We have briefly considered five metaphors used by Paul in 2 Corinthians. Now we need to consider what is the issue, the result, of the experience pictured by these metaphors. The issue is constitution in life.
We have received the divine life, and God’s intention is to work this life into our entire being. When we were regenerated, God wrought this life into our spirit. Now God is seeking to spread His life from our spirit, the center of our being, into our soul and even into our body. We may compare our spirit to the hub of a wheel, and our body to the rim. God has wrought His life into our spirit as the “hub,” and now He is spreading this life through the “spokes” of the soul to the “rim” of the body. Then the entire “wheel” will be saturated and permeated with the divine life. This is what it means to say that we are constituted of life. Chapters two, three, and four of 2 Corinthians speak of such a constitution of life. Throughout the centuries, the majority of believers have failed to see the matter of constitution of life.
This constitution of life is also the constitution of the ministry. We should not think that we only need the constitution of life and do not need the constitution of the ministry. Every believer needs both the constitution of life and the constitution of the ministry. Every believer has life, and every believer should share in the ministry. This is the reason we encourage all the saints to function in the meetings. To function is to carry out our ministry.
Ministry is equal to service. Therefore, to minister is to serve. We may carry out our ministry by giving a testimony or by praying. As we testify and pray, we minister to those in the meeting. Sometimes a prayer renders more service than a testimony does. Do not think that you have no ministry. Speaking, testifying, and praying are all aspects of the ministry.
Ministry requires constitution. Just as our spiritual life needs a constitution, so our ministry also needs a constitution. Actually, we cannot separate ministry, or function, from life. Life always functions. There is no such thing as a kind of life that does not function. We may use a fruit tree as an illustration. As a fruit tree grows, it will blossom and bear fruit. However, if a fruit tree does not grow, it will not function. If it does not grow, it will not blossom or bear fruit. We may say that the blossoming and fruit-bearing of a fruit tree is its function, its ministry. Do you know what fruit trees are doing as they are growing? They are functioning, ministering. But apart from growth, fruit trees cannot minister.
Growth indicates life, and life needs to reach maturity. The more we mature, the greater will be our measure of life. The greater our measure of life is, the more we shall be able to function.
Suppose a certain brother learns the Bible only in a doctrinal way without growing in life. What kind of function will he have? His only function will be to teach the Bible in a theological way. He will not be able to function as a captive in Christ’s procession or as His incense-bearer. Furthermore, he will not be able to function by writing letters of Christ. Since he does not have the growth in life, he does not have the function that depends on life. This illustrates the crucial point that we cannot separate ministry from life.
You should not say, “I am not an apostle or an elder. Since I am neither an apostle or an elder, my only need is for life; I do not need to have a ministry.” On the contrary, you need to have both life and ministry, and in these three chapters both life and ministry are covered.
In these chapters of 2 Corinthians, we see not only the matter of constitution but also the matter of transformation. In 3:18 Paul clearly speaks of our being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.
Constitution is a matter of having a certain element transfused into us. We may use as an illustration the petrification of wood. How can wood be petrified? Wood is petrified through a process of constitution. In this process certain mineral elements are deposited into the wood through the flowing of water. This transfusing, this infusing, of mineral elements into the wood is constitution. Moreover, in the petrification of wood, the water carries away the old element and replaces it with a new element.
The petrification of wood illustrates the process of being constituted of the divine life. As the current of living water flows within us, it deposits the divine element into us. Furthermore, as the water flows through us and out of us, it carries away our “wooden” element. Through the flowing of the water, the element of the divine “minerals” replaces the element of wood. The result is a metabolic constitution. By metabolic we mean a process in which an old element is replaced by a new element. When we speak of constitution, we speak of the process of spiritual metabolism that affects us intrinsically by a divine life-replacement.
What, then, is transformation? Transformation denotes a change. When wood is petrified, it undergoes a change as the old element is carried away and is replaced by a new element. This change affects the wood inwardly, and it also affects its form outwardly. Hence, it is a matter of transformation.
The word “transform” includes the word “form.” For something to be transformed means that it changes from one form into another form. Therefore, transformation implies a new kind of formation. Transformation is not only a matter of constitution; it is also a matter of building up a particular form. In 3:18 this form is Christ’s image. In this verse Paul tells us that we are being transformed into the Lord’s image.
As Paul was writing these three chapters of 2 Corinthians, he had within him the thoughts of constitution and transformation. If not, he would not have written these chapters in the way he did.
We cannot understand chapters two, three, and four of 2 Corinthians simply by reading them. We can understand these chapters only after we have had a certain amount of spiritual experience. The degree of our understanding depends on the extent of our experience. Our experience of these matters is not yet adequate. This is why it is difficult for us to speak concerning them. We must have experience in order to understand experiential things. Only then shall we be able to present these things to others.
Both constitution and transformation take place through the divine dispensing. From the time we were regenerated, the divine dispensing has been going on within us. The rate of this dispensing, whether fast or slow, depends on our response. In other words, it depends on our cooperation. If we cooperate with the divine dispensing, it will go on swiftly and will work effectively. But, sorry to say, after being regenerated, we have not responded fully to the divine dispensing. Nevertheless, we have responded to it to some extent, and we have cooperated with it at least a little.
In these three chapters of 2 Corinthians Paul is seeking to portray the dispensing of the divine element into our tripartite being. This dispensing is to produce constitution and transformation so that we may have maturity in life and also a measure of ministry.