In no other book of the Bible is the writer so serious as Paul is in those four books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. When you read the book of Philippians you can especially realize that Paul was serious. In that book he was very sharp and even impolite. He used the term “dogs.” “Beware of the dogs” (Phil. 3:2). I don’t think any good, refined, or polite writer would write a book using this term “dogs.” If such a term were not written in the Bible and I had written such a term, surely people would say that I am from a barbarian country. Paul also used the word “concision” which, language-wise, is even worse than dogs (Phil. 3:2). Concision means to cut yourself foolishly, to mutilate a part of the body foolishly. The Judaizers considered their circumcision as their glory, but Paul used a word which means mutilation. It means to cut yourself foolishly and to make yourself so ugly. If you cut off your nose, that is not circumcision; that is concision. Paul was altogether not polite because he was desperate regarding the lacking of Christ. Because he was desperate, he used other terms such as “thinking the one thing” (Phil. 2:2). No other book has been written in such a desperate way. This kind of desperate aspiration represents God’s desire. God is desperate. Look at the situation. Not only in the first century but also in the twentieth century, where is Christ? How much Christ can God see in His chosen people? Not much!
In our Life-study of Revelation chapters two and three I pointed out that Judaism is Satanic, Catholicism is demonic, and Protestantism is Christless. Although some may have been offended by this, this is not my speaking; this is the study of Revelation chapters two and three. Revelation 3 shows us that Christ is outside the door of Laodicea. This means they were Christless. You may consider that others are Laodicea, but you have to realize that you yourself might be also in Laodicea. Why? Because Christ is not so much in your daily life. So we have to condemn ourselves that our daily life is somewhat Christless. Christ is actually not so much in our daily life. This is why I have become bothered. I am bothered by the little amount of the element of Christ in our daily practical life. Even the more, the church life, the Body life is lacking. We don’t have much Body life in our daily life.
For a number of months I have been practicing one thing— to live Christ. During this time I have confessed a few times daily. After a certain period of time I would confess, “Lord, forgive me. During this period of time I didn’t live You.” I didn’t do anything wrong or bad. I didn’t offend people. I just habitually, spontaneously, unconsciously lived myself. After rising up in the morning I had a good time with the Lord, but right after that I habitually and unconsciously lived myself. There was no warning and no reminder. If I lose my temper, right away the warning rises up from within. But if I don’t do anything wrong and everything is fine, I just live myself habitually. There’s no warning, no condemnation, and no reminding until after two or three hours. Then I realize, “Oh, Lord, forgive me; again I’m not living Christ.” Because I am used to it, I don’t need any kind of exercise or intention to habitually, spontaneously, unconsciously live in this way. I simply live myself; I do not live Christ. Today the Lord is after a group of people who actually and practically live Him. This is not a small matter, and it is not a light matter for Paul to say, “To me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). Paul had the boldness to declare this, but today I don’t have the boldness. I have to admit that, to a certain extent, to me to live is not Christ. To me to live is mostly just myself. I don’t live a sinful self, a worldly self, a defeated self, a self that loses its temper, but I do not live Christ that much.
Among Christians today there is not much speaking concerning the matter of living Christ. You can hardly hear a message about this matter. The charismatic Christians may speak about speaking in tongues, healing, the lengthening of the legs, or other things. But you can hardly hear a message on living Christ. You can hardly hear a message that it is no more I who live but Christ (Gal. 2:20). People don’t have this kind of living. Although I have been speaking concerning this for years and years I didn’t pay attention that there was such a serious lacking of Christ in the saints’ daily life. But within the past few years I have become seriously bothered by my own situation because in every section of the day I checked my life and I discovered that there was not much Christ. In the past most of my confession was concerning wrongdoing, but now most of my confession is concerning the lacking of Christ. I have done nothing wrong during the day so that after the whole day when I go to sleep I don’t regret anything. But although I have done nothing wrong, I deeply regret and am bothered because there was not much of Christ lived in my daily life. There was no sin, no worldliness, no self, no temper—nothing on the negative side. Still there was not much of Christ on the positive side. What God is after is not a life without any negative things; God is after a life that is full of Christ. This is lacking.