Consider three brothers from Japan, three brothers from Indonesia, and three brothers from the southern islands of the Philippines. You may see that all these brothers have been saved and have Christ in them. They have the same Bible and sing the same hymns. However, forgive me to say that they seldom live Christ. What do they live? These three live Japan, these other three live Indonesia, and the last three live the southern islands of the Philippines. It is not the Christ who lives in them that directs them. Sometimes there is a little of Christ living in them but not much. There are replacements in them. What are these replacements? They are the Japanese culture, the Indonesian culture, and the southern Filipino culture. All of these different cultures have been constituted into their blood to become a part of their being. Although we love the Lord and we say that we live by the Lord, in reality, instead of living the Lord, we live our culture. Unconsciously we are living in our culture.
The fact is that not only does each region or each race have its own culture, even all of us individually have our own self-invented culture. Consider the three Japanese brothers. They are genuine Japanese, but each has his own individual philosophy, and each has his own individual culture. If you want one brother to jump, it is very easy for him to jump; if you want another brother to jump, even if you threaten to kill him, he will not do it. All three brothers have been saved; all have Christ within them; all have the same Bible, sing the same hymns, and shout the same slogans. However, each one lives his own individual culture, because each one is living himself. Besides sleeping eight hours a day, they still have another sixteen hours of the day. At most they spend one hour in the spirit, in which they forget about Japan, forget about themselves, and live Christ. However, apart from this brief time, what do they live? They live technology, philosophy, local church religion, and their own moral standard, but not Christ.
Brothers and sisters, please consider if there is any one of you who is without his self-invented culture. Sometimes you hear a brother say, “Brother So-and-so shouldn’t have done this, and Sister So-and-so shouldn’t have done that. I am not boasting, but I myself would never do things in their way. I am not that kind of person, and I would not do things according to their kind of principle.” What is this? This is your own culture, invented and enforced by yourself. Then there are times when you hear a sister pray, “O Lord! I thank You and praise You for saving me and putting me in the church. Lord, from this day forward I will do such and such.” The numerous things she subsequently mentions are part of her own self-invented culture. Therefore, brothers and sisters, when you are not living Christ, you are living your self-invented culture.
All that I have said is to prove to you that it is really difficult to live Christ, and it is even more difficult to live only Christ. Most of the time we do not live Christ. What we live are scientific knowledge, philosophy, religion, or culture. There are too many replacements of Christ. The sinful, evil ones allow wickedness and the world to replace Christ. While wickedness and the world do not have too much room in us, things such as scientific knowledge, philosophy, religion, and culture still have too much ground in us. Unconsciously, unintentionally, we live these things instead of living Christ.
However, the Bible tells us that as we have received Christ, we ought to live and walk in Him. We should not live technology or philosophy or religion or the law; rather, we should live Christ and live and walk in Christ. Paul said that we need to be careful to not let anyone carry us off as spoil, taking us away from Christ through the tradition of men or the elements of the world (Col. 2:8). We must remain in Christ. Let philosophy go, let the law go, and let culture go; just remain in Christ. Christ surpasses technology, philosophy, religion, the law, and culture. Take care of only living in Christ and of living Christ.
Who is Christ? What is Christ? Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit. He is not only the Sovereign One over all, the One who is in the heavens on the throne, but He is also the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit living in your spirit now. He is in your spirit, and He is joined with your spirit as one spirit. You need to remain in this spirit, live in this spirit, breathe in this spirit, pray in this spirit, and fellowship with Him in this spirit. Christ as the Spirit in your spirit should direct you in everything. Then you will live Christ, and what you live out will be Christ.
Today all of you have clearly heard and seen that it is not knowledge, good and evil, religion, or culture, but it is Christ. You must live Christ. However, I am afraid that right after the meeting, you will altogether forget this message. By this afternoon you will go back to your culture and back to your living the local church religion. As long as you are not living in spirit, you are not living Christ; you are living something else. There are too many other things that are replacements of Christ. Mere doctrines regarding Christ are not Christ, the life-study messages are not Christ, and even the Bible is not Christ. We must see that Christ as the Spirit has entered into our spirit to become one spirit with us. Only this Spirit is Christ. To live Christ is to live this Spirit. You need to understand this and simply remain in the spirit: live in the spirit, walk in the spirit, pray in the spirit, and let go of all other things. This is to live Christ.
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