Was all this the Lord’s work, His move, or His life? Actually, it is difficult to say, for His life was His work, and His work was His move. The Lord Jesus was continually living, working, and moving. Day and night He lived, and day and night He worked and moved. His work was His living, and His move was His being. For this reason, we cannot say how much the Lord Jesus worked. He worked everywhere and all the time because His work was His life, His life was His move, and His move was His work. With Him there was no difference between His life, His work, and His move.
With the Lord Jesus every aspect of His life was the same. We, however, may divide up our life between work, school, family, and church. We can easily point out how many hours we work each day. But can you say how many hours the Lord Jesus worked every day? What time was set apart for His meals? The point here is that the Lord Jesus was always living, working, and moving. His preaching and teaching were part of His living. Casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the leper were also part of the living of the Lord Jesus. With Him there is no distinction between life and work.
We may think that the Lord Jesus was able to live such a life, but we cannot. Today we all should live a life of preaching, teaching, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the lepers. The common practice of hiring preachers to work as professionals is not right according to the Scriptures. Every believer should live a life of preaching, teaching, casting out demons, and healing the sick. If we live in this way, wherever we go, our life will be our preaching, for we live a preaching life. Likewise, we shall also live a life of casting out demons. Many indulge in certain evil, worldly things because they have been possessed by demons.
My point in speaking concerning this is that the Lord Jesus lived a life of God, and this is a life of preaching, teaching, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the lepers. It is not a life of culture, religion, philosophy, or mere ethics or morality. The life that is the life of God automatically preaches, teaches, casts out demons, heals, and cleanses. If we all live this kind of life, the situation in our locality will be different after a period of time. However, the matter we are emphasizing is the life itself, the life of God fully according to and for His New Testament economy.
We have seen that the contents of the Lord’s gospel service include preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the leper. In 2:1—3:6 we see the ways of carrying out the gospel service: forgiving sins (2:1-12), feasting with sinners (2:13-17), causing His followers to be merry without fasting (2:18-22), caring for His followers’ hunger rather than for religion’s regulation (2:23-28), and caring for the relief of the suffering one rather than for the ritual of religion (3:1-6). All these matters should be found in our living as Christians today. If you live a life of God, after a period of time certain of your colleagues may experience the forgiveness of sins. Then these ones will enjoy the Lord as a feast, having the Lord Jesus as righteousness for their covering and as life for their filling and satisfaction. Then such ones will have freedom. Before you came in contact with them, they were under condemnation and had no real joy, satisfaction, or freedom. But as a result of your gospel preaching, not merely by words but by life, the truth shines into them and they have the forgiveness of sins. This is the result of our living a life fully according to the New Testament economy of God.
A life that is fully according to and for God’s New Testament economy is very different from religion, which emphasizes human effort. God’s economy is altogether a matter of life.
In 3:7-35 we see five auxiliary acts for the gospel service: avoiding the crowd’s pressing (vv. 7-12), appointing the apostles to preach (vv. 13-19), not eating because of urgent need (vv. 20-21), binding Satan and plundering his house by the Holy Spirit (vv. 22-30), and not remaining in the relationship of the natural life but of the spiritual life (vv. 31-35). If we live a life according to God’s New Testament economy, we shall stay away from the crowd and then pray in order to know God’s will concerning others’ living the way we are living. Furthermore, we shall care for God’s need, not for our eating. We shall also bind the enemy and plunder his house. At the same time, we shall deny the natural relationship and remain in the relationship of the spiritual life. All these are aspects not of a life of ethics, morality, religion, or culture, but of a life that is of God and according to God. Such a life is outside religion, culture, and ethics. This is a life that lives out God as everything.
We need to be impressed with the fact that the Gospel of Mark is not merely a book of stories or a biography. The Gospel of Mark is a book that presents a life of God, a life that lives God and expresses Him. This is a life fully according to and for the New Testament economy of God.