Forty-eight years ago I picked up many doctrines. I was so sure that I was right, but I was just a little frog in a well with a narrow opening. The sky to me was just one foot in diameter. I thought I knew everything, but gradually the Lord led this little frog out of the well. In a sense I got out of the well and the sky was endless and spacious, but my sight was still confined. Then gradually, the Lord led me out of my confined sight. I learned that doctrinally there is no end to man’s argument. Man can argue forever about doctrine. I finally realized that it is not doctrine, but Christ. We have to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ. Doctrines only create an argument.
In 1963, while we were having a meeting in Los Angeles, a brother came up to rebuke me. He said that we were not scriptural because the sisters were praying and testifying in the meetings. Then he quoted 1 Corinthians 14:34, “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak.” Of course, I knew this verse before he was born, but I did not say anything. I simply said, “Brother, do you have any kind of meeting?” He said that they did. Then I asked him, “Do your sisters sing the hymns in your meetings?” He answered, “Yes, they do.” Then I told him that he was against the Scripture because the sisters in his meeting were not silent. According to the letter of this verse as understood by him, all the sisters must not open their mouths. This is just an illustration to prove to you that we could argue concerning the Scriptures forever. The more we argue, the more material we have with which to argue.
The Bible is not for doctrine. The Bible is for the revelation of Christ and the Church and for nourishment. Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Doctrines can only divide Christians. We can never be one according to doctrine. We must be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. Then with one mind and one mouth we can glorify God. This can never be our mind or mouth, it must be Christ’s. When we take Christ as our unique person, we are really one. Hallelujah! We have one person, one mind, and one mouth. It is absolutely possible for believers meeting together to be one by everyone taking Christ as his person.
When I was young, I was always taught to be patient, humble, kind, and loving. Eventually I discovered that regardless of how patient and kind these teachers were, they fought with each other over doctrine. So doctrine does not work. There is only one thing that works, and that is Christ Himself. We all need to take Him as our person. Today, if you still hold on to some doctrines, it proves that you are short of Christ. The more we take Christ as our person, the more He will swallow up all the dissenting doctrines. We need to open to the Lord and pray, “O Lord Jesus, You are my person. I live by You. I reject my person and take You as my person.” If we would pray this way for some time, all the dissenting germs would be killed. Everything would be swallowed up by Christ. Then the church would be the one new man with one mind and one mouth.
Ephesians 2:15 says that Christ on the cross has abolished all the ordinances. On the cross Christ took away our sins, crucified the old man, condemned the world, and destroyed the devil. On the cross Christ has also dealt with another item—the ordinances, which are the different ways of living and the different ways of worship. By abolishing the ordinances on the cross, Christ created in Himself one new man of the Jews and the Gentiles. Now we need to put off the old man and put on the new man. We do not need to create the new man; it has been created already. What we need to do is put it on.
We must read the full context of Ephesians 4:22-24. “That ye put off concerning the former conduct the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which according to God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” To put off the old man concerns the old, former conduct. This is related to the old social life, the old community life, because our conduct is always related to others. No man can be unsocial; everyone likes to have a community. We like to be with our relatives, our friends, our neighbors, and our classmates in order to have a kind of social life. So to put off the old man according to the former conduct means to put off the former social life.
When I was a young man I had my schoolmates, friends, and relatives. Then the Lord saved me, and from that day on He began to separate me. All of my schoolmates, friends, and even my relatives were gradually put off. After my old communal life was put off, I needed a new communal life. The Lord was so merciful in bringing me into the church life so that I could put on the new man. Now the church life is upon me, and I am under the church life.