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Scripture Reading: Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16a, 25
In the previous chapter we talked about a living that is out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit. In this chapter we will continue to see a living that is solely according to the spirit. These two kinds of living are both for the strengthening of our present practice of small group gatherings in the homes.
The small group gathering is the foundation for the building of the church life. However, in Christianity today most people pay attention only to the big meetings. The big meetings are used to gather people together. After the people are gathered together, very little attention is paid to the work of building. For this reason, among most Christians the element of building is lacking and is almost nonexistent. The history of Christianity is a history of revival. This history is similar to the record in the book of Judges. When a judge was raised up, everyone was revived for a while. But when the judge was gone, everyone fell back to the same condition as before.
The Bible shows us that from the beginning of the church life there were two kinds of meetings. The big meetings were held in the temple, while the small meetings were held from house to house. The big meetings raised up and brought in the people, who were then put into the small meetings. In the small meetings they were nurtured and edified. There they coordinated together to be built into the house of God. Hence, the foundation of the building of the church is in the small group gatherings.
However, we have a wrong concept concerning the small group gatherings. We think that there is the need for a few able preachers to conduct these meetings. Actually, it is impossible to have enough preachers for all the homes. Even the seminaries cannot produce the required number of preachers. At Pentecost after the three thousand were saved, it is possible that the same night they began to meet in the homes. If that were the case, there might have been at least six or seven hundred small meetings in the homes. During the day they probably listened to a message from Peter in the big meeting. Then at night they returned home to preach the same message. Because of this practice, they all could testify, and they all could preach and teach (Acts 8:1, 4).
Today’s Christianity puts too much emphasis on the big meetings. As a result, the small meetings are neglected. Even among us we have the same situation. Although we attempted to have the small group meetings in the past, they were not very successful. It was not difficult to have seven or eight people come together to discuss the news and chat about their families. But when the time came to talk about spiritual things, they became lost. They found that they did not know how to conduct themselves. After a few meetings everyone became discouraged, and no one wanted to come together any longer.
The reason for the failure of the small group meetings is that believers are not saved in a thorough, strong, and living way. A child does not become full-grown the day he is born. There must be the daily feeding and care. Only then will he grow up properly. When my youngest daughter had her first baby boy seven or eight years ago, we visited our little grandchild in the hospital. The baby was so thin and small in the incubator that we were concerned whether he would be able to grow up at all. But today the child is lively and healthy. This tells us that life is wonderful; it can grow and flourish.
Although the human life is wonderful, we Christians have a more wonderful divine life in addition to our human life. Medical doctors have made such a thorough study of human birth that even babies born three to four months premature can survive if they are given the proper care. Unfortunately, Christians have not been as thorough in the study of the spiritual birth. Some people are saved in such a poor way that their salvation may be likened to the birth of a premature baby. Among us, it is especially easy to have premature spiritual births, because after we talk with people concerning the gospel, we ask them to call on the name of the Lord. The Bible does say that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10:13). But while some are nine months in the womb already when they call, others are less than four or five months old. When we try to persuade them, we are forcing a premature birth. Actually, the time is not yet ripe. We should have waited a little longer. If a person is born prematurely, it will be difficult for him to grow well.
The realization of many Christians concerning the matter of salvation is that we were fallen sinners who were in need of the Lord. By outwardly stretching forth His hand, He delivered us from sins, the world, and hell. In their concept, the Lord’s salvation is like pulling a drowning man out of deep water. Actually, the salvation of the Lord covers all the processes that He has passed through: His incarnation, His thirty-three and a half years of human living, His crucifixion, and His tasting of death for us all. He entered into the Hades of death, passed through death, and came out victoriously from it. Then He rose from the dead to become the life-giving Spirit. After this He ascended to the throne and poured Himself out upon His believers. Today He is not only on the throne, but He is also the Spirit waiting for you to believe in Him, call upon Him, and receive Him. If you call on His name out of a sincere heart, this life-giving Spirit will enter into you to be your life and will be in you as your salvation, saving your entire being from sin and the world. This is the real salvation. This is also called regeneration. Regeneration is to receive the divine life in addition to the human life that you already have. This divine life will be in you as your salvation and supply.
Life is wonderful. Even a lower form of life such as the plant life, which has neither sense nor consciousness, is very wonderful. For example, the different fruit trees bear different kinds of fruit of various shapes, tastes, and colors. The many kinds of flowers are also adorned beautifully with so many different colors. The human life is of course much more mysterious than the plant life. But even more excellent and mysterious than this is the life of God. A regenerated person has received this excellent and mysterious life.
Because of the influence of culture, tradition, religion, philosophy, morality, ethics, customs, and habits, whenever we read the Bible, we are affected by all these things in our background. As a result, we think that the Bible teaches us concerning all these things. Superficially, much of the Bible does deal with these things that relate to human behavior. It does speak of how husbands and wives should treat each other. It also talks about how parents and children should get along with one another. The Bible talks about humility, and it also talks about love, forbearance, patience, and other similar virtues. The Bible does not annul ethics and morality, nor does it reject culture and teachings. But these are not the focus of the Bible. Some think that if these are not the focus of the Bible, then the focus must be God’s love to man, His mercy, forbearance, lovingkindness, and so forth. Surely the Bible also talks about all these things, but they are still not the focus.
Hymns, #501 can be considered a masterpiece in our hymnal. It extracts the focus of the Bible from the New Testament and describes it fully.
Stanza 1 of this hymn says,
O glorious Christ, Savior mine,
Thou art truly radiance divine;
God infinite, in eternity,
Yet man in time, finite to be.
Then stanza 2 says,
The fulness of God dwells in Thee;
Thou dost manifest God’s glory;
In flesh Thou hast redemption wrought;
As Spirit, oneness with me sought.
This hymn does not speak of the love of God or of the grace of God. It does not talk about God’s mercy or lovingkindness. Rather, it speaks of the fullness of God and the glory of God.
The phrase As Spirit, oneness with me sought speaks of the focus of the Bible. This focus is the Triune God, the Creator of the universe, the eternal God, who came one day to the earth to become a finite man. He accomplished redemption in the flesh, and on the cross He terminated sin, the world, darkness, the self, the flesh, and everything of the old creation. Then in resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. When we believe in Him, He enters into us to have an organic union with us. In this way this life-giving Spirit becomes one with us.
This union is not a union like one hand holding another hand. It is a union comparable to the grafting of a branch into a tree. Romans 11:24 says that we are the wild olive branches that have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree. The cultivated olive tree is Christ, and the wild olive branches are we the sinners. Without passing through the redeeming death of Christ, we and Christ can never be grafted together. It is through the death and resurrection of Christ that He became the life-giving Spirit to enter into us and to have an organic union with us.
Stanza 3 of Hymns, #501 says,
All things of the Father are Thine;
All Thou art in Spirit is mine;
The Spirit makes Thee real to me,
That Thou experienced might be.
All that the Father has is the Son’s, and all that the Son is, is in the Spirit (John 16:13-15). This Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. The Bible explains in detail how all that belongs to the Father is inherited by the Son, and how all that the Son is, is in the Spirit. Hence, the Spirit becomes the reality of the Son, and the Son is the expression of the Father. In this way, the Son is the manifestation of the Father, and the Spirit is the realization of the Son. Today this Spirit has entered into our spirit to become our reality. The result is that our spirit is organically joined to His Spirit, and His story becomes our history.
As descendants of the Chinese race, the Chinese are spread today throughout the whole world. In the early days their ancestors crossed a vast span of land. When they did this, the Chinese also crossed over together with them. Hence, their ancestors’ story is their history. In the same way, all that the Lord Jesus has passed through — His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension — has become our experience by His being joined to us.
Stanza 4 continues,
The Spirit of life causes Thee
By Thy Word to transfer to me.
Thy Spirit touched, Thy word received,
Thy life in me is thus conceived.
Today this Spirit enters into our spirit to make His history our experience. But that is not all. By the word of the Bible He is making Himself real to us. Whenever we come to read the Lord’s Word, we touch this Spirit, and He becomes our supply.
Stanza 5 says,
In spirit while gazing on Thee,
As a glass reflecting Thy glory,
Like to Thyself transformed I’ll be,
That Thou might be expressed thru me.
Every time we come to the Lord, it is a matter of the spirit. We must forget about our culture and forget about teachings. We must drop our religion and philosophy, and we must drop our ethics, our morality, and all our customs and habits. Of course, this does not mean that we can indulge ourselves in whatever we desire. It means that we should forget all these things and turn to our spirit. In spirit we should worship and behold the Lord, as a mirror reflecting the Lord’s glory.
I was born in northern China, but when I went to Shanghai, I did not reflect the North, and when I came to the West, I did not reflect the East. What I reflected was Christ. On the one hand, Christ is in the heavens; on the other hand, He is in our spirit. As long as we will turn to our spirit, we can contact Him and enjoy Him, as a mirror reflecting His glory. The result is that we are transformed into His image, and He is expressed through us.
Stanza 6 continues,
In no other way could we be
Sanctified and share Thy vict’ry;
Thus only spiritual we’ll be
And touch the life of glory.
Today we have only one way — the way of the spirit. The Triune God, the Creator of the universe, who was incarnated, died on the cross, and rose from the dead, is now the life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is the ultimate expression of the Triune God. He is also the consummation of the Triune God. He has entered into the spirit of us who have believed and is now being mingled with us as one spirit. Now we should walk according to this mingled spirit and live a daily life that is inseparably attached to this spirit.
Regrettably, many people read the Bible as if they are wearing a pair of colored eyeglasses. They read into the Bible many things of culture, teachings, ethics, morality, religion, philosophy, customs, and traditions. As a result, they do not receive any light from the Bible. Even many seminary students are coming to the Word in this way. They come with their colored eyeglasses. I hope that the Lord will be merciful to us all, so that we may all remove our colored eyeglasses to read the Word of God solely with our God-created spirit.
The last stanza of Hymns, #501 says,
Thy Spirit will me saturate,
Every part will God permeate,
Deliv’ring me from the old man,
With all saints building for His plan.
This mingled spirit is in you saturating and permeating your whole spirit, soul, and body. The result is that your whole being will be filled with the Triune God so that in every part of your being you will see God. In this way, every part of your being will be saturated with God, and you will be delivered from the natural self and be built together with all the saints to become God’s dwelling place.
Ephesians 2:22 says, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” Only when we are all living in spirit, worshipping in spirit, beholding and reflecting His glory in spirit, and being transformed in spirit will it be possible for God to have a way. And only then will it be possible for us to be built together in spirit to become the dwelling place of God.
The Christian life is not a life according to culture. It is not a life of religion, ethics, morality, tradition, or customs. The Christian life is a living that is out of the Holy Spirit and through the human spirit. It is also a living whose walk is according to the spirit. Regretfully, you and I have not yet attained to that standard. Many brothers and sisters are very pious toward God. They are very strict toward themselves and very forgiving toward others. Their manner of life is very honest and faithful. We Chinese have been taught this way from our youth, and in our daily life we are very much controlled and governed by these teachings. As far as Confucius is concerned, this kind of behavior is good, and as far as morality and ethics are concerned, it is excellent. Such behavior is upheld by tradition and welcomed by natural reasoning. But as far as God’s economy is concerned, it is off the mark. God does not approve any of these things. He does not approve anything that is not according to His economy. As the New Testament apostles came to realize, even the ordinances that were given by God in the Old Testament have all been set aside (v. 15; Col. 2:14).
Paul shows us in the book of Galatians that if a man desires to keep the law, he is separated from Christ and has fallen from grace (5:4). Christ profits him nothing (v. 2). This does not mean that we have the liberty to break the law. It is not a matter of keeping the law or of breaking the law. To keep the law is a matter of good, and to break the law is a matter of evil. Both good and evil are from the same tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). But the tree of life is neither a matter of good nor a matter of evil. It is a matter of life, and this life is Christ (John 14:6).
In Romans 7:21 Paul said that whenever he willed to do good, the evil was present with him. This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Those who live in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are always in turmoil. Paul cried, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” (v. 24). Then in chapter 8 he declared that the law of the Spirit of life had freed him (v. 2). Here we have neither the law of good nor the law of evil but the law of life.
To most people it is commendable to be able to differentiate between good and evil. To their way of thinking, it is right to be lawful, moral, and ethical. The Chinese classics say that the way of the higher teaching is in the development of the “bright virtue.” As long as a person will develop the bright virtue within him, he is good. But to a Christian this is not adequate. The teaching of life is not a matter of developing the bright virtue. The teaching of life is to walk according to the spirit. The teaching of Confucius exhorts man to cultivate and develop the bright virtue within him. But we Christians are not here to develop that bright virtue. We are here to develop the spirit within us that is mingled with Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit. This mingled spirit within us is much higher than the bright virtue.
Actually, the bright virtue is simply the conscience. The bright virtue of Confucius is the conscience that Wang Yang-ming, another Chinese philosopher, spoke about. All the teachings concerning the development of the bright virtue are the result of the highest discoveries of the Chinese philosophers. They discovered that within man there is the noblest part, which is the conscience. But within us the believers is a spirit which contains the divine Spirit. This is much higher than the conscience. I hope that the brothers and sisters will hear this word. What many seeking Christians are doing today is simply developing their bright virtue. They are not walking according to the spirit within them, which is mingled with God the Spirit.
The Bible does not teach us to develop our bright virtue. It does not tell us to cultivate our natural man. Rather, it teaches us to walk according to the spirit (v. 4; Gal. 5:16a, 25). This spirit is the mingled spirit which is produced when the Spirit of God enters into our spirit. The Spirit of God is the life-giving Spirit, who has passed through creation, incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Today this Spirit has entered into the spirits of all those who are saved. God’s intention today is not for us to develop our bright virtue. Rather, He wants us to walk according to that inward spirit in which God’s presence dwells. The way of the higher teaching is in the development of the bright virtue, but the teaching of life is in walking according to the spirit.
I have been saved for sixty years. I read books by many different schools of Christians. Each school had its own theory and practice, and I tried and practiced them all. In the end I saw that the Bible shows us only one way, and that way is to walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit in our daily life.
When we wake up in the morning, no matter how busy we are, we should spend a few minutes to have a time with the Lord. We should open ourselves to the Lord and say, “Lord, I come to contact You. You are my life and my everything. Today I am not here to live out my morality. I am here to live out Christ. I do not wish to act merely according to my conscience. I want to act according to the spirit.” After you pray, perhaps you will read a few verses. Then in your daily life you should simply practice to have a walk that is according to the spirit.
Often God will allow our wives or children or other matters to come and trouble us. They are there to test whether we are actually living in the spirit or whether we are living by ourselves. Sometimes if our wives bother us a little, we begin to exercise our patience. This is nothing but the development of our bright virtue and a cultivation of our behavior. We must see that whatever happens to us is for us to learn to turn to our spirit. We do not care for the development of the bright virtue, nor do we care for the cultivation of our behavior. If the spirit would not move, we would not move. We only know how to walk according to the spirit.
Sometimes when we manage to be patient, we feel very proud of ourselves. We think that we have succeeded in our effort and that we have achieved something. But when we turn to the spirit, we are enlightened. We realize that although we have succeeded in cultivating a good behavior, we have not lived Christ. Although we were successful in exercising our patience, we failed to walk according to the spirit.
In the past certain saints have come to me, saying, “O Brother Lee, you are marvelous! You have done such a wonderful work for the Lord!” When I heard this, I felt like the cherubim. I felt as if I had six wings with which to fly away. Although I said with my mouth, “This is not me; it is all the Lord’s work,” in reality it was all me. It was not Christ; it was not walking according to the spirit. After I confessed this before the Lord, I learned the lesson, and I dared not be so proud. We are all like that. When others praise us a little, we are in the heavens, but when others criticize us a little, we are in hell. We can neither take praise nor take rebuke. We must exercise to walk according to the spirit and not be bothered by anything else. We would not be distracted either by others’ praise or by their rebuke. We would only pay attention to walking according to the spirit.
Today as Christians, in order for us to strengthen the small group meetings, we must have the riches of life; and in order for us to have the riches of life, we must exercise ourselves to walk according to the spirit. We should not be moved when the wind is favorable, and we should not be hindered when the wind is unfavorable. We should not exercise patience, nor should we exercise self-control. We should only walk according to the spirit. We should not live out ethics or morality; we should only live out the Christ who is the Spirit.
If you will walk according to the spirit all day long, you will surely be filled with joy and exultation within. Spontaneously, you will overflow with praise and thanksgiving. You will say to the Lord, “Lord, I worship You. You are truly my life and my everything day by day. Lord, You are truly my enjoyment. My wife may be giving me a hard time, but I am not touched. She may be praising me, but I am not moved. Lord, I only desire to walk according to the spirit.”
If we have this kind of living, when the meeting time comes and we are all gathered together, our meetings will be an expression of our daily life. We should not come to the meetings to perform. The meetings are a testimony of our daily life. If from morning until evening we are led by the Spirit, spontaneously psalms and praises will well up within us, and when we come to the meetings, we will continue to be led by the Spirit in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.
This is the aspect of life. Later, we will add to this the aspect of truth. We need to be rich in life and shining in the truth. Then when a person sits in our meetings, he will be touched and he will be fed. Those who are rich in life and shining in the truth will spontaneously become the core of the small group meetings, and they will become the riches, the strength, the freshness, the livingness, the attracting power, and the supporting power to the small groups. It is in this way that the small group meetings are strengthened.
For this reason, we do not agree that one person does all the speaking while everyone else does the listening in every meeting week after week, month after month, and year after year. We hope that the big meetings will render us some help so that all the saints can be perfected and equipped to seek after the growth in life and edification in truth. Then as we become persons who are saturated with life and equipped with the truth, whichever small group meeting we attend, we will become the riches, strength, freshness, livingness, attraction, and support to that meeting. This is my hope, and this is also the revelation of the Bible.
I hope that all the brothers and sisters will see this. We are not here for a religion, we are not here to practice ethics or to teach morality, and we are not here to go along with traditions or customs. We are here today to live Christ. Our job is not to develop the bright virtue. Our desire is simply to live a life that walks according to the spirit.
