PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

A Normal Family Life in Christ

The roles of husband and wife in the God-ordained marriage are contrary to fallen humanity and the customs of today's society, but we believers can fully produce and enjoy a normal family life. Through a vision of God's ordination in marriage, and being filled with the Word of God and allowing the Spirit to bubble up from within his being, every believing husband can experience the grace of loving his wife in the very way that Christ loves the church, and every Christian wife can enter into the role of submitting to her husband as a living source of enjoyment and fulfillment rather than a doctrinal source of frustration and suffering. Together they can provide their children with the pleasure of a normal and healthy family life.

Witness Lee, in the article presented in this issue of Parenthood, singles out the secret to a normal family living as articulated by the apostle Paul in Ephesians and Colossians: "In his exhortation to wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters Paul is making a crucial point. This point is that for the sake of the church life, we need a proper human living in this present age. This is an extremely important lesson for us all to learn. We have such a human living not by our self-effort but by being filled in our regenerated spirit with the processed Triune God and by letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly, permeating and saturating our inner being. When we are filled with the processed Triune God and allow the word of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, to dwell in us richly, we shall be permeated, saturated, and soaked with the Triune God. Spontaneously we shall speak to one another, teaching, admonishing, in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and psalming to the Lord and giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Spontaneously we shall be subject to one another in the fear of Christ to live a proper human life, with wives subject to their own husbands, husbands loving their own wives, children obeying their parents, fathers nurturing their children, slaves obeying their masters, and masters giving their slaves that which is just and equal. This is the issue of being filled in our spirit with the Spirit and of letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly."

Colossians 3:16 says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God." Here the infilling of spiritual life that overflows in praising and singing is related to the Word, whereas in the parallel passage, Ephesians 5:18-20, the infilling of spiritual life is related to the Spirit. This indicates that the Word and the Spirit are identical (John 6:63b). A normal Christian life should be one that is filled with the Word that the Spirit may bubble from within in lauding melodies.

According to Colossians 3:16, when the word of Christ dwells in us richly, we shall teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to God. Teaching, admonishing, and singing are all related to the verb "dwell." This indicates that the way to let the Lord's word dwell in us richly is by teaching, admonishing, and singing. We should teach and admonish not only in words but also in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs....

In the past, many of us did not exercise our whole being when we came to the Word. Often we used only our mind to study the Bible. We did not even exercise our emotion adequately to love the Word, or exercise our will strongly to receive the Word. But if we exercise our whole being to take in the Word, eventually we shall be filled, occupied, and saturated with the living Word. Because the Word is the embodiment of the Spirit and because the Spirit is the reality of Christ, we shall automatically be filled with Christ. Then whatever we do or say will be in the name of Christ. This is to live Christ. We live Christ automatically when we are saturated with the Spirit.

Being Subject to One Another in the Fear of Christ to Live a Proper Human Life

Finally, by being filled in our spirit with the Spirit and by allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, we are subject to one another in the fear of Christ to live a proper human life. Ephesians 5:21 says, "Being subject to one another in the fear of Christ." Being subject to one another is also the overflow of being filled in spirit. Our subjection should be one to another, not only the younger ones to the older ones but also the older ones to the younger ones (1 Peter 5:5).

We are to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. According to the context, to be in the fear of Christ is to fear offending Him as the Head. This is related to Christ's headship (Ephesians 5:23) and involves our subjection one to another. Christ is the Head of the Body. If we mistreat any member of the Body, we offend the Head of the Body. We need to keep the relationship with the members of the Body in the fear of the Head.

The life of being filled in spirit and of speaking, singing, psalming, and thanking is a life of subjection. When we speak, sing, psalm, and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are willing to submit ourselves to one another. We all submit to Christ the Head and also to the Body. This submitting comes from the speaking, the singing, the psalming, and the giving of thanks, which in turn come from the infilling. When we are filled in our spirit, we sing, we psalm, we speak, and we thank. Spontaneously, we also submit. However, if we are not filled, there will be no speaking, singing, psalming, or thanking God, and consequently there will be no submitting. The proper church people are those who are submissive by speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks to God from their inner being. They live in the way of being filled in spirit with all the riches of Christ unto the fullness of God....

(continued on page 2)