To be a co-worker or an elder, first, we must know Christ. In Philippians 3:10 Paul spoke about knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. To know Christ is not a simple matter. I want to fellowship with you concerning how to know Christ mainly in four items. The co-workers and elders must know these items. Not only must you know them, but also you must know them thoroughly and be able to speak them to others. To know Christ is not to know Him in a common way but to know Him in a particular way. The riches of what Christ is, are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8), but among them, there are the four following items which we need to know in particular.
First, we must know particularly that Christ is both God and man. We should not think that we already know this. We need to be reminded again and again that Christ is both God and man. He was God and He became man, so He is both God and man. Thus, He is a God-man.
Second, we need to know that since Christ is a God-man, He possesses both divinity and humanity. Some may say, "We also know this already." Maybe we know, but we do not know how to speak it. Concerning the divinity and humanity of Christ, we must have a thorough knowledge.
Third, we have to know that in His humanity Christ accomplished His judicial redemption through His death. To know Christ, we have to discern clearly that His being in His humanity is one thing and His being in His divinity is another thing. Concerning the redemption of Christ, the general saying is that Christ was a man with blood and flesh, so He could die for us in His flesh. The deeper way, however, is to say that Christ accomplished redemption in His humanity. We should not remain only in the general saying; this is an indication that our knowledge concerning Christ is not deep enough. We must penetrate the deepest part of the divine truth to see the intrinsic significance of Christ in His humanity.
(How to Be a Co-worker and an Elder and How to Fulfill Their Obligations, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)