The Lord Jesus as the High Priest walking among the lampstands takes care of the churches by speaking to them. He trims the charred wicks and He adds the oil.
Just as the priests did in the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus makes sure that the churches are shining bright for God’s testimony by speaking to them to remove anything that is burnt and old (any natural thing, any religion, etc) and to add the oil (the Spirit).
Christ knows the particular situation of each local church and He speaks to them in particular a word that would first reveal who He is (to meet the need of the church), what they are, what their problem is, and how they can gain the Spirit as the oil to have some overcomers in the church.
In particular in Rev. 2:9 we see that the Lord is trimming away the religion – the Jewish religion. We may say that we are not keeping the Jewish traditions and regulations, but in the light of the Lord’s word we need to admit that today’s Christianity has been Judaized.
People “go to church” to worship God, just as the Jews went to the temple or the synagogue to worship God. Christians have a lot of laws and regulations and traditions that govern their living, just as the Jews have the law with the Old Testament regulations to govern their daily living.
In Christianity there is a class of people who is considered “the priests”, or “pastors”, and it is mainly them who function in serving God – just as the Jews have their priests who “represent them before God” and function for them. Finally, in Christianity today there’s much promise of earthly and human blessings, even a “gospel of prosperity”, just as the Jews have a lot of promises concerning being blessed by God if they obey His law.
Even more, in the church life we may have some concepts of going to a special place to worship God; we may live our life according to some self-made spiritual and ethical laws; we may consider a certain group of brothers or “serving ones” as the priests who should function; and we may expect certain physical and outward blessings from God.
May the Lord expose religion and “trim this charred wick” from our being and from all the churches!
The Lord’s Speaking Trims the Lampstands and Adds the Oil
In Revelation chapter 1 we see a vision of the glorious Christ who, in this age of the degradation of the church, is the Son of Man as the High Priest, walking among the local churches in order to know their situation and care for them in His humanity and nourish them in His divinity.
In Revelation chapters 2 and 3 we see how the Lord cares for the churches – it is by His speaking. In the Old Testament the priests had to snuff the charred wicks of the lampstand (Exo. 30:7) and then supply them with oil (Exo. 27:20). After burning for a while, the wicks of the lamps would become charred, no longer burning bright, and they needed to be cut off, trimmed. Also, oil is needed for the lamps to burn bright!
Through His speaking to the seven churches in Rev. 2-3, the Lord Jesus trims the charred wicks and He supplies them with oil so that the local churches would shine brighter for the testimony of Jesus. In the church life today we get trimmed by the Lord from all the natural things, and He also fills us with His Spirit!
We need to cooperate with the Lord and be priests like Him, in reality and actuality, by being filled with God, saturated with God, possessed by God, and living absolutely for God so that we may infuse others with God! Our living and behavior needs to be Christ (as our priestly garment), so that Christ would be lived out of us to be our glory and beauty.
Christ is the High Priest trimming us and adding the oil, and we can cooperate with Him by seeking to be visited by Him, filled with Him, and saturated with Him! Everything we do in the church has to be in and by the Spirit with our spirit. We may even want to pray,
Lord fill me with Yourself! Lord, saturate me with the Spirit! I want to be possessed by You! I want to live absolutely for God so that I may be able to infuse others with God! Cut away anything that is natural and is burnt – anything that You consider it shouldn’t be there because it releases an unpleasant odour….and add the oil! Lord, fill us with God as the liquid golden oil that we may shine bright as the testimony of Jesus!
Religion Needs to be Trimmed Away!
One of the first things that the Lord desires to trim away is religion. In Rev. 2:9 we see, “the synagogue of Satan”, which shows that in the church dispensation this symbol of Judaism became the synagogue of Satan. We love the dear Jewish people, but we hate anything of the Jewish religion that has saturated the fabric of today’s Christianity!
Today’s Christianity has been Judaized, and even though there are many differences between Judaism and Christianity, yet in many ways today’s Christianity is merely a religion saturated with the elements of Judaism. Even in the church life we can be touched by thoughts and concepts of religion – and the Lord desires to trim those away so that we may shine bright as His testimony!
There are at least four main elements of Judaism that have saturated Christianity (and even affected us in the church life today):
1. The temple. In Judaism there is a material temple as a place of worship where God’s people need to go and worship God. In Christianity today many people go to “church” as a specific place where they can worship God.
But in the word of God we clearly see that our body is the temple of God, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are one spirit with the Lord, and we need to worship God not in a particular outward place but in spirit and in truthfulness (see John 4:24; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16).
In Judaism and degraded Christianity the place of worship is different and outside from the worshiper, but in the church the place of worship is the worshiper! The Father is seeking true worshipers, those who worship Him in spirit and in truthfulness.
Even in the church life today, we need to be delivered from the fallen concept that only in the meetings we can enjoy the Lord. If we do not daily exercise, care for, and use our spirit, we are in the principle of Judaism and the degraded Christianity.
We are God’s dwelling place in spirit (Eph. 2:21-22), and God dwells in us. We don’t have to go to a special place (called “the church” building) to worship God; we need to turn to our spirit! “Church” means the people called out by God, those bought with His precious blood to be His people. Daily we can and we should contact God in spirit, and when we meet we get together to contact God in spirit more!
2. The law. In Judaism there are certain laws, a standard of principles for daily living, written on tablets of stone and known by everyone. Many Christians have the things in the Bible as their own law, and some have their own man-made law, very moral and ethical. Even in the church life we may have our own spiritual and according-to-the-bible-and-the-ministry law, a set of principles that govern our living – yet devoid of Christ.
But in the church the Holy Spirit is our indwelling law of life inscribed in our hearts (see Heb. 8:10). There’s no outward law or code of conduct in the church; the law of the Spirit of life is within us, written on our hearts, operating in us all the time (see Jer. 31:33; Rom. 8:2).
Christ today is the automatic, spontaneous, and unconscious law of life operating in all the believers in Christ as they turn to Him, contact Him, and breathe Him in. Christ in us as the law of life that regulates our conduct, shapes us to conform us to the image of Christ, and constitutes us into the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions.
We don’t need to abide by some set of rules or commandments; we simply need to turn to Christ within and enjoy Him as the law of life operating in us automatically, spontaneously, and even unconsciously. His life in us will regulate us, conforms us to His image, and constitute us into the functioning members of the Body of Christ.
3. The priests. In Judaism there is a “class of people” who mediate between God and man, the priests. In the degraded Christianity today there is also a class of people, the clergy, that is “ministering” to the lay people. There are bishops, reverends, pastors, missionaries, apostles, and all kinds of “special members” of the Body who function on behalf of others.
In the church life we may also have the concept that it is the portion of the older and more mature ones to function, and we can just “sit and enjoy” the meeting. But the Bible clearly says that we ALL are laboring priests of the Gospel of God (Rom. 15:16). We all are a holy and royal priesthood (Rev. 1:6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
There shouldn’t be anyone who “mediates between us and God” or who tells us what to do in the church – we all can function! The best meeting and the best church life is when all the members function. We are all singers – we all sing to the Lord from our heart, making a joyful noise before Him. We are all priests to God, those who spend time with God to be infused with Him and minister God to man!
We are priests to be possessed and saturated with God. God desires that all His people would be priests, those who function toward God and man in their measure. Each member of the Body has a vital and necessary function in the Body, and no matter how young or old we are, how inexperienced or experienced we are, we can all function!
4. The earthly promises. In Judaism there are worldly promises and earthly blessings for which the law-keeping Jews struggle daily. In Christianity there’s a pervading teaching of the “feeling good” gospel, the prosperity gospel, the gospel that says that God wants to bless you and give you things to make you happy and content.
But in the New Testament we clearly see that in the church we have heavenly and spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus – God blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph. 1:3), and blessing of Abraham – which is the Spirit – comes to us who believe (Gal. 3:14). The Lord promised us that our portion today is persecution and suffering (Matt. 16:24), and His kingdom and reward are not in this age.
The Lord is our health, our wealth, and our blessing. He blesses us with Himself, and the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity is the greatest blessing for the believers today (Num. 6:26-27; 2 Cor. 13:14). As the Lord blessed us with Himself, so we should bless one another with the Triune God in His dispensing – we should speak Christ to one another!
In conclusion, this is what Paul says in Rom. 2:28-29, He is a not Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is of the heart, in spirit, not in letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God.
We are not “outward people” but “inward people” – the circumcision is of the heart (by taking up our cross and following the Lord), the law is inward (it is the law of life), the temple is our being and we worship God in spirit and truthfulness, we all function organically in the measure of life, and our blessing is the Triune God Himself!
Lord Jesus, release us from any form of religion! Trim the natural and religious concepts in us. Make us the true worshippers of God, those who worship God the Spirit in spirit and truthfulness. Keep us breathing You in and contacting You as the Spirit that You may operate in us as the inward law of life. May we function in our measure in the priesthood of the gospel. Lord, You are our unique blessing, and apart from You we want nothing else. Recover us fully from any form of inward or outward religion to Yourself as the living One!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 47 (The Orthodoxy of the Church, ch. 3), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 5 / msg 5, Christ’s Heavenly Priesthood Ministered to the Churches for the Producing of the Overcomers.
- Hymns on this topic:
# It is God’s intent and pleasure / To have Christ revealed in me, / Nothing outward as religion, / But His Christ within to be. (Hymns #538)
# Baptized in the Holy Spirit, / In the Spirit we’re immersed; / All the church is born of Spirit, / All religion is dispersed. / In the Spirit, in the Spirit— / Brothers, this is all we need. / Now the church must be in Spirit, / Not in teaching, form, or creed. (Hymns #1123)
# Will you be an overcomer? / Testimony bear! / Keep away from false religion, / “Hidden manna” share. (Hymns #894)
# We have been many years in religion, / We have been many years in our mind, / We have been many years in emotions, / Always seeking, but never to find. / Now we’re learning to turn to our spirit, / Now we’re learning to take Christ as life; / Now we’re learning to feed upon Jesus / And be freed from all struggling and strife. (Hymns #1141)
