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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:5-6; 4:2-3
In this chapter we will cover the things that a serving one should build up before the Lord. In order to be useful in the Lord’s hand, one who serves Him must first be properly built up.
We have said that if a person desires to be used by the Lord, he must realize that his natural life is unusable in the Lord’s hand and that he himself is totally corrupt before the Lord. The natural life is nothing but a thornbush, and the self is nothing but leprosy. However, every truth in the Bible is twofold, showing us something in one aspect and then something else in another aspect. Both aspects are true. Any doctrine that is not two-sided is defective. Concerning our being useful in the Lord’s hand, there are two aspects. One aspect about which we have heard much is the tearing down of the self. Formerly, you may have felt that you were talented and very capable or that you were better than others. But now you have seen a vision that your natural life is nothing but a thornbush and your self, nothing but leprosy. Once you realize this, you will spontaneously fall down and collapse. To collapse is to be broken. Actually, God always shines upon us and leads us in the principle of breaking. On one hand, the Bible shows us that a person who serves God must be adequately broken. It is true that his natural life, self, temperament, and disposition need to be touched by the Lord, broken, and torn down. On the other hand, the Bible shows us that something must be built up in a person who serves the Lord. This building up refers not only to the inward constitution of the Lord’s life but also to the development of his character. What does this mean? We must cover this in more detail.
First, we need to see that God would never use what is of us for the work that He wants us to do, just as the flame of fire burned upon the thornbush without consuming it. We cannot add anything to God’s work. However, when God does use us, we must be fit for His use. Although the thornbush was not the material that fueled the fire, it nevertheless upheld and showed forth the flames. Brothers and sisters, please remember that when God uses you to accomplish His work, you cannot add anything of your own, since all that you have does not avail in God’s work. Yet on the other hand, it may be questionable whether you can be used by the Lord and whether His work can be carried out through you.
For example, when I put a Bible, a hymnal, and a cup of water on a table, the table will never add a drop of water to my cup, a verse or a chapter to my Bible, or a hymn to my hymnal. But here is a problem: if the table is tilted, I will not be able to put a cup on it. In one sense I do not use the table at all, because it does not add anything to my Bible, my cup, or my hymnal. However, there is the question of whether I am able to place my Bible, cup, or hymnal steadily on the table.
So never assume that you are clear about the Lord’s teaching and say, “Well, we are just thornbushes; we have no function in God’s work, and we cannot add glow to His fire. We are just persons upon whom God’s flame can burn as brightly as He desires. Anyway, He does not use us as fuel. We are merely bushes with no responsibility.” I am afraid that many saints hold such a concept. If you do, you are wrong. It is true that the table does not add anything to the contents of the Bible, hymnal, or cup when I put them on top of it. However, if the table is not set properly, so that it is level and stable, I will not be able to use it at all. On one hand, I do not utilize anything of the table, yet on the other hand, I must use it. Similarly, even though God does not use what is of us, our proper condition and situation qualify us to be used by Him.
Remember, whether the flames of God will burn upon a particular thornbush is a conditional matter. Do not assume that God will burn upon any thornbush. This is not so. God’s fire can burn upon Moses but not necessarily upon you. Although God did not use Moses as the fuel, He could burn upon him. However, He may not be able to burn upon you.
We should acknowledge that we can contribute absolutely nothing to what God wants to produce in us. Paul says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:5-6). This means that whatever Paul had could never be added into God’s holy fire. He also says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us” (4:7). This power comes entirely from the treasure and not at all from us. On the other hand, Paul also says, “Therefore having this ministry as we have been shown mercy...we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God” (vv. 1-2). While Paul confessed to his own insufficiency, he also told us that he bore much responsibility. We can readily see here that God used Paul, though not the things of Paul.
Having seen the principle, we will now consider a few practical matters. For example, if we are doing the Lord’s work among the Chinese-speaking people in Taiwan, can we be illiterate in Chinese? Surely we cannot. “Why not?” you may ask. “If the fire that burned upon the bush had no need of the bush as its fuel, why do I need to know Chinese? Literate or not, I am still a bush. What difference does literacy make?”
This illustrates that although the fire burning upon the bush does not use the bush as its fuel, there still is the need to pay attention to the bush itself. For God to give His complete and detailed set of laws to the Israelites, He needed a servant like Moses. Every student of law considers the Roman law a requirement in his studies, and the Roman law derived its principles from the Old Testament. Even until now, no law is more complete or more lofty than the law of Moses, because the law written by Moses was from God. The question is this: had Moses not been educated with the knowledge of that time but rather had been an unlearned peasant, do you think God could have used him? I absolutely believe not.
When I was first saved, I met some people who had the idea that education was unnecessary. They thought that if we have God’s love, all is well; it is completely useless to be educated. This is a wrong concept. Undoubtedly, it is the fire that burns upon the bush, but still the bush must be qualified in order for God to ignite this fire upon it. Some thornbushes meet the requirements, whereas others do not. The flame of God’s deliverance of the Israelites and the giving of the law could burn only upon Moses, and on no one else, because there was no other person who was qualified.
In this chapter we are considering the need for character building in order that some could meet the requirements. God does not need you as the fuel, but when He uses you, you must have the proper qualifications. To be usable, a table must be level and stable. A carpenter must work on it, attach four legs, and polish the surface. This is the building work of a carpenter to make it a suitable piece of furniture.
According to our continuous observation, we must conclude that many brothers and sisters are of little use to God because they are ill-qualified for His use. They are like a table that is not quite straight, upright, level, or stable. God’s fire could burn upon Moses but not upon them, because Moses was qualified for God’s burning, whereas they are not.
I would like to give another example. Suppose there is a downpour today, and you have put several basins under the building’s eaves to collect rainwater. All the basins will be filled within a short time. However, if some of the basins are cracked and full of holes, could any water stay in them? No. The leaking simply offsets the filling, and regardless of how much it rains, all the water that comes into the basins will eventually run out. It is easy to see that these containers are inadequate. Suppose some other basins are not merely broken and leaking but are almost flat. Surely all the water will run out despite the continuous rain. Such basins do not meet the requirements for holding water. We need water to bathe, wash clothes, and water the plants. It is true that the basins themselves cannot produce water, and it is true that what we actually use is the water and not the basins. We use the water all year long. We do not use anything from the basins except the water that falls into them. Nevertheless, from another viewpoint, the ability of the basins to hold water depends on whether they meet the requirements. Some are able to hold water, whereas others are not.
Brothers and sisters, are you a basin with holes, a broken basin, or a flat one? There must be a certain building up in a person who serves God. The dimension of depth must be added to the flat surface, and all the leaks and cracks must be patched. Furthermore, your capacity must be enlarged. As a basin, you may be able to hold four gallons of water on the first day. After four days you may hold eight gallons, and then twenty gallons in another ten days. Originally, you may be only three inches tall. Two days later you may extend to one foot. Brothers and sisters, remember that the extent of our usefulness to God depends on the extent of His building work in us. The amount of building up in us determines the measure of our usefulness to Him. If God does not find us built up, He cannot use us.
Now let us discuss a few matters that need to be built up in us. They are all essential. We will not be useful to God if we lack even one of them.
At the very least, one who wishes to be used by God must certainly receive some education. It is difficult for an unlearned person who has not developed his mind through education to be useful to God. Being educated is a condition that we must fulfill in order for God to use us. Although we all seem to acknowledge this fact, I still need to add a few words.
We have not paid adequate attention to language learning. In principle, we all should have considered this when we were young. For instance, there are some who cannot read reference materials in foreign languages. This is a big problem. Students of the sciences used to be required to read German because most of the scientific publications were in that language. It was not that they liked to speak German; rather, they needed to research the scientific materials in German. Similarly, throughout church history spiritual materials were written either in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or English. To use these reference materials, you must know these languages. For this reason the young people should study Hebrew, Greek, and English. They need to study some of these languages in order to use the reference books.
Moreover, I have discovered from the writings of some brothers and sisters that even their Chinese is inadequate. Actually, our language need not be complex or elegant but simply understandable and expressive of our thoughts. This matter also affects our usefulness in God’s hand.
Brothers and sisters, if you can use a reference book in Greek, read English, and write fluently in Chinese, you will see how much your usefulness will multiply in the Lord’s hand. Regretfully, you have not paid attention to this and have wasted much time. As a rule, you should spend one hour each day studying a language. In a year you will be able to use reference materials in Hebrew. Similar proficiency in Greek will require only half a year. If you spend an hour a day studying English, you will be able to do translation work in three years. Since it is more difficult to translate from Chinese to English, an ability to translate from English to Chinese will be sufficient. If we do not build ourselves up in such matters, we will reduce our usefulness in God’s work.
However, this is still not my point. My point is actually character development, a matter that I fear many have ignored.
When we speak of a person’s character, it is difficult to say whether it is a matter of the spirit, the soul, or the body. Actually, it involves all three. For instance, laziness is a problem of character. Some may say that it is a matter of habit; actually, it is a matter of character. Is it the spirit that is lazy, or is it the soul or the body? It is difficult to say. The spirit, the soul, and the body are all lazy. This is a problem of character. Consider another example: some people are so sloppy that they confuse the book of Mark with the book of Matthew and the book of Matthew with Galatians. If we ask them how many chapters there are in the Gospel of Matthew, they will answer that there are sixteen. While some people are this careless, others take things most seriously and perform their work meticulously. These are all matters of character.
I agree that a person who does not have a strong spirit is of little use in the Lord’s hand. The same is true of one who lacks a strong mind and a clear understanding and of one who is weak physically. We need to be built up in our spirit, soul, and body before we can be useful to God. However, what we are discussing here concerns neither the spirit, nor the soul, nor the body, but character. If your character is deficient, you will not be of much use in the Lord’s hand. What then is character? It is the way you behave as a person, plus the person behind such behavior. A person’s character is his disposition, which has become his way of living.
We have mentioned that character is composed of two things: inborn nature and acquired habits. A newborn child has only an inborn nature, not acquired habits. But you and I have both. We may say that nature is the skeleton, and habits are the flesh and the skin. Together, they form one’s character. If we send a Chinese child to America as soon as he is born, when he grows up, he will be full of American temperament. We can see from this that a person’s acquired habits are more influential than his inborn nature. When our inborn nature combined with our acquired habits become the way we live, the result is our character. Our character affects our usefulness to God more than our spirit, soul, and body.
When I began to serve the Lord, I did not understand this matter, and it did not seem important. In helping the brothers and sisters, I would merely tell them to study the Bible diligently, pray much, and be dealt with before the Lord. I still admit that these points definitely have their usefulness and place. But I have seen persons who prayed, studied the Bible, and pursued the Lord fervently, yet they were not of much use to God. In the past I noticed only the result but not the cause. Now I have discovered the nullifying factor: a faulty character prevents such persons from being useful. Their character has canceled the effectiveness of their Bible study and prayer.
Dear brothers and sisters, neither your spirit, nor your soul, nor your body can replace you; nearly your whole being exists in your character. Allow me to say that, because your character is deficient, merely to have a strong spirit is not adequate. I once knew a sister and was quite familiar with her situation. She loved the Lord very much, pursued after Him, and spent time in prayer, Bible reading, and meetings. Nevertheless, one could not find much usefulness in her. Previously, I was perplexed by this. Gradually, I found out that it was due to an undeveloped character. Although she could pray in her room for one to two hours, and pray in a good way, once she began to take care of business, meet people, and deal with things, she was altogether sloppy. When she conversed with others, what she spoke usually differed from what she thought. Then, when asked, she inevitably denied that she had spoken a certain thing. Did she intentionally lie, or did she purposely deceive? No, that was simply her way of behaving. Please consider, could God use a person with such a character? No, absolutely not. Now we see what character is and how character is related to our usefulness. Please remember that God does not use what is of you in His work, but He needs you as His means to work. If you are not thus qualified, God cannot use you.
Let me give you another small example, something which I have observed many times. I asked a brother to take a letter to another brother. After a few days I met him again and asked him whether he had delivered the message. He replied, “Oh, I completely forgot.” Do not think that this is a small matter. It reveals his condition as well as his character. In principle, a person whose character has been dealt with and built up will first consider his own ability to do a job before he accepts a request. If he cannot do it, he will not accept the request; but if he is able, he will do it immediately. Either I should refuse a request, or I should accept it and carry it out, even if I must go to hell to do so. Do you think God can entrust anything to a person who will accept a request carelessly but who will not fulfill his word afterward? Can God entrust him with His work? In other words, can such a person receive God’s commission or God’s leading? Not at all.
Many in the Lord’s service have a big problem in their character — laziness. I have several points to cover concerning this matter. This is by no means a great doctrine, yet it has much to do with our usefulness to the Lord. The first characteristic of one who serves the Lord must be diligence. A lazy person is useless to God. Can you find a verse in the Bible which tells us that God spoke to Moses in the evening? On the contrary, in a number of instances God called Moses early and told him to go in the morning to a certain place to meet Pharaoh. Dear brothers and sisters, a slothful person can never be useful to God. Diligence must be built into our blood.
I do not wish to find fault with you, but I feel that I have a responsibility before the Lord to say this to you: some of you impress me as being lazy. There are many proofs of this. Forgive me for telling you that you are lazy. O brothers! O sisters! Allow me the liberty to say this, and believe what I say. I was once your age. I have also passed through what you are now learning and pursuing regarding the Lord’s service. I am clear by watching you from the sidelines. I realize that you are not intentionally lazy but are so because there is not the element of diligence in your character. Because your past living, circumstances, and habits did not help to build diligence into your character, you now are short of it.
At this point I must ask all of you, even the Chinese people, to forgive me. Today our country is not strong enough; it is not what it should be. We are making progress too slowly in politics, the economy, social condition, and education. Why is this? Rather than criticizing the leaders of the government, we must put the blame on our national character. We need to realize that the Chinese have a poor character. We are irresponsible, frivolous, and lazy; we pass the buck. With this kind of character, how can we succeed in building up a nation? I believe that our country would be strong if all those of average education were diligent.
My point is that since we Chinese are born in such a situation, when we serve God, we encounter many problems. As we have been raised in such an environment, if we are not completely revolutionized within and if we bring our national character into the Lord’s service, our service will never be successful. Such is an improper character. How deeply I am grieved concerning this matter. In our present condition we would probably make a great work small and a small work disappear. This has everything to do with our character.
Another common condition is that most of you do not do things earnestly; you lack aggressiveness and simply try to get by. You always begin something without finishing it. Your belongings are disorderly. And when you say that you are short of time, it is because you are loose and waste time. If this is how you brothers and sisters do things, could your Bible study be any different? If you do things sloppily, how can you be careful in your Bible study? Your character will be the same in everything you do.
I have often criticized the way you dress. I do not refer to the quality of your clothing. I realize from the way you dress that there is a shortage in your character. Your carelessness and sloppiness are seen in the way you dress. If you are careless in dressing, could you be fine in studying the Bible? Could you do your work well? Could your work be prevailing, and could it produce valuable results? I do not believe so. What you do always reflects your character. I say again, unless this character is replaced and a new one is built up, you will be useless in God’s hand. O brothers, you must exercise yourself in these daily matters to build up something in yourself so that the divine fire can burn upon you.
Do not think that I am stressing outward things. Also, do not assume that to emphasize character is unspiritual. Are you genuinely spiritual with such a faulty character? Brothers and sisters, I say again, you must build up a proper character. Unless this is built up in you, your usefulness to the Lord will be limited.
I hope that from now on especially the young people will begin to build up a character that is useful to the Lord so that every aspect of their living will be fit for the Lord’s use.
The Lord Jesus said that one who is faithful in the least will be faithful in much (Luke 16:10). If your dress, your home, and the things you do reveal that you are a careless and passive person, how can your service to the Lord be aggressive? It is hardly possible. If you have not built up a proper character, you can give only an ordinary message, not a prevailing one. Your prayers also will be ordinary, not prevailing. They will be the same today as they were two years ago, showing no progress at all. Brothers, we must improve our character; otherwise, we will accomplish nothing. Even if we receive grace, we will not be able to minister that grace in spirit, because we are simply not qualified.
I realize that my speaking has been somewhat fragmented, but I hope that from now on you will seize every occasion, large and small, to build up your character so that you will be suitable for God’s use. Because of your character, you do not receive any great light in reading the Bible, as others do. You would merely gloss over chapter 1 of the Gospel of Matthew, which speaks of Christ’s genealogy. Why did Matthew speak of Christ’s genealogy, whereas John did not? A person with a seeking character will definitely ask questions when he comes to this passage. May the Lord have mercy on us. I cannot speak too much in detail; I can only lay down a principle here. Just remember, our usefulness to God will be manifested only when we have a character suitable for His use.
