1Cor 4:15 For though you have ten thousand guides in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 1The 2:11 Just as you know how we were to each one of you, as a father to his own children, exhorting you and consoling you and testifying,
[Part 1 of 2] The Greek word rendered guides [v. 4:15] literally means child- conductors, as in Galatians 3:24 and 25. Guides, child- conductors, give instructions and directions to the children under their guardianship; fathers impart life to their children whom they beget. The apostle was such a father. He had begotten the Corinthian believers in Christ through the gospel, imparting the divine life into them so that they became children of God and members of Christ. The church is an organism not an organization. Anything of life is organic. We need to work organically for the organic building up of the Body of Christ. An organization is merely a matter of work in the labor of man's doing. We may labor in the gospel according to our doing to "win souls" and to build up a congregation. There may be many members of this congregation, but they may not know anything about life. The New Testament shows us that the pattern of the priests of the gospel of God is the Apostle Paul. He did his gospel work in the way of life. Paul was a father to the Corinthians because he had begotten them in Christ Jesus through the gospel. This kind of gospel work is organic. The gospel is not merely a matter of "winning souls," but it is a matter of begetting people. The first step of the organic building is to beget people, to impart the divine life into sinners to make them the sons of the living God and the organic members of the Body of Christ. We need to preach the gospel in the way of life. Life is God in Christ as the Spirit. This life enters into us to become our life (Col. 3:4). [Continued tomorrow] (c) Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 311 and Advance of the Lord's Recovery Today, The, Chapter 3, Section 1. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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