Search
During the past sixty years, the trainings that we have held have been focused on four matters—truth, life, the gospel, and either service or the church, which are two aspects of one thing. All the revelations and teachings in the New Testament may be summed up in these four matters.
The way in which the Bible was written is not like the systematized way in which today’s theology is composed. There is nothing systematized or categorized about the Old and New Testaments. Although we have grouped the crucial points of the New Testament into the four categories of truth, life, the gospel, and service, the New Testament itself is not categorized in this way. The New Testament covers a great variety of subjects, and these subjects are scattered throughout the New Testament. For example, although the subject of the Gospel of Matthew is not the church, Matthew 16 and 18 contain a great revelation concerning the church. Matthew 16:18 says, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” and 18:17 says, “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you just like the Gentile and the tax collector.” In the New Testament all the revelations from Acts to Revelation that pertain to the church are developed according to these two simple verses. This shows us that the New Testament was not written in a systematized or categorized way but in a scattered way—one point is here and another point is there.
Most Bible scholars cannot explain why God wrote the Bible in such a way. According to our way of thinking, the Bible would have been easier to understand if it had been categorized and organized into a system similar to today’s systematic theology. We may think that the New Testament would be better if it were composed of only five chapters—chapter 1 on the truth, chapter 2 on life, chapter 3 on the gospel, chapter 4 on service, and chapter 5 on the church. If this were the case, taking a Bible class would be as easy as taking a secular class. However, the New Testament was not written in a systematized or categorized way. If you do not read the twenty-seven books of the New Testament carefully, and if you have no desire to progress or advance in your study of the Bible, then you will have no clue as to the meaning of the Bible and will not realize what it says.
In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus did not say, “Today let us go into the region of Caesarea Philippi. There the sky is clear, and I can sit down and speak to you about the matter of the church.” He did not do this. Instead, He simply asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then the Lord said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church” (vv. 15-18). After speaking these things, He showed His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and on the third day be raised. Upon hearing this, Peter said, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” But the Lord turned and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan!” Then the Lord told His disciples that they must follow Him by taking the way of the cross (vv. 21-24). The Lord first spoke about the church, then He mentioned Satan, and finally He referred to the way of the cross. Since this is the way that the Bible was written, we must consider what the best way to read it is.
The matter of life is also not presented in the Bible in a systematic way. It would not be very easy for someone who has been a believer for only a short time to find the line of life in the Scriptures. Perhaps we in the recovery do not even know where the word life is first mentioned in the New Testament. This shows us that in reading the Bible we truly need to be skillful.
The first time the Chinese version of the New Testament mentions the word life is in Matthew 6:25, which says, “I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life.” In the first five chapters of Matthew there is no mention of the word life. Matthew 1, a chapter on the genealogy of Christ, uses the word begot, a verb that means “to generate life.” Chapter 2 speaks of King Herod’s intention to seek the Lord Jesus and destroy Him. In this chapter there is only killing; there is no life. Chapter 3 contains the message that John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, in which he told people to produce fruit worthy of their repentance. This is not an explanation of life. Chapter 4 speaks of the Lord Jesus’ being tempted and His calling of the four disciples. First, He told the devil, “Man shall not live on bread alone” (v. 4). The word live is in this verse but not the word life. Later, when He called His disciples, He was like “a great light” (v. 16). Although John 1:4 tells us that “the life was the light of men,” Matthew 4 does not mention life in conjunction with light. Hence, in reading the Bible we need a proper mind. On the one hand, we must be able to uncover all the implications of a certain word, such as the word life, but on the other hand, we must uncover the revelation of life that is presented in plain words in the New Testament and not extend the meaning of any word in a careless way.
Although we now know that the first mention of the word life in the Chinese version of the New Testament is in Matthew 6, we still have to find out what kind of life is referred to here. The New Testament mentions three kinds of life. The first kind of life is the physical life. The Greek word for this kind of life is bios, which is the root of the English word biology. Another kind of life is the soul-life. The Greek word for this kind of life is psuche, which refers to our natural life. The third kind of life is the eternal life, and the Greek word for this life is zoe. This is the life that we receive into our spirit from God. The word zoe does not appear in the New Testament until Matthew 7:14. It is frequently used in speaking of spiritual matters. Generally speaking, what we eat, what we drink, and what we wear are matters that are primarily related to our physical life. However, although the word life in Matthew 6:25 is used in relation to our physical eating and drinking, the word anxious in this verse indicates that in this verse life is related to the soul. The word life in this verse is literally the word soul, referring to the soul-life, in which the desire and appetite for food and clothing reside.
I have given you these examples to show you that reading the Bible is not a simple matter. Since our training is based on the four aspects of the revelation in the New Testament—truth, life, the gospel, and service (or the church)—I hope that you all would exert some effort to read the Life-study messages and footnotes according to the sequence of the New Testament. If you do this, you will be powerful in preaching the gospel. If someone asks you a question, you will be able to answer him right away. Those who know that you are serving full time may think that you are a Bible expert, so if you are unable to immediately answer their questions and have to go back to study the Bible in order to do so, they will be disheartened, and you will not have as much impact with them. However, if you are able to quote the Scriptures and give a brief explanation, they will be interested in listening to you, and it will be easy for you to gain them. This has much to do with the extent of your scholastic pursuit and personal study.
In 1943 I was laboring in Chefoo. At that time Chefoo was under the occupation of the Japanese. The church did not have a denominational background, and there were no Western missionaries in it, yet our work brought in a big revival. The number of people meeting with us at that time was greater than the total number in the eight local denominations raised up by the missionaries. Almost every one of us sold everything and gave all that we had to the church. Seventy saints migrated to Suiyuan Province, and thirty moved to the mouth of the Sungari River. Because of this, the Japanese secret agents became suspicious of us. They secretly sent people to investigate our meetings and later sent the military police to arrest me. They interrogated me twice a day for three hours each time.
The Japanese tortured me for almost a month. One day a Japanese man with a translator came to interrogate me, asking, “Why do you call your meetings ‘revival meetings’? Why do you use the term revival?” They hated the word revival, which can also be translated as restoration, because they thought that it implied the restoration of the Chinese nation. The Japanese man who interrogated me was one of the people who had come to investigate our meetings. When he had first come to our meetings, I had given him a small Bible, and that Bible was on the desk beside him. The Lord gave me wisdom, and I did not reply to him right away. It was only after I was sure of his intention that I told him, “All our practices in the church are according to the Bible. Whatever the Bible has, we also have. Whatever the Bible does not have, we do not have either.” Then he asked, “Is the word revival in the Bible?” I replied, “Yes, the word revival is in the Bible.” Then he gave me the small Bible and asked me, “Where is it? Show it to me.”
Here is my point—if I had told him that I could not remember where it was and that I would have to spend time to look it up, the consequences would have been unimaginable. However, at that time I remembered that the word revival is in Habakkuk, one of the twelve minor prophets. Although I partially remembered the verse, I knew that it would not be easy to find. That day, however, I truly had the Lord’s grace. I picked up the Bible and opened it. When I looked down, the page that I was on was Habakkuk 3, and when I placed my finger on that page, my finger pointed to the exact verse that contains the word revival— “O Jehovah, revive Your work / In the midst of the years” (v. 2). The Japanese officer was immediately subdued. There are sixty-six books in the Bible, comprising more than a thousand pages, but I was able to turn to the right page and point to the right verse. Thus, he knew that I was not a false preacher.
Hence, you must spend time to study the truth. I hope you would be familiar with the Bible to such an extent that you would be able to turn to the page and point to the verse that answers the questions that people ask you. This will surely subdue them.
In the experience of life the Lord transforms us after we are saved and after He sanctifies us. Based on my own experience, the most difficult part of the Lord’s transformation work is the transformation of our character. It is easy to correct a mistake, but it is very difficult to change our character. The Chinese have a saying that says, “Mountains and rivers can easily be changed, but a person’s nature is difficult to change.” Although we have been regenerated, we may not have had that much transformation, and even if we have had some amount of transformation, not much is seen in our character. I hope you are clear about this point so that you would exercise to be properly transformed in your character.
About fifty years ago there was a Christian group in Honor Oak, England under the leadership of T. Austin-Sparks. The members of that group were the most spiritual Christians in the world. They never invited outsiders to speak to them. The only exception they made was that they frequently invited Brother Watchman Nee to speak while he was there from 1938 to 1939. In 1956 and 1957 we invited Brother T. Austin-Sparks twice to minister to us and provided him and his wife with very warm hospitality. When I visited them in 1958, he returned the courtesy and also gave me hospitality in a very warm way. He invited me to speak on the Lord’s Day and held special meetings for me. During my month-long stay there, I clearly saw two things. First, I saw that the British character of those Christians was intact and unchangeable, and second, I saw that they had absolutely no building. Hence, I was clear within that our natural character is not suitable for the building. For the building up of the church, your character, as well as mine, must be broken.
To build a meeting hall, for example, we need bricks, wood, stone, and steel. To build all these materials together requires that we break them. Suppose a piece of wood or a brick wanted to keep its original appearance and refused to have its long parts cut off, its wide parts sawn off, or its sharp edges sanded down. Consequently, it would have no way to participate in the building. A meeting hall can be built only because every single piece of material has been broken and not one piece remains intact. Similarly, if our character is too strong, and we are not willing to be broken, then it will be impossible for us to participate in the building.
Although the Lord’s life is powerful, it encounters an obstacle in us—our character. Our character is more solid than cement. No matter how hard our character is smashed, it cannot be broken, and no matter how much one drills it, it cannot be drilled through. Our character is not only composed of our nature but also of our personality. Nature is inborn, but personality is cultivated. Our character is thirty percent nature and seventy percent habit. For example, suppose a Chinese person is brought to America shortly after his birth. After growing up, he may be Chinese in nature, but he will have an American personality. This indicates that character is composed less of one’s nature and more of one’s habits. This also shows us the reason why Japanese and Chinese people, even though they have a blood relationship, are different in their character. They are different in character because they are raised in different environments.
The cultivation of a person’s character is almost complete by the time he reaches the age of fifteen. Brother Nee once said that if a person’s character is not changed before he is fifty years old, then it will be impossible to change his character, because after a person turns fifty years old, his character becomes set and cannot be changed anymore. Throughout my more than sixty years of observation, I have not seen many people under the age of fifty who were willing to be changed through the breaking of their character. I confess that this is not an easy matter. However, I can also testify that this depends on how much you are willing to receive the Lord’s grace and whether you are willing to cooperate with the Lord. This altogether depends on your willingness.
Our cooperation with the Lord involves a basic principle in the Scriptures, which is that God created man with a free will, allowing man to have the freedom of choice. Our will can determine our course. Many Jews, for example, have determined not to choose God but to choose money, and in the end they have succeeded. God gave this power of determination to our will when He created man, and God does not interfere with this. In the beginning in the garden of Eden, God put man in front of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for him to choose. In the same way God has put us fallen ones in front of our character and Christ’s salvation so that we may make a choice. In a sense, today the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is our character, and the tree of life is Christ. Our choice depends on whether we want Christ or our character.
There is only one tree of knowledge of good and evil, yet it has many different expressions, and it always causes you to choose between itself and Christ. Although I do not think that you are absolutely victorious, I believe that the majority of you have overcome the world and sin and have chosen the tree of life. I believe that you would no longer wander in the world or be defiled by sins. Of course, you may still fall, which is why I pray unceasingly with fear and trembling that you would not enter into temptation. However, you are clear that God is versus the world (James 4:4). Outwardly speaking, you also know that God is versus sin (Rom. 3:23). Regarding service, you are clear that God is versus mammon (Matt. 6:24). Therefore, you love God, you do not love the world, you forsake sin, and you do not dream about being rich. These are all expressions of how you have chosen the tree of life and forsaken the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that you must forsake is your character. Now that you have joined the full-time training, you must overcome this expression of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—your character.
The Bible says that the last enemy of God is death (1 Cor. 15:26). According to my observation, however, character is the last enemy for those of us who love and pursue the Lord. Twenty years ago a good foundation was laid for our work in the Far East, especially in Taiwan. Yet in the twenty years since then, although by the Lord’s mercy our work has not declined, there has not been much development. What is the reason for the lack of development? The reason is not the world, sin, or the influence of material wealth. It is our troublesome character. Our Chinese character is too loose and passive. Without outward pressure in the environment, we become self-content at a certain stage and thus delay the Lord’s work.
According to the Chinese character, everything is “fine” and “about the same,” as long as we have a bed to sleep in, food to eat, and a house to live in. In the past, prior to the celebration of the Chinese New Year, the northern Chinese would thoroughly clean their homes, but in the days after New Year’s Day, their homes would seem “about the same” to them, whether they were clean or dirty. They would not clean their homes again until their homes were so dusty that whatever they touched was covered with dust. Finally, only when they could no longer bear looking at it would they began to wipe off the dust. However, when they would wipe off the dust, they would not do a thorough job, wiping only the center of the room and leaving the four corners dirty. In the matter of cleaning we can see the Chinese character, which regards everything as being “about the same.”
Our work in the Far East in the last twenty years has suffered from this character of everything being “about the same.” The Lord Jesus rebuked the church in Laodicea for having such an attitude, saying, “You are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot” (Rev. 3:15). If we are cold or hot, the Lord has a way. When we are neither cold nor hot, the Lord has no way. More than twenty years ago we had the highest rate of increase of any country in eastern Asia. Even the opposers could not deny that we had the best gospel work on the island of Taiwan. However, today others have overtaken us. What is the reason? After analyzing our history in the past twenty years, we must confess that our character has been too loose.
In the 1950s many brothers and sisters were raised up by the Lord. They truly loved the Lord. They forsook position, fame, and the wealth of the world and loved the Lord fervently. In 1953, after a few months of training, they went out and advanced the Lord’s work in a relentless way. They were successful in whatever they did, and wherever they went, churches were quickly raised up. Within ten years they had opened up a wonderful situation for the Lord’s work. However, today we find it difficult merely to maintain what was established. Of course, there is an outward reason for this: when Brother T. Austin-Sparks visited us, he created some problems among us, quenching the fire in the brothers and sisters. However, from that time on the brothers and sisters never got hot again but merely maintained the status quo. The main, intrinsic, and basic reason for this is that our character is very poor.
There are some things on the earth that we cannot fully change but that we can still improve. For example, we cannot change the earth that was created by God. However, we can make improvements to our life on earth by improving the means of transportation and shortening the time required to travel. Regrettably, although transportation today has been much improved, our way of working is old and is according to the old customs. In a sense we have fallen back into our old ways. This is where the crux of the matter lies. Therefore, we must seek progress and improvement in every matter, especially in our character. The Chinese mind is very useful, but the Chinese character ruins things. When our mind does not match our character, the result is that we do things in a slothful way and are neither earnest nor serious about what we are doing. The senior co-workers truly love the Lord and have overcome the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in regard to the world and sin. However, they are too loose in the matter of character, and thus, it is often necessary for me to strongly motivate them. Because of the Chinese character, our work in the Far East has greatly suffered.
The saints are advancing in the truth and are pursuing life, but why are they not being perfected in the matter of character? I do not mind taking the trouble to exhort you again and again to pay attention to your character, because I know that you will serve the Lord and give yourself to the Lord. After doing so, you may be used by the Lord for twenty years. However, if the “moth” of your bad character continues to stay with you, I am afraid that at a certain time you will be eaten, and your usefulness will be ruined. This would be a terrible thing. Therefore, at the beginning of this training, I will deal with this matter of character again and again. Although you must still pursue and make progress in the four matters of truth, life, the gospel, and service, you must be more serious in the training of your character so that you may be fully equipped. I hope that you would all exercise your will and determine to cooperate with the Lord to deal with your character so that you may become useful vessels in the Lord’s hand.
