Along with the types there were also regulations, rules, and laws related to the worship in the Old Testament time. However, all those types, rules, and laws are only empty figures. They are not the reality, the truth. Now the age, the dispensation, has changed. God is seeking to have people who worship Him in spirit, not at Jerusalem, and in truthfulness, in reality, no longer in types and regulations.
We all know what our human spirit is, but what is the reality? The reality is Christ. All the offerings—the sin offering, the trespass offering, the peace offering, the burnt offering, and the meal offering—are types and shadows. Those things are not the reality. The reality of all the offerings is Christ Himself. Likewise, the reality of love for God and love toward our neighbors is Christ. Now there is no need to keep the laws and regulations. There is, however, the need for us to take Christ as our life and live by Him; then we will have the reality.
In the ancient times, people came to God with the produce of the land. Now, in this New Testament time we come to God with the Christ whom we have experienced. In the ancient times, people also worshipped God by keeping the commandments, such as those concerning loving God and loving their neighbors. Today, however, we worship God not by keeping the commandments but by taking Christ as our life. When we take Christ as our life, Christ is love for us to love God, and Christ is love toward our neighbors. All those commandments are empty; they are not the truth, the reality. Today Christ is the reality.
If we realize the background of the Lord’s word in John 4, we will know the proper meaning of worship. We must realize that worship today—our service, work, and activities—must be in the human spirit and in Christ as the reality. It must not be in forms, rules, or regulations. Throughout many generations, at least from the time of the Reformation almost five centuries ago, many devoted Christians have tried again and again to study the New Testament to find the proper way for Christians to worship God. However, no one could find the answer. I myself did the same thing, and I could not find the answer. Eventually I found that the principle is to worship in spirit and in reality.
Sometimes dear brothers ask me if it is best to begin our meeting with a hymn. I say that this is perhaps right but not absolutely right. It depends on whether the hymn is called and sung in the spirit. If the hymn is called and sung in a formal way as a ritual, it is wrong. Some brothers ask if it is right to have hymns first and then prayers. I reply that this is fine if it is in the spirit. However, it may not be in the spirit; it may be done according to a program, not a program printed on paper but one printed in our mind. In this case, it is wrong. We all have to learn how to exercise our spirit.
The exercise of our spirit is one of the items of the Lord’s recovery in these last days. To worship in the human spirit has been much neglected by today’s Christianity. Many today have forgotten about the exercise of the human spirit and instead exercise their mind. Therefore, in order to be trained in a proper way in the Lord’s service in the church life, the first matter is that we must learn to exercise our spirit. We may compare exercising our spirit for our service to using our feet to play soccer. When I was a young boy, I was fond of playing soccer, which we called football. Even in the classroom while I was listening to the lecture, I was exercising my feet, because I knew that after class we would go to play a game. In the United States, however, the game called “football” is played more with the hands than with the feet. To exercise our mind in the service is like using our hands to play soccer. We need to learn how to exercise our spirit.
We need to learn to exercise our spirit in our daily life. The Epistles tell us that we must walk according to the spirit (Rom. 8:4-6). The King James Version often uses Spirit with a capital letter in passages such as these, but the better translations render spirit with a small letter. To walk in spirit means to exercise our spirit by our daily walk. If we are exercised to walk according to the spirit, when we come to the meetings our spirit will be active. We will know how to exercise our spirit. How can I play football if I do not know how to exercise my feet? Many Christians simply do not know how to exercise their spirit, so when they come to the meeting, they do not know how to worship God in spirit.
In these days we cannot overstress this matter. We always should stress that we must help the brothers and sisters to learn how to exercise their human spirit. Even in our home, in dealing with our family, we must learn how to exercise our spirit, to do and speak things not by our mind, emotions, desires, or likes but by the inner feeling, the consciousness of the spirit. We must learn how to exercise according to the deepest feeling in our spirit. Then we will be used to exercising our spirit, so whenever we come to the meeting, we will be ready.
In order to play tennis, we have to exercise our wrist. When we are accustomed to exercising our wrist, we can play tennis, but if we do not exercise in this way, how can we play the game? In order to be trained in the church life, the first thing we must consider is the exercise of the spirit. We must learn how to worship God in our human spirit, because today God as the Spirit dwells in our spirit.
God is Spirit, and this divine Spirit dwells in our spirit. For this reason, the Epistles, particularly those of the apostle Paul, tell us that the Lord is with our spirit. There are many expositions of the book of Galatians, but it is hard to find one that speaks on the last verse of that book. At the end of Galatians, the last verse says, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (6:18). Regardless of how much we know the teachings of Galatians, if we do not know how to realize the grace of Christ in our spirit, we will not be able to have the experiences of Christ taught in this book. In the first four chapters of Galatians we have the teachings of Christ: Christ revealed in us (1:16), Christ living in us (2:20), Christ put on us (3:27), and Christ being formed in us (4:19). The last two chapters, however, deal with the spirit: walking by the Spirit (5:16, 25) and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ being with our spirit (6:18). All the teachings about Christ must be applied in our spirit; then we will have the experience of Christ.
We must learn how to discern our spirit and to exercise it all the time. Then whenever we come together, we will know how to use our spirit. Our spirit will be on the alert, ready, active, and living. If we do not learn to exercise the spirit, we will not be able to have the proper church life. The church life is a life in the human spirit with the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit today indwells our spirit, so we must know how to exercise our spirit. This is one aspect of the principle of the New Testament worship.
As we have seen, the other aspect of the New Testament worship is to worship in truthfulness, that is, in reality, in Christ. When we come to the meetings, we have to exercise our spirit, but what should we exercise to do in our spirit? The people in the ancient times had to bring all their surplus to Jerusalem to offer it and enjoy it with one another in the presence of God. At least a part of what they offered was food to God. Not only the people of Israel enjoyed the surplus, but God also enjoyed it. This typifies that we come to the meetings to exercise our spirit to exhibit Christ. When the people of Israel came together and brought all their surplus to Jerusalem, that became a “fair,” an exhibition, of the produce of the good land. Likewise, when we Christians come together, the Christian meeting is an exhibition of Christ. We exercise our spirit to exhibit Christ.
We all must learn how to exercise our spirit to minister Christ, apply Christ, and share Christ with others. This depends on our daily labor. If we do not labor on Christ and live by Christ, we will have nothing of Christ in our hand. Even if we understand how to exercise our spirit, we may have the technique but not the material. When we come to the meeting, our spirit may be positive, active, living, on the alert, and ready to exercise, but we may be poor and empty-handed, not having anything of Christ to minister. If this is so, we are worshipping in spirit but not in reality; we are in Jerusalem, but we do not have a surplus in our hands. Therefore, the church life depends on our daily exercise of the spirit and also on our daily walk in Christ. We have to labor on Christ, walk in Christ, live by Christ, and have many experiences of Christ. Then we will be rich in Christ and with Christ. When we come to the meeting, we will know how to exercise our spirit, and we will have much surplus of Christ.