Paul said, “Confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He [God] who was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). When we speak Christ to our parents, they may want to know the details of this mystery. The more we try to answer them, though, the more easily we fall into a trap and the more they will not understand. The best way is to not answer. In the beginning, the mystery that was in God was kept in silence, and today it is hard for us to break the silence. Even if we want to answer and declare this mystery, we are unable to do so. Paul said that the riches of Christ are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8). Therefore, they are difficult to clearly speak about and difficult for people to understand. Nevertheless, we ourselves must first be this mystery. When children become Christians, they should become a mystery in their parents’ eyes. If they are not a mystery, they are finished as Christians.
We should not keep trying to explain the mystery. The more we explain it, the more it becomes unclear. After we have believed in the Lord for a few years, we can gradually try to speak to our parents about it. We cannot explain this mystery, but we can ask them, “Are we, your children, the same as we were before?” If our parents can say only, “You are mostly the same, except a little taller,” then we are finished, because as Christians we do not have much mystery. Perhaps after a certain period of time they can say, “You are truly different compared to what you were five years ago.” We may ask what is different, but even if they try to explain it, they will not be able. Then we can then tell them in a proper way, “This is the mystery. You cannot speak about it, and neither can I. Five years ago I did not have the mystery, so you could easily tell what I was. However, after five years there is something in me which you can see but you cannot describe. Neither can I describe it. This is the mystery.”
When parents hear this, they will take it seriously, because within the past five years they will have seen something in you which they cannot explain and which puzzles them. Your entire living is extraordinary. No one controls you, but you are very well behaved and submissive. No one demands it of you, but you love others. The expression of your living causes others to wonder. Although your living and work may seem no different from that of your classmates, you give people a feeling that you truly are different from others. This does not mean that you are better or more intelligent than others, nor does it mean that you are worse or poorer than others. This difference cannot be described in terms of good and evil. Rather, because it is so difficult to describe, it will cause people to wonder. In actuality, this wondering is due to the mystery.
May we all “see this video,” realizing that Christians are altogether a mystery that people cannot comprehend. The mystery in God has been duplicated and reproduced in man, that is, in you and me, causing us to become a mystery. If the Christian life we live before others is one that people can see clearly and are able to express in words, there is nothing special about us. Still, to be a mystery does not mean that we hide something from others. Rather, we are completely open, without any secret or hidden thing, but others wonder at everything about us. They dare not say that we are peculiar, but they simply feel that we are puzzling. This is because of the mystery, which cannot be spoken thoroughly or explained clearly.
There is no way to describe the honesty of Christians. This honesty is far beyond, above, and better than all the virtues in the world of men. Likewise, what the Lord Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies,” is also beyond man’s comprehension. This is because people take the way of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It is only the Lord Jesus who said that we must love our enemies. We cannot understand how someone can listen to this word and love his enemies, but there is such a fact. This is a mystery, and this mystery is God Himself. God, the mystery, came into the midst of mankind, and this mystery has been duplicated many times to enter into us, causing us also to become a mystery. After seeing this vision, Paul enlightened all by “playing the video” of this mystery. Today we all have seen this vision. Now the more we “watch this video,” the more we are enlightened and enabled to enlighten others.
If we have truly seen this vision, it will take longer than our whole life to speak about it. In the United States some people condemn us as being pantheists because we say that God is everything. It is true that our God is everything, but it is false that we are pantheists. To be sure, Jesus is the real orange and apple, and He is the best steak. Christ is everything. He is our food and drink, our eating and drinking. No matter what we drink today, we are not satisfied. Only when we drink Christ are we truly satisfied. When the Lord Jesus was preaching on the earth, He was able to use many items as illustrations of Himself. There was nothing positive that He could not use. This was because He is everything. This is an aspect of the mystery. Our eyes need to be opened to see that the mystery which throughout the ages was hidden in God, who created all things, has been not only manifested but also revealed to us by enlightenment.
The Lord’s recovery is to recover Christ. Christianity today has adulterated God’s word to a certain degree, so we must have the discerning ability and the endeavoring to know the Lord’s recovery. For the Lord’s return, Christ must be strongly recovered in a group of people. Today when we go out to knock on doors and visit people, we are preaching the gospel of this Christ to them. For this reason, we must first be those who are filled with Christ. We need to firmly believe that under the sovereign arrangement of God there are sons of peace. When we go to knock on doors, we should not be afraid of people’s opposition, because there will be God’s sons of peace. Then after finding them, we have to preach Christ to them faithfully.
On the earth there are always some who are hungry and thirsty and who have been prepared by the Lord. Oppositions have always followed the gospel, so we need not be afraid but bold. When the apostle Paul went out to preach the gospel, particularly when he was among the Jews, his preaching would always issue in two groups of people, those who followed his preaching and those who did not follow but rather became enemies. Today if we cannot produce this kind of condition when we lead people everywhere to follow the Lord, we are not yet a mystery. However, this does not mean that we should go out to cause trouble and stir up chaos. Instead, we Christians are the most peaceful and safest group of people. Nevertheless, the “germs” of the mystery in us will cause things to happen.
Only those who have seen this are apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. In Ephesians 4 Paul spoke of these four kinds of people. He himself was all of these—an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, and even more a shepherd and teacher. Today even the youngest among us, if they have truly seen this “video” of the mystery of Christ, also can be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. This does not come from the study of theology. It is by seeing this heavenly “video” that one becomes such a person.
If this reality can be constituted in us, it will govern us in our preaching of the gospel, leading of the home meetings, and leading of the new ones to sing and read the word of God. In other words, it will govern our entire living. As a result, the people whom we lead and help will be able to know Christ in a subjective way, not merely in a doctrinal way. Then in a short time they will be brought into the practical experience of the Body of Christ. May we all pay attention to this, pray for this, and also have much fellowship with one another about this.
(A message given on June 10, 1987 in Taipei, Taiwan)