Read and pray: “Flee also youthful lusts; but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22)
HAVING THE VISION OF GOD’S NEW TESTAMENT ECONOMY
After studying all the books of the Bible for many years, we begin to see the general revelation of the Bible concerning God’s New Testament economy. Through the Word, the Lord has shown us that in this economy, the Triune God became a man in the Son. This means that the accomplishment of this economy began with the incarnation. Through the human living, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, everything necessary for the fulfillment of the divine economy was accomplished.
After breathing the Spirit into the disciples essentially (John 20:22), the Lord, in His ascension, poured out the Spirit upon His Body economically (Acts 2:17). This pouring out of the Spirit was the completion of the fulfillment of God’s New Testament economy. Now the Triune God, as the all-inclusive processed Spirit, is in His chosen ones, upon them, and with them, carrying out His economy.
The Lord propagates Himself by infusing Himself into the believers to make them living members of His universal Body as His corporate vessel for His expression. Today this corporate vessel is expressed in various cities as churches, and all of them are lampstands shining in this dark age. Ultimately, all of them will culminate in the New Jerusalem, the final and ultimate consummation of God’s moving in His New Testament economy.
The crucial focus of God’s New Testament economy is the all-inclusive Christ as our life, our person, and our everything. The divine economy is not centered in a law, regulation, teaching, philosophy, or practice, but in a marvelous and all-inclusive Person. This Person is the embodiment of the processed Triune God, and He is perceived as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who is in us and upon us.
This Spirit operates in us so that we may be brought back directly to Christ to enjoy Him as everything. I hope that we will have a clear vision regarding this matter. If we have the vision of the divine economy, we will praise the Lord for the two years that He kept Paul in Caesarea. That was a time of preparation for Paul, a chosen vessel, to write the completing revelation he received from the Lord.
After the preparation in Caesarea, he was transferred to Rome. Then he wrote the excellent and completing Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Hebrews. If we want to have Paul’s ministry constituted in us, we need to study these four books.
In addition to writing these four Epistles, Paul also wrote 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. In 1 Timothy 1:3-4 Paul said to Timothy: “As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith.”
The phrase “teach no other doctrine” means “teach differently,” and the term service is, in the original, economy. Here, Paul exhorts us not to teach differently, but to teach the economy of God. According to 1 Timothy, the economy of God is centered on God manifested in the flesh (3:16). According to 1 Timothy 3:15, the church of the living God, the house of God, is the pillar and ground of the truth, and this truth is, in fact, the reality of God’s New Testament economy.
In 2 Timothy 1:14, we have this command: “That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” Then, in 2 Timothy 2:2, he continued: “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” Here, he ordered Timothy to pass on what he had received to others so that they, in turn, would teach others.
Moreover, Paul told Timothy to “flee youthful lusts; but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22). Here we see that calling on the name of the Lord has a definite place in carrying out God’s New Testament economy. To carry it out, we must continually call on the name of the Lord. We should not only call individually; we should also call on Him with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
We thank the Lord for the last eight Epistles written by Paul. If we did not have them, I don’t know where we would be concerning God’s New Testament economy. We also thank the Lord for the picture presented to us in Acts. After considering the remaining chapters of this book, we will have an even clearer vision of how to carry out God’s New Testament economy.
Enjoy more: Hymn S-47
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