I believe that the time is right for messages on Christ versus culture to be released. It is vital for us all to see a vision concerning the all-inclusiveness of Christ. Christ must become everything to us in our daily living. The Christ who is the expression of God and the mystery of God’s economy now lives in us. The Christ who indwells us is not a small, limited Christ. He is the One who is the image of the invisible God, the embodiment of the fullness of God, and the focal point of God’s economy. Such a Christ now dwells in us and is waiting for the opportunity to spread Himself throughout our being. We need to live by Him moment by moment. We should not give any ground in our living to culture. Instead, all the room within us should be given over to the all-inclusive Christ who dwells in us to be our hope of glory. If we see such a vision of the indwelling, all-inclusive Christ, we shall spontaneously drop our culture. Formerly, Christ was replaced by culture. But once we see this vision, the culture within us will be replaced by Christ.
The Christ who is the image of God is the mystery of God’s economy and the mystery of God Himself. As the embodiment of God, He is the reality of every positive thing in the universe. These wonderful words, however, are like a foreign language to most of today’s Christians.
We should not be deluded by persuasive speech or carried off by man’s philosophy, tradition, or culture. We should care only for Christ. Christ should occupy us, possess us, and take us over. In our inner being there should be no room for philosophy or for the rudimentary principles of the world. Every part of our inward being should be occupied by Christ and with Christ. To us Christ is the real God, the real food, the real drink, the real clothing, and the real Sabbath. He is the reality of every positive thing. Therefore, we would not give ground in our being to anything other than Christ.
In 2:18 Paul warns us to let no one purposely defraud us of our prize. Our prize is the full enjoyment of Christ. Even those of us who have been in the Lord’s recovery for many years do not have the full enjoyment of Christ. We have been defrauded of this. Through seeing the vision of the all-inclusive Christ, we are being brought back to our prize. If we see this vision, no one will be able to defraud us of the full enjoyment of Christ. When we have this enjoyment, we realize that Christ is our reality. A stanza from a hymn on the experience of Christ as reality expresses it this way:
Christ is our real God, our real Lord,
Christ is our real life, our real light;
Christ is our real food, our real drink,
Our real clothing, and our real might.
Hymns, #496
Since Christ is such a reality to us, we should live by Him, not by culture.
In 3:3 and 4 we see that the Christ who is the focal point of God’s economy and the reality of all the positive things is our life. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. This means that we today are living in God. As our life, Christ is the constituent of the new man. Because Christ is the unique constituent of the new man, in the new man there is no room for Greeks and Jews, Americans and Chinese, circumcision and uncircumcision, slaves and free men. In the new man the Christ who is our life is all and in all. This is the all-inclusive Christ who is versus culture.
I hope that seeing this vision will stir a deep aspiration within us. We need to pray, “Lord Jesus, I want to be taken over, occupied, and possessed by You. I want to give You my full capacity and all the room in my being. Lord, I don’t want to be limited or frustrated in my experience of You. I want to enjoy You without limitation, restriction, or confinement. Lord, I want to have only You, not culture. I want to live by You, not by any kind of culture.”