Look at the Philippines today. If technology, philosophy, religion, and the law were removed, what kind of people would the Filipinos become? They would be bandits, robbers, or wild beasts. This is true not only of the Philippines but also of every other country in the world. Therefore, these four items must not be abandoned; technology, philosophy, religion, and the law are necessary items in human culture. The stronger a country is in these four aspects, the greater will be its national strength.

Nevertheless, we must know that these four items are replacements of Christ. We may ask three young brothers to come up to the platform for a demonstration. We can see that all these three young brothers have been saved. Do they have Christ? They do. However, what do they live by every day? They live by Christ for only a little time. Perhaps while praying at home they enter into their spirit and live by Christ. Furthermore, during the meetings when they have forgotten their own thoughts and emotions, they live by Christ. However, most of the time they are neither living in the spirit nor are they living by Christ. Sometimes even their eyes are rolling and their minds are wandering. They see that the elders are not good, the brothers are worse, and the sisters are even more disappointing. In the meetings they are watching, condemning, and criticizing. Therefore, at times even in the meetings they are not living by Christ. What do these three brothers normally live by? First, they live by technology. They may consider themselves young people of the space age, and therefore they cannot be without technology or knowledge. Second, they live by philosophy. They may say, “We are Chinese who were born in the Philippines. We have the Chinese philosophy and the Filipino philosophy. We have a philosophy of the East meeting with the West.” Third, these brothers live by religion. Their religion, which is the local churches, is first-rate and the most cultured. Fourth, they live by good, morality, and ethics. They have all these items, and they even have them on two levels. One level is the Chinese ethical traits such as meekness and patience. Consider the Chinese character for patience; it is a sharp knife stuck into the heart. This is patience. Moreover, these brothers are willing to yield to others. Another level is that they were born into a Christian family and were raised in a local church. They have not only morality, but they also have the knowledge of the Bible. They normally live by these four items: technology, philosophy, religion, and ethics.

Now if I ask, “Brother, in the past week, did you go to the movies?”, he will say, “No.” If I ask, “Why didn’t you go?”, he may say, “Because there were not any good ones.” Did you hear what he said? He says he did not go because there were no good movies worth watching. He considers that the movies are not good and disdains them because he is rich in knowledge. If these movies were shown to the country people, they would think that they are great. However, this very knowledgeable young man will not go because these movies are not up to his standard. If I ask the second brother, “Why did you not go to the movies?”, he replies, “When I go to the movies, I feel very uncomfortable within, so I do not go.” This seems to be somewhat related to Christ. It seems that it is Christ in him who would not allow him to go to the movies. Perhaps for the first two times, his uneasiness may be due to Christ. However, later on it may be because he is afraid that it would not look proper if others should see him. It may also be that he feels that as one who is in the church he should not go to the theater. He may have a standard for being a Christian. If he were to go to the movies, he would feel that that is improper and have no peace in his heart. Now if I ask the third brother, “Why did you not go to the movies?”, he replies, “This is the custom of the local church.” Did you hear him say that the local church’s custom is to not go to the movies? He is a good brother in the local church, so how can he go to the movies? In any case, you all can hear what these three brothers have said. None of them say that he did not go to the movies because Christ lives in him.

If I ask a sister, “Do you quarrel with your husband?”, she may reply, “Sometimes I want to quarrel with him, but after some consideration, I get the feeling that it would be better not to.” I would ask, “Please explain a little as to why you feel that it would be better not to quarrel,” to which she replies, “This is due to different reasons. First, in front of the children, it is not proper to quarrel.” Brothers and sisters, you can see that this sister is living her children instead of living Christ. She continues, “The second reason is that there are young brothers around, which also makes quarreling improper.” Again you can see that this sister is living the young people instead of living Christ. Then she says, “The third reason is that sometimes it is truly Christ who lives in me.” Brothers and sisters, do you see that Christ’s living in her is not listed first but last? There is still another reason that I can describe for you. You may feel this way: “Now that I am in the church and I am living the church life, how can I quarrel with my husband? This would truly be unseemly. Therefore, I must set up a good example and not quarrel.” Is this living Christ? No, this is merely a kind of religious living. I believe now you are all clear. Do not think that only one sister is like this; all of the sisters are the same. Even the brothers are not any different.

There are some elders who are too impetuous; they speak, act, decide, and handle matters in a quick way. The result is that they hurt others. There are other elders who are full of experience; they do everything slowly to avoid hurting others by being too quick. When they are asked by anyone about anything, they say, “Wait a minute, let me pray about it; I cannot give you an answer today.” However, this is to live wisdom and not Christ. Day by day we read much about Christ, pray much to Christ, and hear much about Christ, but we do not live Christ very much.
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