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Scripture Reading: Matt. 13:3; 1 Cor. 3:6-7; 1 Pet. 1:23; 2:2, 5; Eph. 2:21; 4:15-16
What is the content of the church? Some may answer that the content of the church is Christ. This is right; but when people say “Christ,” sometimes they do not understand what they mean. Christ is the content of the church, but we must realize that this Christ who is the content of the church is life to us. He must be our life in order to be the content of the church. Christ does not merely come and stand among us as the content of the church; it is not in this way. As such, He would only be the ruler of the church, not the content of the church. If He is to be the content of the church, He must be our life. The content of the church is Christ as life to us. All Christians recognize that Christ is in the church, but few realize that Christ in the church means that He is life to us. He is not only in the midst of the saints, but He is also life to the saints as the content of the church.
When we say “life,” we must realize that life can never be separated from the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of life, and the Spirit is life itself. Thus, when we say that Christ is life to us, we must realize that this life is in the Spirit. Christ is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. He could never be life to us except in the divine Spirit, and we could never enjoy, realize, and experience Him as life unless we are in the human spirit. It is in the human spirit that we realize and experience Christ as the life-giving Spirit. It is not just the teaching or talk about life but the real experience of life. This is why we stress that we must turn to the spirit and know how to exercise our spirit.
It is similar to our relationship to the air. Our physical body has its being in the air. Air, in a sense, is life to us, but we need to breathe it. By breathing the air, we can realize the air as life. In the same way, it is not by understanding or knowing but by exercising our spirit to breathe that Christ as the life-giving Spirit can be realized as our very life.
Suppose there are two brothers in the church. One is a nice man by birth, not by regeneration: he was born nice and gentle. It is difficult for him to lose his temper; it even seems that he has no temper. Regardless of what you say or do, he is never offended. He seems to be in another world, a world without a temper. He has an exceedingly gentle disposition. Now he is saved and is one of the brothers, and everyone thinks that he is a wonderful brother.
Another brother, on the contrary, can so easily lose his temper. He is not so refined, but indeed quite rough. Everyone in the church is afraid of him, especially the sisters. They are afraid of his tough disposition and his capacity to easily lose his temper.
Suppose we have these two brothers in the church. One is “white,” and the other is “black.” I am not referring to the color of their skin but to their disposition. Which would you love, the black one or the white one? Suppose one of these two brothers were going to stay with you. Which would you like to have? Would you take the white one and give someone else the black? Which would you choose? It depends on how much you want to be transformed. Undoubtedly, the black one would contribute more to your transformation. But the answer is that we should prefer neither of them. We should not love the white or the black, for both are natural. Neither of them is of life. One is white, but he is not “golden.” The other is black, and he is not “golden” either. What God wants is “gold,” not white or black. Good is not “gold,” and neither is bad. Regardless of whether you are white or black, as long as you are not “golden,” God will not take you.
The church is not a place for the education or correction of people. The church is not a place to change people. It is the very means for God to put Christ as life into man. The black ones need life, and the white ones also need life. But according to the situation of today’s Christianity, this is not so. Today’s Christianity attempts to educate, correct, and change people. If you are white, they say that you are all right. But if you are black, they try to correct, change, and improve you. This is absolutely wrong. The content of the church is nothing less than Christ as life. The black ones are undoubtedly short of Christ, but so are the white. All are short of Christ.
Many times the white ones become a real frustration to life. In many local churches, the black ones are easier to handle as far as life is concerned. To minister life to them is easy, but to minister life to the white ones is really difficult. The white ones think they are quite all right, and others also think they are good. Within them there is a certain kind of pride in being better than others. All the brothers and sisters think that it is unnecessary to pray for them; they think that they must pray for the black ones. So eventually, the white ones become a frustration to the ministry of life. It is difficult to convince the white ones that they need Christ even more.
How can we help these two brothers? Suppose the black one continually loses his temper and is so rough with the brothers and sisters. What shall we do? Most people will try to convince him that he is wrong. They will condemn him, and if he is slightly convinced, they will rebuke him. Sometimes they will rebuke him to death. Finally, they will ask him to correct and change his attitude—“Brother, you know that in the church we must have a life of love. You should not behave yourself in such a poor way. You must conduct yourself in love and learn to love others.” This is what most people do, but it is absolutely wrong.
Suppose such a brother comes to you, what would you do? According to my experience, the best way is not to condemn and adjust him but to minister life to him. Pray-read a part of the Word with him, and bring him into the presence of the Lord. After a certain amount of pray-reading and contacting the Lord, you may say something to him in a positive way. “Brother, we are all sinners. Good does not mean anything to the Lord—even our best does not mean anything to Him. What the Lord wants is just Himself as our life.” By saying this, you are not political, and you are not vindicating or condemning. You are out of the world of good and evil, and in another world, another sphere, another realm, which can help him to realize Christ. He is so concerned about being right or wrong, but you must stay in the other realm to help him to realize that neither good nor evil mean anything to God. You have to bring him out of the sphere of good and evil and into the sphere of Christ, which is the sphere of life. Of course, it will take time. You will have to contact him again and again, but always in the principle of bringing him out of the sphere of good and evil and into Christ as life.
Gradually and daily in this way, you will feed this brother with Christ. You must feed him little by little and never condemn or rebuke him. Simply feed him with Christ as life. Whenever he comes to you, you should never speak of who is right or who is wrong, who is proud or who is humble. You must give him the impression that you do not care for this. To act nicely or poorly means nothing, but Christ as life means everything. Gradually you will bring him into the full realization of life. Then he will realize that it is unnecessary to fight against his bad temper and disposition. He will forget about this. He will turn to the spirit to contact and enjoy the Lord.
Eventually, this black brother will be transformed. He may be transformed into a transparent black stone. He may still be black, but transparent. Have you never seen a precious stone which is black, but transparent? It is a beautiful stone. I do like to see the black brothers transformed. They are black, but transformed. I have also seen some white brothers transformed to be so crystally transparent.
Do not think that those of a quick disposition are better than those of a slow disposition, or vice versa. They are all the same. Some precious stones are white, and some are black. The color of some you cannot tell—you do not know whether to call them white, black, blue, or some other color; yet they are beautiful, precious stones. Some of the brothers are just like this. They are not so quick, and they are not so slow. They are just something of beauty. We do not need to be changed, but we all need to be transformed. Do not try to change others. They are God’s creation; why do you want to change them? We do not like to have a church with everyone uniform—so nice, and in a sense so humble, yet so dull. We need a variety of colors in different kinds of people. This is the beauty of the church.
Some brothers and sisters are so simple and easy to handle. Others, however, are so complicated and difficult to manage—many times I simply do not have patience with them. But I have learned to see the beauty. We all must realize that the church is not something to correct, to rebuke, or to change. No, the church is the very means to minister Christ to all kinds of people so that they may be transformed with Him as life.
Let me use another illustration. Suppose a sister simply cannot go along with her husband. The other sisters realize that she is a problem in the church life because she has a problem with her husband. What is the proper way to help her? The regular way in Christianity is to show love to her and convince her that she is wrong by the teaching in Ephesians 5. First, you should love her, and then you should try in a nice way to convince her from Ephesians 5 that she is wrong in her relationship with her husband. This is the usual way. It is not bad, but as far as Christ as life is concerned, it is wrong. If you have such a sister among you, you must learn the real lesson of life. It is not submission that pleases God, but it is Christ as life expressed in submission. This is what God is seeking. If you have learned this lesson, you cannot expect to be through quickly with this sister. You must care for her day by day, little by little. You must continually give her something of life till she is brought to the full realization that what she needs is not a kind of submission but Christ as life expressed in her submission to her husband. Then she will know that it is not a problem of being submissive but of experiencing Christ as life. The sisters should not try to change or correct this sister but minister Christ as life to her.
How did the Lord Jesus begin the church life? Some people have the concept that Christ began the church life with teaching. No, He did not do that. The Lord Jesus began the church life by sowing Himself into man as the seed of life. The church life simply comes out of this very seed of life. The Lord Jesus came to sow Himself into us, and this seed of life brings forth the church life. Matthew 13:3 says, “Behold, the sower went out to sow.” The Lord Jesus came not as a teacher to begin the church life by teaching but as a sower, sowing Himself as the seed of life into the fallen race. It is from this seed that something springs forth as the church life.
The apostle Paul says, “I planted, Apollos watered” (1 Cor. 3:6). Do not imagine that Paul went simply to preach and Apollos came to teach. No, Paul planted, and Apollos watered. Both planting and watering are for the growth of life, which issues from the seed which is Christ Himself. I like these three words: sowing, planting, and watering. What the local church mostly needs is not teaching but planting and watering. We do need to be watered that we may grow. Teaching does not help us to grow, but watering does. This is why it is rather difficult for anyone to see a real church life on the earth today. It is simply because of the lack of planting and watering among the Christians. Teaching alone kills and divides, but watering helps the growth.
First Corinthians 3 speaks of the church being planted and watered and also mentions something more. It says that we are not only the farm of God but also God’s building. The farm requires the growth, and the building requires the building up. We can be built up by growth. If we want a solid church life with a group of believers built up in a solid way, we must minister Christ as life so that everyone will grow. First Corinthians 3 speaks of the growth and the building up. It is by growth that we can be built up together.
First Peter 1:23 tells us that we were all born of the incorruptible seed, which is Christ, the living Word. Christ has sown Himself into us as this seed, and out of this seed we are born. After we are born, as newborn babes, we need the milk of the word in order that we may grow unto salvation (ch. 2). We need to be saved from so many things, and this kind of salvation can only be realized by growth in life. This corresponds with Romans 5:10, which tells us that we must be saved in His life. It is by growth in life that we are saved.
We need milk, not knowledge. The newborn babes need to drink of the milk that they may grow. Then 1 Peter 2 continues by saying that as we grow, we become the living stones to be built up together. The more we grow, the more we grow together. The more we grow, the more we grow into one. The more we grow, the more we grow into a building. We are built up together by growth, not by being organized or taught. It is all by growth in life.
Wherever we go, we must not try to adjust others. Let them be wrong. Do not try to correct and change them. What they need is to grow. Even if you can adjust and correct them, it means nothing, for there is still no growth in life.
What is required in the church is the growth in life. I do not expect to see any change in the brothers, but I do expect to see growth. Sometimes you can see growth with certain brothers or sisters, but it seems that there is no apparent change. Do not be concerned; the change will appear later. Change by the growth of life does not come quickly. Outward correction brings swift results, even overnight, but this is not of life.
Anything of life grows very steadily, yet very slowly. Anything human is manufactured and is done very quickly. You can make a man of wax in less than two days, but you cannot make me within two days. Do you know how long it took to make me as I now am? It took over sixty years, and I am still in the process of growth. This is the law of life. We should not expect a brother to change overnight. If he does, the change is not the change in life.
Sometimes I hear Christians testifying of a brother who becomes another kind of person overnight. But in another night, he may become a third kind of person. This is too fast. Life grows steadily but in a slow way. We need patience to go on with those in the church and let them be what they are. Sometimes we may have to wait for more than twenty-four or even thirty months before we see a real change. All the mothers expect their children to grow, but it takes time. If you look at them today, they seem to be the same as yesterday. If you look at them tomorrow, they are about the same as today. But after ten years, there is a great change. This is the growth of life.
In the church we need the real growth of life. We expect a quick change, but we must be patient and help people to grow, not in the way of teaching, but in the way of life. Sometimes there are those who really trouble the church, but let them be so troublesome. Do not be bothered by that. Be patient, and let them grow. Simply minister life little by little. Praise the Lord! After five years you will see the growth.
All the brothers here can testify that in all these past years, we have not exercised much correction. But praise the Lord, look at the growth in life! The growth in life is all we need. It will take care of everything. It transforms us instead of simply changing us. Ephesians 4:15-16 shows us that the real building of the Body is by growth. “Holding to truth in love, we may grow up into Him in all things.” This “causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” It is by this growth that the Body is built up.
In every local church there is a certain amount of problems and troubles. This is because children always cause problems, and every local church has so many children. But we must not be bothered. To have problems in a family with so many children is normal. If you have four children without any problems, I doubt whether your family is normal. That means that all the children are dead. The more alive they are, the more troubles you will have. Do not be so troubled with the problems in your locality. Praise the Lord, it is normal!
We must learn how to feed on the Lord and how to feed others. We do not need much teaching, so we should not give much teaching to others. By His mercy and grace, we must help others to realize that they need Christ as life all the time in a practical and living way. Then in time, we will see the growth.
The content of the church is not any kind of capability or qualification. In the church we do not need those who are capable. In the church we need Christ as life experienced by a group of people. We need those who know only one thing—Christ as their life. They may seem so simple, so foolish, and even so troublesome; yet there is the sense of life. It is rather difficult for you to define it, but there is this sense.
We cannot define life, we can only taste it. If you can tell people about the church in Los Angeles in a clear, defined way, I am afraid that we are just an organization with many activities, but without life. But if you say, “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! When I was in Los Angeles, I tasted something wonderful which I cannot define,” this is right. If others ask you what you have tasted, you can only tell them to go and taste for themselves.
The church in every locality must have such a taste of life. Others must sense that nothing is here but Christ as life. It is so living, so enjoyable, and so tasteful. There is the sense, but it cannot be described. Everyone must taste for himself.
Therefore, we must not bring anything into the church. Neither should we create something in the church as a kind of content. The content of the church is nothing but the living Christ as life to all the members.
