Although chapter four of Ephesians covers many matters, the crucial matters revealed in this chapter are the Body, the mingling with the Triune God, life, grace, and truth or reality. This chapter reveals that the Body is mingled with the Divine Trinity. This mingling is a matter of life. To say that the Body is mingled with the Divine Trinity means that the Body is saturated with life, permeated with life, and soaked with life. This life is nothing less than the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In our daily walk, this life is our enjoyment. This is grace. Furthermore, this life is also our reality so that we may have a real living. Therefore, we should not live in vanity; we should live in reality. In the divine life, which is actually the Triune God mingled with the church, we have grace, enjoyment. This life is also our reality. The experience of the divine life as grace and reality is due to the dispensing of the Divine Trinity.
Another diamond in Ephesians 4 is indicated by the word “grow.” The verb form is found in verse 15; the noun form, growth, in verse 16; and the participle form, full-grown, in verse 13. The sonship in Ephesians 1 is a matter of life-dispensing. What is growth? Growth is the continuation of life-dispensing. Life-dispensing began in the new birth, and it continues with growth. This life-dispensing never ceases. When the life-dispensing first reached us, it caused us to have a new birth. Now the life-dispensing continues daily, and as it continues we grow. I am happy to see the saints growing in the churches. This is the growth in life by grace and reality. With the saints in the local churches in the Lord’s recovery there are the enjoyment of grace and also the reality of the truth. Grace supplies, and truth shines. We are under this supplying and shining, and this causes us to grow.
Do not expect to grow in a fast way. If you make artificial flowers, you can produce many overnight. But you cannot produce real flowers overnight. You need to be patient and let these flowers grow. In the churches we should care for genuine growth. I am happy to see that the churches are growing through the dispensing of the divine life.
The growing by the dispensing of life is also the renewing. Verses 23 and 24 say, “And are being renewed in the spirit of your mind, and have put on the new man, which according to God was created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” In these verses there seems to be a contradiction. On the one hand, we are told that we have put on the new man; on the other hand, we are told that we are being renewed. Since we have already put on the new man, why must we be renewed? It is because of the situation in our soul and body that we need to be renewed. Our spirit has been renewed already but our soul and body have not. Therefore, as far as our physical being is concerned, there is the need for renewing.
Where does this renewing take place? Paul tells us clearly that the renewing is in the spirit of our mind. Our mind is the main part of our soul. This indicates that our spirit must spread into the mind of our soul until it becomes the spirit of our mind. Our mind needs to be saturated with the spirit, and it needs to be under the control and direction of the spirit. Our mind should not be the main factor ruling over us; rather, the spirit of our mind should be the main factor ruling, reigning, and directing us in all things.
Since birth, we have behaved ourselves according to our mind. Verse 17 says that the nations walk in the vanity of their mind. As those who love Christ, we should not have vanity in our mind. Instead, we should have the spirit in our mind. Our mind should no longer be full of vanity, but should be saturated with the spirit.
You should never belittle your spirit. When you believed in the Lord Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit entered your spirit and regenerated you with Himself as life. Your regenerated spirit, therefore, is very significant. Because you have not only a human spirit but a regenerated spirit born of God, with the indwelling Christ as your life, you have become a person who is weighty and who has a high standard. We all have a wonderful mingled spirit. This mingled spirit is our inner man. In Ephesians 3 Paul says that we need to be strengthened by God the Father into this inner man (3:16). Now in Ephesians 4 we see that this inner man should spread from our spirit into our mind.
We need to be continually renewed in the spirit that is saturating our mind. This means that we should not think anything without being controlled by the spirit. We must have a mind that is filled and saturated with the spirit. When our mind is saturated with the regenerated spirit it is saturated with the Triune God, who is in our regenerated spirit. This means that our mind is filled with the spirit, which in turn is filled with the Triune God. In this way we are being renewed.
Renewing is equal to growth. Daily we are growing and are being renewed. Both the renewing and the growing are by the life-dispensing of the Triune God. Therefore, we need to contact Him, pray to Him, call upon Him, and have fellowship with Him. We also need to read His Word. By doing these things we stay with Him, and we keep ourselves open to His life-dispensing. While the Triune God is dispensing Himself into us as our life, we enjoy grace and reality, we are being renewed, and we grow.