From the day I began the work in Taiwan, I had no intention to stir up the people’s interest and no intention to gather a crowd. I am not narrow, and I am not demanding, but I do mean business in the Lord’s work. My burden in beginning the work there was simply to carry out God’s New Testament ministry. The Lord blessed the work there, and many of you here were captured by the Lord and became trainees under my teaching there. Although I had no intention to gather a crowd, eventually a very large number were gathered there in Taiwan.
According to recent reliable statistics showing the number in the different churches in Taiwan, the number of those meeting with us is second only to the number in the Scottish Presbyterian Church, which has been in Taiwan for more than a century. Their number is listed as over 87,000, but a good many among them are not saved. The number of those meeting with us is listed as 45,000, and the third largest is the True Jesus Church with 20,000.
My point is this. Although I had no intention to gather a crowd, eventually forty-five thousand were gathered. The number has not gone up much in the last twenty-two years since I left Taiwan. I was there just over ten years, and the number was very close to forty thousand when I left Taiwan to come to the United States.
After this experience, when I see you try to take up other fields, other majors, and leave the school of Christ and the church, I cannot tolerate it. All of us need to come back to the original school and stay in the original major, Christ and the church. We need some further study in this one major. You can use the Life-studies of the Bible as a help, as a base, for your study, but each one of you needs to study the Word of God in a thorough way for yourself for this major. What you need is a very thorough study of the divine revelation with the help of the Life-studies of the Bible. I would beg you all not to try to do an easy work in the Lord’s recovery.
In the Lord’s recovery, or even in any field of scientific study today there is no easy work. If any of the professors in the universities tried to do an easy work, they could not get the results they need. Therefore, I encourage you all to go back to study all the aforementioned crucial points in Paul’s fourteen Epistles with the help of the Life-studies. Then you will see what comes out.
I do believe, dear brothers, that if you get into such a study, not only fresh apprehension but also fresh feeling will enrich you. You will be refreshed with sweet feelings. Then you may go to the meeting to present the same thing I presented, but you would present it in a way that is more and more refreshing and sweetened.
On the other hand, if you take an easy way by going to the Life-studies merely to learn some points to present in the church meeting, that means nothing. In fact, that way could be compared to committing suicide, because you simply kill yourself. Then, if you would go to other fields, leaving the field of Christ and the church, that would mean that you drop the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery is not narrow, but it is very strict. To be narrow is one thing, but to be strict is another matter altogether. Those of you who have graduated from college know that you must be strict in your major; otherwise, you can never advance, you cannot make progress.
In Paul’s writings we can see Christ’s incarnation, Christ’s human living, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and, in addition, how He as such a One became the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This matter is altogether related to our spirit in our experience. Therefore, we need to study the human spirit.
Two further points are more than crucial in Paul’s writings and in his part of the New Testament ministry. One is the matter of Christ being life to us, and the other is our experience of Christ. Although the Gospel of John is a Gospel of life, Christ being life to us cannot be seen there in a very practical way. In the Gospel of John we are told only that this Son of God is life, and that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 1:4; 14:6; 10:10). That is all. For this matter we need to come to the Epistles of Paul. In his fourteen Epistles, here and there and bit by bit, Paul gives a complete picture showing us how Christ is our experience in a practical way. You need to study this matter. In addition, no other books convey the details concerning how we experience Christ. The experience of Christ is presented in detail in Paul’s writings. You need to spend much time to study this one aspect.