Learning Christ and being Kind and Tenderhearted to One Another for the Church Life

In the church life as a living in the Body of Christ we need to experience the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity and we need to arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God by growing in life unto maturity.

Furthermore, we need to beware of the winds of teaching, discerning the intrinsic factor of the winds of teaching for their purpose.

We need to closely follow the apostles teaching and remain in the apostles fellowship, emphasizing nothing else but God’s economy, Christ and the church. This will make us one and will safeguard us in a proper church life as a living in the Body of Christ.

Today we want to see how in the church life as a living in the Body of Christ we all need to learn Christ (Eph. 4:20). There’s no real spiritual benefit to always be reminded “What Would Jesus Do” right now in my situation – this is an outward reminder, something of Christianity, with no spiritual reality.

What we need to do is to learn Christ – not just to learn about Christ but to be molded into the pattern of Christ.

Why did the Lord Jesus live for 33.5 years before He died to accomplish redemption for us? If He came mainly to accomplish redemption, He could have accomplished it quicker than that. The Lord Jesus lived for thirty-three and half years to set up a model, a pattern of how a God-man should live.

Today all the believers in Christ are being conformed to the pattern of Christ, living the same kind of life as He did.

This doesn’t mean that we should outwardly take His pattern and imitate Him without having any spiritual reality. Rather, we learn from Christ according to His example not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection.

This means that in the church life we live out Christ as reality and we enjoy Him as grace to be supplied to live Christ. Even though the enemy, the devil, is always seeking an opportunity to gain an advantage over us to damage us, we need to learn Christ by living not by our natural life but by the life of God and in the Spirit.

Practically, in the church life, we need to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgiven us (see Eph. 4:32).

We need to Learn Christ, being Molded into the Pattern of His Death and Conformed to His Image

In the church life as a living in the Body of Christ, the one new man, we all need to learn Christ. Christ is not only our life within but also our example, our pattern.

He set up a pattern through His living on earth as revealed in the Gospels (John 13:15), and now we need to follow in His footsteps, taking Him as our pattern (1 Pet. 2:21).

We learn from Him (Matt. 11:29) by living not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection. To learn Christ is to be molded into the pattern of Christ’s death, that is, to be conformed to the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).

The reason Christ lived a normal God-man life on earth for 33.5 years was so that He would establish a pattern, a model of how a God-an should live.

He denied Himself, He didn’t live by Himself, He did the Father’s will, He chose to please the Father, He did the Father’s work, He came in the name of the Father, and He did nothing for or by Himself.

There are four Gospels to describe the biography of this God-man from four different aspects: as a king, as a slave, as a man, and as God. We learn Christ not by merely learning about Him or studying Him but by being moulded to His pattern, by following the pattern that He came to establish for us.

In His life He set up a pattern (see the four gospels), and then He was crucified to become the life-giving Spirit so that He might enter into us to be our life (2 Cor. 2:2; 15:45b; Rom. 8:10; Col. 3:4).

Christ became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us; we can follow His pattern and imitate Him not by outward performance or activity but by allowing the life of Christ to be formed in us, taking Him not only as our life but also as our pattern so that we may be learn Christ.

All the believers in Christ need to learn from Christ according to His example, not to copy it in their natural life with their natural strength and zeal but to live out Christ by Him as their life in resurrection (John 11:25; 1 John 5:11-12).

After believing into Christ we were baptized into His death; Christ’s death is like a mold, and we are put into this mold through baptism; now day by day we need to live in the death of Christ.

Paul bore in his body the brands of Jesus: outwardly, these were the scars and wounds he suffered in his following Jesus, and spiritually, these were the characteristics of the life Jesus lived on earth.

Today in the church life as a living in the Body of Christ we need to learn Christ who is reality and grace (John 1:14; Eph. 4:21, 24, 29). Reality is the truth, the principle, the pattern, the standard; we have been placed into Christ as reality, the pattern, and we need to stay in this pattern to live out Christ as reality.

As members of the Body of Christ, we are learning Christ as the reality is in Jesus (Eph. 4:20-21). We have been put by God into this mold, and now we live the same kind of life that Jesus lived on earth by learning Christ.

How can we live such a life? Not by outward imitation or performance but by enjoying Christ as our supply, our grace. In order to live out the reality in Jesus we need grace; today Christ is the Spirit of reality to be enjoyed by us as grace and to guide us into all the reality!

Inwardly we have the life of God supplying us and growing in us, and we are connected to God to receive the fresh supply of His life in spirit.

The devil, however, is a negative factor: he always seeks an opportunity to gain an advantage over us and to damage us; we should not give place to the devil but always stay connected to Christ and enjoy the life of God, being one with this living in reality displayed in Jesus’ living under the sealing ointment of the Spirit.

Lord Jesus, we take You as our life and as our pattern. We want to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus. Thank You for being not only our life within but also our example. Your God-man living and Your death are a pattern for us to be moulded and conformed to. Lord, for the sake of the church life as a living in the Body of Christ, may many saints be conformed to Your image, follow in Your footsteps, and be moulded to Your death by the power of resurrection! May many believers learn Christ and live out the reality in Jesus by being inwardly supplied with grace!

Maintaining the Church Life by being Kind to One Another and Forgiving One Another

The church life as a living in the Body of Christ is wonderful: all the saints are full of God’s life and they live out Christ as reality by enjoying Christ as grace.

In Ephesians Paul writes concerning such a high vision of the church as the Body of Christ and the one new man constituted with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and living out the reality in Jesus.

At the end of all this, he adds some verses concerning being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ has forgiven us (Eph. 4:32).

In order for us to maintain the church life as a living in the Body of Christ, the one new man, we should be kind to one another. This is not something in the realm of human ethics, being nice and kind to others; this kindness is the expression of the divine reality being lived out in us as a human virtue.

We need kindness toward one another. Sometimes we are too rough to others; we are quick to react, and we are not nice when we talk to others. We may be joking, but our speaking can be too rough and even cruel toward our brothers and sisters.

In order to live the church life and maintain our living in the Body of Christ we need the kindness which is an expression of the divine attributes lived out in our human virtues.

We need to be tender-hearted, full of compassion, having our heart full of tenderness toward one another. This means that we need to have the inward parts of Jesus Christ, realizing that we are members one of another in the Body of Christ.

Only the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply and as our joy can make our hearts tender and full of compassion. This is the God-man living being expressed as the divine reality through us to become our human virtues of kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiving one another.

We easily offend others and we are offended very quickly; therefore, we need to forgive others and ask for forgiveness. We shouldn’t hold grudge but forgive others, and we shouldn’t let others be offended with us but ask for forgiveness.

If we are filled with the divine reality to become our human virtues, we will be full of forgiveness in the church life. When we enjoy Christ and are touched by how God in Christ forgives us, we will also forgive others with God’s forgiveness. May we practice to maintain the church life as a living in the Body of Christ!

Lord Jesus, we want to practice maintaining the church life as a living in the Body of Christ by being kind to one another and forgiving one another. Lord, keep us enjoying You as our life and life-supply, and be our joy continually that we may have a tender heart toward the saints. Fill our heart with Your compassion and tenderness, and cause us to realize that we are members one of another in the Body. Lord, may we take Your inward parts as our inward parts toward the saints, being tender-hearted, full of compassion, kind to one another, and forgiving one another!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, msgs. 48-49, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 5 / msg 5, Crucial Experiences in the Practice of the Church Life (2) – Aspects of the Church Life as a Living in the Body of Christ, the One New Man (you can buy this morning revival book here).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # “Consider Him,” let Christ thy pattern be, / And know that He hath apprehended thee / To share His very life, His pow’r divine, / And in the likeness of thy Lord to shine. (Hymns #656)
  # Mold me, shape me, Lord. / Be my reality. / Even break my heart, / If it has to be. / I’m desperate, Lord, that You would have Your way with me. / Others could touch You then through me. (Song on being molded in Christ)
  # Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, / Holy and beloved, / Inward parts of compassion, / Kindness, lowliness, / Meekness, long-suffering; / Bearing one another and forgiving one another, / If anyone should have a complaint against anyone; / Even as the Lord forgave you, / So also should you forgive. (Scripture song)