“And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” (Col. 1:17)

Consist – from the Greek word “sunistemi” meaning:to unite, bring together, and then be held together.

Our Lord, in His creative activity, has brought all things together in harmonious unity, with the result that they cohere. Even in our chaotic state of seeming disorganized confusion, HE CONTINUES TO “work out all things after the counsel of His own will,” (Eph. 1:11), and it is impossible for things to utterly fall apart. There may be times when individually, in our personal situation and circumstance, the bottom seems to have fallen out, and everything is at loose ends, and appears to be thoroughly disjointed. Yet because “IN HIM we live, and move, and have our being,” (Acts 17:29), as we learn to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,” we find it does not totally disintegrate. Out of the bleak and barren, out of the rhymeless rhyme, out of the seeming nothingness He births another time, a time of life and victory, and we see that He truly does have it “all together.”

The loose ends, that to us appear miles apart, are held together in HIS hands, and He is in control of all things, steadily working out His plan of the ages. Ultimately all shall redound to His praise. “Having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” (Col. 1:20). In us there may yet remain much confusion, turmoil, enmity – but IN HIM it is all reconciled, and now He is working in us to bring us to this same state of total triumph, perfect peace and harmony. Ere time has run its course, we shall see how truly BY HIM ALL THINS CONSIST, have been placed and held together.

It remains, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” For “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” (1 Cor. 10:26). HE IS WITH US, in absolute control of our circumstances, to work it all together into our good, and for His praise. Because He holds us together, we can daily overcome!

“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations (ministries, services), but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.” (1 Cor. 12:4-6)

The Greek word translated as “operations” is “energeia” from which we get our English word “energy,” and it literally means an INWORKING.

There are many aspects and divisions of these Divine operations, but it is the SAME GOD which worketh all in all. No matter how diversified it may be, each individual with circumstances and situations peculiar to his own need and development and processing, nevertheless, it is the SAME GOD which is working it all together after the counsel of His own will, it will be to our good, and it will be to His praise.

Christendom’s theology appears to have two Gods working:God inworking the good, and the Devil working the bad things. With this duality in their consciousness they are in a constant state of confusion as to which Force is in control of their situation at any given time. Not until our eye is single unto the Lord, to know that HE IS SOVEREIGNLY IN CONTROL of the interplay of good and evil, do we begin to find a stability and confidence, and rest in the Lord, to “hold our peace” until He has finished His work, and we see how much it is truly GOD ALL THE WAY. The same God working all in all.

“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He have executed, and until He have performed the thoughts of His heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.” (Jer. 23:20).

The anger of the Lord – literally, the energy forces of God set in motion, reaching out to accomplish a purpose, to restore to rightness again. He uses His judgments, His disciplines, His corrections, with a view of bringing forth a state of righteousness. The end result is of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” And He INWORKS all things until that goal shall be consummated. What a mighty God we serve.

“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.” (Heb. 9:11)

Not of this building – the Greek word for “building” is “ktisis” in all other cases translated as creature or reaction. There is a greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not of this Adamic, earthy creation.

“But I say unto you, That in this place is One greater than the temple,” (Matt. 12:6). For the Lord of the temple was in their midst, and they knew Him not. He offered a way of LIFE, a life in the Spirit which superceded all the ordinances and rituals of their systems of worship.

Greater – Greek, “meizon” from the root “megas,” a million times. This denotes the tremendous superiority of the “greater and more perfect tabernacle.” Just as the figure of speech would say it is a million times better. One cannot even make a comparison between the first order and the second, for one is of the flesh, earth, and the other is of the Spirit, heavenly.

More perfect – “teleios,” ended, brought to the full, complete. It is also the word that is used in Matt. 5:48, “be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” It is perfection that is required for the whole man, for “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless.”(1 Thess. 5:23).

2 Peter 1:14 says, “I must put off my tabernacle.” Not only must all of the flesh works, observances, rituals, forms, ceremonies have to go, but even the body itself, this first tabernacle must give way for a new, a greater, a more perfect tabernacle. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, age-during in the heavens.” (2 Cor. 5:1).

“Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.” (Phil. 3:21). His body is the blueprint, the form and substance, the greater and more perfect, into which we are thus to be changed . To be “in Christ, a new creature (building).” (2 Cor. 5:17).