Weekly Pursuit – Week 5 of Dec.
Verses:
Col. 1:27-29 “…Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we announce,…that we may present every man full-grown in Christ; for which also I labor, struggling according to His operation which operates in me in power.”
Cor. 2:19 “…holding the Head, out from whom all the Body, being richly supplied and knit together by means of the joints and sinews, grows with the growth of God.”
Ministry Excerpts:
In Colossians 1:28-29 Paul told us that he labored, struggling according to God’s operation in all wisdom, to present every man to God full-grown in Christ. That indicates that to bring one sinner to God perfected in Christ is not a simple thing. For this we need to labor and struggle, not foolishly but with the exercise of all wisdom. (The Practice of the Church Life according to the God-ordained Way, p. 136)
If we would present others full-grown in Christ, we must minister Christ to them as the portion of the saints (Col. 1:12). The Christ we minister must be the all-inclusive One, the centrality and universality of God’s economy (1:15, 18-19, 27; 2:4, 9, 16-17; 3:4, 11). If we do not experience Christ in a full way, we shall find it difficult to minister Christ to others. For example, if we do not experience living by Christ, we cannot help anyone else to live by Christ. But if in our daily living we live Christ, grow Christ, and produce Christ, we shall spontaneously infuse Christ into others as we contact them. The more we take Christ as our life and our person, the more we shall be able to minister Christ to others. Having become those who experience Christ and live by Him, we shall influence others to do the same.
Experientially and practically, to hold the Head is to enjoy Christ as the reality of all positive things. The result of holding the Head in this way is that we become Body-conscious. Whatever we enjoy of Christ is related to Him as the Head. This is why, when we enjoy Christ, we are actually holding the Head. We enjoy Christ as food, drink, Sabbaths, new moons, and feasts. But the Christ we enjoy in all these aspects is the Head who causes us to become conscious of the Body. The One we enjoy is not only Christ to us; He is the Head of the Body. Therefore, the issue, the consequence, of enjoying Christ and holding Him as the Head is Body-consciousness. (Life-study of Colossians, pp.130-133, 498)
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