering and causes the growth. Christ has been sown into us, and Christ is going to grow out of us. When Christ grows out of us, this growth transforms us to produce the gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12). According to our natural being, we are wood, grass, and stubble, but we are being transformed into precious material for God’s building.
The Lord will not use anything of our natural being for His building. Some of the saints may be good in a natural way without any transformation in their nature or disposition. Our natural goodness has nothing to do with God’s building. We were born as wood, grass, and stubble — worthless material for God’s building. But we were reborn with gold, and we are being transformed into silver and precious stones by being watered and by our growth in life. We need the watering for the growth in life that we may be transformed. Thus, 1 Corinthians 3 shows us the planting, watering, growing, transforming, and the producing of precious material for God’s building.
In this building no human hand can avail, because this growth is not in our hand. Paul said that both he who plants and he who waters are nothing (v. 7). Paul and Apollos are nothing. What counts is God Himself who causes the growth. We cannot do anything with our human hand. We cannot organize a church, but we can plant and water so that God can go along with our ministry to cause the growth in life. Then something of Christ will grow up within others to transform them into precious material for God’s building. This is absolutely not something organized by the human hand but something of the growth in life by God’s life-giving power.
Ephesians 2:21 says that all the building is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. If there is no growth, there is no building. The building grows into a temple. We cannot organize something to be the house of God. The house of God is something that grows up. Ephesians 4 says that we need to hold Christ as the reality that we may grow up in all things into Christ as the Head (v. 15). First, we grow into Christ. Then all the Body receives something of Christ to minister to the members. By this kind of ministry, the Body is built up by growing (v. 16). Again we see the growth and the building.
Colossians 2:19 says that the real building of the Body depends on the growth, and this growth comes from the growth of God. God is eternally perfect and complete, but this verse says that God grows. God in Himself needs no growth, but in us He needs the growth. God is complete in Himself, but He is not complete in us. The growth of the Body of Christ has nothing to do with the doctrinal knowledge of the Bible, the way of worship, or any such matter. Rather, the growth of the Body depends on the growth of God, the increase of God’s element, in the Body. We need the growth of God within us.
God has to be added into our being again and again. This is why we are told that we need to be filled unto all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19). We have a little bit of God within us, but we need more of Him added to us. When we are filled with God, we will be “crazy” to speak about Christ. When Paul was defending himself before King Agrippa, the Roman politician Festus exclaimed, “You are insane, Paul. Much learning is driving you insane” (Acts 26:24). Then Paul said, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus, but I am uttering words of truth and soberness” (v. 25). Actually, Paul was crazy for Christ because he was filled with God. If you are filled unto the fullness of God, you will speak about Christ all the time. We need to be filled with God for the growth of God. God has to increase within us day by day. We grow not by the increase of gifts, the increase of knowledge, or the increase of moral or ethical attainment. We grow only by the increase of God.
Let us consider two brothers. One brother is always adjusting himself to fit into certain situations. He is always nice and willing to be adjusted. We may mistakenly think that this is a very good brother who is full of life. Another brother is rough and tough. He is not very willing to be adjusted. But at times he is touched by the life-giving Spirit. You can realize that even though he is rough, there is the increase of God within him. This is the growth in life. If you would prefer the brother who is outwardly nice instead of the other brother who is inwardly experiencing the increase of God, this shows that you do not know what life is.
If we were asked to choose between Jacob and Esau, many of us would prefer Esau. Jacob was a supplanter, a heel holder, who was skilled at cheating others. He did not cheat others to their face but at their “heels.” Jacob was someone who would cheat you behind your back. It seems that God was not fair to choose Jacob over Esau. God said that He loved Jacob and hated Esau (Rom. 9:13). Because Jacob cheated his brother Esau, he was forced to leave his home and go to his uncle Laban. While he was on his journey, he was forced to sleep in the open air, and he had a wonderful dream. When he awoke from that dream, he declared that the place where he slept was Bethel, the house of God. He set up the stone, upon which he had laid his head, as a pillar and poured oil upon it (Gen. 28:10-22). God’s hand was upon him, not to do some outward correcting or adjusting work but to do an inner transforming work. God eventually told him that he would no longer be called Jacob but Israel (32:28). He would no longer be a supplanter but a prince of God.
What are we doing here in the church? Are we correcting, adjusting, and improving people? If we are doing this, we are in religion. It is the work of Confucius to improve people. Instead, we are here planting and watering that God may follow to give the growth so that people can be transformed into precious material for God’s building. To grow and be transformed is to have God increasing in you all the time.
Previously, we were made clear about the dispensing of the Triune God. God the Father is the source. Whatever He is, is in the Son. The Son has accomplished all that the Father planned and purposed. He has attained the throne, the lordship, the kingship, the headship, the kingdom, and the highest name. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. Now all that the Son has accomplished, obtained, and attained, with all that the Father is and has, is in the life-giving Spirit who has been dispensed into our spirit. We are one spirit with Him. The Triune God has been dispensed into our spirit. This is marvelously wonderful!
Our spirit is the central part of our being. Surrounding our spirit are the inward parts of the soul — the mind, emotion, and will. You have God in your spirit, but you do not have God in your mind, emotion, and will. You need to allow Him to dispense Himself into all the parts of your soul. Let us again use the illustration of electricity installed in a building. The only way to appropriate and apply this electricity is to turn on the switch. Our spirit is the switch that turns on and applies the heavenly electricity. We have to exercise our spirit so that God may saturate and take over our mind, our will, and our emotion. This is the growth in life. We have to turn to our spirit to meet God there.
In particular, we need to allow the Lord to subdue our will from within our spirit. We should pray, “Lord, I am willing to give You the ground. Take full possession of my will and saturate my will with Yourself.” Then God will be increased within us, and we will have the growth of God in us. Many times we will not give the Lord the ground in our will in certain things. We may say that we have consecrated ourselves to the Lord and to the church. But even today we still would not be willing to surrender all the ground in our being to the Lord. Instead, we should say, “Lord, this is Your ground. Take it. I surrender in my will. I am willing to be subdued by You. Take over my will.” Right away we will have the increase of God.
Our mind must also be possessed by the Lord. It is wrong that we are in the mind daily. As those who are seeking the Lord, we must exercise to be in the spirit all the time. Two brothers coordinating together in the church service may realize that they have to be in the spirit, but they are used to being in their mind. One brother may consider in his mind about the other brother, thinking that this brother’s attitude toward him has not been good. When we are in the mind, we are soulish and dusty. The more we think about the brothers apart from the spirit, the more dusty we become, to be the food of the serpent, who was assigned by the Lord to eat dust all the days of his life (Gen. 3:14).
When we are in the spirit, we will forget about everything but Christ. We must ask the Lord to be merciful to us so that we may surrender our mind to Him. We should say, “Lord, take over my mind. I give all the ground in my mind to You.” Then God will increase in us more. We also need to give Him the ground to take over our emotion so that our emotion can be filled with His desires and feelings.
It is in this way that God is increasing within us all the time to cause us to grow with the increase of God. We do not grow by being outwardly adjusted, improved, or corrected. We grow by giving the Lord the ground within us so that He can increase within us. This issues in the transformation in life. By the growth in life we are transformed into precious stones for God’s building. We become the living stones built up as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:5). The growth in life is a matter of God increasing in our whole being, beginning from our spirit and spreading into all of the inward parts of our soul. The more ground He gains within us, the more He increases Himself within us. Then we grow by His increase within us for the building up of the Body of Christ. This is the way to have the local church life.
