The stewardship, moreover, involves a dispensation. Dispensation here refers not to an age, but to a dispensing. For example, a mother dispenses food to her children every morning at breakfast. As the children sit down at the table, the mother dispenses nourishing food for them to eat. In such a dispensation a proper control is always exercised. If a child misbehaves, the mother may say, “If you don’t behave, there will be no breakfast for you.” Thus, the dispensation of food is the best control. I have observed this with my own grandchildren, who obey their grandmother better than they obey me, because she is the one who dispenses treats to them. Because she does the dispensing, she can very easily and pleasantly control them. She controls them by means of a sweet dispensation, a dispensation that is also a kind of administration and intimate service. The heading up of all things in Christ does not take place by a governmental administration. On the contrary, it comes about by a sweet stewardship, by an intimate household arrangement, by a pleasant dispensation. It takes place through the dispensing of the abundant life supply of the Triune God into us. The Apostle Paul calls this a “dispensation of the grace of God” (3:2), a stewardship of the grace of God.
We have seen that Satan’s injection has no administration or stewardship because he subtly injects himself into us. But God is working Himself into His chosen ones by a sweet, intimate stewardship. Paul’s ministry was such a stewardship. It was a model of the dispensation of grace, of the dispensing of God as grace into His chosen ones. By this dispensation of grace, the dispensing of God Himself as our enjoyment, the factor of life is ministered into the chosen ones. As the life factor gets into them, they are raised up and attached to Christ in the Body. This is the dispensation that heads up all things in Christ.
After the fall of man, God’s dispensation came in, beginning on a very small scale. With Abel we cannot see much of the dispensation of God as the life supply to His chosen people. With Enoch, however, there is a slight implication of such a dispensation, but it is not very clear. When we come to Noah, we can see the dispensation of God as the life supply on a very small scale. Then in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob we see a certain amount of God’s dispensation. Furthermore, with Moses and the tabernacle there was an administration, a household arrangement, an intimate stewardship. This is clearly seen with Moses, Aaron, and the priests with the Levitical service. Coming to the New Testament, we have the dispensation of life with the Lord Jesus. What a sweet, intimate stewardship there was with Him! Throughout His ministry, He was dispensing God as the life supply to His chosen ones. This intimate stewardship is continued with the Apostles, especially with the Apostle Paul, who had the stewardship of the grace of God. In his ministry Paul was constantly dispensing Christ as life into the believers. Paul’s ministry was a sweet and intimate stewardship, a pleasant household arrangement. Paul even taught Timothy how to behave in the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15). The way to behave in God’s house is to have the household arrangement, an intimate stewardship, and to dispense Christ to all the members of God’s household. It is not by controlling or even by a governmental administration; it is by a sweet dispensation, an intimate stewardship, a very dear household arrangement.
By such a ministry the factor of life is imparted into the church people. By such a sweet, intimate stewardship the life supply is dispensed into the members of the Body of Christ. The more the factor of life is ministered to us, the more we rise up and become attached. Every time you receive the life supply you spontaneously rise up. There is no need for anyone to tell you to have fellowship with others, for you automatically long to be attached.
God’s way to head us up is to work Himself as the factor of life into us that we may rise up and be attached to one another. It is not by a governmental administration, but by a sweet dispensation, an intimate stewardship, a comfortable household arrangement. Through this dispensation, the life factor is ministered to all the members of the church that they may rise up and be attached in the Body. This is the heading up in Christ.