Those who have been listening to my messages for many years sometimes wonder why I always have something new and fresh to minister to the saints. The more I pray-read 2:14-16, the more I realize that we can give message after message on these verses. We may give one message on murmurings, and another on reasonings. Then we need messages on being blameless and guileless. To be blameless is to be without defect in our outward behavior, and to be guileless is to be pure in our inward character. Outwardly, in our behavior, we need to be without defect; inwardly, in our character, we need to be pure. Surely such matters can be the subject of entire messages. However, Christians may read these verses and take them for granted. They may not inquire what Paul means here by blameless and guileless.
Imagine how many messages we need on the expression “children of God”! As children of God, we have the divine life and nature. These matters are profound and require many messages to cover them adequately.
We also could give messages on being without blemish, and on the crooked and perverted generation. What is the difference between crooked and perverted? What is the generation in verse 15, and what does Paul mean by the world? If we ask questions such as these and if we pray-read these verses, we shall be impressed with the fact that the riches in the Word are inexhaustible. Day by day we need to receive these riches by pray-reading the Word and by singing it.
If we are filled with the riches of the living Word day by day, spontaneously we shall hold forth the word of life. We shall present the word of life to others and offer it to them. This is to magnify Christ and to live Christ. Christ Himself is the living Word, the word of life. For this reason, when we are filled with the word of life, we manifest Christ and magnify Him. This is the way to live Christ.
What I have said so far is an introductory word to this message, which is entitled “Children of God Shining as Luminaries by Holding Forth the Word of Life.” The expression “children of God” implies the life and nature of God. As God’s children, we have His life and nature. Just as a child has the life and nature of his father because he was born of him, not adopted by him, so we have the life and nature of God the Father because we were born of Him and not merely adopted by Him. Praise the Lord that we are sons of the Triune God with the divine life and nature!
Would you not have a special feeling of pride if you were the son of the President of the United States? Would you not feel honored and want to boast of this fact? We, however, have a much higher kind of sonship. We are sons of God possessing the divine life and nature! Once we were sinners, but now we are sons of God. How glorious that we are God’s divine sons!
Because we have the divine life and the divine nature, we can truly say that we are divine. However, this certainly does not mean that we are evolving into the Godhead or that we shall ever become God as an object of worship. Furthermore, this is not to teach pantheism or the deification of man. Nevertheless, we may be bold to declare that as sons of God with the divine life and nature we are divine. Hallelujah, we are children of God with the divine life and divine nature!
We should not only pray-read the words children of God; we should also sing them, either using a familiar tune or making up our own melody. If we sing the Word in this way, we shall be infused, inspired, and inwardly strengthened. We shall also receive a divine inoculation.
In 2:15 Paul goes on to say that as children of God we “shine as lights in the world.” The Greek word rendered lights means luminaries which reflect the light of the sun. The matter of shining as luminaries indicates our ability to function. Praise the Lord that we are able to shine! We are not only children of God, but are also luminaries with the heavenly function of reflecting Christ as the real sun.
Every kind of life has its particular function. The function of an apple tree is to bear apples, and our function as luminaries possessing the divine life and nature is to shine. As sons of God with the divine life, we have the function of shining. In our daily living we should not merely behave ourselves according to a certain standard—we should shine.
As luminaries, we in ourselves do not possess any light. Our shining is simply the reflection of light which we receive from another source. Christ is the light, the real sun, and we reflect Him by holding forth the word of life. Thus, our shining is actually our reflection of Christ as the source of our light.
We shine by holding forth the word of life. According to Colossians 3:16, we should allow the word of Christ to dwell in us, to inhabit us, richly. Then we shall have the word of life with which to shine. In order to hold forth the word of life, we must first have the divine life within us. Because we are supplied with this life and energized by it, we can shine as luminaries by holding forth the word of life. The more we are nourished by feeding on the word of life, digesting and assimilating this word, the greater will be the accumulation of the word within us. Then spontaneously we shall shine with the very word of life we have taken into us. This shining will then be our holding forth, our presenting, the wonderful word of life to others. Those who have contact with us over a period of time will thus receive help from us. If we daily digest Christ as the word of life, accumulating the riches of the Word in a subjective, organic way, we shall have something living and organic to share with others. This is the proper gospel preaching and proclamation of the truth. As we have pointed out, this is the way to magnify Christ and live Him.
May we all pray-read the Word and sing the Word by exercising our spirit. May we be liberated from every kind of bondage in our dealing with the Word and the Spirit. If we exercise our spirit to pray-read, sing, and psalm 2:14-16, we shall praise the Lord that we are children of God and luminaries shining by holding forth the word of life. If we practice pray-reading these verses word by word and also exercise to sing the Word of God, we shall be permeated and saturated with the rich supply from the living Word. Then our inner being will be filled with the riches of Christ. Spontaneously, unconsciously, and even unintentionally, we shall live a life that expresses Christ and holds forth the word of life. What the Lord needs in His recovery today is not a group of people who are religious, but a group of people who live Christ and who shine as luminaries by holding forth the word of life.