There is a sequence of verses in 1 Corinthians that show us clearly that God wants us to just enjoy Christ, and He has given us such a simple way that we may enjoy Him! Here are the verses that I was impressed with:
- In 1 Corinthians 1:2 we see that, based on His economy, God has given Christ to us to be our portion, and now we can simply enjoy Christ as our unique portion by calling on His name! This Christ is “theirs and ours” – it is the portion given to us by God. What we do is that we call upon His name – we are those who call upon His name in every place together with those who from a pure heart call and enjoy His grace!
- In 1 Corinthians 1:9 we see that God is faithful – He called us into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. This means, simply put, that God called us into the enjoyment and participation of the very person of Christ as our portion! Fellowship means mutual enjoyment, mutual participation, communion – we enjoy Christ as our portion, and Christ enjoys us as His portion! Again, the most simple way for us to enjoy Christ, to fellowship with Him, is to call on His name!
- In 1 Corinthians 6:17 Paul gives us the secret of our experiential enjoyment of Christ – he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit! The way for us to experientially enjoy the Lord is by Him as the Spirit in our spirit. Christ has been processed and consummated, and today He is the Spirit; we also have a human spirit, and these two spirits have been mingled / intertwined at our regeneration! We enjoy the Lord in this fellowship / oneness with Him, in our mingled spirit! We enjoy the Lord by being one with the Lord in our spirit.
- In 1 Corinthians 10:16 we see that Christ has been processed and consummated to become “the cup of blessing which we bless” and “the bread which we break”. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, has been slain, prepared, processed, “cooked”, to be the body and the blood on the table, ready for us to eat. He is available today as food for our enjoyment – we daily eat of Him, and at the Lord’s Table Meeting we declare to the whole universe that God is good for food, and He is our enjoyment daily! This fellowship also refers to the believers’ communion in the joint participation of the Lord’s blood and body, not only one with one another, but also one with the Lord. By eating of the same bread and drinking of the same cup, we become one in what we eat and drink – and we participate in Him. We are one with Christ and we are one with one another. We, the partakers and the participants, make ourselves identified with the Lord in the fellowship of His blood and body.
There are so many other verses in the book of 1 Corinthians that show us that Christ has been given to us as our portion for our enjoyment. Even with all the problems the saints in Corinth had or we may have, the only solution is for them and us to enjoy Christ! When we enjoy Christ, we have fellowship with Christ and fellowship with one another – we are one with Christ and we are one with one another!
This fellowship eventually consummates in the fellowship we have around the Lord’s Table, where we eat of the one bread and drink of the one cup – we declare our oneness with the Lord and with one another. We all enjoy this same wonderful Christ, we partake of Him, and He enjoys us – He enjoys His being constituted and deposited into us! Our partaking of Christ makes us His Body, His unique expression on the earth!
He passed through all the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection – so that He may become available to us as food and as drink! As we eat and drink of Him, He becomes one with us and we become one with Him – we become one with the food we eat! He even becomes us, and we become Him! And since we all eat of this same Christ that was given to us by God, we become one with one another! We all look like Christ – because we all eat Christ! [enjoyment from the Life-Study of 1 Corinthians]
Lord, today, keep us enjoying You! You are our food and our drink! Thank You for becoming our portion, Lord – our enjoyment! Thank You for joining us as one spirit with You – such a wonderful organic union! Lord, in this one spirit we just want to enjoy You! You are our real food and our real drink, our real life supply! Keep us enjoying You, dear Lord Jesus!
