In studying the Bible we have to pay attention to the following points:
In studying the Bible, the first thing we have to do is to find the main subject. Then we can go into the details. We must first have a grasp of the main subject of a portion of the Word, and then we must find out the various details. The details are supplementary, while the skeleton is the main subject. For example, Leviticus speaks of many kinds of offerings. It is of little use to merely understand the facts concerning the various offerings. We must see how the work of Christ satisfies God and how He satisfies the believers. In this way, we can relate all the offerings to God's pleasure in Christ and the saints' enjoyment of Christ. For example, the sin offering satisfies God, and Christ's death satisfies both God and the believers.
One must also find the proper lines in God's Word before he can have God's revelation and light. It is useless to struggle laboriously or to resort to some study techniques. When I was still in Trinity College, I read the Old Testament seven or eight times and the New Testament twenty or thirty times within a year. But I did not gain much from that kind of reading. In studying the Word, we can skim over the general verses, but we should pay attention to the crucial verses. I have been studying the Old and the New Testament in the Holy Spirit concerning the truth of Christ's coming again. I am still not finished with this study. I think that I would need fifty years to study this truth in a thorough way. If our daily reading of the Scripture in the morning and evening is a routine work, we will not receive much benefit from it. However, there are times in our reading and our time of fellowship when we are touched and overwhelmed by a certain truth. If we pay attention to the crucial truths in the Bible, we will readily receive God's revelations.
When we come to the Word, we should read through it consistently without trying to do anything more with it. It is even better if we would forget what we have read. Later, at an unexpected time, God will spontaneously reveal to us what we have read in the way that He sees fit. It is useless for us to strenuously try to understand the Word. Concordance-like expositions are unprofitable; we need divine exposition.
In studying the Word, one must view things from a broad angle, yet concentrate his study on the detailed points. This is like the engineers who work at the Canton-Swatow railway; their eyes must be set on the broad topography between Canton and Swatow and must not be caught up with the little ponds, houses, and hills along the route. In studying the Word, we have to pay attention to the big points and not be preoccupied with the small points. This is like connecting two points; the fastest way is to draw a straight line instead of meandering around in circles. Once my sister-in-law went to a department store to buy a pair of shorts. She spent over two hours in the store. The delay was caused by stopping to look at such things as toothbrushes and handkerchiefs. In studying the Word, we must first find the main highway and deal with the side streets afterward. This does not mean that the small points are not important; it means that we are putting them aside until later.
The Bible says that the Lord went into Jerusalem on a colt. If we waste our time studying such things as the color of the colt, the age of it, etc., we are being caught up with inconsequential things. Paul had a thorn. If we waste our time studying what kind of thorn it was or arguing if it was an eye disease or malaria, we are just studying the map and not actually embarking on the journey. If a man spends all of his time reading a map instead of walking, he is wasting time and energy, and his work is futile. Some have tried to determine whether the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a fig tree, vine tree, pomegranate tree, or olive tree. This is silly. The same is true when some try to find out who Cain's wife was. This kind of study does not bring any profit to the spiritual life.
There is no need to adhere to any form when reading the Bible. Some have asked how I live. I answered that I live in a very nonrigid fashion. Sometimes I visit people at midnight. Sometimes others visit me at six o'clock in the morning. The same should be true with our reading of the Word. We must follow the Spirit, not the form.
When most people think of sanctification, they think of the negative aspect of deliverance from sin. But biblical sanctification is toward God. Being sanctified is being separated unto God. Once we lay hold of the source, the other negative things will be dealt with easily. If the source of sanctification is God Himself, all the sins will be dealt with easily. Our view must be elevated to God's standard. Even in saving men, our center should be God, not man, because God wants to gain many sons. Therefore, we should work to save men, not because they are suffering, but because God wants to have sons. If our work is man-centered, we will not be able to sleep well when we get to heaven because we will see others still in hell. Some mothers will not be able to say "hallelujah" in heaven when they see their children in hell. Nothing of what we do should be earth-centered, and nothing should be self-centered. Everything should be divine and God-centered.
When I first read Sister Dora Yu's book, The Prayer Life, and saw two chapters on the Lord's coming, I was stirred up to study the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation very much. Later I met Miss M.E. Barber, who did not talk about the prophecies of the Lord's coming at all. I was very proud and thought that I understood much about prophecy. Yet in the course of our conversation, I found that she was the one who was truly waiting for the Lord's coming. My studying was genuine, but my waiting was not. I studied about the Lord's coming, but I was not waiting for it. However, she not only studied the prophecies of the Lord's coming, but she was genuinely waiting for it. Her studying and her waiting were both genuine.
In 1922 Miss Barber explained the book, More Than Conquerors, by Jessie Penn-Lewis to me. She often said, "We need her to tell us about her experience of the cross." I was quite puzzled and could not understand what she was talking about. Later I gradually learned that a man does not need the doctrine of victory and of being more than conquerors, but the experience of the cross. A man will have the genuine experience of victory only after he has accepted the cross.
A Western missionary who was over forty years old could not overcome a certain habit of snacking. She wept about it for two weeks, but was still unable to overcome the sin. Every meeting she came with tears in her eyes. I asked her for the reason, and she told me that she had committed some very serious sins. When I asked about it, she told me that she could not overcome concerning certain kinds of food. She was sorrowful because she could not overcome when she saw that many others had experienced the overcoming life. Later, I talked with her about the secret to victory. When she went home, she committed the matter to the Lord, and the Lord brought her through. She later testified that during that week she was so exuberant that she did not know if she was living on earth or in heaven. Later, I found that she fasted more than anyone else. She fasted once or twice a week and sometimes fasted for over twenty consecutive days.
Romans 7 can be called a chapter of desperation. This chapter tells us that a man must give up hope in himself before he can overcome. If a man has not reached his end, God will not begin His work.
In America a believer had a frame on his wall that read "Let God." He prayed to "let God" do many things for him, but failed again and again. One day either the wind or some naughty children took away the letter "d" in the word God, and only "Let Go" was left! These two simple words helped him to overcome.
If a meeting renders others a spiritual supply, that meeting has spiritual worth to it. When others attend your meeting, they can only receive the supply which you already have. Others can never receive more than your capacity to give. In spiritual matters, it is a matter of whether or not we have the real thing. If we are spiritual, we are spiritual. If we are not spiritual, we are not spiritual; there is no way for us to perform anything. If someone has accomplished something that has spiritual value to it, there is no need for us to be jealous of him. The Brethren are sound in theology, and they can analyze doctrines well, yet there is not much spiritual worth to their work.
First Corinthians 8:2 says, "If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet come to know as he ought to know." To think that one knows anything is spiritual pride. Those who think that they know anything actually have nothing, yet they presume that they have something. My Bible is very clean because every time I read it or speak about it, I forget what I read or spoke, and put it behind me. In this way, I am not tempted to speak from memory at a later date when the light is gone. Once we have delivered a message, we should try not to ever repeat it again, unless we have more light on it at a later date.
Whether or not you can love a person depends on your knowledge of him. First, you have to know how much he loves you, and then you have to know why he is so lovable. Once you know these things, you will love him willingly. True love is having no complaint in the midst of sufferings. If you love your father, you will be happy when he chastises you for your mistakes. You will wish that he chastised you more, if that will make his heart happy. Once a brother said to me, "If you love a person, you will be happy even if he rebukes you." Love suffers willingly for the sake of rendering joy to others. This is true between friends and between fathers and sons. It is also true between us and the Lord.
Hence, the more we know the Lord, the more we will love Him. In order to know the Lord, we have to know His Word. The Lord's Word is simply the Lord Himself. Through the Lord's Word, we know how He loves us and how lovable He is. This knowledge will attract us to love Him and follow Him willingly.
