For us to live a holy life, a life that befits our priesthood, we need to contact the perfect Christ, enjoying Him and experiencing Him day by day, and live a life with no mixture.
We need to live a life without mixture, not mixing our living by the life of God with living by the flesh, the word of God with the word of the world, and the church life with the practices of the world.
God wants us to live a holy life as His holy people, and for this He sanctifies us by dispensing Himself into us as our life and nature, and He also gives us His word to show us what kind of living we should have to match His holy nature.
God gives us Christ, the all-inclusive One, to be the reality of the good land for us to live a holy life for the church life. However, if we enjoy Christ yet do not live Him, it we eat the Lord yet live a defiled and unholy life, He will cut off from the enjoyment of Christ, and our fellowship with Him is interrupted.
The good land vomited out the tribes living in it because they were living an unholy and defiled life.
If we enter into the possession of Christ as the good land yet we are lukewarm, not hot for the Lord and cold toward the world, we are in danger that the Lord would spew us out of His mouth, that is, cut us from the enjoyment of Christ and the fellowship of the Body of Christ. Oh Lord Jesus!
We need to enjoy the Lord Jesus in a fresh way every day, and in our fellowship with one another we need to partake of Him and share Him in a fresh, new, and living way.
Just as the peace offering was not to be eaten the second or third day, so we cannot partake of the Lord in a stale way, neither should we have a stale fellowship, otherwise we will be abominable in the Lord’s eyes.
Our enjoyment of Christ as the peace offering should be kept fresh, for our stale fellowship with one another and with God is not acceptable but abhorrent. We should live in newness or life and serve the Lord in newness of spirit.
Our living should be in the freshness and newness or the Lord’s life, enjoying Him in a fresh and new way day by day, and our serving Him should be in the freshness of our mingled spirit.
Even in writing this blog, in sharing Christ with one another and in our fellowship, I need to be reminded not speak of the Lord in an old or stale way, but be fresh, new, and living.
This means that we need to exercise our spirit all the time to touch the Lord, and our living should be with no mixture but filled with Christ, the One who lives in us and perfects us to live a holy life for the church life.
Living a Holy Life by Having no Mixture in our Living, Speaking, and Conduct
When speaking to His people concerning the holy life that they should have as God’s holy people, God mentioned a very important aspect: no mixture.
In Lev. 19:19 we see that God didn’t want His people to breed their cattle with a different kind, sow their field with two kinds of seed, and wear garments made of two kinds of material.
This refers to the fact that God didn’t want His people to live in mixture – He wanted them to live a holy life by having no mixture in their living, in their speaking, and in their conduct.
The fact that no mixture was allowed means that God wants everything to be according to its kind, without any kind of mixture (see Gen. 1:11, 21, 24-25). For example, when breeding cattle, there had to be no mixture; this means that life is not allowed to be mixed.
We as those living by the life of God must not live by the flesh (see Gal. 5:16-17). To live by the life of God on the one hand and by the flesh on the other hand is a mixture; such mixture is not acceptable to God.
We have in us the flesh lusting against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh, for they oppose each other; they are antagonistic to each other. The Spirit is working in us that we would not do the works of the flesh or do the desires of the flesh, and we need to cooperate with the Spirit and live a life of no mixture.
Sowing seed without mixture signifies that the ministry of the word is not allowed to be mixed; this means that the word of God which we minister should not be mixed with the word of the world (see 2 Cor. 2:17; 1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Tim. 1:3-4).
Paul warned us that many adulterate the word of God for profit; they weaken the word, bringing down the strength of the word of God for their own profit, for them to be accepted and gain something material. Oh Lord Jesus.
What we need to do is, out of sincerity, as out of God and before God, we should speak in Christ; when we speak, we need to let the Lord speak in us, and we should speak the Lord’s word by being in the Lord and having no ulterior motives or expectations.
Making a garment without mixing materials signifies that our conduct is not allowed to be mixed; we who live a life according to the New Testament should not live by the ordinances of the Old Testament (Gal. 2:19-20; 5:1-6), and we who belong to the Lord should not live according to the customs of the Gentiles (see Lev. 20:23; cf. Eph. 4:17; Rom. 12:2a; 2 Cor. 6:14—7:1).
This speaks of the fact that we should have no mixture in our living or conduct.
Paul tells us clearly that we should not be dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers; we need to realize that we are the temple of God, where He dwells and lives. He is our God, we are His people, and we should not touch what is unclean; God is our Father, we are His sons and daughters.
We need to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, and we need to perfect holiness and godliness in the fear of God.
Especially when it comes to choosing who to marry, we need to not think that we will save our spouse if he/she’s not saved; it is easier for an unbeliever to pull us down from faith than for us to bring someone to believe into the Lord, for by marrying an unbeliever we become unequally yoked together.
We need to bring this before the Lord and tell Him,
Dear Lord Jesus, we love You, and we want to live a holy life in the church life by having no mixture in our living, our speaking, and our conduct. We want to live only by the spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh; we want to cooperate with the Spirit so that we may live a daily life in the mingled spirit and not in the flesh! Lord, may our speaking be in You and out from You, and may we seek to gain nothing else but Your smile when we minister the word. Oh Lord, may our living be not according to the customs of the nations but according to the mingled spirit. Save us from being dissimilarly yoked with unbelievers. We want to be cleansed from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness and godliness in the fear of God!
Living a Holy Life by Contacting the Perfect Christ and Experiencing Him Daily
The conclusion of this entire week on the topic of, Chosen to Be Holy with a Holy Living to Express the Holy God and Become the Holy City (based on Lev. 18—20) is that we need to live a holy life by contacting the perfect Christ and experiencing Him day by day.
As human beings we cannot live a holy life; rather, we are full of defects, weaknesses, and deformities, but when we come to the Lord and contact the perfect Christ, enjoying and experiencing Him day by day, He will perfect us and make us complete and properly balanced.
As believers in Christ, we are priests of God – we are holy priesthood, a royal priesthood, and our responsibility and privilege is to serve God.
However, as seen in Lev. 21, if we have a defect, a blemish, then this disqualifies us from doing the priestly service.
There’s a footnote in the Recovery Version that really helps us concerning this,
The various defects listed in vv. 18-20 have the following significances: Blindness signifies a lack of sight for seeing because of the shortage of Christ as the enlightening light (cf. John 8:12). Lameness signifies the lack of strength for acting because of the shortage of the strengthening Christ (cf. Phil. 4:13). A disfigured nose signifies the lack of Christ as the sensing ability in our service to God (cf. S.S. 7:4b). Having one limb longer than the other signifies overstepping and overtouching outside of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 10:13). A broken foot or hand signifies some part of our being that is not complete in Christ (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Being a hunchback signifies having the sight that is able to see only the things on earth, not the things in heaven, because of the lack of the experience of the heavenly Christ (cf. Col. 3:1-3). Being a dwarf signifies the lack of the stature of Christ in the growth in life (cf. Eph. 4:13). A defect in the eye signifies the sight in spiritual things that is not perfect because of the lack of a full view of Christ (cf. Acts 18:24-28). Eczema signifies some expression that is abnormal in life, making oneself feel uneasy and making others feel bad, because of the lack of the Spirit of Christ (cf. Phil. 1:19-20). Scales signify something that causes oneself to be uncomfortable and in its appearance bothers others, because of a lack in living Christ (cf. Phil. 1:21a). Crushed testicles signify that the spiritual reproductive function is damaged because of the serious lack of the experience of Christ as life (cf. John 15:5). (Lev. 21:18, footnote 1 on, defect, Recovery Version)
We may enjoy Christ, eat Him as the food of God, yet we may have a defect, a blemish; this will disqualify us from serving God in the church, God’s sanctuary, or around the cross of Christ.
Anyone who is defiled and doesn’t cleanse himself, he still can eat the Lord Jesus as his food, but he is not qualified to serve God in the church. This is such a warning to us.
In so many ways we may be defiled, having a shortage or defect, and lacking in Christ, and this will disqualify us from serving Him, but we can still come to Him and enjoy Him.
The only way we can be complete, perfect, and properly balanced as holy people of our holy God, living a life with no mixture, is by contacting the perfect Christ to enjoy Him and experience Him day by day.
Only Christ can make us complete and perfect, and only He can make us properly balanced. Then, we will have all the qualifications required for us to serve as priests in the New Testament age.
Lord Jesus, we come to You to contact You as the perfect Christ; we come to enjoy and experience You, so that You may perfect us and make us complete and properly balanced, with no defect and no mixture in our daily living. Lord, only You can be a holy person expressing a holy God, and only You in us can serve God as priest. We want to live a holy life that befits our priesthood, a life with no defect, no mixture, and no lack. We come to You, Lord, to contact You, enjoy You, and experience You as the One who can live such a life in us. Perfect us, Lord, that we may be a holy and royal priesthood.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 50-51 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 7, Chosen to Be Holy with a Holy Living to Express the Holy God and Become the Holy City.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Will you be an overcomer, / Simple, real, and pure? / Overcome all evil mixture, / Ruling pow’r secure. (Hymns #894)
# Lord, we are mixed but hardly know; / To us this mixture fully show. / Each added thing we will refute / Until we’re wholly absolute. (Hymns #1274)
# All is in Christ; / God’s dear Son is Lord of all. / Jesus Christ is life’s perfection, / Perfect love and perfect light. / Son of God, the true reflection / Of the Father’s radiance bright….Now in Christ I find abundant / Victory and strength and power. / Savior, come and live in me, / Come and make me rich in Thee. (Hymns #515)
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