Life and truth have one goal – the abundance of life. “I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10). In order to have the abundance of life, we first must read the Bible to learn the doctrines in the Bible. Someone who does not read the Bible cannot be rich in life. Believers who read the Bible only when they feel inspired are spiritually starving; such ones cannot have the abundance of life. However, to read the Bible does not automatically cause us to have the abundance of life. We still need the doctrines to become truth to us. For this reason, the New Testament encourages us not mainly to know doctrines but to fully know and walk in the truth. The apostle John loved the saints in truthfulness (2 John 1; 3 John 1). Because the Christian life is a matter of truth, Christian love must also be a matter of truth. If we do not possess the truth and walk n the truth, we cannot love others in truthfulness. It is possible to love others in darkness, but when we know the truth and walk in the truth, we love the truth and walk in the light.
The main point we need to see is the way to turn doctrines to life, or put in other words, the way to have the abundance of life. John 7:38 says, “He who believes into Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” The rivers of living water are different aspects of life, including love, patience, humility, and all the riches of Christ, but we need to see how to practice this, how to cause these aspects of life to flow out of us. These rivers of life flow out through the truth. Actually, ever river is a truth. If we do not speak, nothing can flow out. In order to speak, we must know the doctrines and possess the truth. We cannot speak concerning Christ as love or patience if we have no knowledge of the truth concerning the riches of Christ. In order for the riches of Christ to flow out of us as rivers of living water, we must have and speak the truth.
The way to have the abundance of life and to flow out the riches of life is the way of the truth. We first need to know the doctrines. Then as we are open to the Lord and pray much, the Spirit will come to enlighten the doctrines, and they will become truth, which brings light and life. The more truth we have, the more riches of Christ as life we enjoy. Eventually, we will have the abundance of life. The abundance of life is altogether in the truth. When we release the truth by speaking, that is the flowing out of the riches of life. In order to minister life to others, we must speak, and in order to speak, we must read the Bible and study the truth to learn the doctrines. Without the doctrines we cannot have the truth, and without the truth there is no light or life.
The truth is altogether a matter of speaking. Our God is a speaking God. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God, having spoken of old in many portions and in many ways to the fathers in the prophets, has at the last of these days spoken to us in the Son.” God’s speaking is first conveyed to us in the form of doctrines, which become the truth to us through the Spirit’s enlightening. The truth is the shining of light, which brings us life. This means that in order to have the abundance of life, we must know the truth.
(Witness Lee Basic Principles Concerning the Eldership, 108-109)
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