In living a holy life for the church life we need to not be defiled or lukewarm so that the Lord would not spew us our of His mouth, and we need to have a fresh enjoyment of the Lord and not participate in any stale fellowship.
In Lev. 18-20 we see many details of the holy living God’s people should have, a living that would match their holy God and afford Him a way to be with them and live among them.
On one hand, this holy living should not be of ourselves or in ourselves but a living under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity. On the other hand, we need to stay way from certain things, abstain from certain practices, put off the old man, be renewed in the spirit of the mind, and put on the new man.
First of all, we need to realise that God doesn’t want a people who perform a holy life or some who deliberately live a holy living.
What God wants is a people who are so filled and saturated with His holy divine nature that they spontaneously live a holy life for the church life, and such ones are His people among whom He could live and be present.
We believers in Christ were saved by God from the world and sin, and we have received the divine life and nature.
However, even though through baptism we have put off the old man and put on the new man, we need to daily put off, as regards to our former manner of life, the old man.
We need to put off the old ways of living and seek to be renewed in the spirit of our mind so that we may put on the new man, which is being renewed day by day.
Furthermore, we should not be fashioned according to this age but be transformed by the renewing of the mind by beholding the Lord and being in His word.
The world around us tries to sweep us away and conform us to its image, but we need to seek to be inwardly transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that we may be conformed to the Lord’s image and express Him in living a holy life for the church life.
This is something organic, not of organisation, and not of outward correction. We need to organically enjoy the Lord, touch Him, and let Him saturate us with His holy element by being in His word with much prayer and by being under the hearing of the faith, and something will happen to us from within to without.
The result of this inward metabolic process of transformation is that we outwardly live a holy life for the church life, a life according to our holy nature.
Today we want to see more aspects of this holy life and holy living that we as God’s people should have so that our holy God may dwell among us and we would be His people.
If we are Lukewarm or Defiled, Unholy, Christ will Spew us out and not Allow us to Enjoy Him any longer
Because of the land of Canaan became defiled, God visited its iniquity upon it, and the land vomited out its inhabitants (see Lev. 18:25).
The inhabitants of the land of Canaan defiled it by their unholy living, and the land vomited them out; this is why God commanded that all the tribes living in this land would be terminated and not spared.
Christ is the reality of the good land, and as such a One He is all-inclusive, providing everything that we need as God’s people to live a holy life in and for the church life.
The all-inclusive Christ is our dwelling place and everything we need for our enjoyment, but we need to live in Him and enjoy Him in a proper way day by day.
The good land vomiting out the defiled and unholy people signifies that the all-inclusive Christ as our good land will vomit us out of Himself if we are defiled, lukewarm, or unholy.
In Rev. 3:16 the Lord Jesus told the church in Laodicea that, because they were neither hot nor cold but lukewarm, He would spew them out of His mouth. This matter implies a great deal in our Christian life and experience.
The good land, Christ, is everything we need for our existence and living. If we are in a proper relationship with Christ, enjoying Him daily and seeking to experience Him, He will allow us to enjoy Him as the reality of the all-inclusive good land. But if we are not in a proper relation with Him, if we are not proper with Christ, He will vomit us out and not allow us to enjoy Him anymore.
Being lukewarm toward the Lord and in the church life may not seem to be such a bad thing, but it is actually a terrible thing in the Lord’s eyes, for this will cause us to be spewed out of the Lord’s mouth and therefore cut off from the enjoyment of Christ.
It may be that we gradually become lukewarm by not freshly enjoying the Lord every day, and one day we are simply cut off from the Lord’s enjoyment. We need to repent and return to the Lord, asking for the divine fire to burn in us and any strange fire to be removed, so that we may be burning hot for the Lord and ice-cold toward the world.
May the Lord save us from being lukewarm, and may we check with the Lord in our fellowship with Him,
Lord Jesus, save us from being lukewarm in our relationship and experience of Christ. Rekindle our love for You. Lord Jesus, we love You. We want to enjoy You in a fresh way, live in newness of life, and serve You in newness of spirit. Lord, save us from being defiled or becoming unholy. Save us from being cut off from the enjoyment of Christ. We return to You, Lord, and we take You as our all-inclusive good land. You are everything to us, and You are our enjoyment and supply for us to live a holy life for the church life.
Living a Holy Life and Enjoying Christ in Fellowship with the Saints in a Fresh Way
Again and again in Lev. 18-20 God tells His people, You shall be holy, for I, Jehovah your God, I am holy (see Lev. 19:2; 20:7, 26). Our God is a holy God, and we should have a holy living that matches our holy God and expresses Him.
Being holy because God is holy signifies that we should walk according to God’s holiness, thus living a holy life. According to the holy One who has called us, we all should be holy in all our manner of life (1 Pet. 1:15).
We need to be persons who live in a holy manner of life and godliness so that God would be expressed through us and He would be sanctified in us (2 Pet. 3:11).
In our holy living as God’s people it is important for us to have fellowship, communion, mutual enjoyment in peace.
In Lev. 19:5-6 the peace offering is mentioned, and in particular the enjoyment of this offering is being referred to; God wanted His people to offer this sacrifice in a way it may be accepted.
The peace offering is a type of the breaking of bread at the Lord’s table for remembering the Lord, and it also a type of our fellowship in peace and enjoyment in the church life.
The breaking of bread for the remembrance of the Lord must be done in a way that is acceptable to the Lord, not in an abusive way but in a proper way (1 Cor. 11:17-21). In living a holy life for the church life it important that we have fellowship, communion, mutual enjoyment, in peace.
Christ is our peace offering; He made peace between us and God and between us and others, and He has brought us into fellowship with one another in the Lord.
The peace offering was not to be eaten on the second or third day but rather, what was left over on the third day had to be burned with fire (Lev. 19:6). This signifies that the saints’ fellowship with one another and with God should be kept fresh.
Our enjoyment of Christ as the peace offering for our fellowship with God and with one another should be fresh. If the peace offering was eaten on the third day, it was stale, and it was an abomination – not to be accepted by God (v. 7).
Our enjoyment of the saints fellowship with one another and with God is not acceptable but abhorrent to God.
Especially when we come to the Lord’s table meeting, we should not have any stale practices or enjoy any stale portions. Rather, we need to enjoy the Lord in a fresh and new way, coming to the Lord’s table with something new of Christ.
This means that we need to repent to the Lord in a new way, have a new confession, have new dealings with the Lord, and have a new touch with the Lord. Our enjoyment of the Lord and with the saints should be fresh and new, living, not stale.
For us to have a new and fresh enjoyment we need to bathe in the Word to be filled with the Spirit, being washed by the water in the Word (Eph. 5:25-27). In this way we will have a fresh enjoyment of the Lord, and He will also have a fresh enjoyment because our enjoyment is fresh.
But if we participate in the saints’ stale fellowship we are guilty of having despised the holy things of God, and we will lose the fellowship among God’s people (see v. 8).
Stale fellowship with one another and with God is not acceptable but abhorrent to God (see Lev. 19:5-7); what we need to do is walk in newness of life and serve in newness of spirit (Rom. 6:4; 7:6).
The divine life we enjoy and experience is always new and living, and therefore our enjoyment of Christ should always be fresh – never stale or old. May the Lord save us from ever becoming stale in our fellowship with Him or with the saints.
We always need to see some new revelation of Christ and have new experiences of Christ every day. It is good to tell the Lord,
Lord Jesus, we want to walk in newness of life and serve You in newness of spirit! Save us from participating in stale fellowship. We don’t want to ever lose the fellowship among Your people. Lord, keep us fresh with You. May Your presence be freshly with us all the time. We want to be new, fresh, active, and living believers who are here living a holy life for the church life and becoming the holy city, New Jerusalem. Amen, Lord, we want to touch You afresh, repent in a fresh way, confess in a new way, and have a fresh contact with You all the time, especially when we come to fellowship with the saints at the Lord’s table.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 49 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (2), week 7, Chosen to Be Holy with a Holy Living to Express the Holy God and Become the Holy City.
- Hymns on this topic:
# How could we ever lukewarm be / When on His face we gaze? / O Lord, we give ourselves to You / To set us all ablaze! (Hymns #1262)
# Will you be an overcomer? / Never lukewarm be, / Ne’er content with what you’ve gotten, / More you need to see. (Hymns #894)
# To Jesus every day we find our hearts are closer drawn; / He’s fairer than the sons of men and fresher than the morn; / He’s all that we can say of Him in fairest words and more, / And every day He’s dearer than He was the day before. (Hymns #1152)
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