If we have experience, we shall realize that all three things which the Lord counsels the church in Laodicea to buy—gold, white garments, and eyesalve—are just the Lord Himself. As we have seen, in typology, or in biblical figure, gold signifies two things: God’s divine nature and the living faith by which we appreciate and appropriate the divine nature. These two things are combined. If we do not have the living faith to appreciate and apply the divine nature, it cannot be ours. The divine nature can only become our enjoyment through our living faith. Christ is the embodiment of the divine nature, and He is also our living faith. If we have faith, then we can participate in the divine nature. This means that we must have Christ. We must pay the cost and tell the Lord, saying, “Lord, I have much knowledge of the Bible truths, but I admit that I don’t have much of You. Lord, I would rather have You than mere knowledge or vain teachings. Lord, You are the real gold, the embodiment of the divine nature. In order to appreciate and apply this divine nature, I need living faith. Yet, Lord, I don’t have this living faith, but I look unto You. Lord, be my living faith. I want to live by You as my faith, the faith of the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20). If you speak to the Lord in this way, He will immediately say, “All right, if you would gain Me, you must pay the price. There is a certain thing that I want you to drop because it is a hindrance and a frustration from My becoming your enjoyment. ” Dropping these things is the paying of the price. Many of us have experienced the Lord in this way. Often the Lord has said, “I am here. Do you want Me, or do you want that thing? If you want to keep that thing, then I shall stay away. Your hands are full of many things. You must drop them, empty your hands, and then grasp Me. Then you will have Me as your enjoyment. ” Only when we pay the price can we gain Christ.
Consider the words of the apostle Paul in Philippians 3:8 : “But surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them refuse that I may gain Christ. ” For Paul, there remained nothing except Christ. He spent everything for Christ, paying the full price. Whatever Paul had, he spent it to gain Christ. Today, we must follow this spirit to pay any price, even the cost of our lives, in order to gain Christ.
God treasures Christ more than anything else; the Lord Himself will be our treasure; He will hear us, He will be our delight, He will lift up our countenance, and His light will shine on our way.
He is so rich, He is so full,
He can fulfill all your needs!
He is so good, He is so sweet,
All your desire He exceeds!
Hallelujah! 😀
Jurupa Valley (Mira Loma), California, United States
Jun 12, 2022
The only way to obtain Christ is to set your mind on “the things above, ” (Christ & the Church) the eternal things which are above and not the temporal things that are passing away on the earth, distractions that take us away from God. The Church is heavenly, glorious, divine and is therefore is of God. 1Corinthians 1:2 says, “To the church OF GOD, which is in Corinth…”
Thus, the church has no name other than the fact that a certain number of people have received God’s life, in Christ, and meet together in a given city, therefore the ground of the church in that city is according to God and not according to man. Hallelujah!
Give up the world, Christ to obtain. Oh Lord Jesus, our heart is so small, but You desire to fill our small heart. This world cannot fill any man’s small heart, even though the world is so big. We love You. We want You only. Today and everyday.
He is so rich, He is so full,
He can fulfill all your needs!
He is so good, He is so sweet,
All your desire He exceeds!
If you have Christ, you have all joys;
Without this Christ, only pains;
Where there is Christ there morning is;
Where He is not, night remains
Very good hymn with very good message. It helps us to deny our flesh which lust on earthly things as opposed to our spirit which desires heavenly things. Brother Paul told us that the things we see are temporal, but things unseen are permanent. Therefore brothers and sisters let us focus on heaven things
We must calculate how to spend our time and energy properly so that our human life can have eternal value. We need to consider carefully whether or not it is reasonable and worthwhile to love God. If we know that we should love God after such calculations and decisions, it is worthwhile to lovethe Lord regardless of what we could gain from the world. The gain of this world cannot compare with loving the Lord. May we all have a revolutionary change in our value system so that we would "give up the world, Christ to obtain" (Hymns, #1025).
In 1947, while I was taking a walk in a park in Shanghai, I composed a hymn entitled "Give Up the World, Christ to Obtain" (Hymns, #1025). I appreciate stanza 3 the most, which says, (Though very great is all the world, / And very small is your heart, / Yet the great world with all its wealth / Never can fill your small heart." This hymn touches people's feelings very much. People are touched and stirred up as soon as they sing it; it is like they were injected with a stimulant.
I wrote this hymn in 1947. During that year I conducted a conference in Shanghai, and after that conference I spent a day resting in a scenic area. As I was strolling there, I was humming some random melodies to myself. While I was thus musing, verse three of the hymn came to me:
Though very great is all the world,
And very small is your heart,
Yet the great world with all its wealth,
Never can fill your small heart.
Now I would ask all the brothers and sisters over sixty years old to stand up and sing this verse. Your singing is too proper. There is no need to be so proper. You have to sing like I do. I break all the rules of singing, yet I stir up others' spirits. All of you older sisters should go to sing in your home meetings. You have to fire up everyone there. Do not think that only the young people can catch fire. If all the older ones sit still in the meeting, how can we have a good home meeting? But if the older ones would sing, their singing would surely cause the meeting to come alive. On this point I would ask you older ones to learn of me. Do not sing too properly. When you break the rules, sometimes you sing even better. Today I may be the oldest one among all of you. I do not sing well, but I sing with life. Please do not act like an old man or woman. You must be bold to sing.
...Hymns are the easiest way to stir up our spirit because they are the expressions of the poets' sentiments. Take, for example, "Give up the world, Christ to obtain" (Hymns, #1025). In the summer of 1948 I was in Shanghai, busy and tired from the work. One day some co-workers and I arranged to go to a park for a rest. It was then that this hymn was written. Whenever we sing this hymn in the meetings, our tiredness easily goes away and our spirits are refreshed. Sometimes you may be the first to come to the meeting. Even though you are only one person, you can start a hymn, playing and singing to yourself. As the brothers and sisters arrive one by one, they can join you in the singing. In this way, the meetings spontaneously will be enlivened.