Scripture Reading: 1 Cor. 10:4; 12:12-13; John 4:14, 23-24
Ⅰ
If we would experience the divine dispensing according to the divine econo-my, we all need to drink the same spiritual drink, Christ as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit—1 Cor. 10:3-4; 12:13:
A
The spiritual drink in 1 Corinthians 10:4 refers to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock; this rock typifies the crucified and resurrected Christ, and this water typifies the Spirit as our all-inclusive drink—Exo. 17:6; John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13.
B
The spiritual drink, the living water, is the water of life in resurrection; when we drink the water of life in resurrection, we become persons in resurrection and of resurrection—10:4; John 14:20; 2 Cor. 1:9.
C
By our drinking of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, God works Himself into us, for by drinking we take the Lord in, and He becomes one with us organically to be our life and constituent—1 Cor. 10:4; Col. 3:4, 10-11.
Ⅱ
We experience the divine dispensing by drinking the Spirit in the corporate Christ and for the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ—1 Cor. 12:12-13:
A
Christ is both the Head and the Body—Col. 1:18; 2:19:
１
Since Christ is both the Head and the Body, He is the Body-Christ.
２
For Christ to be the Body-Christ means that He is no longer only the indi-vidual Christ; He is also the corporate Christ—Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 12:12; Acts 9:4-5.
３
Christ has an individual aspect and a corporate aspect; individually He is Christ, and corporately He is the Body-Christ.
B
The highest enjoyment of Christ is the enjoyment of the corporate Christ, the Body-Christ; to enjoy Christ as the Body-Christ is not merely to enjoy Him in one aspect but to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ in His fullness by drinking the Spirit—Col. 2:9; 1 Cor. 12:13.
C
First Corinthians 12:12 says, "Even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ":
１
The Christ in this verse is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, Christ incorporated with all His members.
２
The corporate Christ is composed of Christ Himself as the Head and the church with all the believers as His Body—11:3; 12:12, 27.
D
As indicated by the word for, 1 Corinthians 12:13 is the continuation, defini-tion, and explanation of verse 12:
１
All the members are one Body, and this Body is Christ, because in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body—vv. 13-14, 24, 27.
２
We, as the many members of the Body of Christ, are one because we have been baptized in the Spirit—v. 13:
ａ
The Spirit, in whom we have been baptized, is Christ, who became the life-giving Spirit—15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17.
ｂ
We have all been positioned in the Body to drink of the one Spirit, the life-giving Spirit, who is Christ; now, since we are in the Body, we need to drink this one Spirit, who is Christ Himself—1 Cor. 12:13.
ｃ
Eventually, we are filled, flooded, saturated, and permeated by the Spirit; therefore, we are one with one another and with Christ as one Body, which is Christ Himself—6:17; 12:12.
ｄ
The Spirit, who is Christ Himself, becomes the Body-Christ—2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 12:12-13.
ｅ
In the church we have the position to drink the Body-Christ, the Christ who is the life-giving Spirit in the Body—v. 13; 15:45b.
Ⅲ
By drinking the Spirit, we become true worshippers and are able to worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness—John 4:14, 23-24:
A
The genuine worship of God the Father is in spirit and truthfulness; the divine reality constituted into us becomes the truthfulness in which we worship the Father with the worship that He is seeking—vv. 23-24.
B
The Lord's word in John 4 shows us the worship of the Father in the dispensing of the Divine Trinity:
１
The worship that the Lord spoke of is the worship of the Father in the Son and in the Spirit; this is a worship in God's dispensing, the worship by the divine dispensing—Eph. 2:18; 3:14-21.
２
If we would have true worship, we need God in His Divine Trinity to be dispensed into our being—2 Cor. 13:14.
３
The worship of the Father in the dispensing of God is related to drinking the living water—John 4:10, 14:
ａ
To contact God the Spirit with our spirit is to drink of the living water, and to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God—v. 24.
ｂ
In order to worship the Father in the dispensing of God, we need to drink of the Spirit so that God may dispense Himself into our being— v. 14; 1 Cor. 10:3-4; 12:13.
４
The more we experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, the more we will be the kind of worshippers and have the kind of worship the Father is seeking—worship in the dispensing of God, the worship in spirit and truthfulness—John 4:10, 23-24.