Christians are not lawless people; we are the most lawful people on the earth. In our eating, dressing, and lodging we are lawful. In everything we are under the commandments of the New Testament, the new law, which is the law of Christ and the law of freedom. The more we keep the new law in the New Testament, the more we are truly liberated. Genuine, true freedom is not lawlessness but the new law, which releases us from the bondage of all kinds of wrongdoings and sinfulness. When we are freed from all kinds of wrongdoings and sinfulness, we are fully in freedom. This is the Christian life.
In this book we have seen a number of crucial matters. First, we need to spend time in the Word every day, for the word in the Bible embodies God, Christ, the Spirit, and life. The word and the Spirit are composed of Christ, His terminating death, and His enlivening resurrection. Every portion in the Bible is either the word of the cross or the word of life. We also need to see that the Lord’s recovery is simply the recovery of Christ Himself as everything to us. If we see this, we will drop all concepts, ways, activities, and organization and simply cleave to Christ in everything. Furthermore, we need to realize that God’s economy is God coming into us and that godliness is God flowing out of us. If we see and practice these things, we will live under the law of freedom. We need to review all these matters, fellowship concerning them, and practice them until they are wrought into our being. Then the church will be uplifted and enriched and will grow unto maturity.
Question: Why does the law of freedom continually bother us?
Answer: The law of freedom is the law of life (Rom. 8:2). A baby does not know the words bitter or sweet, but he will always swallow something sweet and spit out something bitter. This illustrates the function of the law of life. The baby is living, and in his life is a law that regulates him, causing him to swallow the sweet and spit out the bitter. Every life has a law. Because we have been born of God, we have received the life of God. With the divine life there is a divine law. Before being saved, if we went to a movie, we did not sense any bitterness. Rather, we may have felt happy. After being saved, if we still go to a movie, something within will cause us to feel bad. However, not many Christians are immediately willing to obey this inner feeling. Therefore, this inner feeling will trouble us again and again, even for years, until we are eventually subdued. Nevertheless, the sooner we obey, the better. By obeying sooner, we save ourselves from the bitterness and from wasting time.
Question: How can we keep the New Testament law?
Answer: Second Timothy 1:7 concerns our human spirit, and 4:22 concerns Christ as the life-giving Spirit being with our spirit. The real experience of the Christian life is entirely related to these two spirits—our spirit and Christ as the life-giving Spirit. The unique way to keep the New Testament law is to always remain in our spirit. As soon as we realize that we are not in our spirit, we need to immediately turn back to our spirit. To walk in Christ, to walk in the spirit, and to keep the New Testament law are all the same thing. Our spirit indwelt by Christ as the life-giving Spirit is the basic principle of every experience of the Christian life. We should not care for our reasonings, our arguments, our emotions, our decisions, or anything else within us. We need only to take care of remaining in our spirit, going along with our spirit, and always returning to our spirit. The only way to live the Christian life is to practice this.
Question: In 1 Corinthians 9:21-22 Paul says, “To those without law, as without law (though I am not without law to God but within law to Christ), that I might gain those without law. To the weak I became weak that I might gain the weak. To all men I have become all things that I might by all means save some.” Based on this verse, some have said that we can participate in worldly activities in order to preach the gospel. Is this right?
Answer: Verses 21 through 22 do not mean that we must be the same as the person whom we intend to save. They do not mean that in order to save a robber, we must become a robber. We must always understand a portion of the Bible according to its context. The context of these verses shows that Paul was speaking in reference to the different ways of eating and practice held by Jews and Gentiles. When Paul was with the Jews, he behaved in a way so as not to violate their laws, particularly with regard to eating, but when he was with the Gentiles, he did not behave according to the practices of the Jews. The “all things” that Paul spoke of becoming were related to different ways of eating and living, not to worldly, defiling activities.
Question: My children are saved, but I cannot always convince them to come to the meetings. What is the best way to care for them?
Answer: To be a parent is very difficult. No amount of teaching concerning parenting is adequate. When couples do not have children, they pray as Hannah, the mother of Samuel, prayed for a son (1 Sam. 1:10-11). The Lord may hear their prayer and give them a child, but this child may become a great troublemaker. Although there is no unique, fail-safe method for parenting, there are a few lessons we can learn.
First, in order to raise our children to love the Lord and to come to the church meetings regularly, we must be a proper person. We must have a proper living before the Lord. Besides the Lord, the persons who know best about the kind of life we live are our children. We may be able to fool others about the kind of person we are, but we can never fool our children. Therefore, we need to be genuine. If we tell our children not to tell lies, yet we lie to our spouse, the children will see it. This is very serious, for if we lie to our spouse only one time, our children may remember it for their whole life. Our behavior and our way of living does not affect anyone as much as it affects our children. This is a universal spiritual principle. Therefore, being a parent is not easy. Our children will be negatively affected if we are not upright persons, but this does not mean that our children will be good if we are upright persons. If an upright mother has four children, two may be good, and the other two may be bad. However, if she is not upright, all her children may be worse. It is difficult to predict how a child will turn out; this depends on many factors.
Besides being proper persons, parents need to exercise their wisdom. This is the area in which most parents are lacking. It is easy for a parent to have love, but it is not as easy to have wisdom. Parents must exercise their wisdom to discern whether or not to charge their children to come to the church meetings. Asking whether or not parents should charge their children to come to the meetings may be likened to asking whether or not we should take an umbrella when we go out. For such situations, we need to exercise our wisdom to discern the situation. According to our discernment, we may exhort our children. However, some parents are zealous without wisdom, and their zealousness offends their children. The more they charge their children to come to the meetings, the more they offend their children, causing a strong reaction. This matter is not easy. Parents need to be proper persons and exercise their wisdom. It is right to charge our children to come to the meetings, but we need to discern, based on our children’s condition, the proper time and the proper way to charge them. If our children are in a certain condition, it may be better not to charge them to come the meetings until their condition improves.
Finally, parents need to trust in the Lord’s mercy. Romans 9:16 says, “It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” I have seen many spiritual parents whose children have not been good. I have also seen worldly, backslidden, careless parents who are absolutely indifferent about their children’s spirituality, yet their children are good and spiritual. Therefore, we must conclude that the way our children turn out depends on the Lord’s mercy. The first part of verse 18 says, “He has mercy on whom He wills.” As parents, our duty is to be proper persons and to exercise wisdom to discern when and how to speak to our children. We need to do our duty, but we should not trust in anything we do. Without the Lord’s mercy, everything we do means nothing. We must trust in the Lord’s mercy, praying, “Lord, it all depends on Your mercy. I do my duty as a parent by being a proper person to be a good example and to not stumble my children and by exercising my wisdom to know when and how to speak to my children. However, my trust is in You, Lord.” We all need to learn this lesson. Parents should never be proud, thinking that their ability can produce the best children. There are many different factors in producing a good child, but in the end it depends on the Lord’s mercy.
Question: How should I regulate my children concerning watching television and movies?
Answer: Because of the current of the age, it is very difficult for parents to forbid their children to watch television and movies. Therefore, parents need to exercise their wisdom to restrict which television shows or movies to allow their children to see. We also need to teach our children the reasons for these restrictions so that they will understand our decisions as they grow older. We need to give them a proper explanation according to their age, not prematurely. We should not tell them something that they cannot understand at their age. Our training must be according to their age.
To raise children is not easy or simple. It requires that we spend much time with our children. The more time we spend with our children, the better. We should spend at least two hours every evening doing nothing but being with our children, talking to them, or teaching them something. This will make them happy and give them some training. If we do not spend time with our children, we should expect that they will have problems. Although we cannot always afford to spend that much time with our children, the principle is that we need to spend as much time as possible with our children and give them the proper education according to their age.
Question: Some young brothers and sisters who leave home to study end up staying in dormitories with unbelievers. What is the best way to care for these young ones?
Answer: It is difficult to know whether it is better to keep our children at home or send them to school in another city. This is a very complicated matter with many factors involved. However, one thing I know is that in order to take care of our children, we always need to prepare them ahead of time. In order to properly care for a fifteen year old, we need to spend fourteen years to educate the child. Every bit of proper education at the proper age is an inoculation. If we adequately educate and inoculate our children, they can leave home to study without any problem. If we do not adequately educate and inoculate our children, it will not matter much if they stay at home while studying. A fifteen year old’s spiritual health depends on how much education and inoculation he received in his first fourteen years. If parents do not properly prepare their children, it will not help much to suddenly consider where they should go to school. This is a warning to all parents. We must not neglect the raising of our children. If God has given us children, we must spend adequate time to raise them properly. Everyone likes to have choices, but we lose all our choices when we have children. Besides the time we spend in the meetings, we need to spend every minute for our children. Otherwise, we should not expect that we would have good children. The only way to have good children is to spend all our time with them and exercise our wisdom to give them a proper education and adequate inoculation beforehand. However, after all this, we still must place our trust in God’s mercy.