By reading the above verses, we can see life and building. Many of us have been Christians for years and may have heard about life, but may have never heard anything about building. Life is for building. Life is the content, and building is the corporate expression of this content. So if we have life, normally speaking, we should have building; and if we would have building we must have life. God purposes to express Himself through a corporate Body. Therefore, God must be life to a group of people who must be built up to express God in a corporate way.
Life is just God Himself, and building is simply the expression of God as life in a corporate Body. Life and building are the basic and central revelation of the Bible. Genesis 2 shows that after God completed His creation, especially the creation of man, He put man into a garden in which the central item was the tree of life. Here we must underline the word “life.” As it is very difficult to define life, so it is also difficult to define the tree of life. You know what a peach tree is and what an apple tree is, but you may not know what the tree of life is. From other books in the Bible, we can realize that this tree of life is nothing less than God Himself. The Triune God is the tree of life to us.
Then we see some precious things which come out of the flow of this life. Near the tree of life is a flowing river, and at the flow of the river there is gold, bdellium (a kind of pearl), and onyx stone (Gen. 2:9-12). Life produces the flow of life, and out of the flow of life come these three kinds of precious materials: gold, pearl, and precious stone. To know what these are for, we must read the Bible through to the end where we see a city that is built with gold, pearl, and precious stones (Rev. 21:2, 18-19a, 21; 22:1-2a). Therefore, these three precious materials indicate building.
So, we see that the Bible opens with life for the building. Life is the source, and the building is the issue of life. Many Christians know that the Bible is a book of life, but not many Christians realize life in a proper and adequate way. We need to see some of the wrong views that Christians have concerning life. However, from these verses in Genesis and Revelation, we can see clearly that life is for building and that building comes out of life.
Life has nothing to do with knowledge. Instead knowledge is versus life. In Genesis 2:9 there are two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By this picture we can understand that knowledge is contrary to life and even versus life. Why must I mention this? Simply because in any kind of religion, and especially in Christianity, people always pay attention to knowledge. After we were saved in Christianity, we were told to give attention to knowledge. Yet the Bible shows us that knowledge is contrary to life and versus life. If we are going to know what life is and realize the experience of life, we must first of all be very clear concerning the difference between life and knowledge.
For example, if you drink a glass of milk you get life. If you do not drink it, regardless of how much you know about it, you have mere knowledge. To know about milk is just knowledge, but to take it into you is nourishment, and that is life. Life is not knowledge, and knowledge can never replace life. Instead, knowledge contradicts life.
If we would care for life, we must, in a sense, repudiate knowledge. We should not care for knowledge. We should only care for taking something into us to nourish us. Knowledge will bring us death instead of life. Furthermore, knowledge causes not only death, but also division. If knowledge is the main emphasis among us, I fear that after a short time we will be divided into several sects. So we must take off the crown of knowledge and put it under our feet-then we will have oneness. Knowledge divides, but life unites.
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