THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
The Divine and Eternal Life
Message Eight—Living in the Fellowship of the Divine Life
Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:2-7, 9; Luke 11:34-36; Matt. 6:2, 5; 2 Cor. 10:4-5; Phil. 2:13
I. We need to enter into the vertical and horizontal aspects of the fellowship of the divine life—1 John 1:2-3, 6-7:
A. The fellowship is the flow of the eternal life within all the believers, who have received and possess the divine life; it is illustrated by the flow of the river of water of life in the New Jerusalem—Rev. 22:1.
B. First John 1:2-3 and 6-7 reveal that the fellowship of the divine life has both a vertical aspect and a horizontal aspect:
1. First John 1:2-3 says, “(And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us); that which we have seen and heard we report also to you that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”:
a. The vertical aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with the Triune God; the horizontal aspect of fellowship refers to our fellowship with one another.
b. The initial experience of the apostles was vertical, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.
2. Verse 6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth”; this is the vertical aspect of fellowship.
3. Verse 7 says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellow-ship with one another”; this is the horizontal aspect of fellowship.
C. We need to see the relationship between the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship—Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 1:9:
1. If you do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with your fellow believers; in the same way, if you do not have the proper fellowship with your fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellow-ship with the Lord; the reason for this is that the divine fellowship is one fellowship—Acts 2:42.
2. When we are not in this fellowship in a practical way, we are out of the Spirit, out of the Triune God, and out of the divine life—cf. 2 Cor. 13:14; 1 Cor.1:9; Phil. 2:1.
3. Fellowship also indicates a putting away of private interests and a joining with others for a certain common purpose; hence, to live in the divine fellow-ship is to put aside our private interests and join with the apostles and the Triune God for the carrying out of God’s purpose—Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3; 1 Cor.1:9; 3:6, 12.
D. The divine fellowship is the reality of living in the Body of Christ—1 John 1:4-5; Phil. 2:1-5:
1. The reason that the Lord has not yet come back (Rev. 22:20) is that the believers are individualistic, independent, opinionated, and divided.
2. By being restricted in the divine fellowship, the Body of Christ is kept in oneness, and the work of the ministry continues to go on; the thing that makes everything alive is fellowship—Eph. 4:11-12; cf. Ezek. 47:9.
E. The fellowship of life, the inner flow of life, results in joy and in the inner shining, the inner ruling, of the light of life—1 John 1:4-5; John 1:4; 8:12; cf. 2 Cor. 5:13.
II. We need to see the obstacles that God’s life encounters in man—Luke 11:34-36; Matt. 6:2, 5; Luke 1:17; Matt. 16:24, 25:
A. The first problem that God’s life encounters in us is that we do not realize the darkness of our human concept—Luke 11:34-36; Eph. 6:12; 1 John 1:5, 2:11.
B. The second problem that life encounters in us is hypocrisy—Matt. 6:2, 5; 7:5; 23:13-29.
C. The third problem that life encounters in us is rebellion—Luke 1:17; Ezek. 3:8; Titus 3:3.
D. The fourth problem that life encounters in us is our natural capability—Matt. 16:24-25.
III. We need to see the subjective obstacles encountered by God’s life in us—2 Cor. 10:4-5; Phil. 2:13; 2 Thes. 3:5; Phil. 1:8:
A. A proper Christian is one whose mind, will, and emotion cooperate with his spirit; an abnormal Christian is one whose mind, will, and emotion cannot cooperate with, and even contradict, his spirit; thus, he lives under a veil.
B. The first subjective problem is the problem of our mind—2 Cor. 10:4-5; Phil. 2:5; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 12:2.
C. The second subjective problem is the problem of our will—Phil. 2:13.
D. The third subjective problem is the problem of our emotion—2 Thes. 3:5; Phil. 1:8.
E. From all this we can see that our person is truly an obstacle for the living out of God’s life; this is why we need to be broken and why we daily need to be strengthened into the inner man so that Christ can make His home in our heart, the main parts of which are the mind, will, and emotion—Eph. 3:16-17.
IV. We need to see the pathway of life—Matt. 7:13-14:
A. A part of God’s work in His salvation is to pave a clear way for His life in us; this work is accomplished through the death of the cross—Phil. 3:10.
B. There is life in a grain of wheat, but unless the grain falls into the ground and dies, the life within the grain will not be released—John 12:24-26.
C. The way of life is the way of death; when there is the death of Christ operating in us, there is a way for the life of Christ to come out of us—2 Cor. 4:10; Phil.3:10; Gal. 2:20.
D. The cross of Christ is experienced by us through the Spirit—5:16, 24; Rom. 8:13-14; Exo. 30:23-25; Phil. 1:19.
E. The stronger the Holy Spirit’s work in us is, the stronger our experience of the cross will be; wherever the Holy Spirit works, there is a putting to death by the Spirit, and resurrection life can be manifested in and through us—2 Cor. 4:11-12.
F. The discipline of the Holy Spirit also carries out the work of the cross in us:
1. For our spiritual understanding, it is not enough only to know the Holy Spirit; we must also know the “all things” in our circumstances (Rom. 8:28); a Christian who is spiritual and lives before God needs to “read” three things every day: first, he needs to read the Bible; second, he needs to read his inward sense of the spirit; third, he needs to read his environment and circumstances, which are the persons, matters, and things around him; God arranges our environment and circumstances to cause all persons, matters, and things to work together for good, that is, for transforming and conforming us to the image of God’s firstborn Son—vv. 28-29.
2. The environment that the Lord has created for us causes us to know the Lord’s grace and experience the Lord’s power—2 Cor. 12:9.
V. We need to see a vision of how the life of God can be lived out of us—Col. 3:4-4; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6:
A. We need to realize and know that the life of God is in us—Col. 3:4; Rom. 8:10.
B. We need God to open our eyes to see that our natural man, our very person, is a hindrance to the life of God.
C. We need to see that we have been crucified on the cross, and we must hate our self; the more we see God, know God, and love God, the more we abhor ourselves and the more we deny ourselves—Col. 3:3; Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6; Job 42:5-6; Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23; 14:26.
Ministry Excerpts:
THE APOSTLES’ FELLOWSHIP
BEING WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON
First John 1 reveals a fellowship in two directions, vertical and horizontal. Horizontally we fellowship with one another, and vertically we fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. From life we have fellowship, and this fellowship is with the saints and with the Triune God. The vertical aspect of fellowship was initially established with the first apostles. The apostles then reported to the believers the eternal life in order that they might have fellowship with the apostles. Before the apostles reported the eternal life to them, the apostles themselves already had the vertical fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (v. 3). The initial experience of the apostles was vertical, but when the apostles reported the eternal life to others, they experienced the horizontal aspect of the divine fellowship.
Verses 6 and 7 of 1 John 1 also indicate the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship. Verse 6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and are not practicing the truth.” This is the vertical aspect of fellowship. Verse 7 says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” This is the horizontal aspect of fellowship. Both aspects of the divine fellowship are closely related; it is difficult to say which aspect comes first. If you do not have the proper fellowship with the Lord, it is difficult to have fellowship with your fellow believers. In the same way, if you do not have the proper fellowship with your fellow believers, it is difficult to have fellowship with the Lord.
In 1 John 1:2-3 the apostles wanted to have fellowship with the believers; this is horizontal fellowship. Then the apostles stated that their fellowship was with the Triune God; this is vertical fellowship. The vertical fellowship brings us into the horizontal fellowship. The horizontal fellowship then brings us into the vertical fellowship on a larger scale. This larger scale of fellowship is the meetings. In the proper church meetings, everyone should be full of the enjoyment of Christ, participating in the vertical and horizontal aspects of the divine fellowship. All the functioning in the meetings should be an expression of the divine fellowship. To prophesy is an expression of this fellowship. To testify is also a part of this fellowship. To read a verse from the Bible to the saints in the Lord’s table meeting may also be a small part of this fellowship. The entire meeting should be a fellowship.
Eventually, in this divine fellowship God is interwoven with us. This interweaving is the mingling of God with man. All the meetings should be an interwoven fellowship with both the vertical and horizontal aspects. Our married life should also be an interwoven fellowship. The husband and the wife should not only be interwoven with each other but also with the Lord. The real Christian marriage should be the divine fellowship. In addition, our coordination and work together should be the divine fellowship. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 391)
SEEING THAT CHRIST IS OUR LIFE
Every form of life in the universe has its law, and God’s life is not an exception. God’s life will operate in us the same way that it operated in Paul two thousand years ago. In the Scripture Reading we listed many verses in which Paul speaks of himself. We hope to receive light from these verses and to see from his experience the basis for spiritual pursuit and life exercises. First, Paul’s experience shows that a person who pursues life must know that Christ is in him as life. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 and 7 Paul says, “The God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts…But we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” According to these verses, the God who shined in Paul’s heart became the treasure in him. This treasure is Christ, who became flesh and has entered into His believers as the life-giving Spirit. This is the first basic knowledge that we must have in the exercise of life. Unless we have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit to see that Christ has shined Himself into us to be our life and our treasure, we cannot pursue life.
NEEDING HIGH AND PROFOUND REVELATIONS
The truth and light in the Bible concerning being in Christ and concerning the cross are always high and profound, but what the Bible says concerning the experiences of being in Christ and of the cross is not so high or profound. In Ephesians Paul says that Christ is far above all, that He has been given to be Head over all things to the church, and that the church is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (1:21-23). In Colossians he says that Christ is all things and that Christ is in all things (1:15-19). However, in 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul does not speak of his experience as being high or profound. Second Corinthians speaks of being in Christ and of the cross. In comparison to Ephesians and Colossians, however, 2 Corinthians appears to be rather simple and plain. In 2 Corinthians we do not see the Christ who is all in all filling us, nor do we see Christ being all things and being in all things. On the contrary, here Paul says that Christ is the treasure in earthen vessels so that the power of God can be manifested in the weak (4:7).
EMPHASIZING BOTH LIGHT AND EXPERIENCE
In the late 1820s the Lord raised up the British Brethren and gave them substantial spiritual light. In the early twentieth century He raised up Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis. She knew the cross and knew the truth concerning the believers’ co-crucifixion with Christ. She was helped by the mystics, just as Brother Andrew Murray was also helped. Mrs. Penn-Lewis read almost all the writings of Madame Guyon. She even wrote a summary of one of Madame Guyon’s well-known books, Spiritual Torrents; this summary was published as Life out of Death. The writings of Mrs. Penn-Lewis are rather weighty, and those with spiritual experience acknowledge that Mrs. Penn-Lewis was spiritual. However, believers in the Brethren Assembly oppose Mrs. Penn-Lewis. These believers have seen the light of the cross but neglect the experience of the cross. They do not understand that light is comparable to theory and that experience is comparable to practice. Hence, we must not focus merely on objective truth while neglecting subjective experience.
Based on the light that we have seen, we will consider our experience. Second Corinthians 4:7 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” This means that the One who fills all things has come into our earthen vessel. Hence, we should not thank and praise the Lord by saying merely, “You are the universe. You are all things.” We should praise Him further by saying, “Lord, You are in me, an earthen vessel.” This is according to experience. In order to experience the divine life, we must first see that the Christ who fills all things is in us. For this reason, Paul says, “Do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” (13:5). Not only so, the treasure in us manifests the excellency of the power of God (4:7). We must know this if we want to pursue and experience life. The Gentiles do not know that there is a treasure in us, but we must know this.
CONSECRATION AND LOVING THE LORD
Like Paul, those who know the treasure and pursue to live out the life of this treasure should be determined to gain the honor of being well pleasing to the Lord (5:9). They should also be constrained by the Lord’s love to no longer live to themselves but to the Lord who died for them and has been raised (vv. 14-15). This is to love the Lord and to consecrate ourselves to Him. We need to see the Lord’s love and consecrate ourselves. We can pray, “Lord, I am determined to stop living to myself but to live to You. You died for me, and You have been raised.” This is the second life exercise.
FELLOWSHIPPING WITH THE LORD
Third, we must see that the Holy Spirit lives in us and that we must use our spirit to fellowship with the Lord by beholding His beauty and by letting His image become our image through transformation. Second Corinthians 3:17-18 says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” This is fellowship. After consecration, there should be fellowship. Hence, when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we must fellowship with Him so that He can live in us and live out of us. Fellowship causes us to grow in the spiritual life.
The fellowship in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 includes the teaching of the anointing in 1 John 2:27 and the operation of God in Philippians 2:13. We must put these three passages together. The Lord Spirit is in us; hence, we need to open to Him and fellowship with Him so that He can have the opportunity to anoint us and to operate within us. When we receive the teaching of the anointing and follow His operation in us, we will be transformed into the Lord’s image. This is to have Christ formed in us (Gal. 4:19) and to let Him grow in us (Col. 2:19). Hence, as those who love the Lord, we must consecrate ourselves to Him and fellowship with Him. Fellowship brings in the growth of life, which leads to our being transformed into the Lord’s image.
RECEIVING THE DISCIPLINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
When we know that Christ dwells in us, we should consecrate ourselves to Him so that He can live in us and so that we will be well pleasing to Him. We also need to fellowship with Him so that He can operate in us. Then we will grow in life and be transformed into His image. In addition to these matters, which are within us, we need something from the environment, which is the discipline of the Holy Spirit. The anointing is one aspect of our spiritual life, and the discipline of the Holy Spirit is another aspect.
The discipline of the Holy Spirit does not refer to the Spirit’s ruling within us but to His disciplining us through the people, things, and matters that He arranges in our environment. Everything that we encounter in our environment has an element of the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 12:2-7 Paul says that he was caught away to the third heaven and also into Paradise where he heard unspeakable words, which are not allowed for a man to speak. Because of the transcendence of the revelations, he was given a thorn in the flesh so that he would not be exceedingly lifted up. We do not know what this thorn was, but some people say that it refers to the weakness of his eyes (cf. Gal. 4:15). Whatever the thorn was, it caused him to suffer. Paul, however, says that there were two benefits from the thorn. One benefit was that it subdued him so that he would not be proud but would experience the Lord’s sufficient grace, and the other was that it manifested his weaknesses so that he could experience the Lord’s power (2 Cor. 12:7-9). Although he beheld the Lord and fellowshipped with Him with an unveiled face, Paul needed this thorn in order to mature in life. The thorn was an outward environment.
Paul was both defamed and praised; he received both evil reports and good reports (6:8). This means that while some people spoke well of him, others spoke ill of him. The more useful a person is in the Lord, the more he will be criticized. Mrs. Penn-Lewis, whom we mentioned earlier, is an example. Some people slandered her by saying that she was a witch. Those who are used by the Lord will be praised, criticized, despised, highly regarded, and reviled. They will receive both evil reports and good reports.
We should not think that we have no need of outward environments in order for us to mature in life. Even Paul needed his environment for the divine life to mature. He testified that his conduct in the world was “not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God” (1:12). This means that it was not easy for Paul to deal with the environment he encountered. Many people may use skillful maneuvering or play tricks in order to cope with their environment. Paul, however, was not like that; he relied on the grace of God.
Hence, on the one hand, our outward environment is in coordination with the divine life, but on the other hand, our outward environment is also a reflection of the divine life, showing the extent of our maturity. Having tears or complaints when we suffer is an indication that we are not yet mature. If we cannot tolerate being poor or being rich, we are not sufficiently mature. When we can bow our head and worship God in the face of suffering, poverty, or abundance, then we are maturing in life. (The Operation of God and the Anointing, msg. 8)