«　WEEK 1　DAY 3　»

　　Phil. 1:3-6 I thank my God,…making my petition with joy, for your fellowship unto the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun in you a good work will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

　　[Philippians 1:5 and 6] indicate that the fellowship unto the gospel is a good work, a work initiated by Christ. Christ will complete this work until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians unveils the fact that the experience of Christ is the fellowship unto the gospel until the Lord Jesus comes back. Notice that in verse 5 Paul does not speak of the preaching of the gospel but of the fellowship unto the gospel….From the time we are saved until the time the Lord Jesus comes back, our Christian life should be a gospel-preaching life. We are not here for our education, job, or family, and we are not here to earn money or to gain a reputation or position. We are here to live a gospel-preaching life, a life that preaches Christ. Our living should be our preaching. If someone asks your profession, you should say, “My profession is preaching the gospel.” Thus, our life is primarily a gospel-preaching life. Whether I speak or remain silent, my life, my living, my being, and my entire person are a preaching of Christ. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” pp. 329-330)

　　Our gospel-preaching life should not be individualistic; rather, it must be corporate. This is the reason that in the preaching of the gospel we have fellowship….The Greek word rendered “fellowship,” koinonia, means “communication, mutual interchange.” As far as the preaching of the gospel is concerned, today's situation is very poor. Either Christians do not preach the gospel or they preach it individualistically, not corporately…. It seems that the more evangelistic people are, the more individualistic they are. In their preaching of the gospel there is no fellowship. Because there is no fellowship unto the gospel, there is no experience of Christ.

　　Even if we clear the past, consecrate ourselves to the Lord, and follow the inner anointing, we still may not necessarily have that much experience of Christ. But if we preach the gospel in a corporate way, we will be full of the experience of Christ…. I am very glad that many among us are zealous for the preaching of the gospel on the campuses. But I wonder if in this preaching of the gospel there is the fellowship unto the gospel. If we simply engage in the preaching of the gospel, we will not have very much experience of Christ. The experience of Christ is not mainly in the preaching; it is in the fellowship. We need to preach the gospel in fellowship. As long as you have fellowship in your preaching of the gospel, you will experience Christ.

　　In your schoolwork it is all right to be zealous to be first but not in the preaching of the gospel. Rather, in the preaching of the gospel, you should be willing to be nothing. Those who preach Christ out of envy, strife, and rivalry certainly do not have fellowship unto the gospel. If we do not have fellowship, we cannot have the experience of Christ.

　　I am very happy that the young people are zealous to preach the gospel on the campuses. But now I must ask whether or not in their preaching of the gospel they have the experience of Christ. This depends upon whether or not they have the fellowship unto the gospel. It is not a simple matter to have this fellowship. It requires that we put ourselves, our ambition, our reputation, and our position aside. This is a real killing. The fellowship unto the gospel kills the self, the flesh, and the natural man. It also kills our ambition, desire, preference, and choice. This is the reason that the fellowship in the preaching of the gospel causes us to experience Christ. Thus, according to the word of the apostle Paul in Philippians, the first way to experience Christ is in the fellowship unto the gospel. (CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” pp. 330-331)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1978, vol. 1, “The Experience of Christ,” ch. 2