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In this chapter we will touch the matter of mutual teaching in the group meetings by mutual asking and mutual answering. In the group meetings we do not promote anyone to be a particular teacher; rather, we desire to encourage all the group members to learn how to teach.
Suppose a new one who has been reading John 8 comes to your group meeting. As a new one, he may have a number of questions to ask concerning matters that he does not understand, especially from verses 12 through 36. Verse 12 begins this section with “I am the light of the world,” and verse 36 ends the section with “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed.” In this portion of twenty-five verses the new one may have questions concerning a number of matters. First, he may not understand the Lord’s word in verse 24: “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” What does I am refer to? Then he may not know what the light of life is in verse 12. He may also wonder what the truth is and how the truth can set us free (v. 32). Actually, in this portion of the Word the crucial point is that Christ as the great I Am eventually becomes the truth as our reality, and this is the very factor that sets us free from the slavery of sin. How could the great I Am become such a reality to us? In addition to the I Am and the reality, in verse 12 there is the light of life. The light of life is the key by which we can open the door to answer this question. It is the means by which we can have Christ as the great I Am become the reality to us.
We all need to learn how to answer questions like these. First, we need to learn how to interpret the divine title I Am, not in a doctrinal way but in a living way. “I Am” is the meaning of the name Jehovah (Exo. 3:14-15), and Jehovah is the name of God (Gen. 2:7). The name Jehovah actually means “to exist.” It is similar in meaning to the verb to be. The great I Am is just the verb to be. Nothing is, but He is. I am not, and you are not; we all are not. Only He is. In the entire universe nothing is; everything is not. Only One is; only One exists. Only Jesus, who is Jehovah the Savior, exists. He existed in the past, He exists today, and He will exist in the future. Only He is the very “is.” Therefore, only He is real.
In the whole universe there is only One who is, who exists. Of course, this One is God, but to say that this One is Elohim, God, the faithful, mighty One, is doctrinal. In John 8 the Pharisees asked the Lord Jesus who He was (v. 25). The Lord’s response to them was very mysterious. He said to them, “Altogether that which I also tell you.” The Lord is the I Am, as He told the Pharisees in verse 24. The Lord is; only He is. Thus, He is real; He is true; He is the reality.
In John 8:12-36 we have the great I Am, the light of life, the Son of Man to be lifted up, and the reality. The reality becomes one with the Son because it is the Son who became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Eventually, the Son and the reality are one. Verse 32 says, “The truth [reality] shall set you free,” and verse 36 says, “The Son sets you free.” Hence, the Son is the truth, the reality.
How could this One who is, become the reality that sets us free from sin? The key is that He is the light of life (v. 12). He can be the reality that sets us free from sin because He is the light of life. The power of sin is not outside of us; rather, it is inside of us. The slavery of sin is within us; it is not like a chain outside of us. Christ as the great I Am sets us free not outwardly but inwardly from the power of sin. At the time we were saved, it might have seemed that some chains fell off from us and we were released from sin temporarily. However, for the long run, every day we are still enslaved to sin, not outside as with chains but inside with a bondage. A husband may lose his temper toward his wife, and the wife may lose her temper in return toward her husband. After losing their tempers, they both will regret. The cause of their losing their tempers was not a chain that was upon them outwardly but a power, a slavery, in their constitution.
Christ, the great I Am, has become a releasing, setting-free reality to us because He is the life (14:6; 11:25) and He is the light within us. This light is not the outward light; it is clearly mentioned in John 8:12 as the light of life. The light of life is not an outward light but an inward light. John 1:4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Christ is life, and He came to give us life. He came that we might have life (10:10). He is also the life-giver (6:63; 1 Cor. 15:45). The very life that is Christ Himself has been given into us, and this life shines and becomes light within us. This light sets us free. Then we have the reality. This is why we must have the instant and constant fellowship with Him, not only every minute but even every second. Every second we need to be one with Him, fellowshipping with Him. Then He as life within us works. When life works, it shines, and when it shines, it sets us free. In such a situation He, the great I Am, becomes the reality to us, and we are set free from the bondage of our temper. The bondage of our temper is not a chain on our shoulders; it is something in our constitution, in our being, in our fallen nature. Nothing outward can set us free from such bondage. Only the inward life that is Christ Himself can set us free from such bondage by working and shining in us.
This life is the life-giving Spirit, and it is even the Triune God (Eph. 4:18). This is why His name is I Am. I Am denotes the ever-existing and self-existing One, who is the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In John 8:16 and 29 the Lord said clearly that He was not alone, but the Father was with Him. When the Son and the Father are present, surely the third One, the Spirit, also is present. Thus, together the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the great I Am. They are the verb to be. They are the ever-existing One, the real One, and the true One. Hence, They are the reality. When They live in us, this is life, and this life shines. When it shines, we are released from sin, from darkness, from death, from falsehood, and from the lie (vv. 24, 34, 44). When the Triune God as life works within us and when this life shines, this shining frees us from all these negative things. Then we are no longer slaves of sin, but we are the sons of God. As the sons of God, we can abide in the house of God forever (vv. 35-36).
The key point in John 8 is the inner life working in us. Normally we do not pay much attention to this matter. We may pray, “Lord, help me to overcome my temper. Lord, help me to bear my wife’s long face.” This is usually our way, but this kind of prayer has never been answered. However, when Christ becomes the operating life that lives in us, the living of this life is the shining of the light. This shining sets us free from falsehood, from death, from darkness, and from sin. This is the glorious freedom and the wonderful freedom. This is the freedom from the inner bondage, the inner slavery. In such a freedom we have the reality, and this reality as the great I Am is both the Son of God and the Son of Man.
The Lord as the Son of Man is for His crucifixion (being lifted up — v. 28). Without being the Son of Man, He could never be crucified, and without being crucified, He could never accomplish the redemption from sin for us.
The Lord as the Son of God is for His resurrection. Without resurrection He could never become the life-giving Spirit. It was through resurrection that He became the life-giving Spirit, who is life itself (Rom. 8:2). Today He dwells in us in resurrection as this life-giving Spirit, as this life. This life works and shines, and this life saves us and sets us free from the power, the slavery, of sin by its shining. Thus, we have the great I Am, who is the Triune God as our reality that sets us free from sin. This is a proper answer to the question of how Christ as the great I Am could become the reality to us and set us free from the bondage of sin.
In speaking concerning Christ as the great I Am becoming the reality that sets us free, we need to stress the matter of shining. Life alone without shining does not work. Life works through shining. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 3 says that all things came into being through the Word. Then verse 4 says, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” When the life becomes the light, the life works, and that working is just the shining. Verse 4 of chapter 1 is a controlling verse that controls the entire twenty-one chapters of John. In this One who is the Word, in this One who is with God, in this One who is God, in this One through whom all things came into being, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. When the life shines, the life works.
We may feel that learning to teach in this way is too difficult. However, let me assure you that it is not difficult. As a young child is learning mathematics, every lesson may seem difficult, but after he completes the lessons, they seem very easy. We all have been led by Christianity to believe that we are not qualified to do anything for the Lord. We have been told that only the Pope or the pastor is qualified to do something for the Lord. However, we must change our concept. We must believe that we can speak for the Lord. Otherwise, we have no way to go on.
In 1934 Brother Nee began to see the light in 1 Corinthians 14. He told us that he saw the light, but there was no way to practice it. That was true because we were too much under the covering of Christianity. Christianity had convinced the saints and subdued them to the uttermost, causing them to believe that they could do nothing. When we were raised up by the Lord in China, we spoke concerning the light that Brother Nee had received from 1 Corinthians 14, but people argued with us, saying that we were not qualified like the apostle Paul. At that time Brother Nee waged a lonely battle in China.
We should not believe that we are incapable of speaking for the Lord. We all have the divine life. Within every life there is a capacity. Even the life of a mosquito has its capacity. We have the divine life with the divine capacity. We need to believe in the capacity of that life. We also need to call on the name of the Lord Jesus and fellowship with Him. We need to breathe Him in. Then we will realize the capacity of the divine life. We also need to exercise this capacity without being afraid of making mistakes. One way to learn is to make mistakes. We should always be willing to make mistakes, and we should never believe the negative things. Only Jesus Christ never made a mistake. Paul, Moses, and David all made mistakes. We should abandon fully the influence and the background of Christianity.
We all like to be the best at whatever we do. If we cannot be the best in a certain thing, we will not do it. This kind of attitude is wrong. We should try to do something and not be concerned if we are the worst one. After a period of time we may improve and become one of the best ones.
The best teaching always implies two things: the highest revelation and the rich experience of life. You may give a word perhaps for just two minutes, yet in your word there may be the highest revelation and also the very rich experience of life. This is the best teaching. The speaking of some Christian teachers is full of cleverness, eloquence, and good illustrations, but it is devoid of revelation and lacking in experience of life. We must learn to teach with the highest revelation and the rich experience of life.
The practice of the new way in Russia is very encouraging. The church in Saint Petersburg was raised up just a little over six months ago. Recently, they had a general gathering in which the five districts came together, and the number who attended was one thousand one hundred thirty-one. We have received quite a few letters from Saint Petersburg saying that although the new ones have been in the church life less than half a year, they can speak as if they had been in the church life for a number of years.
We have been delayed. The enemy, Satan, has been fighting and attacking from the beginning of the recovery in the United States in 1962. From that time the recovery in this country has passed through many troubles. A number of very good brothers came into the recovery and were absolute for a time, but then they changed. If from the beginning all those who came into the recovery in America had remained until today, we would have much more manpower to carry on the work in Russia. However, at the present time we are short of manpower. Some of the manpower in the recovery has been spoiled.
In our group meetings we need to practice teaching by mutual asking and mutual answering. We need to consider how to answer questions on subjects such as God’s economy, the Lord’s recovery, objective justification, reconciliation, subjective sanctification, and the ground of the church. It seems that we understand the doctrines, but when it comes to the matter of teaching, we may think that it is too difficult. However, if we do not do our best to teach, the vital groups will have no way to go on. In the group meetings the main thing is to perfect and equip one another by teaching. If we do not practice the mutual teaching, the group meetings will not be so useful. Sooner or later we must learn to teach in the group meetings. Otherwise, when we come together with the new ones, no one will have anything to ask, and no one will have anything to answer. Since no one will have anything to speak, the group meetings will be of less use. We need to make the group meetings very busy, with much traffic. This depends on our asking and on our answering; it depends on our teaching. If the new ones do not ask anything, we should propose something to ask.
In the previous chapter we mentioned the matter of dealing with our disposition, our character, and our peculiar traits. In this chapter I would like to say a word concerning our peculiar traits. A number of saints among us have strong peculiar traits. To some extent, those traits have spoiled these saints. To deal with our peculiar traits, we all need to receive the breaking of the cross. Brother Nee spoke much concerning character and the breaking of the cross. Peculiar traits are particular characteristics of our character. A good character is one that has no particular traits. Brother Nee said that if a person’s peculiar traits could not be broken before he was fifty years old, it would be nearly impossible to break those traits after that.
A peculiar person is always different from others; he is not common. Everyone has some peculiar traits, but some are light, whereas others are very heavy. In our married life the most troublesome thing is our peculiar traits. It is difficult for a person who is strong in peculiar traits to have a good married life, unless his spouse will always give in and allow him to be what he is. Because both spouses have peculiar traits, they must both learn to give in. Whenever we give in to others, our peculiar traits are annulled. However, if we insist on our own way or our habits, we may become more peculiar. How much we can be used by the Lord depends mainly on how much we would receive the breaking of the cross. The breaking of the cross is mainly to break our disposition, character, and peculiar traits. We all excuse ourselves for our peculiar traits, saying that we were born that way. However, we should never say this. We should not make any excuse for our peculiarities. We should not believe that our excuses are right. Actually, no excuse is right.
The practice of praying long prayers may also be a peculiar trait. On one occasion Brother Nee was strong to say that often we pray prayers that are not really prayers. Even in our way of praying, our peculiar traits may be very strong. We should learn to go along with the atmosphere in the church meeting, not insisting on our own way or habit.
The Christian life is a life in which we must always go against ourselves. If we do everything against ourselves, we are right. In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” To deny ourselves is to be against ourselves. Some brothers have the peculiar trait of speaking with many words. They think that the more sentences, phrases, and clauses they speak, the more people will be able to understand them. Eventually, after their speaking, people may not know what they have spoken about.
Some saints are unable to pray without the “cane” of description or explanation. If we consider Paul’s two prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3, we will see that they contained no explanation. In 3:14-17 Paul prayed, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father...that He would grant you...to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” Paul told the Lord what he wanted, without adding any explanation. A great part of our Christian life and work has been exhausted by our peculiar traits.
We need to prepare ourselves by considering how to teach all the subjects that we have picked up in the recovery. We need to consider how to teach redemption, justification, and reconciliation. If you do not know how to teach these matters, you can look into some of our books in order to prepare yourself. When the groups come together, they should practice this kind of mutual asking, mutual answering, and mutual teaching. We will need this, and we will use this very much.
