Search
Scripture Reading: Eph. 3:17, 19b, 8; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23-24; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:2-4
In the previous chapters we covered five factors vital to the recovery of the church life: Christ, the Spirit, the divine life, the proper practice of the church life, and the Spirit’s operation through the cross. In this chapter we will see the sixth vital factor: the transformed human virtues.
In the church life we need the human virtues. I prefer not to use the word morality but the word virtues. We need not just one virtue but many virtues. The word virtue actually denotes a higher quality than the word morality. A man may be moral but still not have many virtues. Virtues are higher than morality. Morality is merely to be right. As long as you do not deceive others, steal from others, or mistreat others, you may be considered right. You may be righteous and moral yet not have virtues.
For example, you may purchase a Bible from the bookstore and pay the proper price. This is right and moral. However, if you deceive the store owner and pay a lower amount, you are not right. You are not moral because you are not honest. But if in the transaction you receive too much back and return the difference, you are right. This is morality, but it is not virtue. Virtue may be illustrated by helping a poor neighbor. Suppose you do not owe him anything, and he did not do anything for you, but out of love you give him two hundred dollars to help him pay his rent. This is not merely morality; this is virtue. Though you do not owe him anything, and though he did not do anything for you, yet you love him and give him two hundred dollars, expecting nothing in return. This is virtue. This is not merely the level of morality; this is the higher level of virtue.
In the church life, if we only have morality, then we may become quite legal. But we need to have virtue instead of legality. Legality is merely at the level of morality, at the level of being right or wrong. But virtue is at a higher level. If you are legal, you may demand an apology when you are offended by someone. Furthermore, you may not be satisfied with the apology once it is given; you may require further apology. This is legality. But if you have virtue, you will not care whether the person apologizes to you or not. Furthermore, you will not be concerned about the standard of his apology. Rather, you will forgive him; you will give in to him.
We must be impressed that virtue is higher than morality and legality. In the church life we should not be legal. If someone wants your books and takes them from you, you should not demand that he give them back. To do so would indicate that you are legal. If you have virtue, you will realize that he loves your books. Then you will say, “Brother, do you love that book? I would like to give you another one. I would like to give you all of them.” This is virtue. In human society, what is demanded, what is required, is merely morality. But in the church life, what is required is virtue, which is much higher than morality.
To continue this illustration, a third brother may ask the brother who took your books if it was right for him to do that. However, this brother should not be the judge. He should not judge the brother who took your books, for the Lord is within him. Today he may take all your books and be quite happy about it. But tomorrow the Holy Spirit may touch his heart and give him no peace to keep the books. The Spirit may convict him that the reason you gave him all your books was that he intended to steal them. Then the Spirit will work within him and cause him to return all the books to you, plus an additional hymnal. This giving of an additional hymnal is also virtue, something higher than mere morality. You may be very happy about receiving an additional hymnal. However, the next day the Lord may touch you to give the hymnal to another brother. This illustrates the virtue needed for the church life.
By these illustrations we can see that in the church life the standard of morality is much higher than the morality in human society. The standard in the church life is not morality; it is virtue. Let us further illustrate this by an incident that happened in Taipei. In the early 1950s we did not use chairs in the meetings. Instead, we used benches, and each bench was long enough for four persons. Sometimes a heavy person who occupied more than one-fourth of the bench would come. This would cause the other three to suffer. On one occasion these three contended with the heavy brother over how much space each should occupy on the bench. They were unable to solve this problem themselves, and eventually they brought the matter to the elders. Their fighting for one-fourth of the bench was merely legality. How could such people have the church life? Then I told the others to love the heavy one and help him to take care of his heaviness. Because he continually bore his heaviness, they needed to sympathize with him and have mercy upon him. I told them that one of the three brothers should have been willing to stand, if necessary, and allow the heavy brother to occupy his space on the bench. This is virtue. By this illustration we can see the difference between morality and virtue. In the church life we should have no legality. Furthermore, in the church life we should not have mere morality, because we have something higher—we have virtue. To quarrel, to fight, to insist, to grasp what is rightfully ours, is legality. This is common in human society, but it should not be the case in the church life.
Knowing that in the church life everyone practices virtue, some clever saints may take advantage of others. They may require others to practice virtue and so take advantage of them. If you are heavier or older, you should not require others to show virtue toward you. If you do, you become a robber, robbing others’ virtue. But virtue is not gained by robbing; it is gained by others’ giving. If I am a heavy person, when I come to the meeting and I realize that the bench is for four people, I should not occupy more than one-fourth. I should give more space to others. This is to practice virtue.
Even in human society there are those who practice virtue. I saw this when traveling this year on a bus to the airport in Stuttgart, Germany. The bus was full of passengers, and there was no seat for us. But two young Germans, when they saw that my wife and I were older, stood up and gave their seats to us. I was very touched that the local young people would give their seats to us foreigners. That was not only morality; that was virtue.
This principle should always be kept in the church life. We should always show virtue toward others and never take advantage of others. In the church life there should not be merely a standard of morality. The standard must be a higher standard of virtue. This is the church life: always giving others something and never taking advantage of others. Because we love others, we desire to give them something and to not take advantage of them. The church life is higher than legality and even higher than morality. The church life remains in virtue.
The word virtue implies beauty. You may be moral, but in your morality there may be no beauty. At times you are right, but you may even argue with people in order to claim your rights. This kind of morality is ugly; it is not beautiful. Sometimes our righteousness is neither beautiful nor sweet. In the church life all the righteousness should be beautiful and sweet. When our morality becomes beautiful and sweet, that is virtue. In the church life we should not only be right; we must be full of virtue. Whatever we do, we should do it in a way that is so sweet, so beautiful, in the eyes of all the others. This is virtue.
Furthermore, in the church life we must have not only virtue but transformed virtues (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23-24; 2 Cor. 3:18). Transformed virtues are the human virtues with the element of the divine nature added into them. A type of transformation takes place when you eat nourishing food. Before eating the food, you may be weak and pale in appearance. But after eating well for a few days, your countenance becomes bright and ruddy. In the church life all the virtues should be transformed. You may be a good man, and now that you have been regenerated, you may still try to behave yourself. However, in addition, because you pray and contact the Lord every day, the Lord infuses you. For the Lord to infuse you is for Him to inject you with the divine essence. When the divine essence has been infused into your being, your human virtues will be altogether transformed, strengthened, and enriched. Your human virtues will be strengthened and enriched with the divine attributes. Then you will live in the church a life that is full of virtues. These virtues are not angelic; they are still very human. But all the human virtues have been enriched by the divine attributes. This is marvelous.
In Ephesians 3:8 Paul tells us that he was ministering the unsearchable riches of Christ to the believers. Paul ministered not doctrine but the unsearchable riches of Christ. Doctrine may be likened to a menu or a recipe, whereas the unsearchable riches of Christ may be compared to the food itself. Paul ministered not the menu or the recipes but all the rich food. By eating the food, we obtain all the riches. Paul ministered the unsearchable riches of Christ. After ministering these riches to the believers, he prayed that the Father “would grant you...to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts” (vv. 16-17). Paul prayed that the believers would not only enjoy the riches of Christ but be completely filled up and occupied by Christ. In this way Christ would make His home in the believers’ hearts, and this very Christ would saturate their entire being. He would fill, strengthen, and enrich all their virtues. Eventually, all the believers would be filled unto all the fullness of God (v. 19).
By this we may realize what kind of persons the believers are. The believers are persons who always enjoy Christ and are filled with Christ, saturated with Christ, until they are full of God. Thus they become the very expression of God. They are saturated with God and even one with God. Their love, humility, and meekness are full of the divine essence. Their virtues are actually the mingling of divinity with humanity. Eventually, all the virtues in the church life should be just the mingling of God with man. In other words, the virtues in the church life should be God’s expression in man. We are human beings, but we should live a life full of virtues, a life that expresses God. According to Paul’s words in 1 Timothy 3:16, this is a great mystery—God is manifested in the flesh. The church life is simply God manifested in the flesh. We all are flesh, yet we manifest God, and God is manifested in our virtues. To repeat, the church life is just the divine attributes expressed, manifested, in human virtues. In other words, the church life is human virtues expressing God.
May we all be persons who enjoy the riches of Christ. Then Christ will make His home in our entire being, filling us and saturating us until we are filled unto all the fullness of God. Then we will become the manifestation of God in the human virtues that express the divine attributes. This is the factor of the transformed human virtues for the church life. For the church life there is the need of such transformed virtues, virtues that are human but strengthened, enriched, and transformed by the divine attributes. These are human virtues, but they express God.
Let us go on to see what the main virtues are for the church life. These are not virtues for the human society but virtues for the church life.
The first virtue is lowliness. Many translations of the Bible render the word lowliness in Ephesians 4:2 as “humility.” But lowliness is very different from humility. A king or a president may be very humble and yet still remain in his high position. Although he may be humble, he may still remain in his dignity and honor. The Lord Jesus was not like this. He was equal with God, but He did not regard His equality with God as a treasure to be grasped (Phil. 2:6). He not only became humble, but He left His high position and came down to be a man. This was His lowliness. Furthermore, He came down not only to the low level of man but even to the lowest level of a slave (v. 7). Although the Lord Jesus was in the form of God, He did not grasp that form. Rather, He left that high position, the position of God, and came down to the low position of man. Moreover, as a man, He became a slave, and as a man-slave, one day He washed the feet of the disciples (John 13:1-17). How low the Lord Jesus became! When He washed the feet of Peter, John, James, and all the disciples, He was lower than all of them. Whoever washes the feet of another person must be lower than the one whose feet he washes.
In the church life the first virtue needed is lowliness. To be lowly is to remain in a low estate. If you are an elder, you must not remain in the estate of an elder. You must come down from the level of the elders. Come down to wash the feet of the saints. In 1952, in Taipei the five elders washed the feet of nearly one thousand brothers in one meeting. That was a real renewing of the church life. This shows that all the elders came down from the elder level. They became lower than all the brothers, and that washed away all the complaints, all the dissatisfactions, and all the murmurings and gossipings. Furthermore, that brought in the real oneness.
In Matthew 11:29 the Lord said that He is meek and lowly in heart. These are the same virtues needed in the church life. In the church life we all should have lowliness and meekness. The Lord Jesus was the very God. He was very high, but He came down. He left the high level, and He became low by becoming a man. Then as a man, He came down further from the level of man to the level of a slave.
One day the disciples were quarreling concerning who was the greatest. The Lord Jesus seemed to tell them, “If you want to become great, you have to be low. Among you there is no ruler. All of you are brothers. Whoever would be great must be a slave. You have to serve your brothers. You must be like Me. I came not to be served but to serve others. Do you not remember that I washed your feet?” (Mark 10:36-45). In order to practice lowliness in the church life, none of the brothers or sisters, older ones or younger ones, should remain in a high estate. All of us must come down from our throne. We must come down to a low level. We all have to become low. Lowliness is the first virtue needed in the church life.
The second virtue needed in the church life is meekness (Eph. 4:2). What is meekness? Humanly speaking, we may consider meekness to be the same as gentleness. If someone is gentle, walks slowly, and speaks slowly and softly, we consider him to be meek. But in the New Testament, meekness denotes much more than this. Meekness in the Bible means to not fight for oneself. The Lord Jesus told us that if anyone wants our jacket, we should give him our jacket and also our shirt (Matt. 5:40). In human society it is different. If someone takes another’s jacket, they will fight over the jacket. This is not meekness. To be meek is to be like a lamb brought to the slaughter. The lamb does not fight; it simply goes without resisting. The Lord Jesus was such a lamb. When He was about to be crucified, He was brought to the slaughter like a lamb. He did not resist, and He did not fight; He simply gave in. If I am meek and you want me to walk with you for one mile, I will walk with you. Eventually, I would even walk another mile for you. I would not fight or resist but give in. If you want to occupy more than one-fourth of the bench, I will give you half of the bench. If you want half of the bench, I will give you two-thirds of the bench. If you want two-thirds, I will give you the entire bench. If you say that you are right and I am wrong, I would not try to prove that you are wrong and I am right. This is meekness. Meekness is to not fight but to always give in. In the law court there is no meekness; there is only fighting for righteousness. In a court of law people fight to find out who is right and who is wrong. But we all must realize that the church life is not a court of law.
We may illustrate the virtue of meekness by the story of a sister whose husband always came home very late at night. The sister insisted that her husband was wrong and would not open the door for him when he came home. She purposely kept him outside knocking until an hour passed. Eventually, she would open the door for him, and then she would slam it shut. I advised her not to do this. I suggested that every night while her husband was away, she should make some very good dessert and tea and have it ready for him. Then she should wait by the door until he returned, even if it was after midnight. When she heard his steps, she should open the door and say, “Welcome home. Here is some tea and dessert.” After hearing my words, the sister told me that it was impossible for her to do this. I said to her, “Yes, you cannot do it, but the Lord Jesus within you can do it.” Eventually, I convinced her that this was the only way she would gain her husband, and she went back home to practice this. Later, she told me that not only did her husband stop going away at night, but he even began to go to the meetings with her. This is a real illustration of virtue.
With us there should be no legality, no fighting, no quarreling, but giving in. If your husband likes to go out, walk him to the door and say, “Goodbye, and have a good time.” Even if you know that he is going to the theater, you should still wish him a good time and be ready to welcome him back. This is not legality but meekness. To be meek is to give in.
When we give in, we give the Lord an opportunity to come in to bless the situation. This is why we must forget the past. To forget the past means to give in. If you still hold on to the past, you are struggling; you are fighting. This kind of fighting is endless. Instead, you must give in. To forgive is to give in, and to give in is to forget. It is very hard for us Christians to forgive others. Often our forgiveness may be likened to burying a dead dog but keeping the tail outside the earth. After we have buried the dead dog, we may boast to our friends that we have forgiven others and have buried the past. After boasting in this way, we then show them the tail of the dead dog. Quite often the wives may forgive their husbands in this way. And sometimes some of the saints may testify in the meeting, “The elders offended me, but one day by the Lord’s mercy I forgave them all.” Since they forgave them all, why did they need to come to the meeting to tell people? This means that they buried the dog but still kept the tail. We need to drop the tail, to give in and forget the offense. Then we should not say anything further concerning the offense. In the church life we should never struggle for anything, and we should never insist on anything. Meekness is simply to give in. Do not insist, do not attack others, and do not struggle for yourself. Just give in. Then you will have peace in the church life.
In Ephesians 4:2 Paul says that, in addition to exercising the virtues of lowliness and meekness, we need to be long-suffering. These three virtues are wonderful. Lowliness is to be lowly; meekness is to give in without quarreling or fighting with others; and long-suffering is to suffer, to endure, the mistreatment of others. If a brother mistreats you, you should not say a word. Instead, you should suffer his mistreatment, not just for one week but for a considerable period of time. This is long-suffering.
In the church life we should all practice these three virtues: lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering. If we do, there will always be peace. Not only in every church but also in all the churches and among all the churches there will be no problems, because all the saints are practicing lowliness, meekness, and long-suffering. If these three virtues are here in the churches, the peace will be here, and God will be manifested. These virtues are practical factors that are vital to the church life. We all must be lowly, meek, and long-suffering.
We must also bear one another in love (v. 2). We should not forsake or turn away from one another but bear one another. If you discover one day that a certain brother has done something wrong, do not give him up or forsake him. Instead, you must bear him all the time. We all prefer those who are good in our estimation, but none of us likes to bear those who cause problems. We naturally love those whom we consider to be excellent and good, but this is not the church life. In the church life we must bear all the weak and troublesome members. Although no one would want them, we would bear them. This is not easy, but for the church life we must do it. In our eyes some of the saints may be like turtles, gophers, and even snakes. However, if we would bear these saints, eventually all of them may become lambs. This is the church life. None of us is able to do this, but Jesus is able. Does not Jesus bear you? Although at times you cause the Lord a great deal of trouble, the Lord Jesus always bears you.
In the church life we all need to bear one another in love. The brothers need to bear the sisters, and the sisters need to bear the brothers. If we all bear one another for some time, then we all will be transformed. In the church life we should not forsake anyone or cast anyone out. Instead, we must keep them and bear them, even if they are false. If we keep the false ones, they may become the real ones. Some may say that, although the Lord Jesus bore Judas for three and a half years, he did not change. It is true that Judas never changed, but still we must admit that without Judas the Lord could never have been betrayed and crucified. In the church life we should not cast people out or forsake them. We must learn to always bear one another in love and in the uniting bond of peace. The bond that unites all the believers is the bond of peace (v. 3). This is the way to keep the oneness. This is the way for all of us to be kept in the oneness of the Body.
In this chapter we have seen that we need the human virtues transformed, strengthened, and enriched by and with the divine attributes. This is much higher than human morality. In the church life there should not be legality but lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and bearing one another in love and in the uniting bond of peace. Then we will have the oneness, and this oneness is the genuine church life. This is the testimony of Jesus, the lampstand, golden and bright, shining in the dark age.
