Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9
Ⅰ
We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by taking the Lord's yoke upon us and learning from Him—Matt. 11:28-30; cf. Eph. 4:20-21:
A
To take the Lord's yoke is to take the will of the Father; the Father's will is easy, good, kind, mild, gentle, pleasant—in contrast to hard, harsh, sharp, bitter— John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; Isa. 7:14-15; cf. John 6:57.
B
The Lord's burden is His work to carry out the Father's will; such a burden is light, not heavy—2 Cor. 2:13; Rom. 14:17-18; Phil. 2:12-16.
C
The rest that we have by taking the Lord's yoke and learning from Him is for our souls; this inward rest refers not only to being set free from the toil and burden under the law or religion, or under any work or responsibility, but also to perfect peace and full satisfaction—Matt. 12:8; Isa. 56:2; 58:3; Exo. 31:13-14.
Ⅱ
We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by living to Christ—2 Cor. 5:14-15; Rom. 14:7-9:
A
To live to Christ means that we are determined to gain the honor of being well pleasing to Him by being absolutely under His control, direction, and governing and that we care uniquely for His aims and goals—2 Cor. 5:9.
B
To live to Christ is to take Him as the goal of our living; it means that we are under the Lord's control, direction, and governing and that we want to fulfill His purpose, satisfy His desire, and complete what He intends—v. 9.
C
To live to ourselves means that we are under our own control, direction, and governing and that we care for our own aims and goals, taking the self as the goal of our living.
D
We live to Christ, not to ourselves, because "the love of Christ constrains us"; this is the love manifested on the cross through His death for us—vv. 14-15:
１
The Greek word for constrains means "to press on…from all sides, to hold… to one end, to forcibly limit, to confine to one object within certain bounds, to shut up to one line and purpose (as in a narrow, walled road)."
２
Although we love the Lord Jesus, we are not always willing to take His way, but His love limits us, confines us to a narrow way, and walls us in toward the unique goal—Christ Himself—Phil. 3:14.
３
To be constrained by Christ's cheering and sacrificial love is to cheer God so that we can be Christ's ambassadors to cheer man through the reconciling of man to God—Judg. 9:13; 2 Cor. 5:18-20; S. S. 1:2; cf. 4:10.
E
Our living to Christ is a testimony that He is our Lord, who died to purchase us, and that we belong to Him—Rom. 14:7-9; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 1 Pet. 1:18-19.
Ⅲ
We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by walking (living, moving, and having our being) according to the spirit—our spirit mingled with the Spirit of life, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ—Rom. 8:4, 2, 9, 16:
A
To live by the Spirit is to have our life dependent upon the Spirit and regu-lated by the Spirit, taking the Spirit as the essence of our life; to walk by the Spirit is to have our practical living and the acts in our daily life guided and ruled by the Spirit, taking the Spirit as the path for our way so that we may fulfill God's purpose and reach His goal for our life on earth—Gal. 5:16, 25.
B
Those who walk by the Spirit honor God, and those who minister the Spirit honor man—Judg. 9:9; 2 Cor. 3:6, 8; 1 Sam. 2:30; John 12:26.
C
The Lord shepherds us by restoring (reviving and transforming) our soul and by guiding us to walk according to the spirit on the paths of righteousness in the flow of the divine life—Psa. 23:3; Rom. 8:4; Rev. 7:17; 22:1.
D
By paying attention to our spirit, caring for the sense of the spirit, we walk according to the spirit, and the law of the Spirit of life automatically and spon-taneously frees us from the law of sin and of death—Rom. 8:2, 4, 6.
E
As we walk by the Spirit and serve by the Spirit in our spirit, we do not fulfill the lusts of the flesh but automatically and spontaneously bring forth the fruit of the Spirit—Gal. 5:16, 22-25; Phil. 3:3; Rom. 1:9.
F
We can either walk by the Spirit to bear the fruit of the Spirit or walk by the flesh to manifest the works of the flesh—Gal. 5:16-26; 6:12; Phil. 3:3.
G
If we walk by the Spirit, we shall automatically defeat the flesh and the devil lurking behind the flesh; as we win the war against the flesh in this way, God's purpose to express Christ will be accomplished—Exo. 17:8-16.
Ⅳ
We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by sowing unto the Spirit— Gal. 6:7-10:
A
To sow unto the Spirit means to sow with a view to accomplishing the purpose of the Spirit; this is to have the Spirit as our goal:
１
Actually, to walk by the Spirit is to sow unto the Spirit—5:16.
２
In our life and living we must aim at the Spirit, taking the Spirit as our goal—6:8.
３
God's economy is to give us Himself as the Spirit; nothing is more pleasing to God than for us to take the all-inclusive Spirit, the all-inclusive Triune God, as our unique and eternal goal—3:5a, 14; cf. Phil. 2:13.
B
To sow unto the flesh means to sow with a view to accomplishing the purpose of the flesh; this is to have the flesh as the goal:
１
There is no neutral ground between the flesh and the Spirit; our goal is either one or the other—Rom. 8:6.
２
Everything we do is a sowing either unto our own flesh or unto the Spirit, and all our sowing issues in a reaping either of corruption out of the flesh or of eternal life out of the Spirit—Psa. 126:5; Prov. 22:8a; Hosea 8:7a.
３
If we live according to the flesh, what we do as a Christian work will not be effective; what counts is not our working but our sowing—cf. Mark 4:14; Deut. 22:9.
C
When our goal is the Spirit, we become a supply of life to others and to the churches—Gal. 6:10; 2 Cor. 3:6.
D
When we sow unto the Spirit, the Spirit makes us a new creation:
１
The new creation is a matter of God's chosen people taking the all-inclusive Spirit as their goal, aiming at Him, being one spirit with Him, and as a result, having the divine element transfused into them to reconstitute them and make them new—Gal. 6:14-15.
２
The New Jerusalem, the ultimate consummation of eternal life, will be the consummate issue and reaping of our sowing unto the Spirit—v. 8b; John 4:14b; Rev. 22:1-2.
３
The Lord is sounding out a call in His recovery to take the Spirit as our goal and to live unto Him in everything so that there may be a harvest of life eternal; how wonderful it is that we may have such a glorious goal in life!
Ⅴ
We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by living in the organism of the Divine Trinity and participating in the dispensing of the Divine Trin-ity—John 16:13-15:
A
The organism of the Divine Trinity has three aspects: the Father's house (the church) in John 14:2, the branches of the vine (the constituents of the Body of Christ) in 15:1-5, and a newborn corporate man (the new man) in 16:21:
１
All three denote the church, showing that the church is the glorious increase produced by Christ through His death and resurrection—12:23-24.
２
This organism needs to be maintained in the oneness of the Triune God and in His divine dispensing; therefore, the Lord prayed in particular for this matter in His concluding prayer in John 17.
B
The Lord's prayer in John 17 was for the all-inclusive oneness of the Body of Christ, the oneness of the believers in the Triune God:
１
The first level of oneness is the oneness in the Father's name and by the Father's divine life—vv. 6-13.
２
The second level of oneness is the oneness in the reality of the sanctifying word—vv. 14-21.
３
The third level of oneness is the oneness in the divine glory for the expression of the processed and incorporated Triune God—vv. 22-24.
Ⅵ
We enjoy the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by being filled in our spirit with the processed Triune God and by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly—Eph. 5:18; Col. 3:16:
A
If we are filled in our spirit with the Spirit, the issue will be a proper Christian life, church life, individual life, and family life with Spirit-filled ethics as the issue of the divine attributes becoming our human virtues—Eph. 5:18—6:9; 4:30; 1 Thes. 5:19.
B
Colossians is focused on Christ as our Head and life (1:18; 3:4); the way for Him to exercise His headship and to minister His riches to us is through His word dwelling in us richly; thus, we need to pray, "Lord, I offer my whole being to You and Your word. I give You access to every part of my inner being. Lord, make my inner being a home for Yourself and for Your word."
C
We are filled in our spirit with the Spirit and let the word of Christ dwell in us richly to live a life that matches the new man in grace and truth (Eph. 4:24, 29, 21) and that matches the wife of Christ in love and light (5:2, 8-9, 13-14, 22-25).