GOD’S DESIRE THAT WE LIVE CHRIST
Dear saints, be deeply impressed that Jesus Christ is your life. God does not want you to improve your behavior; He wants you to live Christ. He does not want you to begin loving your wife and no longer hate her; He wants you to live Christ. As you live Him, you will love others. Whatever you are doing, God wants you to live Christ. Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) and “to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). To me to live is not love. It is not humility. It is not frankness or kindness. To me to live is Christ. Christ is our life; He must become our living.
We need to pray in a definite way. “Lord, I want to live Christ. Keep me in Your Spirit so that I never forget that You are my life. When I am about to lose my temper, remind me that You are my life. When I am about to love someone, remind me that You are my life. When I am about to act in a humble way, remind me that You are my life. When I smile, remind me that You are my life.”
This must be our prayer not just once but over and over again. Before we begin our day, we should tell the Lord, “Remind me during the whole day that You are my life. In dealing with my children, or in dealing with my parents, I want to take You as my life. I know You do not want me to try to improve my behavior. Your desire is to have Yourself lived out of me. Keep this before me all day long whatever I am doing. O Lord, remind me that You are my life!”
THE MEANING OF FELLOWSHIP
When I was young, the word fellowship used to puzzle me. In Chinese the word was usually translated fraternity, a kind of social brotherhood. Gradually, due to our influence in the Far East, the word fraternity has largely been dropped, and now the word used is fellowship.
The Greek word for fellowship means mutual participation or communication. According to the New Testament revelation, like in 2 Corinthians 13:14, it can be likened to the term transmission, which is used for electricity and means a sending back and forth. When the electric lights in the ceiling are turned on, the electricity flows into them. When the lights are turned off, the current stops. Though the electricity is still there, the transmission has ceased. The electric current is the transmission of electricity from the power plant into this building. It goes back and forth.
Fellowship is like this. It is not merely friendly contact with others, as in a fraternity. It is instead a powerful, dynamic transmission from one place to another and then back to the original place. We have Christ in us as life. When this life functions, it is fellowship. Life corresponds to electricity; fellowship corresponds to electric current. Electric current is simply electricity itself in motion. Fellowship is nothing less than Christ Himself as life moving within us.
“God is faithful, through Whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). This fellowship into which we have been called is simply Christ Himself moving within us. While Christ remains in us, He is life. When He moves in us, He is the fellowship.
(The Mending Ministry of John, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
