Ephesians 4:20 says, “But you did not so learn Christ”. What does it mean “to learn Christ”? To learn Christ does not mean that because Christ loved people, we should also love people. This is merely imitation. To learn Christ does not mean that we imitate Him; it means that we, within whom Christ dwells, have Christ as our life in everything that we do.
Learning Christ is not objective. It is not simply taking the Christ who is outside of us and following His example. Rather, learning Christ is very subjective. It has everything to do with Christ being in us, dwelling in us, and being life to us. For us to learn Christ means that His mind becomes our mind, His love becomes our love, and His heart becomes our heart.
In the next verse (v 21) Paul says “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus”. Jesus lived a life in which He did everything in God, with God, and for God. God was in his living and he was one with God. This is what is meant by the reality is in Jesus. He lived a life with the highest standard of morality, a God expressing life, a life of a God-man.
We the believers, who are regenerated with Christ as our life are taught in Him and learn from Him. How do we learn from Him / learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus?
- Day by day, moment by moment, love the Lord. Simply love Him. He will constrain us.
- Fellowship with Him, that is: remain in contact with Him. Open your heart to Him about everything. Keep nothing from Him. He will shine on us, in us and through us.
- We should excercise our spirit by praying. The more we pray, the more we will excercise our spirit. In the physical realm, the parts of our body that we excercise the most become strong, and the parts we rarely use remain weak.
Matthew 11:29 says “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me”. The Lord said this in His earthly ministry. In His life on earth He set up a pattern, as revealed in the Gospels. Then He was crucified and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit that He might enter into us to be our life. To learn Christ is simply to be moulded into the pattern of Christ, that is, to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom 8:29).
Praise Him, everyday we can learn more. We cannot exhaust this learning until we become Him in life, nature, expression & function for the accomplishment of His eternal purpose.
P.S. Source (footnotes recovery version Eph 4:20, 21 & The believers experience of transformation, witness lee p40/41). [guest post, bro. Moh]
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