«　WEEK 3　DAY 6　»

　　1 Cor. 15:10 …By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but… I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.

　　Eph. 3:8 To me…was this grace given to announce…the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel.

　　2:7 That He might display…the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

　　This stewardship of the grace is for God’s dispensation. We have seen that the desire of God’s heart is to dispense His riches, which actually are Himself, into His chosen people. After these riches have been dispensed into us, we need to take up the burden to dispense them into others. With God, these riches are His economy; with us, they are the stewardship; and when they are dispensed by us into others, they are God’s dispensation. When God’s economy reaches us, it becomes our stewardship. When we carry out our stewardship by dispensing Christ into others, it becomes the dispensation of God into them. Hence, we have the economy, the stewardship, and the dispensation. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 245-246)

　　The stewardship of grace is the dispensing of God into people to be their enjoyment. Dispensing this grace into others is our stewardship according to God’s economy. Because we partake of God as our enjoyment, we can dispense Him as grace into others. This is the dispensation of grace.

　　In Ephesians 3:7 Paul says that he became a minister. In the New Testament there is just one ministry, which is the stewardship, the dispensing of God into people. The word minister corresponds to the word steward, for a steward is one who serves by dispensing the necessities of life to others. Not only the brothers who minister the Word of God or the elders who care for the local building are ministers, but every saint, every member of the church, has a part in the ministry. Do not be cheated by the traditional concept and think that you are not a minister. A minister is simply one who serves. A minister of the gospel serves people with the gospel. If a young sister ministers Christ to her mother, she is carrying out the New Testament ministry…Young people, go to your parents and minister Christ to them. I encourage you all to fulfill this ministry. Although there may be thousands of saints in the Lord’s recovery, there is just one ministry, the dispensing of the riches of Christ into others. Hallelujah for this glorious ministry!

　　Our ministry is according to the gift of the grace of God. To say that grace is God for our enjoyment means that grace is God as our life and life supply (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9). This life supply operates within us. By means of this operating life, we have a certain ability, which is the gift. Therefore, in Ephesians 3:7 Paul speaks of being a minister “according to the gift of the grace of God.”…This ability is the gift that makes us ministers to impart Christ to others. Our ministry is to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ as the gospel. It is not to present doctrine nor simply to teach the Word in letters. Our gospel is a person with all His riches. To preach such a gospel is to minister the riches of Christ to others. This ministry is for producing the church. The ministry of the apostle Paul as God’s steward was to bring forth the church by dispensing the unsearchable riches of Christ as grace into the believers. Paul’s ministry was not only to save sinners, but to produce the church for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose. This was the goal of his stewardship of grace.

　　According to 3:3 and 5, our ministry is by the revelation of the mystery in spirit. The mystery of God is Christ, and the mystery of Christ is the church. As long as we have seen Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ, we have the revelation of the mystery in our spirit. This enables us to minister Christ to others. (Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 246-248)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 28