I.　The content of God's entire New Testament economy in His complete salvation is Christ as the Son of Man cherishing us and as the Son of God nourishing us—Eph. 5:29:

A.　Christ as the Son of Man came to redeem us from sin, accomplishing His judicial redemption through His death (1 Tim. 1:15; Eph. 1:7)—cherishing.

B.　Christ as the Son of God came to impart the divine life into us abundantly, carrying out His organic salvation in His resurrection (John 10:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b)—nourishing.

II.　In His heavenly ministry, Christ shepherds the churches as the golden lampstands by cherishing them in His humanity as the Son of Man and nourishing them in His divinity as the High Priest—Rev. 1:12-13:

A.　The Son of Man is in His humanity, the golden girdle signifies His divinity becoming His energy, and the breasts are a sign of love; Christ's golden energy is exercised and motivated by His love to nourish the churches.

B.　As the Son of Man, He cherishes the churches in His humanity by trimming the wicks of the lampstands, cutting away everything that is not according to God's purpose, such as our flesh, our natural man, our self, and our old creation with all of our wrongdoings, shortages, failures, and defects—v. 13; Exo. 25:38; 30:7.

C.　As the High Priest with His divinity as the "energy belt," He nourishes us with Himself as the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry of three stages so that the saints may grow and mature in His divine life and become the overcomers in His sevenfold intensification—Heb. 8:1-2; Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:20.

III.　The members of the vital groups must shepherd people by cherishing and nourishing them:

A.　To cherish people is to make them happy, pleasant, and comfortable (Matt. 9:10; Luke 7:34); to nourish people is to feed them with the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry in His three stages—incarnation, inclusion, and intensification (Matt. 24:45-47).

B.　Cherishing and nourishing people should be by the divine and mystical life in resurrection (with the Lord's presence as the charming factor), not by the natural life in the old creation—John 5:19, 30; 6:57; Gal. 2:20.

IV.　We need to live a shepherding life, a life of ministering Christ to others in love for the building up of the church; this life is a fruitful life—Acts 20:20, 31; 1 Cor. 8:1; John 15:5:

A.　In taking care of the churches and in shepherding the saints, what is needed is the intimate concern of a ministering life—2 Cor. 7:2-3; Philem. 7, 12:

1.　In the shepherding of the saints, it is possible that we may kill others; the reason for this killing, this fruitlessness, is the lack of intimate concern—cf. 2 Cor. 3:6:

a.　The milk of the word of God, the life supply of Christ, should be used to nourish the new believers in Christ, not to "boil" them—Exo. 23:19b.

b.　If we have the ability to carry on a work but lack an intimate concern, our work will be fruitless; our heart must be enlarged to embrace all believers regardless of their condition—2 Cor. 6:10-11.

2.　How fruitful we are, how much fruit we bear, does not depend on what we are able to do; it depends on whether we have an intimate concern.

3.　A ministering life is a life that warms up others; if we would minister life to the saints, we must have a genuine concern for them, a concern that is emotional, deep, and intimate.

4.　We must shepherd the saints as a nursing mother and an exhorting father— 1 Thes. 2:7-8, 11-12.

B.　Love is the most excellent way for us to be anything and to do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ—2 Tim. 1:7; 1 Cor. 8:1; 12:31b:

1.　We must have the kind of love to go and tell the dormant ones who think that the church condemns them that the church does not condemn anyone; rather, the church wants to see all the dormant ones come back:

a.　Without the Lord's mercy, we would be the same as the dormant ones; therefore, we must love them.

b.　It all depends upon love, as the wise king Solomon said, "Love covers all transgressions" (Prov. 10:12b).

2.　Because the church is a home, a hospital, and a school, we must be one with the Lord to raise up, to heal, to recover, and to teach others in love:

a.　We must come down to the weak ones' level so that we can gain them— 2 Cor. 11:28-29; 1 Cor. 9:22; cf. Matt. 12:20.

b.　We must spend what we have, our possessions, and spend what we are, our being, for the sake of the saints—2 Cor. 12:15.

3.　Love is not jealous, is not provoked, does not take account of evil, covers all things, endures all things, never falls away, and is the greatest—1 Cor. 13:4-8, 13.