We have found the Christ who’s all in all

In the meetings we should practice speaking to one another in the spirit. If we are not in the spirit, our speaking will make us dead. We can speak Hymns, #1153 to one another: "We have found the Christ who's all in all; / He is everything to us." The brothers can say, "We have found the Christ who's all in all," and the sisters can reply, "He is everything to us." However, we do not have to be so rigid. For example, the brothers can say, "We have found the Christ who's all in all," some sisters can say, "He is," and other sisters can continue and say, "Everything to us." This is living, not dead. Instead of being rigid when we speak to one another, we should be flexible and follow the Spirit. Hence, we must practice regularly. We can even practice speaking while we are at home. The brothers can speak to their wives, and the wives can speak to their husbands. When we speak to one another, we should be living, and we should be in spirit.

I want to give you another illustration of how we should never be contented with what we have. In John 6:57 the Lord tells us, "he who eats Me shall also live because of Me." A few hymns in our hymnal tell us that "eating is the way." We must ask ourselves what the eating way is. How do we eat Jesus? In my writings I have only given you a small amount of information on this subject. Because I did not give you an adequate definition of the way to eat Jesus, you must study this point. To fully understand this point you must take care of the entire context of John 6:57. In verse 63 the Lord says, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life." This indicates that to eat Jesus is to receive Him into us as life. This corresponds with the principle of eating. Eating is to receive some organic nourishment into your being as your life. Eating is to take in the life supply. Some might say that it is heretical to say that people can eat Jesus. The Bible, however, says to eat Jesus.

We must realize that to eat Jesus is a figure of speech. It indicates that we need Jesus as our life supply so we receive Him into us as life supply just as we eat food. The Lord uses bread to illustrate that He is the life supply by saying that He is the bread of life (John 6:48). We eat bread by receiving it into our organic body, by digesting it into our blood, fibers and tissue. Therefore, to eat Jesus is to receive Him into our being. He is the Spirit and the Spirit is in the Word, so we have to take His Word by exercising our spirit. Then we receive the Spirit in the Word. This is Jesus becoming our inner life supply. Here we could see the way to eat Jesus.

Chapter six of John also indicates the Lord's death, that is, His being slain. Verse 54 tells us that His blood is drinkable and that His flesh is eatable. Here flesh and blood are mentioned separately. When blood is separate from flesh, it indicates death. This helps us further to see how to eat Jesus. To eat Jesus means to receive the crucified and resurrected Christ through His Word by exercising our spirit to receive the life-giving Spirit as our life supply.

Referring to the Lord Jesus, Peter goes on to say in [1 Peter 1] verse 8, "Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, not seeing at present yet believing, you exult with unspeakable and glorified joy." It is a wonder and a mystery that the believers love One whom they have not seen. The phrase "in whom" modifies believing. We love Him whom we have not seen because of believing, because of the very faith which has been infused into us through hearing the living word (Gal. 3:2). Hence, this faith is under the testing, the proving, in verse 7.

According to verse 8, the believers "exult with unspeakable and glorified joy." Glorified joy is joy immersed in glory; hence, it is full of glory, that is, full of the Lord expressed.

The King James Version adopts the rendering "joy unspeakable and full of glory." We also have a song in our hymnal that says, "It is joy unspeakable and full of glory" (Hymns, #1153). Actually, Peter does not mean that we are full of glory. On the contrary, he speaks of a glorified joy. We exult with a joy that is immersed in glory. This joy is immersed in the Lord as glory; thus, it is full of the expression of the Lord.