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Scripture Reading: John 1:1, 4, 14, 17; 8:32, 36; 14:6; Gal. 2:14; Eph. 1:13; 4:24
Prayer: Lord, bring us into Your light. We long to see light in Your light. Lord, thank You that although we were born in darkness, we have been regenerated into light. We are no longer sons of darkness but are children of light. We need more light. Speak something to us that will bring us into light. Lord, we trust in You.
In previous chapters we have seen that we need to know the Lord’s recovery in life and truth. In this chapter we will continue to consider the matter of the truth. In order to know what the truth is, we must come to the Gospel of John. The word truth is rarely mentioned in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. Its revelation begins in John, the Gospel of life. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Because the Word is the first item mentioned in the Gospel of John, it must be very significant. Verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” In the Word, which is God, is life. Life is in the Word. Verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.” The Greek word for reality in this verse is translated as “truth” elsewhere (e.g., 8:32). John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” The matters that we need to see in these verses are the Word, life, grace, and reality, or truth.
In chapter 8 the truth is mentioned again. Verse 32 says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” Verse 36 says, “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” These two verses use the truth and the Son interchangeably, revealing that the truth is actually a person, Christ the Son. Chapter 14 also reveals this in verse 6, which says, “Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life.” Both the truth and the life are a person, Christ Himself. Verse 17 mentions the Spirit of reality, which is the “another Comforter” mentioned in verse 16. The first Comforter is the Son, and the second Comforter is the Spirit of reality, which is also mentioned in 15:26 and 16:13. In 17:17 the Lord prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The word of the Father is the truth, and this truth sanctifies the church.
The Gospel of John also covers the matter of light. John 1:4 says, “The life was the light of men.” In 8:12 the Lord said, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall by no means walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” The term the light of life indicates that life becomes light.
The Word, life, grace, reality, the Spirit of reality, and light — along with the Son and the Father — are the basic factors in the Gospel of John. In other words, John is composed with the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — the Word, life, light, grace, and reality, or truth. These terms may be familiar to us, but we need to see that all these factors are a person, God Himself. The Father, the Son, the Spirit, the Word, life, and light are God. Grace is God for our enjoyment, and truth is God revealed and realized.
On God’s side, truth is God revealed; and on our side, it is God realized. When God reveals Himself, that is truth; and when we realize and touch God, that is also truth, or reality. When God is hidden, we do not have truth. The revelation of God is truth, but it needs our realization. Our realization goes along with God’s revelation. We cannot have realization without revelation. The revelation of God brings forth the realization of God in us. This is truth.
As we have seen in previous chapters, when we have the truth, we have light, for truth is the shining of light. The shining of light is actually light itself. Furthermore, light brings in life; light becomes life. Life is our enjoyment of God, which is grace. Grace is God Himself — the Father embodied in the Son and the Son realized as the Spirit enjoyed by us — and God is the Word. Therefore, the basic factors in John are like a circle — the beginning is joined to the end. The beginning is the Word; the end is the truth, reality; and the Word and the truth are one. The basic factors in John are one; they are all aspects of the Triune God. We must see this in order to understand what the truth is.
We have seen that truth is the real content of doctrines, but we must also see that truth is nothing less than God Himself. In Galatians 2:14 Paul says that Peter and the other Jewish believers who refused to eat with Gentile believers “were not walking in a straightforward way in relation to the truth of the gospel.” We sometimes speak of certain truths, such as the truth of the church, the truth of the kingdom, or the truth of baptism. According to this usage, the truth means a doctrine or teaching. However, the truth of the gospel is the reality of the gospel — God revealed and realized. Christians who emphasize doctrinal teaching may argue that the truth of the gospel in Galatians 2 is that, according to the New Testament gospel, the Gentile believers can eat with the Jewish believers. This argument is apparently right, but it is shortsighted — it is not the truth but a doctrine. The truth of the gospel is God revealed and realized because it is not a matter of whether the Gentiles can eat with the Jews but a matter of whether the Gentiles can enjoy God. In the Old Testament economy the Gentiles were alienated from enjoying God, but in the New Testament economy the Gentiles are allowed to enjoy God with the Jews. This is the truth of the gospel. We must come to God Himself as the truth.
Ephesians 1:13 says, “In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation.” In this verse the word of the truth and the gospel of your salvation are synonyms. Therefore, the truth is not a doctrine but salvation, which is the Lord Himself. When we touch the content of any doctrine, if we do not touch God Himself, we still do not have the truth. Most Christians think that we have the truth when we understand the contents of the doctrine. However, that is not truth but still doctrine. When we touch God, we have truth.
Ephesians 4:24 says, “Put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.” It is crucial to see what the reality is here. Some versions translate righteous and holiness of the reality as “righteousness and true holiness” (e.g., KJV). However, in Greek the definite article is emphatic, indicating a noun. The reality is not a small thing, for the new man was created in righteousness and holiness of the reality. In this verse the words according to God reveal that the reality is God Himself. According to the factors in John, the reality, the truth, is God as the Word, as the Father embodied in the Son and the Son realized as the Spirit to be life, light, and grace for our enjoyment. It was in the righteousness and holiness of such a reality that the new man was created.
Some Christians argue a great deal about matters such as whether to use wine or grape juice at the Lord’s table. They call their teachings the truth, and they say that others who teach differently do not have the truth. Actually, the teachings that they insist on are not the truth but doctrines, for the truth is God Himself. Other Christians stress matters such as the form of baptism, head covering, and the timing of the rapture. Such doctrinal teachings are not truth, because they are not God. Nevertheless, the revelation in the Bible concerning baptism, head covering, and the rapture does convey God as the truth. Brother Watchman Nee never introduced a teaching without God as the content. Whatever he taught was the truth, for it was full of God.
In our study of the Bible and Christian literature, we should not merely collect doctrines without God. Teachings emphasizing outward forms are vain doctrines. Truth is God revealed and realized in His many aspects, such as the basic factors we have seen in the Gospel of John. A teaching that does not convey God is not truth but a mere doctrine. Whether a teacher ministers truth to us or merely doctrine depends on whether his teaching ministers God to us. If God is ministered in his teaching, what he speaks is not merely doctrine but truth. Although he may be an eloquent and knowledgeable scholar, if his speaking does not minister God, it is not truth but mere doctrine.
The “holiness” people, such as the Amish, teach that Christians should wear only certain colors and styles of clothing. They have some scriptural basis, because 1 Timothy 2:9 says that women should “adorn themselves in proper clothing with modesty and sobriety.” However, their teachings about clothing are not the truth, because they do not convey God. Therefore, such teachings are not much different from the teachings of Confucius. We should not teach in this way. Even in teaching the sisters to wear modest apparel, we must minister God in Christ as life, light, and grace for their enjoyment. When we enjoy the living Christ, He will tell us what to wear.
If we are not clear about what the truth is, we may be divided by disagreements over doctrines. The real truth, Christ Himself, will prevent such division. We should not argue about matters such as the proper way to immerse people when we baptize them. As long as we baptize them in the power of the Spirit to transfer them into Christ, the way they enter the water does not matter. The truth stops different opinions. Without the truth, the more we discuss such matters, the more we are loaded with vain and divisive doctrines. The Brethren were divided mainly by disagreements over so-called truths related to matters such as the timing of the rapture. When we touch the matter of rapture, we should care only to minister Christ as life, light, and grace. When we minister Christ into the saints, He will be the nourishment that causes them to grow. This will produce the maturity that is necessary to be raptured.
We do not care for doctrinal arguments about matters such as the timing of the rapture, because they do not convey the reality of God. However, we do care for the proper doctrines, which convey the truth. All teachings, including those printed in our books, are doctrines, but not all doctrines are the same. Doctrines that convey Christ as reality are like grain, but doctrines that do not minister Christ and only lead to division are like chaff. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching.” The proper teaching of the Scriptures ministers Christ as the reality. If we know what the truth is, we will not be deceived by empty doctrines. The doctrines in the Bible convey the truth, which is God Himself in many aspects.
Question: What is the relationship between our receiving of the truth and our experience of it?
Answer: When we see the truth, we receive it, and it becomes our experience. Our receiving of the truth ushers us into the experience of it. If we reject a particular teaching from the Bible, we are rejecting God in that aspect and cannot experience Him as such. However, we must be careful not to interpret the Bible according to our old, natural concepts, for this will cause us to miss important aspects of the truth. When we genuinely receive the truth, we experience and practice it. Therefore, any real truth always issues in our experience of God, even the matter of the ground of the church. When we see the truth of the church ground and receive it, we apply it and experience an abundance of life.
In previous chapters we saw that life is God and that the truth is the content of the Bible. God is life to us through His steps of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, descension, and indwelling. The content of the Bible is the truth because the Bible reveals God to us. However, when we read the Bible, it is merely doctrine to us until the Spirit enlightens us. For this reason, we must daily touch the Lord and allow Him to deal with us so that we will have a sincere heart, an open spirit, and a pure conscience. Then when we read the Bible, the Spirit will enlighten us, and the doctrines in the Bible will become truth to us, which is God Himself, who is light, life, and grace. Thus, our receiving of the truth is our experience of God as truth. Everything that we speak and teach must convey such truth; otherwise, it is mere doctrine.
Question: Is it all right to speak things that we have not yet fully experienced?
Answer: A great teacher once said, “A good minister always speaks beyond what he has experienced.” We should not speak in pretense, but we often must speak concerning things that we have not fully experienced. In a sense, our ministry must always be ahead of our experience. The apostle Paul ministered beyond what he had experienced when he wrote concerning glorification (Rom. 8:17, 30). John also ministered beyond his experience when he wrote concerning the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21 — 22).
Ministering beyond our experience differs from teaching doctrines without life. The things that the apostles Paul and John taught beyond their experience were full of life. We may not have fully experienced what we minister, but whatever we minister should be the truth, which conveys God. The Bible is different from any other book, for it is full of God as the truth. When we read a piece of Christian literature, we should judge its value by whether it helps us to touch God.
Question: How is truth related to the growth in life?
Answer: The increase in truth results in the growth in life. As a believer receives more truth, life becomes more abundant in his experience. This is why we need to know the Bible, receive the truth, and care only for teaching that conveys God as life.
Question: What is grace?
Answer: According to John 1:17, when the Lord came, He brought grace, which is God Himself as our enjoyment. Many Christians define grace simply as unmerited favor. This is not wrong, but it is a shallow understanding. According to this definition, some consider grace to be material blessings, such as wealth and success in business and family life. God may allow us to have such things, but Paul counted all things other than Christ as refuse (Phil. 3:8). If grace were merely material blessings, when a believer is imprisoned for his faith, as Brother Watchmen Nee was, he would lose grace. This is absolutely false. Such ones surely receive more grace in their suffering.
Question: Ephesians 4:20-21 says, “You did not so learn Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus.” What does it mean to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus?
Answer: The phrase the reality is in Jesus refers to the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels, because His life was the expression of God. Everything the Lord did in His human life was God expressed and was therefore truth, reality. Thus, we learn Christ according to the living of Jesus in the four Gospels.
The Bible is the revelation of God as reality, but when we first read it, it is not such a revelation but only doctrine to us. When the Spirit enlightens us, the doctrine becomes reality. The word that Peter spoke in Matthew 16:16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” was a revelation to him. But when we first read it, it is not a revelation to us but a doctrine. Millions have read Peter’s word and received it merely as a doctrine. However, when the Spirit enlightens this word in the believers, it becomes revelation and truth. This is why the Spirit is called the Spirit of reality. It is the enlightening of the Spirit that brings revelation, reality, light, and life.
Question: Ephesians 4:25 says, “Having put off the lie, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” What does it mean to put off the lie and speak truth?
Answer: According to the natural concept, this may be taken to mean only that we should be sincere, honest. However, according to the context, to put off the lie means to put off everything false, which is to put off everything that is not Christ; and to speak the truth means to speak Christ, who is the reality. Ephesians 4:15 says, “Holding to truth.” According to the Lord’s word in John 14:6, truth in Ephesians indicates Christ along with all that He is, such as God, light, life, and grace.
We must see that the Lord’s recovery is altogether a matter of life and truth. Life and truth characterize the recovery. Life is God Himself in all His processes to reach man, and truth is God Himself as the reality. Accordingly, the purpose of the Lord’s recovery is to bring us back to God so that we may experience and participate in Him.
