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The heavier a load that a boat carries, the lower it will sink, and the bigger the fruit that grows on a tree, the lower the branches will bend. The bigger a tree becomes, the deeper the roots will go. This is also true with those who have received more grace from God. Those who have not received very much grace are boastful; however, a humble person has always received more grace from God. Only God can cause a person to be humble. Humility is not thinking less about oneself; it is thinking nothing about oneself. Humility is not lightly esteeming oneself, but not considering oneself at all. A truly humble person is truly dead to himself. If the self has not died, a person may not act unbecomingly in an outward way, but he invariably steals glory for himself inwardly! Man's heart is more evil than anything! It is one thing to be humble and another thing to be withdrawn. The two should not be confused one with each other. Humility that results from self-strength or a natural disposition (some people are very humble by nature) will only lead to withdrawal, and the end is abandonment. True humility before the Lord does not withdraw at a crisis or pull back from advancement in the name of false meekness. In all things pertaining to God, it strives forward on the one hand, and acknowledges one's uselessness and powerlessness on the other hand. At the same time, it trusts in God moment by moment and "in all thy ways acknowledge[s] him" (Prov. 3:6). Those who are afraid of being put on the spot are not humble, but spiritually sick. How difficult it is to serve the Lord in humility and, at the same time, take up one's responsibility. However, the words "I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me" are trustworthy. Let us look to the Lord.
How sweet it is to obey the Lord! What a joy it is to suffer the loss of many things for the sake of obeying the Lord! Those who have never walked the way of obedience will not agree with this word. But no one who has walked the way of obedience is completely ignorant of this word. Those who take the way of obedience in a daily way consider loss as gain and shame as glory. There is a reward for obedience; the reward is the power to deny the self and obey the Lord when obedience is called for the next time. There is also a punishment for disobedience; the punishment is more self-will, more submission to the self, and more rebellion against the Lord when obedience is called for the next time. This is the reward and punishment in this age. The more we obey, the more the Lord is manifested. The more we suffer through obedience, the more our joy increases. If we knew this, we would honor the Lord very much! But there are degrees to our obedience! How difficult is absolute obedience for us! But, at the same time, how sweet it is! We can obey the Lord in everything only by dying to the self. When our self-will dies, the Lord's will is done. There is no better expression before the Lord than dying to our self-will. Unfortunately, man's heart is wicked, and our hearts are no better! Many of us spend all our time dwelling on our obedience in the past. We consider how much we loved the Lord and how pliable we were. But there are many areas where we have not yet obeyed! May we receive much grace from the Lord to consider our disobedience and our delay in obeying! If we do this, we will grow more in grace. Is our heart wicked? Yes. We fill our hearts with our past obedience, and we makes excuses for the areas where we have not obeyed or will not obey with words like: "Why the inflexibility?" "Don't be too extreme." "Can we not do it another way?" May the Lord shine His light on us so that we would realize that, behind these words, there are matters in which we will not obey or have not obeyed! Strangely, we consider the areas where we have obeyed to be unchangeable and the areas where we have not obeyed to be somewhat flexible! If we knew God's heart, would we act this way? It is difficult to bear the cross if we have not sat down and counted the cost.
Before we trusted in the Lord Jesus, we lived in sin and transgressions. We did not know anything about righteousness. After regeneration we gradually become aware of God's standard of holiness and goodness. Young believers often fall into danger because of the new knowledge they have acquired through regeneration. What do I mean? What is the danger? It is the danger of requiring too much righteousness from others! What does this mean? Based on the new light young believers have received, they make clear distinctions between right and wrong, and they measure others according to the spiritual standard that they know. When they see Christians whose acts do not match their words, they become very angry. If others fail slightly, they are ready to immediately condemn them with words like: "Why would he do this?" "Why would such a person do such a thing?" Every believer who tries to "exercise fairness" has not experienced the deep work of God's grace. If he advances in God's way, and if his spirit is perfected by the Spirit of God, he would be more forgiving. The Lord Jesus made a definite judgment concerning this type of behavior in His teaching on the mount. Believers should not demand that others be righteous. The Lord has not charged us to clamor for justice when we are beaten, coerced, or ill-treated. His command and teaching is to endure and give to others what they do not deserve. We should not demand that others be righteous, nor should we act merely on the basis of righteousness toward others. (We should not recompense others only according to what they deserve, even if they do deserve such recompense.) We should be perfect, as the Father who is in heaven is perfect, who sends rain to the righteous as well as to the unrighteous. As God's children, we should pay more attention to this matter, or we will be judged for being unmerciful to others with our words all the time. We should be very righteous towards ourselves, but very forgiving towards others. We must never be careless and fail to give others what is rightfully theirs; this is righteousness. But we should never demand that they do their duty; this is forgiveness. A Christian ought to be righteous but should not demand righteousness from others. If we do not practice this, our loss will be great! Moreover, this is the way that the Lord will gain those who will reign with Him.
Man's life does not consist of only a few major events. His life is expressed in many small things in his daily life. In order to know the spiritual condition of a man, we should not consider just his exposition of the Bible on the platform, nor his conduct among others in the believers' congregation. We should not look at his public life, but at his daily life, his smile, look, words, walk, and contact with others. At the beginning of the Christian life, a believer has many "performances." Much of his so-called love, faith, and endurance is a forced performance. He acquires these spiritual virtues through outward means; they do not issue from God's inward work. He can mask himself before men. But when he is by himself, the true self is exposed! In this condition, there is often a lack of true hatred towards sin. What do I mean? All we have to do is to consider his motives. When his shortcomings are slightly exposed, he becomes very depressed and very sorrowful. But if no one knows of his failure, his sorrow is greatly diminished! When a believer falls into this condition, the best thing that he can do is to forget about his "face" and go to God to confess his evil and wickedness. He should apply the accomplished work of the cross through the Holy Spirit and put to death his self, so that God's life can be fully lived out of Him. He should daily cooperate with the Holy Spirit and learn to acknowledge Him in all his ways (Prov. 3:6). If a man says that he lives in Christ, yet does not express His life in many small things, he should go before the Lord and ask Him to show him his real condition.
