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Scripture Reading: 2 Tim. 3:1-5, 16-17; 2:21-22; 1:7; 4:22
The eleventh point concerning the humanity of Jesus is that it is necessary for the Lord’s recovery. We must realize that the letters written by Paul to Timothy and Titus were written for recovery, because at that time degradation had already occurred in the church life. History tells us that the Roman Empire began to decline at exactly the same time as the church, during the last part of the first century. By reading 2 Timothy 3, we see the situation that existed at the end of the first century. Paul said that in the last days perilous times would come, and it was not long before this prophecy was fulfilled. History tells us that by the end of the first century, there was much corruption and ruin in the society of the Roman Empire.
We are in exactly the same kind of situation today as was the early church. At that time the church was degraded and society was ruined, and it is clear that it is the same today. Therefore, we must all realize that we are in a situation that requires the Lord’s humanity for His recovery. There must be a group of people to stand against the tide of this age. But what is the way for us to stand? Is it by divine power? It is rather difficult to find much in these three books about divine power. These books are from Paul’s later ministry, which has very much to do with the humanity of Jesus.
We have previously mentioned from these books that the humanity of Jesus is necessary for the church service, which involves the co-workers, elders, deacons, and deaconesses. All the verses related to these serving ones mention something concerning the human virtues of the proper humanity. Paul did not tell Timothy to be an example in power, but in love, in word, and in the way he conducted himself. This is all a matter of humanity. All the qualifications for the church service are human virtues. The same principle applies to the Christian walk. To deal with the older brothers and sisters as well as the young brothers and sisters requires the uplifted humanity of Jesus.
It is abundantly clear from these three books that we need a strong, adequate, and proper humanity in order to have the Lord’s recovery in such a degraded time. We do not need divine power as much as we need the humanity of Jesus to stand up in such a degraded age. This is the standing power of the acacia wood. If we follow the course of today’s age, we are like the jellyfish, without any backbone. Whatever way the tide goes, the jellyfish follow. We need a strong backbone to stand against the current of today’s age for the Lord’s recovery, and this backbone can issue only from the humanity of Jesus. The background of these three books (the degradation of the church and the corruption of society) is exactly like today’s situation. Therefore, these three books should really be applied to us today.
The first five verses of 2 Timothy 3 show us the situation that existed at that time: “But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, not lovers of good, traitors, reckless, blinded with pride, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having an outward form of godliness, though denying its power; from these also turn away.”
In these verses there are exactly twenty-one items. The first is lovers of self. I believe that we all know that humanity is a matter of love. Human beings are not machines; they are loving beings. If there is no love, humanity will vanish. Suppose all the members of a family have no love. What kind of family will that be? Therefore, the first aspect of humanity is love. But love must be used in the proper way. If it is used wrongly, it is exceedingly dangerous. However, the proper use of love requires the proper humanity. Therefore, the first cause of the corruption of society is the misuse of love. Paul tells us that men will become lovers of self.
The second item is lovers of money. I do not believe that money has ever been more lovable than at the present time. The third is boasters. How the young people are boasting today! The fourth is arrogance. They are not only proud but arrogant. The fifth is revilers. We see so much of this today. The sixth is disobedient to parents. This is very prevalent today. It seems that human ethics have been changed. Some even say that it is good to be disobedient to parents. This comes straight from the devil. Any disobedience comes from Satan, the rebellious one. He is the source of all rebellion.
The seventh item is unthankfulness. The mood today is to be ungrateful to parents, ungrateful to grandparents, ungrateful to brothers and sisters, and even ungrateful to country. This is the real picture of today’s generation. And today’s younger generation is simply reaping the things sown by the older generation. The eighth is unholiness. People today simply hate to be holy. The ninth is to be without natural affection. Too many people do not have natural affection today, and they even boast of it.
The tenth item is implacable. This means that these people do not like to make peace with others. They do not like to forgive others, and they do not like to be reconciled to others. The more trouble they can make, the better. The more riots, the more turmoil, the happier they are. This is a prophecy that was fulfilled at the end of the first century and will also be fulfilled at the end of this age. In the prophecies of the Bible, there is always a double fulfillment: one at the present time and the other in the future. I believe that what we are seeing today is part of the fulfillment. People simply do not like to make peace. They talk about peace, yet they act the contrary.
The eleventh item refers to slanderers. These people always criticize good reports and carry evil reports about others. They are continually making all kinds of false reports. The twelfth item is without self-control. So many today have cast off all restraint. The thirteenth is savage men. They are like wild beasts — not only fierce but also wild. The fourteenth is nonlovers of good. In today’s world situation, evil and devilish people are teaching others to hate all good things. Instead of lovers of good, they are nonlovers of good. The fifteenth is traitors. These are those who are always betraying others. The sixteenth is those who are reckless. The seventeenth is those who are blinded with pride. The eighteenth is lovers of pleasure, and the nineteenth is nonlovers of God.
The last two items are seen in the phrase having an outward form of godliness, though denying its power. The twentieth is the outward form of godliness. This may refer to those who go to church on Sunday. You may say that they have an outward form of godliness, but they deny its power, which is the twenty-first item. What is the power of godliness? It is Jesus Christ. Too many Christians have an outward form of godliness, but they care nothing for Christ. They have the religious form, but they do not have Christ.
Nearly all of these twenty-one items are related to human virtues. We must love in a proper way. We must be right with God, we must be right with our parents, and we must be right with others. We must even be right with ourselves. Too many today are not right with themselves. They are wrong with God, wrong with their parents, wrong with each other, and even wrong with themselves. In a sense, they are not human. They are out of the proper humanity. Their humanity has been ruined to the uttermost.
The Lord is doing a recovery work in which He needs a people who realize and take Him as their humanity. In the midst of the degradation of the churches and the corruption of society, we are here for the Lord’s recovery. But for this we need a strong and proper humanity. It is not sufficient simply to shout, “Hallelujah!” or “Jesus is Lord!” It is not enough to have divine healing or the so-called power from on high. We must show this generation, and even the entire universe with the devil and all his demons, that we are taking the proper humanity to fulfill God’s purpose. We must declare and even proclaim to this universe that we are here as genuine men. We are here as a corporate man taking Jesus as our humanity. This will terrify the enemy. The tempter came to the Lord Jesus and said, “If You are the Son of God...” But the Lord Jesus answered by referring to Himself as a man (Matt. 4:3-4). That terrified the enemy. We must be “Jesusly” human. Every member of the church in the Lord’s recovery must be a proper man, even an “acacia” man. This will be a strong testimony, and the mouth of the enemy will be shut.
I realize that many people today are waiting to criticize the local churches. Whenever they are wrong, they will justify it, but when we are wrong in anything, they will tell everyone. There is only one way to shut their mouths, and that is by expressing the humanity of Jesus. Their conscience will have to agree with the proper humanity. So many opposing ones are waiting for the churches to fail. They are looking for any failure on our part. It is really a kind of suffering to us. Many of us were never opposed or criticized so much as when we came into the local church. To be in the local church is to collect much criticism from Christianity. However, this is not really criticism; it is something of the battlefield. But we cannot fight the battle without the proper humanity of the Lord Jesus. The proper humanity for the Lord’s recovery will surely shut all the critical, opposing mouths.
Then what is the way to enjoy such a humanity? In the above verses we are able to see five main items. By these we can see the apostle Paul’s concept concerning the way to take the humanity of Jesus. The first was to call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart. “Flee youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2 Tim. 2:22). When we call on the name of the Lord, we are really taking His humanity into us. Then Paul referred to the Scriptures: “All Scripture is God-breathed” (3:16). All Scripture is breathed out by God to make us genuine and proper men of God. We not only need to call on the Lord, but we must also breathe in every word of the Scriptures. This is simply to pray-read the Word. How important are these two items for taking the Lord’s humanity! We must call on the Lord, and we must breathe in His Word.
The third item is the Body life. Paul did not say simply to call on the Lord by yourself but with “those” (2:22). This is a corporate life. We enjoy the Lord’s humanity by being with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Fourth, Paul tells us that we have a spirit to exercise. “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power and of love and of sobermindedness” (1:7). And fifth, we have a wonderful person in our spirit: “The Lord be with your spirit” (4:22).
We have these five matters to practice: calling on the Lord, breathing in the Scriptures, having the Body life, exercising our spirit, and realizing the Lord Jesus within our spirit. This reveals the concept of the apostle Paul. We can enjoy the humanity of Jesus simply by these five things. We have to call on the Lord, we must breathe in the Word, and we must do these things in a Body way in the church life. For this we have such a strengthening factor in our spirit. The Lord Jesus, who is the real humanity, is in our spirit. By exercising our spirit to call on Him and to breathe in the Word in a corporate way, we simply enjoy His humanity.
Suppose that I am a young man, seventeen years of age. If I exercise my spirit to call on the Lord and to pray-read His Word with the brothers and sisters, do you believe that I could be disobedient to my parents? I do not believe so. There would be no need of anyone telling me to obey my parents. Spontaneously, I would be obedient to my parents because of the humanity of Jesus within me. And if I have been doing these things in the church life, do you believe that I could be boastful or arrogant? Never! Since I would have the proper humanity within me, I could never behave in that way. This issue does not come by teaching but by feeding on the Lord Jesus. The proper enjoyment of the humanity of Jesus will swallow up all the negative things and replace them with all the positive things.
We must pray for the entire situation of the Lord’s recovery, that all the brothers and sisters in the local churches may have a full enjoyment of the humanity of Jesus. Then we will be the acacia boards, standing steadfastly against the current of this evil age. This will be our strong testimony, and this will bring the recovery of the local church life to all the leading cities.
