The truth is the content of the Bible. In between doctrine and light is the truth. According to the human mentality, the Bible appears to be a book of many doctrines concerning matters such as God, man’s fall, and salvation. Anyone who is literate can read the Bible and learn such doctrines. The truth is the reality conveyed in the doctrines. It is possible to know the doctrines but not have the truth, the reality. When I was a youth, I heard the pastor of my family’s denomination preach that Jesus is the Savior who died for all men. I heard this doctrine, but I did not receive the truth. Before I was saved, I could even teach the doctrines concerning Christ and salvation. My mother had been baptized in our denomination, but she was not saved. Nevertheless, she taught her children many Bible stories, and she told us that Jesus was the Savior who died on the cross. That was only a story and a doctrine to us. We did not realize the truth.
When we realize the truth, we have the reality. Christ becomes living to us, and His death becomes real to us as an event that took place specifically for the forgiveness of our sins. We receive the reality that is conveyed in the doctrines. Such reality can be revealed to us and realized by us only through the Spirit. For this reason, if two speakers give more or less the same message, one may preach only doctrine, but the other ministers the reality, because the power of the Holy Spirit is in his preaching. The power of the Holy Spirit makes preached doctrines real to the listeners—it gives them the reality, the fact. Truth is the reality conveyed in the doctrines and realized through the Spirit. The Bible has many doctrines, but few readers of the Bible receive the truth. Anyone can read the term the church in the Bible, but few have seen or touched the reality of the church. When the Spirit operates, the church becomes no longer only a doctrine but a truth, a reality, to us.
If we have truth, we have light, for truth is the shining of light, just as grace is the expression of love. In the Gospel of John we see grace and reality, which is truth. John 1:17 says, “Grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” Grace and reality in the Gospel of John become love and light in 1 John. First John 4:8 says, “God is love.” First John 1:5 says, “God is light.” Love is the source of grace, and grace is the expression of love. In the same principle, light is the source of truth, and truth is the shining of light. If we know only doctrine and lack the truth, we do not have light. Once doctrine becomes truth to us, light shines within us, and we have light. To know the Lord’s recovery in truth implies both doctrine and light, for the doctrines in the Bible convey truth, and truth is the shining of God as the divine light.
Truth is the shining of light, and the divine light is life (John 1:4). This brings us back to life. We may know that life is the Triune God, but we still need the truth, the shining of the Triune God in many aspects, in order to have the riches of life. The shining of the divine light in its many aspects is the riches of life.
We first must have the doctrines in order to have the truth. Thus, Christian workers and the fundamental denominations that lack life are still helpful if they preach correct doctrines, for eventually those doctrines may become the truth. Without the doctrine, the truth cannot come. Many missionaries who went to China taught only doctrines, but without their work many Chinese would have never heard that Jesus is the Savior who died on the cross for sinners. Eventually, some of the Chinese who heard this doctrine realized and received the truth that Jesus was their Savior. Through the doctrines we see the truths. Doctrine becoming truth in us is the shining of light, and the light is life.
Concerning the proper ground of the church, we first must know the doctrine. Then, perhaps through our prayer and hunger for the truth, the Lord will enlighten us, giving us the shining of light. Through the Lord’s enlightening, the doctrine of the ground of the church becomes truth, a shining within us. This shining joins us to the light, and the light becomes life. Thus, even the ground of the church is an aspect of the riches of life. To see the light, the truth, of the ground of the church makes us different in life. One who truly sees the ground of the church is different from one who remains in the church yet does not know or see anything concerning the truth of the ground of the church.
We need to know the Lord’s recovery both in life and in truth, which means in the Triune God and in the Bible. For this reason, we need to study the Bible daily, because from the Bible we first receive the doctrines. Through God’s enlightening, the doctrines become truth and the shining of the divine light in us. Then we are joined to the light, and the light becomes life to us. This is what we need.
All the riches of life are in the truth. Every truth is an aspect of the riches of life. In our experience it is first a doctrine; then it becomes a truth, which joins us to the light, and that particular aspect of the light becomes life to us in one of life’s rich aspects. This is difficult to explain and analyze, but our experience confirms it. When we read the Bible, we first get doctrine, then the truth, then light, and finally life. This is the procedure. We cannot have life first. We first learn the doctrine by reading, then we see the truth, then the light shines, then light becomes life, and we receive the riches of life. Often during one time in the Word, we experience all four—doctrine, truth, light, and life. However, it takes a long time to realize some truths. After knowing a doctrine for several years, in one particular time of prayer with the Lord it may become real to us as truth and the shining of light, bringing us the riches of life.
We must know the Lord’s recovery in life and truth. Those who are truly in the Lord’s recovery know God in a living way and know the Bible in the way of light. We have to pray for this to be our experience. The Lord’s recovery is not an activity, movement, or ordinary Christian work but a matter of life and truth in light. We are truly in the Lord’s recovery if we know God and the Bible, have life and truth, and are full of light. Christians who are not genuinely seeking the Lord will not understand what we are doing and teaching in the Lord’s recovery. They may be offended and criticize us. We cannot avoid this, but there are always a few like Nicodemus, who are sincere, hungry, and seeking after the Lord’s heart. The Lord reveals Himself to such ones, and they become part of His recovery.