Scripture Reading: Col. 3:4; 1 Cor. 3:9; Matt. 7:13-14; 16:18; Rev. 1:10-12; 4:5; 5:6; 2:7, 17; 3:20
Ⅰ
Life and building are the two key words in the entire Bible—life is God in Christ as the living content, and building is the corporate expression of the Triune God—Gen. 2:8-12, 22; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 3:8-11, 16-21:
A
Christ is our life (Col. 3:4), and the church is God's building (1 Cor. 3:9).
B
The building up of the church is by the believers growing in life for their transformation in life—vv. 6-12; Col. 2:19:
１
The growing members are the building members—Eph. 4:15-16.
２
To build up the Body of Christ, the church of God, is to minister Christ as the tree of life to people for their growth in Christ—1 Cor. 3:6:
ａ
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, people always brought questions to Him con-cerning good and evil, right and wrong, and yes and no (John 4:20; 8:5; 9:2; 11:21), but He always pointed them to life (4:21; 8:7; 9:3; 11:25).
ｂ
"In order to serve God and work for Him, a Christian must learn to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…Only those who touch the tree of life will see their life and work remaining in the New Jerusalem" (Messages Given during the Resumption of Watchman Nee's Ministry, vol. 1, pp. 94-95).
C
The intrinsic significance and heavenly reality of the church as the Body of Christ are typified by the golden lampstand, portraying the Triune God as a living, golden tree, growing, branching, budding, and blossoming with resurrection life—Exo. 25:31-40; Rev. 1:10-12; Num. 17:8:
１
When we overcome to return to Christ as our first love, we will enjoy Him as life and shine forth the divine light to keep the testimony of Jesus in our locality; otherwise, the lampstand will be removed from us—Rev. 1:2; 2:4-7.
２
The local churches are the procedure God takes to reach the goal of His eternal econ-omy; we need to be in the local churches so that we can be ushered into the goal of the reality of the Body of Christ (as Zion within Jerusalem) to be the golden lamp-stands in actuality—Eph. 1:22-23; 4:4; Psa. 48:2; 50:2; 51:18; 102:16; 125:1-2; 128:5:
ａ
In order to be in the reality of the Body of Christ, we need to be absolutely in the resurrection life of Christ—1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6; cf. Gen. 2:21-24.
ｂ
When we do not live by our natural life but live by the divine life within us, we are in resurrection; the issue of this is the Body of Christ—Phil. 3:10-11; 1 Cor. 3:12.
D
In the New Jerusalem, God's ultimate building, there is the river of life flowing for us to drink and the tree of life growing in the river of life for us to eat; this shows that for us to partake of God's building, there is no other way but by life and with life—Rev. 22:1-2.
E
The sevenfold intensified organic salvation of God in Christ's heavenly ministry is to bring the degraded church back to the enjoyment of Christ as life for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God's ultimate building in life, the city of life—1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6; 22:1-2:
１
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to save the believers in the church in Ephesus from the formal church life, which has lost the first love to the Lord, the shining capacity of the lampstand, and the enjoyment of Christ as life, to become over-comers so that they will be rewarded to eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God— the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age—2:1-7.
２
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to strengthen the suffering believers in the church in Smyrna to overcome the persecution by being martyred so that they will be rewarded not to taste the second death during the kingdom age—vv. 8-11.
３
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to sanctify the believers in the church in Pergamos from the union with the world and from the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to eat the hid-den manna and to have a white stone upon which a new name will be written in the kingdom age—vv. 12-17.
４
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to rescue the believers in the church in Thyatira from idol worship, fornication, demonic teachings, and the deep things of Satan to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded with the authority over the nations in the kingdom age—vv. 18-29.
５
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to revive the believers in the church in Sardis from their dead and dying condition to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded with walking with the Lord in white and with not having their names erased from the book of life but confessed by the Lord before the Father and His angels in the kingdom age—3:1-6.
６
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to encourage the believers in the church in Philadelphia to hold fast what they have that no one take their crown to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to be a pillar in the temple of God with the name of God and the name of the New Jerusalem and the new name of the Lord written upon them in the kingdom age—vv. 7-13.
７
The sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit works to awake the believers in the church in Laodicea from their lukewarm and Christless condition, exhorting them to pay the price for the refined gold, white garments, and eyesalve and to open their door to the knocking Lord to be the overcomers so that they may be rewarded to sit on the throne of the Lord in the kingdom age—vv. 14-22.
Ⅱ
The Lord's recovery is for producing the overcomers to build up the Body of Christ for the initial consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age (2:7) and for the full consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth (21:1-2):
A
The overcomers enjoy Christ as life for God's building by having an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches—2:7.
B
The overcomers enjoy Christ as life for God's building by living in their spirit—1:10.
Ⅲ
The overcomers live according to the principle of the tree of life, the principle of dependence, not according to the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the principle of independence—Gen. 2:9, 17; Rom. 8:6:
A
In the eyes of God the greatest sin is independence; independence is a spiritual insula-tion, disconnecting us from the life of God—Eph. 4:18.
B
We must learn to depend on the Lord continually, living constantly in direct contact with Him—2 Cor. 1:12; Heb. 11:8; Matt. 6:28; cf. 1 Kings 7:17-19; S. S. 8:5a; 2 Chron. 16:12; Isa. 50:10-11.
Ⅳ
In our service to the Lord, we must reject our natural enthusiasm, natural strength, and natural ability; our service must be life flowing out of us as a ministry of life to others—John 7:38; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 5:16a:
A
We must be burning in spirit with the fire of God's life; we should not serve with strange fire, signifying the natural enthusiasm that is not dealt with by the cross and not in resurrection—Exo. 3:2; Luke 12:49-50; Rom. 12:11; Lev. 10:1:
１
Strange fire in the priestly service, a sin of presumption, causes death before God— 9:24; 10:1-2.
２
The offering of strange fire might have been related to the drinking of wine; drink-ing wine signifies the overenjoyment of the worldly, natural, or physical, material things—vv. 8-9.
３
When the priests are drunk, they lose the discernment of holiness and are unable to teach God's people—vv. 10-11.
B
Our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross in order to become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord—Phil. 3:3:
１
After being put aside by God for forty years, Moses learned to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him—Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:22-36; Heb. 11:28.
２
After becoming a complete failure, Peter learned to serve the brothers by faith and with humility—Luke 22:32-33; John 18:15-18, 25-27; Matt. 26:69-75; 1 Pet. 5:5-6.
Ⅴ
In the decree of the kingdom's constitution, Christ displayed the two possible ways of people's life and work before God—Matt. 7:13-14, 21-27:
A
The broad way leading to destruction is according to the worldly systems satisfying the natural tastes, to get the crowd, to maintain a career of man, and to achieve man's enterprise—13:31-33; Rev. 2:13, 20; 17:4-5.
B
The constricted way leading to life is according to the divine regulations fulfilling the spiritual requests, to bring in God's elect, and to bear the testimony of Jesus Christ, and carrying out God's economy for the building up of the Body of Christ—Rom. 1:9; Heb. 11:5-6; Rev. 1:1-2, 9-10.
C
The way that leads to a living reward in life is the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22)— the way of the truth (2 Pet. 2:2), the straight way (v. 15), the way of righteousness (v. 21); the way of peace (Luke 1:79; Rom. 3:17); the way of salvation (Acts 16:17); the way of God (Matt. 22:16; Acts 18:26); and the way of the Lord (John 1:23; Acts 18:25); it is slandered as the way of heresy (24:14).
D
The God-ordained way is to have a living and working, which are always narrow and constricted, according to the pattern of the Lord's indescribable life and ministry—John 5:19, 30; 4:34; 17:4; 14:10, 24; 7:16, 18.
E
We in the Lord's recovery must walk in our spirit; walking in spirit restricts us, causing us to live a normal Christian life and making us vital, healthy believers who take the way of life for God's building—Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 22-23; 1 Thes. 5:16-18.