Scripture Reading: Col. 3:16-25; 4:1-2; Eph. 5:18-25; 6:17-18a; Phil. 4:13
In Colossians 3:17 Paul charges us to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. In Philippians 4:13 he testifies, “I can do all things in Him who empowers me.” It is somewhat easy to understand what it means to be able to do all things in the Lord who empowers us, but it is quite difficult to understand what it means to do all things in the name of the Lord. The name, of course, denotes a person. When we call someone by name, that person responds. Hence, a name denotes a person. Apart from the person, the name is empty and meaningless. Because the name denotes a person, to do things in the name of the Lord must mean to do things in His person.
At the end of their prayers many Christians add the words “In the name of Jesus, amen.” They use the Lord’s name as a seal, stamp, or signature to endorse their prayers. According to the Bible, however, this is not the meaning of praying in the Lord’s name. In John 15:16 the Lord Jesus says, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.” Here the Lord speaks of asking the Father in the Lord’s name. John 14:13 and 14 say, “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” If we ask something of the Father in the name of the Son, it may be possible for our petition to use the Son’s name as a signature of endorsement. But we certainly cannot use the Lord’s name in this way when we are asking something of Him directly. According to the basic truth revealed in John 14 and 15, to be in the Lord’s name means to be one with the Lord, to live by the Lord, and to let the Lord live in us. The Lord came in the name of the Father and did things in the Father’s name (John 5:43; 10:25). This means that He was one with the Father (John 10:30) and lived by the Father (John 6:57), and the Father worked in Him (John 14:10). In the Gospels, the Lord as the expression of the Father did things in the Father’s name. In the Acts, the disciples as the expression of the Lord did even greater things (John 14:12) in His name. Therefore, to be in the Lord’s name means to be one with Him in actuality.
In John 5:43 the Lord Jesus says, “I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me.” For the Lord Jesus to come in the name of the Father did not mean that He used the Father’s name as a stamp. The fact that the Lord came in the name of the Father means that He came with the Father and in the Father. When He came, the Father came also. Furthermore, according to John 10:25, the Lord Jesus said, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works which I do in the name of My Father, these testify concerning Me.” For the Lord to do works in the name of the Father is to be one with the Father and to do things in the person of the Father. For this reason, the Lord Jesus could say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). In John 6:57 the Lord Jesus said that the living Father sent Him and that He lived because of the Father. The thought here is that the Lord Jesus was one with the Father and therefore was in the person of the Father and in the Father’s name. All these verses indicate that, according to biblical usage, to be in a person’s name means to be one with that person. Thus, the name is not merely a signature, stamp, or seal used as an endorsement to conclude a prayer.
Many Christians do not realize that as believers we should experience Christ subjectively. The Bible reveals that God’s desire and intention is to work Christ into us. What could be more subjective than having Christ wrought into our very being? Paul refers to this when he speaks of Christ making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). As the extensive, all-inclusive One, the One anointed by God, Christ wants not only to dwell in us, but also to make His home in us. This certainly is a subjective matter. The root of the Greek word rendered “make home” in Ephesians 3:17 is the same as that for house. It is not adequate merely to speak of Christ dwelling in us, for this does not convey the full meaning of the Greek word. We must say that Christ wants to house Himself, make His home, in us. The experience of Christ housing Himself in us is indeed very subjective. However, for the most part, this experience is neglected by Christians today.
The teachings among Christians mainly stress that Christ is our Redeemer and Savior, that as God Christ should be the object of our worship, and that Christians should improve their behavior. We fully believe that Christ is our Redeemer and Savior, that He is God, and that we should worship Him. However, according to the Bible, the point about Christians improving their behavior is questionable. What is meant by good behavior? We do not agree with good behavior that is merely the product of a person’s self-effort. But we definitely agree that we need good behavior which is the product of the Christian life transformed with Christ. When the Bible speaks of good behavior, it does not refer to the good behavior of the natural life. On the contrary, it denotes the proper living, or behavior, of a transformed life. The important matter here is that many Christians have missed the mark, the focal point, of God’s economy. They do not see from the Word of God that the Triune God desires to come into us to be our life, our life supply, and everything to us, even our person, that we may be one with Him.
I wish to emphasize once again that to be in the name of the Lord is not merely to use His name as a stamp or signature at the end of a prayer. It means to be in the person of the Lord Jesus. When Christ the Son came in the name of the Father, He did not use the Father’s name as a signature or stamp. Instead, He came in the person of the Father. We should not think that when the Lord Jesus came, only the Son came and not the Father also. No, when the Son came, the Father came in Him and with Him. John 14:23 proves this: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” On the one hand, here the Lord speaks of the Father loving us; on the other hand, He speaks of the Father and the Son coming to us and making an abode with us. According to this verse, if we love the Son, the Father will love us. Then the Father and the Son will make an abode with us. This indicates that when the Son comes to us, the Father comes also. However, this does not mean that the Father comes alongside the Son. The Father comes in the Son, in the way of coinherence, of mutual indwelling. John 14:11 speaks of the Son being in the Father and the Father being in the Son. The little word in is very important, for it points to the matter of coinherence. The Lord came in the Father and with the Father in Him. This is what it means to say that the Son came in the name of the Father.
Our thinking needs to be renewed with respect to the meaning of praying in the Lord’s name and of doing things in His name. No longer should we consider the expression, “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” as a stamp of endorsement. It is vital for us to see that to be in the name of the Lord Jesus means that we are one with Him, that we are in Him and He in us. As the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son in the way of coinherence, we also must be one with the Lord in this way. We and the Lord Jesus should coinhere; that is, we need to be in Him and have Him in us. Then truly we shall be in the Lord’s name.
In Colossians 3:17 Paul says, “And in everything, whatever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus is related to letting the word of Christ saturate us and permeate us. We are filled, saturated, and permeated with the Word by praying, singing, and psalming the Word and giving thanks to God the Father for the Word. In this way we stir up our whole being, our mind, will, emotion, and spirit.
However, instead of being stirred up by the Word, many Christians are halfhearted in relation to the Word; their contact with the Word is extremely cool. We should not read the Bible in this way. On the contrary, we need to let the word of Christ inhabit us by singing, praying, psalming, and thanking. The more we exercise in this way, the more our inner being will be stirred up, and the more the word of Christ will not only saturate us, but become mingled with us. In this way our entire inner being will be saturated with the word of Christ.
The word of Christ is actually the embodiment of Christ. Thus, when the Word as the embodiment of Christ is mingled with our inner being, inwardly we are one with Christ. It is at such a time that we can spontaneously do things in the name of the Lord. Because the Lord has saturated us, permeated us, and mingled Himself with us, making us one with Him, we can do all things in His name. To do things in the Lord’s name means to do things in Him.
Colossians 3:17 corresponds to Philippians 4:13, where Paul tells us that he can do all things in the One who empowers him. If the words in Him are not to be simply terminology but a practicality and a reality to us, we need to let the word of Christ saturate our whole being. When the word of Christ enters into us and stirs us inwardly, we are truly one with Christ. We are in Him actually and experientially. Then just as we live by the food we have eaten, digested, and assimilated, we shall do all things in the name of the One with whom we have been permeated, saturated, and mingled and with whom we are one in a practical way.
In Colossians 3:18—4:1 Paul gives a charge to wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters. The wives are to be subject to their husbands, the husbands are to love their wives, the children are to obey their parents, the fathers are not to provoke their children, the slaves are to obey their masters, and the masters are to grant their slaves that which is just and equal. But how is a wife to submit to her husband, or a husband to love his wife? The only way to submit or to love is to be in the name of the Lord, to be one with the Lord.
Notice that 3:18—4:1 is the direct continuation of Paul’s word in verses 16 and 17. This means that if we are not in the name of the Lord Jesus, one with Him by having the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we cannot submit or love. The fulfillment of all the charges given by Paul in this portion of Colossians comes out of being “in the name of the Lord Jesus.” If a sister is mingled with the Lord and one with Him, she will spontaneously submit to her husband. Likewise, if a husband is mingled with the Lord, he will automatically love his wife. In like manner, a child will honor his parents, a father will refrain from provoking his children, a slave will obey his master, and a master will give to his slave what is just and equal. This means that a wife must submit to her husband in the name of the Lord, and a husband must love his wife also in the name of the Lord. Furthermore, children should obey their parents, parents should care for their children, servants should obey their masters, and masters should be fair to their slaves — all in the name of the Lord.
In 4:2 Paul goes on to say, “Persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving.” Having become one with the Lord by singing, psalming, praying, and thanking, we need to preserve this oneness by persevering in prayer. By prayer we preserve the oneness, the mingling with the Lord. To persevere in prayer is to pray continually, unceasingly. This is necessary if we are to live Christ.
In Ephesians 5:18 Paul tells us to be filled in our spirit. With what should our spirit be filled? We need to be filled in spirit with the rich word of Christ. When we let the word of Christ inhabit us richly, this word will saturate us and produce an inner filling. We shall be filled with the riches of Christ contained in the Word, filled even unto all the fullness of God. When a brother is filled in this way, God will love his wife through him. Likewise, when children are filled like this, their honoring of their parents will be with the fullness of God.
Most Christians today are taught to live according to ethics. They neglect the Triune God dispensing Himself into the believers and mingling Himself with them that they may live Him. Some even go so far as to oppose this revelation. They accuse us of lowering God, of uplifting man, and of teaching pantheism and evolution into God. What blindness and ignorance! The Bible teaches that God was incarnated. He even stooped so low as to be born in a manger. Eventually, after Christ was crucified on the cross, He was buried in a tomb and even descended into Hades in order to prepare the way to enter into us. It is not we who have uplifted man; it is Christ who has uplifted us. According to the New Testament, when He ascended, we ascended also. Otherwise, how could we be seated with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6)?
It is indeed sad that so many divine truths are neglected by Christians today. But in His mercy the Lord has shown these things to us. We have seen from the Bible that the Triune God wants to come into us, mingle Himself with us, and uplift us to the heavens that we may live with Him and be one with Him. If this is our experience, then everything we do will be in the name of the Lord Jesus. What a blessing it is to see this marvelous truth! It will take eternity to make known how much we have been blessed by the Lord in seeing this. Oh, what a blessing that we can do all things in the name of the Triune God! If a sister submits to her husband in the name of the Triune God, her submission will be wonderful, divine, altogether different from submission that is according to the ethics of Confucius. Her submission will not be by the natural human life, but by the divine life which has been wrought into her.
It is a wonderful fact that as believers we possess the divine nature. Second Peter 1:4 says that we are partakers of the divine nature. The way to enlarge the sphere of the divine nature within us is to take the word of Christ not only by reading, but also by praying, singing, psalming, and thanking. If the word of Christ is to dwell in us richly, we need to open our entire being and exercise our spirit. Then the Word will enter into us, stir us up, and become mingled with us, causing us to be one with the Lord in an actual and practical way. As a result, we shall do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus. Spontaneously we shall live Christ. We shall be one with Christ in deeds and words.
Therefore, to do all things in the Lord’s name is to do all things in oneness with the Lord by reading, praying, singing, and psalming the Word, exercising our spirit to be mingled with the Word and thereby to become one with Christ experientially. Then we shall live Christ, doing all things in His name. This is the normal Christian living.
