Search
Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 1:9, 12; 2:13; 4:4, 4:13, 16; 12:18; 10:3-4; 3:14
If we get into the spirit of Paul’s Epistles to the Corinthians, we can see that at the time Paul wrote these two books he had the history of the children of Israel as a background. The whole history of the children of Israel is a complete type of the experiences of the New Testament Christians (1 Cor. 10:6a, 11). Many Christians are clear that the passover (5:7), the exodus from Egypt (10:1-2), the wandering in the wilderness (Heb. 3:7-19), and the enjoyment of the heavenly manna and the water out of the cleft rock (1 Cor. 10:3-4) are types of our Christian experience today. But most Christians are not so clear that the entering into the good land and the living, walking, working, and laboring in the good land are also types of our Christian experience (Col. 2:6-7). Our need is to know more and more about the living, the walking, the working, the laboring, and also the fighting of the people of Israel in the good land.
When Paul wrote these two letters, he must have had the background of this history before him. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 he said that Christ is our Passover. Then in chapter 10 he told us that today we are enjoying the heavenly manna and are drinking the living water out of the cleft rock (vv. 3-4). This means that in 1 Corinthians the people had been brought out of Egypt and were wandering in the wilderness. This was the real situation of the Corinthians, and in this respect, many of today’s Christians are Corinthians. We should not think that we are better than the Corinthians. Some talk about the heavenly church in the book of Ephesians, but not many are heavenly themselves. One can talk about the good land, about Canaan, but he may still be in Egypt or in the wilderness. When you are in your spirit, you are in the heavenlies (2:6) because the heavenlies cannot be separated from your spirit. The heavenlies are in the spirit, and the spirit is in the heavenlies [see footnote 1 on Heb. 4:16, Recovery Version]. Whenever you are living in the spirit, you are uplifted, and you are in the heavenlies. But do you think that today you are walking completely in the spirit?
The Corinthians talked about spiritual things, but they did so in a fleshy and soulish way. The apostle Paul told them in the first book that they were fleshy and not spiritual (3:1), and in chapter 2 of the first book, he spoke of soulish men (v. 14). A spiritual man (v. 15) is one who does not behave according to the flesh or act according to the soulish life but lives according to the spirit, that is, his spirit (Rom. 1:9) mingled with the Spirit of God (8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17). Such a one is dominated, governed, directed, moved, and led by such a mingled spirit. Although the Corinthians spoke much about spiritual things, the apostle Paul designated them as fleshy and soulish. They were talking about spiritual things in the soul and in the flesh. Some may talk about the heavenly things in Ephesians, but they do so as Corinthians — in the soul or in the flesh.
Paul’s second Epistle to the Corinthians is much deeper than the first. It seems that not many have paid attention to this second book. In Romans there is justification by faith, and in Ephesians there is the church as the Body of Christ. But what is the subject of 2 Corinthians? What is the impression that you get from this book? I must tell you that this book is absolutely in the spirit. Many Christians are living in their flesh or soul, not in their spirit. Many know something about the Holy Spirit, but too few know about their human spirit in which the Holy Spirit dwells [see Our Human Spirit in The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 3, published by Living Stream Ministry]. After the flesh and the soul in 1 Corinthians, we come to the spirit in 2 Corinthians. After the outer court and the Holy Place, we come to the Holy of Holies; after Egypt and the wilderness, we come to the good land, the land of Canaan. In this book we can see the good land. We can also see the practical life in the Holy of Holies. In this book we can see some human beings absolutely in the spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 1 Paul told us that he and his co-workers were “excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living” (v. 8). They had the response of death in themselves, that they should not base their confidence on themselves but on the very God, who raises the dead (v. 9). We need to be impressed with these words in verse 9 — “we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God.” Through the redemption of Christ, the very God, who is in the heavens, has come into us, into our spirit (Col. 1:27; 2 Tim. 4:22). Thank the Lord that He is now in our spirit, calling us to forget about the soulish things and turn to our spirit to meet Him. We should no longer trust in our self, in our soul, but in God who is in our spirit.
We may know the doctrine concerning no longer trusting in ourselves but in God. To say that we trust in God is easy, but in our experience it may be different. If a husband’s wife is not so nice to him, the first thing he usually does is to exercise his mind to consider his wife’s situation. This is what it means to trust in yourself. If we have really learned the lesson to trust no more in ourselves, we would not exercise our mind first but our spirit. Immediately, we should turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit to contact God. This practically means that we do not trust in ourselves but in God. We all need this kind of experience today.
In 2 Corinthians 1:12 Paul said that he conducted himself “not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God.” To trust in the self is bad, but to have fleshly wisdom is worse. Paul did not say human wisdom, but fleshly wisdom. We generally understand that wisdom has something to do with the mind, but Paul speaks of a kind of wisdom related to the flesh. Fleshly wisdom is versus the grace of God. Fleshly wisdom is something connecting the soul and the flesh. The grace of God is in the spirit, working through the soul and the body. We trust in God, and this God is working within us. Grace is the very God who is working within us. He is working from within our spirit through our soul and body in order that our whole being will be under His working. We should have no trust in ourselves but in God.
Our conversation, our walk, our living in this world, should not be something in our fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God. This means that we have stopped all our doings and that it is now God who is working within us from our spirit through our soul and body. Our whole being is under the working of God. This kind of person is living and walking in the Holy of Holies all the time.
Because Paul was such a person living in the Holy of Holies, he could say, “I had no rest in my spirit” (2:13). Paul did not say that he had no rest in his mind or in his heart. If you are going to understand 2 Corinthians, you have to pick up the key phrases such as “not base our confidence on ourselves but on God,” “not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God,” and “no rest in my spirit.” Paul did not even say that he had no rest in the Spirit, but “in my spirit.” Paul was a person living, walking, working, and even having his being in his spirit. He was not a man living in the soul or the flesh but a person living in the spirit. Thus, he could say that he had no rest in his spirit.
This shows us that Paul did not care for the circumstances or for what he thought or could see. He only cared for his spirit. His brother Titus had not come, so he did not have rest in his spirit. I like this phrase — in my spirit. We have to be brought into the realization of our spirit, and we have to learn how to do everything in our spirit. If we are going to be happy, we have to be happy in the spirit. If we are going to be sorrowful, we have to be sorrowful in the spirit. Many times we are happy merely in our emotions. We may not know how to be happy in the spirit. But we have to learn how to be happy in the spirit, how to have rest in our spirit. We need to learn to take care of the rest in our spirit and be persons living in the spirit.
Then in 4:13 Paul tells us that he and the brothers with him had “the same spirit of faith.” We have to learn to exercise the spirit to such an extent. Whatever we do and whatever we say, we have to be sure that we have the same spirit, that we are in the same spirit. This is not something in the soul or in the flesh, but in the spirit. When we go to see a brother, we have to go in the spirit. When we have fellowship, we must have it in the spirit.
Verse 16 of chapter 4 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” The inner man is our regenerated spirit as the life and person with our renewed soul as its organ. The outer man is our body as the organ with our soul as its life and person. The outer man is perishing, decaying, or being weakened, reduced, and consumed. But the inner man is being renewed, refreshed, encouraged, and strengthened by being nourished with the fresh supply of the resurrection life. As our mortal body, our outer man, is being consumed by the killing work of death, our inner man, that is, our regenerated spirit with the inward parts of our being (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; Rom. 7:22, 25), is being metabolically renewed day by day with the supply of the resurrection life.
The outer man has to be consumed. It is decaying and being reduced. The inner man has to be encouraged, refreshed. To understand the full meaning of what Paul says here, we have to put the first four chapters together. In the first chapter he told us that he was excessively burdened, beyond his power (v. 8). Then in the fourth chapter he showed us how he was pressed on every side, or afflicted in every way (v. 8). Verses 7 through 18 of chapter 4 show that the apostles lived a crucified life in resurrection, or the resurrection life under the killing of the cross, for the carrying out of their ministry. Paul was much afflicted and perplexed, but he realized that these afflictions and perplexities were doing a good job to reduce the outer man. But while the outer man was being reduced, the inner man was being refreshed and encouraged day by day. This means that we have to be kept away from our soul, the wilderness, the Holy Place. We must be kept fully and solely in the Holy of Holies. We have to live and act in the Holy of Holies.
To argue with people is to nourish or feed your soulish life. The more you argue, the stronger the outer man is. Sometimes a wife and a husband are tempted to quarrel or debate. Suppose that the wife is angry, but the brother would not say a word to his wife to argue with her. The brother may say that he did not say a word because he has learned to suffer. This way of acting, however, is not the Christian way, but it may be the way of the followers of Confucius or Buddha. If you would ask me why I do not argue with my wife, I would say that I do not like to feed or to nourish my soul. The more I argue with my wife, the more I feed my soul. We have to learn the lesson to starve the soul, to reduce the soul. The outer man should be reduced. We must realize that everything that happens to us has a purpose. God’s purpose is for our outer man to be reduced so that the inner man can be strengthened, refreshed, encouraged, nourished, and renewed day by day.
When our outer man is reduced and our inner man is renewed, we are kept in the Holy of Holies. It is here in the Holy of Holies, in our spirit, that we enjoy and experience Christ. It is here that we experience all the divine things with God and in God. Gradually, we ourselves will become a ministry. We will not merely be a minister, but we will be a minister with a ministry. Then we will minister life, God, and the riches of Christ to others. We will not just pass on certain teachings, doctrines, and knowledge to others. Whatever we do will be a ministering of Christ, of God, into others. This is the need today.
In 2 Corinthians 12:18 Paul said that he and Titus walked in the same spirit. This verse and the other verses we have fellowshipped show us what kind of person the apostle Paul was. He was a person fully, absolutely, and thoroughly living in the spirit. He would never be kept away from the spirit.
Because Paul lived in the spirit, he learned the lesson of how to deal with people’s thoughts. In 2 Corinthians there are three passages related to the matter of thoughts. In 3:14 Paul told us that the thoughts of the children of Israel were “hardened.” Then in 4:4 he said that the thoughts of the unbelievers have been “blinded” by the god of this age. Finally, in 10:5 Paul indicated that the thoughts need to be captured unto the obedience of Christ. The thoughts can be hardened by the self, blinded by the god of this age, or captured by the ones who have the ministry. They are captured by those who war, who fight the battle, not according to the flesh but with the weapons which are powerful before God (v. 4). When you have the ministry, when you are a person really living, walking, in the spirit, you are not fighting the battle according to the flesh, but you are equipped, qualified, to do a work to capture the thoughts of people, to bring all their thoughts into captivity unto the obedience of Christ.
You can never subdue people by arguing. The more you argue, the more you stir up the thoughts of people. Some people may come to you to challenge you to argue with them, but if you argue with them, you will only stir up their thoughts. However, if you are a person who has the ministry within, you will be qualified and equipped with the spiritual weapons that are powerful before God to cast down, or overthrow, the reasonings and to take captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ.
In 1 Corinthians there are the gifts, the knowledge, and the teachings. But in 2 Corinthians we cannot find these things. Neither can we find miracles or healings. Instead, we find a thorn in Paul’s flesh that the Lord refused to remove even after Paul entreated Him three times (12:7-9).
Paul asked the Lord to perform a miracle by taking away the thorn, but the Lord refused to do it. In this book we do not see miracles but sufferings. In 2 Corinthians there are no miracles, no healings, and no gifts, but sufferings to reduce the outer man that the ministry might be produced. The more we suffer and the more the outer man is reduced, the more we will have of the ministry. Then we will have something of the riches of Christ to minister to others. This is the need of the church today. The church is not in great need of miracles, gifts, teachings, or knowledge. Today the church needs the ministry of Christ. History has shown us that something may be built up by the gifts, but eventually what is built up will be torn down by the same gifts. This is a tragic story that has been repeated many times.
If we would be humbled by the grace of the Lord and learn how to live in the spirit, the sovereign Lord will assign each one of us a certain amount of suffering. The more we love the Lord Jesus, the more we will suffer something and the more we will be reduced. Eventually, a certain amount of ministry will be produced, and the church will be built up. This is what the church needs today.
