Romans 12:11 says, “Not slothful in zeal, burning in spirit, serving the Lord as a slave.” This refers to the exercise of the human spirit, the mingled spirit, for the Body life. If we would live the Body life in a practical way, our spirit must be burned and burning, on fire all the time. For the Body life our spirit must be set on fire.
For the Body life we need a body that is presented, a mind that is renewed in the transformation of the soul, and a spirit that is burning. Our whole tripartite being-spirit, soul, body-is therefore included in the Body life. For the sake of the Body life our body needs to be presented, our soul needs to be transformed, and our mind needs to be metabolically changed. Our mind must be renewed, not simply by being taught but by being transformed, having the element of Christ spread into it to produce a metabolic change. The transformation of our soul primarily depends on the renewing of our mind. If we are serious about practicing the Body life, we need to present our body, we need to have our soul transformed, and we need to be burned and burning in our spirit. If we have a heart for the Body life but fail to present our body to the Lord for His Body, we are impractical. However, we may present our body, but our mind may be filled with old concepts, thoughts, and traditions. Such an unrenewed mind is a great problem to the Body. Hence, after our body has been presented, our mind must be renewed. In addition, our spirit must be burning. Suppose, by the Lord’s mercy, our body has been presented and our mind has been renewed, but our spirit remains cold. That will not work for the Body life. After the presenting of the body and the renewing of the mind, we need the burning of the spirit.
We long to see that all the saints in the Lord’s recovery would have three characteristics: a body that has been absolutely presented for the Body life; a mind that has been completely renewed by metabolic transformation in the soul, a mind that is free from worldly, natural, and religious thoughts, wholly saturated with the Lord’s mind and purely for the Lord; and a spirit that is set on fire. If all the saints in the Lord’s recovery are like this, how wonderful the Body life will be.
Both in Romans 8, which speaks of the dispensing of the divine Trinity into the tripartite man, and in Romans 12, which speaks of the Body life, Paul mentions the body, the mind, and the spirit. Paul’s word concerning the body, the soul, and the spirit in these chapters links chapter eight to chapter twelve. This indicates that the enjoyment of the divine dispensing in Romans 8 issues in the Body life in Romans 12. This matter is very experiential. If we do not have the adequate experience of what is revealed in chapter eight and do not enjoy the divine dispensing of the divine Trinity into the three parts of our being, we shall not realize the Body of Christ in a practical way. Rather, the teaching concerning the Body will merely be a doctrine to us, and our talk regarding the Body will be vain. But when we experience and enjoy the divine dispensing in Romans 8, a dispensing that involves our body, soul, and spirit, this experience and enjoyment will issue in the realization of the Body life in chapter twelve. The more we enjoy the dispensing of the Trinity into our tripartite being, the more we desire to be in the Body. The enjoyment of the dispensing of the processed Triune God makes us living members of the Body of Christ in a practical way.
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