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Scripture Reading: 2 Pet. 1:2-8; Matt. 5:14-16; Phil. 2:15-16; 1:27; Matt. 5:44-46; 22:37-40; John 13:35
In the previous two chapters we have seen some crucial matters related to the preaching of the gospel on the campuses. In chapter 1 we saw the importance of the revelation and experience of the Spirit and the Body. In chapter 2 we saw the importance of prayer and the word in our gospel preaching with the additional help of our homes. In this chapter we still need to cover two other important matters related to our gospel preaching. First, we need a proper daily living, and second, we need a universal love.
For our gospel preaching we need not only the words spoken out of our mouth but also a life that shines before men. In this chapter I am burdened for us to see that the real preaching of the gospel is a matter of witnessing. In Acts 1:8 the Lord Jesus said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Witnesses bear a living testimony of the resurrected and ascended Christ in life, differing from preachers who merely preach doctrines in letters.
We must be persons of the gospel. Our person should match what we preach. Our preaching should not be a performance. We should preach what we live by. Our living is our preaching, and our life is the gospel. The gospel we preach should be our daily life. This is altogether different from much of the preaching in today’s religious system, which is often just a performance. An actor who is not a gentleman can perform as if he were a gentleman. It is a shame to the Lord, to His name, and to His gospel when Christians preach the gospel while their living is not according to the gospel. Our preaching must be with the word, but our word must be matched by our daily life.
A proper daily living is important because many people are watching us. We have neighbors, friends, relatives, colleagues, classmates, and many other people around us. From the day that we tell them about Christ and His salvation, they are watching us. If we did not preach the gospel, they might not pay any attention to us. Since so many people are watching, the most convincing factor is not our words. The most convincing factor is our daily life. We need a daily life to match our preaching. Our conduct and behavior must match what we are as witnesses of the Lord Jesus. We must have the highest daily life to match our preaching, but this does not mean that we should have strict, legal standards of conduct. I do not believe in or like any kind of legality. A brother once told me that when he was a young man in the Amish church, there was a regulation concerning the width of a hat brim. This brother, however, prepared a hat with a narrower brim. When the pastor found out, he went to the brother’s house and admonished the brother not to wear the narrow-brimmed hat. This is an example of having legal standards of conduct. We should not have legal standards in the church life regarding the length of a brother’s hair and the length of a sister’s skirt.
We do not need any legal standards because we have something higher—the divine nature. Second Peter 1:4 says that we have “become partakers of the divine nature.” We have the divine nature within. The divine nature means everything in our Christian life. Since we have the divine nature, we do not need outward regulations to adjust our hair, clothes, and behavior. Any adjustments that we make should be made according to the divine nature within. Everything we do, say, and are should be checked by the divine nature. Every newborn child has the human nature. While little babies do not have any knowledge of outward regulations, they still have the human nature that regulates what they eat. Even though they do not know the words sweet and bitter, they will not keep anything bitter in their mouth; but if you put something sweet in their mouth, they will eat it. You do not need to teach them about sweet and bitter, because they have the human nature with its human taste. As Christians, we have a nature that is much higher than the human nature. We have the divine nature with a divine taste. We must live a life that matches the divine nature within us. The divine nature will regulate our hair, clothes, and behavior. When we follow the divine nature within, we will know how to dress and behave.
According to 2 Peter 1:2-8, partaking of the divine nature issues in fruitfulness. Verse 4 says that through God’s precious and exceedingly great promises, we “become partakers of the divine nature.” Then verse 8 says, “These things, existing in you and abounding, constitute you neither idle nor unfruitful unto the full knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We can all be fruitful by partaking of the divine nature. A life that is according to the inward divine nature is a fruitful life. In the Lord’s recovery we do not need any outward regulations concerning the style of our clothes or the length of our hair. We should not pay any attention to outward regulations and organization. The Lord does not want an organization. He wants a living testimony composed of living witnesses as a corporate testimony of Jesus. We should only pay attention to the divine nature within us.
When the young people go to the campus to preach the gospel, the Christ you bear witness to depends upon the life you live. You need a daily life that matches the gospel. When you partake of the divine nature and are inwardly regulated, you will gain fruit not only by your words but also by your life and living. In Philippians 1:27 Paul charged the saints in Philippi to conduct themselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. We need a life that matches the gospel. In other words, we need to live out the gospel. We should live by the gospel and live out the gospel. Eventually, our preaching will be our living, and our living will be fruitful.
The Lord has touched me many times while I was praying concerning the gospel. As I would pray concerning a certain person, the Lord would respond, “You do not need to take care of that situation now, you need to take care of yourself.” Then the Lord would point out several matters in me that were not according to the divine nature. While I was concerned about another person, the Lord was more concerned about matters in my daily living. If the Lord never touches our conscience through prayer, we are not praying in the Holy of Holies in His presence. Although we may pray a great deal, we may be far away from the presence of the Lord in the Holy of Holies. If this is the case, the Lord will never touch our conscience. However, if we pray to the Lord in the Holy of Holies, in His holy presence, He will touch whatever we are and whatever we do. We must allow the Lord to touch us inwardly; otherwise, we will be loose. If we are serious with the Lord, He will transform us by His life and according to His divine nature. We should open every part of our being to the Lord in prayer so that He can touch us through His inward regulation. Then our life will match our preaching. Our life will even be our preaching.
Throughout the years I have seen many different brothers preach the gospel. Some were eloquent speakers, but their preaching often did not yield much result. Their preaching was just like sounding brass (1 Cor. 13:1). I have also seen other brothers who were not eloquent. They could not speak well, but they had a life that matched their preaching. A life that matches the gospel touches and convinces people because most people have a fair conscience. A fair conscience is like a balancing scale that weighs whatever a person is. It tests where someone is and what someone is. Once you preach the gospel, people will start to watch you. While they accept their own unrighteousness, they will not accept any unrighteousness on your part. Their fair conscience may not make any demands on them, but it will demand a proper daily living from you. Therefore, you have to live a life that matches the gospel.
Matthew 5 tells us that we are the light of the world and that we must let our light shine before men (vv. 14-16). We must be full of light, shining over people. We should shine out Jesus Christ and the gospel. Paul stresses the same thing in Philippians 2. He says that we should be “blameless and guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine as luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life” (vv. 15-16). The word of life is held forth not only by our speaking but also by our daily life. We must have a daily life that holds forth the word of life.
I hope we are impressed with the need for a proper daily living in preaching the gospel. We have to go to the Lord to be fully checked by Him. We need to pray, “Lord, I am going to the campus to preach Your gospel. I open myself in Your presence. I want to be checked and examined by You. I want to have a full ‘x-ray’ of my entire being.” We all need to do this. Everything in our life and living should be checked. Nothing is too small to be checked. We should even check with the Lord about the watch we wear while preaching the gospel. Even it should be proper. This is not too legal. We have to be checked because even though we think we are okay, we are not.
We need the Lord’s shining light. If we are a careless, loose person, then we will not be successful in our gospel preaching, and our gospel preaching will not yield any remaining fruit. Because the early apostles were solid converts in the Lord’s salvation, their gospel preaching produced solid, remaining fruit. I am so glad and grateful to the Lord that I was saved through a young sister who was so solid in her life and living. The impression she gave me remains today and will never vanish. She had a life that matched her preaching. We also must have a life that matches our preaching.
The young people do not need to check with others about the length of their hair. Rather, they need to check with the Lord. Before you go to the campuses, go to the Lord. If the young people are told to have their hair the same length, that would be only an outward form of legality. Anything, however, that comes out of the inner divine nature is beautiful. If you check with the Lord, you may have your hair adjusted, but the adjustment will be according to the inner divine nature, not according to outward legality.
When the young people go to the campuses to preach the gospel, they need not only a proper daily living but also a universal love. A universal love is a love for everyone except Satan. In the whole universe there is only one person that we should not love—Satan. We should be those who love the Lord, love all our brothers in the Lord, and love all men.
First, we have to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37). Many of us think that the unbelievers hate everyone who loves God. This is not correct. Outwardly, they may not agree with us. They may even say that our beliefs are a form of superstition, but deep within many of them appreciate our love toward the Lord. Those who love the Lord are often held in high regard by others. Nothing can uplift our life standard as high as our love toward the Lord. The more we love the Lord, the more we will spontaneously be on the highest level of human standards. However, idolatry, which includes the enjoyment and love for sinful things, brings people into fornication and lowers their standard of morality (Rev. 2:14, 20).
If you just love the Lord Jesus a little, your standard will be uplifted. Just thinking about loving Him will uplift our standard. The love of God brings in the highest standard of morality. When Joseph was confronted by the evil wife of Potiphar, he said, “How then can I do this great evil, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9c). Joseph loved God, and God was always with him. Joseph’s love for God kept him in the highest standard of morality. When you love God, you are today’s Joseph. The love of God is high. It is the main factor in living a higher life on a higher plain. We must love the Lord with all our heart, our mind, and our strength. The word strength refers to our physical strength. We have to love God with our whole being.
Second, the Bible tells us that we should love the brothers (1 John 3:11, 14). The Lord Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). The love among Christian brothers is a strong testimony to the unbelievers because there is very little real love among human beings in society. The love in human society is often a deceiving love, but the love among the saints is real, genuine, convincing, and attractive. For this reason, we need to have a divine communal life for the gospel preaching. A communal life does not mean that we all live together under one roof. The proper communal life is a life of love toward all the saints. We must have such a life of love. We need to invite people to our homes to let them see our communal life of love. This will convince our relatives and friends and may convince many of them to turn to the Lord.
In addition to brotherly love, we also need love toward all men. In 2 Peter there is a progression from the divine nature to brotherly love and eventually to the divine love, a love that is toward all men (1:4-7). The New Testament tells us that we have to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44-46). We should not hate any of our opposers or critics. We have to love all of them. Saul of Tarsus was a chief opposer of the church (Gal. 1:13; 1 Tim. 1:13). When Stephen was being stoned to death, Saul of Tarsus was there approving of his death (Acts 7:59—8:1). He took the lead to persecute the church (1 Cor. 15:9; Phil. 3:6), but on his way to Damascus to persecute the saints, he was saved. All the early disciples were surprised, and many of them did not believe that Saul of Tarsus had turned to the Lord (Acts 9:21, 26). Prior to his conversion I do not think that the early disciples loved him very much. Do you believe that the disciples loved Saul of Tarsus and prayed for him? None of the disciples may have even been willing to preach the gospel to him.
According to Acts 9:1-6, Paul was saved without any human involvement. He was saved through the Lord’s direct preaching. This little hint indicates that the disciples probably did not like Saul. Perhaps they said, “Saul is a hopeless case.” This attitude can also be applied in today’s situation. Many times we think that a certain person is hopeless. This is especially true of those who oppose us. According to the Lord’s word, however, this attitude is wrong. The Lord said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:43-44). This is a good verse for us to have in dealing with all the opposers.
The young people on the campuses should not be troubled by persecutors. Years ago I was very troubled by all the persecution. Sometimes I was so troubled that I even doubted whether our work was really of the Lord. Then the Lord showed me in the Gospels that He was always persecuted (Matt. 10:16-18). Many times there were more persecutors than followers. In Acts the persecutors followed Paul wherever he went (9:22-24; 14:1-2, 19). When I saw this, I was strengthened, confirmed, and comforted.
When I was in northern China, someone from my hometown opposed me. I even studied with him at the same college. When I moved from mainland China to the island of Taiwan in 1949, he purposely followed me. He told people that his purpose in coming to Taiwan was to stop my work. When he later found out that I was going to Singapore, he went ahead of me to spread rumors. Even in the United States, persecutors have followed us. Despite their activities, we should not fight them but love them.
Some persecutors eventually turned to the Lord’s recovery. When I was in college, one of the school’s directors was a highly educated gentleman. He was very qualified, and he was a famous speaker. I was one of his students, and he truly loved me. When the Lord brought me to His recovery, however, this man became very offended. While he was opposing, his eldest son and daughter-in-law were caught by the Lord. They came into the church and loved the Lord very much. His daughter also turned this way, but the father still had a hard heart. He continued to oppose us for over ten years. After his son, daughter-in-law, and daughter sent him many letters and telegrams asking him to attend a meeting, he finally came. Later he told me that when he walked into the meeting, before he even sat down, he started to weep. Throughout the whole meeting, he wept in regret over his opposition. In 1943 he turned this way, and Brother Nee eventually appointed him to be one of the elders in the church in Hong Kong.
Do not be discouraged or disappointed by all the opposers. Whenever you meet opposers on the campus, do not be bothered or downcast. Instead, smile and tell them that you love them. Learn to say this from your heart. We must love them and be full of hope that they may one day turn this way. We have to love the opposers and pray for them. In reality, our only enemy is Satan, and we have no human enemies. We must have such an attitude, but we still need to be strong in the truth. For the sake of the truth, we should be strong, but we should also love everyone, even the top opposers and evil persecutors. We should love them because the Lord Jesus tells us to love them and to pray for those who persecute us (Matt. 5:44).
We should never compromise the truth, but we should exercise a universal love. We need a universal love, loving the Lord Jesus, loving all the saints, and loving all people, including the opposers. We have to consider that the opposers are lovable human beings. On the campuses we all must keep such an atmosphere. Do not give others the impression that we are fighting against everyone. No matter what someone says against us, we should not be offended. After they speak, we may tell them that we love them and that we would like to talk with them about the truth. If they would not talk to us, then we can tell them that we will pray for them.
We should be strong, be bold, and be steady in the truth. For the sake of the truth, we need to be strong and steady, but we also need to love everyone. The more that others oppose us, the more we should love them. We even have to thank the Lord for the opposition. The opposition has helped us a great deal. All the opposers have been for our perfection. If we realize this, we will have mercy upon them, love them, and pray for them. We must keep such an attitude. This will stop any fighting on the campuses between the saints and the opposers. Do not think that when we fight for the truth, we must also fight against people. We do not need to fight against people. Rather, we need to love everyone. In our preaching of the gospel we need a proper daily living and a universal love.
