Colossians 1:15-18 reveals that Christ must have the first place, the preeminence, in everything.
We need to see clearly that Christ must be the essence, the substance, of our daily walk. This means that the essence of our daily walk is not humility or patience or love or kindness or good behavior. The essence of all these virtues must be Christ Himself. Our humility must be Christ. Our patience must be Christ. Our love must be Christ. Our kindness must be Christ. Our good behavior must be Christ. We need to see this vision.
If we see such a vision of Christ, we will never help others to have humility, patience, love, and kindness without Christ. We will never help them to be good without Christ. Rather, we will minister Christ to others. We will testify to others that Christ, the essence, the substance, of our daily walk, is humility, patience, love, kindness, and good behavior.
Christ must also be the reality of our service, the reality of our ministry. No matter what kind of service we may do or what kind of ministry we may have, the reality of that service and ministry must be Christ. We should not minister knowledge and forms to others or impart gifts to others. Instead, we should minister Christ to others.
It is not easy to minister only Christ to others. Try to cease from ministering knowledge, forms, and gifts. If you do this, you may find that you have nothing to minister, for your ministry is full of knowledge, forms, and gifts. If you desert these things, you find that nothing remains. I would ask you to check your ministry in this way.
Christ's being the reality of our ministry and service includes His being the reality of the gospel. When we preach the gospel to sinners, we must have Christ as the reality of the gospel. This means that we should not merely preach the gospel but should preach the gospel with Christ. Christ is the gospel, and we should preach Him to others.
We need the vision of Christ as the reality of our ministry. We need the vision to see that our ministry must be full of Christ. If I come to contact a brother in order to have fellowship with him, I must not have only the knowledge of the Word but must have Christ as the reality of this fellowship. The knowledge of the Word is the means by which Christ is conveyed to this dear brother.
Knowledge, forms, and gifts should simply be the means to convey Christ to others. We may say that such things are the "wrappings" used in "packing" Christ as the content. Suppose you buy a diamond. The diamond is placed in a container, and then the container is wrapped. Neither the container nor the wrappings is the reality of the diamond which you have bought. The reality of the wrappings and the container is the diamond itself. If you take away the wrappings and the container, you will still have the diamond. However, with many so-called ministries today, once the "wrappings" and the "container" of teachings, forms, and gifts are removed, there is nothing left. There is no "diamond." Because this is the situation, I say once again that we need to have the vision of Christ as the reality of our ministry and service.