In this chapter, we want to begin to fellowship on another item which I consider quite great, that is, how to carry out the ministry. In Book two we covered the vision in the Lord’s recovery. Now we must see how to carry out the vision. This is altogether an experiential matter. We may be able to relate quite much to doctrine and visions, but now we must see the way to carry out what we have seen. Concerning the vision, undoubtedly, the written Word is our base. This is also our track to follow and our rule to be under. The way to carry out the vision, however, is our practice. Paul told Timothy to commit the things that he had heard from him to faithful men who would be competent to teach others (2 Tim. 2:2). Although this verse does give us some way to carry out the vision, it is still a principle. We still need to know how we can become competent to teach others. Because we cannot see many details in Paul’s word in 2 Timothy 2:2, I feel the best way to fellowship this matter is to check with our own experience.
In the United States, we have over twenty years experience in this matter of teaching. According to my experience and observation, we must first pick up the crucial points of the truth to carry out what we have seen. There is no basic truth that can stand by itself as a single, all-inclusive point. The truth is mainly composed with many points. For instance, consider the great truth of salvation. This one item contains many, many points. We must pick up these points and get ourselves into them.
Even a Life-study message cannot stand on one point alone. It is at least composed with a few points. If you want to get into a Life-study message, you must first read it in a general way. By reading it in a general way you will be able to realize that some points are more crucial than others. You must, first of all, pick up the crucial points and get into them.
Also, in reading anything we must first understand the vocabulary. If you read the Chinese Bible, you must understand the Chinese language; if you read the English Bible, you must understand the English language; and if you are trying to read the Greek Bible you must understand the Greek language. No one is capable enough to remember every definition of a word. I do not think that even Webster himself could remember all the things in his dictionary. If you could check with him on the meaning of a certain word, he would probably say, “Let me open the Webster’s dictionary to see.” This shows us that to get into the truth we must have a good lexicon. You should not think that your English is so good that you do not need a dictionary. This still is not adequate. You may be adequate only to a certain degree. I have always considered myself only adequate to a small degree even in my mother tongue of Chinese. None of us are adequate enough to know the full, proper, and accurate definition of any word. Even those of you who have a master’s degree in English cannot explain a word exactly and adequately unless you go to the best lexicon.
Another problem among all the languages of the world is that the same word has different denotations. The dictionary may give you five denotations for the same word. When a particular sentence uses a certain word, you must have the discernment to realize which denotation of this word to apply. If you do not have a proper understanding, you will apply the wrong denotation.
In the outline of the Recovery Version of Mark, I used the word “initiation”—the initiation of the Slave-Savior. Before I used this word, I had a great amount of consideration. Mark begins neither with the birth of Jesus nor with His genealogy. Luke begins with the conception and birth of Jesus. Following this Luke gives us the genealogy of Jesus. Mark, however, begins with the initiation of the Slave-Savior. The word initiation here actually means the same as the word inauguration. Some may say this is inauguration, but how can a slave be inaugurated? It is fitting to say that there is an inauguration for a president. How, though, can a slave be inaugurated into his slavery? This shows that the word inauguration is not suitable to the context. The thought here is the Savior’s coming into His duty, commission, or service. It is awkward, of course, to say “the coming in of the Savior.” Finally, I decided to use the word initiation.
The Chinese translators of our Recovery Version endeavored and worked very hard and I appreciate this. However, they translated the word initiation into Chinese according to the first denotation in Webster’s dictionary, that is, “the beginning.” To initiate, to begin, something is one meaning; but to initiate a person into a particular club or organization is another meaning. When a person is initiated into a new group, that means the person is being brought in, introduced, or conducted in. In the book of Mark it is not the beginning of the Savior, but the Savior’s being brought in, being introduced, being conducted in. In our translation of the Bible, we should never put something out in a light way. This shows us that we may pick up a point concerning the truth, but understand it absolutely in the wrong way and thereby miss the mark. Not only do we miss the mark by doing this, but we make a big mistake. This shows us again that it is not so easy to study the Bible.
Even to study the Life-study messages and the notes is not so easy. Sometimes it took me more than an entire day to compose just one crucial phrase in the notes of the Recovery Version. This does not mean that I was sitting at a desk for twenty-four hours working on this phrase. But while I was doing things throughout the day, my heart and my mind were considering that phrase. I had to invent some expressions to communicate the spiritual things the Lord has shown us. Language comes out of culture. A new culture needs a new language, and new points in the culture need new vocabulary. In the entire history of human culture there have never been so many items, not only in the general spiritual field but even more in the field concerning how we are one with the Triune God. Many points in this field are foreign to human culture. Therefore, the human language does not have the vocabulary because there is not something corresponding to it in the human culture.
By His mercy, in the Holy Spirit and in our spirit we experience something which has never existed and been understood in human culture, so there has never been the kind of vocabulary to express this experience. When I wrote the notes, therefore, I had to invent new terminology. In our fellowship concerning the vision in the Lord’s recovery of the church I was forced to create the adjectives “Christly” and “resurrectionly.” I did the same thing in 1971 in Elden hall in Los Angeles when I said that we needed to be “Jesusly human.” If we say that we need to be human like Jesus, this is imitation. This kind of expression bears a wrong denotation. This is like saying a monkey should be like a man. As a result, we invented the term “Jesusly human.” We needed a new adjective which did not exist in Webster’s dictionary or any other English dictionary. We should not say that such a term is wrong because no one has ever used it before. We must see that in any culture new words must be invented as the culture is progressing and new things are transpiring. It is easy to read two or three lines of the notes of the Recovery Version without realizing that in these lines there are some crucial points which took me one week to express and compose. Therefore, to read the Bible and to read a proper interpretation of the Bible is not so easy.
I found out that a number of brothers and sisters read the Life-study messages as they would read a newspaper. We must realize that there are also some newly composed phrases in the Life-study messages. The expression may be common, but what is conveyed in the expression is not so common. In the Recovery Version of Romans I did not have the time to compose an extensive note on the word “designated” in 1:4. There are a number of messages, though, which have been given on the matter of the designation of Christ and of our experience of designation. (See messages 2 and 52 through 56 of the Life-study of Romans.) The word designation may seem common to you, but the point is not common. When you read a message on Romans with the matter of designation in it, you should dwell on this point. Do not let it go. Sometimes you need to dwell on one point for two days. Even to pick up one point of the truth is not a rough, light, easy, or quick matter. Many times when the brothers and sisters read the Life-study messages they do not practice this principle— to learn how to pick up the crucial points.