In this message we will consider the experience of Christ as the mystery of God in Colossians 2:6-7: “As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” These two verses contain four very important expressions—received the Christ, walk in Him, having been rooted, and being built up.
Even after having been saved for many years, I did not know the expression receive Christ. One day, however, I read a book written by Brother Watchman Nee which equated believing in Christ with receiving Christ (John 1:12). This was quite a new thought to me. From that time on, however, I realized that believing in Jesus is not simply to make a decision in one’s mind to believe that there was once a person named Jesus Christ who died on the cross, bore the sins of the world, resurrected from the dead, and ascended to heaven. I saw that to believe in Christ is to receive Christ as the Spirit into our spirit. Today the Lord is in the Spirit and is even the Spirit Himself (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17). Thus, when we believe in Him, we receive Him as the Spirit into our spirit (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; cf. John 4:24).
After receiving Christ we must walk in Him. The word walk is very ordinary, but the phrase walk in Him is very peculiar. Could Confucius have told his disciples to walk in him? Can a professor tell his students to walk in him? No mere human being can tell others to walk in him. Only Christ can speak such words.
What then does this phrase mean? What does it mean to walk in Christ? Walking in Christ can be likened to living in a particular country. Just as I am living in America, according to the same principle, I am living in Christ. I am a citizen of the kingdom of Christ. Everything that is not Christ is simply foreign to me. I do not understand anything that is apart from Christ. Philosophy is foreign to me. Committing sins is foreign to me. Even doing good is something that I do not understand. I am not governed by trying to do good. All I understand is Christ. Christ is my kingdom. Christ is everything to me. This is what it means to walk in Christ, and this was the apostle’s thought when he wrote this Epistle.
At the time that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Colossians, the believers in Colossae were being distracted away from Christ by many good things. As a result, they were not walking in Christ—they were not “living in their own country” but had been brought into “foreign kingdoms.” Some of them had been brought into the kingdom of philosophy and were ruled by philosophy; others had been brought into the kingdom of worldly knowledge and were governed by that knowledge. In response to this situation the apostle seemed to tell them, “You should not be carried away from Christ. Since you have received Christ as your life and kingdom, you have to live by Him and walk in Him.”
When I first came to this country, I heard people saying, “Hi!” to each other. When I first heard this, I was surprised. However, now that I have been in America for some time, I am used to this expression, and I even use it. Hi is an American term. It is spoken with an American tone in an American atmosphere. This expression is suitable for America, but if you were to use it in Taiwan or Hong Kong, people would think that you were very strange. This expression is not appropriate for these places. Similarly, many times when we hear a message given by a preacher, we realize that certain words that he is using should not be used in preaching the gospel. Recently, while translating some hymns, I also had this feeling. In one particular hymn I noticed that the word mansion was used. This word is not suitable for the kingdom of God. We should rather use words such as habitation, house, temple, and dwelling place. Certain words are not the right words for the kingdom of God and of Christ.
Brother Nee was very aware of this principle. Approximately thirty years ago, I spent a long period of time with him. During that time I was with him nearly every day, and whenever we were together, we always had much fellowship concerning the Lord’s work, the Scriptures, and various spiritual matters. We also had a good amount of fellowship concerning what terms, utterances, words, or phrases we were going to use in the messages. In this fellowship Brother Nee would often say, “Brother, that word is not the right word for the kingdom of God.” Using words that are appropriate for the kingdom of God is just one small example of what it means to walk in Christ. As citizens of the kingdom of God, which kingdom is simply Christ Himself, we must live a life that is suitable to Christ. Christ is our life, and He is also our kingdom. Thus, we must learn to walk in Him.