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Scripture Reading: Rom. 12:3-5
Everyone who follows the Lord must realize that there are certain spiritual requirements in every spiritual matter. Some requirements come from the outward teaching of the Bible, and others come from the inward sense of life. A Christian who is living and who is according to the proper standard will be sensitive to these requirements. If we have been shown mercy and love the Lord, and if we are willing to learn to live before the Lord, then spontaneously our heart will turn to the Lord and love Him. We will also want to please the Lord. In this way we will be in fellowship with the Lord inwardly. In our fellowship we will often encounter spiritual requirements from the outward teachings of the Bible and from the inward sense of life.
Before a sister is saved and begins to pursue the Lord, she may always set herself over her husband and take the lead in everything at home. She can rule over her husband with her opinions and completely disregard his opinions. In such a situation she is the leader and the head of the house. As she begins to pursue the Lord and fellowship with Him, however, she will read Ephesians 5:22, which says, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord.” When she reads this word, the teaching of the Bible will be full of power and touch her being, and light will come forth to shine in her whole being. At this moment the teaching of the Bible will require her to subject herself to her husband. If she truly loves and pursues the Lord, it will be difficult to ignore this requirement and not accept it.
All the brothers and sisters who have had this kind of experience understand what I am saying. If we do not accept this requirement, we will immediately sense that there is a barrier between us and the Lord, and we will feel as if something is wrong. Sometimes we receive a requirement in the morning. If we do not agree with the Lord, we will feel very uneasy throughout the day; it will seem as if something is missing in us. Only when we answer the Lord’s requirement can we be at peace and inwardly at rest. Then our relationship with the Lord becomes very pleasant and comfortable, and we have a sweet feeling before the Lord because we are in agreement with His requirement in the Word.
In the past many of us liked to gossip about others and were quite talkative. Before we were saved, we had no feeling and did not care about our talkative nature. However, after we were saved, we began to pursue the Lord and fellowship with Him. In our fellowship we sensed a demand that restricted our speaking. Although we may not have read a teaching about this in the Bible, we sensed that there was a demand from the life in us, which restricted our tongue and the words in our mouth. This demand required us to be less talkative. This is a demand from the life within. If we do not agree with this demand, we will feel that we have offended the Lord, and we will immediately be condemned by our conscience. We will remain under condemnation until we submit to this demand, confess our sin of gossiping, and agree that we are willing to learn to restrict our speaking through His grace. After we agree, we will immediately feel bright, fresh, and comfortable, and we will have the Lord’s inward presence.
These two examples show two spiritual requirements. Strictly speaking, as those who pursue the Lord, we have a spiritual requirement as the standard of our walk, but how do we know if we are walking on the right path? How do we know which way to take? The standard of our walk is based on a spiritual requirement, and there are two kinds of spiritual requirements. The first requirement comes from the Bible’s clear teaching, and the second comes from the sense of life. We often experience these requirements at the same time, and they correspond to an inward and outward requirement. They can be compared to a compass that directs us on the right path for our walk on the Lord’s way. This compass tells us what we should do and where we should go. In other words, our Christian living should match these spiritual requirements and always agree with them. I hope all the saints would firmly adhere to this principle and realize that our whole Christian living should be a living in agreement with these spiritual requirements.
We may have been a Christian for only a week, a month, or even a year, but if we have never had a sense of these spiritual requirements, we are probably not saved, and if we are saved, we probably do not love the Lord much or fellowship with Him. If we are truly saved and fellowship with the Lord, we should sense some spiritual requirements in us every day. We should touch the Lord’s requirements in His Word and the requirements from the sense of life every day. If it has been a long time since we touched any spiritual requirements, we should realize that something is wrong in us. This shows that the fundamental frustration in a Christian’s living is related to these spiritual requirements. We cannot neglect these spiritual requirements.
Every saved person who lives before the Lord definitely has some spiritual requirements within him. Based on this principle, we need to know the requirements that are related to the church. As soon as we begin to live before the Lord, we can sense a spiritual requirement within to fellowship with other saints. This is a true fact, and we cannot avoid it. The Lord and His life within require us to fellowship with other saints. The life we have received, which is in each one of us, is not an individual life; rather, it is the Lord’s life, a great life. We are not the only ones who have received this life; many other people have received it as well. This life in us requires us to fellowship with other saints.
The saints meet together all the time in the church in Taipei, and they see each other frequently. Thus, they may not have much consciousness of the fact that life requires fellowship, and they may even feel that they have too much fellowship. Some saints have said that there are too many meetings, yet if they do not come to the meeting, they do not have peace. Some colleagues of the brothers and sisters say, “You are so busy. In the morning you are in a hurry to go to work. In the evening you are in a hurry to go home. Then after dinner you are in a hurry to go to the meeting. You are in a hurry every evening of the week, but it seems as if you never get tired of meeting. This is truly strange.” In reality, this is a matter of the life in us.
Recently, more than ten brothers and sisters went to visit the church in Manila. The saints there were very warm-hearted, and they invited the brothers and sisters to eat the best food every day. As a result, the brothers and sisters became tired of eating fine food. However, this did not eliminate their need to eat. The human life needs food, but people cannot eat too much; otherwise, their bodies will not be able to bear it. But if a person is without food for three or four days, he will immediately sense a need in his body for food. At such a time it will not matter whether the food is plain rice or a gourmet meal. As long as there is a need and the food is edible, it will taste very good.
The saints in the church in Taipei attend meetings all the time; they may attend a meeting today and another tomorrow, and sometimes they even attend several meetings in a day. Thus, they may not feel that there is a demand within for fellowship. However, if they went to an isolated place and were unable to see a brother or sister for a whole week and were unable to attend a single meeting for two weeks, there would be a demand for fellowship with other saints within the depth of their being.
In the first year of the Sino-Japanese War, some brothers and sisters and I visited a place in northwest China. Before we went there, we often broke bread with many brothers and sisters to remember the Lord. Since we broke bread often, we took it for granted and did not feel that it was very special. However, when we were in northwest China, we had to wait for a long time before we could attend a bread-breaking meeting on the Lord’s Day. All of us inwardly longed for the bread-breaking meeting. This was something related to the requirement of life. We need to realize that the Christian life is not an individual life; the Christian life is a corporate life. Christians cannot be alone. This can be compared to the fact that bees like to be together. If there is a swarm of bees, all the nearby bees want to be with it; this is a demand of their life.
Please keep in mind the reason that we need the church. A Christian needs to meet because the life in a Christian requires him to fellowship with all the saints. This is a true fact. If we separated ourselves from the saints, did not go to the meetings, and had no contact with the saints for three to six months, how would we feel inwardly? Would we feel happy or unhappy? We would immediately sense a demand within us. This can be compared to a person who wants food because he is hungry. The demand in us requires us to participate in the church and to have fellowship with the saints. This is the first requirement of life with respect to the church.
If we live before the Lord and have fellowship with the saints, there will be a condition in us that requires us to serve and supply others. This is the reason some unbelievers think we are foolish when they see us going to meetings in the evenings, cleaning the meeting hall, or visiting saints in their homes even though we may be exhausted after working all day. They do not see that this is not a foolish matter but a matter of the life in us making a demand. Unbelievers may think we are foolish, but we feel very joyful within.
We can all testify that the life in us is truly a serving life. Around 1946 there was a sister in Shanghai whose husband was the manager of a bank. Since she was the wife of a manager, she had several maids in her house, and she did not need to do any housework. However, she liked to go to the meeting hall to mop the floor and clean the windows. After a while her husband began to wonder why she went to the meeting hall every day. This seemed unusual to him, and he wondered what she could be doing at the meeting hall. One day he came to the meeting hall and discovered that his wife was mopping the floor. He could not understand her behavior and was very upset. Since he was a bank manager, he felt that it was demeaning to him for his wife to do such menial work. He could not understand why his wife would go to the meeting hall to mop the floor when they had several maids in their home.
We can all testify that when this sister was mopping the floor, her face was shining. The more she mopped the floor, the more the Lord’s presence was with her. We could not stop her from mopping the floor. This illustrates that the requirement of the life in Christians is very wonderful. This life requires us to serve others. Some people may think that the manager’s wife was silly, but actually, if she was asked, she would say that she could not be happy if she did not serve others. Her desire to serve others was like the hunger in man for food. When she served others, she was satisfied. This is a requirement of life in Christians. This requirement demands that Christians meet together and serve one another. Without this requirement Christians cannot meet or serve together.
Life also demands that we be served and supplied by others. This is very natural. The reason we come to break bread, pray, fellowship, or even listen to a message is because the life in us has a requirement of needing to be supplied. If we go to a meeting or listen to a message and if the meeting is full of supply and the Lord’s presence, we sense satisfaction, sweetness, and the inward presence of the Lord. This is the life in us that requires us to be supplied.
When we come to the bread-breaking meeting, sing hymns, or listen to prayers, we become inwardly satisfied. There was a gospel friend who attended our bread-breaking meeting, and he was quite puzzled by what he observed. He knew almost all the people in the meeting — some were university professors and some were college students. The meeting lasted for one and a half hours, but there was no message, no exhortation, and no storytelling. Instead, the people only sang hymns and prayed prayers. Consequently, he could not understand why everyone seemed happy and joyful by the time it was over. Were they truly satisfied or only superstitious? He had many questions because he knew most of the saints, many of whom studied science and had doctorate degrees in chemistry, but he could not understand the situation.
This is similar to eating at a well-known restaurant in Taipei. Whenever people go there to eat, they wait in line. Even managers and chief executives wait in line, but they are willing to do this because the life in them has a need to be supplied. When we attend the bread-breaking meeting, we may only sing a few hymns or pray some prayers, but inwardly we feel that we are in the heavenlies; we feel satisfied and happy. This shows that life requires a supply.
Furthermore, the life in each saint requires us to be spiritual. When we are in the spirit, we feel comfortable within. In other words, when we follow the inward requirements to forsake the world, reject the flesh, and deal with our self, we immediately feel inwardly pleasant. However, if we indulge our flesh, love the world, and try to preserve our self, we feel inwardly uncomfortable. This proves that the life in us requires us to be spiritual. This requirement, however, does not only apply to us; it also applies to others.
When a person acts in his flesh and self in our meetings, there is no need to say anything because the life in the saints feels very uncomfortable about this fleshly activity. Similarly, when a saint moves according to the Holy Spirit when he prays, speaks, or chooses a hymn, all the saints sense that they are touching the Spirit inwardly. This is a definite fact. If anyone has been shown mercy, he has had this experience to some degree.
The life in us requires us to always exalt Christ and uplift Jesus. If we meet a saint in our daily life who lives before God, who exalts Christ, who has been broken in the self, and who allows the Lord to flourish, we feel glorious, bright, joyful, and sweet. We also feel pleasant in our spirit. However, if we meet a saint who boasts in himself and who expresses himself and his flesh, we feel uncomfortable. This relates to a requirement of life.
Life also requires us to do God’s will. When we follow God’s will and desire to do God’s will, the life in us feels sweet and pleasant. Sometimes we may disobey and oppose God’s will, but the life in us still requires us to follow God’s will. This requirement is so strong that even if we fail and do not follow God’s will, we still feel sad and depressed in our spirit when we see others not following God’s will. This is a requirement of life in us.
The highest requirement of life is that we live out Christ, let the Holy Spirit operate in us, and allow Christ to rule in us in the Holy Spirit. All the requirements of life are related to the church. If we care for these requirements, it will not be difficult to touch the way of the church and see the genuine condition of the church. If we care for the sense of life, we will be able to easily discern whether a Christian group is truly in the reality of the church; this is a crucial matter.
Now we must see something regarding the standard for testing the requirements of life. We have spoken of the fact that life requires us to have fellowship. However, when we go to a Christian group, the people we meet often do not match us, even though we are open and eager to have fellowship. We do not have fellowship with them and are even unable to have fellowship with them. At such a moment we should examine the reason for this. We should examine it from two sides. First, we should check whether there is a problem with us that prevents us from fellowshipping with others. If we do not have any problems, such as loving the world, living in sin, or caring for the flesh, then the problem is not with us. Although people in this group may say that they are Christians, we need to check whether they allow the Lord to reign in them and whether they live in the Lord. This is a very practical matter.
In the spring of 1937 I was invited by a Christian group to speak. After I gave the message, they invited me to fellowship with them. At the time I felt as if I was in the Arctic Ocean, because they did not understand me, and I did not understand them; we were totally incompatible with one another. Nevertheless, they spread a feast for me, and some even said, “Mr. Lee, the message you gave truly helped us. We truly appreciate you.” However, deep inside I was grieving because we could not truly blend and fellowship with one another. Even though they called themselves Christians and were a Christian group, I realized that they did not live in the Lord or pursue Him enough, despite the fact that some of them had the Lord’s life. I went back to northern China after the meeting, and later I heard from others that an elder and some of the deacons and preachers in that group did not understand my words. Then I understood why we did not have anything to fellowship about and could not fellowship with one another, even though they praised my message.
The life in us truly requires others to live in the spirit so that there can be fellowship. Hence, we should never assume that it is enough for some people to say that they are Christians or that they are a Christian group. This is not enough for us to believe them and conclude that they are a church according to the Bible. We must apply the requirements of our inner life, one of which is the requirement of fellowship. Based on this demand, we must check the genuine condition of any group. What is their condition before the Lord? If we live before the Lord, love the Lord, and reject the world and sin, yet we feel uncomfortable and cannot fellowship with them, this shows that they have lost Christ and the ground of the church and that the Holy Spirit is not ruling in them. They may have the Bible in their hands, but the word of the Bible does not have much ground among them or in them. The requirement for fellowship enables us to test whether a Christian group is taking the way that pleases the Lord.
The second requirement of life is that we serve others. Sometimes when we go to a Christian group, we cannot serve even though the life in us wants to serve. We may want to serve, but we may not be allowed to serve, or our service may be rejected. On the one hand, every saved person has the desire to exercise his gift and supply others according to the requirement of life. On the other hand, some Christian groups can hinder the believers from manifesting their true function according to the requirement of life. We may be in a certain church and sense the requirement of life to serve others, but if we are not allowed to exercise our function and service, there are definitely some problems in the church.
However, before coming to such a conclusion, we need to check to see whether we have any motives in our service. Are we coveting something? Are we serving by our flesh, preference, or self? If any of these things are present in us, the church is correct to reject our service. However, if the church rejects us and our service, even though we do not have anything of the flesh and self nor any motive, covetousness, or preference in our service, we can conclude that this church is not according to the Holy Spirit. It is merely an organization of Christianity. A church that allows the Holy Spirit to exercise authority and has the presence of Christ will be eager to let the saints function and serve. This kind of church affords the greatest opportunity for the saints to minister the grace they have received. As they manifest their functions in the church, they benefit the church.
It is impossible for us to manifest our spiritual function in organized Christianity. In 1938 I was in northern China, and I met a Western missionary from the China Inland Mission. He was a little younger than I, and he loved the Lord very much. He was an American, and he lived in a big guesthouse owned by the China Inland Mission, where many other Western missionaries, who were mainly from England, also lived. We did not know one another, but after fellowshipping a couple times, we began to know one another in the Lord. One day he came to fellowship with me and said, “Brother Lee, there is something that I cannot tell anyone, but I feel that I can tell you. Deep within I am very clear how the Lord wants me to serve, but everyone in my mission has risen up against me. Although I tell you these things, I still cannot say too much.” He told me that he had received some spiritual things and that he wanted to supply and minister what he had received to people in the Holy Spirit. However, he encountered difficulty and persecution in his mission; he was bothered to such an extent that he needed to come and fellowship with me, and he asked me to pray with him. At that moment I became clear that there were some problems in his mission because his service to the saints through the Spirit was encountering opposition and being hindered. His mission was not under the authority of the Holy Spirit, and it had lost Christ’s presence and the Holy Spirit’s operation.
If we look only at a church outwardly, we may find nothing that is against the Bible outwardly; nevertheless, we still have to look at its inward condition to see whether it is ruled by man or whether the world has any ground in it. When we live in life, life will require us to serve, but if we encounter opposition and difficulties in a certain place, we can conclude that it has lost Christ’s presence. If we live before the Lord, reject our flesh, and allow the Spirit to rule, but we are still unable to serve, we can conclude that the Christian group is not in the Holy Spirit, nor does it exalt Christ. We need to see the many aspects of the requirements of life.
Once I was in Taiyuan in the Shansi Province, and I ate something very sour. I thought it was vinegar, but after tasting real vinegar, I realized that the two were quite different. Many things that appear to be the same may not be what we think they are; we can know if there is a difference only by tasting them. We need to see that the taste of life is accurate. One kind of vinegar looks similar to grape juice, but if we taste them we will know the difference; one is sweet, and the other is sour.
The church is not merely a matter of letters or doctrines according to the Bible. It is also a matter of life. When we live in the Spirit and in life, the sense of life, the demand of life, and the taste of life within will tell us whether the activity of our Christian group is of life, of Christ, and of spiritual reality. We will know inwardly; this is a principle.
Although life requires us to supply others and for us to be supplied by others, we sometimes cannot receive any supply or give any supply to others in certain meetings. For example, we may attend a “Holy Communion meeting,” but the element of ordinances and the religious atmosphere may be much greater than the supply we receive. It may be so strong that we do not receive any supply at all. We may also be in a prayer meeting and hear some very long prayers but not touch any spiritual reality in them. Thus, we can conclude that this church is not proper.
Although some groups call themselves Christian, we can sense only human activity, human ruling, and human position there. The requirements of life demand something spiritual, but there is nothing spiritual there. The life in us requires us to exalt Christ, but Christ is not exalted there. In these groups there is nothing spiritual; instead, we can see only human methods, organizations, relationships, and positions and even human ability, piety, and reputation. We cannot touch Christ and the Holy Spirit’s work there. This indicates that these groups do not have the presence of Christ and that they are not under the Holy Spirit’s authority. Thus, we can conclude that they are not churches according to God’s life.
We must see one principle: no matter where we go, we should not judge whether a Christian group is the church, whether it pleases the Lord, and whether it is standing on the ground of the church merely by appearance or outward things. We need to love the Lord, turn to Him, reject the flesh, and not love the world. When we live this way before the Lord, we will be able to discern through the sense of life whether a group allows the Holy Spirit to rule in them, whether they have Christ’s presence, and whether they are truly the church.
We also need to discern the church according to the Bible. In this way, no matter where we go, we will always have a compass and a standard to help us know whether a church has the Lord’s presence and the Holy Spirit’s ruling and whether it is in the position and way of the church.
