During the past sixty years, the trainings that we have held have been focused on four matters—truth, life, the gospel, and either service or the church, which are two aspects of one thing. All the revelations and teachings in the New Testament may be summed up in these four matters.
The way in which the Bible was written is not like the systematized way in which today’s theology is composed. There is nothing systematized or categorized about the Old and New Testaments. Although we have grouped the crucial points of the New Testament into the four categories of truth, life, the gospel, and service, the New Testament itself is not categorized in this way. The New Testament covers a great variety of subjects, and these subjects are scattered throughout the New Testament. For example, although the subject of the Gospel of Matthew is not the church, Matthew 16 and 18 contain a great revelation concerning the church. Matthew 16:18 says, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” and 18:17 says, “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you just like the Gentile and the tax collector.” In the New Testament all the revelations from Acts to Revelation that pertain to the church are developed according to these two simple verses. This shows us that the New Testament was not written in a systematized or categorized way but in a scattered way—one point is here and another point is there.
Most Bible scholars cannot explain why God wrote the Bible in such a way. According to our way of thinking, the Bible would have been easier to understand if it had been categorized and organized into a system similar to today’s systematic theology. We may think that the New Testament would be better if it were composed of only five chapters—chapter one on the truth, chapter two on life, chapter three on the gospel, chapter four on service, and chapter five on the church. If this were the case, taking a Bible class would be as easy as taking a secular class. However, the New Testament was not written in a systematized or categorized way. If you do not read the twenty-seven books of the New Testament carefully, and if you have no desire to progress or advance in your study of the Bible, then you will have no clue as to the meaning of the Bible and will not realize what it says.
In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus did not say, “Today let us go into the region of Caesarea Philippi. There the sky is clear, and I can sit down and speak to you about the matter of the church.” He did not do this. Instead, He simply asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then the Lord said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in the heavens. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church” (vv. 15-18). After speaking these things He showed His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things, be killed, and on the third day be raised. Upon hearing this Peter said, “God be merciful to You, Lord! This shall by no means happen to You!” But the Lord turned and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan!” Then the Lord told His disciples that they must follow Him by taking the way of the cross (vv. 21-24). The Lord first spoke about the church, then He mentioned Satan, and finally He referred to the way of the cross. Since this is the way that the Bible was written, we must consider what the best way to read it is.
The matter of life is also not presented in the Bible in a systematic way. It would not be very easy for someone who has been a believer for only a short time to find the line of life in the Scriptures. Perhaps we in the recovery do not even know where the word life is first mentioned in the New Testament. This shows us that in reading the Bible we truly need to be skillful.
The first time the Chinese version of the New Testament mentions the word life is in Matthew 6:25, which says, “I say to you, Do not be anxious for your life.” In the first five chapters of Matthew there is no mention of the word life. Matthew 1, a chapter on the genealogy of Christ, uses the word begot, a verb that means “to generate life.” Chapter two speaks of King Herod’s intention to seek the Lord Jesus and destroy Him. In this chapter there is only killing; there is no life. Chapter three contains the message that John the Baptist preached in the wilderness, in which he told people to produce fruit worthy of their repentance. This is not an explanation of life. Chapter four speaks of the Lord Jesus’ being tempted and His calling of the four disciples. First, He told the devil, “Man shall not live on bread alone” (v. 4). The word live is in this verse but not the word life. Later when He called His disciples, He was like “a great light” (v. 16). Although John 1:4 tells us that “the life was the light of men,” Matthew 4 does not mention life in conjunction with light. Hence, in reading the Bible we need a proper mind. On the one hand, we must be able to uncover all the implications of a certain word, such as the word life, but on the other hand, we must uncover the revelation of life that is presented in plain words in the New Testament and not extend the meaning of any word in a careless way.
Although we now know that the first mention of the word life in the Chinese version of the New Testament is in Matthew 6, we still have to find out what kind of life is referred to here. The New Testament mentions three kinds of life. The first kind of life is the physical life. The Greek word for this kind of life is bios, which is the root of the English word biology. Another kind of life is the soul-life. The Greek word for this kind of life is psuche, which refers to our natural life. The third kind of life is the eternal life, and the Greek word for this life is zoe. This is the life that we receive into our spirit from God. The word zoe does not appear in the New Testament until Matthew 7:14. It is frequently used in speaking of spiritual matters. Generally speaking, what we eat, what we drink, and what we wear are matters that are primarily related to our physical life. However, although the word life in Matthew 6:25 is used in relation to our physical eating and drinking, the word anxious in this verse indicates that in this verse life is related to the soul. The word life in this verse is literally the word soul, referring to the soul-life, in which the desire and appetite for food and clothing reside.