When we conduct a home meeting, the first impression that people in the home obtain from us is not what message we speak or how we teach them but what kind of person we are. Their first impression is whether we are light persons or weighty persons, whether we are loose or grave. The Bible tells us that as those who serve the Lord, elders and deacons should have the same kind of character, one which is “grave” (1 Tim. 3:2-4, 8). Grave is a very good term, meaning solid, weighty, and not light. Some people may say that young people are simply young, and we cannot expect a twenty year old to be grave. Please remember, though, that gravity depends not on age but on how much weight one has and how much element of life is within him. If what is within you is “cotton fluff,” you will have no weight, but if what is within you is gold, you will be very weighty.
We can discern from the way a person lives whether he is light and frivolous or grave and proper. A person cannot hide or pretend in this matter. Our inner weight depends on what is within us. If there is much of God as gold within us, we will truly be weighty. If our life is light and flighty, it is because we do not have enough of God within us. Today in the church, there are still some older ones whose behavior gives people a feeling of lightness. Hence, our being grave depends not on our age but on the addition of God as life within us.
We must learn that to go out to work is not to perform or act. Our going out to work is a matter of our living. The spiritual weight within us spontaneously becomes our character. We are ministers of the new covenant, those who are regenerated, sanctified, transformed, conformed by God, and inwardly filled with God. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” Ultimately, we all will be transformed into His image. According to the usage in the New Testament, image refers not merely to an outward form but to the outward expression of the inner being. The expression of what we are is our image; our image is exactly according to who we are inwardly in our being. Therefore, to be transformed into the image of the Lord does not mean merely to look like Him outwardly. Commonly speaking, we may say that a picture of us is our image, but according to the usage of image in the Bible, a picture alone can never be our image. Our image is not merely our outward appearance; it is the expression of what we are.
Society today teaches people to do things outwardly instead of caring for what they are inwardly. Being a minister, however, is not a matter of doing but of being. It is not our adjusting and adorning ourselves outwardly; it is a matter of our own being. We often hear people say that a certain person gives a good impression. This refers not to that person’s simple outward appearance but to the impression he gives to people by his behavior. The impression that a person’s inward being conveys to people is his image. Today our going to different places to work is to allow people to see our image, our actual being.
Therefore, we as the ministers of the new covenant must definitely remember that we are not of the letter, ordinances, teachings, or certain methods. Rather, we are of the Spirit and of life in a weighty way. This is what we need to be.
Second Corinthians 3:8 speaks about the ministry of the Spirit. Ministers, plural, are the many ministers, while ministry refers to the unique ministry. Whereas ministers refer to people, the ministry refers to the work done by people. We, the ministers, are of the Spirit. Our work, however, is not merely of the Spirit; it is the ministry of the Spirit. There is a difference between being of something and being that thing. To say that something is of gold means that it has some gold in it, but to say that it is gold means that the whole object is gold. A golden necklace, for example, may not merely be of gold, that is, plated with gold; rather, it may be entirely of gold. Today our work is the Spirit. The Bible first tells us that the word is spirit (John 6:63). Then in Ephesians 6:17 Paul states this the other way around, saying that the Spirit is the word of God. Bible translators have had a controversy over this verse, which speaks of the sword of the Spirit. Most people understand that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God; that is, the word is the sword. According to the Greek grammar, however, it is the Spirit, not the sword, that is the word.
We should not merely say that the work we are doing today is a spiritual work. Rather, the work we do today is the Spirit. The Lord Jesus took the lead in the New Testament to say, “The words which I have spoken to you are spirit” (John 6:63). According to this principle, we can also say that the work which the Lord has given to us is spirit. The work, the ministry, of the new covenant is a ministry of the Spirit, not merely a spiritual ministry. In Greek, phrases such as ministry of the Spirit comprise words in apposition. Just as the love of God means that God and love are one, and the life of God means that God and life are one, the ministry of the Spirit means that the Spirit and the ministry are one. The work we go out to do is not merely a spiritual work but is also a work that is the Spirit. The Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” We may also say that doctrine profits nothing; only the Spirit gives life. If the word we speak is spirit, it will give life. Therefore, all the revelations of the New Testament require us to become spirit. When we become those who are filled with the Spirit, the words we speak will be spirit, and the work we do will also be spirit. Our ministry will not only be spiritual but will be spirit.