Let me illustrate it in this way. Almost every Christian is a kind of manager of Christ. I don’t use the word control or rule over, but the word manage. Every Christian is a boss. Christ is not the boss; you are. If you are a worldly Christian, you would always direct Christ to go your worldly way. Even the sinful Christians would somewhat direct Christ to go their sinful way. When you criticize other brothers and sisters, you would direct Christ to go your way. Even the best Christians direct Christ to go their way. You may be reading the Bible, praying so much, loving to fellowship, but in all this, you are the boss. You direct Christ to take your way in reading the Bible; you direct Christ to take your way in prayer.
By seeing the situation and experiencing this matter I realize that very few Christians do let Christ live. You say that you live Christ. I would say this is correct: you live Christ. It is not Christ living, but you. You live Christ in directing Christ to take your way. When you are worldly and sinful, you dare not say that you are living Christ. But when you are reading the Bible, when you are praying, when you are fellowshipping, when you are walking in the spirit, when you are living Christ, you dare to say that you live Christ. That is right; you live Christ. It is you who are living Christ. And you have to realize that the more success you have in living Christ, the more you live Christ. Eventually, it is not Christ who lives Himself, but you who live Christ. Paul said that he had been crucified, and that it was no more he who lived but Christ (Gal. 2:20). You have been crucified, yet still you are here living Christ. You are the boss and Christ is the employee. You are the employer and He is the employee to help you accomplish the employer’s business, that is, to live Christ. You live Christ. You have to realize that this is altogether a subtle matter.
Before a person has surgery, the situation must be thoroughly cleansed in order to get rid of the germs. All kinds of germs are there. Every direction you turn, there are more germs. This is a good illustration of our problem today. We are persons of problems. We turn away from worldliness; that is very good, but we turn to some other problems. Then when we turn away from those problems, we turn to yet other problems. Some problems are always awaiting you. Even the best Christians still exercise a strong self. Years ago I heard people talk in somewhat an arguing tone that it is self, but it is the “holy” self. They said it was a kind of sanctified self, a spiritual self, a heavenly self. Of course they dared not say that it was a divine self, but they were bold to say that it was a holy, spiritual, heavenly self. Why did they argue in this way? Because they did not apparently do anything worldly, sinful, or fleshly. Every day the Bible was in their hands, and they really prayed unceasingly. But they always directed the Lord. The Lord was their slave, and they were the master.
By the end of last year I began to realize that we need a kind of training, not to pass on more knowledge to you, but to unload you in this matter and in that matter. In the past nine months we have unloaded many things. We have unloaded your culture, your opinion, your peculiarity, your treasured traps, your habitual living. You have yet many more things which need to be unloaded. What is the main purpose of unloading all these things? It is to perfect you in one matter: that Christ will really live in you and that the church will be your practical living of Christ. So far we haven’t reached the goal. We have a long way to go. We have too many things to unload. I don’t mean that only the negative ones, the dissenting ones, the worldly ones, the fleshly ones, or the sinful ones need to be unloaded; I mean also the positive ones. I mean you need to be unloaded.
Even today we are still the manager. Today we are still here managing; we are still living. We live Christ, and then we manage the living. We would like to have a perfect living, an absolute living, a living of Christ. But we still cannot say as Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
In a strict sense, in the New Testament you probably cannot find such a sentence that says “I live Christ.” You have to be careful when you say I would like to live Christ, that my goal is to live Christ. I am afraid when you say that, the “I” becomes the prison. You get imprisoned there because it is you who live Christ and not Christ who lives Christ. It is not Christ living Christ; it is you living Christ. Don’t think that I have made a kind of hook to catch you. Actually, you made the hook. My messages in the Perfecting Meetings simply make a claim for Christ. Whenever the claim comes, a hook is manifested. You have a lot of hooks. You don’t know how many hooks we have made for ourselves.
I believe that a number of us are not able to relax and have a rest concerning this matter because we are serious, and we mean business. However, in your meaning business you may turn from some small germs to some big germs. Small germs are easy to kill, but it is hard for you to kill the big, the strong, the covered, the concealed germs. What kind of germs are like this? Your “spirituality.” I would say that even your living Christ may become a germ. When you didn’t live Christ, I encouraged you and charged you to live Christ. But now that you are endeavoring to live Christ I say this is a strong germ. What shall you do? Right now I wouldn’t tell you what to do; rather I would simply tell you the problems. This is why I wanted to hear from these brothers concerning what help they have received and what kind of improvement they have made. Because they are somewhat humble, they would not tell us definitely what kind of help they had received or what kind of improvement they had made. But I would like to have heard that. You have to realize the more help you have received, the more germs you have gotten. Then you may consider that you don’t need to come to the meetings. But if you remain home, you remain in the germs. If you don’t come, that means you don’t like to turn away from the germs. But if you come here you receive more germs.