Job was a good man expressing himself in his perfection, uprightness, and integrity, but he was not a man of God who had God as his life; we should not seek to be perfect or upright apart from Christ but rather, we need to be a man of God filled with Christ to gain God and be filled with God.
Lord Jesus, we give up our striving and our struggling to be a perfect man. We renounce our desire to be upright and perfect; we simply come to You to gain You. We exercise our spirit to contact You. May we have the righteousness which is out of God in Christ and not our own righteousness. Oh Lord, we want to seek You today. We want to gain God today. Add Yourself to our being. Infuse us with Yourself. Make us a man of God filled with Christ for Your expression! Amen!
Job lived approximately at the time of Abraham, so the book of Job was most likely the first book that was written, even before the Pentateuch of Moses.
Chronologically, from the view of time, the book of Job is the first one. In this book, we see how Job was a perfect and upright man, but for some reason, this was not good enough for God.
God used Satan as an ugly tool to deal with Job and bring about much suffering to strip him and consume him so that he would end up with nothing.
He was a person who feared God and turned away from evil, yet it seems that God dealt with him in such a way.
This is hard to understand. Job could not understand it. He talked about it with his friends, and his three friends also did not understand.
Job realised that there must be something that is hidden in God’s heart. Something must be in God, which Job did not see or understand, so that all these things happen to him.
Later, in the New Testament, the apostle Paul confirmed that the mystery was hidden from the ages and is now revealed to the holy apostles and prophets in spirit; this mystery is God’s economy.
Because God has an economy, an eternal intention and plan according to which He does all things, Job had to go through all these things. But Job did not see it.
Even Nicodemus, in the time of Jesus, did not see this; it was only after Christ became the Spirit and came as the Spirit of reality that we can be led and guided into all the reality of God’s economy by Christ.
May we be those who seek God and gain God today. May we not be satisfied with mere knowledge about God and His economy; may we turn to Him and seek Him, even linger with Him so that we may receive His speaking.
When Job received God’s speaking, when he saw God and heard God, all his questions were fully answered, and he repented before God.
God doesn’t want an Upright Man but a Man of God filled with Christ to Express Him
Twice in the first two chapters of Job it is mentioned that he was perfect and upright, and he feared God and turned away from evil (Job 1:1; 2:3).
Actually, it was God Himself who said such words, not any other man. This is high praise, one would think. Job was a good man, expressing himself in his perfection, uprightness, and integrity (Job 27:5; 31:6; 32:1).
If we read the first chapter of Job, we may even aspire to be like him, for he was perfect and upright, and he feared God and stayed away from anything evil.
The fact that he was perfect is related to the inner man; in his inner man, Job was perfect. The fact that Job was upright is related to his outer man; in his outer man, Job was upright, and he was not crooked or biased.
Even more, besides being perfect inwardly and upright outwardly, Job feared God in a positive way and turned away from evil negatively. Positively, he feared God; negatively, he stayed away from evil.
This sounds so good, doesn’t it? However, this is not the purpose of God in His creating man. God didn’t create man to be perfect and upright, nor did God intend for the man created in His image to merely fear Him and stay away from evil.
As Genesis 1:26 says, God created man in His own image and according to His likeness so that man would express Him and also represent Him.
What God wants to obtain is an expression of Himself, not an expression of the self of His people. To express God is higher than fearing God and turning away from evil.
If we look at Job we realise that Job was a man of integrity; integrity is the totality of being perfect and upright (Job 2:3, 9; 27:5; 31:6).
With respect to Job, integrity is the total expression of what he was. In his character, Job was perfect and upright, and in his ethics, he had a high standard of integrity. He held to his integrity to the last.
In Job 2:9, his wife asked him, Do you still hold fast your integrity? Then in 27:5 he told his friends that until he dies, he will not put his integrity away from him. And finally, in Job 31:6, Job declared that he wants to let God know his integrity.
He had his own integrity, the totality of being perfect and being upright. But this integrity and his uprightness were altogether vanity, for this is not what God intends for Job to have.
Job’s integrity did not fulfill God’s purpose and did not satisfy His desire. This is why God held two councils in heaven concerning Job, how to deal with him (Job 1:6-8; 2:1-3).
God was lovingly concerned for Job. Yes, Job was very good, for according to human eyes, there was no problem with him.
But God knew that Job had a need, for he was short of God. God was lovingly concerned for Job, and He wanted Job to be not a good man but a God-man, a man of God.
God’s intention, according to what we see in the New Testament, is not for us to be good men, moral men, or ethical men; what God is after is not men of integrity.
What He wants to gain is a man of God (1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:17) who is filled with Christ! We believers in Christ should not try to be perfect or upright in ourselves, by our own efforts, and for our own purpose.
Rather, we need to be a man of God filled with Christ, the embodiment of God, so that we may be part of the fullness of God for the expression of God in Christ!
May we give up any thought or striving to be men of the high standard of ethics outwardly and turn to the Lord, enjoy Him, and be filled with Him to be a man of God filled with Christ.
May we not seek to have our own natural perfection, natural uprightness, and natural integrity, but rather come to the Lord to enjoy Him and be filled with Him to be a man of God filled with Christ!
Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You. Shine on our striving and struggling to be good men, perfect men, and upright men. Save us from trying our best to be ethical men and moral men. May we come to You to be filled with You so that we may be a man of God filled with Christ! Amen, Lord, may we realise how short we are of God! Lord Jesus, we need You! We need more of You! Thank You for Your loving concern for us. Thank You that it matters to You concerning us. We simply open to You and we let You fill us and saturate us with Yourself. We don’t want to build up any natural perfectness, uprightness, or integrity; we simply want to be filled with Christ so that we may express God! Oh, it is so much higher and pleasing to God for us to express Christ by being filled with Christ! Fill us, Lord Jesus! Be our life, our nature, an dour constitution today. May we grow in life and be a man of God filled with Christ for the expression of God on the earth today! Amen!
Not Just Fearing God and Staying Away from Evil but Gaining God to be Mingled with God
May the Lord have mercy on us and shine on us to show us what the purpose of God is in creating man.
God didn’t create man merely to fear Him and not do anything wrong; we may think that this is what God wants, and we may therefore think that Christian life is impossible, for no one can be perfect, but this is not what God is after.
God created man in His own image and according to His likeness so that man may express God (Gen. 1:26).
We don’t want to be merely good men and, indeed, we don’t want to be evil men; however, we are not here merely fearing God and staying away from evil but we want to gain God and be mingled with God to express God!
God knows our need: He sees that we still try to please Him, do good, be righteous, and have perfection and integrity. What God wants from us is that we gain God.
Gaining God is deeper and more subjective than merely believing in God’s existence or fearing God.
To gain God means that we obtain something of the element of God into our being. When Job saw God and heard God, he gained God (Job 42:5-6). He was a perfect and upright man, but he did not have God; when he saw God, he gained God.
Many people today are upright, thoughtful, and God-fearing; they try to be good, they reject evil, and they fear God and stay away from anything evil or wrong.
Even among Christians this is true: many genuine believers in Christ fear God and stay away from evil.
It is quite impressive to see people who are upright and full of integrity, fearing God and staying away from evil; however, such people do not gain God but rather do all these in themselves.
May we realise that, when we believed into the Lord Jesus, we gained something of God; His divine life came into our spirit, and now we are children of God with His life and nature (John 1:12-13).
Now as we live the Christian life, we need to continue to gain God.
We need to turn our heart to the Lord, for whenever the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away (2 Cor. 3:16-18) and we see the Lord face to face; thus we are being transformed into His image from glory to glory.
God dwells in our spirit today, and He wants to spread from our spirit into every part of our inner being so that He may mingle Himself with us.
As we turn our heart to the Lord and open to Him, we receive God and let God enter into us, even go deeper in us. He wants to make His home deep down in our heart (Eph. 3:17).
He wants to mingle Himself with us. He made us one with Him in spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), but He wants to continue to make us one with Him in every part of our being.
May we see that God desires that we gain God and be filled with God. May we just open to the Lord, turning our heart to Him and exercising our spirit to contact Him, so that we may gain God and be mingled with God.
May the Lord have mercy on us, the believers in Christ, to see the meaning of being a Christian.
Being a Christian is being continually open to the Lord to have His life and nature in our being so that we may be one and live one spirit with Him. If we see this, we will give ourselves to the Lord to just gain Him.
To gain God doesn’t merely mean that we believe in Him or fear Him objectively. To gain God is to receive Him into our being; this is something subjective.
To gain God is to let Him be our life and nature so that He may mingle Himself with us to be our very element (1 John 3:2).
God wants to mingle Himself with our thoughts, our desires, and our intentions. He wants us to gain Him in the way we think, the way we feel, and the decisions we make.
God wants us to gain God to such an extent that His thoughts are our thoughts, His emotions are our emotions, His preferences are our preferences, and His inclinations are our inclinations.
This is very subjective; it is inward, and it requires our cooperation. We need to cooperate with the Lord by turning our heart to Him.
We need to turn especially from merely doing good and rejecting evil to gaining God! We need to pray to the Lord throughout the day, learning to open to Him to gain Him.
We may think certain thoughts and we simply discover that we’re far away from the Lord and our thoughts are evil; we can simply turn to the Lord and ask Him to mingle Himself with our thoughts.
We may have certain feelings that are so strong about something or someone; we can open to the Lord and let Him mingle Himself with our feelings. In all things, may we open to the Lord to gain God and be mingled with God!
Lord Jesus, we want to gain God so that we may be mingled with God and express God! We open to You today. We love You. We turn our heart to You. Amen, Lord, we want to behold You in spirit. We want to gain more of You. Show us how we can gain more of God. Save us from trying to do this or that for You without gaining You. Save us from trying to be a moral, ethical, and upright man without gaining God. Lord Jesus, we come to You and we open to You: we want to receive You into us subjectively! Come in, Lord, and be our life and nature. Mingle Yourself with us until You become our element. May Your thoughts become our thoughts and may Your emotions become our emotions. May Your preferences become our preferences. May Your inclinations and desires become ours. Amen, Lord, we open to You and we come to You to gain more of You! Hallelujah, God wants a man of God filled with Christ! Amen, Lord, may we gain God more today so that we may be mingled with God and express God! Amen!
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 the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Job, msgs. 2-4, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Noah, Daniel, and Job – Patterns of Living an Overcoming Life on the Line of Life to Fulfill the Economy of God (2026 International Chinese-Speaking Conference), week 5, God’s Intention with Job— That a Good Man Become a God-man – day 2.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Thus in life we’re built together, / Then in love we’re knit as one; / God is now His plan fulfilling, / Finishing what He’s begun. / Lord, increase Thyself within us / That we might be built by Thee / Into that great corporate vessel / Filled with God exclusively. (Hymns #1325 stanza 5)
– God’s intention in this universe is with humanity, / So the Lord became the Spirit just with man to mingled be. / We rejoice that we can all partake of His economy. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199 stanza 1)
– I would cease completely / From my efforts vain, / Let Thy life transform me, / Full release to gain; / Build me up with others / Till in us Thou see / Thy complete expression / Glorifying Thee. (Hymns #841 stanza 6)
