Date: April 28, 1948Place: Hardoon Road, ShanghaiScripture Reading: Matt. 6:21-24
Matthew 6:22 says, "If therefore your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light.'' In verse 24 the Lord then speaks of the matter of serving Him. In the matter of serving the Lord, a man has to be single. No one can serve both God and mammon. Verse 22 speaks of the eye being single, and verse 24 speaks of the service being single. Mammon is a serious thing. If a man wants to serve the Lord, he must be delivered from mammon. Those who are not delivered from mammon cannot serve God.
A single eye means an eye that is delivered from mammon. Only this kind of eye will enable one to see the truth. The truth is absolute; it has nothing to do with man. If a man does not know God, it is because his eyes are defiled and impure. In order for a man to know God, he must have eyes that are delivered from any defilements. An impure person cannot see the truth. In the eyes of a defiled person, everything is defiled. Such persons cannot see God.
A Christian should consider mammon as a menace, something that needs to be disposed of right away. He should drop it in the same way that he would drop a red-hot coal from his hand. A Christian's poverty should be voluntary. Some become poor through their environment. Others are poor because of their parents or other special circumstances. But there is a certain kind of people who are poor because they have met salvation. They have chosen to become poor. There is a big difference between this kind of poverty and all other kinds of poverty. This is like being a soldier in the army: Some are drafted, whereas others enlist voluntarily.
Why do we have to choose poverty? It is because the Bible says that it is difficult for a rich man to be saved. It is more difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Matt. 19:23-24). A rich man can enter the kingdom of God only with difficulty.
Mammon is an idol. Covetousness is the same as idolatry (Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5). If you worked in an office and others tried to pay you with an idol or a golden calf, would you take it? Of course, you would not take it. But today many people do not realize that mammon is the same as idols. It does not matter what kind of money it is; as long as it is mammon, it belongs to Caesar.
During the time of the apostles, the disciples gave up everything to follow the Lord. In church history there were tens of thousands of Franciscans who chose to live in poverty. We are often too careful concerning this matter. We are afraid that we will become too much. Actually, there are too many times in our life that we have been too much already. If you would not misunderstand me, I would say why not do it one more time and be a little bit too much in consecration. The founder of the Moravian movement, Count Zinzendorf, was an educated person, and he offered up all his material possessions. The number of missionaries this group sent out ranks the highest among all missionary groups during the past few hundred years. The Brethren do not like to advertise themselves, but many among them also chose the way of voluntary poverty.
In the Old Testament, when Rachel left Laban, she took her images with her, and she was condemned (Gen. 31:32). Christians have to deal with mammon in the same way that they deal with idols. A Christian should not have idols in his house. In the same way, a Christian should not lay up for himself riches in his house. For God's children to lay up riches is the same as for them to touch idols. There are too many needs in the church. There are at least three needs. First, there is the need of the work. Second, there is the need of the poor brothers. Third, there is always the need of poor people. The Lord's Word says that the poor we have with us always (Matt. 26:11). We have to take care of the needs in these three areas.
Mammon is more serious than idols. When the church is strong, it will take the stand of voluntary poverty. In this way no false brothers will dare to come into the church, for once they come, they will have to sacrifice themselves. All those who come in through eloquence, intelligence, or wisdom will not be able to remain in the church. This will purify the church. When money goes out, a man is delivered. If you want to remain clean, you have to let your riches go.
In the Bible we can see the Lord's relationship with money through two cases. The first case was the paying of the temple tax (Matt. 17:24-27). In this case we see that the Lord did not carry any money in His pocket. The second case was His entrusting the money to Judas (John 12:6; 13:29). In that case we also see that the Lord's pocket did not carry money. Judas was the only one suitable to carry money.
Paul's principle was that those who gather much have no excess, and those who gather little have no lack (2 Cor. 8:15). This is the principle of coordination in our work. If those who gather much have excess and those who gather little have lack, it means that there is no coordination.
Concerning offerings, it is not a matter of offering one-tenth or one-twentieth. It is a matter of everyone being as frugal as possible. Other than his own necessities, he should offer up all the rest. Anything less than this is not up to the proper standard of serving the Lord. Neither the Lord nor the church will want anything less than this standard. Everyone who serves the Lord has to forsake everything to follow Him. Other than providing for his own daily needs, a man should offer up everything. Those who lay up riches for themselves are the servants of mammon.
Consider how many procedures the idol worshippers have to go through! They have to kneel down, burn incense, and so forth. We have to realize that serving mammon is just as complicated as worshipping idols. The book of Matthew says that where our treasure is, there is our heart also (6:21). Then it speaks of the matter of laying up riches. In order for our hearts to be saved, we have to be delivered from the laying up of riches. Those who have not been delivered from riches have not been saved in their hearts.
Some people are bound by the world, but the bondage of money is more serious than the bondage of the world. Why do we have to give to the poor? Giving to the poor is not merely for the sake of the poor. It is for the purpose of delivering ourselves from the power of mammon. When we do this, we promptly take care of the problem of money in our hands. Some people think that spending money on the poor is for the sake of the poor. Surely, it is a good thing for a poor person to be saved through our giving. But even if he is not saved, it is still a good thing for us to give. A person who cares much for money will go into eternity alone; no one will thank him. But those who spend money on others will find others welcoming them in the heavens. Those who offer themselves up in laboring must also offer themselves up in material giving. It is one thing to be poor. It is another thing to have the kind of poverty that Paul refers to, which enriches many (2 Cor. 6:10). The amount of excess we have is the amount of sin we have. The amount of excess we have is the amount of idols we have.
Witness Lee: How can one see the authority of the Body?
Watchman Nee: The submission of some people seems to be selective. In order to practice submission, the first thing to ask is who is above me. When we go to work in the secular world, we should first ask who the boss is. If we do not get this question settled, we will not be able to do a proper job, not to mention the possibility of being punished. The same principle applies to working in an office or in an institution. The first thing that comes to the mind of many people when they sit down is how to be the boss. These people need to learn a serious lesson of submission. Submission is a lesson that a man has to learn before God. We have to be disciplined to such an extent that we bear a submissive nature. Whenever any brother or sister or co-worker goes to a place, he or she has to find out who his or her authority is.
For example, the brothers and sisters who are staying at our guest houses have to submit to the authority in that house. When they come to the meeting, they have to submit to the ushers and have to sit where they are told to sit. Every house that you stay in has its own authority. A Christian should learn to look for authority and to submit to authority. All those who pretend to be the head do not know what headship means in the Body.
I have never seen a man who knows the Head yet does not submit to Christ's deputy authority. A person who knows the Lord will never be selective in the matter of submission. For example, Brother Witness's children cannot be selective in their submission to their father. If a brother or a sister has not learned to submit to every deputy authority assigned by the Lord, he is under the greatest deception. The Bible says that there is no authority except from God (Rom. 13:1).
There are very few places in the Bible that speak of direct submission to God. Most of the time the Bible speaks of submission to man. Wherever you go, you have to submit, not criticize freely with your lips. If others give you some special authority, that is up to them. Nevertheless, you have to learn to submit. Many people have never learned the lesson. Wherever they go, they tear down the authorities, and they do not bridle their tongues. This kind of person is rebellious. May the Lord be merciful to us so that we will not be wild Christians. Not only should we not be selective in our submission, but we should actively seek after the ones we should submit to.
When I was staying in London, everything was set up by the host. In the morning we woke up at six o'clock. At noon we had our meal. At three o'clock in the afternoon, we had our afternoon tea. One Swiss brother from Japan shook his head and sighed every day. I asked why he was so unhappy. He was fifteen years older than I was, and he made tens of thousands of pounds every year. He had a few thousand workers working under him. He told me that he was having a hard time because he had not been a student for over twenty years. At the guest house where he was staying, the brother in charge was a rather uneducated person. It was very unpleasant for this Swiss brother to come under that brother's supervision. I stayed in London for eighteen months. If I had not learned submission, but instead criticized and opposed, how could I have been happy within? Submission is the nature of the Lord's life. It is for our protection to submit to God's authority.
A Christian should learn coordination, and coordination comes from submission. A rebellious and independent person is one who will not be coordinated. Christians should learn to submit one to another and to be delivered from rebellious acts, critical words, and reviling conduct. Not only should a person have the realization of authority in the church and in the Body, but when he is alone, he should still have this realization. We learn submission first in the church. It is rather difficult to learn submission outside the church. It is more natural to learn submission in the church. This is God's protection; it keeps us from exposing ourselves. If we learn the lesson this way, the spirit of antichrist will be removed from us.
Concerning submission to our government, we know that no Christian can overturn any government. If certain political factors are contrary to our faith, the most we can do is escape. It is like what the Lord says, that we escape from one city to another. In the Bible escaping is not a shameful thing to do. If a government is not good, we can escape. But at the same time, all Christians should still pray for the governments that are not good.
One brother asked: If there are government-enacted laws which the government itself does not keep, should a Christian still keep them?
Watchman Nee: We still have to keep them. But under certain circumstances, there are laws which a Christian cannot keep. Brother D. M. Panton once said that if a law is itself unlawful, we do not have to consider whether or not to keep that law. For example, Pharaoh ordered all the Hebrews to kill their male children. The midwives did not obey this order, yet the Bible says that God dealt well with them (Exo. 1:20). Moses' mother did not obey the order of Pharaoh (2:1-2), yet Hebrews 11 praised her faith. This is because Pharaoh's law was itself a lawless order. In the New Testament Peter and John were acting under the same principle when they disobeyed the order of the high priest.
