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In this book we will consider the matter of reading the Bible, which is of great importance to all those who serve the Lord. Nearly all our thoughts, concepts, and revelations depend on how we read the Bible. Furthermore, this matter greatly influences our work. A person’s understanding of the Bible will absolutely influence the direction of his work. How he does his work and the kind of work he does will be based on his understanding of the Bible. Whether in speaking a message or in contacting and conversing with people, a believer will be influenced by his understanding of the Bible. Therefore, reading the Bible is a very crucial matter.
In this series of messages we will lay a foundation for understanding the Bible and consider the Epistle of 1 John as an example of how to study the Bible.
We should never think that we will receive spiritual benefit just by reading the Bible. For example, the church may have a Bible-reading meeting and ask the brothers and sisters to diligently read the Bible. As a result, many brothers and sisters may begin to build up a habit of reading the Bible. While this is very good, I must solemnly say that reading the Bible is not a simple matter. Sometimes the condition of the church would be better without a Bible-reading meeting, because the condition of the church can actually become worse with a Bible-reading meeting. The spiritual condition of some brothers and sisters, which may have been normal without a Bible-reading meeting, may actually worsen when they have a Bible-reading meeting. Some saints cannot properly understand and pursue spiritual things because they read the Bible too much.
Some may not agree with this word and ask, “Can the Bible actually hinder people from pursuing spirituality by cutting off their spiritual understanding?” Based on accounts in the New Testament, this is often the case. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, those who strongly opposed Him and took the lead to resist Him were the ones who were the most knowledgeable in the Old Testament Scriptures. The scribes, Pharisees, and lawyers diligently studied the Old Testament, but the Gospels show that it was hard for them to receive spiritual light (Matt. 9:34; 12:14, 24; 16:1; 22:15, 35; Luke 10:25). However, it was easy for tax collectors and harlots to know the Lord. Those who studied the Old Testament were blind inwardly, but the eyes of those who did not study the Bible and who even did many things against God were opened.
There have been many people like this throughout the past two thousand years of church history. The Roman Catholic Church did not allow the laity to read the Bible, but all the priests in the Roman Catholic Church were familiar with the Bible and studied the Bible. Although the Roman Catholic priests may have been very familiar with the Bible, did their Bible reading make them spiritual?
The pope in the Roman Catholic Church may surpass all the people on earth in studying the Bible in letters and in knowing the original languages of the Bible. Consider the process by which a pope is selected. Catholic priests start off as friars. They must be very exercised in order to become a bishop and then a cardinal. Eventually, one of the cardinals will be chosen to be the pope. Surely the pope will have much knowledge and be very familiar with the original text of the Bible. If we wanted to find someone on the earth who knows the Bible thoroughly in its letters, surely it would be the pope. Friars, priests, bishops, and cardinals have also studied the Bible. However, I have to ask, “Are these friars, priests, bishops, and cardinals spiritual?” They study the Bible, but does their Bible study enable them to know the resurrected Lord?
There are also numerous seminaries and Bible schools throughout the earth among today’s Christianity. All orthodox theological studies have a high regard for the Bible. Seminary students study the sixty-six books of the Bible all day long. However, it is not easy to find some who are truly spiritual among so many theological students who study the Bible. I have met many theological students. Some are still studying in seminaries, and some have become pastors or preachers. Whenever I contact them, however, I have a sense that they have not received much spiritual benefit from their Bible study. They study the Bible thoroughly, yet they have not received the proper spiritual impact from their study of the Bible. The words of the Bible are powerful to those who have never studied the Bible, yet the same words seem to be powerless to some who study the Bible thoroughly. In studying Genesis 1, they find cross references from the first verse to the last verse of the chapter. They can even cite various approaches that certain theologians adopted in expounding Genesis 1, whether historical or literal. Although it seems as if they understand every sentence, they have not actually touched the spiritual revelation in Genesis.
There are also theological professors who write Bible commentaries and spend their whole life studying the Bible. However, very few are spiritual and really know life. I truly hope that more of them would testify that they have come to know spiritual life by studying the Bible and that they have become spiritual by teaching the Bible, but I seldom hear such testimonies. On the contrary, many people who listen to the gospel cannot repent, because they know the Bible too well. Similarly, many people cannot grow or become spiritual after their salvation, because they know the Bible too well.
I have seen many people exert much effort in studying the Bible. However, among so many Bible readers, few receive genuine spiritual benefit. I once knew a man who had memorized nearly the entire Bible, but I have to say honestly that he did not know the Lord at all. He knew the letter of the Bible, but he did not know the Lord. He had never consecrated himself to the Lord. He did not know that God wants to live in man to be man’s life. He did not even know that the Lord could speak to man inwardly. When he heard such things, he was astonished. Through my observations and experiences over the years, I have to admit that reading the Bible is not a simple matter. Reading the Bible is complicated. We should never say that nothing else is needed as long as one reads the Bible.
What is the key to reading the Bible? According to my study, the conclusion I have reached is that reading the Bible depends on two items: the person who reads the Bible and the way of reading the Bible. This is the main point in this chapter. Whether or not one can benefit from reading the Bible depends on the kind of person he is and the way he reads the Bible. Today many people read the Bible without receiving any spiritual benefit, and they even understand the Bible in a distorted way. This is because they have problems related to these two items. If God’s children see these two items and are delivered from the hindrances related to these two items, there will be a radical change in their reading of the Bible and even in their condition before the Lord.
First, we need to consider the relationship between the person who reads the Bible and the way he reads the Bible. These two matters are closely related. The kind of Bible one possesses depends upon the type of person the reader is. Different kinds of people read and understand the Bible in different ways. The Bible remains the same, but the Bible you read may be different from the Bible I read. In fact, many people are not reading the Bible at all; they change the Bible based on their person and how they read the Bible.
I hope that we will all give heed to this matter. Although all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16), it may be totally distorted in the hands of an improper person. When the co-workers read the Bible, even they may not see its true meaning as it was breathed out by God. The Bible was breathed out by God, but when it is read by man, he may not see its original meaning. For example, if I read a white book while wearing a pair of green glasses, everything I see through the pair of glasses will appear to be green.
Are we certain that we are not wearing colored glasses when we read the Bible? It is not easy to read the Bible without wearing colored glasses. Because we wear such glasses when we read the Bible, the Bible becomes discolored and distorted. We are able to read the Bible properly only when we take off our colored glasses.
What causes us to wear colored glasses in our reading of the Bible? First, we have to be clear that there are a number of layers in our being. The first layer was acquired when God created us. God created us with a spirit to love Him and receive Him (Gen. 2:7). Therefore, the first layer of our being is an organ that loves and receives God, which is our spirit. Thus, it is unusual for a person to not seek after God. This is true not only for Christians but also for Gentiles, because there is a layer in our being that causes us to seek after God. Although a person may not know God at all, he still seeks after God. This is because he has a spirit as the first layer of his being. With regard to reading the Bible, the layer of man’s spirit is good because it causes him to seek after God and to love reading the Bible.
However, there is also a second layer in our being. This layer became a part of our being as a result of the fall. When Adam fell, he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (3:1-7). Since then, the element of the knowledge of good and evil has been mixed with us and wrought into our being. The element of the knowledge of good and evil has become a pair of strongly colored glasses that affects our reading of the Bible. If we were able to read the Bible free from the influence of seeking to discern between good and evil and apart from the inclination to obtain knowledge, we could perceive the true color of the Bible. However, two things within us always frustrate us from seeing the Bible in a clear way: the concept of good and evil and the inclination to obtain knowledge. The inclination to obtain knowledge is a desire for mental understanding. When we read the Bible, we have an inclination to know, understand, and comprehend with our mind what it is that we are reading. However, this also poses a great frustration to reading the Bible and makes it impossible for us to touch God and contact God in our reading of the Bible.
How often have we been able to read the Bible without being influenced by the desire to obtain knowledge or discern between good and evil? It is not easy for us to be delivered from the influence of wearing the glasses of the knowledge of good and evil. No matter which chapter or verse of the Bible is put before us, we immediately begin to perceive it as a matter related to the knowledge of good and evil. Often when we read the Bible, we can see nothing other than knowledge, good, and evil. We simply cannot see the original color of the Bible. This layer is a great hindrance to our reading of the Bible.
The third layer in our being is the influence imposed by the environment, customs, and education. This includes all kinds of customs, human relationships, habits in human society, and various national characteristics. For example, Chinese people have certain concepts based on their customs and habits, and people of other nationalities have different concepts according to their own customs and habits. These concepts were not inherited genetically; they were formed based on certain environmental influences. Suppose a boy is born in China to Chinese parents, who also had other sons, but is then raised in British society. If this child were to return to China at the age of twenty, his concepts would be totally different from those of his brothers who grew up in China. His brothers’ concepts would be totally Chinese, and his concepts would be totally British. Therefore, the third layer in man’s being includes the characteristics acquired based on habits and the environment.
God’s creation, man’s fall, and the characteristics acquired based on habits become the constituents of man’s inner being. Every person possesses these three layers in his inner being, and the exact composition of these three layers differs from person to person. Thus, when the Bible is read by different people, depending on how the layers of their inner being are constituted, the Bible becomes a different book to each person. When a person with Western characteristics reads the Bible, the Bible naturally conforms to his Western perspective. When a person with Chinese characteristics reads the Bible, the Bible also spontaneously conforms to his Chinese perspective. The different layers of a man’s being become colored glasses that taint his entire perception in reading the Bible, preventing him from seeing the true color of the Bible.
We all have these three layers within us—the layer from creation, the layer due to the fall, and the layer of acquired characteristics. The created layer is our spirit, the fallen layer is the knowledge of good and evil in our mind, and the acquired layer is comprised mostly of our habits and our character, obtained from our environment. We can hardly read the Bible without being influenced by these factors.
When I was young, I met an old man who was extremely slow in disposition. One day he gave a sermon in which he stated explicitly that all quickness is not of God, because the Bible never says that God runs about doing things. God is never in a hurry. This is what he saw: God never hurries or runs. He saw this because he was a slow person. Several years later, I heard from a servant of God that the Bible records at least one instance of God running. In Luke 15, when the father, signifying God, saw his youngest son coming back, he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately (v. 20). This shows that man’s acquired characteristics and disposition govern his view when he reads the Bible.
There was a person who had a cruel and violent temper. He said that God was a violent God, because Psalm 18 says that when God appears, smoke comes up from His nostrils, and His voice is like thunder (vv. 8, 13). His view seemed to have a scriptural basis. From these examples we can see that the Bible is a different book when it is read by different people. We all have the same God and read the same Bible, yet due to the composition of our inner being, we perceive the Bible differently.
No one who reads the Bible can escape the influence of these three layers of his inner being. Everyone’s inner being, regardless of his nationality, includes these three layers. The first layer causes us to seek after God and to desire fellowship with God. When we were saved, the Spirit of God entered into us and regenerated our spirit. This enabled us to have more desire and capacity to fellowship with God. Because we have this inner layer, we long to read the Bible. However, when we come to read the Bible and contact God in our spirit, the other two layers within us, namely, the knowledge of good and evil from the fall and the concepts acquired through habits, begin to trouble us. These two layers become colored glasses that prevent us from seeing the true color of the Bible. The created layer of our being is not a problem to our reading of the Bible, because it is altogether conducive to our fellowship with God. The problem is with the layer that is the result of the fall and the layer that we acquired through the influence of human society in our environment. Because of these two layers, it is difficult to perceive the true color of the Bible.
In order to know the Bible, we must realize that God intended that the words in the Bible would be food to us (Jer. 15:16). Since all Scripture is God-breathed and God desires to be life to us in the form of food (Gen. 2:9), He intended that the words breathed out by Him would be received by us as food. Therefore, the Bible tells us repeatedly that God’s word is food to us.
For example, the Lord Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). The apostle Paul says, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food” (1 Cor. 3:2). Hebrews 5:12 also says, “You have need again for someone to teach you what the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles of God are and have become those who have need of milk and not of solid food”; the bread, milk, and solid food mentioned here all refer to the word of God. First Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word”; the milk of the word mentioned here is the word of God becoming milk to us. Jeremiah 15:16 says, “Your words were found and I ate them, / ...O Jehovah, God of hosts”; here it says explicitly that God’s words are food to us.
The verses above reveal that the words God spoke to man were intended to be received as food to satisfy man. God wants to be life to man in the form of food (John 6:57). This matter is spoken of many times in the Bible. Although the Bible also speaks of many things concerning our living and walk, they are actually based on God being our life.
In the Bible the central thought of God being life to man is emphasized repeatedly, but when people read the Bible, they see the words but cannot understand them; thus, they miss the central thought completely. Ephesians 1 reveals that God wants to fill His Body with all that He is and has (v. 23). He fills us by coming to us as food in order to give life to us. Therefore, Paul uses particular phrases in Ephesians 3: that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19); that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man (v. 16); and able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us (v. 20). All these passages refer to God coming into us to be our life supply for our satisfaction and sufficiency.
Ephesians 4 through 6 speaks of some of the spontaneous issues of our being filled with the Spirit, such as husbands loving their wives and wives being subject to their husbands (5:25, 22), children honoring their parents and parents fostering and nurturing their children properly (6:1-4), and slaves serving their masters with good will and masters treating their slaves leniently (vv. 5-9). Such conduct in our daily life issues from God entering into us to be our enjoyment and satisfaction. If we know the Bible, we will realize that all the matters related to a proper daily walk are based on God entering into us to be our satisfaction. Proper human conduct is produced only when God enters into us to be our satisfaction and content. This is the central thought of the Bible.
Regrettably, many Bible readers have an inner constitution that has not been filled with God as its content; thus, their inner constitution does not match the central thought of the Bible. The elements of man’s constitution, especially the instinct to discern good and evil and concepts acquired through environmental influences, are totally contrary to the central thought of the Bible. Such concepts impose a code of conduct by which we feel we must conduct ourselves. These concepts are so deeply rooted in us that when we read the Bible, we simply do not see that God wants to be our life in the form of food. We only see that husbands should love their wives and that wives should be subject to their husbands, that children should honor their parents and that parents should not provoke their children to anger, and that slaves should serve their masters faithfully and that masters should treat their slaves leniently. Our mentality and viewpoint are utterly incompatible with the central thought of the Bible. With respect to the central thought of the Bible, our thinking is like oiled paper that does not absorb ink. However, when we come across portions describing what we think our behavior and conduct should be, we are like absorbent paper that readily absorbs the ink.
If no one told us that God wants to fill us with all His riches, we could read the book of Ephesians a hundred times and still not pick up this thought. We may read every word yet still be totally void of revelation concerning these words. Our mentality alone could never absorb such words. However, when we read portions describing husbands loving their wives, we grasp them right away. We are moved intensely yet without the inspiration of the Spirit. This is a big problem. We cannot grasp the central thought of the Bible, and it is not easy for us to be impressed with the critical words in the Bible. Even if we could pick up traces of the central thought, our understanding would still be according to our natural concepts.
After reading Ephesians 1:3, which says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ,” one reader thought that the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies referred to God’s preparing a heavenly mansion for us with a golden street, pearl gates, and a wall of precious stones. Another reader thought that the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies included joy, peace, and consolation. It is not easy for man to see what the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies really are. Within man’s constitution there are only concepts concerning work and behavior. There is not any element in man that enables him to know that God wants to enter into him to be his life in the form of food. Therefore, man does not know the Bible or see the central thought in the Bible. When man reads the Bible, he sees it only according to his concept and not according to its original color and form.
We may use 1 John as an illustration of understanding the proper way to read the Bible. Perhaps after reading this series of messages, many of us will be surprised to find that this Epistle is totally different from what we had initially thought. For example, when we read chapter 2 in the past, we focused on things such as keeping the Lord’s commandments, walking as the Lord walked, loving the brothers, and practicing righteousness. However, chapter 2 is not focused on these things. When I read this chapter more than twenty years ago, I also noticed such things. Then the Lord gradually showed me that these are not the main contents of this chapter. These are concepts based on my own thinking. The main point of chapter 2 is not to charge us to keep the Lord’s commandments, walk as the Lord walked, love the brothers, and practice righteousness. Verses 3 through 6 say, “In this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in this one; but whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.” Verses 9 through 11 continue to say, “He who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him; but he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” Verse 29 says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness also has been begotten of Him.” These verses are not focused on keeping the Lord’s commandments, walking as the Lord walked, loving the brothers, and practicing righteousness, and they are not charging us to keep the Lord’s commandments, to walk as the Lord walked, to love the brothers, and to practice righteousness.
The tone in this chapter shows that if we know the Lord, we will surely keep His commandments. Keeping His commandments proves that we abide in Him. If we abide in the Lord, we will surely walk as the Lord walked. Moreover, if we abide in the light, we will surely love the brothers. If we have been begotten of God, we will surely practice righteousness. It is a pity that we do not pay attention to the first half of each verse, which speaks of abiding in Him, being begotten of Him, and knowing Him. We only notice what is mentioned in the second half of each verse and automatically take it as an imperative for how we must conduct ourselves.
The Bible does not charge us to do this or that. Rather, the Bible says that if we are begotten of God, know God, abide in God, and live in the light, we will surely keep the Lord’s commandments, walk as the Lord walked, love the brothers, and practice righteousness. If we keep the Lord’s commandments, others will know that we know the Lord; if we walk as the Lord walked, this proves that we abide in the Lord; if we love the brothers, this proves that we live in the light; if we practice righteousness, this proves that we are begotten of God. This is the central point of 1 John 2.
The whole Bible reveals that God came to be man’s life and to satisfy man as food. If one receives God’s life, he will surely have a certain kind of living and conduct. It is a pity that when people read the Bible, they always neglect the first half of the verse or the condition and only focus on the second half or the result. This is because, according to the layers of man’s being and his natural concepts, he focuses only on the results and does not notice the conditions.
In reading the Bible, we need to see the basic and central thought that is presented in the condition rather than the result. I am afraid that the eyes of most brothers and sisters have not been sufficiently opened and that they have not been adequately enlightened to see this matter. Many of us still read the Bible according to our natural concepts. What we pick up from the Bible may just be religious zeal, moral cultivation, and doctrinal instruction. Even the so-called inspiration that we receive is often in this realm. When we read the Bible, we only pick up on things such as loving God, pursuing the Lord, and having religious zeal. We only notice items related to moral cultivation, such as being meek and humble, honoring one’s parents, loving one’s wife, and being subject to one’s husband. In our reading of the Bible, there is no tree of life and no line of life.
Please forgive me for speaking such a strong word. It is because there are few who read the Bible with a view of the tree of life. Many people only notice matters of religious zeal, pursuing and loving the Lord, good and evil, scriptural knowledge, and various kinds of doctrines; thus, they altogether miss the tree of life. However, the Bible breathed out by God begins with the tree of life as its governing center and concludes with the tree of life (Gen. 2:9; Rev. 22:2). This is how the Bible was breathed out by God, and it is a pity that our reading of the Bible is totally distorted from God’s central thought.
The Bible becomes distorted when it gets into our hands because inwardly we have put on colored glasses, arising from our natural being and concepts. Therefore, we do not perceive the true meaning of the Bible. As a result, although we read the Bible again and again, we only notice things that align with our natural concepts. We do not see the revelation in the Bible or allow the revelation in the Bible to overthrow our natural concepts. On the contrary, we receive something from the Bible and use it as the basis to further cultivate our natural concepts. We even think that such concepts are biblical and based on the Bible.
We must not allow the traditional teachings of Christianity to prevail among us. If we allow the teachings of Christianity to spread into the church, we are merely forsaking the outward form of Christianity, while allowing the teachings of Christianity to influence us inwardly. From the very beginning, the Lord’s recovery has forsaken both the system of Christianity and the teachings of Christianity. Since the early days among us, God has opened our eyes to see that the Savior preached by Christianity is correct, but the system brought about by Christianity is wrong. Therefore, we must make a strong resolution to put aside both the system and the teachings of Christianity. We receive the Savior preached by Christianity, but we reject the system brought in by Christianity. We share the same Bible that is read in Christianity, but we greatly question the teachings taught by Christianity.
Although some of the sermons and writings in Christianity are able to attract people and cause them to love God fervently and serve Him, they also mislead people to pursue spirituality and moral cultivation, such as being humble and forsaking oneself. Such pursuit is primarily religious and belongs to the realm of the knowledge of good and evil. Many people have written Bible commentaries, but most of them stress the aspect of knowledge. One can hardly find a book in Christianity that shows people how to contact God as life. Of course, we should not be proud. However, we all need to know that the teachings of Christianity miss the central thought of God’s original intention. The teachings of Christianity mostly incite religious zeal, encourage the cultivation of morals, and impart knowledge. They rarely cause man to touch God as life. Therefore, we have to forsake not only the system of Christianity but also the work and teachings of Christianity. We should not only take a way that is distinct from the system of Christianity; we should also do a work that is altogether separate from the teachings of Christianity. We should not only forsake heretical doctrines; we should also be cautious of teachings that distract people from the way of life.
God is very broad. Throughout the centuries He has brought many to salvation through Christianity, and among these saved ones there are many who pursue Him and love Him. However, the help rendered by Christianity often issues in frustration. On the one hand, the teachings of Christianity are helpful; on the other hand, at a certain point they become a strong frustration in the matter of experiencing God as life. They keep believers from advancing and growing in the life of God.
I hope that what we are doing in the Lord’s recovery does not bring in or strengthen the teachings of Christianity. Rather, may we do a work in the pure flow of life. As we are working, we need to be warned not to read the Bible according to our natural concepts and thereby repeat the tragic history of Christianity. May the Lord grant us the mercy to see that the Bible is a book of God being life to man so that man can receive God as his life supply from the Word and also minister this supply to others for their nourishment. Only in this way will our Bible reading be beneficial and our work proper.
