We all have to realize that in the Bible the kernel is Christ and His Body. This is the reason that we consider these four books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians as the heart of the divine revelation. In no other book or books are Christ and His Body, the church, so thoroughly, adequately, and richly revealed to us. Paul even considered this kind of word as the completion of the word of God. He received a commission with a burden to complete the word of God, that is, to complete the divine revelation with these two mysteries: the mystery of God, Christ, and the mystery of Christ, the church. These two mysteries in Paul’s ministry are the word to complete the divine revelation. We must emphasize the verse in Colossians 1:25 which indicates that Paul was commissioned to complete the revelation of God, that is, to reveal these two mysteries to God’s people: Christ as the mystery of God and the church, the Body of Christ, as the mystery of Christ. I do believe it is the Lord’s sovereignty that through nearly eighteen years of time the Lord has brought us through so many messages to these four books. First, we covered Ephesians, then Colossians, then Galatians, and then Philippians. It is in these four books that the completion of the divine revelation is revealed. In all of the trainings given on these four books, even we ourselves have seen something more. We cannot deny that we have seen something concerning Christ as the mystery of God and concerning the church as the mystery of Christ. The revelation is here, and the light is shining within us. We cannot deny this, yet my burden is that still too little of what we have seen has become our real daily experience. In our daily life we cannot say strongly that we live Christ. We can hardly say that even to some extent we live Christ. Regardless of how much we are out of the world, regardless of how much we would not touch any sinful thing, regardless of how pious we are, how godly our Christian life is, and how much we are for the Lord and for His recovery, we have to admit that in our daily life Christ has not been lived out as much as He should be. We must admit that in our daily life the portion of the element of Christ is not much. I would say it is very little. This is the one thing that I have been condemned about day after day. This is the one thing that I’m burdened to confess to the Lord and ask His forgiveness. I feel day after day in our daily life that there is not much element of Christ.
On the one hand we do not live Christ, and on the other hand the issue of our daily life is not much for the building of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is just a term, and the building up of the Body of Christ is just a kind of knowledge. We have to admit that we do not have much building up of the Body of Christ in our practical daily life. In our practical daily life we do not have much Christ, and our daily life does not issue much in the Body of Christ. Although we may pray, we may pray-read, we may love the Lord, we may live outside of the world, we may not sin, we may be quite godly and pious, yet we have to check how much Christ is really there. You may attend meetings and have the church life. Apparently you are blameless. But you have to check how much of Christ is there in your daily life, and how much of the building of the Body has issued out of your daily life.
In other words everything is fine and everything is good, but Christ is very lacking and the building up of the Body of Christ is lacking. What we call the Body life may be just a kind of spiritual, communal, or social life. We may be Christian brothers standing on the proper ground, meeting together into the name of the Lord, and handling some spiritual things. You may consider these items as the Body life, but actually these are not the Body life. Actually this is some kind of church life without that much of Christ and without that much of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is just the issue of the experience of Christ. It has to be altogether Christ. Look at the Word as a whole and learn to be bothered by the Lord concerning these things. If you read the Bible again and again, you could see that all these things are revealed there. They have been revealed over nineteen hundred years. Paul completed this revelation.
After Paul’s ministry, of course, there is the mending ministry of John. Even John’s ministry has also been there over nineteen hundred years. Dear saints, would you not be bothered and troubled and burdened to see today’s situation? Where is Christ lived out? In the Orthodox Church? In the Catholic Church? In the Protestant denominations? In the small free groups? In the individual seeking Christians? How about among us? We have to admit that Christ is not lived out much even among us. If you and I were the Lord looking at this kind of situation, we would surely be very much disappointed. Where can you see a group of Christians who are really living out Christ and really having the Body of Christ as the issue of their daily life? If we have such a vision, we will be bothered. Matthew 5:3 says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Verse 4 goes on to say, “Blessed are those who mourn.” Now we can realize why the matter of mourning comes after the matter of being poor in our spirit. When we are poor in our spirit we will surely see some vision concerning God’s economy. Will we then be joyful? The situation would not allow us to be joyful. If we have seen the vision concerning God’s economy, we would surely weep day and night. We would mourn day and night because the situation is too sad.
Where is the thing that God is after, and what is the thing God is after? Christ and the church! He is not after the doctrine or the theology, but the real Christ lived out in your daily life and the issue of this kind of living, the Body of Christ. If you see this you will be bothered and troubled and burdened and puzzled. It seems there is almost no way out of the problem. For nearly two thousand years the Lord hasn’t gotten through. Even with us in the Lord’s recovery, the Lord hasn’t gotten fully through. Many of us have been here in the Lord’s recovery for over ten years. Where are we today? You may consider that this word is quite disappointing. Actually, the whole situation is disappointing. Today the Christians, including us, are poor. We talk about a lot of things in the name of Jesus Christ. We even talk about the Bible and spiritual things, yet how much is Christ in our daily life? And how much is there the issue of Christ, that is, His practical Body? We all have to admit there is not much of these two things.
This is why we need to have such a Perfecting Training. Of course this is not a church meeting but a meeting to see the completion of God’s revelation, that is, to actually and practically see Christ and the issue of Christ, the church. This training is to help all of us realize there is a big lacking. Something is crucially lacking here, that is, Christ and the Body of Christ. We all have to humble ourselves. The enemy is so subtle to raise up this or that problem for us to talk about. He would try to catch our attention to this matter or distract our attention to another matter, as long as he can keep us occupied with anything other than Christ and the Body of Christ. We need a lot of humble prayers. We need to pray, “Lord, as You have opened up Your Word to me and as You have opened up my eyes to see Your Word, I need Your mercy and I need Your grace to be brought into this reality. I need to live Christ for the issuing out of the Body. I need such a reality. Lord, would You give me the grace that I could forget everything else. I would forget every problem, and I wouldn’t care for anything else except for Christ and the issue of Christ, the Body.” We need such a prayer, a desperate prayer. If you don’t have such a desperate seeking within you, these meetings will simply disappoint you again and again.
Let us consider our real situation. I know our real situation because I have learned it by my own experience. God’s intention is to work Christ into us. This word is very familiar among us, but how much Christ is actually and practically in your daily living? We must check this! For over forty years I’ve been ministering to people that Christ is our life and that Christ must be our life and that God’s intention is to work Christ into us as our everything. But even now every time that I check before the Lord concerning how much Christ is in my daily life, I have to admit that I am not satisfied. I have to admit there is not much Christ. By His mercy I can boast that I don’t love the world, and I don’t touch sin. I cannot deny that I really love the Lord, and I do live a godly life. Yet whenever I check my real situation before the Lord concerning how much Christ there is in my daily life, not once have I had a satisfactory checking. Every time after such a checking I have to confess, and I have to pray mourningly. I have to ask for forgiveness even today. Christ is not so adequately lived out in my daily life. Here is a big lack. Nearly every day I have been bothered by this.
I must tell you that all the environment, the oppositions, and the dealing with the oppositions don’t bother me that much. But one thing bothers me very much—the lacking of Christ in the daily life. I don’t mean that I don’t have Christ in my daily life. I do have Christ, but not that much. Out of fifteen waking hours, how much of Christ is in your daily living? How many hours or how many minutes do you live Christ? I believe you will have to admit that ninety percent of the time you don’t live Christ. You live yourself. Not only do you sisters live yourself when you are cooking, even when you talk with people about the Bible you live yourself. Even when you talk about the church life, you live yourself. Sometimes even when you pray, you live yourself. Only at the time that you pray yourself into the spirit and pray out from the spirit do you not live yourself. At that time you live Christ. If you came to stay with me, you might find little fault, but I am very bothered by the lacking of Christ. We all have to see the real situation. How much has Christ really gained us? Not how much has He gained you out of the world or out of sin or out of self, but how much has He gained you to live Him? Many of you have been with the Lord for years, but if you check your daily life in this way, you will discover there is not much Christ.
Furthermore, we have many gatherings, as many as five a week. But how much of the real and practical Body of Christ is here? We all have to admit and realize there is not much. Although in the brothers’ houses or the sisters’ houses there may not be much gossip, yet neither is there much Christ. This is why I am bothered. This is the Lord’s recovery, but in the Lord’s recovery how much Christ could the Lord see? In the Lord’s recovery how much Body life could the Lord see? It is hard to answer. Even if we could be perfect in our human living, what does that mean if there is no Christ? Do you think God would be satisfied with the perfect human life without Christ in it or with Christ in it only a little bit? Surely not!