In the previous chapter we saw from the Gospel of John God's dispensing as the supply to the believers in their preaching of the gospel and in their work for the Lord. The Gospel of John is a book on life. It tells us that God wants us not only to have life, but also, after receiving life, to be supplied by this life day by day and hour by hour. For this reason, the Gospel of John pays much attention to eating, drinking, and breathing the Lord. To eat, drink, and breathe is to take food, drink, and air into us and have them dispensed into the different parts of our being. These nutrients then become the constituents of our body. When we eat and drink the Lord in this way, we are joined to Him and abide in Him, and He in turn abides in us. This is similar to branches abiding in a tree. In such an abiding, the riches of the tree are transmitted to the branches, and eventually, the branches bear much fruit.
The other three Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—also contain records of the Lord's commissioning us to preach the gospel. But in the Gospel of John, this matter is presented in the way of life. John 15:16 says, "I chose you, and I appointed you that you should go forth and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain." When the branches receive the supply of the life sap, this issues in the abundant overflow of life. This abundant overflow of life is fruit-bearing. When we go out today to preach the gospel by knocking on doors, outwardly it seems that this is a gospel activity and work, but inwardly it is an overflow of the inner life. In John 21 the Lord told us that if we love Him, we must feed His lambs. Strictly speaking, the feeding of the lambs is not an outward work; it is to dispense food into the lambs that they may receive the abundant supply and grow thereby.
In John chapter one we see that the Triune God became flesh in the Son for the purpose of dispensing Himself into man as grace and reality. Then, He was crucified on the cross, thus accomplishing redemption, removing our sins, destroying Satan, and releasing the divine life that was within Him. All these are for the dispensing of life. After He resurrected, He became a life-giving Spirit in resurrection. Hence, the Lord's incarnation, birth, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are all for the dispensing of the Triune God as life into us. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." The giving mentioned here is a dispensing. Our Lord today is not merely the Redeemer; He is also the life-giving Spirit. He is not far from us, but is in our mouth and in our heart (Rom. 10:8). He is like the air and like breath; we can receive Him into us in a most available and intimate way.
In John 4 we see that the Lord as the life-giving Spirit is the living water (vv. 7-15) for the believers to enjoy and to drink that He may become their satisfaction and inward reality. John 6 shows us that the Lord is the bread of life from heaven (vv. 35, 48, 51). Everyone who eats of this bread will receive the Lord as his life and life supply. John 7 says that out of the innermost being of those who drink of the living water from Him will flow rivers of living water (v. 38). After this, we see in John 14 that the Lord is the Spirit of reality. Not only is He present among us, but He also will abide with us (v. 17). Furthermore, He said that He is in the Father, we are in Him, and He is in us (v. 20). This shows that the Triune God not only is living in us and is joined to us, but also is mingled with us. This is the story of our salvation. When we were saved, not only were our sins forgiven, and not only did we receive peace and joy, but we even believed into the Lord, and the Lord entered into us, so that we are mingled with the Lord as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). The result of this mingling and mutual abiding is the fruit-bearing in John 15 (v. 5). Then we can feed the Lord's lambs. This is the Gospel of John. Everything in our work and in our preaching of the gospel has to do with God's dispensing.
In this chapter we will see, from the book of 1 Corinthians, God's dispensing as the supply to the believers in their meetings and service. Some Bible teachers have said that 1 Corinthians was written with the purpose of solving many serious problems in the church. But in that book Paul was dispensing to the Corinthian believers the rich, all-inclusive One for their enjoyment. If they would concentrate on Him, focus on Him, and take Him as their center to enjoy all His riches, all the problems among them would spontaneously be solved. This is similar to the way in which we solve the problems of a physically sick person; the best way is to supply him with rich and nutritious food.