I told my sister, “Don’t be nervous,” but I got nervous myself.
Do you think he can preach himself?
We are going to study a passage from 2 Corinthians 13:11.
Finally, brothers, rejoice.
Aim for perfection.
Listen to my appeal.
Be of one mind.
Live in peace.
And the God of love and peace will be with you.
Three years ago, I shared with all of you here. At that time, I read 1 Corinthians 11:1.
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
I remember that time we said that Paul said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Why did Paul not say, “You all must follow Jesus Christ directly”?
A lot of people say it is very difficult to follow Christ directly because He is perfect. He is the Son of God. He is sinless.
If we have to follow Someone like Jesus Christ, who is so perfect, we do not really know where to start. But Paul was a human being like the rest of us.
If we concentrate on following the example of Christ, we can do the same. That is why Paul said, “Follow my example,” because if we follow him, we will learn from him.
We know that Paul was passionate about Christ. We also know that Paul traveled around. He went through all of Asia Minor and then went to Europe.
We also know that he suffered a great deal. He was a man of faith, and he had many difficulties in his life.
Among all the troubles he experienced, he never gave up or lost courage. He believed that the purpose of God would be carried forth.
Paul was also a man of love. He said he loved the church of Corinth. He not only spent money and energy; he was willing to sacrifice his life for them.
We also know that Paul was a man of prayer. He knew that prayer was the only way that man could keep in communication with God.
He taught the brothers and sisters to pray without ceasing. He himself prayed without ceasing. He prayed the most.
I think Paul also had many other things that we can learn from.
But Paul also went through many difficulties, especially in dealing with the church in Corinth. He experienced much difficulty and hardship.
The church in Corinth even questioned his apostleship. They also said that he created all kinds of schemes to confuse them. A lot of people did not like him.
Especially in 2 Corinthians 13:11, what Paul said at the end to the church seems very simple. Yet he had not lost faith.
He told them, “Finally, I still have some things I want to share with you.”
In all the problems the church of Corinth was experiencing, he asked them to rejoice. Was he rejoicing himself? I am sure he was also rejoicing.
A lot of times, we experience hardship and difficulties in our lives. The first thing we lose is joy.
Paul said that we should rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks to the Lord, because it is God’s eternal will for us.
Rejoicing is a purpose from the Lord for us.
Sometimes we feel that we are so compassionate about something, and we feel as though we are sacrificing something. We are working so hard. But when you lose the joy of serving the Lord, then something is wrong.
A lot of times, the testimony of a Christian is the joy in his heart.
People in the world think that if they have attained certain material goals, then that is where their joy is.
But in reality, the more material things they accumulate, the more burdens they have and the less joy they have.
Christians are different. If we walk and live in God’s will, if we suffer for the Lord, the Holy Spirit will anoint us with the oil of joy.
When we are filled with the oil of joy, naturally our lives will overflow with joy. Do you think that is impossible? It is possible.
If we are living for the purpose of the Lord, God will grant us joy.
I think God puts a great emphasis on our purpose when we do something: Is it for the Lord, or is it for ourselves?
If we are doing it for the Lord—if everything we do is for the Lord—God will accept our heart, and He will grant us joy.
I promise you, it does not matter what you do. As long as you are doing it for the Lord, then you are going to have an eternal reward. I have had this experience.
Maybe in America, you are less likely to have this experience. In a special situation, I want to talk about the Cultural Revolution.
During the Cultural Revolution, my home was totally searched. I mean, totally searched.
I was not in prison, but I was imprisoned in a certain place. Literally, it referred to a cowshed, a barn where cows are kept; but its other meaning was total isolation from other people.
Under communism, I really had to do a lot of hard labor—very filthy work.
While I was doing this hard, dirty labor, I told the Lord, “Lord, I am doing this for You.”
Whether people saw me or did not see me, it did not matter. It was all done for Him.
In those difficult labors, God gave me great joy. The joy was overflowing. I almost could not put a lid on my joy.
Even though I was usually completely exhausted physically on the way home, when people looked at me, they could see the joy in my heart.
The enemy often reminded me, “What are you living for? Number one, you cannot witness. Number two, you have no ministry. Number three, you have no family.” He reminded me that all was vanity.
But I realized that if I put my trust in the Lord and relied on Him, then I would not experience that vanity.
When a lot of people looked at me, they wondered why a person going through such difficulties could still be so joyful. They said, “He must be a Christian.”
Actually, at the time, I did not know I was witnessing for the Lord. But the life of Christ—the joy itself—was a witness.
After the Cultural Revolution, many people who saw me during that time later became Christians.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Joy is a gift from the Holy Spirit.
Joy also speaks of something in the future that will not disappoint us. Because of the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the pain of the cross.
What is joy? It is our hope that is faithful.
Let us read Romans 5:1-5.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character;
and character, hope.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.
The Holy Spirit has shown us what the glory will be like in the future. The hope of glory causes the joy that we experience today.
In the midst of all the difficulties in life, we know that suffering produces perseverance.
Perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
That is why Paul asks us, “Brothers, rejoice.”
The second important exhortation is that the brothers should aim for perfection. If he asks them to be perfect, then they are imperfect right now.
There are two points of view when we talk about being perfect.
First, in terms of maturity: when you are fully grown, then we consider that perfect.
Look at a baby. When a baby is born, he looks perfect because he has eyes, a nose, a mouth, and all the features. But the functions have not developed yet.
When we look at a child, we know that even though the child has all the faculties, because they have not developed or grown, we say that the child is not mature yet.
When we became Christians, we received a new life. But we know that this new life, in the beginning, is in the form of a babe.
Look at the church in Corinth. They had the gift of speaking, and they were given many gifts. But in terms of maturity, they were still babes.
In their lives, there were areas that had still not matured. So we have to enter into that state of perfection.
We must grow and mature so that we can have the stature of a mature person.
To know Him—to know Christ—is to grow and mature, to have the full maturity of Christ. This is maturity in growth.
The other point of perfection is to be brought into the likeness of Christ, Who is perfect.
God’s purpose is to call those whom He has ordained, justify them, glorify them, and bring them into glory.
But what He really wants to do for those whom He has chosen is to form them into the image of the Son.
That is what we should be like: the likeness of Jesus.
A lot of times we know that this seems like an impossible task. But when you become a Christian, because the life of Jesus Christ has entered into you, you should become like Jesus Christ.
Sometimes people say, “Is that person a Christian? I do not think he is really like Jesus Christ.”
The Jesus Christ that I know is full of kindness, patience, joy, and peace.
But that person may always lose his temper. There may be much unrest in the household. Do not look at the person; look at Jesus.
For unbelievers, the only people through whom they can see Jesus are Christians.
As they look at Christians, if Christians are truly like Jesus, then these Christians are truly witnesses of Jesus Christ.
I think the important thing is that among Christians there must be love.
Jesus said that if Christians can love each other, then when people see them, they will know that they are His disciples.
But this is not the love that we commonly refer to. It is the love of which Jesus said, “I love you, so you love each other.”
Paul also said that we must be willing to lay down our lives for our brothers. Because Jesus Christ died, we need to die for our brothers.
If we can be like Christ, then we will be perfect. Can we do that?
We know that God has a way. He uses the cross to chisel us.
A lot of people think that suffering is God’s way of chiseling us according to His will. But that is not quite true.
What is He chiseling? Look at yourself. If He is chiseling our old nature, it is really like a piece of rock or wood.
In Chinese, we have an idiom that means, “Not worthy to be chiseled or sculptured.”
A lot of people have the misconception that our old nature, after going through suffering, can become what God wants. It does not work that way.
If we think that through education or requirements our old self can become perfect, that is not possible.
The second part of Romans 7 describes a process we must go through.
Paul said in Romans 7, “What a wretched man I am! Who can rescue me from this body of death?”
We cannot make the old man perfect.
God’s way is that we deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow Him.
If you do not deny yourself, then your old man will never be changed.
We know, and we believe, that our old man was crucified with Jesus.
As Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
If this is only a theory or a teaching, but there is no work of the Holy Spirit, then even though it is truth, it is merely objective truth. It is not subjective experience.
Today we must rely on the Holy Spirit.
If we rely on the Holy Spirit, He can change objective truth into our subjective experience.
Whether we are talking about teaching, methodology, or anything else, it is only an outward form without the Spirit.
We must let the Holy Spirit do His work in us so that objective truth can become subjective experience.
This is where we can have union with Jesus Christ, relying on the work of the Holy Spirit.
In John 15, Jesus said clearly that He is the true vine and we are the branches.
For branches that are not connected to the vine, they will wither.
In our experience, if we do not have Jesus as part of that experience, then we will be like dead branches.
When you have union with Christ, communication with Him, and fellowship with Him, we know that we can be united with Him through His death.
When we have union with Him through death, we also have union with Him through resurrection.
Union with Him through resurrection means that we are living in the Lord.
Then it will be much easier for us to escape from those things that we could not escape from before.
This is why He said, “Abide in Me.”
To abide in Christ is a blessed experience.
When you abide in Christ and have union with Him, the Holy Spirit changes objective truth into subjective experience.
Of course, there is one requirement: you must be meek and humble.
You must completely surrender yourself.
You must deny yourself.
But you know, ourselves are the greatest obstacle to the work of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit is trying to work and bring Christ into us, the greatest obstacle is ourselves.
We know that the Holy Spirit wars against our flesh, and our flesh wars against the Spirit.
If you cannot deny yourself, then you are not going to have the Holy Spirit working in you.
Jesus told us that if we love our life, we will lose it. But if we lose our life for Him and for the gospel, then we will gain life.
To be in union with Christ, there are two requirements. First, we must be humble.
We must completely surrender ourselves and consider ourselves as dead. Then Christ can live in us.
This requires us to take up our cross.
We cannot really take up the cross by our own effort. We need to take up the cross with Jesus.
If you have to take up your own cross by yourself, it gets more and more difficult, and then you will not have joy.
But if you bear the cross with Jesus Christ, then you will experience joy.
Not only joy, but also rest.
I remember the time when I was the leading brother in the fellowship. The government gave me a lot of trouble. I was in the city of Nanjing.
Again, they put me into isolation. Actually, many brothers and sisters were accusing me.
Jesus told me, “Take My yoke upon you and follow My example.”
I felt that I must be obedient to the Lord, so I said, “Fine, Lord, just take up Your yoke and put it on my shoulders.”
I imagined that I had become an ox.
I envisioned the Lord as a master sitting behind me, ordering me around with a stick. If I did not move, He would hit me.
I truly thought that was what it meant: I was the ox in the front with the yoke, and the Lord was sitting behind, ordering me. If I just obeyed, then He would direct me.
I was walking along, and all of a sudden I realized that there was another ox next to me. He seemed stronger and bigger than me.
I felt that the yoke which was there before had become lighter. I took a look at the ox.
I was so shocked when I looked. I said, “Oh, Lord Jesus, it is You!”
I thought He was the Master sitting behind me. How could He now be next to me as an ox?
I said, “Lord, what a precious Lord You are. You are so precious. How can You take the form of an ox and stand next to me?”
The Lord wants us to take up a yoke with Him.
He wants to take the yoke with Him next to us because He knows how much we can bear.
I was so joyful because I knew I was not alone. The Lord was with me.
That is why He said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Today we know that when we say we are being molded or formed into the image of the Son, it does not mean that we are refining or improving the old self.
It is the new man, in union with Christ, taking up the yoke.
This is the way of the cross.
Only the cross can set us free from sin, the world, and ourselves.
How can we become more like our Lord?
When the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, so they had to put a veil over his face.
But today, we do not need a veil to see our Lord, because He has opened a way for us to go directly to Him.
When we see the Lord, we see God’s glory shining upon His Son.
That glory shines upon us.
As this glory continually shines upon us, time after time, we gradually become conformed to His image. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
We have to remember: becoming like the image of the Son does not mean continually working on the old man or chiseling the old man.
As we come before the Lord, His glory continually shines upon us and changes us. Gradually, we become conformed to the image of the Son.
We must spend time with the Lord.
If you are too busy and have no time with the Lord, then you will not have time to see the glory of the Lord.
When you see the Lord, you see His glory, and His word lives in us.
His word is Spirit, and it is life.
If we continue to spend time with the Lord inwardly in our hearts, then He will transform us into the image of the Son.
You must walk this road all the way.
If one day you decide to go off the road or take a detour, then you are going to fall quickly.
If we desire to be perfect, there is only one way: to abide with our Lord and be in union with Him.
The third thing Paul reminds us in that verse is to be comforted.
In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul tells us:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all comfort,
Who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
Paul tells us that our God is a God of compassion and a God of all comfort.
What kind of people need comforting? People going through different kinds of suffering.
A person who has never suffered does not need comfort.
But when we are walking on the road of the Lord, on the road of the cross, we are going to experience suffering.
We know that Paul experienced many, many sufferings in his life. Because of these sufferings, God comforted him.
What did he do with this comfort?
Because of the comfort he received from the Lord, he could comfort all those others who were experiencing suffering.
I will tell you: those who have never experienced suffering cannot comfort others.
Those who are physically strong cannot understand those who have physical weaknesses.
I used to walk very fast. I was a good walker.
My wife had heart disease and could never walk fast. I would always say, “Can’t you walk a little faster?”
I did not know the difficulty of not being able to walk fast.
Then somehow I had a great pain in my back.
I was walking to the train station and trying to board the train, but the person was walking so fast that I could not catch up because I was in so much pain.
They looked and said, “What is the matter with you?” I said, “I cannot walk anymore. But you have no understanding for me.”
If I had not had that trouble with my back, I really would not understand other people having this problem.
We know that a lot of doctors are not very sympathetic to their patients.
A patient may be in great pain, moaning and groaning, and the doctor may think, “You are groaning, but just be patient.”
After the doctor has gone out of the room, the patient may say, “I hope you get sick and experience this.”
Because when you have not experienced suffering, you do not know what it means to be comforted.
There is a lot of suffering in our walk of life. There are very traumatic experiences.
To be born, to be separated, to die, and to leave—these are all very traumatic experiences.
There was a time when I could not be together with my wife.
Even though we were both living in the same place and could see each other, we were not allowed even to talk to each other. What a separation that was.
My wife had cancer in 1993.
I did not want her illness to become a stumbling block to the brothers. Why? Because I told all the others to rejoice always.
The others would say, “Since you talk about rejoicing all the time, now your wife is sick. We are going to see whether you really rejoice.”
The most difficult thing to bear was when other people said, “That brother and sister love the Lord. Why did God allow them to be sick? They must have sinned. There must be some deep-rooted thing in their lives.”
I think that when Job was going through his suffering, perhaps the suffering itself was bearable, but his three friends certainly were not bearable.
During the time of my wife’s illness, I trusted God and chose to rejoice.
Because I was rejoicing, a little sister told me, “Maybe when your wife dies, you will not even shed a tear.”
She really did not know my difficulty or my suffering.
The most difficult suffering to endure is when those to whom you have given much—those on whom you have spent so much time and love—one day turn against you.
They are the ones who increase your suffering and add more suffering to the wounds.
In our spiritual walk, we are going to experience all kinds of suffering.
Praise the Lord, because He has given us all comfort.
There are different kinds of suffering; therefore, there are different kinds of comfort.
I believe everyone has suffered. Everybody has trouble.
Among us, each one has his own suffering. Therefore, be comforted.
If you do not receive comfort on earth, think about Revelation 7.
In Revelation 7, John saw a multitude of people. They were all wearing white robes and holding palm branches. They were before the Lamb.
I am going to read Revelation 7:14-17.
These are they who have come out of the great tribulation.
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple;
and He Who sits on the throne will spread His tent over them.