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We need to be strict in this term of the full-time training. For twenty years we have suffered damage because the training has not been strict enough. This time I hope that we would have a completely new and strict beginning in the training. Anyone who has ever served in the military knows that once a person joins the military, he loses all his freedom. All his exercises and activities are directed by a single word of command. He is thoroughly changed from head to toe so that he may be freshly equipped to receive strict military training. Without rigorous training, an army cannot fight a battle. No looseness is allowed because the improper conduct of one person during a battle could lead to the destruction of the whole army.
I asked you to thoroughly study the three books of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus before coming to the training. In 2 Timothy 2:3-4, Paul tells Timothy, “Suffer evil with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please the one who enlisted him.” Verse 4 clearly points out that the primary matter for a soldier is that he must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life.
Every contestant who runs on a racecourse does his best to dress as simply as possible. He does not want to bear any excess weight that can become an entanglement to him during the race. This makes it easier for him to finish the race and receive the crown. Similarly, in order to win a battle, a soldier must not allow himself to be entangled with the affairs and burdens of this life. Since you have come to the training, you must hold the same kind of attitude as that of an athlete running on a racecourse and a soldier fighting on a battlefield. If you do not have this kind of spirit, I would urge you to go back to your job.
In the world people can relax after completing their military service. However, as good soldiers serving the Lord in the church, we have been enlisted not merely for two years of preparatory service but for a lifetime of service. Therefore, do not think that you can relax after graduating from two years of training. Remember, you must be a good soldier for your entire life. From now on you must all have such a spirit. You must make a determination before the Lord, saying, “Lord, I am joining Your army to be a good soldier for my whole life.” First Peter 4:1 says that we should arm ourselves with a mind to suffer. Every soldier expects hardship. No one serving as a soldier expects a life of pleasure.
In 1953 we held a training in Taipei that was very strict at the time. Later, however, I was troubled because in my view none of those who were in that training had become useful. The primary reason was that they failed to build up a proper character. The work of the Lord’s recovery in the Far East has been greatly frustrated mainly because of the Chinese character.
The Lord has been quite merciful in giving the Chinese people very intelligent minds. The whole world recognizes the intelligence of the Jews. However, according to what I have observed in the United States over the years, the minds of the Jews are not necessarily sharper than those of the Chinese. No one can deny, though, that the Jews are firm in their will and strong in their determination. This is the secret of their success. Once they decide on a matter, they will press on resolutely and will not give up until they reach their goal. This is the life pulse that enables them to stand. Second, the Jews are very enterprising and diligent. For much of the past two thousand years the Jews were without a nation. This was a suffering to them, and they wandered from place to place. They were rejected and persecuted by the entire world, especially during World War II when millions of them were massacred by Hitler. However, because of their diligence and endeavoring, they have reached the peak in their attainments in the United States and have become the focus of the world.
The Chinese people in America today are the same. The reason they are successful is that they are smart, enterprising, diligent, and determined. Even though there are laws in the United States that protect minorities from discrimination, in actuality, minorities are not that protected. This compels the Chinese students who study in America to make even more of an effort to succeed. If it were not for this situation, it would be difficult for them to succeed. The Jews are successful because of their determination and diligence. The Chinese are smart but lack determination. Those Chinese students who study abroad are successful because they are compelled to be determined and diligent. However, if they were to stay in their own country, they would readily become loose and lazy under the influence of the environment. A major weakness of the Chinese character is that Chinese people do not strive to improve unless they are forced and pressed by the circumstances to improve.
The reason the Lord’s work in Taiwan has been frustrated and has not been spreading is that for the past twenty years the churches here have been living a life of ease and comfort. When I left Taiwan in 1961, there was a great number of saints meeting in the church in Taipei. Since then, however, not only has there been a lack of expansion, but there has even been a decrease. The reason lies in the fact that the church in Taipei has many assets and a great number of saints in the meetings, so the co-workers have been able to maintain the situation without having to endeavor and struggle for the spread of the work. In other words, when I left, I left the church in Taipei with many assets. This allowed the co-workers to quickly become loose.
On the one hand, I can testify that the co-workers have faithfully maintained the testimony of the Lord’s recovery in Taiwan. On the other hand, during the past twenty or more years, all the shortcomings of the Chinese character were brought into the church because of their carelessness and inattentiveness. Since there are so many valuable assets in the church, they tend not to care when they lose a few of the saints. They may feel that the absence of these saints does not make much of a difference and that there are still thousands of people who attend the conferences. However, as the saying goes, “One false step makes a great difference.” During the past twenty-five years, not only has the number of saints in the meetings decreased, but even the spirit for expansion that was among us has been lost.
The work of the Lord’s recovery in Taiwan began at the site of hall one of the church in Taipei, which was part of a Japanese residential district during the Japanese occupation. That area was bombed by the allied forces during the war, and all that was left was an area of cement-covered ground. After the victory this plot of land was taken over by the Chinese government. Later, two Chinese brothers who had been living overseas came to reside in Taiwan and bought half of the land. Eventually, a small meeting hall that could accommodate three to four hundred people was built. On August 1, 1949, I held our first conference in that little meeting hall to officially start the Lord’s work in Taiwan.
After the beginning of the work, under the Lord’s blessing the number of saved ones steadily increased. As a result, our meeting place quickly became inadequate. In 1950 we made use of the adjacent empty lot by fixing it up and putting a bamboo fence around it. Thus, we were able to add many more seats to the hall. Later, as the Lord’s work spread more, and the number of saints multiplied, I bought another piece of land next to the meeting hall, combining it with the land that we originally owned, and we rebuilt the meeting hall.
In 1953 I began to conduct a training that many saints attended. On the fenced lot I built a house for the workers. Even though its appearance was simple, the lush plants and flowers provided a sense of serenity and freshness, and its interior was clean and tidy. I left Taiwan in 1961 and did not come back until 1965. When I came back, the workers’ house was almost unrecognizable. The plants had dried up, and all the flowers had withered. Everything was a mess. I was exceedingly troubled within. I thought back to when I had conducted the training twelve years earlier and had spoken on the thirty items of character training. The messages that I had given at that time had been very strong and serious, yet twelve years later the co-workers had completely forgotten them.
Recently, I told the elders that our meeting hall, which is now a building made of reinforced concrete, is no longer the simple building we once had. Therefore, it should not have an old appearance. Regarding the condition of the meeting hall, if the hall were being used by the Japanese saints, it would definitely be tidier and cleaner than it is today. If it were being used by the American saints, it would be much more spacious and elegant. However, when we use the meeting hall, we make it appear so unbecoming. For example, consider the bookshelves that contain the Bibles and hymnals for public use. All of the Bibles and hymnals are in disarray, and many of them are torn and are even missing pages. Not one of them is in a proper condition. This implies that our work has not been developed and has no vitality. If people came and saw the disorderly condition of our Bibles and hymnals, how could they respect us?
In this world every building, regardless of what kind of business it is used for, needs to have an impressive front. For example, the people who work at a bank must clean their surroundings so that everything is neat and tidy. When people see that the bank’s environment is respectable, then they are more likely to have confidence in the bank and to be willing to deposit their money there. Similarly, every week we should organize the books and hymnals on our bookshelves that are for public use. The torn ones should be repaired, and the ones that are no longer usable should be replaced. The books should be neatly placed on the shelf so that in the next meeting they can be properly distributed. Do not look down on these kinds of matters. A little bookshelf could ruin our reputation, resulting in our being unable to bring in anyone of quality, or it could be our silent testimony, attracting people to us. Therefore, as we are working here, we should have an impressive front, a dignified appearance, so that people would be fully convinced to come to us.
Please forgive me for saying these things. I must say them because I hate how the Chinese character has damaged us. There are many business entrepreneurs in Taiwan who are successful because they have changed their character. As long as one is willing to change his poor character, he will ultimately succeed. Those who do not change their slothful nature will fail. Those who change the fastest, the earliest, and the most radically will have the greatest chance of success.
Serving in the church is similar to opening a restaurant. Suppose someone sets up a food stand on the side of the road by putting out a table and a few chairs, while someone else opens a very respectable restaurant by spending a large amount of money on furnishings and decoration. The two restaurants are alike in that they will both get customers, but the difference is that they will get different kinds of customers. It is the same with the church. If we are rough in the way we handle the services in the church, then it will be hard to gain people of high quality. Of course, this does not mean that we despise people of low quality, because it is possible for someone who is a “small potato” to be gained by the Lord and to become a “VIP.” Nevertheless, we still hope that many capable, promising, and reputable people would be brought into the church. For this reason we should carefully reexamine and reconsider our present way of service.
Even though our work has not produced any obvious results in the past years, we are still holding to the truth clearly and firmly, and the elders and co-workers among us have also been increasingly equipped in life. These two matters are truly the most precious aspects of our inheritance, and you should pay attention to them. However, you may have learned the truth and grown in life, but if the standard of your conduct and work is low and if your character is still loose, then your service in the church will surely be ineffective.
For example, consider a scholar. A scholar may be very knowledgeable, but if while he is teaching, he wears shabby clothes and his character is very sloppy, then he will not produce good students. He must have a proper character in his conduct and work. An ancient Chinese sage once said that in order to govern a nation, one must first be able to manage his own family, and in order to manage one’s own family, one must first be able to cultivate himself. You must first perfect your character, be regular in your living and activities, and maintain a clean and elegant environment. Only then will it be possible for you to succeed in your career. Therefore, we have to treasure the life and the truth in the recovery, but we cannot continue to be loose in our character.
We all need to realize that the age we are in is an age of aggressive competition. There is competition among countries, among people, and among different occupations and businesses. There is competition everywhere. American professors have a motto that says, “Publish or perish.” In other words, if you are a professor and do not produce any articles for publication within a certain amount of time, you will be eliminated. I hope that you would all be stirred up to repent of your loose character and to make a change in your character.
I am not criticizing you for being lazy, but I suspect that you have been affected by tradition. You are proud and contented and not humble or diligent enough. This has caused other Christian groups to surpass us. There is a group in Korea, for example, that started in 1958 with only three couples meeting together. At that time we already had thousands of saints in Taipei. Yet today that group has a few hundred thousand members in Seoul alone, while we are contented and satisfied with our situation and remain behind our closed doors.
For all of the reasons that I have given above, I feel that the training in the past was a big failure. If I had more time and energy, I would use five or six months to train you day after day as I did thirty years ago. However, this time we have only three months. The truths in the recovery will always remain with us, and life will be a matter that we will always need. For the past sixty years these two items have been the precious inheritance of those in the Lord’s recovery. Therefore, we must guard them securely. However, we must also remember that in everything we do, we will either keep progressing or fall behind. If we continue to be at ease, content, and loose, then those behind us will catch up to us and leave us far behind.
I hope the fellowship that I am giving you would not go in one ear and out the other. If you do not pay attention to your character from the very beginning, everything that you learn regarding the full-time service will be worthless. I am here because when I was young, I realized and concluded that serving the Lord full time was the highest and best way to live the human life. For this I risked and offered up my entire life. Although I have flaws and shortcomings, by the Lord’s mercy I have been faithful to my consecration, and to this day am still striving to be faithful. I rise up every morning at 5:45 and get washed up. Then I start to work. This morning, before you got up, I was already reading manuscripts and writing letters. In my collection of books I have a great number of dictionaries, which I use frequently. Not only so, when better dictionaries or concordances are published, I buy them immediately, whether they are in Chinese, English, or Greek. I hope that you would learn from me in all these matters and not only be diligent but exceptionally diligent.
Second Timothy mentions three important matters: pursuing the truth, growing in life, and being diligent. You cannot read these things and then quickly disregard them. Paul tells Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman, cutting straight the word of the truth” (2:15). Cutting straight the word of the truth cannot be accomplished by casually reading the Bible. Rather, you need to study the truth in depth. For example, a surgeon needs to develop good surgical skills in order to be a good surgeon. He needs to study the human body in depth and to practice doing surgery many times. In the same way, if you are going to cut straight the word of the truth, you need to spend time and energy to get into the truth. This cannot be accomplished in one or two days.
If you study the footnotes in the New Testament Recovery Version, you will discover that those footnotes were not composed in a loose way. I revised the footnotes repeatedly until they accurately expressed the meaning of the truth. To study in Taiwan you need to strive and to be industrious. Our striving and being industrious are related to our character. What Paul said to Timothy was entirely related to the matter of character. Perhaps you may say that although the letters to Timothy mention many matters, the word character is never mentioned. This is correct. However, the charge that Paul gave to Timothy was definitely a teaching regarding the matter of character.
In 1 Timothy 4:12 Paul says to Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth, but be a pattern to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” This verse has a very profound meaning. You should not let anyone despise your youth. However, if your attire is unsuitable and your speech is inappropriate, how could others not despise your youth? If you are careless and frivolous in your actions, people will spontaneously despise your youth. Therefore, what Paul was telling Timothy in this verse was that Timothy should be dignified in his conduct and actions and proper in his speech. What he said, how much he said, and when and how he said things should have caused others to respect him rather than despise his youth.
In this verse Paul first mentions our words, then our conduct, behavior, and actions, and lastly our love, faith, and purity. Love and faith are matters of life, whereas our words and conduct are matters of our character. If we were to write this verse, we would mention faith and love first and then conduct and word. However, in doing so we would mistake the means for the end and say exactly the opposite of what Paul said.
I do not intend to boast, but I would like to testify that when I was thirty-one years old, I was already pursuing the truth. One day a brother said to me, “Brother Lee, I would like to know what your background is, because you seem to be someone of noble birth in your words, actions, conduct, and manner of speech.” I answered, “My background is not noble but poor. When I was ten and was beginning to understand the affairs of human life, I realized that my family was in a destitute situation.” I was of a lowborn family, but I was strict regarding my education. Thus, as one who was still in school, whenever I stood up to speak, people around me, including the elderly, would become quiet and respectfully listen to my speaking.
Wherever I go in the United States, those who have a higher status than I still respect me, even though I am Chinese. If I seemed like a lower-class person, they would not respect me, and it would be difficult for them to accept my speaking, no matter how well I could speak. Thus, in order that others would not despise your youth, you should learn of me and be strict from your youth in disciplining yourself and taking the initiative to learn by yourself.
In the recovery we emphasize the way of life. The way of life is not a matter of ethics, morality, or culture but a matter of walking according to the Spirit. In light of this some may say that character training is contrary to our emphasis in the recovery. They may say that character training is not a matter of life but a matter of developing our “bright virtue.” However, surely the character of a person who walks according to the Spirit would be much higher than the character of a person who develops his bright virtue. If we talk about life, but our character is lower than the character of those who develop their bright virtue, then we make the salvation of the Lord Jesus worthless. I hate for this to happen. In the recovery we are pursuing the truth, we are learning to take the way of life, and we are proper with regard to morality. However, when we examine the matter of our human character, immediately our inadequate condition is exposed. We are lacking in diligence and seriousness, and we are short in pursuing, making progress, and learning. This makes me very sorrowful.
Because of our shortages with regard to character, the church is not highly respected in people’s eyes. Our way of working is not very high, so when a Christian group with a way that is superior to ours emerges, we immediately fall behind. Thirty-five years ago in the Far East, there were not many groups that had as many high-quality people as we had in the Lord’s recovery. When we were in mainland China, a group of saints was raised up among us. When we officially began the work in Taiwan on August 1, 1949, we had only four to five hundred brothers and sisters on the island of Taiwan and a little over a hundred in Taipei. In 1955, after six years, there were 45,000 believers in the churches on the entire island. Other groups could not match our large size. However, today these groups have adopted a number of our ways and even improved on them through further study and revision. We have the truth and life, but because we have been so closed to new things and have confined ourselves to the old ways, we have fallen behind the other groups.
For example, some Christian groups are now using small groups to bring hundreds and thousands of people to salvation. Thirty years ago we already had the practice of the small groups. We used the small groups as a means of going from house to house to bring people to salvation. However, we unconsciously dropped the practice of the small groups and started to bring people to the meeting hall to gather them for conferences. Outwardly, the conferences seemed to be merely conferences, but in reality they had become occasions for “celebrity speeches.” This may be likened to gathering students to a school that does not have classes, classrooms, or teachers but only a few celebrities who come in to speak, and hoping that the students will eventually be able to graduate after hearing this kind of speaking for ten years. Our work in the past replaced the cause with the effect. Speeches display a person’s achievements, but if you want to learn the way to attain to those achievements yourself, you need to go through certain courses and learn them sequentially, lesson by lesson.
It is good that in the recovery we have truth and life. We have these items, but we have not entered into them to a very high degree. Therefore, I hope that in this training you would be faithful to build up your character. You should not be loose in the way you conduct yourself, in the way you do things. Instead, you must be diligent, you must learn, and you must make progress. In this training our emphasis is not on the teaching of the truth. We are only asking you to diligently study the New Testament Recovery Version and the Life-study messages. Since we have an abundance of spiritual literature among us, our classes will be taught in a way similar to the way graduate classes are taught. This means that we will give you only the necessary directions and guidelines. The most important matter in this training is that in your pursuit of life you would endeavor to change your character to a character that is strict and not loose in any way. This will play a big part in determining whether or not you will be useful to the Lord in the future.
Character building is related to the habits that we acquire. We may even say that character is largely composed of acquired habits. Whereas nature is an inward matter, character is an outward matter. Seventy percent of a person’s character is acquired by building, and thirty percent is acquired by birth. Beginning today you need to have a change in your concepts concerning everything great and small. You need to have a set time to rise up, a set time to pray, a set time to read the Word, and a set time to study. Everything must have a set time. You must be strict in practicing these points, not allowing yourself to become loose.
Moreover, you also need to exert an effort to learn several languages. In order to work for the Lord, you must be able to cut straight the word of the truth. You have to get into the depths of the truth to study it. However, if you are not fluent in certain languages, you will have no way to get into the depths of the truth. If you were illiterate, you would be unable to read anything, not to mention the Bible, and would naturally be unable to study the truth. Today it is very common for people to communicate with others all over the world. The environment around the whole world is one of openness and circulation. English is the international language and the one that is most commonly spoken. A great number of spiritual books and magazines have been made available to the public in English. If you want to serve the Lord, it is not sufficient to be skillful only in your own native language. You must also understand English, which is the most widely used language.
The text of the New Testament was originally written in Greek. Since the source of the truth lies in the New Testament, you must also learn Greek. At least you have to learn the Greek alphabet, be familiar with Greek grammar, and be able to use reference books. As you are working for the Lord, you have to speak for Him. Speaking is intimately related to language. Your manner of speaking exposes how much you have studied. Therefore, you need to read many books and endeavor to learn some languages.
I regret that I did not learn enough. If I were still your age, I would learn at least ten more languages. I truly hope that you would work, learn, and study at the same time. You should get a good dictionary and reference book and seriously study them every day. Do not study too many things at once. Simply spend your time and energy in an earnest way on a few of them. In the winter of 1932 I began learning to use the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. The copy I used then is still in my possession. I hope that you would all do the same, studying in a serious way and making your time in the full-time training worthwhile and meaningful. Otherwise, you will be wasting your time in the training.
The character that you build up during the training has to become your habit and eventually your daily life. No matter how busy I am in my daily life, I make my bed when I get up every day, unless my wife voluntarily does it for me. After I change, I do not place my clothes in random places. I always place them neatly in specific places. Sometimes when I get up in the middle of the night, I do not even need to turn on the light to find my clothes. I can reach out my hand and know exactly where they are. Character depends wholly on our continual exercise to develop the habits of our daily living. If you cannot even set your clothes straight, how can you cut straight the word of the truth? Your ability to cut straight the word of the truth depends on whether or not you have built up your character. These two matters are very much related to one another.
Our bedrooms should be clean and neat. We should have a habit of cleanliness. Cleanliness is the characteristic that the Chinese culture lacks the most. You cannot say that it does not matter if your bedroom is a mess, that it is all right since the main purpose of a bedroom is to have a place to sleep. You must remember that when your room is in order, then your preaching will be orderly, your work will be orderly, and your leading of the church will also be orderly. If your room looks improper, then when you manage the church affairs, you will make a mess of them as well. I am not saying that you need to decorate your room in an excessive, wasteful, or particular manner. I am saying that since you are a human being and not a beast, you should have a decent living place. If possible, you should obtain flowers and plants to help uplift your spirit.
Today I have been forced to say such a strong word. Though I conducted trainings in the past, I did not see any changes in those whom I trained. Today I am repeating the commandments to you, the younger generation. Those who were before you are a generation older than you. In morality, life, and many other aspects, they are your good examples. However, you should not pick up their character and way of serving. If you do, your future, education, business, and occupation will all be a failure, and our work will not be accomplished.
I am not speaking in this way to cause you to rebel against the older generation. Rather, I hope that you would have a change in character. Although you are not in the military, we still hope that this new beginning would be somewhat militaristic. In the matter of attire you should exercise not to be wasteful but to be clean, neat, and dignified so that when you go out, you will have a proper appearance. Your living quarters should be arranged in a clean, simple, plain, and elegant way. Otherwise, you will not be qualified to be trained here. I hope that you all are clear regarding the principles set forth here.
