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I. Beware of:
A. Ambition:
1. To fulfill the obligations of a co-worker or an elder, you need to have a pure heart, purified from any form of subtle ambition in intention, purpose, motive, and action in the Lord’s recovery.
2. Never hunting to be the first in any work for the Lord.
3. As a co-worker, never consider that you are above the elders and never attempt to appoint elders; appointing elders requires maturity in life, being adequately equipped with truth, and not being too young in physical age.
B. Pride:
1. Pride is an attribute of our fallen nature by birth.
2. Even with Paul, the Lord was wary of an exceeding exaltation of himself, so He let him have a thorn in his flesh from Satan — 2 Cor. 12:7.
3. Hence, the apostle Paul taught that a new convert should not be an overseer of the church, lest being blinded with pride he fall into the judgment prepared for the devil — 1 Tim. 3:6.
4. Always remember that humility saves you from all kinds of destruction and invites God’s grace — James 4:6.
5. Pride makes you a top fool.
6. Rivalry in the Lord’s work is not only a sign of ambition but also a sign of pride.
7. Caring for your prestige and neglecting others’ dignity are a sign of subtle pride.
8. Referring to your capacity, success, perfection, and virtue is a careless form of pride.
9. Thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think is another form of pride — Rom. 12:3.
10. Christ in His humanity humbling Himself to wash His disciples’ feet gives us a good model of how to humble ourselves for us to escape from pride — John 13:3-5.
11. Arguing about who is greater is an ugly form of pride — Mark 9:34.
12. Wanting to be great and not to be a servant and wanting to be the first and not to be a slave are also a sign of pride — Matt. 20:26-27.
13. Lording it over the members of your church under your shepherding is a strong sign of your pride — 1 Pet. 5:3.
14. The apostle Paul’s model:
а. Preaching Christ as the Lord, and himself as the believers’ slave for the Lord’s sake — 2 Cor. 4:5.
b. Testifying that whoever was weak, he also was weak, and that to the weak he became weak that he might gain the weak — 11:29; 1 Cor. 9:22.
15. To restore a brother, overtaken in some offense, with meekness (a gentle expression of humility) protects us from being tempted also — Gal. 6:1.
16. Self-boasting, self-exaltation, self-glorification, and lusting after vainglory are all ugly and base expressions of pride — 5:26.
C. Self-justification:
1. Self-justification indicates condemning of others and exalting of yourself.
2. The Lord came not to condemn men but to save men by forgiving (forgetting) their sins — John 3:17.
3. The church is neither a police station arresting people nor a law court judging people but a home raising up believers, a hospital healing and recovering believers, and a school teaching and edifying believers.
Prayer: O Lord, we praise You that Your abundant mercy is our daily song; we can never exhaust speaking it. Even tonight the fact that we are sitting here is also due to Your abundant mercy. Without Your mercy, we are the most pitiful people. O Lord, have mercy on us, even on every one of us. For more than seventy years You have been caring for and showing mercy to Your recovery, and You have been speaking to us to this day. O Lord, with Your word, give us Your Spirit without measure and pour Him out richly upon us that we may be full of Your word and Your Spirit, that is, full of Your revelation and light. Amen.
In the preceding three chapters we saw the full ministry of the Lord. His ministry is neither meager nor fragmentary but full. This Christ, who is unique in human history, did many things on the earth, yet it seems that not many people really know Him. Christianity gives people a very shallow impression by saying merely that Christ is God and the Creator of all things and that one day He became flesh to be the Savior of mankind. Today anyone who has received some education and has studied some world history has surely learned something about Jesus Christ. Some say that only He is the true God, that He created all things, and that He became a man as the Savior to mankind. These things are true, but they are not deep.
Among us, Brother Nee took the lead in loving the Bible and pursuing the truth. I can strongly testify that I followed Brother Nee simply because of these characteristics in him. From the time that I was saved, I began to love the Word and seek the truth, so I regularly read spiritual publications. Among the publications that I read, there was one periodical that contained Brother Nee’s writings in nearly every issue. When I read his writings, I felt that they were quite unique. At that time it can be said that the Christian writings in all of China were published in that periodical. However, although many had contributed, only a few were unique. Hence, I began to fellowship with Brother Nee by correspondence.
By His sovereign authority, one day the Lord brought me to Brother Nee. The moment I saw him, I was attracted by the way he talked, which was extraordinary. He was only two years older than I. The first time we met was when he came to my hometown. Consider this: his hometown was in Foochow (in the south of China), and mine was in Chefoo, Shantung (in the north of China). Thus, if it were not the Lord’s sovereign arrangement, how could we have come together? Afterward, he asked me to work with him, so we worked together for the Lord for a total of eighteen years. More and more I sensed that he was truly a great Bible revolutionary; his interpretation of the Bible was different from others’. Perhaps you will ask if he understood other people’s interpretations. Yes, he understood. He had read through the things taught by the church fathers, the things taught by the Lord’s seekers after the time of the church fathers and prior to the Nicene Council in A.D. 325, and the things taught by Martin Luther, the mystics, the inner-life people, and the Brethren. He told me all this history in order to perfect me. He was indeed a good shepherd to me. Because I had received such shepherding, shaping, and perfecting from him, a kind of mutual understanding was developed between him and me. In 1950 we were in Hong Kong together. He came out from mainland China and asked me to go to Hong Kong from Taiwan. We stayed together for one and a half months, from the middle of February to the beginning of April. After that, we separated from each other in Hong Kong with a mutual understanding.
From 1950 to 1996, for forty-six years, I have been devoting much more time and energy to the Word. In 1950, which was the year after I started the work in Taiwan, I had a great determination to build upon the foundation laid by Brother Nee. Thank the Lord that, for forty-six years, nearly every year He has brought me into some new seeing.
In 1951 in Taiwan I put out a monthly paper entitled The Ministry of the Word. Whatever I had spoken as messages was published in that paper. That publication lasted for over thirty years. Then from 1960 the Lord began to gradually confirm, both in the environment and in me, that I needed to turn from the Chinese-speaking world to the English-speaking world, that is, to the United States. The first time I came to the United States was in 1958. At that time I was invited to two places, London in the United Kingdom and Copenhagen in Denmark, for fellowship and conferences. When I was traveling to those two places, I passed through the United States in April and stayed until quite close to October before going on to London. I remained in the United States for four to five months, during which time I had a deep impression concerning the need of the United States. After a year I came back one more time. Then at the end of 1961 I came back again. Since 1962 I have settled down in the United States. At the end of that year I started my work formally in the United States by holding the first conference, in which I released the series of messages contained in The All-inclusive Christ, based on Deuteronomy 8:7-9 concerning the good land. Not too many people attended the meetings. Among them were a few Americans who received and responded to the messages.
Then I began to receive invitations to different places. Since then I have been working in the United States for over thirty-three years, and the messages that I have released, which number at least three to four thousand, have been published in books. In these thirty-three years the Lord has led me to see and enter into new light every year. I worship Him that in the last two to three years, ever since I wrote the new hymn “What miracle! What mystery! / That God and man should blended be!” my speaking has turned into a higher realm. I knew that Satan would attack me, and at the same time I also knew that I needed such an attack, which was a thorn to my body so that I might not become proud. If you have paid attention, you will notice that since that time my messages have changed and have become new. I hope that all of you brothers will be able to catch up with these new messages.
In this year’s summer training, for example, we had twelve messages on the crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, and in the past we already had fifty-one messages on the life-study of John. Besides those fifty-one messages, a number of messages on the Gospel of John have been given on many other occasions. When we did the crystallization-study, however, the presentation and the style were altogether different.
In my fellowship in the full-time training every Wednesday night, I have a message that I want to share with the trainees concerning Christ as the Son of Man cherishing us in His humanity and Christ as the Son of God nourishing us in His divinity. Ephesians 5 says that Christ cherishes and nourishes the church (v. 29). To cherish is to make people happy and feel pleasant. Suppose when a child is noisy and refuses to eat, the mother tries to amuse him to make him happy — this is cherishing. After the child is happy, the mother puts the food into his mouth — this is nourishing. Christ came as the Son of Man to cherish us, to make us happy, and then as the Son of God, He nourishes us so that we may be satisfied in His life.
In John 1, 3, 4, and 8 there are illustrations showing that Christ as the Son of Man came to cherish people and as the Son of God came to nourish people. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The Lord came as the Son of Man to be the Lamb to take away the sin of the world. Verse 32 says, “I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He abode upon Him.” Here, He is the dove, the Spirit, indicating that He is the Son of God. The Son of Man is for redemption from sins, whereas the Son of God is for life-giving and transformation.
John 3:14 and 15 say, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life.” The Lord was lifted up as the bronze serpent; this shows that He is the Son of Man. “Everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life”; this tells us that He is the Son of God. Verse 34 says, “He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for He gives the Spirit not by measure”; this shows that He is the Son of God.
In chapter 4 the Lord came to the well in Sychar, a city of Samaria, and met a woman who came to draw water. This shows that He was the Son of Man. However, He could give the woman living water to drink. This One who can give people the living water is the Son of God.
In chapter 8 a woman who was caught in adultery was brought to Jesus (vv. 3-11), who was surely the Son of Man. He stooped down to write on the ground, and when the Pharisees and the scribes persisted in pressing Him to deal with the woman, He stood up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Eventually, they went out one by one, beginning with the older ones. Afterward, the Lord asked the woman, “Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And immediately the Lord said, “Neither do I condemn you.” That was the Son of Man speaking. Then He said, “Go, and from now on sin no more.” Only the Son of God can enable man to sin no more. Later, the Lord said, “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins” (v. 24). Undoubtedly, the great “I Am” is the Son of God. This is what it means to study the Gospel of John in the way of crystallization. How different this is from the general study of the Bible!
In recent years the Lord has been giving us new messages, and the newest ones are the first three messages given in this international conference of the co-workers and elders. The title of these three messages, “How to Be a Co-worker and an Elder,” seems very simple, but the contents are high and profound and not easily comprehended. The first three messages mainly show the three stages of Christ’s ministry. Many in the world know that Jesus Christ came to the earth two thousand years ago, but very few know what He accomplished on the earth. The New Testament, for example, clearly reveals that this Christ, who was God becoming man, was not only God becoming flesh but also the last Adam becoming the life-giving Spirit. Then Revelation, the last book of the Bible, shows that He eventually became the seven Spirits. The theology of Christianity wrongly teaches people that Christ had only one “becoming,” His becoming flesh, and that He did not have a second “becoming,” much less a third “becoming.” Such teaching is from the backward theology of degraded and deformed Christianity. To this day we still have traces of these mistakes within us. Some are so far off that they say the Lord Jesus became a man for only thirty-three and a half years, and after His death and resurrection He was no longer a man but returned to His original status of being only God. How absurd it is to say this!
The New Testament clearly shows that our Lord became something three times. First, as God, He became flesh; that is, as the infinite God, He became a finite man. Next, as the last Adam, a man in the flesh, He became the life-giving Spirit. Third, as the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ, He became the seven Spirits. In the New Testament we see that Christ has these three stages. The majority of Christians have seen only one age, the age of the New Testament; they have not seen that within this one age there are three stages. In the first stage He was the Son of Man in the flesh; this is the stage of His incarnation in the four Gospels. In the second stage He is altogether the Spirit; this is the stage of His inclusion from Acts to Jude, the twenty-two books dealing with the life-giving Spirit. In the third stage the life-giving Spirit has become the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit; this is the stage of His intensification in Revelation. These are Christ’s three “becomings” in His three stages. His first becoming is in the stage of His incarnation, His second becoming is in the stage of His inclusion, and His third becoming is in the stage of His intensification. This is the New Testament.
I beg you, co-workers and elders, that from this day you would put aside your past understanding of the New Testament and restudy it with the perspective of these three messages, according to what the brothers from Taiwan are doing. They have learned a secret, that is, they pray-read and study the message outlines, they memorize and recite them, and then they speak them. After going through this kind of exercise, they all can say from deep within that the contents of these messages are the teaching of the New Testament apostles.
Brothers, please put aside everything that you have heard in the past. From today begin anew by learning this new culture and new language. Do not consider that you know everything already. I am afraid that you do not really know. You cannot comprehend these things by just listening to them once, nor can you understand them in nine days. You will need at least nine months, the time required for a child to be born; this is God’s law. Today any kind of learning takes time. I hope that you will devote much time and energy to pray, study, memorize, and speak so that you may enter into the reality of these messages.
Now let us come to the message in this chapter. In the following three messages we want to see how to fulfill the obligations of the co-workers and elders.
To fulfill the obligations of the co-workers and elders, first, we need to beware of certain things. The word beware tells us that certain things are against us and are damaging us; hence, we need to be cautious and beware of them.
First, we need to beware of ambition. Ambition is something terrible. Of course, everyone has ambition. Anyone who is not ambitious is not human. However, when you come to serve as a co-worker or an elder, you must not come with your ambition. When one becomes a professor, he wants to be a top professor; when one engages in business, he surely wants to operate a top business; and when one opens a bank, he certainly wants to open the largest bank. This is ambition. Even from the time our children are still young, we raise them to have ambition. Without ambition our children will not study well and will not be able to graduate. We teach them that after they graduate from elementary school, they must be ambitious to go to junior high, to senior high, to college, and then to graduate school. In this way ambition is instilled in them. However, to fulfill the obligations of the co-workers and elders, you must not bring in your ambition. Ambition nullifies your obligations as co-workers and elders. Once you have ambition, you are finished.
To fulfill the obligations of a co-worker or an elder, you need to have a pure heart, purified from any form of subtle ambition in intention, purpose, motive, and action in the Lord’s recovery. According to my over sixty years of observation, I understand the subtle words uttered by people. Some brothers who may be useful in the church behave outwardly in a humble way, but in their heart they are lifted up. That is subtle ambition, and that is a little fox that prevents them from making progress. The Lord will not give anything more to such a one, because if more is given to him, he will be lifted up. Only those who are humble without ambition can be used by the Lord, can receive gifts from the Lord, and can be entrusted with the Lord’s ministry.
We should never hunt to be the first in any work for the Lord. In the church, sometimes we need to arrange for certain ones to bear certain responsibilities. Those who are not assigned may act outwardly as if they do not care, revealing nothing either in their tone or in their expression, yet inwardly they are depressed and unhappy. This is the insidious work of hidden ambition to compete with others to be the first.
I have a twofold burden for this conference. On the one hand, I want to show you the high vision, which is the contents of the first three messages that include the extract of the entire New Testament. On the other hand, I want to expose the base things in our nature, such as loving or hunting to be first. May we all be enlightened to see our real condition.
As a co-worker, you should never consider that you are above the elders and never attempt to appoint elders; appointing elders requires maturity in life, being adequately equipped with the truth, and not being too young in physical age.
According to the Holy Scriptures, apostles are co-workers, and it is the apostles who appoint elders. Therefore, some young co-workers consider themselves apostles above the elders. This kind of consideration is wrong and absurd. In fact, not everyone who is called a co-worker can appoint elders. I know definitely that some co-workers went to certain localities and attempted to appoint elders there but were rejected by the local people. It is neither fitting nor proper for one to attempt to appoint elders simply because he has become a co-worker. To appoint elders requires maturity in life and adequate equipping with the truth.
Brother Nee said that one who is an apostle must be able to decide the meaning of doctrines to determine whether a certain truth is according to the Holy Scriptures. Both to decide the meaning of doctrines and to appoint elders are not simple matters. They require a person to be adequately equipped and not to be too young in physical age. Suppose a young person who is twenty-six years old appoints a person who is fifty-eight years old to be an elder; this is entirely inappropriate. Therefore, do not think that without you no one can appoint elders. It is better not to appoint any elder than to have a young person doing the appointing. This is a problem that we need to avoid among us.
To fulfill the obligations of the co-workers and elders, first, we need to beware of ambition, and second, we need to beware of pride. Pride is an attribute of our fallen nature by birth. God has His attributes, and we have ours. We are fallen human beings, and as such, the first attribute we have is pride. Who is not proud? Whoever is not proud is good for nothing. In the Lord’s work, however, we must try our best to guard against pride.
Even with Paul, the Lord was wary of an exceeding exaltation of himself, so He let him have a thorn in his flesh from Satan (2 Cor. 12:7). Concerning the thorn, Paul entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from him. Nevertheless, the Lord said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9). The Lord seemed to be saying, “Paul, I will not remove the thorn, because My grace is sufficient for you. I will give you sufficient grace.” Why is it that Paul might be lifted up? It is because no one had ever seen a vision and revelation higher than that seen by Paul. Not only was he born on this earth, but he had also been down to the Paradise in Hades and even had been up to the third heaven. Because the visions and revelations that Paul received were so high, so great, and so many, the Lord, being concerned, permitted a thorn to be given to him in his body.
Now I am also afraid that the visions I have seen may be too high, so I pray daily, “O Lord, I humble myself at Your feet; I am a slave, and You are the sovereign Lord. I am truly in fear and trembling, Lord.” I am in fear and trembling that I may be lifted up. Sometimes when I receive numerous letters of appreciation, I am also afraid that people may regard me too highly. Therefore, be cautious; do not praise people carelessly. Your praise may damage them.
Hence, the apostle Paul taught that a new convert should not be an overseer of the church, lest being blinded with pride he fall into the judgment prepared for the devil (1 Tim. 3:6). Here, new convert, literally, “newly planted one,” denotes a person who has recently received the Lord’s life but has not yet grown and developed in it. Blinded with pride literally means “beclouded with smoke.” Pride here is likened to smoke that beclouds the mind, making it blind. This is a serious matter. When a person is proud, he follows Satan, and consequently, he will be judged with him to suffer the judgment prepared by God for him.
Pride means destruction. Once you become proud, your family is destroyed; once you become proud, your married life is destroyed; once you become proud, your job is destroyed. Always remember that humility saves you from all kinds of destruction and invites God’s grace for you. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). If you are humble, grace comes. If you are proud, grace goes away; you have hindered grace.
This is my realization of pride: The most foolish person is a proud person, and the most wise person is a humble person. To be proud is to be a top fool.
We often are in rivalry with people in the Lord’s work. For instance, a certain place began with thirty people meeting together, and now they have reached one hundred thirty. Your locality began with forty people meeting together, but now you have only sixty. Because you cannot stand someone being more successful than you, a heart of rivalry arises within you. In the world, competition brings progress. In the Lord’s work, however, there must not be rivalry; rivalry kills. We need to humbly say to the Lord, “O Lord, I am an unprofitable servant. Even though there are more people meeting here with me than with the other brother, I am still an unprofitable servant.” In the Gospel of Luke the Lord said that after a servant of the Lord performs many tasks during the day and comes home in the evening, he still has to say to his Master, “I am an unprofitable slave” (17:10). We all must admit that we are unprofitable servants. We should neither compare ourselves to nor compete with others. If there is an increase in the church where we serve, it is altogether the Lord’s mercy.
In my prayer my greatest delight is to praise the Lord for His abundant mercy. He will have mercy on whomever He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whomever He will have compassion. You have many people in your locality; it is the Lord having mercy on you. I have few people in my place; this may be because I am proud before the Lord, so I need the Lord’s mercy. Always remember His mercy and His blessing. Brother Watchman Nee said that we should not be afraid of making mistakes, but we should be afraid of not having the Lord’s blessing. If there is the Lord’s blessing, even though we have made a mistake, we are still blessed.
Caring for your prestige and neglecting others’ dignity are a sign of subtle pride. Co-workers and elders who are older are prone to commit the error of caring too much for their prestige. Such a person would often say that he has been working for the Lord for many years, he has established churches in certain places, and he has nourished certain localities. He always cares for his prestige. Everyone has his dignity, so you should not rebuke anyone carelessly. If you do, this means that you are displaying your prestige without caring for the other person’s dignity. This is also a sign of subtle pride.
Referring to your capacity, success, perfection, and virtue is a careless form of pride. Do not carelessly mention your success, your capacity, your perfection, and your virtue. Instead, always say to the Lord, “Lord, I don’t have any capacity, nor do I have any success in Your work. Furthermore, I don’t have any perfection; all that I have is imperfection. Also, I don’t have any virtue; all that I have is failure.” This will preserve you from becoming proud.
Paul tells us that if we desire to live the life of the Body of Christ, we must not think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Rom. 12:3). Never measure yourself too highly; measuring yourself lowly is safe. To think more highly of oneself than one ought to think is another form of pride.
Christ in His humanity humbling Himself to wash His disciples’ feet (John 13:3-5) gives us a good model of how to humble ourselves for us to escape from pride.
In the church, arguing about who is greater (Mark 9:34) is an ugly form of pride.
In His last journey to Jerusalem, the Lord explicitly told His disciples that He would suffer death and then be resurrected. However, the disciples were arguing about who was greater, and no one cared for what the Lord said concerning His death and resurrection. The Lord taught them, saying, “Whoever wants to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave” (Matt. 20:26-27). Wanting to be great and not to be a servant and wanting to be the first and not to be a slave are also a sign of pride.
Lording it over the members of your church under your shepherding is a strong sign of your pride. The elders often have the problem of feeling that “I am an elder, and you all ought to listen to me.” For this reason Peter speaks a strong word: “The elders among you... nor as lording it over your allotments but by becoming patterns of the flock” (1 Pet. 5:1-3).
The apostle Paul preached not only Christ as the Lord but also himself as the believers’ slave for the Lord’s sake (2 Cor. 4:5). He also testified that whoever was weak, he also was weak, and that to the weak he became weak that he might gain the weak (11:29; 1 Cor. 9:22). Paul was humble. When someone was weak, Paul did not have the feeling that only he was strong and the other person was weak. He was a model of our serving the Lord and ministering to people.
Sometimes when you go to restore a certain one, who you are aware has committed a sin, you do not have an attitude of humility and gentleness; rather, you are proud secretly. Consequently, after a few days, you may be tempted also to commit the same sin that he committed. Hence, to restore a brother, overtaken in some offense, with meekness (a gentle expression of humility) protects us from being tempted also (Gal. 6:1).
In addition, we must see that self-boasting, self-exaltation, self-glorification, and lusting after vainglory are all ugly and base expressions of pride (5:26).
The third thing that the co-workers and elders need to beware of is self-justification, the justifying of oneself.
All the self-justified ones always condemn others and exalt themselves.
In John 3:17 the Lord said, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” The Lord came not to condemn men but to save men by forgiving (forgetting) their sins.
The church is not a police station arresting people in order to find out their wrongdoings. The church is neither a law court judging people in order to decide whether or not they are guilty. Rather, the church is a home raising up believers that they may become grown-ups. Furthermore, the church is a hospital healing and recovering believers. When the Lord was on the earth, He ate with tax collectors and sinners, and for this He was criticized by the Pharisees. The Lord told the Pharisees, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill” (Matt. 9:12). The Lord seemed to be saying to them, “You Pharisees don’t need Me. I came as a Physician to open a hospital to receive and heal those who are sick.” Moreover, the church is a school teaching and edifying believers.
We co-workers and elders need to carefully consider the above items so that we may avoid these common errors.
