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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 3:3, 6, 17-18; 4:7, 10-11, 16; 6:4-10; 11:23-29; 12:7-10; 13:14
Second Corinthians 3:3 says, “Since you are being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered by us, inscribed not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone but in tablets of hearts of flesh.” This word indicates that something of Christ has been wrought into people to make them living letters of Christ. This is the work of a living ministry, not that of any kind of gift. I have never seen a person who had the life of Christ wrought into him merely by a gift. We cannot minister Christ into others merely by gift, teaching, word, or knowledge. Rather, it must be by something of Christ that has been wrought into us to make us not only the ministers of Christ but also the ministry of Christ. We, the persons, become the living ministry of Christ. When we minister, we not only pass on the knowledge about Christ to others, but we minister Christ Himself through the word into them.
This kind of ministry is one which works Christ into people so that they become the living letters of Christ. They are composed as letters not merely by knowledge or word but of the very essence, the very element of Christ. Something of Christ Himself as the Spirit has been wrought into the life and nature of His people so that they become the living letters of Christ. These letters are not inscribed with ink, that is, not with the letter of knowledge. They are written with the Spirit of the living God, with God Himself as life. In order to minister in this way, merely to have knowledge is not good enough. We must be in the spirit. Then when we speak, preach, and teach, the element, the essence, of the Spirit is ministered into people and wrought into people so that they become the living letters of Christ.
Verse 6 says, “Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” There is an important principle here. We should not deal with the letter of the law. We should not pay attention to the mere letter, because the letter kills. It is the Spirit that gives life.
We may not fully understand the deeper meaning of kills in this verse. If we pay attention to things other than the life of God, that is a real killing. To kill is to put life into a position of not working, to cause life to be out of function. We may feel that to bring in death is a killing, but even if we do not bring in death, simply to pay attention to things other than life is a real killing. Apparently, we may not bring in anything of death, but we may draw people’s attention away from life to many other things. Although this appears not to be death, it is, in fact, a real killing.
For many years I was bothered by the phrase the letter kills. To my realization, when I dealt with the letter, it seemed that I was not killed, and I had no intention to kill. After a long time I began to understand the proper meaning. When we say that the letter kills, it means that mere doctrine, the knowledge of the letter, causes people to pay attention to things other than life. When someone ministers, it may seem that there is nothing of death, but there may be no life there, only something other than life. We may not say that this is death, but it has nothing to do with life; it is the absence of life. Therefore, it is a killing. This is the correct meaning of the letter kills. The deeper meaning of this phrase is that when we deal with things or pay attention to things other than life, that is a killing.
In my own Christian life I have had this experience. At the very beginning of my salvation, I was very living. Immediately following a person’s salvation, he is living and desires to pray and know the Word. A young brother especially likes to obtain more knowledge. Accordingly, I was brought into contact with a Brethren group which was particularly strict in the study and exposition of the Word. For seven years I studied at the feet of the Brethren teachers. I attended almost every one of their meetings during this time. I listened to more than a thousand messages concerning all the types, prophecies, and expositions of book after book of the Bible.
The Brethren spent a great deal of time studying Daniel chapters 2, 7, 9, and 11, especially the end of chapter 9 concerning the seventy weeks and the second half of the last week, the last three and a half years of this age. During those seven years with the Brethren I was really “addicted” to their teachings. I could even recite what they taught word by word. Apparently, there was nothing wrong, and there was no death. They did not criticize others but positively passed on what they had to others. However, in those seven years I never heard a message saying that Christ is life to us and that this living Christ today dwells in us. No one would talk about this. Rather, what they always talked about were the types, prophecies, and fulfillment of the prophecies. One person among them was even a “living concordance.” He could quickly tell you in what book and in what chapter any verse was located. He was very trained in the study of the letter of the Bible.
It was a great mercy of the Lord to me that after seven years with the Brethren, by the fall of 1931, I realized within me that there must be something wrong. I did not love the world; I had given that up as a young man. I also was not sinning, and I had a heart to seek after the Lord and study His Word day by day. I also went to meetings regularly, sometimes even walking through deep snow. However, I still felt dead within, and I had no fruit. For seven years I did not bring one person to the Lord. I felt weak, poor, and impotent. At this point I continued to attend their meetings, but when I rose up every morning to pray, I would go up to the mountains about ten to fifteen minutes away. I prayed to the Lord and wept, saying, “What is wrong with me, Lord?” It was in this way that after about six months, from the fall until the next spring, I broke through. At that time, I realized that all the teachings I had received were sound and scriptural, but they were killing. They had been killing me for seven years. Although I was very living when I was first saved, I had become dead after seven years; the teachings of the letter had put me to death.
Around July of 1932, after I had prayed in this way for six months, the Lord did something under His sovereignty, and I was brought into contact with Brother Watchman Nee. The Lord brought him to the city where I was living. That was the crisis, the turning point, in my life. I had no intention to stop meeting with the Brethren, but the next day after Brother Nee left, a man came to see me. He came to talk about personal things, not spiritual things, but that night the Lord brought us to the beach, and the man asked me to baptize him. That was something miraculous. I was young, and I felt that I could not do this, but he had the ground to ask me to baptize him because I had already shared many things about baptism with him. At that time I was about twenty-five years old. That was the start of the Lord’s work in my hometown.
Spontaneously the Holy Spirit led us to stop attending the denominations, and we two began to meet together. Two days later, two others heard that I had baptized the first one, and they came to be baptized. Then on the third day we baptized another two. By the Lord’s Day there were seven of us, and by the next week there were about nine. On the following Lord’s Day we began to have the Lord’s table with eleven. We were eleven brothers, with no sisters, like the eleven disciples. We met in this way for three weeks, after which a sister began to meet with us. The number increased quickly, and by the end of the year nearly eighty were meeting with us. This happened because my entire being was turned from the letter to life. Even though I was young and did not know much, my messages were aggressive and challenging, and people were attracted.
By this I now realize what it means for the letter to kill. It is to pay attention to knowledge instead of life. In many seminaries and Bible colleges, the more they teach, the more they kill people by their teaching. When many young people are saved, they are living and seeking the Lord, but after entering a seminary, all day long they are under the killing of the letter of knowledge. We must learn to pay attention not to mere knowledge and letter but to spirit and life. If we pay attention to anything other than life, we will kill others. Although we have no intention to do this, we will do it unconsciously.
The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Therefore, we must exercise the spirit and let the Spirit take the lead. Then life will be ministered. The living letters of Christ can be composed only by the Spirit, by the ministering of life, not by knowledge, teaching, or doctrine.
Verses 17 and 18 of chapter 3 say, “The Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” The better translators agree that the Greek word here for beholding needs another verb. Some versions use the word beholding, and others indicate the meaning of reflecting. However, the Greek word conveys the meaning of beholding for reflecting. Therefore, we must add a second verb, reflecting, so as to read “beholding to reflect” or “beholding and reflecting.” If we put these two terms together, we have the proper meaning of the Greek word.
Verse 18 says that we behold and reflect not “in” a mirror but “like” a mirror, since we ourselves are the mirrors. Like mirrors, we behold and reflect with an open, unveiled face. If there is a veil covering our face, we do not have an open face, but now the veil is taken away. We have an unveiled face like a mirror without any covering that can behold its subject and reflect it. When a mirror beholds a person, that person is in the mirror, and the mirror reflects that person. There is no need to see this person directly because we can see him in the mirror; the mirror reflects him by beholding him. Formerly, the people of Israel had a veil. With us, however, the veil is now gone, so nothing covers us. We are a mirror with an unveiled, uncovered face looking at Christ and beholding Him. The more we behold Him, the more we reflect Him.
Verse 18 continues to say that we are being transformed into the image of Christ. The King James Version renders this word as “changed,” which is too poor. This is the same word translated as “transformed” in Romans 12:2. By our beholding to reflect Christ, we are transformed into the same image, that is, Christ’s image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit. To begin with, there may be no image in a mirror. However, the more a mirror beholds a certain person, the more that person’s image is in the mirror. In this way the mirror is transformed into that image. As the mirrors, we originally beheld something other than Christ, but that has been done away with by Christ’s redemption. Now as mirrors we are free and unveiled to behold Christ, and the more we behold Christ, the more His image is impressed into us. In this way, we are transformed into the image of Christ.
The real ministry of life is to help people realize how to behold Christ in an unveiled way as the mirrors and be transformed into His image. The more we behold Him, the more we reflect Him and are transformed into His image. If a mirror beholds a person for merely half a minute, not much of that person will be reflected in the mirror. The longer we as the mirrors behold Christ, the more we are transformed into His image to become a full reflection of His image. This is not a matter of gift, teaching, or knowledge. This is a matter of the living ministry of life.
We need to be dealt with by the Lord. Then we will know how to help others to be dealt with by Him, how to put off their veils, and how to turn their heart. They will be right with Christ, and they will know how to look to Him, behold Him, and have direct fellowship with Him without any kind of frustration. They will be transformed progressively into the image of Christ to be a genuine and full reflection of Christ. This is the fruit of the work of the living ministry of life. This is a work that gifts, knowledge, and teaching can never accomplish.
This kind of work can be accomplished only by the living ministry of life, which comes from the work of the cross and from the living Christ being wrought into us. By the working of the cross and the living Christ being wrought into us, we have the ministry and we become the ministry. It is by this living ministry that people are helped to become unveiled mirrors to behold and reflect Christ and be transformed into His image. This is not merely the passing on to others of objective knowledge. It is something very living and very subjective ministered to others in spirit by the work of the cross.
Verse 7 of chapter 4 says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” No doubt, we are the earthen vessels, and the treasure within us is Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God. How can this treasure within us be prevailing, manifested, and ministered to others? There is no other way but by our brokenness through the working of the cross.
Verse 16 says, “We do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” Here is a great problem in our study of the Word: What is the outer man, and what is the inner man? We may be quick to answer that the outer man is the natural man, and the inner man is the spiritual man. However, if we answer in such a hasty way, we will make a mistake. It is not easy to expound a verse or chapter of the Scriptures, and it is easy to interpret in a loose way. The right way to expound any part of the Word is to understand its context. We need to read the entire context of 2 Corinthians 4. According to verses 10 and 11, outer man refers not only to the soul but even more to the body. Verse 10 says, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus.”
Strictly speaking, the outer man in this chapter refers to the body, but it includes the soul standing with the body and controlled by the body. It is the body connected and incorporated with the soul. Under God’s sovereignty our body is always put into suffering. The body together with the soul is always being consumed. Most of the sufferings of the apostle Paul were the consuming of his body. He suffered very much in his body. According to verse 9, he was “cast down but not destroyed.” This means that when he was persecuted, his body was cast down, but he himself was not killed, not destroyed. All the things mentioned in this context refer mostly to the suffering and consuming of the body. However, the soul has much to do with the body. When our body suffers, our soul also suffers. If we do not have some kind of suffering in our body, it is difficult for our soul to suffer much. The soul suffers mainly through the body’s suffering.
What then is the inner man? Strictly speaking, the inner man here does not refer to the spirit alone. It refers to the soul, our inward part, with the spirit. Romans 8:6 confirms this. It says that our mind, the main part of our soul, can stand with the flesh or with the spirit. If our soul stands with the flesh, it becomes a part of the outer man. If it stands with the spirit, it becomes a part of the inner man. This is the meaning of the outer man and the inner man in 2 Corinthians 4.
The outer man is the body with the soul. This has to be consumed. The inner man is the soul with the spirit, and this has to be renewed. By our experience we can realize this. When we are suffering, perhaps from a certain kind of sickness, this is a suffering through the body. At this time, however, not only our body is consumed, but our soul is also consumed, and at the same time, our soul is revived with our spirit. Before the time of suffering, our soul was very much involved with our body. However, after a period of suffering, our soul turns much to the spirit. The relationship between the soul and the body is consumed, and the relationship between the soul and the spirit is revived and renewed.
If persecutors beat us and put us into prison, we will no doubt suffer in our body. At the same time, our soul, which is related to the body, will also suffer. If our soul were not related to our body, it would not suffer when the body suffers. Our soul suffers when our body suffers because the two are “married.” Because our soul is related to the body, the Lord raises up suffering for our body in order to turn our soul away from the body to the spirit. Therefore, after our sickness or imprisonment, that is, after our suffering in the body, the result is that the soul turns away from the body to the spirit and is transformed. It is purified from a relationship with the body and brought into a revived and renewed relationship with the spirit. Then our mind, will, and emotion are revived, strengthened, and renewed spiritually.
Before we suffer, our soul is too attached to the body and too much for the body as a part of the outer man. Therefore, the Lord needs to deal with the outer man to cause the outer man to suffer, that is, to be consumed. The more the outer man is consumed, the more our soul turns away from the flesh to the spirit. On the other hand, the soul is renewed and revived with the spirit. This is the proper meaning of decaying and renewing in verse 16. Then our soul will not be so attached to the body, that is, to the flesh. Our soul will be purified, adjusted, renewed, and turned to the spirit to cooperate with the spirit and be incorporated with the spirit. This renewed soul — the renewed mind, will, and emotion — is suitable to express Christ for the spirit. Once again, this is a word not of gift or knowledge but of a living ministry.
The soul of an unbeliever is one hundred percent on the side of his body. Not one bit of his soul is turned to his spirit. The soul of a young believer in Christ is also very much on the side of his body. Although he loves the Lord, his soul is not much incorporated with the spirit. How much of our own soul is attached to our flesh, and how much does our soul stand with our spirit? We spend too much time with the flesh and very little with the spirit. In what way can our soul turn from the flesh to the spirit? It is not by teaching but by suffering. Teaching is not adequate to turn our soul from the body to the spirit. Teaching can cause us to understand, but it does not bring us into the reality.
The more a brother or sister suffers physically and materially, the more his or her soul progressively turns from the side of the flesh to the spirit. This means that the outer man is being consumed and the inner man is being renewed. I have seen many dear brothers and sisters who were strong persons prior to their suffering. They were strong in the body and in the flesh. Then the Lord put them into a situation of sickness, and they suffered physically for many years. Gradually, the more they suffered physically, the more their mind, will, and emotion were turned from the body to the spirit. Eventually, such persons who have been suffering physically for a long time become very spiritual. Their mind, emotion, and will are very much on the side of the spirit instead of on the side of the flesh. This indicates that the outer man is consumed and the inner man is renewed. It is in this way that the Lord deals with our soul. Suffering turns our soul from the body to the spirit. This is the work of the ministry.
Chapter 6 stresses the working of the cross and Christ being wrought into us. Verse 4 says, “In everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God.” In other books written by the apostle Paul, he calls himself a servant or slave, but in this book he uses mostly the word minister. In the Greek text the words slave and minister are different. The word slave has a particular background. At that time around the Mediterranean Sea there was a custom that one could be sold to a master to be a bondman, someone without any freedom. This was Paul’s meaning when he used the word slave. The apostles were the Lord’s slaves. The word minister, on the other hand, means that something of the Lord has been wrought into someone to make him the minister of the Lord.
A person may be a someone’s slave but not be a good minister to him. To be a slave means that a person has no liberty. He has been sold to another, he has no rights, and he submits to his master. However, it is very possible that he may not know anything about his master. He may know how to submit to him, but he does not know what his master intends to do and what his thoughts and desires are. Then, although he may be a good slave, he is not a good minister. In order to be a minister and to deal with people on behalf of his master, a person must be wrought by his master. The master’s heart, desire, intention, thought, and relationships with others must be clear to that person. Then he can go to others as a minister representing his master and speaking exactly according to him.
We can see this in diplomatic affairs. The foreign minister of a country, such as the American ambassador to China, must be a man who knows the affairs of his government. If someone knows his government’s intention, purpose, policy, desire, and relationship with other nations, he can be the proper representative to another country. However, if someone is a citizen of a country yet does not know anything about his government’s affairs, he can never be a minister of his country. In the same way, if something of the Lord has been wrought into a servant of the Lord, he becomes a minister of the Lord.
In 2 Corinthians the term minister is used more than in other books because in this book the servants of the Lord are wrought by the Lord. Something of the Lord’s character, life, intention, desire, and purpose has been wrought into them to make them the ministers of Christ.
The ministers of the new covenant are described in verses 4 through 10, which say, “In everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in a holy spirit, in unfeigned love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; through the weapons of righteousness on the right and on the left, through glory and dishonor, through evil report and good report; as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as dying and yet behold we live; as being disciplined and yet not being put to death; as made sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things.”
Verse 8 speaks of evil report. Many times the evil reports actually comfort us. We should not think that because we are faithful to the Lord that we will always receive good reports. There may be many evil reports about us. Even the apostle Paul suffered many evil reports about himself. Verse 8 also says that the ministers were considered as deceivers. If we are faithful to the Lord, many times people will say that we are deceivers. Only when we are not faithful to the Lord will everyone praise us as being honest. However, that kind of honesty is not the real honesty; it is a diplomatic honesty.
Chapter 11 again speaks of the sufferings and the working of the cross upon the ministers of the Lord. In verses 23 through 29 Paul says, “Ministers of Christ are they? I speak as being beside myself, I more so! In labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in stripes excessively, in deaths often. Under the hands of the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one; three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep; in journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers; in labor and hardship; in watchings often; in hunger and thirst; in fastings often; in cold and nakedness — apart from the things which have not been mentioned, there is this: the crowd of cares pressing upon me daily, the anxious concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I myself do not burn?” Here we see a suffering person. The ministry comes out of this kind of suffering.
Verse 7 of chapter 12 says, “Because of the transcendence of the revelations, in order that I might not be exceedingly lifted up, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he might buffet me, in order that I might not be exceedingly lifted up.” The Lord knew that even the apostle Paul could be proud and lifted up, so He gave him a thorn in the flesh. In the flesh here refers to the physical sufferings in the body. Verses 8 and 9 continue, “Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me.” The Lord would not answer Paul’s entreaty to take away the thorn. Instead, the Lord left the thorn there to create an opportunity for Paul to experience more and more of His grace.
Verse 10 says, “Therefore I am well pleased in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions and distresses, on behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am powerful.” This is the description of a minister and the ministry. The ministry comes out of suffering and from the real experience of the Lord Himself as grace. The strength and the power are the Lord Himself experienced by us and becoming our grace.
The book of 2 Corinthians concludes with, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). This is to say, the Triune God be with you all. Love is the source of grace; grace is the expression, the emergence, of love; and fellowship is the transmission of this grace to us. The love is in the grace, and the grace is in the fellowship. Moreover, the fellowship is of the Holy Spirit. When we have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we enjoy the grace of Christ, and when we enjoy the grace of Christ, we have the love of God. This means that the Triune God has been wrought into us, and we are one with the Triune God. As such, we become the ministers of the Triune God with the ministry of the Triune God. We have not merely a gift but the ministry of the Triune God, and we minister the Triune God to others. This is a sketch of the book of 2 Corinthians.
