«　WEEK 2　DAY 6　»

　　Col. 1:27 To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

　　2:7 Having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

　　In the church meetings, we may enjoy singing, “Christ liveth in me, Christ liveth in me.” However, when the meeting is over, we are the ones who live, not Christ. Instead of Christ living in us, our inward being is occupied with ourselves. But if we see the vision of Christ living in us, we shall stop all our doing. How blessed it is to do nothing and to let Christ live in us! The Lord does not want us to try to improve our behavior. He does not want us to try to be a good husband or wife. The Christian life is Christ living in us. In such a life, we and Christ have one life and one living. Christ lives in our living. Oh, we desperately need to see this vision! We need to pray, “Lord, show me the vision that God only wants one person. He wants Christ to live in me.” This vision will spontaneously terminate all of our efforts and doings. It will turn us from our trying to the indwelling Christ. (Life-study of Colossians, p. 327)

　　In the Epistle to the Colossians, Paul tells us to beware of philosophy, tradition, and the elements of the world. This means that we should beware of culture in every form: racial culture, national culture, and self-made and self-imposed culture. We should not allow culture to become a substitute for Christ. Although there is no need for us to deliberately try to drop our culture, we should stop appreciating it…. If we see that culture can be a substitute for Christ, we shall no longer treasure it or appreciate it so highly. Instead, we see that we are living plants rooted in Christ…. We should simply walk in Him as the living land and grow by absorbing the riches of the soil into us. In this way the riches from the soil, who is also the Head, will be ministered into us. As a result, all the Body will grow with the growth of the Triune God. Automatically, our culture will be replaced by Christ. The more we walk in Christ, the more we shall absorb the riches of the soil, the rich supply of the Head. Then, holding the Head, we shall experience the genuine and proper growth in Christ.

　　Today I can testify that, through the Lord’s grace, I no longer try to suppress myself. I simply live Christ…. Christ is my culture, my goal, and the meaning and purpose of my human life. In my daily walk all the room is for Christ. For this reason, there is no room for sin, the world, the flesh, or the self. Since my whole being is for Christ, there is also no room for culture. I simply live Christ, and not a limited Christ, but an extensive Christ, the One who fills all and is in all.

　　Christ descended from the heavens to the earth and then, in the interval between His death and resurrection, He descended into Hades. In resurrection He ascended from Hades to earth and then, in His ascension, from the earth to the heavens. As a result of such a universal traveling, Christ fills all things. Thus, He is the extensive One. As such an extensive One, He is our life, and we may live Him. In the book of Colossians Paul presents such an extensive Christ in order to impress us with the fact that this Christ should replace our culture. Do not try to drop your culture…. Simply live Christ, and Christ will replace your culture with Himself.

　　We should not treasure any type of ism, for all isms have to do with culture. Instead of living according to an ism, we should live Christ, a living Person, who is the portion of the saints, the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of both the old creation and the new creation, the One in whom and unto whom all things were created, and the One who is our life in the new man. Such an extensive Christ is the replacement for our culture. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 383-384, 394)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 44-45