The first virtue is lowliness. Many translations of the Bible render the word lowliness in Ephesians 4:2 as humility. But lowliness is very different from humility. A king or a president may be very humble and yet still remain in his high position. Although he may be humble, he may still remain in his dignity and honor. The Lord Jesus was not like this. He was equal with God, but He did not regard His equality with God as a thing to be grasped (Phil. 2:6). He not only became humble, but He left His high position and came down to be a man. This was His lowliness. Furthermore, He not only came down to the low level of man, but even to the lowest level of a slave (Phil. 2:7). Although the Lord Jesus was in the form of God, He did not grasp that form. Rather, He left that high position, the position of God, and came down to the low position of man. Moreover, as a man He became a slave, and as a man-slave, one day He washed the feet of the disciples (John 13:1-17). How low the Lord Jesus became! When He washed the feet of Peter, John, James, and all the disciples, He was lower than all of them. Whoever washes the feet of another person must be lower than the one whose feet he washes.
In the church life, the first virtue needed is lowliness. To be lowly is to remain in a low estate. If you are an elder, you must not remain in the estate of an elder. You must come down from the level of the elders. Come down to wash the feet of the saints. In 1952, in Taipei the five elders washed the feet of nearly one thousand brothers in one meeting. That was a real renewing of the church life. This shows that all the elders came down from the elder level. They became lower than all the brothers, and that washed away all the complaints, all the dissatisfactions, and all the murmurings and gossipings. Furthermore, that brought in the real oneness.
In Matthew 11:29 the Lord said that He is meek and lowly in heart. These are the same virtues needed in the church life. In the church life, we all should have lowliness and meekness. The Lord Jesus was the very God. He was very high, but He came down. He left the high level, and He became low by becoming a man. Then as a man, He came down further from the level of man to the level of a slave.
One day the disciples were quarreling concerning who was the greatest. The Lord Jesus seemed to tell them, “If you want to become great, you have to be low. Among you there is no ruler. All of you are brothers. Whoever would be great must be a slave. You have to serve your brothers. You must be like Me. I came not to be served, but to serve others. Do you not remember that I washed your feet?” (Mark 10:36-45). In order to practice lowliness in the church life, none of the brothers or sisters, older ones or younger ones, should remain in a high estate. All of us must come down from our throne. We must come down to a low level. We all have to become low. Lowliness is the first virtue needed in the church life.
The second virtue needed in the church life is meekness (Eph. 4:2). What is meekness? Humanly speaking, we may consider meekness to be the same as gentleness. If someone is gentle, walks slowly, and speaks slowly and softly, we consider him to be meek. But in the New Testament, meekness denotes much more than this. Meekness in the Bible means not to fight for oneself. The Lord Jesus told us that if anyone wants our jacket, we should give him our jacket and also our shirt (Matt. 5:40). In human society it is different. If someone takes another’s jacket, they will fight over the jacket. This is not meekness. To be meek is to be like a lamb brought to the slaughter. The lamb does not fight; it simply goes without resisting. The Lord Jesus was such a lamb. When He was about to be crucified, He was brought to the slaughter like a lamb. He did not resist and He did not fight; He simply gave in. If I am meek and you want me to walk with you for one mile, I will walk with you. Eventually, I would even walk another mile for you. I would not fight or resist but give in. If you want to occupy more than one fourth of the bench, I will give you half of the bench. If you want half of the bench, I will give you two thirds of the bench. If you want two thirds, I will give you the entire bench. If you say that you are right and I am wrong, I would not try to prove that you are wrong and I am right. This is meekness. Meekness is not to fight, but always to give in. In the lawcourt there is no meekness; there is only fighting for righteousness. In a court of law people fight to find out who is right and who is wrong. But we all must realize that the church life is not a court of law.
We may illustrate the virtue of meekness by the story of a sister whose husband always came home very late at night. The sister insisted that her husband was wrong and would not open the door for him when he came home. She purposely kept him outside knocking until an hour passed. Eventually, she would open the door for him, and then she would slam it shut. I advised her not to do this. I suggested that every night while her husband was away she should make some very good dessert and tea and have it ready for him. Then she should wait by the door until he returned, even if it was after midnight. When she heard his steps, she should open the door and say, “Welcome home. Here is some tea and dessert.” After hearing my words, the sister told me that it was impossible for her to do this. I said to her, “Yes, you cannot do it, but the Lord Jesus within you can do it.” Eventually, I convinced her that this was the only way she would gain her husband, and she went back home to practice this. Later she told me that not only did her husband stop going away at night, but he even began to go to the meetings with her. This is a real illustration of virtue.
With us there should be no legality, no fighting, no quarreling, but giving in. If your husband likes to go out, walk him to the door and say, “Good-by, and have a good time.” Even if you know that he is going to the theater, you should still wish him a good time and be ready to welcome him back. This is not legality but meekness. To be meek is to give in.
When we give in, we give the Lord an opportunity to come in to bless the situation. This is why we must forget the past. To forget the past means to give in. If you still hold on to the past, you are struggling, you are fighting. This kind of fighting is endless. Instead, you must give in. To forgive is to give in, and to give in is to forget. It is very hard for us Christians to forgive others. Often our forgiveness may be likened to burying a dead dog, but keeping the tail outside the earth. After we have buried the dead dog, we may boast to our friends that we have forgiven others and have buried the past. After boasting in this way, we then show them the tail of the dead dog. Quite often the wives may forgive their husbands in this way. And sometimes some of the saints may testify in the meeting, “The elders offended me, but one day by the Lord’s mercy I forgave them all.” Since they forgave them all, why did they need to come to the meeting to tell people? That means they buried the dog, but still kept the tail. We need to drop the tail, to give in and forget the offense. Then we should not say anything further concerning the offense. In the church life we should never struggle for anything, and we should never insist on anything. Meekness is simply to give in. Do not insist, do not attack others, and do not struggle for yourself. Just give in. Then you will have peace in the church life.