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As we have pointed out, in the book of Philippians Paul uses a number of unusual expressions. One of these expressions is found in verse 12 of chapter 4. Here Paul says, “In everything and in all things I have learned the secret.” The phrase learned the secret indicates that Paul had come into a new situation, a new environment. Whenever we are put in a new environment, we need to learn the secret of living in that environment. For someone from the West to go to the Far East is for him to go into a new environment. In order to live, he must learn the secret of life there. For example, when brothers and sisters from the United States visit the Far East, they need to learn the secret of eating with chopsticks. If they do not learn the secret, they will not be able to eat.
In Philippians 4:12 Paul says, “I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack.” Here Paul seems to be saying, “In all things I have been instructed with the secret so that I know how to be in want and how to abound. I have been initiated with a type of secret knowledge.” What is the secret Paul learned? Because Paul had been instructed with the particular secret, he could handle any situation, whether he was rich or poor, filled or hungry. The secret is in Philippians 4:13: “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” The secret is not that Christ is in us; it is that we are in Him.
Most of us do not know how to apply the fact that we are in Christ. Take riding in a car to the meeting as an example. My secret in coming to the meeting is simply to sit in the car and to let someone else drive. What a problem it would be if I refused to get into the car or did not like being in the car and did certain foolish things to get out of the car! On the day we were saved, God put us into the heavenly car, the best car in the universe. The name of this car is Christ. On the day we were saved, we were put into Him. If we would exercise to be in Him in a practical way, we would not be active to do so many things on our own. Instead, we would simply rest and be at peace. If we are in Christ, we will be at rest and not endeavor to overcome negative things such as our temper. Although we were put into Christ on the day we were saved, to the feeling of many Christians they are not yet in Christ.
I appreciate the fact that Christ lives in us. There is even a hymn in our hymnal with this chorus:
However, simply to say that Christ lives in us is to be too objective. We also need to experience living in Christ and doing all things in Him. What a salvation it is to live in Him! If we live in Him, we will enjoy His salvation day by day. This salvation can be compared to riding in a car. As long as we remain in the car, we enjoy salvation. When I ride in a car, I am not worried about what direction I am going or anything else. I may rest, pray, or enjoy sightseeing. I simply rest and enjoy myself. In like manner, when we are in Christ, we should simply rest and enjoy ourselves. We should enjoy the life in Christ.
My burden in this chapter is that we would all learn the secret of being in Him. We can do all things in Him. This may seem to be a small secret, but actually it has great significance. This secret is the way for us to experience Christ and to enjoy Christ. It is also the secret of having more of Christ accumulated within us.
Such a secret needs to be put into practice. In order to practice this secret, we first need to realize that Christ lives in us. Second, we must deny the flesh and the natural man. We should count all things as loss and not treasure or appreciate anything of our natural man, such as our humility or other virtues. All our good points, attributes, and virtues need to be counted as loss. We should not have any confidence in anything other than Christ. Third, we should not do anything by ourselves, for we are not alone. Another person lives in us.
Marriage is an illustration of this. Before we were married, we were alone. If we wanted to open the window, we simply opened it. But when we were married, we became bound and limited. All the wives are tied to their husbands, and all the husbands are tied to their wives. In my married life I certainly have learned to live by another person, by my wife. With Christ, we have another person, not married to us but living in us. However, many of us do not care for Christ’s living in us. On the contrary, it seems that we ourselves are everything. But we should be nothing and let Him be everything. We all need to realize that we are no longer persons alone but that we have another One living in us. Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, is living in us right now. We do not merely have His life; we have Him. Therefore, we are no longer alone. Now that He lives in us, we need to learn to live by Him and not by ourselves.
Day after day may go by without our doing anything by Christ. This indicates that we do not practice living by Christ. This is a serious matter. In our daily living we need to practice living by Christ. If we are about to visit the saints or show love, we need to check who is doing it, we or Christ. Before we act, we should wait a while to see whether it is we or Christ who is acting. By doing this we allow the Christ who dwells in us to live for us. This is the practice of the secret.
Paul had been instructed in this secret so that he knew both how to abound and how to be in want. He could do all things in Him. It is sufficient simply to be in Him, for He is all-inclusive and all-sufficient. For example, as we ride in the car, we have complete trust in the car. Christ is more sufficient and more inclusive than any car. Therefore, we should put our full trust in Him. Whatever we do we should do in Him, not in ourselves. We should do everything in Him and by Him. This is the secret Paul learned and the secret we need to learn today. We do not need more teaching but more practice of this secret. We need to practice doing everything in Him.
As we practice this secret, we should not have any preference concerning what we do in Him. We, however, may prefer to do certain things in Him but not other things. We hope that we could keep these things from Him. In this regard, we are like husbands and wives who keep secrets from one another. Every husband has kept certain things from his wife, and every wife has kept certain things from her husband. The reason we do this is that we have our own preferences and do not want others to know about them. In the matter of living by Christ we also have preferences. Because of all these preferences, we seldom turn to Him and ask Him what He wants to do in a given situation. But we need to pray, “Lord Jesus, do You want me to do this? If so, show me Your way to do it, Lord.” We have Christ living in us, but we may not live by Him or do things in Him. The secret in Philippians 4 is to do all things in Him. The way to experience Christ is to do everything in Him.
For more than fifty years the Lord has been teaching me to live by Him. I still have not graduated, because I have not been that faithful. Sometimes I was faithful to live by Him for several days. In those days nearly everything I did was in Him. But then I would become unfaithful again. Consider your Christian life. Have you always been faithful in the matter of living by Him and doing all things in Him? Christ does not want us to do anything. He wants to do everything for us. In a sense, we have already signed the agreement for Him to do this. This took place on the day we consecrated ourselves to Him. By consecrating ourselves to Him, we offered ourselves to Him. However, after consecrating ourselves, we have not been faithful to live by Him. Rather, we have continued to live by ourselves. Without exception, we all have broken our agreement.
The problem with doing all things in Him is not only a matter of intention but also a matter of habit. We were born with a fallen nature, and we do not like to do things by others. This is even true of little children. The little ones may not want their mothers to feed them. They prefer to eat by themselves. They want to be free, liberated, and even wild. In this country the young people are anxious to be eighteen years of age, for then they can fly away from the cage of their family. To many, to be free means to be wild. This illustrates the fact that by nature not one of us likes to do things by others. Because we are used to going our own way, it is often troublesome to have Christ living in us.
When I preached the gospel more than forty-five years ago, I told people that we Christians had the most happy life. I asked the unbelievers to join us in this happy life. But later I no longer had the boldness to preach this way, for I learned that as a Christian my life is a life of troubles. I have Someone in me who is always giving me difficulty because He wants to do things differently from the way I would like to do them. Even if I should want to give up being a Christian, He would not let me go. Our problem is that we do not like to do things in Him.
The secret of the Christian life is that another One, Christ, lives in us. Christ is in us, and we must also be in Him. But we do not like to live in Him and with Him, nor do we like doing things by Him. By birth we have the habit of being independent, and we all have our preferences. But every preference is a suffering, a loss, a failure, a defeat. The reason we do not have a victorious Christian life is that we are not faithful to live by Christ and to do things absolutely in Him.
If you love the Lord, you need to practice doing everything in Him. You need to check whether you are doing things by yourself or by Him. This is the way to gain Christ and to eat Him. To eat properly we should take in one bite at a time. This means that every day, from morning until evening, we should practice living by Christ in all things. We need to do everything with Him. We should be able to say, “From today onward, I will quit doing things by myself. I do not want to live by myself any longer. From now on I will live by Him and do everything in Him.” If you do this, what a difference there will be in your daily living!
The issue of practicing the secret of doing everything in Christ is that for us to live is Christ. Because we do all things in Christ, for us to live is Christ. The more we do things in Christ, the more we gain of Christ. This is a genuine, absolute enjoyment. However, not many Christians practice the secret of doing all things in Him. Rather, they like to attend meetings and hear messages. But the only way to live is to live by doing everything in Christ. This is the unique way to magnify Christ. In order to magnify Christ, we need to live by Christ and do everything in Christ. We can do all things in Him who empowers us. For example, as long as we are in the car, everything is all right, for the car with the driver can take us where we need to go. As we are riding along in the car, we can enjoy a pleasant time of sightseeing. Learn to be quiet in Christ; He never makes a mistake. Sometimes it may seem that He has made a mistake, but actually this is so that you may have a longer ride, enjoy more sightseeing, and learn more lessons. The Christian life surely is a wonderful life.
As long as we do things in Christ, we will experience Him, enjoy Him, and accumulate Him. This is the way to become rich in Christ and to have many rich experiences of Christ. If we all are rich in Christ, the meetings will be full of Christ. This is the Lord’s recovery. For the recovery we need to have a rich life in Christ in order to enrich all the meetings. This is the responsibility not only of the elders but of all the saints, even the youngest and newest ones. We all need to practice living by Christ and doing all things in Christ. This is the secret that we all need to learn today.
