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Scripture Reading: John 3:16; 1 Tim. 1:15; 1 John 4:10; Matt. 9:10-13; Luke 7:34-50; 15:1-24; James 5:19-20; Prov. 10:12; Gal. 6:1-2
In this chapter we will fellowship concerning how we should learn of the Lord to shepherd people according to His heart. This fellowship is not merely a teaching, instruction, or rebuke; it is a shepherding to us.
The way that some of you have spoken concerning corporate living has bothered me. Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up strife, / But love covers all transgressions.” If we hate each other, we will have endless strife, but love covers not only one sin or some sins but all sins. James ends his writing by saying, “My brothers, if any one among you is led astray from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save that one’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (5:19-20). Should we hate one who is not up to the standard, who is led astray from the truth, or should we love him? We may not love those who are not able to live in corporate living. We may love only the particular group of those who live properly in our homes. This is altogether not according to the Spirit of the Lord as revealed in the Bible. If a brother is good, he does not need our love very much, because he has already been sufficiently loved. Nearly everyone loves a good person, but what about one who is led astray from the truth? If a brother is led astray from the truth to attend the denominations or go to the movies, our small group may feel that we do not need him, and we do not accept him because he is not qualified. This is not love; this is hate. Love covers many sins. Even if we know that he goes to the movies, we should not tell others. This is to cover him. We do not like to uncover him or expose him. To uncover is not love. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. We would rather be like the sons of Noah who covered their father’s nakedness, which was due to his drunkenness. We do not like to uncover others. Covering brings in blessing, but uncovering brings in a curse. This is not a small matter. Those who uncover suffer the curse, but those who cover others’ sins, defects, and shortcomings enjoy, gain, and receive blessing. Cover a multitude of sins in James 5:20 is an Old Testament expression used by James to indicate that turning an erring brother back is to cover his sins so that he is not condemned. Cover...sins here equals sins...forgiven in verse 15, as in Psalm 32:1, which says, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; / Whose sin is covered.” It is the same in Psalm 85:2.
By reading all the above verses, we can see the heart of our God and of our Savior Jesus Christ. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life.” The heart of our God is to love not only righteous men but sinners, even the world, which is worse than mere sinners. World denotes the sinful, fallen people. The entire human race became the world, just as the entire divine race, the new race, will become the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the totality, the consummation, of the eternal life, while the world is the totality, the consummation, of the fallen race. It is a hardship for translators to translate verse 16. The Chinese Union Version renders it in a way that can be interpreted, “God loved the people on this earth.” This is inadequate. The world denoting the fallen race is seen in the word flesh in Genesis 6:3, which says, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, for he indeed is flesh.” Because all the people on this earth became flesh, God decided to temporarily forsake the world, which He loved, for a purpose. God loved the fallen human race, who became so rotten as to be one with Satan. The world indicates man becoming one with Satan, becoming Satan’s cosmos, the satanic system that systematizes all people. In this way, world is worse than sinners because it denotes that man is incorporated with Satan. World, denoting the human race in John 3:16, is a very bad term. God so loved the world, sinful people in their worst denotation, that He gave His only begotten Son, not so that they would go to heaven but that everyone who believes into Him would not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 is a new verse to us. We generally interpret this verse to mean that if we believe in the Lord Jesus as the Son given by God, we will have His divine life. That is right, and there is nothing wrong with it, but the goal of having the divine life is the New Jerusalem. God loved the human race, the worst human people, with the intention that they all may participate in the New Jerusalem. Eternal life here is the same as in 4:14, which says, “The water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.” To have eternal life means to be joined to, to participate in, the New Jerusalem. The banners for the Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John say that the Triune God who passed through all the processes, the all-inclusive Christ who was incarnated to die and resurrect, and the life-giving Spirit who was consummated to indwell us, all take the New Jerusalem as Their eternal goal. When I wrote this utterance, I realized that few would understand why I used it for a crystallization-study of John, but it is the conclusion of my study of John. In this crystallization-study I thoroughly and intrinsically came to the clear conclusion that this Gospel, especially from chapter 1 to chapter 4, is the record of the flowing God in His three stages: the Father as the fountain, the Son as the spring, and the Spirit as the flowing river. Moreover, They all take the New Jerusalem as Their eternal goal. Apparently, the New Jerusalem is not mentioned in John. However, it is seen in the eternal life in 4:14. Eternal life here is the totality of the divine life. A man is the totality of the human life; each one of us is the totality of the human life, but the divine life has only one totality in the whole universe—the New Jerusalem.
The Bible teaches us that eternal life is God Himself. In the beginning there is God as the eternal life, and the consummation of God as the eternal life is the New Jerusalem. The Bible consummates in the New Jerusalem, which is the very God who was in the beginning. How does God become the New Jerusalem? It is through His flowing. The Bible has two ends, Genesis 1—2 and Revelation 21—22. At the beginning of the Bible there is God, at the end there is the New Jerusalem, and in between are hundreds of pages speaking about all the matters related to the eternal life, including the believers, regeneration, transformation, conformation, and glorification. This is the proper way to view the Bible. All the activities of the eternal life take the New Jerusalem as the final goal. This is the meaning of into eternal life in John 4:14. The word into is also used in 1 Corinthians 12:13, which says that the Gentiles and the Jews have all been baptized in one Spirit into one Body. Into one Body does not mean merely to enter into the Body but to become the Body. In the same way, into eternal life does not merely mean to enter into the New Jerusalem as the eternal life but to become the New Jerusalem as the eternal life. The coming New Jerusalem will be you and me. We are the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is still under a consummating work, and this consummating work is the flow of the divine life. This is very deep.
First Timothy 1:15 says, “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost.” Christ Jesus came into the world, which, as we have seen, is not a positive term. He came into the world, into the fallen human race, to save sinners. Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, was the top sinner. If Christ came only to save gentlemen, to save righteous men, Paul would have been finished. He could not have participated in God’s salvation. In coming to save sinners, Christ took the sinners as His object. His heart is to save us, the sinners in the world.
First John 4:10 says, “Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.” We may never have been impressed with the intrinsic significance of verses like this. God is love; it is not that we loved God but that He loved us. We never cared for God, and we forsook Him. Us in this verse refers to the world. God not only loved the world, but He also loved us. Moreover, His love is shown in that He sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.
Matthew 9:10-13 says, “As He was reclining at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and reclined together with Jesus and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your Teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners? Now when He heard this, He said, Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” The house mentioned here is not a corporate-living house; it is a house of sinners and tax collectors. Jesus, though He was the God-man, feasted there with them, reclining at the table. He enjoyed that time, and all the tax collectors and sinners, the ancient “gangsters,” joined together with Him. That offended the Pharisees. The Pharisees here may be compared to the ones who regulate the corporate-living homes. The “corporate-living Pharisees” came and asked why Jesus was eating with the “gangsters” and “bank robbers.” The Lord answered that those who are strong have no need of a physician. If one is healthy enough to live properly in corporate living, he does not need a vital group as a “health clinic.” A strong, healthy man does not need to go to a clinic. Jesus, the Son of God, did not come for the strong men; they do not need Him. He came for the ill ones. The vital groups are set up not for those who are healthy and strong and able to live in corporate living but for those who return to the brothers’ homes after midnight. God desires mercy, not sacrifice. If we sacrifice and offer much to Him without mercy, He does not like it. First Corinthians 13:3 says, “If I dole out all my possessions to feed others, and if I deliver up my body that I may boast, but do not have love, I profit nothing.” To give everything for others without love means nothing. Mercy is the usher of love. To love those who are poor requires that we have mercy on them. The Lord did not come to call the righteous but the sinners. This is His heart.
Luke 7:34-50 also speaks of the Lord Jesus being with sinners and tax collectors. Verse 34 says, “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” If we see one who is a drunkard drinking beer, we certainly would stay away from him. We would rather go to one who is a saint living properly in corporate living. This kind of spirit now is spreading everywhere around the globe in the Lord’s recovery. We love those in the proper corporate living, but we do not love the ones who go to the movies or drink beer. Instead, we may gossip about them. This is the spirit that fills all the churches. Some may charge me, saying, “Did you not teach us concerning beer drinking?” Yes, I have taught about this, but there is another side. Believe me, in the New Jerusalem no one will drink beer again. At that time the beer drinkers will all be in the lake of fire. But today Christ is the heavenly ladder. He is not a flat stairway but a standing stairway. Previously, we were in “hell.” When I was under twenty, I played mah-jongg behind my mother’s back; all the Chinese like to play mah-jongg, but one day a heavenly ladder appeared to me, and I climbed it. I left the mah-jongg table and climbed to the New Jerusalem.
I can never forget a certain pastor. While I was playing mah-jongg, he came to me every week. My older sister was studying in the highest women’s seminary in China. She loved the Lord at that time, and she knew that I was not gained by the Lord, so she committed me to this pastor. After that commitment he came to me every week for three or four months, but he did not speak much. Finally, at the end of December he said, “Mr. Lee, you are busy at the end of the year because in your business you have many things to do. Therefore, I will not come to you next week. I will wait until the New Year is over.” He did not come, but remarkably, the heavenly ladder came. As all the Chinese know, the second day of the Chinese New Year is a day of rottenness, gambling, and all manner of entertainment. On that day I rose and put on my best, new clothes. After breakfast, as I stood there in my new clothes, my mother asked me, “What shall you do today?” As I considered her question, I could not speak. Right away without thinking I said, “I shall go to Pastor Yu’s church.” My mother was very happy. Then I went to that denominational church. That was my first time to climb the heavenly ladder. Christ went to a house full of sinners and tax collectors. The vital groups, the co-workers, and the elders should pick up this spirit, the spirit of God loving the world, the spirit of Christ coming to the worst homes in order to gain people and put them upon Him as the heavenly ladder so that they may ascend on Him.
I love Luke 15. Verse 1 says, “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him.” The gentlemen and righteous men were not joined to Him, but the tax collectors and sinners were. Therefore, the Pharisees murmured and complained again. Then the Lord spoke three parables. The first is concerning a shepherd seeking the one, unique, lost sheep. Of one hundred, this one was a lost one, so the shepherd came purposely for him. Why did the Lord go to a house full of sinners and tax collectors? It was because among them there was one lost sheep of His, whom He had come to seek. The second parable is concerning a woman who lit a lamp and swept the house to seek her lost coin. The third parable is about the prodigal son. The shepherd is the Son, the woman is the Spirit, and in the parable of the prodigal son there is the Father. As the prodigal son was returning, he was preparing and considering what to speak to his father. He prepared himself to say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants” (vv. 18-19). While he was walking and thinking like this, the father saw him. Verse 20 says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him affectionately.” That the father saw the son a long way off was not an accident. From the time the son left home, the father must have gone out to look and wait for his coming back every day. We do not know how many days he watched and waited. When the father saw him, he ran to him. This is the Father’s heart. The father interrupted the son while he was speaking his prepared word. The son wanted to speak the word he had prepared, but the father told his servants to bring the robe, the ring, and the sandals and to prepare the fattened calf. A teacher among the Brethren told me that in the whole Bible we can see God run only one time, in Luke 15, where the father saw the returning prodigal son. He ran; he could not wait. This is the Father’s heart.
To speak truthfully, we have lost this spirit among the co-workers, elders, and vital groups. We do not have such a loving spirit that loves the world, the worst people. We classify people, choosing who are the good ones. Throughout my years I have seen many good ones. Eventually, very few of the good ones remain in the Lord’s recovery. Rather, so many bad ones remain. In the beginning I also was one who classified them as bad, but today many bad ones are still here. If it were according to our concept, where would God’s choosing be? Our choosing depends upon God, who chose His people before the foundation of the world. The Bible says that God hated Esau and loved Jacob. If we were there, none of us would have selected Jacob. This man was too bad. We would have selected Esau, the gentleman. From his mother’s womb, Jacob was fighting, and when he was born, he grabbed his brother’s heel. Eventually, he did everything that caused Esau to want to kill him. His mother Rebekah knew this, so she sent him away to his uncle’s house, but when he went there, he did the same thing; he cheated his uncle by getting four wives from him. This is to live like a gangster. None of us would have chosen Jacob. It is not up to our choosing, our selection. It is based upon God’s eternal selection.
Do not classify people. Who can tell what they will be? When I was playing mah-jongg at the age of eighteen or nineteen, who would have thought that this mah-jongg player would sit in America many years later to talk to people about the Lord? Who brought me here? It was Christ as the heavenly ladder. He brought me up to God in the heavens, and He brought me down to the earth with Himself. The heavenly ladder has many steps, and God brought me up not in one year but over many years. When I arrived at the top, I met God, and He equipped me and sent me back down. I came down, first to Taiwan, then to the South Asian islands, and then to this country. Now I am here. The pastor in my hometown did not say of me, “I know this man. He is a gambler, a mah-jongg player. I do not like him, and I do not want to have such a member in my church.” Rather, he visited me, and one day very mysteriously the seeking Spirit was seeking in me, like the woman in Luke 15.
Why would I spend so much time on this subject? I want to shepherd and disciple you from the Bible so that you can see this matter and have a change. I am discipling you to change your concept. The God-man concept is that Christ came to save sinners, especially the top sinners. He saves the “gangsters,” even the leader of the “gangsters,” Saul of Tarsus. Paul said, “Faithful is the word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15). Paul could say this because he was the top sinner opposing Christ. He rebelled against Christ, but while he was rebelling, Christ knocked him down, called him, and saved him. Jesus Himself said, “Those who are strong have no need of a physician, but those who are ill...I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:12-13). That is why He was there among the sinners and tax collectors, eating and feasting with them, reclining at table and enjoying with them.
If we lose this spirit, whether we are elders, co-workers, or serving ones, we are finished. This is the main reason why we are so barren, bearing no fruit for so many years. Recently, a brother went to care for a couple, but he did not have this spirit. He visited them no more than ten times and became disappointed. Since the couple had no heart for this brother, he reported that it was useless to visit them further. When Pastor Yu visited me, I did not care for him, but he continued to come for three or four months, week after week. We need to have this spirit. We all have to change our concept. Therefore, we need discipling. We have too much of the natural thought. We need to be discipled to have the divine concept, the concept of the Father’s heart and the heart of the Lord Jesus, who came to save sinners.
Do not say that your vital group is only for those in corporate living, and do not label people. We like to rank people, saying that the co-workers are the first rank, while others are the subsequent ranks. This is absolutely wrong. There is no rank. We all are the people in the world and in the flesh. Even today I am very wary that I may do something by my flesh. If I am not wary, I will still live by my old life. When I talk to my wife, I have to be careful; otherwise, I will talk to her in the natural life. Then I will have to confess, “Lord, even in the matter of the way I talked to my wife, I was not conformed to Your death. I did not do it in Your resurrection.” Dear saints, are these things merely teachings to us? As the final item of the way to overcome the degradation of the church, 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.” This refers to the Lord Jesus as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit to be the abiding grace. He is abiding, remaining, in our spirit all the time as grace for our enjoyment. However, I have checked with myself, saying, “Do you live such a life? Every day, every moment, do you enjoy the Lord Jesus as the Spirit in your spirit to be the abiding grace?” I have to admit that I do not. The Lord knows that every morning I pray, “Lord, thank You for another day. I am still here on this earth. I want to live You, and I want to live with You, walk with You, work with You, and move with You.” I pray this every morning, but throughout the day, do I live with the Lord? Do I talk to people with the Lord; do I work with the Lord; do I move with the Lord? In a meeting I may speak with the Lord, but after I return home, I may be another person. I may be rebuked when I consider whether I am living and moving with the Lord. This illustrates that we are all far off. Therefore, we should not label people. We should not say that we are the class of people who live with the Lord, walk with the Lord, and work with the Lord. There is not such a class. Some may claim that they are the class of saints who are able to live in corporate living, but in actuality and practicality, they are not. Why then do we label people? This kind of labeling offends people, and it indicates that we do not have a spirit for the weaker ones, for the ones who are inferior to us. It also indicates that we do not want them. People have often told me that I am an apostle, but I have never claimed that I am an apostle. I do not even consider myself qualified to be a pastor. I am just the same as the other saints. Once we condemn anyone, we lose the position to take care of that one. Condemnation does not stir up our care for others. Who among the human race is lovable? In the eyes of God, everyone is not lovable in themselves, yet God still loves them; that is, He loves the world. I do not prefer to have this kind of fellowship with you, but I must speak in this way for your sake in order to shepherd you.
After reading all these portions of the Word, we can see that we are in a different realm. We say that we are in the divine and mystical realm, but in actuality we are not. We are in the natural realm; we are still so natural. Whether or not we claim that we have a proper corporate living, we may still be in the flesh, in the old man. We have not been crossed out. We have not been conformed to Christ’s death. To know these points in the Bible is one thing, but to live them is another. To say that we live Christ by magnifying Him by the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is one thing, but do we have the reality and practicality of such a life? We all have to admit that we are on the same level, with only a little difference in degree. Regardless of how much higher one seems than another, we are still at the same level. We all need to see this; then our mouth will be shut. We should not talk about others; we are the same as they. If we are bothered by other people’s criticizing, our spirit may tell us that we also criticize others. Then our mouth will be shut. We are the same as others. One may criticize ten percent, while another criticizes fifteen percent. We are the same; we are all criticizers.
Someone may say that a certain brother should not be an elder. If not, then who should be an elder? None are qualified. We must humble ourselves. Pride is the biggest enemy of God. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). Whenever we criticize others, we miss grace and instead suffer God’s resistance. We all must learn to shepherd one another. This does not mean that since I am shepherding you, I do not need your shepherding. I need your shepherding. We all have defects and shortcomings. Everyone has defects. Therefore, we have to humble ourselves to meet God’s grace. This strengthens our spirit to visit people and to take care of people regardless of whether they are good or bad. Regardless of what they are, we must go to visit them and keep visiting. According to their statistics, the Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on six thousand doors to visit people in order to gain one. They do this legally, but we do not. We have no such law forcing others to go out. However, I am trying my best to help the church to build up the vital groups with such a shepherding spirit full of love and care for others.
We need to have this kind of love and go to tell all the dormant ones who think that the church condemns them that the church does not condemn anyone. Rather, the church wants to see all the dormant ones come back. If they all would come back, I would weep with tears of thanksgiving to the Lord. The Lord can testify for me that I do not condemn anyone. We have no qualification to condemn anyone. Without the Lord’s mercy, we would be the same as the dormant ones. Therefore, we must love them. It all depends upon love, as the wise king Solomon said, “Love covers all transgressions” (Prov. 10:12). We love people. We love the opposers, and we love the top rebels. I really mean it. We love them and do not hate them. Who am I? I am not qualified to condemn or to hate. Am I perfect? Even the prophet Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, said, “Woe is me, for I am finished! / For I am a man of unclean lips, / And in the midst of a people of unclean lips I dwell” (Isa. 6:5). Who is clean today? If we criticize people and say something bad about them, we are not clean.
Recently, I have spoken concerning the Lord’s discipling. God wants us to be the God-men at the top of the heavenly ladder, but we may not even be on the first rung of the ladder. We are so natural. Therefore, we need to be discipled to see how the Lord lived a divine life by putting His natural life aside. To live a divine life and put off our natural life is divine and mystical.
Often co-workers or elders come to me and say that they cannot tolerate a certain person. I never instruct them about what to do or how to deal with that kind of person. I simply tell them not to do anything. Their situation indicates that they need to be conformed to the death of Christ even more. Sometimes people come to me with tears, but I tell them that their tears are not meaningful. They simply need to go back and be more conformed to the death of Christ and to live the divine life by denying themselves. Today I am more conformed to Christ’s death than I have been in sixty years, but my conformation to His death is still not perfected; it is still going on, and I am still under the Lord’s discipling. To some extent I am still not a God-man. Often throughout the day I pray to the Lord, “In certain matters, I have not denied myself. My self is still here, and I am too much in myself.” I pray this more than once a day. I am under the Lord’s discipling. I am a natural man in Adam’s race; I am not fully a God-man. I am still a “caterpillar in the cocoon” and not a “butterfly.” To be discipled is to be brought from being a “caterpillar” to becoming a “butterfly.”
How could Peter, a Jewish fisherman, become a God-man? Peter had never seen a God-man. It is as if the Lord said to him, “Come and follow Me. I will show you a pattern of what a God-man is.” Peter watched Him for three and a half years. However, Peter was still like a man of dust with no breath. He did not have the divine life within him until the day of Christ’s resurrection. Then he became different because the Spirit was breathed into him. He was enlivened, and he lived a God-man life in practicality and actuality, denying himself and living God. This is the way he was discipled.
We have seen the God-man living, but we have not seen it enough. Peter saw it for three and a half years. Up until the end of the Lord’s life in the flesh, Peter still had many questions. He may have asked, “What is this man?” Once, he told the Lord that he would not deny Him as others would, but the Lord told him that Satan had asked to have him to sift him as wheat and that he would deny Him three times (Luke 22:31-34). In this way Peter was discipled. He spoke as a natural man. He should have said, “Lord, I am no exception. I am the same as all my brothers, and I may be weaker than them. Lord, have mercy upon me and save me.” Similarly, we may say that we are able to live in corporate living, but eventually we will find out that we are not. We should have no trust in ourselves.
