Second Corinthians 3:6 says, “Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit.” We should note that this verse speaks of ministers and not ministry. Ministry is different from the ministers. Ministry refers to the work, whereas the ministers are the persons, just as elders and deacons are persons. In Chinese we sometimes add the word many in order to distinguish the two words, speaking of the “many ministers” of the new covenant. This is correct because in verse 6 ministers is plural.
According to 2 Corinthians 3, the ministers of the new covenant are not of the letter. Letter conveys many meanings. In literal terms, it refers to the words in black and white. With regard to its intrinsic meaning, it refers to the dead scripture. Letter in this chapter does not refer to the New Testament, because at that time the New Testament had not yet been written. Instead, it refers to the Old Testament, in particular, the Scriptures written on stone tablets. The meaning of letter also includes dead knowledge. The knowledge that comes from the dead letter is also considered as letter. Moreover, letter also refers to ordinances. Today as the many ministers of the new covenant we are not of the dead ordinances, the dead scripture, or the dead knowledge. Instead, we are of the Spirit. Our every work and our walk, whether to go door-knocking, bring people to salvation, baptize people, or conduct home meetings, require us to be men of the Spirit.
Our problem lies in this—that our spiritual level is too poor. We may do many things outwardly, such as pray, confess our sins, and seek the filling of the Holy Spirit. In fact, however, we may very much be under the influence of rituals and letters. Even our praying, confessing, and seeking the filling of the Spirit can become rituals and not come out from the spirit by our living in the spirit. The genuine living that comes out from the spirit is without ordinances and rituals. If our living comes from the spirit, our prayer, being dealt with, and seeking will not merely be the fulfilling of a spiritual duty according to rituals. Rather, we will pray even more, be dealt with more thoroughly, and be filled to the uttermost.
Perhaps some will say that they are not merely fulfilling duties; they are sincere and true, keeping a time with the Lord every day. This may be true, but their practice may still be a routine practice of keeping the rules sincerely and truly. One may pray, confess his sins, and seek the filling of the Holy Spirit sincerely and truly yet still not touch the spirit even a little. This kind of praying, confessing, and seeking is still very much of the letter. Although the thing done seems very spiritual, the doing of it is still of the letter. This proves that such persons themselves are of the letter. If someone asks you why you pray in this way, you may answer that it is because the Bible teaches us to do this. These words sound good, yet within these good words there is an implication that is not good. This answer indicates that you are merely one who keeps the rules. Thus, you have not prayed in the spirit, and it is not the Spirit that leads you to pray. You are of the ordinances, of the letter, and not of the Spirit.
Regarding this matter, we must receive life and spiritual cultivation in a practical way. We need to receive a nurturing in life that we may be persons of the Spirit and not of the letter. If we have no ordinances or rituals, yet we still live a life that is higher than others’, this will prove that we are not of the letter but of life and of the Spirit. Only a man can do the work of man. If a monkey is trained to behave like a man, it is still a monkey, and it cannot do the work of man. Our burden is that we all will see that we must follow the Spirit in life and live in the spirit. It is a matter not of outward practices, rituals, and ordinances but of being cultivated to grow in life.
A fruit tree requires cultivation and special care in order to grow well. Those who work in orchards know that if fruit trees are not protected, cultivated, and pruned, they will not bear much fruit, and they may even be damaged. Still, cultivation is only an outward help for the inner life. No matter how much a farmer cultivates his fruit trees, he cannot replace the life of the trees. He can hang artificial fruit on the trees, but that kind of fruit is “of the letter,” and the trees themselves will be “of the letter.” Artificial fruit is not the fruit of life that is cultivated, grown, developed, and borne through the life within the trees. We must avoid this principle. If the expression of our life is merely an outward hanging of fruit, it is only a decoration, not the issue of our life within. This kind of fruit will be tested by the environment and by time. After a few months of testing, the artificial fruit will become old, break, and fail one after the other. Eventually we will have nothing; we will be exposed to the uttermost. Therefore, regardless of what situation we are in, whether good or bad, we need to grow in life. Growth develops the nurturing we have obtained and strengthens the content of our inner life.
We must also pay attention to our character. It is difficult for us to receive help regarding our character. To keep ordinances is easy, and to pick up new things is also easy, but to properly build up our character is not easy. This is because the building up of character is related to our weightiness in life.
We all have seen children singing hymns, and we are truly touched by them. Yet no matter how much they touch us and even stir us to tears, we still realize that they are children. They can try their best to behave in a certain way, and they can even act like old adults, but no matter how much they perform, they are still children. Their true outward expression depends not on how hard they try to perform but on the normal growth of the life within them. We need to take care of this principle.
What can truly be a help to others is very much related to the weightiness of our life. For a person to be loose in his character is a proof that his spiritual life is immature. When one person weeps or laughs, others can see his immaturity, but when someone else weeps and laughs in the same way, others can see his maturity. A person’s expressions and feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight are the manifestations of the actual weight of his life. No one can pretend in this matter. The building up of a person’s character is altogether a matter of life.
More than thirty years ago we had a training on thirty traits of character. At that time one hundred twenty persons joined the training. Those who were twenty-five then are now close to sixty. To my impression, however, their character now is not much different from what it was when they were twenty-five. Some of them now have gotten married and had children, and some of their children have already graduated from college. Still, their character has never changed much; they are mostly the same. Originally they were loose, and now they are still loose in the same way. This is a cause of concern to us. I hope that the young people, including the full-time trainees, as they begin to learn how to serve the Lord, will receive the training of their character in a serious and strict way, forsaking all performance and pretense and gaining a genuine weightiness in their inner life.