We all need a governing, directing, controlling vision of the Triune God as our goal. If we see this vision, we shall be governed and directed by it. I can testify that by the Lord’s mercy I saw this vision more than half a century ago, and I have not been distracted from it. This vision continues to control, govern, and direct me. My life is not aimless, for I have a definite goal. Throughout the years, the vision I have seen concerning the Triune God as my goal has strengthened me and upheld me.
If we see the vision of the Triune God as our goal, we shall not sow unto the flesh, but unto the Spirit, the all-inclusive Triune God dwelling in our spirit. This living Person should be our goal, and we should aim at Him in all we do, say, and are.
Paul knew that the Galatian believers were mistaken in aiming at the law and circumcision, which God had repudiated. He wanted them to come back to the life-giving Spirit, the One who is the totality of the blessing of the gospel. It seems as if Paul were saying to the Galatians, “Believers in Galatia, come back to the Spirit, take Him as the goal of your living, and aim at Him. This Spirit is the all-inclusive blessing of the gospel.”
Taking the Spirit as our goal is quite different from trying not to love the world. We were created with the capacity to love. We all need to love something. If you offer people something to love that is better than the world, they will love that instead of the world. However, because people have nothing better, they love the world. It is too shallow to charge Christians not to love the world. As human beings, we have the desire to love something, and this desire needs to be fulfilled. If it is satisfied by loving the Triune God, the One who is real, living, present, and subjective to us, we shall have no capacity to love the world. Something infinitely better than the world—the Triune God as the life-giving Spirit—has taken full possession of us. Believers are delivered from loving the world not by teaching, but by loving the Triune God and being filled with Him.
After I had preached the gospel one night in the city of Nanking many years ago, a young woman said to me, “Mr. Lee, I agree with all you have said, and I appreciate the Christ you preach. However, I love the theater very much, and I want to know whether or not I shall have to give up the theater if I become a Christian.” As I considered how to answer her question, I noticed that her little boy was with her. Then I said, “Suppose while you are talking with me your son picks up a sharp knife and plays with it. What would you do?” She told me that she could deal with the situation very easily by offering the child several pieces of chocolate candy. She told me she was sure that the child would drop the knife and fill his hands with candy. There would be no need to tell him to put the knife away, because he would be fully occupied with the candy. I said to her, “Don’t you realize that attending the theater is like playing with a sharp knife and Christ can be compared to that candy? If you fill your hands with Christ, you will have no interest in this ‘knife.’” She smiled and said that she was pleased with my answer. This incident illustrates the fact that it is not necessary to teach believers not to love the world. We need to present something better to occupy their love. Our need to love is filled by taking the Triune God as our goal. This goal is immeasurably greater than anything the world has to offer.
If we sow unto the Triune God, we shall walk by the Spirit. Then spontaneously we shall be the new creation in a practical way. The meaning of the new creation is that God, the divine Spirit, mingles Himself with us and constitutes us with Himself to make us new. The ethical teachings of Confucius may improve people’s behavior, but they cannot reconstitute anyone. But when we aim at the Triune God and walk by the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, the Spirit imparts the divine element into us and reconstitutes us with it. As a result, we no longer remain the old creation but become a new creation with a divine element wrought into us. The ultimate issue of this will be the New Jerusalem.
Today the church people in the Lord’s recovery are undergoing the process of becoming reconstituted of the divine element. We are not aiming at self-correction or self-improvement. Our goal is not to learn patience or to develop the capacity to suffer. Such things are not the new creation. The new creation is a matter of God’s chosen people taking the all-inclusive Spirit as their goal, aiming at Him, being one spirit with Him, and, as a result, having the divine element transfused into them to reconstitute them and make them new.
In 6:16 Paul says, “And as many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, even upon the Israel of God.” The rule in this verse is not that of keeping the law, improving ourselves, or obeying religious ordinances. The rule is to aim at the Triune God and walk by Him. Those who walk by this rule will have peace and mercy.