We must have a bird’s-eye view of the entire book of 2 Corinthians so that we can see the way to enjoy Christ. Some would answer that to enjoy Christ we need to pray-read the Word and exercise the spirit. This is true, but to really enjoy Christ in a rich way, we must be persons who are symbolized by the ten aspects that we have seen in the preceding chapters. We have to be captives, letters, mirrors, vessels, ambassadors, co-workers, a temple, a virgin, lovers of the church, and tasters of Christ. If we are going to enjoy Christ, we must be captured, conquered, and subdued by Him. Regardless of how much we try to exercise our spirit, if we are not captives of Christ, it will be hard for us to enjoy much of Christ as grace. The exercise of the spirit and pray-reading may not help us much because we are not yet subdued or captured by Christ. We also have to be letters under His writing all the time in the spirit. As mirrors we have to be unveiled from religion with all of its traditions to behold and reflect the Lord. Then we need to be vessels, on the one hand, to contain Him and to receive Him into us again and again, and on the other hand, to be broken, reduced, consumed, all the time. We have to be ambassadors under His authority, representing Him for His interest on this earth, and we have to be co-workers bound together with Him as one. There should be no more freedom and no more separation between us and the Lord. Then we will be a temple, wholly, thoroughly, and ultimately separated unto Him to perfect holiness in the fear of God. We also need to be pure, chaste, and simple virgins to satisfy Him, and spontaneously we will be lovers of the church of which we are members. We will love the church unconditionally regardless of how the church treats us. Finally, we need to be tasters of Christ all the time. By all these aspects, we can enjoy Christ. If we have all these aspects, whenever we exercise our spirit, we will taste Christ. Whenever we pray-read the Word, we will take into us the sweet foretaste of Christ. This is the message of 2 Corinthians.
At the end of this Epistle, Paul wrote, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). The three of the Godhead are one, and love, grace, and fellowship are not three separate matters, but three aspects of one thing. God the Father is in Christ (John 14:10), and Christ is the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 3:17). Likewise, the love of God is in the grace of Christ, and the grace of Christ with the love of God is in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The love of God is the source, since God is the origin; the grace of the Lord is the course of the love of God, since the Lord is the expression of God; and the fellowship of the Spirit is the impartation of the grace of the Lord with the love of God, since the Spirit is the transmission of the Lord with God for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, with Their divine virtues. The fellowship of the Holy Spirit transmits the grace of Christ with the love of God in it into us.
This is why Galatians 6:18 says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.” God is in Christ, Christ is the Spirit, and the Spirit is in our spirit for our enjoyment. God to us is the love, Christ to us is the grace, and the Spirit to us is the fellowship, the transmission, transmitting all that Christ is as grace, with all that God is as love in Him, into us for our enjoyment. All that God is in His trinity is now being transmitted into us for our enjoyment. This is the good land, the rich land, flowing with milk and honey with all the riches of the processed Triune God. These riches for our enjoyment include the love of God, the grace of Christ, and the transmission of the Holy Spirit for our experience.
I hope that we can bring all this fellowship to the Lord in prayer so that we all might be brought into the realization of the riches of Christ in 2 Corinthians. Then there will be a living expression of the Body of Christ in many localities by the experience of Christ. Praise Him! He is the grace as the good land for our enjoyment to produce the temple for God’s rest and the virgin for Christ’s satisfaction.
(Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit, An, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)