On the positive side, we pursue Christ, walk by faith, and give God as food to the saints in God’s household; on the negative side, we need to beware of not loving the Lord’s appearing, mistreating our fellow believers, and keeping company with worldly people as we serve the Lord as faithful slaves to become the firstfruits.
Lord Jesus, we want to positively pursue You, enjoy You, and do all things in fellowship with You! Amen, Lord, may our Christian life be by faith and may our Christian walk be with God in faith. We want to be the faithful slaves of God who minister God as food to the saints in God’s household. Save us, dear Lord, from not loving Your appearing, mistreating our fellow believers, and keeping company with worldly people! Amen, Lord, we want to be the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb! Amen!
How wonderful it is to see and enjoy Christ as the Lamb, the One whom the overcoming firstfruits follow. We aspire to be the firstfruits, those who ripen earlier; for this, we follow the Lamb wherever He may go! Amen!
We want to be raptured soon, even before the great tribulation, so we pursue the Lord in love, live before Him, walk with God, and do all things in the organic union with Him.
Just as in the Old Testament, the firstfruits belonged to God, and the people of God had to bring the firstfruits into God’s house for His satisfaction, so today God wants to be satisfied with some living overcomers who will be with Him on Mount Zion.
For this, we need to walk with God by faith to escape death and obtain the testimony of being well pleasing to God. Just as Enoch walked with God by faith for three hundred years until he was not, for God took him, so we today need to walk with God by faith to escape death.
This means that we need to take Christ as our centre and our everything, and we need to do all things according to God and with God.
We walk by faith, that is, we believe that God is and we are not. He is everything and we are nothing. It is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us. He is everything to us, and we are becoming nothing; we simply let Christ live in us. This is on the personal side.
On the corporate side, as we enjoy the Lord and are constituted with His riches, we must be the faithful slaves of God, being faithful in service in the Lord’s commission to give God as food to the members of His household.
We are among the saints, and we minister Christ as food to the saints at the proper time. Thank the Lord that we are His slaves, those who remain under His dispensing to be filled with Him and who exercise to dispense the riches of Christ to others also.
Beware of Loving the Present Evil Age and Not Loving the Lord’s Appearing
As we live at the end of this age, aspiring to be the Lord’s living overcomers who are the firstfruits for God’s satisfaction, we need to be warned concerning certain negative things.
The Lord warned us in Matthew 24:48 that we may be His slaves, but we may be evil slaves, saying in our heart that our Master delays, so we love the present evil age and not love the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim. 4:8, 10; cf. Acts 26:16).
If we look outwardly in world history, it seems that evil is prevailing, and if we look at the situation in the church, we don’t see the Body being built up enough; we may think that the Lord surely will not come soon, so we may have an evil heart.
May we not fall into the trap of being an evil slave who says, My Master delays. May we live in His appearing. May we be saved from not loving His appearing.
He is with us, He wants to appear to us, but we need to welcome His appearing and love His appearing.
In his final speaking, in his final epistle in 2 Timothy, toward the end of the epistle, Paul said that he is ready: he fought the good fight, he kept the faith, and now he’s waiting for the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will recompense him on that day.
But, he continues, not only will he be recompensed with this but also all those who have loved His appearing. However, two verses later, Paul said that Demas, one of his co-workers, abandoned him, having loved the present age.
This is a very sobering matter. Demas was one of the Lord’s co-workers, but at one point he just loved the present evil age, so he abandoned Paul. Oh Lord!
If we look around us and in our history in the church life, there have been some leading ones or some co-workers who were with us and were helpful to us, but then something happened, and they stopped loving the Lord.
May we humble ourselves before the Lord. May we ask Him to keep us and not lead us into temptation.
On our side, we guard our heart; on His side, we pray that He would not lead us into temptation. May we beware of covetousness, not storing up treasure for ourselves here on earth but being rich toward God (Luke 12:15-20; 2 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 3:8).
We need to be careful concerning our thoughts about our future, our feelings toward our possessions, and even our care and love for our own children and grandchildren.
We surely love our children and all the members of our family, and we properly care for them; however, we love the Lord’s appearing, and we care for them in the Lord.
We need to remember Lot’s wife; this is a solemn warning to the world-loving believers (Luke 17:31-32; cf. Rom. 1:21, 25).
She was being saved, but she had a lingering look back; something must have been there that she cared for. May we be watchful and beseeching so that the day of the Lord’s coming would not come upon us suddenly as a snare (Luke 21:34-36; cf. Matt. 2:3).
May it not be a surprise for us when the Lord comes back; the rapture will be sudden, but it should not be a surprise.
May we really be before the Lord regarding these matters, for as time goes by, as we live in this world, as we listen to this and are involved in that, our heart may be inclined to love the present age, and we may not love the Lord’s appearing.
May we really humble ourselves before the Lord and ask Him,
Lord Jesus, save us from being an evil slave who says in his heart, My Master delays. Oh Lord, may we love Your appearing today! Appear to us. We want to remain in Your presence. We treasure Your presence. May we beware of covetousness, not storing up treasure for ourselves but being rich toward God. Amen, Lord, may we seek Your riches and pay attention to Your riches more than the earthly riches. May we be warned by the story of Lot’s wife so that we may not love the present age but rather, set our heart on You! Oh Lord, keep our heart! Keep our heart set on You and loving You. We want to be watchful and beseeching so that the day of the Lord’s coming would not come upon us suddenly as a snare! Oh Lord, we love You and we want to have Your appearing! Appear to us today!
Beware of Mistreating our Fellow Believers or Lording it Over Them
In Matthew 24:49, we see that the evil slave who says in his heart that the Master delays is beating his fellow slaves. What does this mean? Is this really possible in the church life, to “beat” our fellow slaves? To beat our fellow slaves is to mistreat our fellow believers (Matt. 18:3-7; Acts 9:4).
It is possible for us to mistreat our fellow believers and therefore lose the privilege of being the firstfruit. Instead of judging or condemning our fellow believers, we should be kind to them, tenderhearted, forgiving them, even as God in Christ forgave us (Luke 6:37; Eph. 4:31-32).
As we live the church life, we may speak things to one another or have a certain attitude that causes others to be offended or upset. We may mistreat others by speaking negatively about them, having a distant attitude toward them, or gossiping about them. Oh Lord!
We may be right in what we say about others, for they may have done this or that bad thing or caused a problem; our speaking evil of them is our mistreating them.
Whatever others do, we need to remember that one day we will all be manifested before the throne of God (2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10); there, we will give an account of the thigns we have done through the body.
We will give an account concerning what we looked at with our eyes, what we listened to with our ears, what we spoke with our lips, what we did with our hands, and where we went with our feet.
We should not judge our brother nor despise him, for we all will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We need to be careful in our relationships with one another, for our words, the tone of our speaking, our gestures, and our attitude may be mistreating of our fellow believers.
We must not revile or criticise our brothers but instead consider them more excellent than ourselves (1 Cor. 6:10; Phil. 2:2-3, 29). To revile a brother is to criticise or demean him harshly with abusive language (Luke 17:2).
We may speak harshly to someone about what they have done, or we may speak in an abusive way to our spouse at home, our fellow partaker of grace; this is to beat our fellow slaves. Oh Lord!
Those who speak such words forsake their privilege to be the firstfruits, and those who take in reviling words bear the same responsibility as those who speak such words.
Speaking such words damages the Body, and God will never entrust authority to those who by nature like to criticise others.
Furthermore, we should not lord it over our fellow believers; instead, we need to serve the saints as a slave to feed them with the resurrected Christ as the life-giving Spirit (1 Pet. 5:3; Matt. 20:25-28).
To lord it over others means that we replace the Lord in their lives; they may come to fellowship with us and, and instead of directing the saints to go to the Lord for His decision, we may make a decision for the saints.
We may even tell the saints to move here or there, marry this or that person, or do this or that thing. Oh Lord! This insults the headship and lordship of Christ.
If we tell others where they should go or what they should do without encouraging them to pray, seek the Lord’s leading, and have proper fellowship in the Body, this is a great insult to the Lord!
May we never replace the Lord in anyone’s life but rather, help the saints to go to the Lord with all their questions and problems.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we love the saints in the church life, the fellow believers in Christ! Save us from judging or condemning our fellow believers. May we be kind to the saints, tenderhearted, forgiving them, even as God in Christ forgave us. May we not revile or criticise our brothers but rather, consider them more excellent than ourselves. Amen, the saints are excellent! The saints are full of life! We look to Christ in the saints and we want to know the Christ in the saints! Amen, Lord Jesus, save us from lording it over the saints by deciding things for them or telling them to go there or do that thing. May we always lead the saints to the Lord to check with Him and to the Body to fellowship in the Body! Oh Lord Jesus, may we beware of mistreating our fellow believers and lording it over them!
Beware of Keeping Company with Worldly People: Flee Youthful Lusts and Pursue Christ with the Saints!
We need to beware of keeping company with worldly people; the evil slave who says in his heart that his master delays went and ate and drank with the drunken (Matt. 24:49), signifying that a believer may keep company with people who are drunk with worldly things.
We are a holy people, a chosen race, a people acquired for a possession; we are sanctified unto the Lord. But if we think that our Master delays, we become evil slaves, and we may keep company with the worldly people who are drunk with worldly things.
Because of our divine nature and holy standing, we believers in Christ should not be yoked together with the unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14; 1 Cor. 15:33; cf. Prov. 13:20).
This should be applied to all intimate relationships between believers and unbelievers, not only to marriage and business.
Especially when we are young, we may think it is ok to be yoked with an unbeliever in business or in relationships, or be friends and go along with them in the things they do.
But it is so easy for us not to guard our heart in such matters, and we are simply swept away by the flood of dissoluteness in this world.
Evil companionships corrupt good morals. If we walk with wise men, we will be wise, but the companion of fools will be troubled.
Instead of keeping company with worldly people, may we flee youthful lusts and pursue the all-inclusive Christ with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22).
May we hang out, be with, keep company with, and pursue with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
If we do this, we will be preserved, we will love the Lord, we will grow in life, and we will be produced as the Lord’s living overcomers, the firstfruits today!
Lord Jesus, save us from eating and drinking with the drunken, that is, save us from keeping company with worldly people! Amen, Lord, may we be those who realise our divine nature and holy standing, and may we stay away from anything that can defile us. Save us from having intimate relationships, marriage, or business with the unbelievers. May we flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ with the saints! Amen, Lord, we choose to flee youthful lusts and pursue the all-inclusive Christ together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart! We love You, Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ricky Acosta on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 2, “The Spirit and the Body,” ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 45 (msg. 9), The Lamb Whom the Overcoming Firstfruits Follow – day 6.
- Hymns on this topic:
– The love of Christ constraineth, / Then let us work and pray, / And watch the glad appearing / Of that triumphant day, / When Father, Son, and Spirit, / By every tongue confessed, / All earth His broad dominion / In His dear love shall rest. (Hymns #898 stanza 4)
– Soon our Lord will come, the day is drawing nigh, / Sound of His approaching we can hear. / Watchful we must be and always on alert / That the Lord our hearts with rapture cheer. / Glory! glory! Christ will come again! / Glory! glory! We with Him shall reign! / With a glorious body, ever with the Lord, / Singing all His praise with glad accord. (Hymns #956 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Built up in love together, / Not one would criticize; / To perfect one another, / We all would exercise. / Each one from self delivered, / The natural life forsakes; / In grace each trained in spirit / The Body-life partakes. (Hymns #867 stanza 7)
