The first thing we face on this pathway is rejection. Because Christ is the rejected One, we must be rejected also. We have no choice. Do not expect to be welcomed, for no one will welcome you until the glory comes. Instead, you must be willing to be rejected. In 13:53—14:13 we see the increase of rejection. Many of us have experienced some measure of rejection by those who opposed our coming into the church. But I need to tell you that this rejection will not decrease; rather, it will increase. There will be rejection upon rejection. Be prepared for this.
The heavenly King was rejected firstly by the Jewish religionists. The religious leaders rejected Christ to the uttermost because they were fully occupied, possessed, and veiled by their religion. Because religion was everything to them, they could not recognize this heavenly King. Blinded by the religious veils, they rejected Him. After the Lord had been rejected in Jerusalem, the religious center, He turned to a geographical area that was not so religious—Galilee, the place where He was born and raised. Galilee was rather close to Gentile territory. However, He was not even welcomed in Galilee. Although the Galileans did not oppose Him, they rejected Him because of their natural knowledge. When they saw Him and heard Him speak, they said, “Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” (13:55-56). Here we see that the Galileans knew Him according to the flesh, not according to the spirit (2 Cor. 5:16). Thinking that they knew everything about Him, they were blinded by their natural knowledge. They saw the wonders, the miracles, He did, but they were preoccupied by their natural concepts. The religious people were preoccupied by their religion and by their religious concepts, and the Galileans were preoccupied by their natural knowledge.
If we would know Christ and follow Him, we need to realize that religion and natural knowledge are both veils. Some of our opposers belittle us by saying that we do not have theological training. But the Lord Jesus, a carpenter’s son, had no theological training Himself. Brother Nee, the one who helped me so much, much more than anyone else, had no theological training either. Religion and natural knowledge are two great obstacles frustrating people from recognizing who Christ is. If you follow religion, you will remain in Jerusalem, and if you follow your natural knowledge, you will be in Galilee. But Christ neither stays in Jerusalem nor remains in Galilee. As we shall see, He departs to the desert. Because Jerusalem was filled with religious concepts and Galilee was filled with natural knowledge, the Lord went to the desert. Are you in Jerusalem or Galilee, or are you in the desert? In the desert there is no religion, culture, or theological training. In Jerusalem there is religion and in Galilee there is natural knowledge, but in the desert there is the presence of Christ. Oh, in the desert we have Christ! This is our boast and enjoyment. We do not have religion or knowledge—we have Christ.
Because we belittle knowledge, we have been condemned and accused of being mind benders. But our minds are not being bent—they are being renewed from natural and religious knowledge. We must be bold to declare that we are no longer religious or natural. Instead of natural and religious knowledge, we have Christ as our wisdom, a wisdom that surpasses knowledge.
Any attempt to know Christ by natural knowledge will result in rejection. According to natural knowledge, Christ was the son of a carpenter and his mother was an ordinary woman. His countrymen knew all of His outward features, but they did not see that God was in Him. In 2 Corinthians 5:16 Paul says that, along with others, he knew Christ according to the flesh. When Paul was Saul of Tarsus, he knew Christ according to the flesh; he thought that Jesus was merely a little Nazarene. He did not realize that within Jesus was God. But one day on the road to Damascus the Lord Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” When Saul asked the Lord who He was, He responded, “I am Jesus.” On the road to Damascus Saul realized that Jesus of Nazareth was now in the heavens. Jesus seemed to be saying, “I was not only the flesh—I was God, for the very God was in Me. Saul, you knew Me according to the flesh, not according to the spirit within.”
It is the same today. We need to know other Christians not according to outward things, not according to their country, language, parentage, education, or outward appearance or qualification. If we know Christians according to these things, we know them according to the flesh. But we should know Christians according to the spirit, because Christ is in them. Several months ago, one of the opposers was invited to my home for lunch. We spent more than three hours together. At one point he said, “You don’t have scholars among you, do you? We have more than a hundred scholars with us.” However, eventually we, who are not supposed to have scholars among us, printed articles in the newspaper that the opposers are not able to answer. They have been troubled by so many carpenter’s sons.
As we follow the Lord in His recovery, we should not know people according to the flesh or estimate them according to the flesh. We should know them according to one thing—according to the measure of Christ. Knowledge, intelligence, and outward appearance mean nothing. Perhaps a certain brother cannot speak well and uses poor grammar. Yet whenever he opens his mouth, Christ comes out. Even when you are sitting in his presence, you realize that some amount of Christ is with him. In the church life in the Lord’s recovery we do not care for the outward appearance; we care only for the spirit within, where Christ is. This is the way to know Christ, the way to know other Christians, and the way to follow the Lord.