Scripture reading: Matt. 20:26; Acts 20:18, 35; 1 Cor. 11:1; 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 12, 18-19; Phil. 2:5-8; 1 Pet. 2:21; 5:3<\/p>\n
I.First Corinthians reveals that we must live Christ for the church; but it is in Second Corinthians that we have a pattern of living Christ for the church; Paul is a pattern of living Christ for the church\u20141 Cor. 5:8; 6:7; 2 Cor. 1:8; 6:1-10:<\/strong><\/p>\n A.First Corinthians dealt with many problems, and these problems can be divided into two main categories: problems in the realm of human living and problems in the realm of divine administration\u20141 Cor. 7:2-5; 12:14-27.<\/p>\n B.Christ is the factor for solving the various problems in the realm of human living, and the church is the factor for solving the problems concerning divine administration\u20141 Cor. 1:5-9.<\/p>\n C.Paul’s word in 2 Corinthians 1:8 is not a matter of doctrine or revelation but of personal testimony; this testimony is part of the pattern\u20142 Cor. 1:8.<\/p>\n D.The wonderful revelation of First Corinthians needs the pattern set forth in Second Corinthians\u20142 Cor. 3:6, 8-9.<\/p>\n II.In Second Corinthians Paul presents a concrete pattern of living Christ for the church, becoming our model\u20142 Cor. 1:8-9, 12, 17-23:<\/strong><\/p>\n A.Paul continues in 1:9 to speak of not trusting in himself but in the God who raises the dead; to trust in the resurrecting God and not in ourselves is to live Christ; in this matter, he is a pattern of living Christ\u20142 Cor. 1:9.<\/p>\n B.Paul goes on in verse 12 to say that his conscience testifies that he lives in simplicity; to play politics was not his way of life; however, Paul did not live his own simplicity and sincerity, but the simplicity and sincerity of God\u20142 Cor. 1:12:<\/p>\n 1.The expression \u201cthe simplicity of God\u201d implies that God Himself is this simplicity; likewise, the term \u201cthe sincerity of God\u201d actually means that this sincerity is God Himself\u2014v. 12.<\/p>\n 2.Paul also says in 1:12 that he conducted himself in the world not by fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God; the grace of God is God; therefore, grace is not something of God, grace is God Himself\u2014v. 12.<\/p>\n C.Paul did not play politics, nor did he act lightly; Paul\u2019s Yes was Yes, and his No was No; whatever he purposed, he purposed by being one with the unchanging Christ of the faithful God\u20142 Cor. 1:17-18:<\/p>\n 1.Paul was absolutely one with Christ, God\u2019s Anointed, so he could say, \u201cBut as God is faithful, our word to you is not Yes and No\u201d\u2014v. 18.<\/p>\n 2.Christ is God\u2019s Anointed, and Paul was firmly joined to this One; Paul was a person who lived Christ, and he was one with the unchanging Christ of the faithful God; if we want to live Christ, we also must keep ourselves one with Christ\u2014vv. 21-23.<\/p>\n III.We need to see that all that is recorded in the book of Acts are patterns for us to follow; at the beginning of the church life, we have the pattern of distributing responsibility to others\u2014Acts 6:1-7:<\/strong><\/p>\n A.The selection of seven deacons to care for special needs is a very good pattern, and we need to follow this pattern in the church life today\u2014Acts 6:1-7.<\/p>\n B.Because Peter and the other apostles were responsible for the ministry of the word, they distributed the serving of tables to other saints; this is a pattern we need to follow today\u2014Acts 6:2-4.<\/p>\n C.According to this pattern, we should not take all the responsibilities upon our own shoulders but should distribute the responsibilities to all the saints; this is an important principle\u2014Acts 6:3-6.<\/p>\n IV.Elders need to be examples for the saints to follow, establishing a proper pattern in the service of the church\u2014Matt. 20:26; 1 Pet. 5:3:<\/strong><\/p>\n A.Elders must be pioneers and trail-blazers, opening the way for others; however, they should not act like \u201cbosses,\u201d not doing the work themselves but only giving orders to the saints; on the contrary, the elders should be servants and examples of the saints\u2014Matt. 20:26; 1 Pet. 5:3.<\/p>\n B.Elders should do things with their own hands in the service of the church, thereby establishing a pattern for others to see and follow; their pattern will stir up the spirit and heart of the saints to participate in the service of the church\u20141 Cor. 4:12; 1 Thes. 4:11.<\/p>\n C.To build up the church, the elders should not only preach the gospel and teach the truth but should also labor to establish a proper pattern for the saints to follow\u2014Acts 20:18, 35:<\/p>\n 1.A mother who raises a family not only teaches her children to do things but also does things together with them; because the children respect their mother, they follow her example and pattern\u2014Acts 20:28; 1 Thes. 2:1-12.<\/p>\n 2.Likewise, the elders should be examples to the saints, taking the lead in serving and caring for the church so that the believers can follow\u2014Acts 20:28; 1 Thes. 2:1-12.<\/p>\n D.The elders should avoid lording it over others but rather be among them, taking the lead in everything related to the church life, becoming patterns to the flock\u2014Matt. 23:8, 10-11; 20:25-27; 1 Pet. 5:3.<\/p>\n V.To us Christ is not only life but also a pattern; we learn from Him according to His pattern, not by our natural life but by Him as our life in resurrection\u2014John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21; Matt. 11:29:<\/strong><\/p>\n A.In His earthly life, He set up a pattern, as revealed in the Gospels; afterward, He was crucified and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit so that He could enter into us to be our life\u2014Eph. 4:20.<\/p>\n B.Having learned Christ, we are being conformed to the image of Christ in the mold of Christ as the pattern\u2014Rom. 8:29.<\/p>\n C.Philippians 1 is about magnifying Christ and living Christ; chapter 2 is about taking Christ as our pattern and model; this pattern is the standard of our salvation\u2014Phil. 1:20-21; 2:5.<\/p>\n VI.The sisters’ position and function in the church life are extremely important, and they need to become a proper pattern\u2014Gen. 2:21-22; Luke 8:1-3:<\/strong><\/p>\n A.In Christ as the Head of the Body, there is no distinction between male and female; but in the Body, there is a distinction between male and female, that is, between brothers and sisters\u2014Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13.<\/p>\n B.If we read the entire New Testament, we will realize that in the church life, from a certain perspective, the sisters’ position and function are even more important than the brothers’\u2014Luke 8:2-3; Rom. 16:1-3, 6, 12-13.<\/p>\n C.If the Body of Christ is to be strong, healthy, and sound, the sisters must be proper; whether a local church is strong or weak, healthy or sick, depends mainly on the sisters\u2014Rom. 16:1-2; Phil. 4:2-3.<\/p>\n D.The sisters are a crucial factor in the church life; they are the root of the church, the source of the church\u20141 Cor. 11:12; Rom. 16:1-4, 6, 12-13.<\/p>\n VII.Today in the Lord’s recovery, there is a desperate need among us to experience Christ as our pattern; we desperately need to experience Him as our crucified life\u2014Phil. 2:3-8:<\/strong><\/p>\n A.In the church life, if we do not take the crucified life as our pattern, we automatically live a life of selfish ambition and vainglory; there is no third way of life\u2014Phil. 2:3.<\/p>\n B.We must be honest with ourselves and consider the kind of life we have been living in the church; whenever we do not take the crucified life as our pattern, we live a life of vying for vainglory\u2014Phil. 2:3-8.<\/p>\n C.When this pattern becomes the believers’ inner life, it becomes their salvation; only this will make the apostle’s joy full\u2014Phil. 2:12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PERFECTING THE SAINTS SERIES ONE FELLOWSHIP FOR THE CHI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172,"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seq.qingmingshanghetu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}