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Scripture Reading: 2 Tim. 3:16a
I. The genuine Christian perfection as taught in the New Testament:
А. The genuine Christian perfection taught in the New Testament is according to God’s New Testament economy that God wanted to become a man that many men may become the God-men for the producing of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God’s ultimate goal.
B. Such a Christian perfection is the issue of the dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God into the believers — the God-men:
1. By God the Father as the source, the origin — Matt. 5:48.
2. With God the Son as the element — 2 Cor. 13:3, 5, 9, 11.
3. Through God the Spirit as the dispensing fellowship — vv. 9, 11, 14.
4. Second Corinthians 13 was written to encourage the believers to be perfected by the experience of Christ as life and the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God in the Father’s love, with Christ’s grace as the expression of the Father’s love, and through the Spirit’s fellowship that dispenses the Father’s love in Christ’s grace into the believers.
C. This kind of Christian perfection is for the building up of the Body of Christ — Eph. 4:12.
D. The perfecting ones of this kind of Christian perfection are the gifted persons, such as the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers — vv. 11-12:
1. The apostles define the truths for the establishing of the church.
2. The prophets prophesy for the building up of the church — 1 Cor. 14:3-5.
3. The evangelists preach the gospel to make sinners the members of Christ for His Body.
4. The shepherds feed the young believers that they may grow up for the building of the Body of Christ — John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:15-16.
5. The teachers teach the believers for their edification to establish the churches — cf. 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17.
E. The standard of such a Christian perfection is much higher than the standard of that stressed by James, which resembles the kind of perfection in the Old Testament on the lower level of God’s Old Testament revelation.
II. The Scripture being God’s breathing:
А. Second Timothy 3:16a says, “All Scripture is God-breathed,” that is, written by the breathing of God, through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, indicating clearly that all the sixty-six books of the Holy Scriptures were written through the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
B. This does not mean that every word written through the Spirit of God as a portion of the Holy Scriptures is the word of God. Many portions of the Holy Scriptures are rather the words spoken by persons (including Satan) other than God. The most evident illustrations are as follows:
1. Genesis 3:1b, 4-5 is the word spoken by the old serpent, the devil, but recorded by Moses through the inspiration of the Spirit of God for God’s purpose to expose His enemy Satan’s subtle deceiving and his devilish temptation that mankind may know that Satan is a real deceiver and devilish tempter (1 Tim. 2:14; Matt. 4:1-3; 6:13; 1 Thes. 3:5).
2. In the book of Job, thirty-five chapters, 3 through 37, are a record of the words spoken by Job, his three friends, and Elihu. All these five persons were God-fearing and God-seeking people, but the words spoken by them in the book of Job were very much according to their concepts concerning God’s will for man, their understanding of the meaning of human life, and their realization concerning the perfection of human virtues, all of which contradict God’s purpose in man, that is, that man should be filled with God to express God rather than all other things, including man’s perfection of human virtues. Hence, God stripped Job of his uprightness and integrity that he might seek God Himself instead of anything else. Yet their words, which were against God’s will in man, were written by them under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to serve the purpose of God to expose the mistake of Job, his three friends, and Elihu in knowing God that man may be enlightened to realize that, according to God’s good pleasure of His heart’s desire, man should be the expression of God only, rather than the expression of man’s perfection of his uprightness and integrity.
3. In Psalms the words concerning the psalmists’ hating of their enemies (18:37-42; 40:14-15; cf. Prov. 25:21-22), their asking of God to avenge for them (Psa. 3:7; 43:1; 54:1-3), and their cursing of others (35:4-7; 70:2-3; 109:1-15) were surely not God’s words but words that came out of the psalmists’ mouth from their natural sentiment while they were praising God. Yet they were recorded by the Spirit of God in the Holy Scriptures to serve God’s purpose to expose the degree of the psalmists’ spirituality that, on the one hand, they loved God and sought God, but on the other hand, they were still so natural in their sentiment.
4. Peter’s word in Matthew 16:22, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” was clearly not the word spoken by God but the word spoken by Peter, occupied by, usurped by, and even having become Satan, as the Lord rebuked him saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men” (v. 23):
а. It was after he received the Father’s revelation concerning Christ’s person and the teaching of Christ concerning His building of the church and heard the Lord tell him and the other disciples that He must be crucified and raised (v. 21) that he spoke this satanic word.
b. His intention in speaking this word was to frustrate the Lord from going to accomplish His death and resurrection for the accomplishment of God’s eternal redemption and His dynamic salvation.
5. Peter’s word in Matthew 17:4, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You are willing, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah,” was also clearly not the word spoken by God but the word spoken by Peter under his vague vision concerning Christ’s person and His commission:
а. It was after he saw the vision of Moses and Elijah’s coming to converse with Christ in His transfiguration on the mountain that he spoke this word, which was stopped by the voice from heaven: “This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!” (v. 5).
b. This stopping word spoken by God indicated that:
1) Peter should not rank Christ with Moses and Elijah.
2) Peter did not know the preeminence of Christ both in God’s old creation and in God’s new creation (Col. 1:15-18).
3) Peter could not differentiate that Christ’s commission received from the Father for His New Testament economy is much higher than Moses’ ministry of law and Elijah’s ministry as a prophet.
4) Thus, Peter and all others should listen only to Christ as the Son of God, the Beloved, in whom God has found His delight.
c. Peter’s word was spoken under his vague vision that brought down Christ’s most high person and His most divine commission to the lower level of Moses and Elijah, but it was written by Matthew in his Gospel, even the Gospel of the kingdom of the heavens, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God for the purpose of God to teach and enlighten Peter and his two contemporaries, John and James, and also all the believers in Christ in the entire age of grace that they may have a clear vision concerning Christ’s person and His commission.
6. Peter’s word in Acts 10:14, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean,” was also clearly not the word spoken by God but the word spoken by Peter according to his religious concept concerning eating the unclean animals (contacting and receiving the unclean Gentiles):
а. Peter’s word here was stopped by the voice from heaven, saying, “The things that God has cleansed [the Gentiles whom God sanctifies], do not make common” (v. 15).
b. This stopping word indicates that:
1) Peter, even as the first apostle in the New Testament who followed the Lord for three and a half years and experienced Pentecost by speaking a very clear word, witnessing to Christ in His death and resurrection, which produced the first church in Jerusalem, still was vague in the divine revelation concerning the spreading of the gospel for Christ’s increase from the Jews to the Gentiles, as what the Lord told him and the other disciples in Acts 1:8.
2) God would confirm Peter’s visit to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, for the spreading of the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles.
c. Peter’s word was spoken according to his revelation concerning God’s Old Testament economy, which was very much below the standard of God’s revelation concerning His New Testament economy, yet it was written by Luke in Acts under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to enlighten Peter and all the believers in the age of grace that God’s gospel is not merely for the Jews but for the Gentiles unto the uttermost part of the earth also.
Note: The above three illustrations of Peter recorded in the Scriptures under the inspiration of the Spirit of God are like three lamps shining over the believers in their darkness that they may be enlightened to see clearly that:
III. Two governing principles of the interpretation of the Scripture:
А. The first principle — all Scripture should be interpreted with Scripture. Every portion, even a single word, of the Scripture should be interpreted with and according to the entire Scriptures. If any interpretation of the Epistle of James, as a book in the Scripture, is not interpreted according to the entire Scriptures, it becomes a book other than the Scripture.
B. The second principle — the eternal economy of God is the central line of the entire Scriptures. The interpretation of the Scripture should be strictly governed by this central line under its adequate enlightenment. If any interpretation of the Epistle of James is not in harmony with God’s economy, it is off. No saint of God who is a genuine seeker of the scriptural truth and who is enlightened with the central line of the Holy Scriptures would ever accept such an off-track interpretation that he might not be sidetracked as many have been.
We need to be reminded of the genuine Christian perfection as taught in the New Testament. In order to see the genuine Christian perfection, we need to see the revelation of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the genuine, real Christian perfection.
The New Jerusalem has a strong base, and this strong base is God the Father’s divine nature, signified by gold (Rev. 21:18b, 21b). The holy city is a golden mountain. Surely, that is strong and sufficient to bear any weight. The entire holding strength of the holy city is God’s divine nature, and this base should be the base of our Christian life and work. The base, the gates, and the wall of the city are the basic building, whereas the throne, the temple, and the light are the furnishings. The intrinsic significance of all these items shows us what the genuine Christian perfection is. The New Jerusalem will be the ultimate consummation of the Body of Christ, so the genuine Christian perfection is also the Body of Christ, which is the aggregate of all the God-men living the life of the God-man.
The genuine Christian perfection taught in the New Testament is according to God’s New Testament economy that God wanted to become a man that many men may become the God-men for the producing of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God’s ultimate goal. In the Lord’s recovery the Christian perfection is the living of the God-man.
Such a Christian perfection is the issue of the dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God into the believers, the God-men, by God the Father as the source, the origin (Matt. 5:48). The Father in His nature is the golden base of the New Jerusalem as its source, its origin.
The genuine Christian perfection is also with God the Son as the element (2 Cor. 13:3, 5, 9, 11). This is typified by the pearl gates of the New Jerusalem. An oyster (Christ) lives in the salty water (the world of death) and is wounded by a grain of sand (crucified for the sinner) to produce a pearl by secreting its life-juice (dispensing His life element). The Father is the base, and the Son is the element.
The dispensing fellowship of God the Spirit (vv. 9, 11, 14) is to secrete the divine life-juice around us by six steps: regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification. By these six steps the Spirit, as the third of the Divine Trinity, will finish His transforming work to make us completed pearls.
Second Corinthians 13 was written to encourage the believers to be perfected by the experience of Christ as life and the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God in the Father’s love, with Christ’s grace as the expression of the Father’s love, and through the Spirit’s fellowship that dispenses the Father’s love in Christ’s grace into the believers. Second Corinthians 13:5 says, “Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?” Verse 9 says, “We rejoice whenever we are weak and you are powerful; this also we pray for, your perfecting.” Verse 11 says, “Finally, brothers, rejoice, be perfected.” Then verse 14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” In 2 Corinthians 13 Paul teaches his kind of Christian perfection by Christ in us. The grace of Christ, God the Son, and the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit as the third of the Trinity are with us all the time secreting the Triune God in His life element around us to perfect us. James’s perfection is far off from this.
The genuine Christian perfection is for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12). It is not for us to love our neighbors, to help the needy orphans and widows, to help us to reject temptation, or to help us overcome worldly pleasure. That is James’s perfection.
The perfecting ones of this kind of Christian perfection are the gifted persons, such as the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers (vv. 11-12).
The apostles define the truths for the establishing of the church. With James there was a shortage of the truth of God’s New Testament economy. James did not realize four pairs of things. First, God has two testaments: the Old and the New. Second, God has two parts of His economy: the Old Testament dispensation and the New Testament dispensation. These should not be mixed up. Third, God has two peoples: the Old Testament people, Israel, and the New Testament people, the church. Fourth, a regenerated person has two men: the old man and the new man. James’s writing mixes up these four pairs of things. Actually, he needed a proper apostle to define the truths to him, to perfect him.
The prophets prophesy for the building up of the church (1 Cor. 14:3-5). Proper prophets prophesy the divine word, not mainly to predict but mainly to speak forth the Lord. This is what Isaiah did when he spoke concerning a virgin bringing forth a child whose name is Mighty God and Eternal Father (Isa. 9:6).
The evangelists preach the gospel to make sinners the members of Christ for His Body. They preach the gospel not for soul winning but for Christ’s member winning. They win sinners to make them the members of Christ for His Body, not to gain souls for them to go to heaven.
The shepherds feed the young believers that they may grow up for the building of the Body of Christ (John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:15-16).
The teachers teach the believers for their edification to establish the churches (cf. 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17).
The standard of such a Christian perfection is much higher than the standard of that stressed by James, which resembles the kind of perfection in the Old Testament on the lower level of God’s Old Testament revelation.
Second Timothy 3:16a says, “All Scripture is God-breathed,” that is, written by the breathing of God, through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, indicating clearly that all the sixty-six books of the Holy Scriptures were written through the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
The entire Scriptures were written by inspiration of the Spirit of God, but this does not mean that every word written through the Spirit of God as a portion of the Holy Scriptures is the word of God. Many portions of the Holy Scriptures are rather the words spoken by persons (including Satan) other than God. I would like to present seven evident illustrations to show this. Three are from the Old Testament. First, there is Satan’s word in Genesis 3. Second, there are Job and his three friends plus Elihu in Job 3—37. The third illustration from the Old Testament is the psalmists’ natural sentiment. Three illustrations from the New Testament are concerning Peter, and the fourth one is concerning James.
Genesis 3:1b, 4-5 is the word spoken by the old serpent, the devil, but recorded by Moses through the inspiration of the Spirit of God for God’s purpose to expose His enemy Satan’s subtle deceiving and his devilish temptation that mankind may know that Satan is a real deceiver and devilish tempter (1 Tim. 2:14; Matt. 4:1-3; 6:13; 1 Thes. 3:5). Satan’s word is recorded in the Bible, and that record is by the inspiration of the Spirit, but the word recorded is not the word of God. The serpent said, “Did God really say, You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?...You shall not surely die! For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:1b, 4-5). This was Satan’s word, but it was recorded by Moses as a part of the Holy Scriptures. This shows that not every word recorded in the Bible is the word of God, but the record is by the inspiration of the Spirit.
In the book of Job, thirty-five chapters, 3 through 37, are a record of the words spoken by Job, his three friends, and Elihu. All these five persons were God-fearing and God-seeking people, but the words spoken by them in the book of Job were very much according to their concepts concerning God’s will for man, their understanding of the meaning of human life, and their realization concerning the perfection of human virtues, all of which contradict God’s purpose in man, that is, that man should be filled with God to express God rather than all other things, including man’s perfection of human virtues. Hence, God stripped Job of his uprightness and integrity that he might seek God Himself instead of anything else. Yet their words, which were against God’s will in man, were written by them under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to serve the purpose of God to expose the mistake of Job, his three friends, and Elihu in knowing God that man may be enlightened to realize that, according to God’s good pleasure of His heart’s desire, man should be the expression of God only, rather than the expression of man’s perfection of his uprightness and integrity.
After the speaking by those five persons in thirty-five chapters, God came in to rebuke Job by telling him that he darkened God’s counsel by words without knowledge (38:1-2). Some colleges use the book of Job to teach philosophy, but God told Job that his words were without knowledge. After the Lord finished His speaking, Job said to Him, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; / Therefore I abhor myself, and I repent / In dust and ashes” (42:5-6). Once Job saw God, he abhorred himself and repented. No doubt, he gained God instead of his perfection, uprightness, and integrity.
Today who understands the book of Job? Even James did not understand it properly. He says that when we are suffering, we have to learn of the endurance of Job (James 5:10-11). Job’s words without knowledge, however, darkened God’s counsel concerning man. God’s counsel concerning man is simple. He wants us to receive Him into us to be our everything, even to transform us into His image so that we can become His expression. The Christian perfection is for the expression of the Triune God, not for the expression of our integrity or uprightness.
Job highly esteemed his perfection, integrity, and uprightness, so God came in to strip him of this. Then God showed Himself to Job, and Job abhorred himself and gained God. But just to abhor ourselves is not sufficient. The Lord Jesus said that whoever would follow Him must deny himself and take up his cross (Matt. 16:24). To deny the self is to leave the self on the cross. To bear the cross is to remain on the cross. In today’s Christianity there is a wrong thought that the cross is for suffering. This is the thought in the book The Imitation of Christ. We need to see, however, that the ultimate goal of the cross is not suffering but terminating. To bear the cross is a killing. Christ has crucified us on the cross, and we should remain there. We should leave ourselves on the cross. Then the self is terminated. James’s teaching of Christian perfection, though, is self-cultivation; it is to cultivate the bright virtue in man created by God. But the New Testament teaches that we have to deny ourselves and leave ourselves on the cross.
In Psalms the words concerning the psalmists’ hating of their enemies (18:37-42; 40:14-15; cf. Prov. 25:21-22), their asking of God to avenge them (Psa. 3:7; 43:1; 54:1-3), and their cursing of others (35:4-7; 70:2-3; 109:1-15) were surely not God’s words but words that came out of the psalmists’ mouth from their natural sentiment while they were praising God. Yet they were recorded by the Spirit of God in the Holy Scriptures to serve God’s purpose to expose the degree of the psalmists’ spirituality that, on the one hand, they loved God and sought God, but on the other hand, they were still so natural in their sentiment. While the psalmists were praising God, they were also asking God to avenge them. This is recorded in the Bible in order to let us know that regardless of how much we praise God, we can still be natural.
Peter’s word in Matthew 16:22, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” was clearly not the word spoken by God but the word spoken by Peter, occupied by, usurped by, and even having become Satan, as the Lord rebuked him, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men” (v. 23).
It was after Peter received the Father’s revelation concerning Christ’s person and the teaching of Christ concerning His building of the church and heard the Lord tell him and the other disciples that He must be crucified and raised (v. 21) that he spoke this satanic word. In Matthew 16 Peter received the clear revelation from the Father that Jesus is God’s Christ and God’s Son. Then the Lord told him that He was going to be crucified and resurrected on the third day. But Peter still spoke a word to the Lord that caused the Lord to call him “Satan.” Peter received the divine revelation from the Father, and shortly after this he spoke the word of Satan. This shows that we can receive a genuine revelation from God and afterward speak Satan’s word. This is recorded in the Bible in order to teach us that we have to be watchful and pray that we would not be deceived.
Peter’s intention in speaking this word was to frustrate the Lord from going to accomplish His death and resurrection for the accomplishment of God’s eternal redemption and His dynamic salvation. Peter was usurped and possessed by Satan to frustrate the Lord from going on to accomplish God’s redemption.
Peter’s word in Matthew 17:4, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You are willing, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah,” was also clearly not the word spoken by God but the word spoken by Peter under his vague vision concerning Christ’s person and His commission. Peter did not realize that his word offended God and contradicted God’s economy.
It was after Peter saw the vision of Moses and Elijah’s coming to converse with Christ in His transfiguration on the mountain that he spoke this word, which was stopped by the voice from heaven: “This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!” (v. 5). Moses and Elijah should not be ranked with Christ. They are far, far inferior in their person and ministry. Moses’ ministry was the ministry of law. Elijah’s ministry was the ministry of prophecy. But Christ as the Son of God has the ministry of grace for accomplishing God’s eternal economy to establish the church as His Body.
This stopping word spoken by God indicated that Peter should not rank Christ with Moses and Elijah. It also indicated that he did not know the preeminence of Christ both in God’s old creation and God’s new creation (Col. 1:15-18). In the old creation and in the new creation of God, Christ must have the first place. Peter could not differentiate that Christ’s commission received from the Father for His New Testament economy is much higher than Moses’ ministry of law and Elijah’s ministry as a prophet. Thus, Peter and all others should listen only to Christ as the Son of God, the Beloved, in whom God has found His delight.
Peter’s word was spoken under his vague vision that brought down Christ’s most high person and His most divine commission to the lower level of Moses and Elijah, but it was written by Matthew in his Gospel, even the Gospel of the kingdom of the heavens, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God for the purpose of God to teach and enlighten Peter and his two contemporaries, John and James, and also all the believers in Christ in the entire age of grace that they may have a clear vision concerning Christ’s person and His commission.
These illustrations show that in the Bible, which is a book of God’s inspiration, a number of words are not by God but by man and even by God’s enemy, Satan. This is the view that we need in evaluating James. We have seen that James mixed the Old Testament with the New Testament, the Old Testament economy with the New Testament economy, God’s old people with God’s new people, and man’s fallen old man with man’s regenerated new man. In this he was altogether wrong and his standard was too low.
Peter’s word in Acts 10:14, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean,” was also clearly not the word spoken by God but the word spoken by Peter according to his religious concept concerning eating the unclean animals (contacting and receiving the unclean Gentiles).
Peter’s word here was stopped by the voice from heaven, saying, “The things that God has cleansed [the Gentiles whom God sanctifies], do not make common” (v. 15).
This stopping word indicates that Peter, even as the first apostle in the New Testament who followed the Lord for three and a half years and experienced Pentecost by speaking a very clear word, witnessing to Christ in His death and resurrection, which produced the first church in Jerusalem, still was vague in the divine revelation concerning the spreading of the gospel for Christ’s increase from the Jews to the Gentiles, as what the Lord told him and the other disciples in Acts 1:8. This stopping word also indicates that God would confirm Peter’s visit to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, for the spreading of the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles.
Peter’s word was spoken according to his revelation concerning God’s Old Testament economy, which was very much below the standard of God’s revelation concerning His New Testament economy, yet it was written by Luke in Acts under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to enlighten Peter and all the believers in the age of grace that God’s gospel is not merely for the Jews but for the Gentiles unto the uttermost part of the earth also.
The above three illustrations of Peter recorded in the Scriptures under the inspiration of the Spirit of God are like three lamps shining over the believers in their darkness that they may be enlightened to see clearly that the believers in Christ as His followers should not remain in their natural self but should take up the cross to have themselves conformed to the death of Christ that Christ may live in them and that they may live with Christ, walk with Christ, and work with Christ for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ, which consummates the New Jerusalem as God’s ultimate goal. Also, the believers in Christ as His close followers should appreciate and exalt Christ in His preeminent person and in His most high commission as the beloved Son of the Father in whom is the Father’s delight, according to God’s New Testament economy, above Moses and his ministry of law and above Elijah and his ministry of the prophets, who were on the lower level of God’s eternal economy. Furthermore, the believers in Christ as His witnesses should not limit the spreading of His gospel only to the circle of the Jews, but they should spread it for His unlimited increase (John 3:29-30) to all the Gentiles unto the uttermost part of the earth for the producing of the universal Body of Christ as the fullness of Christ, who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23).
The words in the Epistle of James that exalt the Mosaic law and charge the New Testament believers to keep it, that confuse God’s dispensation of the ages, and that are devoid of Christ, His death, His resurrection, and the Spirit are surely not the words of God but words spoken by James according to his Old Testament concept concerning the Mosaic law, which is in contrast to the grace in God’s New Testament economy and according to his vague vision of the difference between God’s Old Testament dispensation and His New Testament dispensation. Yet these words were written by James in his Epistle under the inspiration of God for the divine purpose to expose him in his wrong concept concerning the law and in his vague vision concerning God’s dispensation of the ages in order to teach and enlighten all the believers in Christ that they may know that they should not be frustrated by James’s defective words from going on further to seek the all-inclusive Christ, the consummated Spirit, the old-creation-terminating death of Christ, and the all-new-creation-germinating resurrection of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy.
The first principle is that all Scripture should be interpreted with Scripture. Every portion, even a single word, of the Scripture should be interpreted with and according to the entire Scriptures. If any interpretation of the Epistle of James, as a book in the Scripture, is not interpreted according to the entire Scriptures, it becomes a book other than the Scripture.
The second principle is that the eternal economy of God is the central line of the entire Scriptures. The interpretation of the Scripture should be strictly governed by this central line under its adequate enlightenment. If any interpretation of the Epistle of James is not in harmony with God’s economy, it is off. No saint of God who is a genuine seeker of the scriptural truth and who is enlightened with the central line of the Holy Scriptures would ever accept such an off-track interpretation that he might not be sidetracked as many have been.
