As believers in Christ, we need to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ as righteousness, faith, love, and peace; Christ is our righteousness and Christ is our faith, and we pursue Him with all those who call on Him out of a pure heart.
In order for us to be a vessel unto honor, we need to open our vessel to the Lord on one hand, and pursue Christ as righteousness, faith, love, and peace together with the saints.
First of all, our vessel is important; before we do anything, we need to take care of our vessel.
God did not create us to be an instrument or tool in His hand for Him to do this or that in us or through us.
He created us as vessels. We are vessels of mercy, for the Lord had mercy on us.
We are vessels unto honour, for the God of honour has come into us, and because He’s in us, we are honourable vessels.
Even more, we are vessels unto glory, for the treasure within us is full of glory, and we are being conformed to this treasure in our daily life. Hallelujah!
If we see we are a vessel, we will realize that all we need to do is open to the Lord.
We need to open all the inner parts of our being to the Lord for Him to come in, fill us, saturate us, and do everything in us and through us.
We are not an inanimate object, a dead vessel; rather, we are a living vessel, and we have many thoughts, emotions, feelings, opinions, decisions, intentions, etc.
These pose a problem to the Lord’s flowing in us and filling us, for we may not open them to the Lord.
We need to learn to open our whole being to the Lord.
God doesn’t want us to first do something for Him; rather, He just wants to gain our vessel to be open to Him.
If we are open to the Lord, He can dispense Himself into us and He can fill us.
It is only when He fills us and saturates us with Himself that we can live Christ and express Him.
May we realize we’re a living vessel open to the Lord, and may we constantly keep our vessel open to Him!
Especially as He shines on us through His word, exposing many dark parts in our being and bringing to light many things He does not agree with, we should learn to say Amen to the Lord’s shining and speaking.
We simply need to agree with His light shining in us and on us, and He will do what He needs to do in us and through us.
If we just open to the Lord, if we maintain our vessel open to Him, he can come in to do what is in His heart, and He will fill us to the brim.
Oh, may the Lord gain us as open vessels to Him today!
Pursue Christ as Righteousness: Our experience of Christ rests on the Foundation of God’s Righteousness
According to 2 Tim. 2:22, we need to pursue Christ as righteousness; the first item on the list of things we should pursue is righteousness.
As we live in an age of degradation and decline, we need to be those who flee youthful lusts on the negative side and, on the positive side, pursue Christ as righteousness, faith, love, and peace together with the saints who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
A governing principle in our Christian life should be pursuing the experience of Christ and the enjoyment of Christ (Phil. 3:12).
Like the Apostle Paul, we need to leave everything else behind and pay the price to pursue Christ by enjoying Him and experiencing Him, even to be found in Him.
When we pursue Christ, we will realize that He is our righteousness. Our experience of Christ rests on the foundation of God’s righteousness, the unshakable foundation of God’s throne (Psa. 89:14).
Our God is not only holy in His nature but even more, He is righteous in His acts and in His ways.
Holiness is related to God’s inward nature; righteousness is related to His outward acts, ways, actions, and activities.
Everything God does is righteous, for He is righteous in His very nature.
The righteousness of god is what God is in His action with respect to justice and righteousness.
In all the things He does, God is just and right; whatever God is in His justice and righteousness constitutes His righteousness.
God’s ways are His governing principles and His works are His acts; in all these, He is righteous.
Thank the Lord that our God is a righteous God!
Because of the redemptive work of Christ, God is bound by His righteousness to forgive us when we repent and believe into the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah!
Because of what the Lord has accomplished on the cross, we can appeal to God’s righteousness to be forgiven; all our sins are forgiven! Praise the Lord!
God’s righteousness requires Him to receive us, forgive us, and even forget our sins after we repent and believe into the Lord Jesus.
God’s righteousness binds Him to receive us because of what Christ did on the cross. Our experience of Christ rests on the foundation of God’s righteousness.
We need to pursue Christ as righteousness, realizing that God is righteous and all He does is righteous, and our experience of Christ rests on the foundation of God’s righteousness. Amen!
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of God’s throne, and lovingkindness and truth go before His face.
Righteousness means that we are right with God and with man.
If we would be those who carry out God’s dispensing for the building up of the local churches as the expression of Christ, we must pursue Christ as righteousness.
We need to seek and pursue to be right with God and with man.
Many times we realize we are not right with the Lord, and even we are not right with others.
As we interact with others, we get offended and we offend others, and we get upset with others.
Sometimes we may even not look at someone or say amen to their prayers, though they are in our small group, because we are not right with them.
We need to come to the Lord daily, pursue Christ as righteousness, and take Him as our righteousness for us to be right with God and with man.
When we contact the Lord and pursue Christ as righteousness, we will apologise to those we have offended, and we will seek to be right with God and with man in all things.
Lord Jesus, we want to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ as righteousness in our daily life! Hallelujah, our God is righteous! Amen, Lord, You are righteous in all Your ways and acts. You are righteous in Your governing principles and in everything You do. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne. Amen, Lord, according to Your righteousness You came to die for us so that You may fulfill all of God’s righteous requirements! Hallelujah, now Christ is our righteousness by repentance and faith into Him! Amen, Lord, we believe into You. We repent and confess our sins, and we take You as our righteousness. We want to pursue Christ as righteousness in our daily living. Lord, make us right with God and with man. May we be those who apologise to others when we offend them and seek to be forgiven when we’re not right with them. Oh Lord, how much we need You as our righteousness! Make us righteous in all our ways, our acts, and our deeds!
Pursue Christ as Faith by Exercising our Believing Ability to Enjoy Christ and be One with Him
![Establishing the souls of the disciples, exhorting [them] to continue in the faith and [saying] that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. Acts 14:22 Holding faith and a good conscience, [concerning] which some, thrusting [these] away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith. 1 Tim. 1:19](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Establishing-the-souls-of-the-disciples-exhorting-them-to-continue-in-the-faith-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Establishing the souls of the disciples, exhorting [them] to continue in the faith and [saying] that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. Acts 14:22 Holding faith and a good conscience, [concerning] which some, thrusting [these] away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith. 1 Tim. 1:19")
In order for us to pursue Christ as faith, we need to realize that in the New Testament faith bears two denotations – objective and subjective.
In the objective denotation, faith refers to the entire revelation of the New Testament concerning the person of Christ and His redemptive work (Acts 6:7; 14:22; Rom. 16:26; 1 Cor. 15:14; 1 Tim. 1:19b; Jude 3, 2).
This is the faith that saves us; when we believe into the revelation in the New Testament concerning the person and work of Christ, we are saved. Hallelujah!
In the subjective denotation, faith refers to the act of believing (Luke 18:9; Mark 11:22).
On one hand, we need the objective faith, the shining of the gospel on the person and work of Christ; on the other hand, we need to exercise our believing ability to enjoy Christ and apprehend all His riches.
By faith we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him (Gal. 3:26; John 1:12-13; 2 Pet. 1:4).
Faith is quite amazing; we are not born with faith, and faith doesn’t come naturally.
Rather, faith rises up in us as we hear the word of the gospel and something of Christ is infused into us.
When we hear about the wonderful person and great work of Christ, something rises up in us; there’s an appreciation of this wonderful Person.
Faith is actually the element of Christ that is infused into us to enable us to believe into Him.
When we were sinners, we did not have faith; however, when we heard the word of the gospel, we repented unto God, and the Spirit came to sanctify us (Acts 16:31) and impart faith into us.
Faith came into us by our hearing of the word of God (Rom. 10;17).
The more we hear about Christ, the more we read the Bible and see the wonderful person of Jesus Christ, the more we appreciate Him, love Him, and are organically joiend to Him.
Faith involves an organic union by contacting God through the Word and in the Spirit.
This is what we need today, to pursue Christ as righteousness and also as faith, for He links us to God and makes God real to us in our experience.
Instead of pursuing a great work or doing many big things for God, we should pursue being one with the Lord and remaining in the organic union with the Triune God.
May we be those who pursue Christ as faith by exercising our believing ability to enjoy Christ and be filled with Him.
Everything we do in our Christian life should be in the organic union with the Lord. Christ is our faith.
He is not only our faith initially when we believe into the Lord Jesus; we need to constantly be under the hearing of faith in the Word of God so that faith may increase in us.
When we feel that we don’t appreciate the Lord Jesus and lack in faith, we need to come to Him in His word.
We need to simply pray and open to the Lord, and then read the Bible; spontaneously, faith rises up in us, for there’s an appreciation toward the Lord Jesus that joins us to Him in an organic way.
By faith in Christ, we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression (John 3:15; Rom. 12:4-5).
As we believe into the Lord Jesus, as we pursue Christ as faith by exercising our believing ability to be joined to Him and enjoy His riches, we are put into Christ to become the members of the Body of Christ. Amen!
Genuine faith is Christ Himself infused into us to become our ability to believe in Him; after the Lord Jesus has been infused into us, He spontaneously becomes our faith (Heb. 11:1, 3; 12:2). Amen!
May we be those who pursue Christ as faith day by day, being under the hearing of faith in God’s word, and exercising our believing ability to enjoy Christ and partake of His riches!
Lord Jesus, we want to pursue You as our faith. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are born of God through faith in Jesus Christ to be the sons of God! Amen, Lord, by faith we are partaking of the divine life and nature to express God. We exercise our spirit of faith to believe into You. We come to You in Your word to be infused with faith. Oh Lord, we do not have faith in ourselves, but place ourselves under the hearing of faith day by day. We want to pursue Christ as righteousness and also as faith. Praise the Lord, by faith in Christ we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body! Amen, Lord, as Your members we share in all Your riches. We open to You, Lord; infuse us more with Yourself. Infuse us with the believing ability so that we may believe into You and partake of all that You are! Lord Jesus, we take You as our faith. We believe into You! We exercise our believing ability to believe into the Lord and we choose to remain in the organic union with the 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 the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 273-274, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Being a Vessel unto Honor, a Fully Equipped Man of God, by being Empowered in the Grace which is in Christ Jesus to Fully Accomplish our Ministry in the Unique Ministry of God’s Economy (2024 April ITERO), week 6, Being a Vessel unto Honor, and Pursuing Righteousness, Faith, Love, Peace with Those Who Call on the Lord out of a Pure Heart.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– 2 Timothy 2:22: Flee Lusts and Pursue Christ, via, Bibles for America blog.
– Magnifying Christ in the Midst of Turmoil, via, Shepherding Words.
– Making us God’s righteousness in Christ, a portion from, Truth Lessons, Level 2, Vol. 3, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
– Following the Star out of Jacob led me to the Lord and the Church Life, via, Living to Him.
– God’s Christ – My Righteousness, article via, Affirmation and Critique.
– A Vessel unto Honor, Pursuing Righteousness, Faith, Love, Peace, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– Our need to persecute Christ, a portion from, The Experience of Christ, Chapter 20, by Witness Lee.
– How Christ Becomes Wisdom to Us from God as Righteousness, Sanctification and Redemption, via, Holding to Truth in Love. - Hymns on this topic:
– We praise Thee for Thy righteousness; / Thy justice, Father, we confess, / And fully testify. / Thou art the judge of all mankind, / In Thee injustice none can find, / Nor wrong to Thee apply. / O holy Father, righteous One, / Thy righteousness upholds Thy throne, / ’Tis a foundation sure. / ’Tis through this righteousness of Thine / That reigns in Christ the grace divine, / And peace we thus secure. (Hymns #21 stanzas 1-2)
– All I have in Adam is but sin and death, / I in Christ inherit life and righteousness; / When in flesh abiding, Adam I express, / But when in the spirit Christ is manifest. / When I am in Adam, though I may not sin, / Unto death, a sinner, sentenced I have been; / When in Christ I need not righteously to act, / I’m already righteous, justified in fact. (Hymns #593 stanzas 1-2)
– Given us, given us, God has given us / Precious faith, power divine, greatest promises. / We believed, we received, now we have all three; / By these we may grow unto maturity. / Precious faith in each saint, precious equally, / Precious faith holding us, holding ceaselessly. / Disagree or agree, still it holds us fast, / Day by day, eternally this faith shall last. (Hymns #1211 stanzas 1-2)
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![For if we have grown together with [Him] in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be [in][ the] [likeness] of His resurrection. Rom. 6:5](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/For-if-we-have-grown-together-with-Him-in-the-likeness-of-His-death-indeed-we-will-also.jpg?fit=178%2C100&ssl=1)
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 1, “Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans,” pp. 273-274
We need to flee youthful lusts and pursue Christ as righteousness, faith, love, peace together with all those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart!
Thank the Lord for being righteousness itself; we can enjoy Him as our righteousness, stand on His righteousness, and have Him as our lived-out righteousness.
Christ is also our faith; our believing into Him is a reaction to His attraction.
He’s the most wonderful One, and when He appears to us, we are attracted to Him and react by believing into Him.
Amen, yes, Lord.we want to pursue Christ as righteousness, faith, love, and peace together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Thank you, Lord, for the body.
Amen. We love you Lord. Thank you your word is spirit, we open to you Lord
Amen brother.
Can there be a better way of living than to pursue righteousness, faith, love & peace?
God’s very nature of righteousness issues in His righteous acts, ways, actions & governing principles.
Faith is Christ Himself entering into us to be our faith and also our appreciation of Jesus’s beauty.
Amen! Not having righteousness which is out of law but righteousness out of God and based on faith. Thank you Lord for being our lived righteousness
Amen, Lord thank You for another day to be filled with You, we like to stay open to You. Lord, come in!
Amen. Lord Jesus, we want to pursue Christ as righteousness and faith with all the saints!
When we read the Bible and had Christ preached to us there was a response in us, a reaction to His attraction.
Our believing into Him originated from His faith infused into us as we heard the word.
He is the object of our believing – this is our objective faith – and He is our believing ability – our subjective faith.
Praise the Lord! 🙌😃🙋🏼
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08/28/24 Being a Vessel unto Honor and Pursuing Righteousness, Faith, Love, Peace with Those Who Call on the Lord out of a Pure Heart (Week 6, Day 3)
“In Order for Us to Become Vessels unto Honor, We Need to Pursue: (Part 1) (a.) Righteousness, which is Related to God’s Outward Acts, Way, and Activities, (b.) Faith, which Bears Two Denotations – Objective and Subjective Faith”
Some Christians believe that after they are saved, they just remain passive and think that from then on, they just fully depend on the Lord’s grace without doing anything. This concept is wrong. After we are saved, that is, being regenerated in our spirit, we need to be active-passive in order for us to become vessels unto honor. We need to be active in pursuing the Lord, in breathing in and breathing out the Lord by reading and praying His Word, and exercising our mingled spirit, then, passively allowing the Lord to operate within us in dealing with our negative elements and in saturating His life into our inner being.
Today, the Lord is in His word, which is outside of us, and He is the Spirit, Who is inside of us. God has not given us a spirit of cowardice but of power, and the Lord is with our spirit. We need to realize that all Scripture is God-breathed and we need to be nourished with the words of the faith and of the good teaching of the Scrioture. The emphasis in 1 and 2 Timothy is on our spirit and the word. We must exercise our spirit to touch the Lord’s words.
We need to actively pursue the Lord in His Word outwardly and by our mingled spirit inwardly. In Philippians 3:12, Paul clearly says, “I pursue.” In 2 Timothy 2:22, he says, “Flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” All four items—righteousness, faith, love, and peace—are the Lord Himself. Hence, to pursue these four items is to pursue the Lord.
Second Timothy 2:22 explicitly says that we should pursue and that we should pursue with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. It is the same with pray-reading. When five or six people come together like coals burning one another, it is easy to be burning. First Timothy 6:11 again speaks of pursuing, saying, “You, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, meekness.” In these epistles, Paul speaks of the need to pursue at least three times.
The first item that we need to pursue, according to 2 Timothy 2:22, is righteousness. God is not only holy, but He is also righteous. Holiness is related to His inward nature, whereas righteousness is related to His outward acts, ways, actions, and activities. God’s way of doing things is always righteous; He never does anything unrighteously. Whatever God is in His justice and righteousness constitutes His righteousness.
The second item that we need to pursue is faith. The word faith bears two denotations:
1.) Objective faith ~ the things the believers believe in (Eph 4:13; 1Tim 1:19b; 2Tim 4:7), and
2.) Subjective faith ~ the believing action of the believers (Gal 2:20).
Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” When someone preacged to us the gospel, concerning the Lord Jesus, what we heard was not yet faith. Rather, what we heard was the message of the gospel, the preaching of God’s outward word. Apart from hearing the gospel, it would not have been possible for us to receive faith.
The faith of the believers is actually not their own faith, but Christ entering into them to be their faith. Faith comes from hearing the word of God. When somebody preached to us the gospel, the word concerning Christ, this word infuses something into us who hear. When we hear the word, which is something of Christ, particularly, concerning His redemptive work, we begin to see the things concerning Christ, and we appreciate Him. Hearing equals seeing and seeing equals knowing Christ.
Our knowing of Christ causes us to appreciate Him and believe into Him. Our outward objective faith thus becomes our inward subjective faith. This faith is actually Christ infusing Himself into our regenerated spirit in order for us to believe into Him. This is the faith that would sustain us in our entire Christian life. But this subjective faith needs to grow into our inner being by the growth in the divine life through our constant eating, drinking, and breathing of His Word.