Now we need a little turn in the Perfecting Training. I would like to ask two brothers to tell us their conclusion of the past messages concerning this ugly matter of peculiarity. After listening to so many messages, what is peculiarity according to your understanding? I am concerned that perhaps some may not have understood this matter of peculiarity in a proper way. Please tell us what is meant by peculiarity.
First brother: Praise the Lord! Maybe, brothers and sisters, my understanding is still quite doctrinal concerning this matter, but I think that one thing we’ve all seen through these Perfecting Meetings is that we are peculiar. We may not have a very specific definition of what our peculiarity is, but we do have the realization that all of us are peculiar. It seems to me, Brother Lee, that you’ve been sharing very much on peculiarity, and at the same time you’ve been sharing very much with us concerning living Christ. It seems that we have peculiarity on the one hand and on the other we have the lack of living Christ. Although my understanding may be quite doctrinal, it seems that peculiarity in our being is just that element that frustrates us from living Christ. It is a kind of blockade or a kind of frustration in our being that just keeps the Lord as our person from living out of us. I guess peculiarity is just what I am without Christ.
Second brother: I wasn’t here last week, but according to the fellowship in the other meetings, I would say simply that peculiarity is what we are apart from Christ.
This is quite close, but still I don’t think you have hit home with the answers. After many messages which may have puzzled you, I would like to tell you now that peculiarity is just to live yourself. Peculiarity is to live one’s self.
God’s intention in having man is for man to express Himself. Man was made in the image of God and after His likeness. It is clear that God’s intention is to have man to express Himself. It is easy for any vessel without life to contain something and to express the content. The vessel has no life and no personality. So whatever you want to put into a vessel without life and personality causes no problem. But man as God’s vessel is a living person with personality. God created us this way—with a mind, a will, and an emotion. So it’s not simple for man to contain God and to express God.
What is the fall of man? The fall of man is just to bring man away from God and to make man a biased character. As a result of the fall man became biased. Man became not so cooperative with God’s intention. Furthermore, man’s eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge made him independent. All the mothers know that in the children there is the independent fallen nature. You don’t need to teach your children to say no. From a very early age they say no. “No” represents the independent nature of fallen man. Every fallen man is independent. As an independent person no one would live the life of another. Everyone likes to live herself or himself. In marriage life this is the biggest problem. Regardless of how much a husband and wife love each other, each still likes to live himself or herself. According to God’s ordination the two should be one. One is the head, and the other is in subjection to the head, so the two become one. Yet in nearly every marriage, the two still remain two. Why? Because we are fallen. We don’t like to live the life of another; we just like to live ourselves. Regardless of how much you love your wife, you still like to live yourself. And regardless of how much your wife is submissive and how much she loves you, if you touch her living of herself she will react. So the wisest policy of the husband is just to honor his wife’s living of herself. If you honor that point, she will be happy all the time. If you let her live herself, she will be happy. Don’t touch that part. When you touch that part, she will rise up. It is the same with little children. If the parents let the little children live themselves, they’re happy. Why are many American children eagerly expecting to reach eighteen years of age? It is because when they reach eighteen, they are like birds out of a cage; they have the freedom to live themselves.