Last week I decided to order a few books. I bought Sit, Walk, Stand and Authority and Submission, both by Watchman Nee, and also The Fear of the Lord by John Bevere. Before the semester begins I’ve decided to read the first of those three; it’s a pamphlet-sized reflection on Ephesians. Among all of Paul’s letters, Ephesians has most profoundly and repeatedly influenced my thinking, and Watchman Nee’s teachings only emphasize the importance of this book in my life. I first read Sit, Walk, Stand in the summer of 2005, immediately preceding my first mission in India. My then pastor and mentor, Andrew Bajus, recommended it to me, and I remember it being presented to me, along with a Bible and a hug, as a graduation gift from my home church in New York. It is no small thing that I mention how significantly it influenced me and my Indian mission; my twenty-page account of the mission often makes mention of how the Lord took me through what Watchman Nee calls “sitting,” “walking,” and “standing”—in that particular order, and how He worked in me an experiential knowledge of the truths contained within the small book, and of course the same truths contained with the Scriptures. I expect that this pattern of experiential teaching has always been how the Lord kneads the kingdom into the dough of my soul, but I recognized it most clearly on that mission. (Tangential thought: maybe someday I can revisit that account and synthesize all three years of my experiences in India into one more complete reflection. Maybe.)
Sit, Walk, Stand has a simple and straightforward organization. In brief, he asserts for this teaching that Ephesians has three main sections: one doctrinal section explicating “the believer’s position in Christ,” and two practical sections, the first of which pertains to “his life in the world,” and the second to “his attitude to the enemy.” And it is these three sections that Watchman Nee has respectively called “Sit,” “Walk,” and “Stand.” Yesterday I read the first, and today I’ve begun the second. I actually found myself incapable of reading further without writing and responding to what I’ve read. It’s simple writing and also pregnant with meaning.
The first section emphasized the “historic fact” that God has outstandingly and completely provided for everything we need to receive eternal life in Him. The author asserts, “Our Christian life begins with the discovery of what God has provided.” And, similar to my response to Garey’s message last Sunday, I am challenged to see myself seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (ref. Ephesians 2:6)—that is, I am challenge to believe that He has made me to sit there, because we live by faith and not by sight, and we live by sitting and receiving and not by doing and making our own provision. The section has an undercurrent of the importance of faith, though the author doesn’t so explicitly enter into a doctrinal exegesis concerning it. Do I believe that Christ’s redemptive work is done? Watchman Nee writes, “Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE,” and, “The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus.” It is most compelling when he challenges my temptation to interpret the Scriptures with a mediocre attitude of “I’m trying.” God has been saying, “Stop trying,” for a long time now. Paul wrote, “Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is free from sin” (Romans 6:6-7 NASB). I am tempted to interpret these verses to mean that I am working toward this goal of perfection that I should and may eventually attain before the end. But Watchman Nee provokes my spirit, writing of these particular verses, “This is not an exhortation to struggle. That is history: our history, written in Christ before we were born.” And I am struck dumb in my excuses for sin, and it becomes clearer why Jesus repeatedly rebuked (rebukes) His disciples for being “of little faith” and slow to understand how our unity and life with God begins with our death in His Son.
The second section has a subsection called “The Perfection of the Father,” in reference to Jesus’s closing line to His sermon on the mount—“therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NASB). Whereas I am tempted to interpret Jesus as being ironical in this sermon, Watchman Nee has an insight into the practical reality of the commands and exhortations therein. Repeatedly he makes the connection between fulfilling these commands and resting in God, the same connection he made at the opening of the section between “walking” and “sitting.” I think the teaching is most concisely summarized in one sentence: “God does not command what he will not perform.” These commandments, which seem impossible, being even beyond the standard of the Mosaic Law, simply cannot be done, not by the natural man. But as was emphasized earlier, they have been done in Christ, and our fulfillment of God’s commandments is entirely dependent upon our trust in God to fulfill them in us, because He alone can meet the standards for godliness. Christ Jesus, who alone has walked before God as a sinless human, has taken a place by the Father’s side, and all who are in Him are also partakers of that impossible righteousness, perfect because the Son is perfect. At the height of this teaching, it becomes clearer that we cannot “walk” until we have first “sat.” If we do not, by faith, recognize our position in Christ as seated there with our Father, then we cannot, by faith or any other means, be Christ here on earth as we are commanded to be. Being perfect as our Father is perfect is both a command and a promise for those who trust in Him. There is no need to scoff or be discouraged by the impossibility of the life we are supposed to walk, because the impossibility shows, as the author phrases it, “what utter confidence the Lord has in his own life made available to his children” (his emphasis). Only in our trust for His holiness to be accomplished in us by His Spirit can our walk ever be “perfect.” It has been said that a human’s greatest works are as filthy rags before the Lord, but Paul understood what a difference it is to strive “according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Colossians 1:29), to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord.
Within this same subsection, Watchman Nee addresses truths that harmonize very well with a song the Lord has sung over me for many years. I once preached at Bath Baptist, that church in New York that I mentioned above, on unity in the Spirit, drawing largely from Ephesians and John’s gospel. One of the largest hindrances that any Christian may have in his walk among others is a failure to forgive. From what I can see it is indeed the most hurtful and widespread sin of the church. It is founded upon the “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude. It not only plagues our relationships with brothers and sisters in the church, but it also manifests as religious self-righteousness in the sight of all; this attitude is chiefly responsible for division among God’s creatures, because it breeds in us the sin of failing to forgive, which is manifested most simply as bitterness, bigotry, and hatred. To refrain from preaching too much further, it’s appropriate that I connect this thought to the teachings of Watchman Nee, who gives an account for the human obsession with “right” and “wrong.” Since Adam’s days, humans have been in the business of distinguishing what is good and what is evil apart from God’s own distinctions. Ethics, one of the most substantial branches of philosophy, is the academic and intellectual fruit of this evaluation of our world and the actions we take. In truth, it is a person’s ethics that make him one under the law. The man who lives ethically says, “I should do this, but not that, because this is ‘right’ and that is ‘wrong,’ and my goal is to be ‘right,’ of course.” Am I suggesting, in such an ethical way, that a Christian shouldn’t be concerned with ethics? No. I’m suggesting that ethics can only do for you what the law can do for you, and in the sermon on the mount we are called to live beyond the law, beyond ethics. “As Christians,” the author asserts, “our standard of living can never be ‘right or wrong,’ but the Cross.” Christians will indefinitely be involved in the discernment of good and evil, but “for us the starting point is a different one,” because “Christ is for us the Tree of Life. We do not begin from the matter of ethical right and wrong. We do not start from that other tree. We begin from him; and the whole question for us is one of Life” (his emphasis). He summarizes this teaching of the Father’s perfection by drawing the attention back to very words that prompted this teaching:
Sit, Walk, Stand has a simple and straightforward organization. In brief, he asserts for this teaching that Ephesians has three main sections: one doctrinal section explicating “the believer’s position in Christ,” and two practical sections, the first of which pertains to “his life in the world,” and the second to “his attitude to the enemy.” And it is these three sections that Watchman Nee has respectively called “Sit,” “Walk,” and “Stand.” Yesterday I read the first, and today I’ve begun the second. I actually found myself incapable of reading further without writing and responding to what I’ve read. It’s simple writing and also pregnant with meaning.
The first section emphasized the “historic fact” that God has outstandingly and completely provided for everything we need to receive eternal life in Him. The author asserts, “Our Christian life begins with the discovery of what God has provided.” And, similar to my response to Garey’s message last Sunday, I am challenged to see myself seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (ref. Ephesians 2:6)—that is, I am challenge to believe that He has made me to sit there, because we live by faith and not by sight, and we live by sitting and receiving and not by doing and making our own provision. The section has an undercurrent of the importance of faith, though the author doesn’t so explicitly enter into a doctrinal exegesis concerning it. Do I believe that Christ’s redemptive work is done? Watchman Nee writes, “Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE,” and, “The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus.” It is most compelling when he challenges my temptation to interpret the Scriptures with a mediocre attitude of “I’m trying.” God has been saying, “Stop trying,” for a long time now. Paul wrote, “Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is free from sin” (Romans 6:6-7 NASB). I am tempted to interpret these verses to mean that I am working toward this goal of perfection that I should and may eventually attain before the end. But Watchman Nee provokes my spirit, writing of these particular verses, “This is not an exhortation to struggle. That is history: our history, written in Christ before we were born.” And I am struck dumb in my excuses for sin, and it becomes clearer why Jesus repeatedly rebuked (rebukes) His disciples for being “of little faith” and slow to understand how our unity and life with God begins with our death in His Son.
The second section has a subsection called “The Perfection of the Father,” in reference to Jesus’s closing line to His sermon on the mount—“therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NASB). Whereas I am tempted to interpret Jesus as being ironical in this sermon, Watchman Nee has an insight into the practical reality of the commands and exhortations therein. Repeatedly he makes the connection between fulfilling these commands and resting in God, the same connection he made at the opening of the section between “walking” and “sitting.” I think the teaching is most concisely summarized in one sentence: “God does not command what he will not perform.” These commandments, which seem impossible, being even beyond the standard of the Mosaic Law, simply cannot be done, not by the natural man. But as was emphasized earlier, they have been done in Christ, and our fulfillment of God’s commandments is entirely dependent upon our trust in God to fulfill them in us, because He alone can meet the standards for godliness. Christ Jesus, who alone has walked before God as a sinless human, has taken a place by the Father’s side, and all who are in Him are also partakers of that impossible righteousness, perfect because the Son is perfect. At the height of this teaching, it becomes clearer that we cannot “walk” until we have first “sat.” If we do not, by faith, recognize our position in Christ as seated there with our Father, then we cannot, by faith or any other means, be Christ here on earth as we are commanded to be. Being perfect as our Father is perfect is both a command and a promise for those who trust in Him. There is no need to scoff or be discouraged by the impossibility of the life we are supposed to walk, because the impossibility shows, as the author phrases it, “what utter confidence the Lord has in his own life made available to his children” (his emphasis). Only in our trust for His holiness to be accomplished in us by His Spirit can our walk ever be “perfect.” It has been said that a human’s greatest works are as filthy rags before the Lord, but Paul understood what a difference it is to strive “according to His power, which mightily works within me” (Colossians 1:29), to walk in a manner pleasing to the Lord.
Within this same subsection, Watchman Nee addresses truths that harmonize very well with a song the Lord has sung over me for many years. I once preached at Bath Baptist, that church in New York that I mentioned above, on unity in the Spirit, drawing largely from Ephesians and John’s gospel. One of the largest hindrances that any Christian may have in his walk among others is a failure to forgive. From what I can see it is indeed the most hurtful and widespread sin of the church. It is founded upon the “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude. It not only plagues our relationships with brothers and sisters in the church, but it also manifests as religious self-righteousness in the sight of all; this attitude is chiefly responsible for division among God’s creatures, because it breeds in us the sin of failing to forgive, which is manifested most simply as bitterness, bigotry, and hatred. To refrain from preaching too much further, it’s appropriate that I connect this thought to the teachings of Watchman Nee, who gives an account for the human obsession with “right” and “wrong.” Since Adam’s days, humans have been in the business of distinguishing what is good and what is evil apart from God’s own distinctions. Ethics, one of the most substantial branches of philosophy, is the academic and intellectual fruit of this evaluation of our world and the actions we take. In truth, it is a person’s ethics that make him one under the law. The man who lives ethically says, “I should do this, but not that, because this is ‘right’ and that is ‘wrong,’ and my goal is to be ‘right,’ of course.” Am I suggesting, in such an ethical way, that a Christian shouldn’t be concerned with ethics? No. I’m suggesting that ethics can only do for you what the law can do for you, and in the sermon on the mount we are called to live beyond the law, beyond ethics. “As Christians,” the author asserts, “our standard of living can never be ‘right or wrong,’ but the Cross.” Christians will indefinitely be involved in the discernment of good and evil, but “for us the starting point is a different one,” because “Christ is for us the Tree of Life. We do not begin from the matter of ethical right and wrong. We do not start from that other tree. We begin from him; and the whole question for us is one of Life” (his emphasis). He summarizes this teaching of the Father’s perfection by drawing the attention back to very words that prompted this teaching:
The principle of the Cross is our principle of conduct. Praise God that he makes his sun to shine on the evil and the good. With him it is a question of his grace and not of right or wrong. But that is to be our standard also: “Forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you” ([Ephesians] 4:32). “Right or wrong” is the principle of the Gentiles and tax gatherers. My life is to be governed by the principle of the Cross and of the perfection of the Father: “Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
In brief, the capstone of this subsection is found in a believer’s words in an anecdote the author recorded. A Chinese believer counsels his brother, whose patience is being tested by an unbeliever, saying, “If we only try to do the right thing, surely we are very poor Christians. We have to do something more than what is right.”
And taking a spin back to my own sermon, apart from Watchman Nee’s excellent teachings, I assert that this “more than what is right,” the thing that so transcends ethics and laws—this is forgiveness, given freely to us to give freely to all.
I’ve decided to bite off more than I can chew, hoping that the goodness of the Spirit will crumble out of my mouth and get my shirt messy with truth. That being the case, I’ll probably be too overwhelmed to respond to “Stand” in any written way for a long time. I love y’all. Toodles.
And taking a spin back to my own sermon, apart from Watchman Nee’s excellent teachings, I assert that this “more than what is right,” the thing that so transcends ethics and laws—this is forgiveness, given freely to us to give freely to all.
I’ve decided to bite off more than I can chew, hoping that the goodness of the Spirit will crumble out of my mouth and get my shirt messy with truth. That being the case, I’ll probably be too overwhelmed to respond to “Stand” in any written way for a long time. I love y’all. Toodles.
1 comment:
Thank you, dear Philip, for your writings, which at the moment are disquietingly applicable to my life. :P Your shirt is quite messy, trust me.
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