This messages is part of a series, To Serve in Humanity with Divinity, given by Titus Chu. The exact date of these messages is not known.
The ark was not made of gold. It was made of acacia wood, which signifies Christ’s humanity, strong in character and high in standard. Christ’s humanity is the basic element, the basic substance, for Him to be God’s testimony. Christ became the embodiment of God’s testimony in His humanity
—Witness Lee, Life-Study of Exodus, page 988
Today many emphasize gifts, miracles, and power. However, Paul’s emphasis was not on such things. He and his co-workers spread the kingdom of God and bore the testimony of Jesus by having a humanity with a high character and standing. They bore the testimony by a transformed and uplifted humanity. Paul spread the testimony of Jesus by means of his humanity with its strong character….The move of Christ as the testimony of God is always by His two natures, human and divine, mingled as one. While the apostles were carrying out the testimony of Jesus, not only did they have a life of an uplifted humanity, but they also had the divine nature expressed through their humanity.
— Ibid, pages 1002-1004
Few serving ones realize that a proper service before the Lord is an exhibition of humanity with divinity. The origin of this serving life in humanity is the humanity of Jesus. Most serving ones, on the contrary, often seek other things for their serving life. First, they seek high revelations and rich knowledge. Second, they seek to become dynamic and powerful. Third, they seek after a spiritual exercise which manifests authority. Certainly these are necessary, but not many serving ones realize that these factors are not the real source of an effective operation. To serve effectively there must be humanity with divinity.
We must remember that in God’s economy He made man in His image according to His likeness with the intention that man would possess His divinity with all His divine attributes (Gen. 1:26). From these divine attributes man would live, walk and serve as a virtuous human being. This we see in our dear Lord Jesus Christ. Before the incarnation He was God, the Son of God, the Word, and even God’s operating economy (John 1:1). He was the center, content, and circumference of God’s will. But for the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose, it was essential that divinity put on humanity. God had to become flesh (John 1:14), a real man (without sin) (Heb. 4:15). Yet this man lived His human life according to the divine life within Him. The Lord Jesus lived His human life with divinity. Divinity dwelt in His humanity. He was a real God-man – the prototype of all the God-men.
Jesus lived and served God not as the Son of God, but as the Son of Man (Matt. 9:6). His service was effective not only because He was God, but because He was a man. It was as a man that He was able to bear His generation (Matt. 17:17). As a man He was able to call the little children to Himself (Matt. 19:13-14). As a man He was a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Luke 7:34). As a man He was able to weep with those who wept and rejoice with those who rejoiced (cf. Rom. 12:15).
Furthermore, as a man He was able to die an all-inclusive death (Rom. 5:10)
and be resurrected as the Firstborn Son of God (Col. 1:18). As a man, even
today in the heavens, He is able to be touched with the feelings
of our weakness since He has been tempted in all respects like
us, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). Surely we can see that as a man He accomplished God’s plan (Heb. 10:7). Only by being a man was He able to serve God and render service to man.
The Old Testament gives us a different picture of God’s work. There we see God in His divinity operating, working, and serving. When God works in the Old Testament, man is merely an instrument used by Him to do mighty deeds. We do not see the mingling of divinity with humanity. We do not see the divinity exhibited through human virtues. Instead it is always the Almighty God working and operating. Thus we see the power and the might of divinity.
In the Old Testament God produced one witness after another. He even gained an entire people, the nation of Israel. However He was never satisfied, because what was produced only testified to the fact that it was God who did the calling, it was only God who operated, and it was only God who worked.
The reality of the service which God desires was testified of in the man Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5), a “real” man – a man whose humanity was filled with divinity. It is only from such a man that a proper and lasting service can be produced. This must be the principle of our service.
God may give us revelations and knowledge. He may use us dynamically and powerfully. We may even exercise our service with authority. Yet these do not produce real service in the eyes of God. Though we may teach strongly and minister with revelation and power, though we may possess grand knowledge of the highest truths, and though we may possess excellent skills in administrating, still we may not be effective in God’s economy. Why? Because the backbone of all the spiritual service and exercise is a proper humanity, the humanity of Jesus. It is this humanity which is filled with lovely human virtues produced by God’s divine attributes.
But how different is our situation today. It seems that in many of the local churches we have every spiritual factor except Jesus’ humanity. On the one hand we have received so many teachings and precious truths concerning God’s economy. But still many of us use these truths like dead doctrines to attack one another or to measure our dear fellow brothers. We have received teachings of life, yet many of us have turned them into demands of law and placed them on the backs of others. Instead of producing brotherly love this has led to brotherly suspicion and fear. We exhibit zeal, and at times we even exhibit power. Yet many churches remain flat and common. Though we hear stirring and powerful messages there is not much lasting effect. Lives remain unchanged.
Even among us as individuals, when we feel led personally to serve others, usually our operation has little impact. We must ask ourselves, “Why?” It is because we have ignored the most crucial principle of the divine operation – the principle of incarnation. When God desires to accomplish His work He does so in and through a man – a genuine, real man who exhibits sweet human virtues by the indwelling divine attributes.
It is with such a background of understanding that I hope all the serving ones would realize one important matter: while you are equipping yourselves with the riches, while you are seeking power and might, while you desire to exercise your service with authority and effectiveness, you must pay attention to your humanity. This does not mean a humanity of your limitations and failures; that is your fallen humanity. It does not mean a humanity which is victorious or successful; that can be your self-struggling humanity. Nor does it mean merely a pious or godly humanity; that may just be a religious humanity. Rather, you must seek after the humanity of Jesus, which is a perfect humanity issuing from the divine attributes. We should remind ourselves all the time that without exercising a humanity with divinity, there is little reality of service.
We admit that in our service we need the Spirit’s work. We recognize the need of being equipped in the truth, and of learning how to operate effectively. But we must see that the basis of service is the humanity of Jesus. It is in this humanity that lovely human virtues issue forth from the divine attributes. The attribute of divine love generates the virtue of human patience (1 John 4:16-21; cf. Gal 6:1).
Similarly, divine light generates human righteousness16. Divine holiness generates human purity (1 Peter 1:16; 1 Tim. 4:12). All of our service must be with such an uplifted humanity. Through this humanity we lead others to salvation. Through this humanity we help others love the Lord. Through this humanity we help a lover of Christ to grow in life, and eventually serve the Lord. A healthy church life should not be solely truth-oriented, work-oriented, increase-oriented, meeting-oriented, or Bible study-oriented. A healthy church life must be the manifestation of the humanity of Jesus.
A healthy church life must be the exhibition of brothers whose humanity is filled with divinity and whose humanity expresses divinity. Although every church must have life, truth, and healthy serving, only a church with brothers who possess a high humanity that is filled with divinity can satisfy God.
Today we are at a crossroads. During the past eighty years we have been under the Lord’s rich blessing through His two great servants and through many laboring brothers. We have received visions and revelations, even the high peak of the divine revelation. The truth has been unveiled to us with a bountiful life supply. We have received a healthy pattern for the church life. But a blessed time can also become a dangerous time. Knowledge puffs up (1 Cor. 8:1), and revelation can lift us up exceedingly (2 Cor. 12:7). We can easily think that we are wealthy, have become rich, and have need of nothing (Rev. 3:14-17). We are at the crossroads of either becoming Laodicea or being Philadelphia. Will we boast about the revelations we have received and the truth we have learned? If we do, then we are Laodicea, and God will tell us that we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. He will spit us out. We will have no choice but to become institutional. We will become one of the better Christian sects among many.
But if we endeavor to substantiate what we have and hold onto it, we shall be Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7-8). Philadelphia is the church of brotherly love. In Philadelphia, the divine attribute of love is expressed in the human virtue of brotherly love. Those in Philadelphia are kind to one another. They are compassionate toward one another. They are long-suffering to one another. They are patient toward one another. They show mercy and goodness to one another. In Philadelphia the saints have a little strength. Their trust and their confidence is in the Lord. In Philadelphia, the saints keep the Lord’s Word. They are faithful to the revelations they have received.
Most of all, in Philadelphia the saints do not deny the Lord’s name. Christ’s name is preeminent among them. They know Christ and only Christ. Christ is God, Christ is Lord, and Christ is the life-giving Spirit. Christ is the Redeemer, and Christ is the Savior. Furthermore, Christ is our holiness, Christ is our righteousness, and Christ is our strength. Christ is the divine and mystical realm, Christ is the good land, and Christ is the life of the saints. Christ and only Christ satisfies both God and man. Christ and only Christ can build up His church. While abiding in all of the riches we have received, we must love Christ, treasure Christ, and focus only on Christ, even as God does Himself and as so many brothers have before us. As Brother Lee has taught us, “… the exalting of many names other than that of Christ [is] the most striking sign of degraded Christianity. The return to … exalting the Lord’s name by abandoning every other name constitutes the most inspiring testimony in the recovered church” (Recovery Version, Rev. 3:8, footnote 3).
As Philadelphia, we will not overly emphasize spiritual power, spiritual authority, knowledge of the truth, or skills in administration. Rather, we will honor Christ and love one another in the humanity of Jesus. Among those in Philadelphia there is a rich exhibition of the lovely and loving human virtues produced from God’s divine attributes. In the church life we serve one another in a rich, transformed, selfless humanity – the humanity of Jesus.
