When I spoke on the word reality many years ago in Taiwan, I did not give much stress to the matter of teachings. However, after further study, I feel that we need both teachings and reality. Merely having reality without teaching does not constitute the truth, nor does having teachings without reality constitute the truth. The truth must have both reality and teaching.
For example, even though Confucius taught benevolence and righteousness, this teaching does not contain the truth. Rather, this teaching is merely doctrine because he could not give the reality of benevolence or righteousness to people. Confucius did not say, “I am benevolence and righteousness”; neither did philosophers such as Socrates and Plato say this. Throughout human history there was only one person who said, “I am” (John 8:24, 28). When He spoke of life, He said, “I am the...life” (11:25), and when He spoke of truth, He said, “I am the...reality,” which is, “I am the...truth” (14:6).
The teachings of Confucius concerning the way of the highest learning, developing the bright virtue, loving people, and attaining supreme goodness are doctrines. In contrast, in the New Testament the Lord Jesus did not teach just doctrine; He also gave people reality. He did not say only that we should love other people as we love ourselves; He declared that we should abide in His love (15:9-10). In other words, He is the reality of our love. It seems as if the Lord was saying, “Receive My words and understand them, but if you want to obtain the reality in My words, you must gain Me.”
The Lord Jesus is the Word becoming flesh to tabernacle among us that we may be full of reality. Jesus did not merely speak doctrine; He was the reality of what He spoke. He spoke of love, and He is love. He spoke of truth, and He is truth. The disciples of Confucius could say only that they received the teachings of Confucius and that they improved their behavior according to his teachings. Confucius never said to his disciples, “If you do not have me, these teachings are empty. You need to open yourselves and let me enter into you, because I am the reality of these teachings.” Confucius did not have this teaching. He could not say this, because he was neither life nor the Spirit. Therefore, he could not enter into men. The Lord Jesus, however, is different. At the end of Revelation, the end of the entire Bible, He said, “Let him who is thirsty come; let him who wills take the water of life freely” (22:17). When we drink the Lord by drinking the water of life, we have the truth and also the reality. We have received the reality; the truth is the reality. Everything that is written in a recipe is theory. However, when someone prepares a delicious meal according to a recipe and puts it on the table for everyone to enjoy, the recipe becomes a reality. Thus, we need not only doctrine but also reality, the truth.
John 1:14 says that the Lord Jesus is “full of grace and reality [truth].” Verse 17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality [truth] came through Jesus Christ.” These verses do not contain teaching; they contain reality. In John 17:17, however, the Lord Jesus said, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” The word includes teachings, but in this verse the Lord says that the word of God is truth. This indicates that the word of God contains not only teachings but also reality. Let us look at another verse: “You shall be holy because I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16; cf. Lev. 11:44; 19:2; 20:7). This verse contains doctrine as well as reality, because God said that He is holy.
The doctrine of sanctification cannot sanctify us. Only the Lord, the reality of sanctification, can sanctify people. Seemingly, the word is composed of teachings, but within the word is reality. Therefore, the word of God can sanctify us. We do not only need to receive the word; we also need to gain the Lord Himself. The New Testament puts the word and the Lord together, as in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word,...and the Word was God.” The words in the Bible are not the same as the words of Confucius. The words of Confucius are merely words, but the words in the Bible are not merely words; they contain reality, and this reality is God Himself.