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In this chapter we will mention two matters that can be considered reminders or warnings.
First, when we read the Bible, we should not bring along our preconceived ideas, thoughts, and spiritual experiences and knowledge. Whereas our preconceived ideas and thoughts are often natural, our spiritual experiences and knowledge are spiritual. Nevertheless, bringing spiritual experiences and knowledge into our Bible reading is not acceptable.
We admit that a person’s understanding of the Bible is related to his spiritual experiences and knowledge. Often we say that a person’s measure of growth in the spiritual life determines the extent of his understanding of the Bible. Understanding the Bible requires some spiritual experiences and a certain measure of the growth in life. Without the spiritual life and experiences, one cannot know the Bible, and no one can understand the Bible beyond the measure of his growth in the spiritual life and his spiritual experiences.
On the other hand, even though our spiritual experiences and measure of the growth in life may afford us the capacity to understand the Bible, we should not bring them into our Bible reading, because our spiritual experiences are limited, but the Bible is unlimited. We must never consider that our spiritual experiences are at the peak, nor should we consider them to be everything. We must see that there is something higher in the Bible than our spiritual experiences. Even though our experiences may be good and may correspond to the central points of the Bible, they are nevertheless always lower than the revelation of the Bible. Thus, we should not use our spiritual experiences to limit the Bible.
Over the last two thousand years Satan has limited the Bible in many different ways. His most outward way is to use the Gentiles to try to eliminate the Bible, that is, to do away with the Bible, not allowing the Bible to exist in the world.
A deeper way is seen in his use of the Catholic Church. Whereas the Catholic Church acknowledges the preciousness of the Bible, it allows only the clergy to read it and forbids the laity from reading it. This way of sealing up the Bible may not be as evil as the destruction of the Bible, but it is still damaging.
A deeper way of Satan’s work to limit or seal up the Bible is seen in traditional Protestant theology. In the Protestant churches everyone is allowed and even encouraged to read the Bible; however, the traditional Protestant theology seals up the Bible by imposing limitations on the believers’ understanding in their reading of the Bible. In other words, most Protestant believers receive mainly the teachings of their pastors instead of receiving the Bible itself. Regrettably, those who receive the entire Bible are still governed in their knowledge of the Bible by the traditional theology in Protestantism.
As referred to above, Satan uses the Gentiles to limit the Bible by trying to destroy it, he uses the Catholic Church to limit the Bible by forbidding the laity to read it, and he uses the Protestant churches to limit the Bible by the invisible control of their traditional theology.
An even deeper layer of limitation can be seen in believers who are relatively spiritual. With them the Bible is sealed up not by the destruction of the Gentiles, the forbidding of the Catholic Church, or the traditional Protestant theology but by their spiritual experiences. In other words, their understanding of the Bible is easily ensnared by their spiritual experiences. On the one hand, their spiritual experiences help them to understand the Bible; on the other hand, these experiences frustrate them from progressing in their understanding of the Bible. Their initial understanding of the Bible may be higher than others’ because they have high spiritual experiences. However, they cannot go further in their understanding and knowing of the Bible, because their experiences become their limitations.
We must see that the Bible has become limited by all the different categories of people. The Gentiles oppose it, the Catholics forbid the laity from reading it, the Protestants control it with traditional theology, and the spiritual people become limited in their further understanding of the Bible by the spiritual experiences that help them to know the Bible. There is hardly anyone to whom the Bible is completely open and absolutely free from limitation. On His side, God has opened up His Word, but on man’s side, the Gentiles do not receive it, and they try to destroy it; the Catholic Church allows only the clergy to read it; the Protestants take traditional theology as their standard instead of the Bible; and the spiritual people take their experiences as the standard instead of the Bible. We need to see this problem and realize that we are not better than others. We too may be limited by our experiences and thus held back from further understanding the Bible.
All those who limit the Bible by their experiences are initially “specialized” in their understanding, but eventually they become “unbalanced.” A little imbalance makes them extremists, and further imbalance makes them heretical.
We may consider some examples of imbalance in order to adequately explain this matter. One such example is Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis, whose spiritual ministry was prominent at the beginning of the twentieth century. For more than nineteen hundred years before her time, no one could match her in knowledge concerning the believers’ identification with Christ’s death on the cross. Her most spiritually weighty writing, The Overcomer magazine, published from 1909 through 1914, was a valuable publication among Christians. She had genuine light concerning the truth of identification with Christ’s death on the cross, and many people received help from her.
Mrs. Penn-Lewis had experiences mainly on knowing and being identified with Christ’s death and, secondarily, on spiritual warfare to deal with the enemy. Regrettably, she became limited by these experiences and did not go beyond them. Therefore, she preached only two matters—identification with Christ’s death and spiritual warfare. One concerned the cross, and the other concerned the devil. She neglected and sometimes belittled other items of truth. For instance, her view concerning bread breaking was overly spiritual, and her opinion concerning baptism was that only spiritual baptism, not baptism by water, is necessary. Such views reveal that she was unbalanced; moreover, her lack of balance issued from her specialization. The Bible, however, is balanced; even its most central teaching has its balancing counterparts. Whereas the Bible reveals that God in His Son is life to us in the form of food, it does not speak only concerning this central matter from its first sentence to its last. The composition of the Bible is specific and multifarious, possessing a center and a periphery, with points of emphasis and points that serve as a balance. Mrs. Penn-Lewis’s messages, however, reveal that she considered the entire Bible to be only on the cross and the devil; she neglected other items. In this sense, her spiritual experiences became a limitation to her understanding of the Bible, which eventually led to her becoming unbalanced.
Everyone who reads the Bible should have spiritual experiences, but all those who have spiritual experiences need the Bible to enlarge and balance them. Whereas one cannot understand the Bible without spiritual experiences, we must sound a warning that holding on to one’s spiritual experiences can become a limitation and a peril to one’s understanding of the Bible. Therefore, those who have spiritual experiences should not bring their spiritual experiences into their reading of the Bible, lest they limit the Bible and cause themselves to become unbalanced, extreme, and even heretical. We must allow the Bible to enlarge and balance us.
Another example of a lack of balance is Andrew Murray. About thirty years ago, when I spoke with a leading co-worker concerning some spiritual men in the present age and their writings, he said that Andrew Murray’s experience was accurate, but his explanations and quotations of the Bible were not. I later confirmed that word when I read Andrew Murray’s writings myself. There is no doubt that the spiritual experiences presented in Andrew Murray’s writings are not only accurate but also precious. However, his quotations of the Bible were sometimes inaccurate. He accommodated the Bible to his experiences rather than allowing the Bible to enlarge and balance him. Thus, his quotations of the Bible were not altogether accurate. In this sense, Andrew Murray’s understanding of the Bible also was limited by his experiences.
Although I have not had personal contact with many spiritual men, I have read a considerable amount of the writings and biographies of those who have had spiritual influence on the church over the last two centuries. I have also had contact with many who were greatly used by the Lord in the Far East, especially in China, over the last fifty years. I can testify from my conscience that I met hardly a single person who had spiritual experiences and was not limited by his experiences in his understanding of the Bible but allowed the Bible to enlarge and balance him. Among all the people whom I have had contact with, only one leading co-worker knew the Bible not only because he had spiritual experiences but also because he always allowed the Bible to be an open book to him. He did not let the world destroy, the deviated view of Catholicism to seal up, traditional theology to restrict, or his own experiences to limit his understanding of the Bible. Thus, the Bible remained an open book to him. Among all the people whom I have contacted, there was no other like him.
In my interactions with that leading co-worker, he mentioned many times, “Brother, the Word of God says this, but we have come short of it. We should prostrate ourselves before God and admit our shortages. We have to learn to tell the children of God that we are not the standard; only the Word of God is the standard. The Word of God says this, but we are not up to the standard yet.” He admitted such things frankly. Furthermore, he sometimes plainly showed me items in the Word of God that he had not experienced. He said, “Brother, we have only reached this height, but the Bible is unlimitedly high. We should only allow the Bible to enlarge us; we should not limit the Bible.”
We must know that man always limits the Bible. On the one hand, man reads the Bible; on the other hand, he limits it. Actually, some limit the Bible in a base or low way. That is, they attempt to annul the word of the Bible because they are unable to keep it. They deny the truth in the Bible because they cannot pay the price to carry out the word of the Bible, and they do not have the proper experience. For instance, it is an apparent truth that men who serve God should not receive a salary but should learn to look to God for their living. However, some, having no boldness or willingness to sacrifice their living, dare not preach such a message or expound the Scriptures on this point. They may even distort the Bible in this matter. As a result, the Bible becomes restricted by their condition. This is a base or low limitation of the Bible.
Some limitations are not base but are nevertheless restrictions. For instance, Mrs. Penn-Lewis had much knowledge concerning the cross; she went as far as knowing the believers’ identification with Christ’s death on the cross. Regrettably, however, she became restricted by that knowledge. Thus, the Bible became to her a book merely on identification with Christ’s death on the cross, and she was unable to see much in the Bible other than that point. That limitation was one that she imposed on the Bible.
The problem lies in the fact that although man cannot know the Bible without spiritual experiences, once he gains some experiences, he limits the Bible to those experiences. When man has no spiritual experiences, he does not limit the Bible, but neither is he able to understand the Bible. However, the more he has spiritual experiences, the more he tends to limit the Bible. Once he gains a spiritual experience and takes that experience as a standard, he limits the Bible. Consequently, the Bible becomes a sealed book in his hands. If this is our condition, sooner or later we will become unbalanced to the extent that we may go to an extreme.
We encounter this same problem of being unbalanced in the truth concerning the ground of the church. We are unable to agree with the view of the brothers in the Western world concerning the ground of the church, because they understand the Bible according to their experiences. Since they are inclined to the matter of being full of Christ, they care for nothing else and consequently put aside the ground of the church to the extent that they became prejudiced against it. Their understanding of the Bible according to their experiences has thus caused great problems. Whereas the Bible speaks about being full of Christ as the highest and most central experience, it also has an aspect of the truth to balance and match this central experience. There are numerous aspects to a physical body, including the hands, feet, and many other members. We cannot say that since the head is the highest, it is the entire body. We must see that the body has hands, legs, and many other members. In other words, even though we agree that Christ is the center, we cannot annul the ground of the church. Once the ground is annulled, problems will arise.
If we do not let the Bible balance and enlarge us in our Bible reading, our experiences will become limitations. Initially, we may become “specialized” and “unbalanced,” and eventually, we may become extreme and may be at risk of becoming heretical. We should not believe that our understanding and experiences are up to the standard of the Bible. Actually, it is foolish to think in such a way. Even if our experiences matched those of the apostle Paul, we should still humble ourselves before the Bible and say, “My experience is only a little, and only that which is in the Bible is complete. My knowledge is limited, and only the revelation of the Bible is full.” We need to humble ourselves and allow the Bible to enlarge and balance us all the time. Only in this way can the Word of God be an unlimited and open book in our hands.
I wish to speak an additional word concerning this point of limiting the Bible by our experiences. In preaching the gospel or giving a message, we may borrow verses from the Bible when we have no verses that match our understanding, our experiences, or our message. However, we should never borrow the Bible to match our experience when reading it. When we speak either to deliver a message, preach the gospel, or give a testimony, we may borrow and adapt some verses in the Bible for our use if we are unable to find suitable verses. However, in reading the Bible, we must adapt ourselves to the Bible and should not borrow and adapt it for our use.
What does it mean to borrow from the Bible? One example is the use of Hebrews 2:3 in the preaching of the gospel. This verse says, “How shall we escape if we have neglected so great a salvation?” In a strict sense, this word in Hebrews is spoken not to sinners but to the saints, those who have been saved. According to the genuine sense in Hebrews 2, verse 3 is saying that the saints cannot escape recompense from God if they neglect His Son, who is indwelling them as their salvation. Sometimes, however, one may use this verse in preaching the gospel to sinners, saying, “God has accomplished a great salvation for you. How can you escape if you neglect it?” If such a person cannot find a similar, more appropriate verse from the sixty-six books of the Bible apart from this word in Hebrews, it is not wrong to borrow it for this occasion. However, in our reading of the Bible, we must not compromise it by adapting it for our use; instead, we should always adjust ourselves to it. In other words, we should never hold on to our experiences when we read the Bible. When we bring our experiences into our Bible reading, we will inevitably take the verses in the Bible out of context and thus distort its true meaning.
In the past the Pentecostal movement was prevailing for some time in northern China. Almost all those in the movement had only one experience, the so-called gift of the Spirit. To them, everything was the gift of the Spirit, and they interpreted almost everything in their Bible teaching as the gift of the Spirit, resulting in their distorting the Bible. They read the Bible with their Pentecostal experiences; thus, those experiences became a limitation to their understanding of the Bible. As a result, they became unbalanced, went to an extreme, and made many grievous mistakes while taking the Scriptures as their basis. Their inaccuracy in understanding the Bible made them inaccurate people. Actually, they had no basis for their mistakes in interpreting the Bible. Instead, they distorted and compromised the Bible. What they asserted concerning the gift of the Spirit was of God; however, instead of allowing the Bible to balance them, they enlarged the gift of the Spirit and made it the standard, the realm, and the limitation to the Bible and thus became unbalanced, with some going to an extreme and others falling into heresy. Their misstep should be a warning to us.
In summary, we must learn to read the Bible without bringing along or holding on to our natural concepts, prejudices, experiences, and spiritual knowledge. If we do this, the Bible will be unrestricted and fully open in our hands.
The second warning regarding our reading of the Bible is related to the use of reference books. Whereas reference books can sometimes be helpful, they can also become a frustration. Whenever we rely only on reference books, they immediately become a frustration and a limitation to the Bible. We must always believe that reference books are limited but that the Bible is unlimited. We should not consider reference books as everything; instead, we should consider them only as a means to extract the gems from the Bible. Moreover, we should accept the reference books partially for help, but we should not accept them completely. We should use them mainly for comparison as hints or reminders in our research, but we should never use them as the final decision.
Once a reader of the Bible has attained to a certain level of maturity and experience and has adopted an appropriate attitude, we can encourage such a reader to read all the reference books in Christianity, as they can help to open his eyes to increase his knowledge of spiritual things and the Bible. However, one who has not reached such a level and who has not adopted such an attitude should be warned that the reference books may become a problem and a snare to his understanding of the Bible.
We are not saying that we should never use reference books; rather, we are saying that the proper use of reference books is not easy. Thus, we do not have the boldness to recommend reference books to the saints carelessly. We have no intention to shut up people’s minds by preventing them from reading reference books. Instead, we hope that they will understand that they must be careful in using reference books, lest the reference books become a limitation to their understanding of the Bible.
Moreover, our former understanding or knowledge acquired through our previous reading of the Bible can become a limitation to our understanding of the Bible. Whenever we come to a passage in the Bible, we need to put aside our former understanding of that passage. Otherwise, our former understanding will become a limitation.
We must admit that whereas the Bible is unlimited, reference books and our knowledge are limited. If we always bring with us old knowledge and the limited knowledge in reference books, we will be unable to read the Bible properly. Moreover, there is a danger that reference books will lead us to an inaccurate understanding and that our knowledge will limit us to the extent that we become prejudiced, go to an extreme, and even become heretical. Although reference books and our former knowledge may be of help, we must handle them with much caution, not allowing them to become a restriction or a frustration to our understanding of the Bible.
Man is not simple. Thus, we should not believe that we have no problems. We must fully realize that we have problems not only in reading the Bible but also in everything that we do. Therefore, we should not trust in the things that we encounter, see, or understand at present. We must always read the Bible with the attitude that what we know is limited, whereas God’s revelation is unlimited. Consequently, we should not bring anything into our Bible reading, because whatever we bring will limit what God desires to reveal. This warning may not seem to have a direct relationship to our eating, drinking, and enjoying the Lord, but if we do not deal with it properly, there will be adverse effects.
In previous chapters we illustrated how to find points on the lines of life and living by examining every chapter of 1 John. Some may feel that such a way of reading goes against what we say about reading the Bible in order to eat and drink God. That is, reading the Bible to eat and drink God does not require us to search out or think about anything; we need only to pray over the words that we have been touched by in our reading. Apparently, these two ways of Bible reading contradict each other; actually, however, they support one another. As we daily read the Bible sequentially in order to enjoy God, we do not need to try and remember to search out what points are on life, living, or the issues of living. We should simply read the Bible and allow the words to touch us spontaneously. After reading a chapter, we may spontaneously touch points on the lines of life, living, and the issues of living. Moreover, if we know these lines, whenever we are touched by a point in the Word, we will immediately discern which points pertain to life, which pertain to living, and which pertain to the issues of living. We will also know which points are supplemental. Whenever we touch supplemental points, we may reverently say to God, “O God, I know that You have given me this word. I treasure it, but I am not satisfied. Please give me something more precious.” For instance, while we are in a difficult situation, suffering from lack and with a heavily burdened heart, we may read Philippians 4:6, which says, “In nothing be anxious.” After reading this word, we may be touched by it, yet we may say to God, “O God, I thank You for giving me this word, but I would like to have something deeper and more central.” Then as we read on, we may encounter a more central point in verse 13, which says, “I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.” That word may touch us and cause us to become fully fed.
If we know what words in the Bible pertain to life, living, and the issues of living, we will be able to discern central messages from peripheral messages when God’s words come to us, without our exercising to search or seek them out. We will discern the light points from the weighty points, and this will help us to understand the Bible. We will know the Bible thoroughly and accurately, and our understanding of the Bible will be deepened and broadened.
We have repeated in the preceding chapters that we should pay attention to the central point of God being our life when we read the Bible; however, this does not mean that we should discard everything else. It is still profitable to feed on supplemental points when we cannot find any central points. Through the last two thousand years, only a few among God’s children were able to discern the central points in their Bible reading. Most saw points only on comfort, promises, deliverance in trials, building up morality, the secret of doing things, and zeal for the Lord. Although these points represent four layers of supplemental points, they have nevertheless helped a great number of people throughout the ages.
The Bible is a powerful book, and no other book has exerted greater influence on man than the Bible. No one can deny that many people have been comforted and encouraged by the Bible, that others have had their behavior improved by it, that some have gained wisdom to live a proper human life through reading the Bible, and that even the saints’ zeal toward the Lord and their service in the church are maintained through the encouragement of the Bible. Even though the skin of a watermelon is peripheral or supplemental, it is necessary. In order for the watermelon to grow properly, the skin is indispensable, for the pulp cannot grow without the skin. This illustrates that supplemental points have their place in the Bible.
Whereas supplemental points are necessary, it will be a pity if we acquire only supplemental points in our reading of the Bible. Deliverance from tribulation, the building up of morality, wisdom to live a proper human life, and zeal for the Lord concern mainly man’s need. When we read the Bible, we should care not mainly for our need but should care primarily for God’s need. We must see what God needs in the universe and what He desires to do. Thus, the burden of this series of messages is to show God’s children the central points in the Bible so that they will not be satisfied with the peripheral or supplemental points. I hope and trust that through the work of the Holy Spirit these chapters will open the understanding of God’s children so that many more believers will see the higher and deeper truths in the Bible. The more we see in the Bible, the more knowledge we will gain; the more knowledge we gain, the more we will have experiences; and the more experiences we have, the more knowledge we will gain.
God’s children should not be discouraged if they do not initially know the central points in their reading of the Bible. The central points are somewhat hidden, but the supplemental points are more apparent. This is similar to the relationship between our physical body and our human life. The former is easily seen, whereas the latter is hidden, for the body is visible, but life is invisible. Our emphasis in this and the preceding chapters is not that we should neglect the physical body but that we should not take the physical body to be everything, since there is something more precious within the body—life. The Bible has its life within, and that life is mingled with the ordinary words in the Bible. It is easy to read the Bible and see the ordinary words, but it is not easy to gain the life within those words. My intention is to show God’s children that even though the ordinary words in the Bible are precious, they are supplemental; only the central points are most precious. I hope that these messages will enable us to have a clear path in our Bible reading so that we will be able to distinguish between the light and the weighty in order to absorb the central and the fattest portions of the Bible.
