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Of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, Paul wrote fourteen. Therefore, we may say that Paul’s Epistles occupy more than half of the books of the New Testament. In this chapter we need to see Paul’s part in the New Testament ministry from his fourteen Epistles.
No doubt Paul covered many, many items in his fourteen Epistles. For this reason it is easy for us to lose our direction when we begin to get into them, somewhat like a person who loses his direction when going into a forest. I would particularly encourage the young brothers to spend much more time in reading Paul’s writings, if you mean business to get into their depths. You need to put aside your knowledge and your understanding of theology, philosophy, culture, religion, ethics, and morality and come to these fourteen books with a clear mind, even a clarified mind, and an emptied spirit, with a pure heart. Otherwise, you cannot get into what Paul has written. Furthermore, you need to read through the fourteen Epistles more than ten times. Do not read them all at one time but perhaps once or twice during this week, then again after a month, and continue in this way throughout a year’s time. As you are reading, you need to pick up the crucial points and to recall what you have seen through the Life-studies. If you put aside all your knowledge to empty yourself, clarify your mind, and purify your heart to read in this way, I believe you will see something.
After many years of study in this line, I can tell you that Paul’s part of the ministry of the New Testament is altogether not different from the part of the Lord Jesus. The only thing that constitutes a difference at all is that in Paul’s part the ministry has gone on. In fact, it has gone on very much from Christ to the church. You need to keep this one crucial point in mind in all your reading — that Paul’s fourteen books are on Christ and the church.
A number of years ago in Taiwan, we began to use some slogans concerning Christ and the church: “We are for Christ and the church,” and, “The great mystery is Christ and the church.” Expressions like these are still being used among many of you dear ones from the Far East, but according to my observation, you failed to go on further to study all the aspects concerning Christ. You used these slogans, but you did not dig into their meaning. Regretfully, it seems that you have taken the easy way. When you go out to preach, and when you teach, minister, or pray, you carry out all these things according to what you have already learned. I am afraid that you are like a high-school graduate who refuses to go further into the sphere of a university, or like a university graduate who refuses to go on into the realm of graduate study. Instead, you remain where you are and use all the things that you received long ago. Therefore, it is hard for people to see any improvement in your understanding of Christ in different aspects or in your understanding concerning the church.
In your understanding concerning Christ and the church, you have received a certain amount. You merely keep what you have and use what you have, but there is no progress, no improvement. In such a case, it is always easy not only for your listeners to lose interest but also for you yourself to lose interest because there is no freshness. Some of you are teaching the things concerning Christ still in about the same way, with the same points, and the same aspects as we were teaching thirty years ago.
Suppose you are learning something further concerning mathematics above the university level in graduate school. As a graduate student in mathematics, your presentation to the elementary students is very interesting to them. You are able to teach in a very elementary way with rich points that attract people. Your teaching is much different from that of a high-school graduate who is learning mathematics and trying to teach mathematics in the elementary school with a teaching that always causes everyone to lose interest.
Now we come to Paul’s teachings concerning Christ. I would like to give you some direction to help you get into Paul’s teachings concerning Christ and the church. You need much study after you have read the fourteen Epistles at least ten times.
After you have finished the reading, you need to take a subject such as the incarnation of Christ and study this matter in Paul’s writings. At this point in your study, you should not go to other books, but pick up all the verses directly or indirectly related to this point in Paul’s writings. Then you need to put all the verses concerning the incarnation of Christ together and pray — undoubtedly you will see something there.
If you take this way to get into Paul’s writings, I believe you will see much. For example, very few readers pay attention to the opening word of Paul in the book of Romans. First, he tells us that what he is going to write is the gospel of God, which was spoken by the prophets in the past, concerning His Son. From this point he goes on to tell us that according to the flesh, Jesus Christ came out of the seed of David, but according to the Spirit of holiness, He was designated the Son of God (1:1-4). Here the person of Christ is very much described, not just revealed. Therefore, here is a verse with at least one point that indicates Christ’s incarnation. To say that Christ came out of the seed of David according to the flesh is directly related to His incarnation. Nevertheless, I doubt that many of you have ever paid attention to this point in reading Romans, because you have been possessed with the concept that Romans is concerning sin, concerning God’s condemnation, or concerning God’s justification, sanctification, and transformation.
In the opening word of Romans, however, the apostle Paul does not tell us that the gospel is concerning these matters. He stresses that the gospel of God is concerning God’s Son, the One according to two elements — according to the flesh and according to the Spirit. Some of you may have read this book a number of times, but I doubt that you have paid your full attention to this point. I am afraid that you know a lot, but you neglect the person of Christ.
Here we have some of the elements, some of the intrinsic essences, in Paul’s part of the New Testament ministry. These are crucial points. There is no need to look for some new thought or to pick up some peculiar point to present a message different from mine. Rather, you need to develop the knowledge concerning Christ being the Son of God and the One out of the seed of David according to the flesh, and you need to give messages on these matters. There is no need for you to follow me; I am not interested in that. What I want to see is that whatever you put out is absolutely in the basic elements, the intrinsic essences, of the New Testament ministry. I hope that all of you could develop more messages than what I have ever given along this line. Such a thing would be wonderful.
Of course, I would be deeply troubled if any of you would pick up some peculiar point, some strange thought, thus clouding a message to distract people from the central line, even from the focus of God’s New Testament ministry. I would hate to see any of you do such a thing. If my vision is keen, surely it is keen in this line to detect things of this nature. Just by reading a few lines of what you have written, without reading an entire article, I can tell whether or not you are off in this matter. I do not expect you to merely repeat the messages that I have given. Rather, I would hope that you could receive help from my messages and stand on my shoulders to go on further to present more things. Then I would come to you to learn of you, and I would stand on your shoulders to see something even further.
I have encouraged nearly all of you to study Greek, especially the young ones. But it was not my intention that you get into such a study to dig out some peculiar points or some strange thoughts. That is a wrong concept. It is necessary for you to keep yourself in the line and focus of the New Testament ministry. What Brother Watchman Nee and I have done is simply to lay a good foundation for the Lord’s recovery for you to stand on to go further to build upon it. We do not like to see you set something else as another foundation.
Paul tells us clearly that he laid the foundation, as a wise master builder (1 Cor. 3:10-11). He laid the unique foundation, and no one can lay another. He warns us and cautions us not to lay another foundation, but he encourages us to build upon the foundation that he laid. Furthermore, he tells us that we need to be careful, to take heed, how we build upon the foundation. Surely Paul did not like to see foundations laid other than the unique foundation he had already laid, nor did he like to see wood, grass, and stubble used for the building up. What we like to see is more gold, more silver, and more precious stones built upon the unique foundation. I would strongly encourage all of you brothers to continue to build. Certainly I am not jealous concerning what you may be able to do; rather, I am very much expecting to see that all of you can go further.
Nevertheless, I say again that I surely would not be happy to see any of you put out something as a foundation other than the unique foundation. Among Christians one foundation after another has been put out through the years, each being different from the unique foundation, and different foundations are continuing to be put out. One put out the presbytery as a foundation; another put out baptism by immersion; a third put out episcopalianism, that is, controlling people by the bishops; another put out tongue-speaking; and yet another put out holiness as a foundation. There are many different foundations, which are all different from the unique foundation.
In such a situation we all need to be very clear that the unique foundation for the building up of the church in the New Testament ministry is Christ. There is no other foundation. Once you are clear concerning this point, you need to consider carefully what you should do. You need to keep yourself preserved all the time in this narrow field, in the field of Christ for the church. You need to do your work in the field or sphere of Christ for the church with care lest you get out of this sphere.
When I encourage you to keep yourself within the sphere of Christ for the church, I do not mean that you should not use the books of other writers for help. However, if you do not have a solid foundation laid, you may be distracted when you go to their books. It may seem that they lead you into some forest. Therefore, I hope that all of you, especially the young saints among us, will have a good foundation laid through reading and studying the Life-studies. Surely the Life-studies will help you to lay a good foundation with adequate discernment.
With such a solid foundation, I encourage you to go to some of the books of other writers. I myself use a number of books in my study and preparation for writing the footnotes for the Recovery Version. When I am working with my helpers, you might find anywhere from ten to twenty or more books open on my desk while we are working. However, in using all these books, it is necessary to have the proper discernment. In a good number of cases, the first part of a sentence may be very good, but the last part is off. It is not always easy to exercise adequate discernment. Therefore, I would encourage you to take care of the matter of laying a good foundation, and then exercise yourself to be careful when you go to the books of other writers.
Suppose you have already taken this way to study the incarnation of Christ in the writings of Paul; you have already spent time to pick up all the verses related to this point and have put them together with much prayer. The second point for your study is the human life of Christ in Paul’s books. If you study in this way, when someone brings up the matter of the human life of Christ, you will immediately have a good collection of all the points in Paul’s books. If you were asked, you could give these points without thinking. For example, you might make reference to the aspects of Christ’s human life on this earth unveiled in Philippians 2:5-8. Not only the four Gospels but also the writings of Paul unveil to us the human living of Christ.
Actually, it would be hard for you to understand what is narrated in the four Gospels without Paul’s interpretation. It would not be so easy for us to understand that the life portrayed in the Gospel of Mark is the living of a Slave without Paul’s word in Philippians 2 telling us that the human living of Christ is the living of a Slave. Here is an indication that Paul’s ministry was not one of setting up new things or strange things, but it was rather a ministry of developing what had been set up already. A portrait had been set up in Mark, but it needed some interpretation, some development, of the definition of that portrait. This is the way for you to get into these matters.
What there is for you to develop is as large as the ocean. Brother Nee and I have done only a little. There is no need for you to get into another field. To do that would be to take the wrong way. The Lord’s recovery cannot be compared to a university with many different schools and many different majors. Rather, the Lord’s recovery is like a unique school with one field and only one major, and the major is Christ for the church. In the Lord’s recovery there are no other majors, and all of us need to concentrate our study in this one major.
You should not consider that you prefer to say something new and to open another school in the Lord’s recovery with something different from what was set up by Brother Nee and followed by me. To do so would mean division. There should be only one major in one school with deeper studies that go further and further, on and on.
Without boasting I can tell you that it is absolutely right to say that I follow Brother Nee. He laid the foundation for the recovery, and I surely follow him. However, in Brother Nee’s time in the messages concerning God’s desire, he went only as far as to use the term God’s plan. The term God’s economy had not been touched at all yet. The concept of God’s economy was brought in after we went to Taiwan. It is a further study and development of the same thing.
In addition, in Brother Nee’s time the Lord showed us that Christ is the Spirit, but it was not until after we went to Taiwan that the Lord pointed out to us that the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. According to my memory, in all our messages before 1950, such a point was never touched. Again, this point does not differ, but it goes on.
Furthermore, I can testify that Brother Nee emphasized the Spirit to the uttermost, but he never stressed the matter of the seven Spirits particularly. The point concerning the seven Spirits was not touched in a thorough way until 1969 in Erie, Pennsylvania. This point, however, was not touched in a way that differs from Brother Nee’s teaching but rather in a way that goes on to build something further upon the same foundation.
It is true that I have been following Brother Nee all the time, but I have never invented any new major, and I have never set up any other school. Before I contacted Brother Nee and became a co-worker under him, I had a good Christian work of my own in northern China. If you knew the situation there at that time, you would realize that there was a big opening for my work in all of northern China. Apart from some in my hometown of Chefoo, there was not one adequate Bible teacher there. Chefoo was well known as a center for Bible teaching in all of northern China, mainly because of the Brethren assembly there, which I attended for seven and a half years. Nevertheless, according to my opinion, the kind of works they had might not have been up to the standard of what God was enabling me to do.
Before I went to Shanghai to join the work with Brother Nee, I was invited to dinner with the leading pastor in our city. At that time he made a special request that I not set up our group as a church but that we keep our hall and teach the Bible there six evenings a week, from Monday through Saturday. Then on the Lord’s Day he wanted me to close that hall, and he assured me that I would be invited and welcomed by all of the denominations in Chefoo. He even told me that I would be exalted to the uttermost and that many people would benefit from my teaching. Of course, I could not consider doing such a thing.
By the Lord’s mercy I was given the ability to teach the Bible in a very adequate way. Even before I went to Shanghai to join Brother Nee in his work, I had expounded Song of Songs. Of course, at that time I did not know much about Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church, but I might have become an expert in teaching typology, prophecy, and the dispensations of the Bible. If I would have simply taught these things, I could have become an expert in northern China in teaching the Bible in this way. Also, there was a big opening for me to do this. Nevertheless, by the Lord’s mercy, after I contacted Brother Nee, I began to see that God’s way is not in typology, nor in prophecy, nor in biblical dispensations, but in Christ as the Spirit and as life for the church. When I came into such a vision, I absolutely dropped everything else and simply followed Brother Nee.
I dropped everything to the uttermost to follow Brother Nee. Whatever he spoke, I spoke. Whatever he taught, I taught. Whatever he preached, I preached. I am one hundred percent in tune with him. Some people have said in a somewhat accusing and mocking way that I imitate Watchman Nee. However, to me it is marvelous to hear others say this. They are absolutely right to say that I imitate him. In my gestures, my way of expression, the terms I used, even in the accent and how fast or slow I spoke, I simply imitated Watchman Nee in every way. I consider it glorious that I could imitate such a servant of the Lord who had the heavenly vision concerning the Lord’s move on earth.
By the Lord’s mercy, I was studying in Watchman Nee’s field all the time. He was my professor, and I was his student. We were in the same major. How could you be a student under a professor who is teaching in one field with one major and be studying in another field with another major, trying to make yourself different from your professor and more significant than he is? How could this be?
I believe this illustration of a major field of study is very good. We are all in one school, in one field, with one major. The only difference between the professor and the students is that the professor is now teaching them. They may go on from him, but they should not go away from him. It is right and proper for them to go on to build up the same thing higher and higher, richer and richer.
How I thank the Lord for this way! If I had not followed Watchman Nee but had remained in my own ability to teach the Bible in my own way, I believe I could have gained a name for myself, but that would have been the end. All that would have come of that teaching would have been merely a name for myself. I would have missed the Lord’s way and His rich blessing in His own way, and my teaching would not have been a part of God’s New Testament ministry.
I would strongly encourage all of you to keep yourselves strictly in the same major and persevere there. You should not think differently, but go on further in the same major. No need to say in the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, even in the fourteen books of Paul you could dig out a number of points concerning the incarnation of Christ and concerning His human living.
Third, you need to study all the points concerning the death of Christ. This is a vast subject that needs much study. Then you need to study all the points concerning Christ’s resurrection and the points concerning His ascension.
Then you need further study to cover all the points concerning the person of Christ. In this study you will see that His person eventually consummates in the life-giving Spirit. Furthermore, you need to develop this item, the life-giving Spirit, in Paul’s books. If you spend two years to study the other items — His incarnation, His human living, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His person — you need to spend more years to study Christ being consummated as the life-giving Spirit. In addition, for this point you need to study the human spirit.
Another major point in the study of Paul’s Epistles is the church. Under this subject you need to study the producing of the church; the nature of the church, including the life, the essence, of the church; and the building up of the church. You need to study the function of the church and also the different titles of the church. We need to realize, brothers, that to adequately cover even the points we have already mentioned may take nearly ten years.
Sorry to say, brothers, I am afraid that you have taken an easy way. Because we have spent so much time together, and because you have been under my training for years, it is easy for me to say a frank word of love to you. Sometimes you use my messages to constitute a message for you to give. That is wonderful, but because you take an easy way in doing it, you cannot make your message interesting. Your presentation of the Life-studies in this way does not stir up the people’s interest. Therefore, you turn away from the Life-studies to other things in order to attract a crowd.
From the day I began the work in Taiwan, I had no intention to stir up the people’s interest and no intention to gather a crowd. I am not narrow, and I am not demanding, but I do mean business in the Lord’s work. My burden in beginning the work there was simply to carry out God’s New Testament ministry. The Lord blessed the work there, and many of you here were captured by the Lord and became trainees under my teaching there. Although I had no intention to gather a crowd, eventually a very large number were gathered there in Taiwan.
According to recent reliable statistics showing the number in the different churches in Taiwan, the number of those meeting with us is second only to the number in the Scottish Presbyterian Church, which has been in Taiwan for more than a century. Their number is listed as over eighty-seven thousand, but a good many among them are not saved. The number of those meeting with us is listed as forty-five thousand, and the third largest is the True Jesus Church with twenty thousand.
My point is this: although I had no intention to gather a crowd, eventually forty-five thousand were gathered. The number has not gone up much in the last twenty-two years since I left Taiwan. I was there just over ten years, and the number was very close to forty thousand when I left Taiwan to come to the United States.
After this experience, when I see you try to take up other fields, other majors, and leave the school of Christ and the church, I cannot tolerate it. All of us need to come back to the original school and stay in the original major — Christ and the church. We need some further study in this one major. You can use the Life-studies of the Bible as a help, as a base, for your study, but each one of you needs to study the Word of God in a thorough way for yourself for this major. What you need is a very thorough study of the divine revelation with the help of the Life-studies of the Bible. I would beg you all not to try to do an easy work in the Lord’s recovery.
In the Lord’s recovery, or even in any field of scientific study today, there is no easy work. If any of the professors in the universities tried to do an easy work, they could not get the results they need. Therefore, I encourage you all to go back to study all the aforementioned crucial points in Paul’s fourteen Epistles with the help of the Life-studies. Then you will see what comes out.
I do believe, dear brothers, that if you get into such a study, not only fresh apprehension but also fresh feelings will enrich you. You will be refreshed with sweet feelings. Then you may go to the meeting to present the same thing I presented, but you would present it in a way that is more and more refreshing and sweetened.
On the other hand, if you take an easy way by going to the Life-studies merely to learn some points to present in the church meeting, that means nothing. In fact, that way could be compared to committing suicide, because you simply kill yourself. Then if you would go to other fields, leaving the field of Christ and the church, that would mean that you drop the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery is not narrow, but it is very strict. To be narrow is one thing, but to be strict is another matter altogether. Those of you who have graduated from college know that you must be strict in your major; otherwise, you can never advance; you cannot make progress.
In Paul’s writings we can see Christ’s incarnation, Christ’s human living, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and, in addition, how He as such a One became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This matter is altogether related to our spirit in our experience. Therefore, we need to study the human spirit.
Two further points are more than crucial in Paul’s writings and in his part of the New Testament ministry. One is the matter of Christ being life to us, and the other is our experience of Christ. Although the Gospel of John is a Gospel of life, Christ being life to us cannot be seen there in a very practical way. In the Gospel of John we are told only that this Son of God is life and that He came that we might have life and have it abundantly (1:4; 14:6; 10:10). That is all. For this matter we need to come to the Epistles of Paul. In his fourteen Epistles, here and there and bit by bit, Paul gives a complete picture showing us how Christ is our experience in a practical way. You need to study this matter. In addition, no other books convey the details concerning how we experience Christ. The experience of Christ is presented in detail in Paul’s writings. You need to spend much time to study this one aspect.
In addition, in your study of the church and the very contents of the church, eventually you will realize that the content of the constitution of the church is actually of three aspects of one source. In the first place, the content of the church is of Christ. In addition, it is of the Spirit, and it is also of life. The church is constituted with Christ as the Spirit to be our life. The source of the content of the church and also the very constituents of the constitution of the church are Christ, the Spirit, and life. First, you need to study how Christ is the source and the very constituent of the constitution of the church in the fourteen Epistles of Paul. Then, in the same way you need to study how the life-giving Spirit is the source and the constituent of the constitution of the church and, further, how the divine life, the zoe life, is the source and the constituent of the constitution of the church.
All these items are big and crucial aspects in Paul’s writings, and all of them have not been covered adequately. I have simply given you some illustrations or some hints to help you study these fourteen Epistles. In these matters I do not encourage you to study all the twenty-seven books of the New Testament at this time. Simply by studying Paul’s writings, you will be very much enriched, and all the churches under your teaching will be enriched. How much we need this enriching so that none of us will be poor any longer! There is no need to pick up subjects other than the ones we have mentioned. The riches are here.
The crucial point we need to see is that Paul’s part in the New Testament ministry is exactly the continuation of the section of the ministry of the Lord Jesus. The only difference is that the Lord used Paul to go on further from Christ to the church. In the Acts and Epistles we have seen clearly that the Lord used Peter to continue His own ministry, but we must say that Peter somewhat became stuck to the oldness. The Lord always knows the real situation. By that time the Lord knew that there was no way for Peter to go on. Therefore, the Lord needed a new one, someone who would drop anything old. That one was Saul of Tarsus. The Acts and the Epistles show us clearly how the Lord used Paul to go on further from Christ to the church.
This is the New Testament ministry. From the initiation of John the Baptist, the New Testament ministry goes on to Christ as its major part and its foundation. From that point there was the need for a new one to go further to produce the church, to build the church, and to have a Body to express Christ. This is a crucial point.
Brother Nee gave a series of messages on the Body of Christ, and I would say that the matter of the Body was covered adequately to the fullest in those messages. Nevertheless, in Brother Nee’s time some of the points that we have seen today were not touched. One point that was not touched was the fullness of the One who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23). The fullness of Christ was not touched, nor was the matter of the fullness of God, which is the church (4:13; 3:19). It was not until we moved to Taiwan that the Lord began to show us that the Body of Christ is the fullness, not only of Him but also of God. In Brother Nee’s time we did not have a clear and adequate definition of the term fullness. In addition, even the matter of “the unsearchable riches of Christ” was not emphasized in his time. I do not believe you could find this expression in any of Brother Nee’s writings that have been published.
Surely Brother Nee did his best to present the Lord’s recovery to us, and I can certainly testify that he did his utmost. I am surely grateful to him, but in these past thirty-five years there has been a continuation. No new field has been opened, and no other major has been set up for you to study. The major, Christ and the church, has remained the same; nevertheless, again and again this major has been further developed. This is a crucial point, and all of us surely need to pay attention to this matter. I believe these points help us to understand Paul’s part of the New Testament ministry.
Paul’s part of the New Testament ministry is to minister Christ as the incarnated One, as the One who lived a particular, special, wonderful, excellent human life on this earth. This One died a death that is all-inclusive, and He entered into His resurrection in which He became the life-giving Spirit who indwells our spirit to make us members of Christ in order that a Body could be formed to be the fullness of the One who fills all in all for the full expression of Christ. This is Paul’s part in the New Testament ministry. If we are clear concerning this matter, we will know where the Lord’s recovery stands today.
