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Scripture Reading: 1 Thes. 1:1; 2:12; 3:12; 4:7; 5:23-24; 2 Thes. 1:3, 5, 10; 2:13-14, 16; Col. 3:10-11; Rev. 1:11-12
First Thessalonians 2:12 says, “That you should walk worthily of God, Who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” In the foregoing message we considered what it means to walk worthily of God. Let us go on to see what it means in a practical way to be called by God into His kingdom and glory.
Many Christians, including us, take things in the Bible for granted. For example, we may read 2:12 and take for granted that we understand it. However, we may not have a proper understanding of God’s kingdom and glory. Of course, I do not claim to understand 2:12 in full. However, I do have some understanding from study and experience. What I wish to say concerning the kingdom and glory in 2:12 is mainly according to my spiritual experience.
In this verse Paul says that God has called us into His own kingdom and glory. No doubt, God’s kingdom and glory are the goal of His calling. It is unfortunate that Christians think that God has called us into a heavenly mansion. God’s calling is not to a heavenly mansion; it is to His kingdom and glory.
According to the understanding of many Christians, at present the earth is not God’s kingdom, but one day the Lord Jesus will come back, take over the earth, and establish His rule upon it. That rule will be God’s kingdom. Many of us have probably held such a concept concerning the kingdom of God. I do not say that this understanding is not accurate at all. However, I must say that it is not entirely accurate, and it is certainly much too superficial.
What is God’s kingdom? The kingdom of God is God being manifested through us. Whenever we express God in our daily walk, that is the kingdom. The expression of God Himself from within us is the kingdom. Suppose a brother works in an office. Certain of his colleagues may oppose him because he is a believer. They may not be happy to have him there. But if he expresses God daily in the office, his fellow workers will realize that there is something unusual about him. They will know that with this brother there is something special. This is God’s kingdom, God expressed from within that brother. On the one hand, others may oppose us, criticize us, and be unhappy with us. On the other hand, they sense something indescribable about us. This is God’s kingdom as His manifestation through us. How marvelous it would be if all Christians expressed God! This expression truly would be the kingdom of God on earth.
When I was a young Christian, I understood 2:12 in the traditional way. I thought that God had called me merely to enter into His kingdom and glory in the future. My concept of the kingdom of God and the glory of God was very shallow and altogether too objective. Paul did not have such a view of God’s kingdom and glory. From the context of 2:12 we can see that being called into God’s kingdom and glory is related to walking worthily of God. When we walk worthily of God, there is with us a particular kind of atmosphere, and this atmosphere is God’s kingdom. Furthermore, where the kingdom of God is, there the glory of God is also.
It is possible for the kingdom of God and the glory of God to be manifested in our married life. If a brother and his wife live God, they will walk worthily of God. Then in their married life there will be a certain kind of atmosphere. When others come into this atmosphere, they will spontaneously have a sense of respect. This is the kingdom of God with God’s glory. If today’s Christians would walk worthily of God, would walk in a way that expresses Him, the kingdom would come. God’s kingdom would then be seen on earth.
As we have pointed out a number of times, glory is God Himself expressed. Whenever the Lord is expressed from within us, we are in a situation that can be described as glorious. If someone would walk into a brother’s home when he is arguing with his wife, there would not be any glory. However, if you visit a brother’s house and find him and his wife glowing, shining, and flowing, you would see the expression of God, God’s glory.
Many of us can testify that when we live God and walk worthily of God, matching Him, there is an atmosphere around us that is nothing less than God’s kingdom. Spontaneously the Lord is expressed. This expression is God’s glory. Concerning the kingdom and the glory in 2:12, we have a further explanation of 1:1, where we are told that the church is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 3:12 Paul says, “And the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love to one another and to all, even as we also to you.” The church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ should be composed of those who are increasing and abounding in love to one another and to all men. No matter how many believers there may be in the church — fifty, five hundred, or five thousand — all the saints should love one another. Furthermore, they should increase in this love and abound in it. This kind of love is surely not of our human nature. As fallen human beings, we are not capable of such love. But the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is characterized by this increasing and abounding love. If we truly are a church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, the love we have for one another will increase and abound.
In 4:7 Paul goes on to say, “God has not called us for uncleanness but in sanctification.” To be in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is to be in sanctification. The Greek word sanctification means separation. Only when we are in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ are we truly separated unto God from everything other than God. If we are not in the Triune God, we are still common. Instead of being separated from the world, we are still involved, mixed up, with worldly people and worldly matters.
I wish to say a word especially to the young ones. Even though you are still young, you need to realize that as those who belong to the Lord Jesus, you are part of the church, and the church is in the Triune God. If we compare God to a box, we may say that God is boxing you in to Himself. You all need to be boxed in to Him more and more. God has placed you into Himself as a spiritual, divine, and heavenly box. Being in this box separates you to God. In other words, this being boxed in to God, this separation, is sanctification.
God has called you in sanctification. In 4:7 the phrase “in sanctification” modifies God’s calling. God has called us in the “box” of sanctification. Now we all need to see that we are those separated unto God, boxed in to Him. We have no right to leap out of this box.
In 5:23 and 24 Paul says, “And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He Who calls you, Who also will do it.” For the God of peace to sanctify us wholly means that He will completely box us in. No part of our being will be left out of God as the spiritual box. God as the divine box is not small. On the contrary, He is infinitely large and deep.
If a young person is tempted to indulge in a certain kind of worldly entertainment, this means that he is planning to come out of this heavenly box. However, many have testified that when they tried to get out of this box, they found that they were not able to do so. It seems that their arms were powerless to climb out.
According to these verses, God intends to box us in to Himself wholly, that is, entirely. Have you been completely boxed in by God? Verse 23 says that God will preserve our spirit and soul and body without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 24 says that God, the One who calls us and who does the sanctifying, separating, work, is faithful. He will do the boxing-in work until we are completely separated from the world. Wherever we may be — at school, at work, at home, or with our neighbors — we shall eventually be fully boxed in to God. Young people, if you are invited to do something worldly, you may need to say, “I cannot participate in that, for I have been boxed in to God. Because I am in a heavenly box, I am not free to go to that place.”
In 1 Thessalonians we have seen certain qualifications of the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If we would be such a church in reality and in a practical way, we need to walk worthily of God and fulfill His calling into His own kingdom and glory. As we have pointed out, we should not regard the kingdom and the glory as only something for the future and not for our experience today. We need to be in the kingdom of God and the glory of God today. Furthermore, we need to increase and abound in love, and we need to be fully sanctified, entirely boxed in, by the Triune God.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul says, “We ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers, even as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each one of you all to one another is increasing.” In this verse Paul speaks of two matters: faith growing and love increasing. The growth of faith and the increase of love are also conditions, requirements, of being the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul continues, “But we ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” The matter of salvation in sanctification of the Spirit is profound. God has chosen us from the beginning unto this salvation in sanctification. This is related to a life in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is also a qualification of being a church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 14 says, “To which also He called you through our gospel unto the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here we see that God has called us unto the obtaining of His glory. Once again, this is an aspect of the life of the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Second Thessalonians 2:16 says, “Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, Who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope in grace.” How profound! God has given us eternal encouragement and good hope in grace. Although we may not understand these matters adequately, we have nonetheless received them. We have an encouragement that is eternal and a hope that is good. God has given us both this encouragement and this hope in grace. This is marvelous! It is an incentive to have the church life in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not without incentive, and we are not lacking in hope. Never say that you are hopeless. Instead, you should declare, “I am full of hope. I have a good hope, the hope God has given me in grace. Furthermore, with this good hope there is eternal encouragement.”
In Colossians 3:10 and 11 Paul speaks of the church as the new man: “And having put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him Who created him; where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” The word image in verse 10 refers to Christ, God’s Beloved, as the very expression of God (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). The relative pronoun “who” in this verse refers to God the Creator, the One who created the new man in Christ (Eph. 2:15). As the embodiment of the Triune God, the church eventually will bear the image of God.
In the Bible there are many different symbols of the church: the house of God, the kingdom of God, the habitation of God, the fullness of God, the warrior, the bride. In the book of Revelation the church is symbolized by a golden lampstand. In Revelation 1:12 the Apostle John says, “And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me; and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands.” Verse 20 of Revelation 1 says clearly, “The seven lampstands are seven churches.”
In Exodus 25 there is a description of a golden lampstand. That lampstand is a type of Christ. Christ is the embodiment of God, and the lampstand is a type of Christ as this embodiment. Elsewhere we have pointed out that the lampstand signifies the Triune God. The lampstand is gold in substance, in element. In typology gold signifies the divine nature, the nature of God the Father. Second, the gold of the lampstand is in a definite form. This form signifies God the Son. God the Father is the element, and God the Son is the form. Finally, the seven lamps of the lampstand signify the seven Spirits of God as God’s expression. As we consider the lampstand, therefore, we see the element signifying God the Father, we see the form signifying God the Son, and we see the seven lamps signifying the Spirit of God as the expression. Hence, the lampstand portrays the Triune God embodied in a single entity.
In Exodus 25 the lampstand is a type of Christ, but in Revelation 1 the lampstand signifies the church. Every church is a golden lampstand. This means that the church is the embodiment of the Triune God, for the church is an entity in the Triune God. Do you realize what the Lord is doing today? He is seeking to mold us, transform us, and conform us, the entire church, into the image of the Triune God. In this way all the churches become golden lampstands as the embodiment of the Triune God.
How blessed we are to see that the church is the embodiment of the Triune God! Our ears are blessed to hear this word. Many believers in the past never heard or saw anything concerning this. Hallelujah, we are in the church which is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Now we are being transformed into the image of the Triune God and conformed to this image to be in reality and practicality the embodiment of the Triune God, having the Father as our element, the Son as our form, and the Spirit as our expression, shining the glory of the Triune God to the universe. This is the church filled with the Triune God.
