2A In our experience we need to realize that we can be contending serpents who are apart from Christ as the life-giving Spirit; in the church life we can either be contending serpents or life-giving-Spirit drinkers—John 4:14; 7:37-39.
3二 约翰三章三十节说到基督的扩增,就是在二十九节里基督的新妇:
3B John 3:30 refers to the increase of Christ, which is the bride of Christ in verse 29:
41 照着我们天然的出生,我们都是习惯凭着我们蛇性的人而活;这就是照着善恶知识树的原则而活。
41 According to our natural birth, all of us automatically live by our serpentine being; this is to live according to the principle of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
52 Our natural life and living are not part of the increase of Christ; only the regenerated part of our being, our regenerated spirit, is Christ's increase—v. 6.
63 In a real and practical way, Christ should be our life and our person; we live Him and are one spirit with Him; we abide in Him, and He abides in us; therefore, He and we have one life and one living (Gal. 2:20; 4:19; John 15:5)—this is the serpentine people becoming the bride of Christ.
74 When we have this kind of living, then in reality we are serpentine beings in the process of transformation into the bride of Christ, the increase of Christ; the ultimate consummation of this bride will be the New Jerusalem as the tabernacle of God and the wife of the Lamb—Rev. 21:3, 9-10.