In the church life we all have three main functions: serving, testifying, and loving; we serve the Lord, we testify of His resurrection life which we experience, and we love Him and pour out everything on Him.
This is our experience and our testimony in the church life, and this is what we also see in John 12: Martha served, Lazarus testified, and Mary loved the Lord.
These three in John 12 are not separate functions of three different people – they each represent a function which we all should have in the church life. In the genuine church life today we all need to be serving, testifying, and loving – serving the Lord in spirit, testifying of how sweet and wonderful He is, and loving Him to the uttermost.
For us to be such ones, we need to have the Lord’s light that we may have a thorough change in our concept of value, so that we may continually choose Christ and all that He is as our super-excelling portion (see Mark 9:7-8; 2 Cor. 2:10; 4:7; 1 Pet. 1:8).
God delights in Christ; His affection, attention, economy, heart’s desire, plan, and purpose are all centered on Him.
What about us? The unbelievers do not consider Christ as being anything, and many times they take His name in vain.
But as believers in Christ, we need to ask the Lord to grant us the light to have a thorough change in our concept of value, so that we may choose Christ continually, and we would consider Him and all that He is as our portion.
Valuing Christ as the most Precious One, Choosing Him, and Treasuring His Words
On one hand, the believers in Christ are the most normal human beings, for they are becoming Jesusly human, living Christ in their humanity; on the other hand, the system of values that the believers have is far superior and totally different from the one unbelievers have.
When we believed into the Lord, we not only received the divine life in our spirit, but our value system has changed; as we get to know the Lord, read His word, and spend time with Him and with the saints, our system of values becomes more like the Lord’s, and we no longer treasure or value what we used to – but we value what the Lord does.
We realize that Christ Himself is the preciousness to us – He is the most lovely One, the most wonderful One, and He is our life, our food, our air, our everything!
We no longer despise the cross or consider it as foolishness, but we treasure the cross, we love it, and we want to experience Christ in His crucifixion, for we realize that the cross is the power of God unto salvation.
As believers in Christ, we value God’s kingdom and His righteousness more than our daily necessities; we do our best to take care of our daily needs, but we seek first the kingdom of God, for our focus is not on anything or anyone on this earth, but on God’s kingdom, which is the church life today (Matt. 6:32-33).
We do love our father, our mother, our sisters and brothers, and our children, but the Lord Jesus is more precious than any of our relatives; we choose the Lord above all, we love Him supremely, and as we love Him and give ourselves to Him, He in us loves our relatives and wants them to get saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth (Matt. 10:37-38).
We realize that we are in this world – but we are not of this world, and we treasure our soul in comparison to the world; we do not sell our soul for the momentary pleasure or for the world, but we learn to deny the soul life and the soulish enjoyment in this age so that we may gain it in the next (Matt. 16:26; 4:8-11).
We love and care for our human body before the Lord, knowing that it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but we consider that sin is very serious, and we deal severely with our body so that we may not sin or suffer the consequence of sin, for we love the Lord and we care for His feeling toward sin (Matt. 18:8-9).
We love all the brothers and the sisters, and we refuse to “be above them” or be considered as leading ones; rather, we learn to serve one another just as Christ served us, and we treasure the position of being a slave to God and to the saints for the sake of Christ (Matt. 20:25-27).
We love the Lord very much, and we consider Him as the treasure of justice; we would rather stand with righteousness and justice than have any earthly treasure if we were to lie, and we pray to the Lord to be one spirit with Him (Job 22:23-28).
We look forward to the unseen reward and, like Moses, put aside any temporary enjoyment of sin so that we may gain this reward, considering the reproach of Christ more precious than anything this world has to offer us today (Heb. 11:24-27).
Like Paul, we all learn to consider everything as loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, for we treasure Him supremely, we love Him to the uttermost, and our earnest desire is to gain Him, be gained by Him, be found in Him, and be one with Him (Phil. 3:7-8).
How much we need the Lord’s light that we may have a thorough change in our concept of value, so that we may choose Christ continually, considering Him and all that He is as our super-excelling portion!
If we treasure the Lord and consider Him as our excellent portion, the Lord will consider us as His mouth, and His words will be in our mouth.
We must treasure the Lord’s words even more than our apportioned food, tasting the Lord in His word as the reality of the good land flowing with milk and honey.
The Lord’s words are sweet to our taste, and we treasure them more than our food, for we can taste the Lord in His word as the reality of the good land flowing with nourishing milk and fresh honey to dispense to God’s people for their full salvation (see Job 23:12; 1 Pet. 2:2-5; Psa. 119:103; Exo. 3:8; Deut. 8:8; S.S. 4:11a).
Oh, how we must treasure the Lord’s words more than all the earthly riches, so that we can speak oracles of God to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ as the varied grace of God (see Psa. 119:72, 9-16; Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 6:10; 1 Pet. 4:10-11).
The way Christ becomes the most precious and valuable one is by us reading His word and treasuring His word; here, in the word of God, we are infused with Christ to be a serving, testifying, and loving person, a normal believer having God’s system of values
Lord Jesus, grant us the light to have a thorough change in our concept of value so that we will continually choose Christ and all that He is as our super-excelling portion! We want to be those who bring out the precious from the worthless, so that we may be as Your mouth. Lord Jesus, we love You, we treasure You, and we treasure Your words. We treasure Your words more than our food, for in Your word we can taste You as the reality of the good land flowing with nourishing milk and fresh honey! Oh Lord, cause us treasure Your words more than any earthly riches, so that we can speak oracles of God to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ as the varied grace of God!
Being those who are Serving, Testifying, and Loving the Lord in the Church Life
We all need to have these three basic functions in the church life: we need to be serving, testifying, and loving. When people come among us, they need to see people who serve the Lord, testify of His resurrection life which they experience, and love Him to the uttermost.
If we are normal believers, growing in life in a normal way, experiencing Christ daily, enjoying Him in His word continually, and meeting with the saints constantly, we will be a triangular member of the church – we will be Martha-Lazarus-Mary, those who serve the Lord, testify of His resurrection life, and love Him to the uttermost.
We shouldn’t think that we need to let other serve the Lord in practical matters, and we should just be like Mary, sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to His words….We should not think that it is others’ portion to serve practically and love the Lord, while our portion and function is just to testify without words of His resurrection life…
Rather, we all should be triangular members of the church who are serving, testifying, and loving in the church life. We all need to serve the Lord in the church life, being diligent to carry out the service which is being assigned to us, and doing this without any murmuring or criticizing.
At the same time, we need to seek to experience Christ’s resurrection life, realizing that He is everything to us, He does everything to us, and He is the One who can enliven us.
This will cause us to feast with Him and on Him, together with His loving seekers, and we will simply be His testimony – others will see resurrection life testified in us.
At the same time, however, we need to be those who love the Lord to the uttermost, treasure His words immensely, and pour out everything we have most precious on Him.
Our testimony in the church life should be that we are those serving, testifying, and loving – we serve the Lord and the saints, we testify of His resurrection life which we experience, and we love the Lord and pour ourselves out upon Him.
When others come among us, they should have the clear impression that we all serve the Lord, we all testify of our experience of Him, and we all love Him.
In the genuine church life, the service to the Lord is rendered, the testimony of the Lord is seen, and the love toward the Lord is poured out.
In the church life as the house of feasting we have the saints serving the Lord in oneness and sweet coordination, the saints testifying of what they experienced of Christ as resurrection life, and the whole house is filled with the sweet fragrance of our pouring out everything we have on the Lord out of love for Him.
Here we can enjoy the Lord with other saints, the Lord can dwell and feast with us, and He is expressed through us.
Lord Jesus, we want to be those who are serving, testifying, and loving the Lord in the church life as a house of feasting with the Lord and all the saints. We want to be diligent serving the Lord, bearing a living testimony of the resurrection life of the Lord, and pour out our absolute love upon Him in the church life. Amen, Lord, gain such a church life where all the saints serve You in oneness diligently, testify of the resurrection life they are experiencing, and love You to the uttermost.
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 John, pp. 306-307 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Genuine Church Life (2017 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3, The Issue of Life — the Church Life as a House of Feasting for God’s Building.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Dearest Lord, I waste myself upon Thee; / Loving Thee, I’m deeply satisfied. / Love outpoured from hidden depths within me, / Costly oil, dear Lord, I would provide. (Hymns #1159)
# Lord, how we treasure Thy value, / All that Thou art is for us; / While here in loving remembrance / We share Thy wealth glorious. (Hymns #199)
# Lord there’s none in heav’n nor on earth / That I desire but Thee. / Though my heart and flesh faileth, Lord, / Thou ever my portion will be. / All is vanity, all is dung; / I count all other things loss; / Everything else drains my love / But You have captured my heart. / Lord, I’ve seen Thy preciousness, / Thy worth, Thy reality. / Now, my Lord, I must confess / My heart is only for Thee. (Song on, Mary poured out her love offering)
About aGodMan
We all must be a triangular member of the church. We must have three corners. In the past I heard some sisters say to me, “Brother, I am not a Martha. By the Lord’s mercy, I am just a little Mary.” Once a brother who was very living said to me, “Brother, in the church some are Marthas and only a very few are a Lazarus. By the Lord’s mercy, I am just a Lazarus. I can do nothing. I just sit here testifying of the Lord Jesus.” I doubt that he was a real Lazarus. We all must be Martha, Lazarus, and Mary. When someone asks you your name, you should reply, “My name is Martha-Lazarus-Mary.” This is the proper name for us all to have.
Such a church is the result and issue of the Lord being life to us. Chapter 12 of John is the issue of chapter 11. This kind of service, testimony, and love comes out of the Lord being resurrection life to us. With these functions, there is the genuine church life. In the real church life, the service to the Lord is rendered, the testimony of the Lord is seen, and the love toward the Lord is poured out. Here we can enjoy the Lord with other saints, and the Lord Himself can dwell, rest, and feast in satisfaction. This is the real expression of the Body of the Lord, which is a vessel to contain the Lord and to express Him. (Life-study of John, pp. 306-307, by WItness Lee)
Amen Lord Jesus we love You. We want to be saturated, permeated by You by living in our mingled Spirit and taking You as our Person all the time. We want to be Martha-Lazarus-Mary. Strengthen us in our inner man that we are able to overcome the strategems of the devil and be your corporate expression on this earth. Lord Jesus cause always to live and overcoming life and experience the reality of the Body of Christ.
Amen! Lord Jesus, we want to be those who are serving, testifying, and loving You in the church life as a house of feasting with You and all the saints.
Praise the Lord ! We serve You in oneness diligently. Amen
Praise the Lord! This kind of service, testimony, and love comes out of the Lord being resurrection life to us. Amen
Amen. Thank you Lord Jesus. My name is Martha-Lazarus-Mary. In the church, I can render a spiritual service, free from religious duty, love outpoured from hidden depths within me for the Lord and experience the one who is Resurrection life. Amen
Thank you lord,You are the resurrection life, Amen
Amen. Service, testimony, and love.
We have much treasure, both old and new, our clear view of the Old Testament revelation, and it’s reality in the New Testament, and our old, and new experiences of CHRISTS perfect life in us all, Halaleujah and Always AMEN.. AMEN LORD JESUS.
Amen por estos tres items maravillosos que completan nuestra vida de Iglesia-Cuerpo
what is loss to my flesh is riches unspeakable to my soul:
[In Philippians 3:7-8] we see that Paul also had a change in his concept of value. What things were gains to him, these he counted as loss on account of Christ. Why was Paul able to reject the things that were gains to him? He was able to consider them as loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Paul reckoned the Christ whom God had anointed as Lord, as King, and as the most excellent One. For His sake he suffered the loss of all things and counted them as refuse. This is the kind of change in valuation that happens to a Christian.
Finally, we want to conclude with the words of Jeremiah 15:19 which tell us that if we bring out the precious from the worthless, we will be as God’s mouth. If we cannot tell the proper value of things, God will reject us and cast us aside. He requires that we bring out the precious from the worthless so that we can be His mouth. We have to see the importance of such a change in concept of value. May the Lord grant us the light to have a thorough change in our concept of value so that we will know to choose the most excellent portion. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 60, p. 395)