By the Lord’s mercy, we may live a very upright life. But although we may be kept from sin, we may still be very much short of Christ. In many respects, our daily living may be excellent. But still we must ask a crucial question: How much do we experience Christ and enjoy Him? It is not our goal only to have a proper daily life. Our goal must be Christ. We are here to gain Christ and to experience Him. I appreciate the fact that the standard of our daily walk is quite high. If everyone in this country had such a standard, the situation of the whole nation would be much improved. But we cannot be satisfied simply to have an upright daily life. This is not God’s goal. For the sake of God’s purpose, we need to experience Christ and enjoy Him. How much enjoyment of Christ do you have in your daily life? If you do not have much enjoyment of Christ, then in your experience the word of God has not been completed in full. You stand in need of the ministry of Paul, in particular of the book of Colossians.
According to 1:26, the word of God completed through the ministry of Paul was “the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now has been manifested to His saints.” This mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory (v. 27). Although we may have considerable knowledge of the Bible, we do not have the completion of the divine revelation unless we adequately experience Christ daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Our need is for the subjective Christ to become our enjoyment to complete the divine revelation within us. If we are short in the experience and enjoyment of Christ, we are also short concerning God’s revelation. His revelation needs the experiential Christ as its completion.
In verse 28 Paul said that he announced Christ, “warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom” in order to “present every man full grown in Christ.” The way to be full grown in Christ is to experience Christ and enjoy Him daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Those who experience Christ and enjoy Him in this way will become full grown. They will be full, complete, and perfect; they will not lack anything.
In our daily living it is easy for us to be more concerned about our behavior than about the enjoyment of Christ. As those who love the Lord and seek Him, we have a natural desire to uplift our behavior. We earnestly desire to have an upright daily life. Whenever we fail the Lord in our daily walk, we are full of regret and we confess to the Lord and ask Him to forgive us and cleanse us. Although we may be very exercised in matters like this, we may not care adequately for the enjoyment of Christ. Oh, we need to enjoy Christ in our daily living!
We have seen that we need to enjoy Christ in the daily matters of eating and drinking. The fact that we eat and drink a number of times during the day indicates that we should not be content to enjoy Christ just once a day. Eating and drinking are shadows. If we eat and drink more than once a day, then we should also enjoy Christ more than once a day. We should experience Christ not only daily, but many times throughout every day.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul says, “Pray without ceasing.” To pray in a genuine way is to enjoy Christ. I regret to say that much of our prayer is not genuine, for we often do not enjoy Christ as we pray. Whenever we pray properly in the spirit, we enjoy Christ. To pray unceasingly actually means to enjoy Christ without ceasing. We need to enjoy Christ continually. However, not many of us have been helped to live a spiritual life in the way of constantly enjoying Christ. For this we need to pray that the Lord would grant us the grace to enjoy Him daily and throughout every day.
In Paul’s word about shadows we have a hint as to how we may enjoy Christ in a practical way. Since such things as eating and drinking are shadows of which Christ is the substance and reality, we need to be reminded whenever we eat and drink that the real food and the real drink are Christ. When you eat your food, you should simultaneously eat Christ. When you drink some beverage, you should also drink Christ. As you put on your clothing, you should be reminded that Christ is the real clothing, and you should experience Him as such. As you put on your material clothing, you should also put on Christ. It is easy to enjoy Christ in this way. Whatever we do day by day should remind us of Christ as the reality of that thing. Even our breathing should remind us of the necessity of breathing Christ spiritually.
If we follow the practice of taking Christ as the reality of all the material things in our daily life, our daily walk will be revolutionized and transformed. It will be full of Christ. When we eat and drink, we shall take Christ as our spiritual food and drink. Everything we do will remind us to contact Christ, to enjoy Christ, to experience Christ, and to have Christ as our everything. To practice this day by day is truly to enjoy Christ.