The work we do for the Lord as a result of the Lord’s measuring and His judging is not something outward and it may also not be something “big”, but it is something related to life.
The flow of life in us causes us to be sowers sowing the seeds of life, planters planting Christ into people, waterers with the water of life, begetters through the gospel, feeders with spiritual nourishment, and builders with precious materials. All these statuses are seen in 1 Corinthians, and today we were enjoying the last three: begetters, feeders, and builders.
Begetting others through the gospel
To beget is a matter of life – it is to generate something, to bring forth life, to bring forth something through the imparting of life. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Cor. 4:15, In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
By imparting the divine life into others we beget them through the gospel and we become “spiritual fathers” who beget spiritual children! For this, we need to have the “divine life germ” to impart the divine life into others so that they may be begotten as children of God (John 1:12-13).
Feeding others with spiritual food
We should not only beget others the divine life as spiritual fathers but we should also feed others with spiritual food as spiritual mothers. To feed others does not mean to give them teachings, but to impart spiritual milk (1 Cor. 3:2) and spiritual nourishment to them to feed them.
To do this, we ourselves need to feed on Christ daily and regularly in order to produce spiritual milk to “feed our spiritual children”. We need to have genuine experiences of Christ as life, feeding on Him and enjoying Him, so that there would be a nourishing element flowing out of us to feed others.
The church life is the proper family life with spiritual fathers begetting children through the impartation of life and spiritual mothers taking care of the children by feeding them with spiritual food.
We do not focus only on preaching the gospel to beget children, but we also focus on being spiritually strong and healthy so that we may produce spiritual milk to feed the new believers. The unique way to practice the church life as a proper family life today is through the genuine experience, enjoyment, and ministering of life.
Building with precious materials
Paul speaks of himself in 1 Cor. 3:10-11 as, “a wise master builder” who laid the unique foundation – Christ – and others build upon it. The work of sowing, planting, watering, begetting, and feeding helps the believers to grow in life, and Christ grows in the believers. As the believers grow in life day by day, at the same time they are being transformed (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 12:2).
The growth in life issues in transformation – as we grow as plants on God’s farm, we experience transformation and are being produced as gold, silver, and precious stones fit for the building of God’s house (Rev. 21:1-3).
For us to build with gold, silver, and precious stones, we need to be constituted with the divine nature of the Father as gold, the redemptive work of Christ as the silver, and the transforming work of the Spirit as the precious stones.
We as builders need to become these precious materials in order to build others with them and help them also become precious materials. We need to be transformed to be precious materials by being daily constituted with the Triune God, and we will be built into the house of God. Then we will be qualified to build the house of God with other believers as the transformed materials…
[sharing inspired very much from, The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1970, vol. 1, pp. 577-583 (there is so much more in the ministry about these matters), as quoted in Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Four Great Pillars in the Lord’s Recovery.]
O, Lord, increase the flow of life in us to such an extent that we become those filled with the divine germs to beget others through the gospel! May the gospel be our living and our normal Christian expression. Lord, be the One in us imparting life to others as we speak to them. Make us the feeders, those who experience You in a solid way to produce spiritual milk for feeding others. Lord, make us builders, those who are transformed into precious materials to build the house of God!
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