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In Philippians 3:3 Paul says, “We are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.” Here the apostle refers to service that is by the Spirit of God. According to the Greek, serve by the Spirit of God may also be translated as “serve in the Spirit of God.” This kind of service in the Spirit of God is service in Christ Jesus. Therefore, this verse also tells us that those who serve by the Spirit of God boast in Christ Jesus and not in the flesh. The first half of verse 7 reads, “What things were gains to me.” From the context we know that the things that Paul refers to as gains to him are the items related to religion, because the items he criticizes in the preceding verses are the items of religion. He was a real Jew, circumcised on the eighth day. He was also very zealous and was blameless according to the law. All these things pertained to the Jewish religion. Formerly, he considered these things as gains to him, but now he counted them as loss on account of Christ.
Concerning the matter of service, there is service according to religion, and there is also service according to revelation. What is service that is according to religion? Any service that is not in Christ, whether it is service that comes out of our natural being or service that comes from tradition, is service according to religion. Apart from Christ, we may have many thoughts and concepts that are evil, filthy, sinful, and against God. This is the bad side. However, there is also a good side that is apart from Christ. We may also have some good concepts. We may think about worshipping God and seeking after God, and we may also think about using different ways to serve God. This is the good side of our natural man. This good side includes things related to serving God and things related to human conduct. Serving God and human conduct constitute the two aspects of religion. To practice religion is to have certain beliefs related to these two aspects and to teach according to these beliefs. Hence, religion stresses worshipping God and teachings related to human conduct.
Religion is in man. If a person commits sin or does evil, he will not want to worship God. This is the evil side of the natural man. Nevertheless, the natural man also has a good side. When a person has the desire to do good, he spontaneously thinks about God and wants to worship and serve God. Since man has this thought regarding serving and worshipping God, he will automatically consider his living and think that he should conduct himself properly and do things well. All this is religion. This is what we mean by service that is according to religion.
In terms of human conduct, religion is good, admirable, and honorable, but in terms of God’s salvation and God’s revelation, even all these good things have to be put aside. They are hindrances to God’s salvation and opponents to God’s revelation. This matter is quite mysterious. If a person has no thought of God at all, that is, if he has no thought of religion at all, we will have no way to lead him to know God and worship God. In like manner, we cannot help a chicken or an ox to know God because they do not have the thought, the natural ability, or even the inclination to know God. They have no ideas about God and are not interested in God. When a person is living in sin, he may not have any interest in God. Yet when he feels miserable and depressed due to a certain situation, he will become interested in God because there is the thought of religion in him. It is because of this concept of religion that we are able to preach the gospel and lead people to know God. We can lead someone to God only when he has such a concept of religion. The mysterious thing is that a person must have this concept of religion for him to know God, but according to the Scriptures, once he touches and knows God, he needs to put this concept of religion aside. Otherwise, this concept of religion will become a hindrance to his enjoyment of God’s salvation.
To put aside the concept of religion after salvation is just like “destroying the bridge after having crossed the river,” as the Chinese people say. Without the bridge there is no way to cross the river, but after we have crossed the river, we have to destroy the bridge immediately. Without the concept of religion we have no way to come to God and to know God. If we hold on to our religious concepts, however, we have no way to know God in a further way. Hence, please remember that immediately after we receive the Lord and once we possess God, we must drop our religious concepts. Otherwise, these concepts will become a big problem in our Christian life. It is not because of sin or the world that many people do not have much growth in life and cannot have further knowledge of God after their salvation. The biggest problem lies with the religious concepts within them. A saved one may think that since he sinned and did evil in the past, now that he is saved and has become a child of God, he should practice doing good. This is in accordance with his concept of religion. He thinks that although this concept of doing good was formerly obliterated by his sins and evil doings, now that he is saved and has come to the church, he will surely have the opportunity for this concept to be put to use. Therefore, he instinctively applies his concepts of religion—serving God, being zealous, conducting himself properly as a man, doing good, behaving himself, being meek and obedient—to all aspects of his Christian life.
These concepts, which are one hundred percent religious, are not derived from God’s enlightenment or teaching that a person may receive after he has been saved. Actually, these concepts were in him long before he was saved. Thus, now that he is saved, he brings these religious concepts into the church. On the one hand, he has the concept that he must serve God; on the other hand, he has the concept that he has to conduct himself properly as a man. If he does well in these two aspects, he considers himself a perfect man. He never searches the Bible to find out what a standard Christian is. He has only ethical and religious concepts, which are all natural and traditional and do not require the enlightenment and confirmation of the Holy Spirit. Later, this will become a big hindrance and an opponent to God in his experience. May God be merciful to us and open our eyes to show us that the kind of service He desires is totally different from the kind of service we imagine according to our original religious concepts. If God is merciful to us to show us such a difference, we will surely put aside whatever we had before, whether it be sinful or ethical. Before we received revelation, owing to a lack of light, we thought that what was acceptable to God and profitable to us was something moral and religious. Now that we have been enlightened by God, however, we see that the service that God desires is not something religious but is in another realm.
What we have said above is based on Philippians 3, in which chapter we see two kinds of service. One is service in spirit, service that is in Christ; the other is service in the flesh, service that is outside of Christ. Although both of them aim at service and worship to God, they are in different realms, on different grounds, from different sources, and have different natures. I hope that we who have a heart for God and a desire to serve God will see that Philippians 3 plainly speaks of these two kinds of service. Paul is an example of one who had these two kinds of service. Previously, he served God in religion—he was circumcised, he was zealous, and he did his best to keep all the commandments of the law. In other words, he tried to serve God, on the one hand, and to conduct himself properly as a man on the other. Toward God, he was exceedingly zealous; before man, he kept the law of God diligently. He could be considered as a blameless person and as a good pattern for followers of religion. The religious followers of Christianity today are far inferior to the way Paul was in his time. Nevertheless, Paul said that his service was apart from Christ, apart from the Holy Spirit. Hence, this kind of service is religious. Such service is not in Christ or in the Spirit but is outside of the Spirit. This kind of service requires confidence in the flesh but not in the Spirit. Therefore, these two kinds of service come from two different sources and have two different natures. One is in the Spirit, but the other is in the flesh. One has confidence in the Spirit, but the other has confidence in the flesh. One cannot do anything without the Spirit, but the other can do everything without the Spirit. The latter is the service in religion, but the former is the service in Christ. Paul suffered the loss of all things of religion so that he might gain Christ.
Religious service is a replacement of Christ. If we have religious service, we do not have Christ because religious service replaces Christ. We can also say that religion usurps the position of Christ and opposes Christ. For this reason and in order to gain Christ, Paul suffered the loss of his religious service. This was absolutely right. Whenever religious service gains the ground in a person, it will be difficult for that person to know Christ in a deeper way. The problem that hinders a person the most from growing in life properly and knowing Christ thoroughly after his salvation is having too many religious concepts. Religious concepts fill and occupy a person so that Christ has no ground in him and has no way to express Himself through him. If a person is filled with so many religious things, including religious thoughts, concepts, and inclinations, he has no way to know more of Christ and of God.
May we all see that religious concepts are a problem. We think that sins, the world, the flesh, and the devil are the only problems facing a Christian. We may think that as long as we have thoroughly dealt with these four things—sins, the world, the flesh, and the devil—we will be able to be perfect Christians. Please do not forget that this kind of Christian is most likely one who lives merely by his religious concepts. This kind of person probably has never been enlightened or seen the revelation. All he has is ordinary religious concepts. However, once he receives the shining of God, he will see that the most subjective problem facing Christians is not sins, the world, the flesh, or the devil but the religious concept of doing good that is within them.
In the Old Testament we see that God put man in the garden of Eden. In this garden there were two trees—one was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the other was the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). There was no third tree. The tree of life, no doubt, was for man to receive life. What was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The Bible says, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (v. 17). From this we see that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not meant to be touched. Whoever contacted it would die. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil had both good and evil. God said that the issue of contacting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be death. The issue of contacting evil is death, and the issue of contacting good is also death. Only life is life and will be forever life. Good is not life and cannot replace life. Anything that is apart from life, whether it is good or evil, is not life. Only life is life. Anything that is outside of life is not life. Hence, even though religious and ethical concepts may be good, they are apart from life and cannot touch life.
This does not mean that we should not do good, perform good deeds, or have any religious concepts. Although religious concepts may be good, they serve only as a bridge to lead man to Christ. Once we have been led to Christ, however, we should not treasure the bridge; rather, we should destroy it. If we do not destroy it, there may be a chance that we would go back. Thus, some Christians are advancing and then retreating all the time. After a person has been led to God by his religious concepts, he should immediately condemn and destroy that concept. “What things were gains” to him should be “counted as loss” once he knows and sees Christ as the One of peerless worth in the universe (Phil. 3:7-8). If he treasures his religious concept and his religious service, he will have no way to enjoy more of Christ. A person may be truly saved yet still have a very superficial experience of Christ and no spiritual progress at all. This is because he is full of religious concepts. Since he is still living by his religious concepts, he has no way to know Christ in a deeper way. This problem is altogether due to the religious concepts within him.
We already know what is meant by service according to religion, but do we understand what service according to revelation is? Service according to revelation is service that is according to the revealed Christ. Any service that we do without touching Christ or contacting Christ is not service according to revelation; rather, it is religious service. Only when we contact Christ can our service be according to revelation. This is the same with our salvation. Only salvation that is according to revelation counts. What is salvation according to revelation? It is the salvation in which a person touches and contacts Christ. “Salvation” according to religion follows a formula. As long as a person fulfills a first, second, and third step, and as long as he carries out a certain procedure, he is considered saved. This is the “salvation” according to religion, which “salvation” does not count before God. The salvation that counts before God does not require man to do a first, second, and third step. Our salvation before God has no formula. When we touch Christ in our spirit, we are saved before God. This is salvation according to revelation.
This is not the case only with our service and salvation. All our Christian experiences are the same. For example, what is holiness according to revelation in the Scriptures? And what is holiness according to a formula? Holiness according to a formula is something of religion, not of revelation. One day God opens our eyes and shows us that Christ is not only our Savior and our life but the One who lives in us and who is our holiness. This is holiness according to revelation. Everything that is according to revelation has Christ. Everything that is according to religion does not have Christ.
In 1933 in Shanghai, I met Brother Watchman Nee, who was a very deep brother in the Lord. One day he asked me, “Brother, what is patience?” I thought that this should be an easy question to answer, but because of Brother Nee’s depth in the Lord I also thought that it must not be that simple, so I dared not answer. He asked me again, “What is patience?” Then I said, “When we endure others’ persecution by gritting our teeth, is this not patience?” He said, “Brother, this is not patience.” Then I turned the question back to him, and he said, “Patience is Christ.” Later, I thought about this over and over again, considering how patience could be Christ. Thank God! It was because of this word that I came to know God in a deeper way. On that day God opened my eyes to see what patience is.
Religious patience is patience that requires great endurance. For example, when my wife troubles me, I restrain my temper and say nothing; likewise, when your husband gives you hardship, you do not react. This is what we consider patience. However, this kind of patience is artificial and is of the flesh. It does not require man to be in the Spirit or in Christ. It is altogether based on man’s own effort. If we have this kind of patience, we will have confidence in our flesh and will boast in our own ability to endure. Yet this is not what God desires. Such religious patience is artificial and is apart from Christ. One day God will show us that He does not want this kind of patience because it results in giving glory to man. God will show us that the glorious Christ who lives in us is our patience. When our wife troubles us, we do not need to try to restrain our temper and keep quiet. When our husband distresses us, we do not need to try to exercise our magnanimity or be extraordinarily patient, because Christ is in us bearing everything and living in us to be our patience. This is something apart from man’s work, something in Christ. This is not our own patience but is the living out of Christ.
We all know that Christians take the Bible as the basis of their living and work. But what does the Bible really speak about? A chemistry book talks about chemistry, and a mathematics book talks about mathematics. The Bible, however, speaks concerning Christ. If we take Christ away from the Bible, there will be nothing left but skin and feathers without any content, because the Bible is a portrait of Christ. In John 1 Christ is called the Word of God. The Greek word for Word is logos. Christ is the living Word of God, and the Bible is the written word of God. The written word is a portrayal of the living Word. Hence, the content of the Bible is Christ.
Since the Bible is focused on Christ, if we see only patience but do not see Christ in our reading of the Bible, there is a problem with our reading. Why is it that when a person reads the Bible—a book on Christ—he cannot see Christ but can see only patience, humility, and meekness? The reason is that he has not dropped his religious concepts. Many people are filled in their religious mind with humility, meekness, and patience. Even before they read the Bible, all these things are already in them. Hence, when they read the Bible, they find that the Bible also talks about humility, meekness, and patience. This exactly matches the things in their religious mind. Hence, greatly astonished, they consider the Bible to be a wonderful book. Little do they know that the Bible says that if there is any encouragement, it is in Christ, and if there is any consolation, it is in Christ (Phil. 2:1). The crucial phrase is in Christ, yet it seems that Bible readers have not seen it.
The love referred to in the Bible is the love in Christ, the love in the Holy Spirit. The virtues mentioned in the Bible are all in Christ. When people come to read the Bible, however, all they see are the virtues it describes, such as patience, love, and humility; they miss Christ altogether. How can this be? This is because the thought of being “in Christ” does not exist in the human mind. Hence, it is not easy for us to see this. Therefore, I hope that we will disdain the concepts in our mind instead of regarding them highly. If we are willing to condemn and drop our religious concepts, then when we read the Bible, we will see that the most central and precious matter in the Bible is Christ Himself. Instead of merely seeing some fragmented teachings, we will see the revelation that Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:11). Without Christ, there are no virtues. Without Christ, there is no love, no patience, and no humility. Without Christ, there is no spiritual reality. With Him, there is everything. He is everything, and He is the content of the Bible.
Moreover, we can also say that we have the Bible without and the Spirit within. The Bible without portrays Christ, and the Spirit within reveals Christ. Regrettably, however, today many saved ones have the Spirit within them, but the Spirit has no ground in them and has no opportunity to reveal Christ to them. Why? Because they are full of religious concepts. Since they are filled with religious concepts, the Holy Spirit does not have any opportunity or ground to speak, to enlighten, or to reveal Christ to them. If they see that all religious things are replacements and enemies of Christ and are willing to condemn all these religious concepts, the Holy Spirit will have the opportunity and ground to reveal Christ to them day by day. In brief, we cannot see the revelation of Christ when we read the Bible because we have religious concepts within us. The Holy Spirit is also unable to reveal Christ to us due to our religious concepts. Hence, we have to condemn our religious concepts. Like Paul, we have to suffer the loss of all these things and count them as refuse that we may gain Christ (Phil. 3:7-8).
