We all need to learn to have no concepts in the Lord’s recovery. Our only concept should be Christ. We need to allow Christ to saturate our being, occupy our being, and replace all our concepts. This is not easy. The young people may not say much in the meetings, but their talk outside the meetings shows that they are full of concepts. Not long after I was saved as a young person, I came into the church life. The first lesson the Lord taught me in the church life was that we need to have no concepts and care only for Christ and the church. We need to learn to drop our concepts and care only for Christ in everything. In our daily life, our marriage life, our family life, our school life, and especially our church life, the solution to every problem is Christ. In our “dictionary” there is only one word, Christ, with a footnote, and the church. If we care only for Christ and the church, we will be under the Lord’s blessing and on the line of His economy every day, always enjoying life, peace, and grace. In our private talk, in our prayer, and in the meetings, we should speak of nothing but Christ and the church.
In this chapter we will consider two terms found in the two Epistles to Timothy: God’s economy and godliness. We will first consider the term God’s economy. The word economy is commonly used today as a financial term. The biblical word economy refers to a dispensing administration, an administration that dispenses something into people (1 Tim. 1:4). In a kindergarten class at a certain time every day there is an administration to dispense a snack to every child; this is a dispensing administration. The word economy is the anglicized form of the Greek word oikonomia, which denotes an administration or stewardship to dispense something. In ancient times large, wealthy families had a steward to take care of the family affairs. The stewardship was an administration mainly for dispensing things to the members of the family.
God has a great family. All His chosen people are the members of His family, His children. Second Timothy 2:20 says that God has a great house. In His great house, His great family, there is a stewardship. Paul was entrusted with this stewardship, as were all the other apostles (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 3:2; Col. 1:25). Those who minister the word to the children of God today also have a part in this stewardship. Thus, the stewardship is the New Testament ministry. In the New Testament there is only one ministry, and this ministry is the stewardship in God’s house, that is, the divine administration to dispense something to God’s chosen people. What is being dispensed is simply God Himself in His Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In God’s economy, His household administration, the Triune God is being dispensed into His children. In God’s house there is a stewardship, an administration, to dispense the Triune God into us. The Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit reaches us. In this way the Triune God is being dispensed into all His chosen people. This is the definition of God’s economy.
The word godliness is used nine times in these two Epistles (1 Tim. 2:2; 3:16; 4:7-8; 6:3, 5-6, 11; 2 Tim. 3:5). Also, the word godly occurs twice (1 Tim. 2:10; 2 Tim. 3:12), and the word ungodliness is used once (2:16). Therefore, godliness is an important word. However, very few Christians know that the proper definition of the term godliness is God manifested in the flesh, or the manifestation of God in the flesh. This definition is based on 1 Timothy 3:16, which says, “Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, / Justified in the Spirit, / Seen by angels, / Preached among the nations, / Believed on in the world, / Taken up in glory.” Verse 15 says that the church is the house of the living God and the pillar and base of the truth. Verse 16 indicates that the church is God manifested in the flesh, or the manifestation of God in the flesh. Some may think that to say that the church is God manifested in the flesh is heretical. Most Bible scholars do not realize that 1 Timothy 3:16 reveals that the mystery of godliness is God manifested in the church; they think that this verse refers only to Christ. However, because taken up in glory is the last phrase in verse 16, it must refer not only to Christ’s ascension but also to the church’s rapture, for Christ’s ascension preceded His being preached among the nations. This proves that God’s being manifested in the flesh refers not only to Christ but also to the church, His Body.
If the head is something, the body must be the same thing. Christ, the Head, is the manifestation of God in the flesh; therefore, the church, His Body, also must be the manifestation of God in the flesh. First Corinthians 14:24-25 says that when the church is meeting properly, if an unbeliever enters, he will say, “Indeed God is among you.” Whenever the church comes together properly, God’s presence is there—God is manifested in the flesh.
In 1 Timothy 3:16 the manifestation of God in the flesh is called the mystery of godliness. Godliness is a mystery because it is real and living yet invisible. When unbelievers come into a church meeting, they may consider it to be quite mysterious, not understanding why a group of people are singing, shouting, and giving testimonies concerning their personal experiences. Some relatives of the saints have asked them, “Why do you go to that meeting place several times every week, always on time and always for several hours? What is there? Is there some entertainment?” Many unbelievers do not understand this mystery, but often when people come into a meeting, they realize that God is there. The church is God manifested in the flesh, the mystery of godliness.