CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY
of the Epistle of James

Message Seven

A CRITICAL WORD

To the Study of the Epistle of James

Scripture Reading: 2 Tim. 3:16a

OUTLINE

1. The genuine Christian perfection as taught in the New Testament:
1. The genuine Christian perfection taught in the New Testament is according to God's New Testament economy that God wanted to become a man that many men may become the God-men for the producing of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem as God's ultimate goal.
2. Such a Christian perfection is the issue of the dispensing of the processed and consummated Triune God into the believers—the God-men:
1. By God the Father as the source, the origin—Matt. 5:48.
2. With God the Son as the element—2 Cor. 13:3, 5, 9, 11.
3. Through God the Spirit as the dispensing fellowship—2 Cor. 13:9, 11, 14.
4. Second Corinthians 13 is to encourage the believers to be perfected by the experience of Christ as life and the enjoyment of the processed and consummated Triune God in the Father's love, with Christ's grace as the expression of the Father's love, and through the Spirit's fellowship that dispenses the Father's love in Christ's grace into the believers.
3. This kind of Christian perfection is for the building up of the Body of Christ—Eph. 4:12.
4. The perfecting ones of this kind of Christian perfection are the gifted persons, such as the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers—Eph. 4:11-12:
1. The apostles define the truths for the establishing of the church.
2. The prophets prophesy for the building up of the church—1 Cor. 14:3-5.
3. The evangelists preach the gospel to make sinners the members of Christ for His Body.
4. The shepherds feed the young believers that they may grow up for the building of the Body of Christ—John 21:15-17; Eph. 4:15-16.
5. The teachers teach the believers for their edification to establish the churches—cf. 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17.
5. The standard of such a Christian perfection is much higher than the standard of that stressed by James, which resembles the kind of perfection in the Old Testament on the lower level of God's Old Testament revelation.
2. The Scripture being God's breathing:
1. Second Timothy 3:16a says, "All Scripture is God-breathed," that is, written by the breathing of God, through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, indicating clearly that all the sixty-six books of the Holy Scripture are written through the inspiration of the Spirit of God.
2. This does not mean that every word written through the Spirit of God as a portion of the Holy Scripture is the word of God. Many portions of the Holy Scripture are rather the words spoken by persons (including Satan) other than God. The most evident illustrations are as follows:
1. Genesis 3:1b, 4-5, is the word spoken by the old serpent, the devil, but recorded by Moses through the inspiration of the Spirit of God for God's purpose to expose His enemy Satan's subtle deceiving and his devilish temptation that mankind may know that Satan is a real deceiver and devilish tempter (1 Tim. 2:14; Matt. 4:1-3; 6:13; 1 Thes. 3:5).
2. In the book of Job, thirty-five chapters, 3—37, are a record of the words spoken by Job, his three friends, and Elihu. All of these five persons are God-fearing and God-seeking people, but the words spoken by them in the book of Job are very much according to their concepts concerning God's will for man, their understanding of the meaning of human life, and their realization concerning the perfection of human virtues, all of which contradict God's purpose in man, that is, that man should be filled with God to express God rather than all other things, including man's perfection of human virtues. Hence, God stripped Job of his uprightness and integrity that he might seek God Himself instead of anything else. Yet their words, which are against God's will in man, are written by them under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to serve the purpose of God to expose the mistake of Job, his three friends, and Elihu in knowing God that man may be enlightened to realize that, according to God's good pleasure of His heart's desire, man should be the expression of God only, rather than the expression of man's perfection of his uprightness and integrity.
3. In Psalms, the words concerning the psalmists' hating of their enemies (18:37-42; 40:14-15; cf. Prov. 25:21-22), their asking of God to avenge for them (3:7; 43:1; 54:1-3), and their cursing of others (35:4-7; 70:2-3; 109:1-15) are surely not God's words, but words that come out of the psalmists' mouth from their natural sentiment while they are praising God. Yet they are recorded by the Spirit of God in the Holy Scripture to serve God's purpose to expose the degree of the psalmists' spirituality that, on the one hand, they love God and seek God, but on the other hand, they are still so natural in their sentiment.
4. Peter's word in Matthew 16:22, "God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!" is clearly not the word spoken by God but the word spoken by Peter, occupied by, usurped by, and even having become Satan, as the Lord rebuked him, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men" (v. 23):
1. It was after he received the Father's revelation concerning Christ's person and the teaching of Christ concerning His building of the church and heard the Lord tell him and the other disciples that He must be crucified and raised (v. 21) that he spoke this satanic word.
2. His intention in speaking this word was to frustrate the Lord from going to accomplish His death and resurrection for the accomplishment of God's eternal redemption and His dynamic salvation.
5. Peter's word in Matthew 17:4, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You are willing, I will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah," is also clearly not the word spoken by God, but the word spoken by Peter under his vague vision concerning Christ's person and His commission:
1. It was after he saw the vision of Moses and Elijah's coming to converse with Christ in His transfiguration on the mountain that he spoke this word, which was stopped by the voice from heaven, "This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!" (v. 5).
2. This stopping word spoken by God indicates that:
1. 1) Peter should not rank Christ with Moses and Elijah.
2. 2) Peter did not know the preeminence of Christ both in God's old creation and God's new creation (Col. 1:15-18).
3. 3) Peter could not differentiate that Christ's commission received from the Father for His New Testament economy is much higher than Moses' ministry of law and Elijah's ministry as a prophet.
4. 4) Thus, Peter and all others should listen only to Christ as the Son of God, the Beloved, in whom God has found His delight.
3. Peter's word was spoken under his vague vision that brought down Christ's most high person and His most divine commission to the lower level of Moses and Elijah, but it was written by Matthew in his Gospel, even the Gospel of the kingdom of the heavens, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God for the purpose of God to teach and enlighten Peter and his two contemporaries, John and James, and also all the believers in Christ in the entire age of grace that they may have a clear vision concerning Christ's person and His commission.
6. Peter's word in Acts 10:14, "By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything common and unclean," is also clearly not the word spoken by God, but the word spoken by Peter according to his religious concept concerning eating the unclean animals (contacting and receiving the unclean Gentiles):
1. Peter's word here was stopped by the voice from heaven, saying, "The things that God has cleansed [the Gentiles whom God sanctifies], do not make common" (v. 15).
2. This stopping word indicates that:
1. 1) Peter, even as the first apostle in the New Testament who followed the Lord for three and a half years and experienced Pentecost by speaking a very clear word, witnessing to Christ in His death and resurrection which produced the first church in Jerusalem, still was vague in the divine revelation concerning the spreading of the gospel for Christ's increase from the Jews to the Gentiles, as what the Lord told him and the other disciples in Acts 1:8.
2. 2) God would confirm Peter's visit to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, for the spreading of the gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles.
3. Peter's word was spoken according to his revelation concerning God's Old Testament economy which was very much below the standard of God's revelation concerning His New Testament economy, yet it was written by Luke in Acts under the inspiration of the Spirit of God to enlighten Peter and all the believers in the age of grace that God's gospel is not merely for the Jews but for the Gentiles unto the uttermost part of the earth also.

Note: The above three illustrations of Peter recorded in the Scriptures under the inspiration of the Spirit of God are like three lamps shining over the believers in their darkness that they may be enlightened to see clearly that:

1. The believers in Christ as His followers should not remain in their natural self but should take up the cross to have themselves conformed to the death of Christ that Christ may live in them and that they may live with Christ, walk with Christ, and work with Christ for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ which consummates the New Jerusalem as God's ultimate goal.
2. The believers in Christ as His close followers should appreciate and exalt Christ in His preeminent person and in His most high commission as the beloved Son of the Father in whom is the Father's delight, according to God's New Testament economy, above Moses and his ministry of law and above Elijah and his ministry of the prophets, who were on the lower level of God's eternal economy.
3. The believers in Christ as His witnesses should not limit the spreading of His gospel only in the circle of the Jews, but they should spread it for His unlimited increase (John 3:29-30) to all the Gentiles unto the uttermost part of the earth for the producing of the universal Body of Christ as the fullness of Christ, who fills all in all (Eph. 1:23).
3. The words in the Epistle of James spoken by him that exalt the Mosaic law and charge the New Testament believers to keep it, that confuse God's dispensation of the ages, and that are devoid of Christ, His death, His resurrection, and the Spirit are surely not the words of God, but words spoken by James according to his Old Testament concept concerning the Mosaic law which is in contrast to the grace in God's New Testament economy, and according to his vague vision of the difference between God's Old Testament dispensation and His New Testament dispensation. Yet these words were written by James in his Epistle under the inspiration of God for the divine purpose to expose him in his wrong concept concerning the law and in his vague vision concerning God's dispensation of the ages in order to teach and enlighten all the believers in Christ that they may know that they should not be frustrated by James's defective words from going on further to seek the all-inclusive Christ, the consummated Spirit, the old-creation-terminating death of Christ, and the all-new-creation-germinating resurrection of Christ for the fulfillment of God's eternal economy.
3. Two governing principles of the interpretation of the Scripture:
1. The first principle—all the Scripture should be interpreted with the Scripture. Every portion, even a single word, of the Scripture should be interpreted with and according to the entire Scripture. If any interpretation of the Epistle of James, as a book in the Scripture, is not interpreted according to the entire Scripture, it becomes a book other than the Scripture.
2. The second principle—the eternal economy of God is the central line of the entire Scripture. The interpretation of the Scripture should be strictly governed by this central line under its adequate enlightenment. If any interpretation of the Epistle of James is not in harmony with God's economy, it is off. No saint of God who is a genuine seeker of the scriptural truth and who is enlightened with the central line of the Holy Scripture would ever accept such an off-track interpretation that he might not be sidetracked as many have been.

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