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THE CHURCH— GOD MANIFESTED IN THE FLESH
If I delay, I write that you may know how one ought to conduct himself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh, / Justified in the Spirit, / Seen by angels, / Preached among the nations, / Believed on in the world, / Taken up in glory. (1 Tim. 3:15-16)
There are three aspects of the church mentioned in verse 15: the house of God, the church of the living God, and the pillar and base of the truth. Verse 16 continues with the great mystery of godliness, which is God manifested in the flesh. How are these two verses related? Some, with reason, insist that a semi-colon at the end of verse 15 is better than a period indicating a full stop: “The pillar and base of the truth; and confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh…”
THE CHURCH—THE HOUSE OF GOD
Why is the church mentioned together with the manifestation of God in the flesh? It is because the church is the house of God. What does the term the house of God mean? When you refer to “your house,” you mean the place where you dwell, where you live, where you work out your life, and that is the meaning of the house of God. It is not a light or loose term. The house of God is the place where God dwells, where He lives, and where He works out His life.
This house is none other than the church of the living God. Notice that the term here is not merely God but the living God. He is living, and He now dwells in the church, moves in the church, lives in the church, and works out His whole life in the church. When we say that the church is the house of God, we must have a very deep realization that God dwells, lives, and works out His life in this house. Do we have such a deep understanding concerning the house of God?
THE CHURCH— THE PILLAR AND BASE OF THE TRUTH
This church is not only the house of God, in which God dwells, lives, and works out His life, but it is also the pillar and base of the truth. What is truth? Do not think that truth means doctrine. The word truth in such a passage means “reality.” Nothing is real in the whole universe, and nothing is truth; everything is but a shadow. Everything that can be seen, everything that can be touched, everything that can be possessed and enjoyed is not real but is at best a shadow. Whatever exists in this universe is but a shadow, not the real thing.
What is the real thing? It is Christ as the reality of everything. The food that you take is not the real food but only a shadow of the real food. The real food is Christ. If you do not have Christ, you do not have the reality of food. You may think that the human life that you have is real, but it is not; it too is only a shadow. Real life is Christ. If you have the Son of God, you have life; if you do not have the Son of God, you do not have life (1 John 5:12).
If a brother sends you a photo of himself, you would say, “This is Brother So-and-so.” But in truth, that is not Brother So-and-so. It is only a picture, and it is a false picture at that. In fact, all pictures are false, for real things are not found in pictures. The whole universe is nothing but a picture. All the types, all the figures, all the shadows in the Old Testament are but pictures of the reality to come, which is Christ Himself. Christ is the truth; Christ is the reality of the whole universe; Christ is the reality of the Old Testament and also of the New Testament. If you have only the teaching about Christ, you do not have the reality of Christ. Christ Himself is the truth, and His Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 5:6). He Himself is the reality, and His Spirit is the Spirit of reality.
The church, in which this living God dwells, lives, and moves, is the pillar and base upon which the reality stands. It bears the reality. Within this church the living God dwells, and upon this church the truth, the reality, stands. We are not standing for doctrine, but we are standing for Christ, the reality, the truth. We should be able to say, “Friends, come and see; come to the church and see the reality of the universe. Come and see the reality of life, the reality of love, the reality of patience, and the reality of many other things.”
One afternoon in 1933 while I was visiting Brother Watchman Nee, he suddenly asked, “Brother, what is patience?” At first, I thought this was a childish question. I was taught what patience is when I was a small child. But since the question came from his mouth, I felt that I should not take it lightly, so I considered further: “What does he mean ‘What is patience?’” I dared not answer. He was sitting in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth. Finally I ventured, “Patience is something by which one suffers and endures the ill treatment of others. That is patience.” Then he said, “No.” I asked, “Well, brother, if patience is not endurance, please tell me what it is.” As he continued to rock in his chair, he continued asking, “What is patience? What is patience?”
After a long period he suddenly answered, “Patience is Christ.” It was very short and very simple. “Patience is Christ.” I simply could not understand this kind of “foreign” language. I said, “Brother, that sounds strange to me. I do not understand. Please tell me what you mean.” He would not say anything else but kept repeating, “Patience is Christ; patience is Christ.” For the whole afternoon we did not talk about anything else. I was more than puzzled.
After three or four hours I left him, very much disappointed. Returning to my room, I knelt down and prayed, “Lord, tell me what it means that ‘patience is Christ.’ I cannot understand.” Finally the Lord showed me that our patience must be Christ Himself. Patience is Christ living within me and through me. When I saw this, it was a real revelation. I was so happy.
We must realize that human patience, which we can attain by ourselves, is not the real patience. Human patience is only a form and a shadow; the real patience is Christ. Everything that we need—patience, humility, kindness, love for others, and even love for God—must be found in Christ Himself. Even the Ten Commandments are only a shadow; Christ is the reality. If we have Christ living out through us, we have the reality and fulfillment of all the requirements of the Ten Commandments.
The church must bear the truth, the reality. The church must be the pillar and base of this universal reality, which is Christ Himself. We must be able to tell others, “Come to the church and see the real patience and the real humility. Come to us and see the real faithfulness and the reality of being honest.”
In the church God dwells, because the church is the house of God. God lives, God moves, and God works out His life in the church, and the testimony and the reality stand upon the church. We must consider these two aspects: inwardly, God dwelling in the church, and outwardly, the church bearing the testimony and the reality. These two aspects show the real mingling of God with man. Within the church—this group of redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people—God dwells; and upon this group of people, there is the reality of the universe. All the reality of the universe is centered in this group. If anyone wants to know what life is, he must come to the church and see. If some would like to know what love is, they too must come and see. If the reality of humility and kindness is to be known, the church is the place to see it. Upon this group of people is seen the reality of the all-inclusive Christ. The testimony of the church is not in doctrine but in bearing Christ as the reality. The more we exclaim “Christ” yet do not have the inner reality, the more Christ is gone. We have Christ only in shouting, in talking, and in teaching. We do not have Him in our inner life, nor do we experience Him in our outer living, our daily walk. The church must be the pillar and base, bearing Christ as the only reality of everything. If we do not know the real meaning of life, we must be able to come to the church to find it.
THE CHURCH— THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD IN THE FLESH
This is the right meaning of the house of God and the pillar and base of the truth. This church is the continuation and the multiplication of God manifested in the flesh. This is the reason that the apostle Paul put these two verses together. The manifestation of God in the flesh has very much to do with the church being the house of God and the pillar and base of the truth. When we are the living Body of Christ in a certain place, we are really the house of God and the pillar and base of reality. We are then the increase, the enlargement, of the manifestation of God in the flesh. God manifests Himself again in the flesh, but in a wider way. The principle of the New Testament is the principle of the incarnation, which is simply God Himself manifested in the flesh. In other words, God is mingled with human beings, not in an outward way but in an inward way. The church is the manifestation of God, not the manifestation of doctrines or gifts. The church must have God in Christ through the Spirit manifested, not the doctrines or gifts demonstrated.
NOT BUILT BY OUTWARD CHANGE
We are burdened because we fear that many brothers and sisters unconsciously think that we are going to form a new movement or train people to form a new pattern for the church. This is our real concern. We must all look to the Lord that this kind of thought and understanding may be entirely abandoned. It must be one hundred percent purged out of us. We are not here with the intention of forming a new movement. No, a hundred times no! If we do, it simply proves that we do not know God’s economy. I must stress again and again that the church is not something formed according to a certain pattern. The living God dwelling in us is not a matter of doctrine. According to their daily walk most Christians today do not know the way of inner life and Christ as their life. This really troubles us and burdens us. When people gain a certain kind of realization or learn certain methods, they try to start something new where they live. This is not the Lord’s way.
What we need today is not just a change of clothes but a change of blood. The natural blood must be changed. We need to change not only the outward way but also the inward life. Suppose a person was formerly a pastor with the title Reverend. Perhaps he was even dressed in a clergyman’s robe with his collar turned backward. Then he received the light that all these things are wrong: the titles Pastor and Reverend are wrong, the collar turned backward is wrong, and the black robe is wrong. So he got rid of all these things; he crossed out the clergyman’s title and began to wear ordinary clothes. After this, he went to work for the Lord at another place and in another way, without the title and without the robe.
Whether this is right or not, I would not like to say, but I do wish to say one thing: we must find out whether a real change has taken place within such a person. No doubt he has dropped all those former things, but this change is too outward. Formerly this person was ministering by himself, by his natural life. Now he has a change in the outward things, but is there any change in his inward life? It is quite probable that he is still working and ministering for the Lord by the same life that he had when he used the title. Although he had a real change outwardly, yet inwardly he is still the same. Such a change as this simply becomes an outward movement. Formerly he practiced the “church” by voting and forming an executive committee; now he drops that and gathers a group of elders. Although this is a real change, nothing is changed in the inner life. The outward change is not the result of an inward change in life, so it becomes merely another new, religious movement.
Moreover, we must go beyond the change in the inner life and realize the church. The church is a mingling of God with man. The reason we have spoken so much about the soul, the spirit, and the heart is that this helps us to realize that God is our content and we are His containers. We must know how to adjust our heart so that we may open our heart and let Him come in, and we must know how to exercise our spirit in order to contact Him, contain Him, and even digest Him. For example, suppose you eat steak for dinner. When you have contained this steak in your stomach for four hours, it will be digested and become the very constituent of your body. This is the true picture of the church. But present Christianity is more a religion than the reality of life. The problem today is not simply a change of form outwardly but a change of life inwardly.
NOT BUILT BY MERE TEACHINGS
Furthermore, we should not give attention only to the teachings. In order to help us, allow me to use a simple illustration. When I was a boy, I and many others studied in a Christian school and received a Christian education. We were taught with the stories of the Bible. Although we were not saved, most of us were brought into Christianity and learned the doctrines. Many times we argued with people that Christianity was the right religion. The missionaries ministered all the doctrines and teachings to us. We learned that God is a God of three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We learned that Christ was born of a virgin and lived, walked, and worked on this earth, and we even believed that He was resurrected. But if you asked us, “Are you saved?” we did not know. To us God and Christ were only terms. I have to testify that by that time hardly any of the several hundred members in that church were clear about salvation. They were known, however, as Christians. Sometimes all the members of the church paraded on the streets, holding up crosses and singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.” I share this in order to illustrate how empty mere teachings are.
Today some insist on ministering a set of teachings such as predestination, free will, absolute grace, and eternal security. You can minister all these teachings, but the life and the spirit within people may never be touched. To continue my testimony, one day a member of our family was saved, and then I got saved. We finally had a real touch with God, and life touched us deeply within and wrought a real change. Even the outward living and the outward walk were changed. The real change in our lives influenced others also to be saved. Thereafter we knew that we must have something more than teachings. All the teachings in the Scriptures must simply be a vehicle to transmit Christ into us. If they do not fulfill this purpose, we are desperately short of something.
NOT BUILT BY MERE GIFTS
The same principle applies to the matter of gifts. Many Christians today think that since they have the gifts, they are quite spiritual. But in fact, it is not so. If you read 1 Corinthians, you can see the state of the Corinthian believers. They exercised the gifts even more than the apostle, but did they have the real growth of life (14:18-20)? No, they were fleshly and childish (3:1-3). As the teachings must be the means to convey Christ to others, so also the gifts must be the means only to convey Christ. God’s intention today is not to give us many teachings and gifts but to minister and impart Christ into us.
Here is a real incident. I met a person who was full of the knowledge of the Bible, but as he talked about the Bible, he was smoking. After talking about the book of Matthew and the ten virgins for half an hour, he said, “Excuse me, I have to smoke a little. I know this is wrong, but I am weak.” Then he went into the book of Revelation and talked about the ten horns, the seven heads, and the forty-two months. He had the strength to teach, but eventually he had to say, “Excuse me, I have to smoke a little more.” Although he was so strong in Bible teaching, he was very weak in the spiritual life.
I also saw many people speaking in tongues. After the demonstration of the gift, they were careless in their daily living. Some were even more careless than unbelievers. It was easy for them to lose their temper at home. All these things simply prove one thing, that God’s intention is not to give us teachings and gifts but to give us Christ, the living One. He uses the teachings, when given in a proper way, to convey Christ to us, and sometimes He uses certain gifts as the means to minister Christ to us and stir up people to receive Christ. But we all must realize that God’s intention is that we may know the living One, the Triune God, and experience Christ in the Holy Spirit.
Do you remember the story in the Old Testament of a donkey that spoke a human language? That was genuine speaking in tongues. I doubt whether all the tongues are as genuine today. I read an article recently in which the writer reported that he had contacted more than one hundred persons speaking in tongues. He said that every one without exception doubted whether the tongue he spoke was genuine. Yet the writer still encouraged people not to doubt but to continue their experience. After I read that, I said to myself, “At the time of Pentecost, did Peter doubt whether the tongue he spoke was genuine? Was there anyone at that time who had such doubts?” But today, why do so many people question whether or not their tongue is genuine? The simple answer is that many tongues today are not genuine.
But even if you are speaking a genuine tongue, I must tell you that this is not life. Even King Saul received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (1 Sam. 19:22-24), but do not think that he experienced life. On the contrary, it simply exposed him. After he received the outpouring, he made himself naked. This illustrates that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is different from life. Life is not the outpouring; life is only Christ Himself in the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, I do beg that you will try your best to understand that I am not trying to criticize, but I am very burdened. When I see the desperate situation of the Lord’s people, I do not know what to say or what to do. When the teachings are taught, people are responsive. When the gifts are mentioned, many are stirred up. But when the inner life and the indwelling Christ are ministered, how great is the need for an inner revelation! The doctrines and the gifts are outward, but Christ is hidden within. How the Lord’s people need to know this indwelling One, who is so living and powerful—converting, regulating, strengthening, refreshing, and always transforming and saturating us!
NOT BUILT BY POSITION
We must also see that the building of the church is not a matter of position or responsibility but a matter of life in the inner being. It is not a matter of putting someone into a position, but it is the growth to maturity of the inner life. The inner being must be wrought by God through His inward working. The more we put people into position, the more we will have nothing. But the more we help people to realize the growth of life, the more the life will multiply. The growth of the inner life is the sure way of building up the church. Then through matured life we will spontaneously be qualified to exercise responsibility.
Again we need to repeat: God’s intention is to impart Christ into us and make Christ everything within us. God uses the teachings to help some, He uses the gifts to help others, but these are not the main thing. Inner revelation is needed to see the goal of the living Christ dwelling within us. Then wherever we are meeting together, we are the living house of the living God. The living God dwells, lives, and works in us, and we bear the testimony of Jesus, who is the reality of this whole universe. Then we will have a real manifestation of the living God in the flesh. This is the way of God’s recovery today. Let us look to the Lord for the inner grace so that we may have the reality of the church.