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Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:8; Rom. 10:12; Col. 2:9; John 1:14, 16; 1 Cor. 3:2a, 7; Col. 2:19; Eph. 4:13
Christ today is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) indwelling our spirit (Rom. 8:16). We have seen clearly that this is simply for the building. God’s eternal plan is to get a living building, but Satan came into man, into man’s flesh, trying to frustrate God. However, God is wiser than His enemy. He came in the likeness of the flesh to crush the flesh, and then in resurrection He became the Spirit. This is the crucial point. He became the Spirit to come into our spirit, and we are joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). We may say that this was for life-imparting, for saving us, or for our enjoyment. But all these points are for one ultimate point, that is, for us to be built up together. Christ’s dealing with the flesh and being the life-giving Spirit in our spirit are for one goal, that is, for the building.
In the New Testament the concept of building is much different from our natural concept. Our natural concept concerning building is that one piece of material is placed upon another piece repeatedly, piece upon piece, until we have a high tower. But in the eyes of God, this is not building. This is a piling of material. Some may say that we Christians are people of togetherness, so they think that building is just to get together. But togetherness is not building. If you sit together with me, and we talk to one another about our personal affairs, this is togetherness. Building is not just to get together, to be piled up. Building in the New Testament is growth in life. God’s salvation is absolutely not a matter of doing, working, acting, or behaving. God’s salvation consummates in one thing — our growth in life. We all have to grow. The vine tree in John 15 is not a matter of doing, working, behaving, laboring, or striving. The vine tree is altogether a matter of growth. Growing is the real building.
I have been a genuine, seeking Christian since 1925. I loved the Lord and the Bible so much, but for many years I never heard a message telling me that I have to grow in life. I heard message after message telling me that I had to do certain things or behave in a certain way. But no one told me that I need to grow, not to improve. No school can help you to grow. Every school is doing its best to help you to improve.
The main thing that good mothers do is to feed their children. In our homes the dining table is much more important than the desk. Every Lord’s Day we do not have a desk in front of us but a dining table, that is, the Lord’s table. I have traveled to many places and have been a guest in many homes. The first thing the host would care for is my eating. In many homes I did not have a desk, but in every home I had a dining table. This is because eating is more important than studying, writing, and reading.
If God had asked us to write the Bible, we would have written it in a different way. First Corinthians 11 tells us that in the night in which the Lord was betrayed, He took bread and said, “This is My body, which is given for you; this do unto the remembrance of Me” (v. 24). Then He took the cup and said, “This cup is the new covenant established in My blood; this do, as often as you drink it, unto the remembrance of Me” (v. 25). Why does the Lord tell us to remember Him in this way? One day the Lord opened my eyes to see what the real remembrance of Him is. The real remembrance of the Lord is not the outward form of giving a prayer, singing a hymn, praising Him, or kneeling down. The real remembrance of Him is to eat Him. The more you eat Him, the more you remember Him. This is because the remembrance of the Lord is a declaration of the way we live. We live by eating and drinking Christ day by day.
The Bible is filled with the thought of eating. Immediately after God created man, He took care of man’s eating. He did not charge Adam to love Eve, and He did not charge Eve to submit to Adam. He did not charge them or give them instructions about how to be good parents. After God created man, God only told him to be careful to eat the right tree. If you eat the right tree, you will have life. If you eat the wrong tree, you will die.
Later, in Exodus we see that the children of Israel kept the passover (12:15-20). They were charged to strike the blood and eat the lamb. Then they entered into the wilderness where they ate manna for forty years (16:35). Those wanderers in the wilderness were an eating people. They had no jobs, no businesses, no stores, and no schools. Day after day they simply ate the heavenly manna. When they entered into the good land, they ate of its rich produce (Josh. 5:12).
In the New Testament time the Lord Jesus came. People considered Him as a prophet and a great teacher, and some even wanted to make Him King. When they tried to make Him King, He withdrew from them (John 6:15). The next day He told the people that He was the bread of life (v. 35). He did not want to be their King, but He wanted to be eaten by them. In John 6:57 He said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” It was as if the Lord were saying, “Don’t make Me your King. Take Me as your food.”
In Luke 15 the Lord told the parable of a prodigal son returning home to his father. He decided to tell his father, “I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants” (vv. 18-19). He made up his mind to work for his father, but the father said to his slaves, “Bring out quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fattened calf; slaughter it, and let us eat and be merry” (vv. 22-23). This shows that when a fallen sinner repents, he always thinks of working for God or of serving God to obtain His favor, not knowing that this thought is against God’s love and grace and is an insult to His heart and intent. God’s desire is for us to eat the rich Christ typified by the fattened calf.
At the end of the Lord’s life, He set up a table so that we can remember Him by eating and drinking Him. Then in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, the Lord Jesus promised the overcomers in the churches that He would give them to eat of the tree of life (2:7) and the hidden manna (v. 17). Even He said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me” (3:20). Some use this to preach the gospel by saying that Jesus is standing at the door of your heart, and if you receive Him, He will come into you. But we need to see that He comes into us so that we can feast with Him.
Eventually, the Bible concludes with a promise and a call. The promise says that all those who have washed their robes have the right to eat of the tree of life (22:14). The call is from the Spirit and the bride for the thirsty sinner to come and take the water of life (v. 17). Thus, the Bible ends with a promise of eating and a call of drinking.
The Bible is a book of eating for growth. If there is no eating, there is no growth. A child becomes a man not because of his education but because of his growth. The building of the church, which is the growth in life, comes out of eating. This is the principle that has been fully missed by religious Christianity.
Christ crushed the flesh and now indwells our spirit so that we can eat Him. His indwelling us is for our eating. The outward table at the Lord’s table meeting is a sign. We have a table within us. We see the outward symbol once a week, but the inward reality is with us every day. We all have a table within us. Our human spirit is the dining room and also the dining table. Christ is in our spirit always available for us to eat.
Now we need to consider what eating is. To eat is to take some nourishment into our organic being. The only way a chicken can become a part of us and become our nourishment is for us to eat it. To eat the chicken is to put it into our organic being. When we eat, digest, and assimilate it, the nourishing element gets into our organic tissue. Then this chicken becomes us. We are what we eat.
Day by day we eat Christ. Eventually, what we eat becomes us. By eating Christ, we become Christ because we are constituted with Him. The Christian life is not a matter of endeavoring to behave ourselves in an ethical way. It is a matter of eating Christ. When we eat Christ, we take Him into us. We digest and assimilate Christ into our spiritual, organic tissue. Then Christ is wrought into us. This Christ wrought into us is the real building.
God does not care about what you do. He does not want you to do anything. He is capable of calling the things not being as being (Rom. 4:17). This was the way He took in His creation. He said “light,” and light was there (Gen. 1:3). God does not need you to do anything. What God wants is to present Himself in His Son, Christ, as the riches for you to receive and enjoy. All the unsearchable riches of Christ are for our enjoyment (Eph. 3:8). The Lord is rich to all who call upon His name (Rom. 10:12).
Romans 8 speaks of walking according to the spirit. Then chapter 9 says that we are vessels (vv. 21, 23). A vessel is a container with a mouth. In Romans 10 the mouth is used to call, “O Lord Jesus!” Then all the riches get into the vessel. Romans 10 shows us that the empty vessels have a mouth to call on the name of the Lord in order to receive, to take in, all His riches.
Romans does not stop in chapter 8 with walking according to the spirit. It continues in chapter 9 by telling us that we are vessels to contain Christ. In chapter 10 these vessels have a mouth to call on the Lord to be filled with Him. To call, “O Lord Jesus,” is not just the way of salvation but the way to take in the Lord Jesus as our all.
Our concept is to improve our behavior so that we can be a good person. The Bible, however, tells us that we need to eat Jesus and live by Him. Romans 8 talks about walking, Romans 9 talks about the vessels needing to be filled up, and Romans 10 tells us that the way for us as vessels to be filled up is to open up our mouth to call on the Lord and receive all the riches of Christ. The Lord is rich to all who call upon Him.
Christ is the embodiment of all the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9). All the fullness of what God is dwells in Christ for us to receive. He became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace (John 1:14). Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace (v. 16). We have to receive Christ, not once for all but constantly. Day by day we have to receive Christ for our growth, and growth is for building.
Many Christians do not care for eating. Instead, they care for exercising their mind to study. In the Lord’s recovery, however, we care only for eating. If you argue about what is on the menu and do not eat, you will either be undernourished or starve. We are not here to debate over doctrines. We are here to eat God’s word in the Bible. Man lives by every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). God’s word is our food.
My main burden in this chapter is to help us realize that we need to take Jesus more and more into us. Do not be bothered by your losing of your temper. Do not be bothered about how to deal with your spouse. Forget about that. Learn to be a good eater. Eat Christ. Every morning take a good portion of Christ. The Cantonese have seven meals a day. We have to be “Cantonese Christians” who eat Christ many times throughout the day. We need seven meals a day to eat Christ. When our spouse bothers us, that should be a reminder that we need another meal of Christ. The Christian life is not a matter of behaving but a matter of eating.
Our functioning in the meetings is the issue of our eating Christ. The leading ones in the churches may be very anxious about all the saints functioning in the meetings. They may even tell the saints to raise their hands and promise that they will function in the meetings. This is the wrong way to help the saints function. If we charge people to function and ask them to promise us to function, eventually they still will not function. They do not function, because they have nothing with which to function. Asking the saints to function is like saying, “Promise me that in the next meeting you will spend two hundred dollars.” In the next meeting they cannot do this, because they have only a nickel. How could they spend two hundred dollars? The leading brothers in the local churches do not need to charge the saints to do anything. Just feed them. If you feed the saints throughout the week and help them to eat Christ, they will be filled with the riches of Christ. Then everyone will come to the meeting with a thousand dollars. The church life is not a matter of endeavoring to function but a matter of eating. Why is the church meeting poor? Because all the attendants are starved to death. We all have to help one another to eat.
First, we have to realize that Christ, the heavenly food, is in our spirit. He is not here to teach and instruct us. He wants us to come and dine. Eventually, we find out what we should do by the One whom we eat. Learn to eat Jesus. Do not try to do anything. Do not try to improve yourself. We are not doers; we are eaters. We are not mourners; we are eaters. We are not performers; we are eaters. Only a good eater of Jesus can be the best wife or husband. In every situation, never try to do anything. Whatever transpires, just go to eat Jesus, who is in your spirit. We can turn from the flesh to Jesus in our spirit. He is always available for us to enjoy.
If we eat Jesus in the mornings, we will have plenty to offer to the saints in the meeting in the evenings. In the ancient times the Israelites labored on the good land day by day. Then they had a lot to bring to God for their worship. They brought all the riches of the good land to offer to God, and they mutually enjoyed these riches in the presence of God (Deut. 14:23). Their worship was a worship of eating the riches of the good land, which are a type of the riches of Christ. Today if we eat Jesus throughout the week, we will have plenty of the riches of Christ to offer to others in the meetings. When we pray or speak something in the meetings, that will be an overflow of the riches we have inwardly enjoyed. This should be our worship in the church meetings.
Whatever happens to us, we should not be troubled, bothered, or disappointed. No matter what happens or what your situation is, try to eat Jesus. Learn to eat. We eat by exercising our spirit to contact the indwelling Christ who is one with us in our spirit. We should not be bothered by any trouble that comes to us. Simply go to eat the Lord. We can say, “Lord, You know that this trouble has come to me. Now is the time for me to eat You more.” Often when we have a good situation, we do not eat. Our bad situations cause us to eat Jesus more. Learn to take Jesus in all your situations.
If we want to minister the word to the saints in the meetings, we need to eat Jesus. Are you going to speak? Before you speak, eat Jesus. What we need is to eat Him. God’s intention is to work Christ into you, to add Christ into you, day by day for your growth in life. Our growth in life is inadequate. We all need more growth. Otherwise, the Lord’s recovery will become a movement. We do not want to have a movement of work, activity, programs, and schedules without life. We hate that. We like to see all the dear saints in the Lord’s recovery taking Christ, digesting Christ, experiencing Christ, and growing with Christ.
The church life is not a testimony of behavior but a testimony of what we are, and what we are comes from what we eat. If we eat Jesus, we are Jesus, and we become the real testimony of Jesus. This testimony is the Lord’s recovery. We all have to pray, to look to the Lord, that He would open our eyes so that we may see what He really wants and what we really need. We need to eat Him.
We have seen that we have the bothering flesh, but this flesh helps us to turn to Christ in our spirit. The Lord Jesus today is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. We are one spirit with Him and can never exhaust the supply of such a bountiful store of grace. Now we must spend our time and concentrate ourselves on eating Jesus. Then we will grow with Him, and our growth is building. First, the building will be revealed in our family. Second, this building will be revealed among the brothers and sisters. Eventually, this building will be fully revealed in the church life. We all are one in the growth in life, and this growth in life is simply Christ assimilated and added into our being. This is real. It is not a mere doctrine or an ethical teaching. Christ is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit for us to enjoy as our supply day by day.
