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Scripture Reading: John 3:5-6, 15; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; James 1:18; Matt. 13:3; 1 John 3:9; Rev. 14:1-5, 14-16; 1 Cor. 3:6-7; 1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:14; Col. 1:28; Eph. 4:15b, 11-13; Col. 2:19; 16, Gal. 5:25a; Rom. 8:4b; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:12
I. Having been regenerated by the Spirit with the life of God as the seed contained in God’s word — John 3:5-6, 15; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; James 1:18; Matt. 13:3; 1 John 3:9.
II. Growing to be:
А. The firstfruits as the overcomers — Rev. 14:1-5.
B. The harvest ripened for reaping — vv. 14-16.
III. Having been planted and watered for God to cause the growth — 1 Cor. 3:6-7.
IV. Growing unto salvation by drinking the milk of the word — 1 Pet. 2:2.
V. Growing unto maturity by eating the solid food — Heb. 5:14; Col. 1:28.
VI. Growing up into the Head, Christ, in all things — Eph. 4:15b.
VII. Growing unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ by being perfected by the gifted persons — vv. 11-13.
VIII. Growing with the growth of God — Col. 2:19.
IX. Growing by:
А. Living by the Spirit — Gal. 5:25a.
B. Walking by the Spirit — vv. 16a, 25b.
C. Having our being only according to the spirit — Rom. 8:4b.
X. Growing for the building up of the Body of Christ through transformation — Eph. 4:12b; 1 Pet. 2:2, 5; 1 Cor. 3:12.
In the previous three chapters we saw that God created man according to His kind. He prepared a spirit within man so that man might contact Him, receive Him, and contain Him by the way of taking God as his life. This is fully signified in the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9). Eventually, God came to be a man. First, He created man; then He came to be a man in order to make man God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, not in the position and rank of God. Then He went to die, and He resurrected. In His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) in order that He might enter into our spirit to be one with us in this spirit (6:17). Now He is within us so that day by day we may live Him, express Him, and magnify Him by walking and doing everything according to the Spirit (Phil. 1:20-21; Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16). This is wonderful, but still there is the need of something further: we need to grow. In order to grow, we need to know the way to grow and also the purpose for which we should grow.
In speaking concerning our growth in Christ, we must begin with regeneration. Our growth is based on the fact that we have been regenerated by the Spirit with the life of God as the seed contained in God’s word (John 3:5-6, 15; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; James 1:18; Matt. 13:3; 1 John 3:9). First, we were born in Adam through our parents; therefore, we have had one birth already. However, according to God’s economy, every person should have another birth, a second birth; that is, every person should be regenerated. To be generated once is not adequate. We need to be regenerated — not to be born of our parents but to be born of God (John 1:12-13). We were born once of man, yet we need to be born a second time of God. Actually, we were created according to God’s kind, but that was not adequate. To be God’s kind, we need God to be our life. This means that we need God to be our content.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, the main thing is not that we are forgiven of our sins. Being forgiven of our sins is not the goal or the purpose. Being forgiven is merely the first step of the procedure to reach regeneration. Being redeemed, being forgiven of our sins, being justified by God, and being reconciled to God through Christ’s redemption are four steps to reach the goal of regeneration.
Because we were sinners and even were the totality of sin with a sinful constitution, we needed God’s forgiveness. The way for us to be forgiven by God is through Christ’s redemption. Christ died a vicarious death for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3). Therefore, in Him, through Him, and with Him we have been redeemed (1 Pet. 1:18-19; Eph. 1:7). Based on Christ’s redemption, God no longer condemns us but justifies us (Rom. 3:24). Now there is no problem between us and God. Then God reconciled us to Himself (2 Cor. 5:18; Rom. 5:10). Thus, our situation and condition before God have been fully appeased. We are now fully at peace with God (v. 1). However, although we have been redeemed, forgiven of our sins, justified by God, and reconciled to God so that we no longer have any problem with God, this is not the goal. Even though we may be thoroughly cleansed and purified, there still has been no change in our nature, substance, element, and essence. We are the same in essence as we were before. Our being dirty or clean does not change our inward essence. Whether dishes are washed or remain dirty, they are still dishes; their essence is not changed.
Hence, after redeeming us, forgiving us, justifying us, and reconciling us to Himself, God came in to regenerate us. This is not only the last step of God’s salvation to us but also the goal, the aim, of salvation. However, this goal, this aim, has been almost fully neglected by most of today’s Christians. As long as they have been forgiven, have peace, and eventually will go to heaven, many Christians are satisfied. As long as they have Christ as their righteousness and are justified, that is all that matters to them. It is true that we have been justified, but justification is not for justification. Justification is for something further (Rom. 5:18b and footnote 2, Recovery Version). Redemption, forgiveness, justification, and reconciliation are all for one goal: regeneration. Ultimately and consummately, we need a new birth. We need to be reborn (John 3:3, 5). We not only need to be washed; we need to be reborn, to be remade, to be transformed in our nature. We were made of clay. Because of this, we are very “muddy.” The more we wash something made of clay, the dirtier it gets. Likewise, the more we try to wash ourselves, the more we expose our dirtiness.
Instead of being merely washed, we need to be regenerated. We need to be born of another life, the divine life, a life in another category. We need to be born of God and with God. As believers in Christ, we have experienced such a divine birth. On the day we repented, when we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, something unconsciously entered into us. Although we did not expect this to happen, something was added into us. That something is actually not a thing but a person, the divine person. The very God, even the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, came into us (Eph. 4:6; Col. 1:27; John 14:17). We have another person in us as a threefold being — the Triune God.
As believers in Christ, we are not alone. We do not live, walk, and have our being by ourselves. We do not rejoice or weep by ourselves. We are continually with one person who is not outside of us but within us. When we are happy, He is happy. When we are sad, He is sad. When we weep, He washes away our tears. We have another One with us. This One is the Triune God, the One who was triune from eternity, who created man, who even became a man, who walked and lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, who went to die on the cross an all-inclusive death for us, and who resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. Today this One is the life-giving Spirit within us. Through this Spirit we have been reborn, regenerated, in our spirit (3:6). The Spirit of God regenerated our spirit. Now these two have become one mingled spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
We were regenerated by the Spirit with the life of God. When the Spirit regenerates our spirit, we receive God as life. The regenerating Spirit brought God into our spirit as our life. From that time we began to have two lives — our natural life from our parents, and our divine life, which is from God and is God. The life of God is the seed contained in God’s holy word. Here we have four things: the Spirit, the life of God, the seed, and the word. This means that God Himself as life has been sown as a seed into us.
In regeneration the Holy Spirit sowed God as a life seed into our being. The Lord Jesus likened the natural being of man to a field. He said that He came to sow Himself as a seed, through the word, into this field (Matt. 13:3, 19a; Mark 4:3, 14). The Lord Jesus came as a life seed to sow Himself into our being. From the day that the Lord sowed Himself into us, we have been growing not only physically but also divinely and spiritually. This is the growth of the believers. In today’s Christianity divine matters like these are not taught very much. Instead, much of the teaching in today’s Christianity focuses on matters such as how to have a good married life and family life. This is a tragedy.
The Bible teaches us that when we believed in Christ, the Spirit, the consummated Spirit who is the life-giving Spirit and who is the pneumatic Christ, came to sow God as a life seed into us. On that day this life seed began to grow. Eventually, this life seed will grow to be the firstfruits as the overcomers in Revelation 14:1-5 and then the harvest ripened for reaping in Revelation 14:14-16. In a wheat field there are the firstfruits, those that ripen first. According to the Old Testament typology, the firstfruits were to be presented to God in His sanctuary for God’s enjoyment (Lev. 23:10-11; Exo. 23:19). After the firstfruits there is the harvest. In Revelation 14 the firstfruits are mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, and the harvest follows near the end of the chapter. This is God’s crop. God is the life seed sown into us, and we are the field. The seed and the field grow together. Without the seed, nothing can grow; but without the field, the earth, the seed cannot grow. Thus, in the growth of a seed two elements, the seed and the earth, meet together, mingle together, and grow together.
As believers in Christ, we should not be concerned about matters such as how to have a good marriage. If we want to have the best marriage, we must be regenerated, and this divine seed must grow in us. This divine seed is growing within us. Every day He is growing, first to grow in us to make us the firstfruits, the overcomers, who are signified by Zion in the Old Testament. Among the Old Testament types there is God’s holy city, Jerusalem, which is common and general. Within this city there is a high peak called Zion (Psa. 2:6; 125:1). Zion is the highlight of Jerusalem. Today the church is the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22), and the overcomers are Zion as the high peak, the highlight. If all the believers are common and general, the church will be merely Jerusalem without a high peak, without Zion. Such a situation is not beautiful. Jerusalem’s beauty is with Zion. Zion is the beauty of the holy city (Psa. 48:2; 50:2). Likewise, the overcomers are the beauty of a local church. In each local church there must be a group of believers who ripen earlier to be the firstfruits. These believers are Zion in that church. Although it is wonderful to have the church in many localities, we like to see the beauty, the highlight, the high peak, the body of overcomers, in all the churches. Overcomers are what the Lord is after today. The Lord is after the overcomers to stand up, to ripen early.
There are two main ways to grow trees. One way is to sow a seed. If we sow the seed of a peach, a peach tree will grow up. The second way is to plant the sapling of a peach tree into the earth. This sapling will grow to be a peach tree. In the Bible it is the same. First, the Bible tells us that God has sown Himself into our spirit as the life seed to grow a tree, a miniature of the tree of life. The tree of life was unique in Genesis 2:9, but today the tree of life grows in all of us, causing each of us to be a small tree of life. As small trees of life, we need to grow. We, the believers in Christ, have all been regenerated by God sowing Himself into us as the life seed. From that day a life tree came out.
Then, in 1 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says, “I planted.” At times we may say that we sow Christ into people through the preaching of the gospel. At other times we can also declare that we plant Christ into people. To plant a sapling into a field is a quicker way to grow a tree than to sow a seed. Paul planted Christ. In verses 6 and 7 he says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. So then neither is he who plants anything nor he who waters, but God who causes the growth.” Planting and watering are two steps for God to give the growth. If Paul would not plant and Apollos would not come to water, there would be no way for God to give the growth.
We need to be sowers and planters, sowing and planting Christ into many vacant sinners. Today there are many sinners who do not have Christ. They are empty, vacant, waiting for Christ to be either sown into them or planted into them. If we have some dear friends who are still not believers in Christ or are believers in Christ in name but not in reality, these kinds of friends may have a feeling of emptiness within them. They may feel that their living on this earth is empty and is vanity of vanities. If they would pray, “Lord Jesus, I do not want to be empty anymore. I want to take You; I want to receive You,” immediately they would be filled by Christ as either a seed or a plant. Sometimes they will be blessed to receive Christ not only as a small seed but as a large plant planted into their being. This will cause them to feel that they are filled with Christ. They will be happy and will tell others that they are no longer empty, but they now have something within them, that is, Christ. Now Christ is growing in them. Then an “Apollos” in the church will go once a week to water them. This watering plus the planting gives God an opportunity to grow in them.
When people have Christ, Christ will be their improvement. If they do not have Christ, they will have no improvement. I came to the United States in 1958. Since that time I have been observing how America has gone on. According to my observation, America is degrading. Today’s America is different from the America of thirty-five years ago. America is degrading because it is short of Christ. What America needs today is not finance but Christ. America today is on the top in science, education, politics, and military strength. However, America is short of Christ. America needs to be on the top in Christ. We need to have more Christ. If every morning we will remain with Christ for fifteen minutes, we will receive the benefit. We will give Christ a way for His growth in us. The need of today’s America is Christ — the practical Christ, the real Christ, the living Christ, the Christ either as the seed or the living plant sown or planted into us.
First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.” For our physical growth we need to drink milk. Likewise, for our spiritual growth we need to drink the divine milk from the Word. Every morning we need to drink a cup of milk from the Word. If you will do this, you will see the blessing. You will be healthy and will be a tree of life growing. This tree will bear fruit, and all the fruit will nourish your wife, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors, your colleagues in your office, or your classmates in your school. You will become the tree of life to all the people in your community. Today America needs this. America needs Christ to grow in the neighborhoods, in the schools, in the offices, and among the families and the in-laws.
We should not merely attend the church meetings; we need to grow so that we may be a tree of life to nourish today’s communities in America. I am very grateful to the Lord that I live in America. Here I have the full liberty to speak what I want to speak for the Lord. I am grateful for this, but whenever I look at today’s situation, I am saddened because of the shortage of Christ. Needless to say with the unbelievers, even with the believers there is the shortage of Christ, the lack of the growth of Christ.
Peter says that if we drink the milk of the word, we will grow unto salvation. We should not think that we are fully saved and have no need of any further salvation. Such a concept is wrong. We still need to be saved every day, even every minute, from our temper, from our sorrows, and from our anxiety. We need to be saved from many things. I am a quick person. It is easy for me to lose my temper. When I was young, my temper was a trouble to me. But later on I learned that I can be saved, and I have been saved through the drinking of the milk of the word. Drinking the milk of the word causes us to grow unto salvation from our anger, our temper, our anxiety, our worry, our fear, and our trembling. Every day we need a daily salvation. We need today’s salvation in our daily walk.
Among today’s Christians it is difficult to find one who is mature. Many Christians are still childish. In their joking with one another we cannot sense God. Also, they are too free in having contact with the opposite sex. It is no wonder that there is fornication even among Christians. A sister should not speak lightly to a brother. For a female to speak lightly is to sell herself cheaply. A sister must keep her female dignity (1 Tim. 2:9-10). This female dignity protects her from many sinful things. Furthermore, in order to avoid falling into sin, a sister should not get too near a member of the opposite sex. Our need is to grow unto maturity, to be matured. Even one who is still a teenager in his physical age can be a mature believer in Christ. I have seen some young people like this.
We need to grow unto maturity to know God, to know the Bible, to know the church, and to know today’s situation and condition in a mature way. We should not be childish. In order to grow unto maturity, we need to eat solid food (Heb. 5:14; Col. 1:28). Drinking milk is for babes. Every day we need to drink a cup of milk from the Word. We also need to take some solid food from the Word. In the Bible words such as “God so loved the world” (John 3:16) and “Husbands, love your wives” (Eph. 5:25) are like milk. In contrast, those portions of the Word concerning God’s creation of man in His image and according to His likeness, His preparing a human spirit by breathing His breath of life into man’s nostrils, and His putting man in front of the tree of life, a figure of God Himself as life, are solid, like diamond. Nevertheless, we need to eat these portions. We need spiritual teeth that can eat such solid food, and we also need a spiritual stomach to digest such words. We need to grow unto maturity by eating the solid food.
In Ephesians 4:15 Paul says, “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ.” We need to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things. Even in small matters, such as getting our hair cut, combing our hair, and choosing a necktie, we need to do them in Christ. Certain sisters may take twenty minutes to comb their hair yet not spend two minutes to pray. This is a great loss. We need to grow up into Christ in all the small matters in our daily life.
We do not need to conduct ourselves in a certain way because we are forced to do so by outward regulations. We need to grow to the extent that we are in Christ. If we grow into Christ, when we comb our hair, we will comb it in Christ and with Christ. In combing our hair we may say, “Lord Jesus, I am with You; be with me in my combing my hair.” Ephesians 4:15 says that we need to grow until we reach the level of being in Christ in all things — in shopping, in buying a pair of shoes, in spending our money, and even in choosing a pair of eyeglasses. It is a great thing to grow up into the Head, Christ, in all things.
According to Ephesians 4:11-13, we also need to grow unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ by being perfected by the gifted persons. Every person has the stature of a human being, but verse 13 speaks of “the stature of the fullness of Christ.” The stature of the fullness of Christ is the stature of the church (1:22-23). The church as the Body of Christ has a stature, and this stature has a measure. We need to grow to match that measure. The church is “tall,” yet we are still so “short.” Therefore, our measure does not match the stature of the church. If this is the case, how could the church be built up? In a family, if the children do not grow but remain small, the family cannot be built up. Today it is difficult to realize the building up of the church, because most Christians have not grown but have remained infants (1 Cor. 3:1-2; Heb. 5:12). Among Christians we can see many opinions, criticisms, reasonings, and outbursts of temper. Today who is mature? Very few have grown unto the measure of the stature of the proper church.
Colossians 2:19 says that we are growing with the growth of God. This verse indicates that our God who is living in us is growing. In Himself He does not need to grow, for in Himself He is perfect and complete. Yet in us He needs to grow. He has been within many of us for years, but we may not allow Him to grow. I have seen some children who were so small at their birth that they had to be put into an incubator. However, from the time of their birth they lived in a situation and environment that fit in with their growth in every aspect. As a result, they grew to be very strong. In the same way, we need to give God a situation and environment that are fitting for Him to grow in us.
The growth of a plant depends on the environment in which it is placed. A plant in the shade may grow and yet bear no blossoms, whereas the same kind of plant placed in the sunshine may grow and produce many blossoms. In order to grow properly, plants also need to be in an environment where there is water and fresh air. Do we give our God the adequate environment for Him to grow in us?
Shopping is a great temptation to the sisters. Many of the sisters like to read the newspaper on Saturday to see what is on sale. When they are considering whether or not to go shopping, something within them restricts them. At such a time they need to say, “Lord, thank You for Your restriction. I give You the opportunity to grow. I drop my shopping.” If they would do this, Christ would grow in them. However, most of the time the sisters would not care for the Lord’s inner restriction. Instead, they would still go shopping. That restricts the Lord from growing in them. In many things we have an inner restriction, but we do not listen to that restriction. Instead, we go our way. Going our own way is a restriction to the Lord’s growth in us. Spending money loosely without any care for the Lord restricts God’s growing within us. In everything we have to consider Him. We need to give Him the convenience and let Him have the liberty, the free way, to go on in us. If we do this, He will grow in us. He will become a strong young man in us (1 John 2:14b). We grow with the growth of God, and the growth of God simply means the increase of God. God is in us, but He is short of His increase in us because we do not provide adequate room, adequate space, for Him to grow.
The believers grow by living by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25a). We should not live by our American or Chinese disposition. We all should live by the indwelling Spirit.
We must not only live but even walk every step by the Spirit. In everything we need to walk by the Spirit (vv. 16a, 25b).
We must live by the Spirit, walk by the Spirit, and have our being only according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4b). This is the way by which we grow. It is also the way by which we give our God the opportunity and the environment to grow in us. By these steps we give every convenience to our God to move within us. We give every inch within our being for Him to spread, to act, to move, and to operate. In such a situation, surely He will grow in us. In His growth we grow. Actually, His growth within us is our growth. The real growth of the believers is the very Triune God growing in them.
Our growing is for the unique purpose of God, that is, the building up of the Body of Christ through transformation (Eph. 4:12b; 1 Pet. 2:2, 5; 1 Cor. 3:12). The first stanza of Hymns, #395 begins, “O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me.” We all need to pray, “Lord, grow in me.” Two additional hymns, Hymns, #548 and #750, concern the matter of transformation. The young people need to spend their time on their education, and the working ones need to have a job in order to make a living, but the goal is not merely for us to have a proper daily living. The goal of our living is the building up of the Body of Christ. We need to be built up.
To build a building requires every piece of material to be complete and perfect. If a piece of material has a defect, it is unsuitable for the building. We need to grow to be complete and perfect. Then we can be proper pieces of material for the building up of the Body of Christ in our locality. Many dear saints are always unhappy with their local church. They love the churches in other localities, but they do not like the church where they are. So, they move to another city. When they come to that city, they have a “honeymoon” for a short time. After the church honeymoon is over, they begin to complain about the church in that city. They think that the church in a different city might be good. So, they move there. After being there for two months, they begin again to be unhappy. Eventually, such persons may say that none of the local churches is good, but they love the Body of Christ. However, the Body of Christ that they love is “in the air”; it is not on the earth where they are.
To love the Body of Christ, we need to love our own local church in the place where we are. We should not be “church movers,” moving from locality to locality according to our taste. We should simply love the church in which we are. It is not the church that is not lovely. Speaking honestly, it is we who are not lovely. We need to behave ourselves in a lovely way. To do this we need to grow. If we do not grow, we cannot be built up with others.
We should grow unto maturity. In Colossians 1:28-29 the apostle Paul says that he labored, struggling according to God’s operation in him, in order to present every man full-grown in Christ. In this verse he uses the words labor and struggling to describe his endeavoring to present all the believers in Christ mature before God. We are laboring, struggling, and striving to have all the saints grow unto maturity. Then they will all be good for the building up of the Body of Christ.
If you will spend some time to pray over this chapter, I believe the Lord will bless you and grant you the adequate and abounding grace that you may grow unto maturity to be good for the building up of the Body of Christ.
