PERFECTING THE SAINTS

SERIES ONE
FELLOWSHIP FOR THE CHINESE-SPEAKING SERVING ONES IN NORTH AMERICA – 02.15.2026

Message Three

Paul’s Ministry to Complete the Word of God

Scripture reading: Col. 1:25-27; 2:2; Eph. 3:4-6, 9; 5:32; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; Rom. 8:2; Rev. 1:20

I.God has given the apostle Paul the stewardship of the grace of God to complete God’s New Testament economy in Christ—Eph. 3:2, 7-9; Col. 1:25:

A.The stewardship Paul received from God is very great; the stewardship of grace is to dispense the grace of God to His chosen ones to produce and build up the church—Eph. 3:2, 7-9.

B.Paul, according to the stewardship of God, became a deacon of the church to complete the word of God, that is, to complete the divine revelation—Col. 1:25.

C.Without Paul’s Epistles, the divine revelation in the written word of God would not have been completed; if these Epistles were removed from the Bible, there would be a great gap—Col. 1:25.

II.The apostle’s completing ministry is composed of Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ—Col. 1:25; 2:2; Eph. 3:4:

A.The mystery of God, which has been hidden since the ages, has mainly two aspects: Christ and the church, which is a great mystery—Eph. 5:32:

1.One aspect is the mystery of God, which is Christ; He is in the believers as their life and everything, making them members of His Body—Col. 2:2; 1:26-27.

2.The other aspect is the mystery of Christ, which is the church as His Body to express His fullness—Eph. 3:4-6; 1:22-23.

3.What the apostles testified was the mystery of God, that is, Christ as the embodiment of God and the church as the expression of Christ—Rom. 16:25-26; Col. 1:26-27; 2:2; 4:3; Eph. 3:4-6, 9.

B.This mystery is God’s economy to dispense His own embodiment, Christ, into His chosen ones to produce a Body as the increase of His embodiment in Christ, so that He may have a corporate expression—Eph. 3:4.

C.The apostles were appointed by the Lord to be such stewards, to distribute the mystery of God—Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ—to the believers; this dispensing service, this stewardship, is the ministry of the apostles—Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4.

D.Paul’s ministry was to complete the divine revelation of God’s New Testament economy, that is, the Triune God in Christ became the life-giving Spirit to produce the members of Christ to constitute and build up the Body of Christ, so that the Triune God might have a full expression in the universe—the fullness of God—Col. 1:25-27.

III.The word of God is God’s revelation, which was not completed before the New Testament; in the New Testament, the apostles, especially the apostle Paul, completed the word of God on the two points of the mystery of God (Christ) and the mystery of Christ (the church), thus giving us the full revelation of God’s economy—Col. 1:25:

A.The mystery concerning Christ and the church was hidden from the ages and from the generations, and was manifested to the saints, including all of us, the believers in Christ, only in the New Testament age—Col. 1:26:

1.The mystery hidden in God’s heart is God’s eternal economy, which is God’s eternal purpose with the desire of His heart to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity as the Father in the Son through The Spirit into His chosen ones—Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4.

2.To be their life and nature, making them the same as He is, as His reproduction, to become an organism, the Body of Christ, which is the new one, as the fullness of God, the expression of God, which will be ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem—Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2; Eph. 2:15-16; 1:22-23; 3:19.

3.He hid His purpose from the ages and generations; before the New Testament age, He did not reveal His purpose to anyone—Eph. 3:4-5.

B.The “mystery” in Colossians 1:26 is in apposition to “the word of God” in verse 25, indicating that the mystery here is the word of God—Col. 1:26.

C.This mystery is concerning Christ and the church, that is, the Head and the Body; through the apostle Paul’s unveiling of this mystery, the word of God, which is the divine revelation, was completed—Eph. 5:32.

IV.The Lord’s recovery today is the recovery of the central vision of Paul’s completing ministry—Acts 26:13-19; Col. 1:25; Eph. 5:32:

A.What Paul obeyed was not a doctrine, a teaching, a religious creed, or any theology, but the heavenly vision—Acts 26:19:

1.In this vision, Paul saw how the divine things concerning the Triune God are dispensed into His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people—Acts 26:17-18.

2.What Paul preached in Acts and what he wrote in his Epistles are the detailed descriptions of this heavenly vision which he had seen—Acts 26:16; 22:15; Eph. 3:3-6.

B.Paul’s ministry is a completing ministry—Col. 1:25:

1.In the New Testament, the apostles, especially the apostle Paul, completed the word of God, the divine revelation, concerning God as our content, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ, thus giving us a full revelation concerning God’s economy—2 Cor. 4:7; Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4.

2.Without Paul’s completing ministry, Christ’s heavenly ministry could not be carried out; without Christ’s heavenly ministry, Paul’s ministry would have no basis—Heb. 7:26; 9:24; Acts 20:24; 2 Cor. 4:1.

3.The goal of the Lord’s recovery is to complete the word of God; if the word of God is not completed, God’s purpose cannot be accomplished, and Christ cannot obtain His bride for His kingdom—Eph. 3:10-11; Rev. 19:7-9.

V.In Paul’s ministry, that is, in the completing ministry, there is a central vision—Col. 1:25-27; 2:2; 1 Cor. 15:45b:

A.This vision is that Christ, as the expression of God, has become the life-giving Spirit so that He can dispense Himself into us as our life, making us living members of His Body to express Him organically—1 Cor. 15:45b:

1.In the Lord’s recovery, He is striving to recover the All-Inclusive Christ dispensing Himself into the believers to make them His living Body—Rom. 8:10; 12:4-5; Eph. 3:17a; 4:16.

2.The Lord is recovering Christ as our life and everything and recovering the church as His Body, His fullness—Col. 3:4, 11, 16; 2:19.

3.The central vision of Paul’s completing ministry is God in us as our content, Christ as the mystery of God, and the church as the mystery of Christ—Rom. 9:23-24; 2 Cor. 4:7; Col. 2:2; Eph. 3:4.

4.The center of the Lord’s recovery is Christ and the church: Christ is the embodiment of God, the mystery of God; the church is the expression of Christ, the mystery of Christ—Col. 2:9; Eph. 3:19b; 1 Tim. 3:15-16.

5.The Lord wants to have a church composed of believers who have been infused, filled, and saturated with Himself as His Body for His expression; eventually, this living Body will become the beloved bride of Christ, preparing the way for His return—Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 19:7-9.

B.We need to see the vision of the central matter in the Lord’s recovery today—Prov. 29:18a:

1.God wants us to see that the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—in Christ has passed through the processes of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—John 1:14; 14:9-11; Col. 1:15; Acts 2:33, 36.

2.As the life-giving Spirit, the Lord is waiting for man to receive Him by believing into Him—1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; John 1:12-13; 3:15.

3.As soon as a person calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, Christ immediately enters into him, regenerates his spirit, dwells in his spirit, and mingles Himself with the person’s regenerated spirit, making the person truly one with Him—John 3:6.

VI.To be kept in the Lord’s recovery, we must “guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us”—2 Tim. 1:14:

A.According to verse 13, the deposit here must refer to the Lord’s deposit of the healthy words of God’s economy in us, including the riches of life in the Lord’s word; we must deposit the Lord’s healthy words into our being, just as we deposit money into a bank—1 Tim. 6:20; Col. 3:16; Psa. 119:72.

B.Holding the pattern of the healthy words means to live by the healthy words, being nourished in the words of the complete gospel of God’s New Testament economy and in the sweet words that contain and transmit the riches of Christ—2 Tim. 1:13; 1 Tim. 4:6.

C.If we are persons who exercise our spirit and move, behave, and live in The Spirit, whatever has been deposited into our being will be guarded through The Spirit who dwells in us—2 Tim. 1:12, 14.

D.In a dark and chaotic situation, we must hold fast to the enlightening and regulating word in the New Testament, which is the healthy teaching of God’s economy concerning the dispensing of God Himself in His Divine Trinity into His chosen people so that they may be constituted the Body of Christ as the manifestation of the Triune God—Titus 1:9; Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4.