Renewing is to have our mind changed in our religion, logic, and philosophy concerning the universe, mankind, God, etc., by the Spirit of truth with the revelations of the Scriptures, even to have Christ’s mind replacing our mind through the consuming work of the cross (Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2b; Eph. 4:23; Rom. 8:6; Phil. 2:5; 2 Cor. 4:16).
The missionaries who came to China talked a lot about love, telling us that we had to love others. After I was saved, I gradually became enlightened to see that all Christian virtues, including love, are different from the natural human virtues. Every Christian virtue must have a fourfold qualification: It must be through the cross, it must be by the Spirit, it must be for ministering Christ, and it must be for the producing of the church. The love taught in the New Testament is a love that is through the cross, which cuts off the self, it is by the Spirit, and it ministers Christ for the producing of the church. After I became clear regarding this, I realized that the missionaries were mistaken in their teaching, for they taught wrongly about love while claiming that their teaching was according to the Bible. The love unveiled in the Bible is not a natural human love (to love men without selfishness) like that taught by Confucius.
The principle is the same with submission. A sister’s submission to her husband must be a submission that is through the cross, that is by the Spirit, that ministers, or dispenses, Christ, and that is for the producing and building up of the church. This kind of submission is altogether different from the submission taught by Confucius. His kind of submission is by the natural life, having nothing to do with the cross, the Spirit, and the dispensing of Christ and not having the goal of producing the church.
We need to be impressed with the fact that all the virtues taught by the Bible are through the cross, by the Spirit, and minister Christ for the producing of the churches for the building up of the Body. Concerning this matter our mind needs to be renewed.
Transformation is the issue of renewing (Rom. 12:2). It is to be transformed not only in the nature within but much more in the outward form for expression. It is not a correction nor merely an outward change; it is an inward metabolism by having more of the element of the divine life added to the believers for the outward expression (Rom. 12:2b; 2 Cor. 3:18). Remember that transformation is not only an outward change but is a metabolic change through the addition of the divine life, which transforms us into the image of Christ.
Building up is a matter of the believers’ growth in the divine life and their being joined together with other believers in the divine life (Eph. 4:15-16). Renewing issues in transformation, and transformation issues in building up. This is fully proven by the wall with its foundations of the New Jerusalem. The wall of the New Jerusalem is of jasper, expressing the appearance of God (Rev. 4:3). While the jasper stones were being transformed, they were joined together and built up into a wall.
We should not think that to be built up is only to be closely related to other believers in a natural way. This is not the way to be built up. The proper way to be built up is to grow together in the divine life. While we are growing, this growth joins us all together as one.
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