Philippians 1:8 says, “I...in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.” In the Chinese Union Version this verse is translated as: “I...understand the bowels of Christ Jesus.” This rendering seems to be saying that the bowels of Christ Jesus are His alone and that I just sympathize with and understand His bowels. He is He, and I am I; His bowels are His, and I am sympathetic towards Him. Therefore, I understand His bowels. This kind of rendering separates Christ from us. This, however, is not Paul’s notion in the original text. According to the original text, what Paul said was, “I...in the bowels of Christ Jesus.” By saying this, he joined himself to Christ Jesus and became one with Him.
Instead of only outwardly understanding the bowels of Christ Jesus, Paul was in the bowels of Christ Jesus. Paul was not only in Christ, but even more he was in the bowels of Christ Jesus. This shows us that we who believe in the Lord Jesus are joined to Him and are one with Him; hence, His bowels are our bowels. Before we were saved, we did not have the bowels of the Lord Jesus; we had only ours. After we are saved, the Lord Jesus enters into our being, and we have His bowels. Hence, we no longer walk or conduct ourselves according to our bowels but according to His bowels.
Every spiritual matter is a story of life, and it is mysterious and incomprehensible. Yet our God frequently uses His created things with their natural phenomena to explain the hidden mysteries. The grafting of trees is a good example. In grafting, a good branch is joined to a poor tree. How can we make a peach tree produce sweet fruit instead of sour fruit? It is by grafting a branch of the good peach tree to the sour peach tree. Originally, these two trees have two distinct and different lives, but after the grafting process, the two become one. The life that produces the sour peaches can no longer grow because the old branch that grows out of the roots of the sour peach tree has been cut off, and the good branch has been grafted in; therefore, new fruit comes out of the good branch. The new fruit, which is the result of the mingling of two lives, is no longer sour and ugly but sweet and beautiful.
When we believe in the Lord Jesus, He as the new branch is grafted into us as the old tree. Therefore, we need to realize that our old man must be terminated and put to death, so that Christ can grow in us and be magnified through us. Every day, by the Spirit, we need to put to death the old practices of the body. We should not give them any opportunity to grow, so that Christ can grow in us daily. Paul said, “I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.” Paul’s longing after the saints was in the Lord, even in the bowels, the inward parts, of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, it was not his longing in himself alone; rather, it was his longing in the Lord, in his union with the Lord.
Philippians 1:19 refers to “the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit of Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ Himself. The Spirit of Jesus Christ has a bountiful supply. The phrase bountiful supply has a special meaning in Greek. In ancient Greece there were choruses, and the choragus, the leader of the chorus, was responsible for supplying all the needs of the members of the chorus by providing them with instruments, costumes, food, lodging, and other matters. The choragus supplied whatever the chorus needed. The supply of the choragus was the “bountiful supply” referred to in this verse.
The bountiful supply of the all-inclusive Spirit of Jesus Christ enabled Paul to magnify and live Christ in anguish, in persecution, in peril, in tribulation, and even in imprisonment. Since Paul and the Lord Jesus were completely joined as one, the bowels of the Lord Jesus became the bowels of Paul. Paul lived in the bowels of the Lord Jesus and regarded the Lord’s bowels as his own bowels. Hence, the Spirit of Jesus Christ as his bountiful supply enabled him to always magnify Christ, whether in death or in life, in woe or in blessing, in pain or in joy, in sorrow or in delight. Therefore, for him to live was Christ. This is the experience of Paul in Philippians chapter one, and this should be our experience as well.
Home | First | Prev | Next