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Scripture Reading: John 1:14; Rev. 21:3
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Revelation 21:3 says, “The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them.” The Chinese Union Version translates the Greek word for tabernacle as “dwell.” In fact, however, these two verses use the noun tabernacle as a verb. John used this word to convey a particular meaning, not because he was forced to for lack of a better word. The particular meaning of this word may not be evident from John 1:14, but it is clear in Revelation 21:3. God will not only dwell with men, but God will tabernacle with them. This shows that the matter of God’s dwelling with men does not involve a common dwelling; it involves a tabernacle that is erected for the purpose of dwelling.
God wants to dwell with men, but His dwelling should not be considered a common thing. He wants to dwell within men by erecting a tabernacle among them. Such a building involves grouping, coordinating, and building up people. It is not easy to understand the Gospel of John without seeing this matter of tabernacling.
God’s great delight is to enter into man, to be mingled with man, and to be joined with man. We often speak of wanting to love and please God. However, as the Lord shines upon us, He gradually brings us to the point of knowing that He is touched the most when we let Him mingle Himself with us. If we really love Him, we will see that no other matter pleases His heart more than to let Him mingle Himself with us. This is not a matter of doctrine but of our practical living. If our living on this earth comes out of our being mingled with God, He will be pleased to the uttermost.
Many people are able to do things for the Lord, such as paying a price to follow Him, enduring, and laboring in many works, but such things do not necessarily touch His heart. Without the mingling of God and man in these things, our works, regardless of how good they seem to be, will not be of much value in His eyes, because they will be done outside of Him. Every valuable work has the element of the mingling of God and man in it. Being mingled with man is the most pleasing thing to God. This is the Word becoming flesh (John 1:14).
The meaning of the Word becoming flesh is nothing less than God being mingled with man and being expressed through the flesh. God does not want to be expressed simply in His divinity; God wants to be mingled with humanity and expressed through humanity, through our flesh, such that His life and nature are expressed through our humanity. This is what God delights in the most.
God came to be mingled with man not only because He takes delight in this, but also because He wants a home in which to dwell, a resting place among us, with us, and in us. This involves not only entering into man to be joined and mingled with man but also building those who have been mingled with Him into His dwelling place.
I have spoken of the mingling of God and man over the years, and I have said repeatedly that the mingling of God and man is for building a dwelling place of God in man. I am concerned, however, that many of us do not see this vision, because we so easily deviate from this and pay attention to things other than God. I am not concerned that our deviation is related to bad things, such as sin or the world. Rather, if we are not inwardly absolute and single toward God, even good things, such as the gospel and the edification of the saints, can be deviations. If we are not absolute, we may hear this word and know the doctrine, but we may not truly see that more than anything else God wants to gain man, to mingle Himself with man, and to build man into His dwelling place. It is not easy to see such a vision.
Almost no one preaches the truth of the mingling of God and man or the truth of the building of God. There are many orthodox Christians who endeavor to preach the gospel and to bring people to salvation, and it is common for Christians to exhort others to love the Lord, to consecrate themselves, to live for the Lord, to do God’s will, and to work for the Lord. Consequently, there are many who pursue spirituality and endeavor to live a holy life. However, among God’s children we seldom hear a message on God’s desire to mingle Himself with man. Although people can speak in generalities about receiving God’s life when they believed in the Lord and of needing to live by God’s life, their living may not reflect the intrinsic reality that God is life in order to mingle Himself with us. The Gospel of John is a book on God as life, and it repeatedly shows that God wants man to receive Him as life, just as we receive food and water. Whatever we eat and drink becomes a part of our constitution. Similarly, God wants to be our inner constitution.
God’s being mingled with us does not mean that God’s person becomes our person, nor does it mean that we become God in order to be worshipped. That is not the meaning of mingling at all. Mingling means that God’s life and nature have been imparted into us to be our element, and although we are human beings, we can live by God’s life in us instead of just by our human life. Although we are human beings, our human nature has been mingled with God’s nature. Hence, we can learn to express God’s life and nature through our mingled life and nature.
The Gospel of John not only shows that God wants to be our life but also presents the Lord Jesus as the pattern of One who took God as His life. John’s description of the Lord Jesus’ living on the earth shows a genuine man who lived by God’s life, not by His human life. Chapters 3 through 6 and chapters 18 through 19, which present the Lord’s betrayal and crucifixion, all show a man who took God as His life.
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke there is no mention of the Lord Jesus being hungry or thirsty, much less weeping, in ordinary circumstances. The only exception is when the Lord was tempted by the devil in Matthew 4:2, but this was not a normal situation. Only the Gospel of John shows the Lord Jesus being hungry, thirsty, and weeping in His normal human living (4:7; 11:35). This shows that He was a man, who, like us all, could be hungry, thirsty, and tired from journeying (4:6) and who could sympathize with man. When men wept, He wept. The situations described in the Gospel of John indicate that He genuinely was a man.
The Gospel of John also shows that the Lord Jesus did not live by His own human life. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works” (14:10). Even though He was a man living on the earth, He lived entirely by God, who was in Him as life. He was a man who could hunger and thirst, but He was a man who lived by God and who lived out God in His situations of hunger and thirst.
As soon as a Christian begins to love the Lord, he has the thought that he needs to do something for the Lord. There is hardly a person who, when he begins to love the Lord, has an inward realization that the Lord has no desire for him to do anything but to put aside his own life so that the life of God can be lived out through him. Very few have this thought when they first begin to love the Lord.
A young brother once came to see me and said, “Brother Lee, I would like to serve the Lord my whole life and work for Him. Originally, I wanted to study at a seminary, but I am afraid that a seminary may not be spiritual enough. I have heard that you have a training, and I would like very much to come. Would you grant me an opportunity to attend your training?” As I talked to him, I learned that he had not been saved for long. He was very young in every respect, even though he was quite zealous for the Lord. I said to him, “Brother, do not be anxious. Nothing is more important than giving the Lord the opportunity to live in you and to be expressed through you, not even studying in a seminary, attending the training, preaching the gospel, or reading the Bible.”
God delights the most in our giving Him the opportunity to be in us as our life, not in how much we have pursued Him, how much we have worked for Him, or how much of a price we have paid for Him. This lesson cannot be learned in a seminary or a training but only in our daily living. Although we go to work, go to meetings, and worship God with the brothers and sisters, these can all be outward things. The most important thing is to stop ourselves because we love the Lord and to take Him as our life, letting Him live in us. Then when we work for God, our work will touch God’s heart and be acceptable to Him.
This mingling of God and man is the Word becoming flesh. The Word, who is the explanation of God, became flesh and was mingled with man as one. In and through the life and nature of man, the Word spoke forth God, explaining and declaring God through His expression. He was not an angel or a spirit but a man who spoke God forth. People say that He was a man because He was a man who fully lived a human life, yet in His human living God was expressed. He was a man living out God. This is the Word becoming flesh. This is the mingling of God and man.
When God is mingled with man through the Word becoming flesh, there is an issue of building. Once the Word became flesh, a tabernacle was erected. Our experience testifies that whenever we live by God as our life practically, we have a distinct sense of the Lord’s presence. This sense is related to both God being mingled with us and to us being God’s dwelling place.
John says that God’s dwelling is the tabernacle. As soon as the tabernacle is mentioned, we must consider the matter of being built up in coordination. The tabernacle was not built with one piece of wood, one piece of linen cloth, or one measure of gold, silver, and bronze. The tabernacle was produced with many boards and much linen cloth, gold, silver, and bronze. When we truly deny ourselves and live by God as our life, we not only sense God’s presence, but we also sense that we cannot live individually before God. When we live by ourselves, we often feel self-sufficient, but when we live by God, we feel the need to be coordinated with the brothers and sisters.
This is certainly the case with our church service and the move of the work, but even our family affairs touch this principle. When we handle our family affairs by ourselves, we often have the feeling that our wisdom, skill, ways, and insight are quite good, and we have no sense of any need to fellowship or seek help from the brothers and sisters. But whenever we stop ourselves and live by God as our life, we immediately feel that we must fellowship with the brothers and sisters. This is the issue of the Word becoming flesh. If a brother sees the vision of the mingling of God and man and allows God to come into him as life practically, he will be built up quickly and see the vision of the church, the Body of Christ.
The matter of the church, the Body of Christ, is not merely one of light or truth; to merely preach and teach this truth is futile. We need to receive mercy and be led to understand God’s desire, which is to gain a way to mingle Himself with man and be man’s life. Whoever sees this and cares for God’s heart will let God into him to be his life. Such a one will discover that he needs the other members, the Body, the church. He needs a group of brothers and sisters who, like him, live in God’s life.
Many Christians today can talk about serving God and about being spiritual. However, there is no sense within them of their being in coordination with others or even of receiving a supply from other members. A person who is being mingled with God and built up with others, however, can be supplied by those with whom he is not like-minded in a natural way. It is even possible for him to be coordinated with these ones. Such a mutual supply and coordination are not related to having the same doctrine but to being connected to the same inner life. This is the building of the church.
The Gospel of John shows that the first step in God coming to be man’s life involves His being mingled with man; the last step involves the building of a dwelling place for God. John wrote not only the Gospel of John but also Revelation. His Gospel is the beginning of his writing, and Revelation is the completion of his writing. In the beginning of his Gospel John spoke of life and of the Lord coming so that man would have life (1:4; 10:10), but he did not speak clearly of the reason that the Lord wanted man to have life. The last section of Revelation, however, shows that the issue of life is a built-up city (21:2). John’s speaking shows that God came to be man’s life for the building of God’s dwelling place.
Not long after I was saved, I realized that John speaks particularly of life. However, as I have mused upon God’s Word and touched God’s Word in recent years, I have seen much more clearly that life is for God’s building. John speaks not only of life but also of building. John’s ministry is a ministry of life and building. Formerly, I could only say that God entered into man so that we could live a holy life, live a life of faith in God, and even live a life that lives out God, but now I can tell people with assurance that God enters into us as life for the sake of His building. The Word became flesh in order to tabernacle. When the Word became flesh, God entered into man as life. The issue of the Word becoming flesh, however, is tabernacling. John uses the word tabernacled to indicate that God came to be man’s life for the purpose of building.
In our human life we all feel that we are capable and able to stand on our own. Even the most foolish person often has no sense of his need for others; rather, he is under the impression that he can do everything in an independent and individualistic way. However, when we see a vision concerning God entering into us to be our life, we will stop ourselves and begin to live by Him as our life practically, and we will have an immediate sense that our independence and individualism are not matters to be praised. The more we are in ourselves, the more we feel that our individualism is justified, but the less we are in ourselves, the more we turn away from our individualism. If we live according to ourselves, even exhortations to be humble, to receive help, and to fellowship with others will be of no value, because there will be an element of pride in our accomplished humility, and our inward independence and self-justification will remain.
I know about these conditions because prolonged illnesses often make one a good doctor. I also know how to treat this illness. The more we live by ourselves, the more we will despise others, distrust others, disrespect others, and have no need of others. However, the more we live in God, the more we will need the brothers and sisters, and the more we will see that every brother and sister is capable of rendering help to us. This is the principle of coordination, the principle of building. This is the Word becoming flesh and tabernacling among us. Wherever the Word becomes flesh, God is mingled with man, and wherever God becomes man’s life, the tabernacling, the building, is manifested.
John spoke not only of life but also of building. John tells us that God came to be man’s life for the purpose of building. The Word becoming flesh was not only so that God could enter into man to be man’s life but in order to erect a tabernacle, to build a dwelling place, among men. At the end of all his speaking, John says, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men” (Rev. 21:3). In Revelation the tabernacle is a city built of many precious stones with the twelve names of the twelve apostles inscribed on its foundation and the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel inscribed on its gates (vv. 12, 14). This means that the city is built through God’s life with the redeemed from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Lord passed through death and resurrection to produce a building. In John 2 the Lord did two significant things. First, He changed water into wine in Cana (vv. 1-11), and second, He cleansed the temple (vv. 12-17). John did not write of these two things in a random way; instead, his arrangement shows great significance. The order of these events, which are connected with the words third day and three days (vv. 1, 19), is significant. The Lord Jesus came to Cana on the third day (v. 1), and after the Lord cleansed the temple, the Jews asked, “What sign do You show us, seeing that You do these things?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (vv. 18-19). The water was changed into wine on the third day, and the Lord said that He would raise up the temple in three days. Both events involve three days, which always implies resurrection. In His resurrection the Lord changed the water of death into the wine of life for the sake of the building, which also was raised up in three days. The temple that the Lord raised up is the temple of His body (v. 21), which is also the tabernacling Word in 1:14. The tabernacle in 1:14 is the temple in 2:21. The temple of His body was killed on the cross, but the Lord Jesus said, “In three days I will raise it up.”
When the Lord resurrected from death, His body in the flesh was enlarged into a mystical Body, which includes not only Himself but also all those whom He regenerated and saved. Resurrection enlarged the temple of His body. Originally, His body, which was the temple of God, was a single grain of wheat; but when His body was killed on the cross, this grain of wheat was resurrected in three days as many grains (12:24). What was built up in resurrection was not only the body of Jesus of Nazareth but also the mystical Body of Christ, consisting of myriads of people regenerated through His resurrection. With our considerations of space and time, it does not seem as if the Body of Christ was built, but God has no considerations of space and time. In God’s eyes a universal dwelling place was built when the Lord resurrected from the dead. In our experience the Lord Jesus is still building His mystical Body in resurrection today.
I long that more and more of God’s children would have a vision to see the matter that touches God’s heart the most, which is to let Him enter into us, to be mingled with us, and to be our life. What matters is not our work for Him, our zealousness for Him, our help to the poor, or our preaching of the gospel. There is only one matter that can satisfy God’s desire, which is to be mingled with God so that He can be our life and living. By His mercy, we can stop ourselves and let Him be our life even in such practical things as our getting dressed, our eating a meal, and our work and family situations. Nothing touches God’s heart more than this. He delights in the Word becoming flesh so that He can mingle with us and be our life in our daily living.
When we experience being mingled with God, we will have a strong sense that we cannot be individualistic but, instead, that we need to coordinate with the brothers and sisters in order to be built together. Then our condition will express God as our life for the sake of His building. God will not only be expressed in us, but He also will gain a restful dwelling place among us. This is what He wants to work out, and this is what He will obtain. Life and building solve all the problems of the church. Outward debates, explanations, and teachings cannot solve the problems faced by the church. The practical solution to the problems of the church is life and building.
