Ephesians 4:15 and 16 say, “But holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, Christ, out from whom all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” In these two verses we clearly see growth and building together. One is the cause, and the other is the effect; there is growth, and then there is the building. We need to learn how to grow and how to help others to grow.
The intention in sowing a seed into the earth is that the seed will grow up and bring forth something through its growth. Therefore, we all must be very clear that God’s intention is to put Christ as the seed of life into us in order to grow within us. This is very clear in the New Testament. However, when many of us Christians come to the Word of God, it is difficult for us to see this simple point. In my youth I listened to preachers, teachers, and pastors speak about Matthew 13 many times, but I was very puzzled by those parables. As a young Christian I tried my best to understand the whole Bible, and I spent all I had at that time to buy expositions. My intention was to buy sixty-six expositions, one for each book from Genesis to the end of the Bible, and I was able to acquire many of these. I thought they would help me know the Bible. The more I read the expositions, however, the more I was confused. It became more and more difficult to understand the Word. Matthew 13 contains seven parables. I spent much time to understand this chapter, and I read many articles, but not one of those articles speaks concerning the growth in life. People always try to give a certain kind of exposition and interpretation of those parables, but they neglect the simple thing.
We need to be very clear that the Lord Jesus came to sow Himself into the human heart. He is the sower and the seed. He sows Himself into our heart with the expectation that we would give Him the ground, the opportunity, to grow in us; then we grow by Him, with Him, and in Him. In addition, Matthew 13 shows us-as do several passages of the New Testament-that out of the growth comes transformation. In the parables in this chapter, there is first the sowing of the seed, then the growth of this life, and immediately there is transformation, which produces materials that are good for God’s building. Therefore, three things are basically important: the birth of life, the growth of life, and the maturity of life, from which we have transformation. Then from this transformation we have the precious materials which are good for God’s building.
The same thought is in 1 Corinthians 3. On the one hand, the apostle Paul says that we are co-workers with God doing the work of planting, so that God’s cultivated land, God’s harvest, may grow. Then on the other hand, we are builders to build God’s house with the material produced from the growth of life (1 Cor. 3:6, 9, 12). This is also what is revealed in Matthew 13. However, we need the vision; otherwise, we can read this chapter time and again and still not see the birth of life, the growth of life, and transformation to produce the materials for the building of God.
The same thought is in 1 Peter 2. First we are the newborn babes who need to grow; then by this growth we are transformed into precious stones to be built up as a spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:2, 5). God’s intention is to have a spiritual house, a building as His corporate expression. How can God accomplish this building? It is by sowing His Son Christ into us that He may grow in us and we may grow in Him and with Him in order to be transformed, changed in nature and in form, to be the precious materials for God’s building. As Christians we need to be very clear about this.
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