Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:1-2; 2:25; 5:11-16
Ⅰ
As believers in Christ and children of God, we not only have eternal life and may experience eternal life, but we can minister this life to other members of the Body of Christ—1 John 5:11-16.
Ⅱ
To minister life is to impart life; when we have a surplus of life, we can minister from this supply to others—1:1-2; 2:25; 5:11-13, 16.
Ⅲ
The service for the building up of the house of God is a life-ministering service—a service of supplying others with the divine life—2 Cor. 4:12:
A
The church service is to supply life, for it is a service of life—Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11:
１
If we merely handle business affairs or manage matters but do not supply others with the life of God, our service is a failure and is vain.
２
No matter what our service may be, we should be clear that our service is a means to supply life to others—1 John 5:16; 2 Cor. 4:12.
３
If the church were only for taking care of matters, not supplying life, the church would lose its nature and would be a society.
４
We must serve in such a way that others may receive the supply of life; we need to be deeply impressed with this point and look to the Lord so that our service becomes an outlet for His life—John 10:10; 11:25; 1 John 1:2.
B
The life that we supply to others is in the Spirit, the Spirit is mingled with our spirit, and the life of God is located, abides, and grows in the mingled spirit—1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; Rom. 8:4:
１
If we would supply the saints with life, we must release our spirit, for the divine life is in our mingled spirit—7:6; 1:9.
２
If our spirit cannot be released, the divine life has no way to be released.
C
We need to see the distinction between life and moral character—7:21-23; 8:2, 11:
１
Christians speak of being good, which involves moral character, good deeds, and good behavior, not of the divine life in the Word of God—John 1:4.
２
In order not to hinder others from receiving the divine life, we must do good deeds and have good moral character; however, good deeds and moral character do not necessarily mean that the life of God is expressed through us:
ａ
We may be irreproachable and commendable in our service yet express merely good character, perfection, and human virtues, but these are not the life of God.
ｂ
Whenever others touch us rather than Christ in us, they touch death and not life.
Ⅳ
As serving ones, we need to be deeply impressed with the necessity of being able to minister life—1 John 5:11-16:
A
The service that is from God requires us to minister life to others—2 Cor. 4:1, 12:
１
The service that God wants from us does not focus on doing a work but on ministering life—1 John 5:16:
ａ
The center and focus of the service of the saints and of the church are not to build up an enterprise or work but to minister life.
ｂ
God's desire is that the emphasis of our service be on ministering life instead of producing a work or enterprise—2:25; 5:11-13.
２
The only standard of measurement is how much the church has ministered God's life to others and how much element of the divine life has entered into others through the church's service—2 Cor. 4:12.
B
Bearing fruit is to minister life, that is, to release the supply of the vine's life—John 15:4-5.
C
In order to minister life to others, we need to be joined to Christ, abide in Christ, and give Him the ground in us to fill us so that His life, His nature, His likes, and His inclination become our life, our nature, our likes, and our inclination; in our service His all becomes our all—1 John 2:27; Eph. 3:16-17.
D
May God have mercy on us that all our service and work would be from Him, would come out of our fellowship with Him, and would be able to overflow with Him and His life as a supply to others—cf. Psa. 36:8-9.
E
We must always remember that the service of the church is God's flowing out to supply others with the divine life—John 7:37-39.
Ⅴ
To minister life is to have the outflow of life—19:34; 7:37-39:
A
Life is the content of God and the flowing out of God; God's content is God's being, and God's flowing out is the impartation of Himself as life to us—Eph. 4:18; Rev. 22:1.
B
In order for life to be released from our spirit, our outer man must be dealt with and broken—2 Cor. 4:16; Heb. 4:12:
１
If our outer man is not broken, there cannot be a pure flow of the divine life.
２
If we want the divine life to be released from within us, we must be subdued in our soul and let our spirit dominate and rule over every matter; then the Lord's life will be able to flow out—Eph. 3:16-17.
C
Having the outflow of life requires that we be one with Christ in His life-releasing death; this is to be identified with the smitten Christ, typified by the smitten rock—John 19:34; Exo. 17:6:
１
When we identify ourselves with the smitten Christ, that is, when we are one with Him as the smitten Christ, the divine life as the living water flows out of us—v. 6; John 7:38; cf. Phil. 3:10.
２
Our human life, our natural life, must be smitten so that the living water may flow out from within us—2 Cor. 4:10-11, 16.
３
If we are one with the smitten Christ, identified with Him, we will experience the crucifixion of our natural life, and then just as Christ's divine life flowed out as living water through the smiting of His human life, we also will experience the flow of the water of life through the smiting of our natural life—vv. 10-12.
Ⅵ
If we would minister life to others, we need to be aware of the attack upon the church by death—Matt. 16:18; Rom. 5:17, 21:
A
From Eden onwards, God's controversy with Satan has been on the issue of life and death—Gen. 3:3-4; Rom. 5:12, 17, 21; 1 Cor. 15:22.
B
What is of God is characterized by life, and what is of Satan, by death; in the church everything that issues from God is life, and everything that issues from Satan is death—John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25; Heb. 2:14.
C
The attack upon the church will come from death, from the gates of Hades—Matt. 16:18.
D
Satan's greatest fear with regard to the church is her resistance to his power of death—2 Tim. 1:10.
E
The eternal life within us can overcome death both in ourselves and in other members of the church—1 John 5:11-13, 16.
F
We need to experience and enjoy the eternal life within us, and we need to minister this life to others by being a channel through which eternal life can flow—John 7:37-39; Phil. 1:24-25.
G
God intends for the church to manifest the life of Christ; hence, the church must be full of life, and our service in the church must minister life—1 John 1:1-2; 2:25; 5:11-13, 16; 2 Cor. 4:12.