In 15:1-11 we see that the vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father by expressing the riches of the divine life. Some readers of this message might be bothered by the word organism; it may sound quite strange to their understanding to hear of the organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensation. But we are used to saying that the church, the Body of Christ, is not an organization but an organism. What is the difference between an organization and an organism? A table, for example, is an organization, for many pieces of wood are assembled to form one entity. Why is a table an organization and not an organism? Because in the table as a unit there is not one organ. There are no organs in a table because there is no life in a table. Apparently, our body is also an organization. However, it is much more than an organization because we have both organs and life. Since our body has both organs and life, it is an organism, not merely an organization. In like manner, the church, the Body of Christ, is an organism.
What is the Body of Christ? It is exactly what we have said in Message Thirty-two—the mutual abode, the mingling of divinity with humanity. As we have seen, there is such a mingling in chapter fourteen. This mingling is the mutual abode of God and man. This mutual abode, this mingling of divinity with humanity, being full of organs and life, is an organism.
In John 15 this organism is likened to a vine tree. The grapevine is used as a figure of this wonderful organism. Within this vine tree we have the tree itself and all of its branches. The Lord Jesus said that the vine tree is just Himself (v. 1). He is the tree, and we are the branches of this tree. By this clear picture we can see that we are the branching out of the tree, for the branches are the branching out of the vine tree. If you were to cut off the branches, you would have just a bare tree without branches, and there would be no branching out of the vine. But today this universal vine tree has many branches, and these branches are simply His branching out. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was just a small man living in a certain place. But look at His branching out today: He has parts in Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Manila, Taipei, Hong Kong, and throughout the world. Praise the Lord that throughout the whole earth we see the branching out of this vine tree! This is not an organization; it is an organism that has life with many organic elements, organs, and organic systems growing in it.
The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father. What is the meaning of the word glorify here? It means to have the intent, the content, the inner life, and the inner riches released from within and expressed. The vine and the branches are an organism to glorify the Father, to have the intent, the content, the inner life, and the inner riches released and expressed from within. As an organism to glorify the Father, the vine and the branches express the riches of the divine life. When the vine tree bears clusters of grapes, that is the time when the riches of the divine life are expressed. This expression is the glorification of the Father because the Father is the divine life. The Father is the source and the substance of the vine tree. Without the fruit, the essence, substance, and life of the vine tree would be concealed, hidden, and confined. However, the riches of the inner life of the vine are expressed in the clusters of fruit. I say again that to express the inner life in this way is to release the divine substance from within the vine. This is the glorification of the Father.
To have the vine and the branches as an organism to glorify the Father is the divine dispensation. Here the word dispensation does not mean an age or a period of time. It means dispensing. This word has the same meaning as the word economy. Oikonomia, the Greek word for dispensation or administration, has been anglicized as the word economy. What is this oikonomia, this economy? It is a governmental administration, that is, a divine dispensation into mankind. This divine dispensation is God’s economy. According to the Greek this word is used clearly in 1 Timothy 1:4. However, the King James Version rendered it “godly edifying.” It should be translated “God’s economy” or “God’s dispensation.”