God created the earth and the heavens with billions of items so that man can exist on the earth in order to fulfill God’s purpose. And what is God’s purpose? It is that God wants to put Himself into man as his content and reality, so that man will become His expression. The enemy, however, has utilized all these material things to distract people from the central purpose of God. Millions of people on the earth have been and are still distracted. Some, for example, are distracted even by loving a car. They just do not pay any attention to God’s central purpose. Rather, they pay attention to having a better living.
Why did God create so many items for us? It is simply because we need to exist in order to fulfill the purpose of God. We need food, drink, housing, and many other things for our existence for God’s purpose. However, Satan came in, and he is still doing his best to utilize what God created to distract us from God’s purpose. Food and marriage are for God’s central purpose, but Satan utilizes these things to distract people away from this purpose.
In the Old Testament time God came in to give His people the law. The Old Testament was given, revealed, and inspired in order to help God’s people to understand His central purpose, but the enemy Satan utilized even the Old Testament to distract people from Christ. Satan could use even the Old Testament to distract God’s people to pay attention to something other than Christ and which is contrary to Christ. In the four Gospels we can see clearly how the enemy used the Old Testament to distract the Jews from Christ. In John 5:39 and 40 the Lord said, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” It was too hard to turn the Pharisees from the outward Scriptures.
In the New Testament we have knowledge and the gifts. Today many Christians are still being distracted by knowledge, such as doctrines concerning the dispensations, and they are also distracted by gifts. The New Testament is for the central purpose of God, but Satan utilizes even this to distract people from Christ. Many people talk only about dispensations, doctrines, and the gifts. Satan has covered up God’s central purpose. Perhaps even some of you are still under the covering. These covers include all the material things and even the Old and New Testaments with the teachings of dispensations, gifts, tongues, and healings. All these can become the covering, veiling elements. Some may make the excuse that they are standing for sound doctrine and contending for the teachings from God, without realizing that they are under a veil which keeps them from seeing properly.
This matter troubles my heart. I have contacted many dear saints in this country. Sometimes I am very happy because I can see God’s move, the Lord’s work in people. But many times my heart is rent. They are dear saints with seeking hearts toward the Lord, but they are blinded. We may speak concerning life, but even for the word life they have various interpretations; the word is the same, but their dictionary is different. When we speak of life, they nod their heads, but after the meeting we find out that they were nodding about something else. They are under a veil.
The book of 1 Corinthians deals with the matter of gifts by showing us that Christ is our portion. Christ is all in all to us; He is God’s power and God’s wisdom, and He became wisdom to us from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1:9, 24, 30). In chapter one of this book, Christ is everything to us. Then chapter two tells us that the apostle did not determine to know anything among them except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified (v. 2). If we had only chapters one and two, however, we may have mere doctrine. We would not know how Christ can be our portion and our all. God’s intention is to give Christ to us as our portion that we may enjoy Him, partake of Him, and share Him. He is our portion, our wisdom, and our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But this is the problem: How can we enjoy this Christ in a practical way? When we go on to chapter three, we see that Christ has to be planted in us. Verse 6a says, “I planted.” What did Paul plant? He planted Christ. After planting, there must be watering. Therefore, verse 6 continues by saying that Apollos watered and God caused the growth. We must be fully clear that the seed Paul planted was Christ.
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