As believers in Christ, we need to know, experience, and be absolute for the subjective truths; we need to know and experience the subjective truth, which is Spirit and life, for the producing and building up of the church.
Indeed, God desires all men to be saved and come to the full knowledge of the truth.
His desire is not only to save man but even more, that man would come to the full knowledge of the truth.
Praise the Lord, today the truth is no longer hidden or locked away.
In the dark ages the truth in the Bible was locked away and hidden from the people, but today we have the truth being revealed in the word of God.
We have a Bible in our hands, and we also have the proper interpretation of the word of God according to the eternal economy of God.
We can come to the Lord in His word with the exercise of our spirit to contact the Lord, be infused with Him, and allow Him to constitute us and fill us with Himself as the truth.
The truth is not merely the doctrines in God’s word and the major points of truth that the Bible reveal.
The truth is the shining of light, the shining of God Himself, for God to infuse us with Himself and to add His element to our being.
We need to give ourselves to the Lord to be in the word of God day by day.
We need to daily set aside time to spend with the Lord in His word.
The word of God is our daily food, and the truth in the Bible needs to become our constitution.
How can we properly care for others and minister Christ to them according to their need if we do not have the truth in our being?
We need to first obtain the truth, buy the truth, and have the truth in our being, and then we can help others also get into the truth so that they may be saved, go on with the Lord, and have a solid nourishment in their being.
We all have the capacity to be filled with God, and we all have the capacity to be constituted with the truth.
We should not think that, humanly speaking, we may not be that smart, and we can’t remember many things.
Rather, we should take time every day, 10-20 minutes, to read the Bible with much prayerful consideration.
We don’t have to go to a seminary in order to be constituted with the truth.
We simply need to spend time with the Lord in His word day by day.
If we do this, there will be a slow and steady constitution going on in our being.
On one hand, we spend time with the Lord and exercise our spirit to contact Him.
On the other hand, we read the Bible and allow the Lord to infuse us with Himself and constitute us with the truth.
Both Objective and Subjective Truths are Needed for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose
![And they remembered that God was their rock, / And the Most High God, their Redeemer. Psa. 78:35 This is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior God. 1 Tim. 2:3 Jehovah is my Shepherd; I will lack nothing. Psa. 23:1 And when they heard [this,] they lifted up [their] voice with one accord to God and said, Sovereign Master, You are the One who has made heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them. Acts 4:24](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/And-they-remembered-that-God-was-their-rock-And-the-Most-High-God-their-Redeemer-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "And they remembered that God was their rock, / And the Most High God, their Redeemer. Psa. 78:35 This is good and acceptable in the sight of our Savior God. 1 Tim. 2:3 Jehovah is my Shepherd; I will lack nothing. Psa. 23:1 And when they heard [this,] they lifted up [their] voice with one accord to God and said, Sovereign Master, You are the One who has made heaven and earth and the sea and all things in them. Acts 4:24")
Every basic revelation in the Bible has two aspects: the objective aspect and the subjective aspect.
By objective truth we mean the aspects of a truth that do not affect us personally, that are not for our experience; we just enjoy these truths and accept them by faith.
By subjective truth, we mean the truths that affect us in our experience, are real and enjoyable to us, and the truths we can experience based on the word of God.
Both objective and subjective truths are needed for the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose.
On one hand, we need to take the truth and commit it to our memory so that we may be solidly constituted with the truth and the truth becomes part of our being.
We cannot just skate on the surface and generally know about God, Christ, salvation, redemption, and eternal life; we need to commit to memory the major truths in the word of God.
For example, one objective truth is the fact that God is our Creator (Gen. 1:1, 26), Redeemer (Psa. 78:35), Savior (1 Tim. 2:3), Shepherd (Psa. 23:1), Lord (Luke 1:32), and Master (Acts 4:24).
These are precious items, but they are objective, outside of us, and the God revealed in these verses is objective to us.
However, we need to make these truths be subjective to us in our daily experience.
We need to take Christ as our shepherd, even as our Good Shepherd (John 10:10), the One who came to lay His life down for the sheep and who gives us life abundantly.
We need to take the Lord as our Lord, being under His rule and taking Him as the authority in our living.
We need to believe into the Lord Jesus as our Lord and accept Him as our Savior, coming to Him daily to be saved much more in His life.
In a very subjective way, God is our Father (Rom. 1:7). He is not only our Lord outside of us, ruling over the universe; He is also our Father.
He begot us by our faith in Christ that we may be children of God (John 1:12-13), and God is our Father.
Even more, the person of the Father is now in us. Our human father begot us and we have his life and nature, but we can never have his person, for his person cannot indwell us.
However, God is our Father, He is the source of our life, and we have Him as a person dwelling in us, for the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in our spirit (Eph. 4:4-6).
In order for us to live a life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose, we need both the objective and the subjective truths.
In particular, we need to have the subjective truths.
Satan has been working throughout the ages to blind the believers in Christ to the subjective truths, and many have the feeling that, as long as they know the doctrines in God’s word, that is good enough.
We need to go on and experience the subjective truths in God’s word by reading and praying the word of God, applying it to our experience, and following the Lord’s inner anointing in our daily experience.
When we enjoy the Lord in His word, when the subjective truths are real to us in our experience, we become functioning and living members of the Body of Christ.
We treasure the objective truths, the objective aspect of the truth, but we want to experience the subjective truths. Christ died for us; He is our sin offering, giving Himself up for our sins.
This is something objective, something that He did outside of us.
But we can appropriate and experience this truth by believing into the Lord with His sacrifice, and by faith, this truth becomes subjective to us.
The Lord breathed His Spirit upon us (John 20:22) for us to receive the Holy Spirit; this is a subjective truth.
Col. 1:27 says that Christ is in us to be the hope of glory; this is subjective.
May we take the word of God into us by means of all prayer and petition and not remain at the objective truths but rather daily experience the Lord as the subjective truths for the building up of the church.
Lord Jesus, thank You for the objective and subjective truths in the word of God. Hallelujah, God is our Creator, Redeemer, Savior, Shepherd, Lord, and Master! Amen, Lord, we take You as our Savior and Lord, and we submit ourselves to Your authority. Thank You for the objective truth of Christ dying for us on the cross. We exercise our spirit to believe into You and take Your perfect sacrifice by faith. We open to You, Lord, to receive the breathed-out Spirit so that we may have life! Hallelujah, Christ is our life and He is in us as the hope of glory! Praise the Lord, Jesus Christ is the Lord in our heart, and there is a fountain in us that springs up into eternal life, for we believe into the Lord! Amen, Lord, may we be those who experience Christ according to the subjective truths in the Bible for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ!
Experience the Subjective Truths as Spirit and Life for the Building up of the Church
![The elder to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in truthfulness, and not only I but also all those who know the truth...I rejoiced greatly that I have found [some] of your children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the Father. 2 John 1, 4 I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 4](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-elder-to-the-chosen-lady-and-to-her-children-whom-I-love-in-truthfulness-and-not-only-I-but-also-all-those-who-know-the-truth-683x1024.webp?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "The elder to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in truthfulness, and not only I but also all those who know the truth...I rejoiced greatly that I have found [some] of your children walking in truth, even as we received commandment from the Father. 2 John 1, 4 I have no greater joy than these things, that I hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 4")
If we as believers in Christ pay attention only to the objective truths and neglect the subjective aspect of the truth, we will not be able to fulfil God’s purpose, which is that He would be expressed through the church.
The objective doctrines in God’s word are for the subjective truths, and the subjective truths are for the producing of the church and for its building up (2 John 1, 4; 3 John 3-4, 7-9).
We need to know the objective truths, and we need to go on to experience the subjective truths.
When we have the proper knowledge of the truth, we will realize that most of the truths revealed in the word of God are subjective for our experience.
Today’s Christianity has neglected the subjective truths, being satisfied with just the objective truths, so it does not have the practical church life.
For us to have the practical church life and for us to build up the church, we need to know, experience, and remain in the subjective truths.
The practical church life is an issue, a result, of our experience of the subjective truths.
When we take Christ as our life day by day, know that Christ is in us as the hope of glory and as our life (Col. 3:4), we live a life for the fulfilment of God’s purpose and we build up the church.
When we come forward to the throne of grace in our spirit to receive mercy and find grace for timely help (Heb. 4:16), we will build up the church as the house of God and the kingdom of God.
The subjective truths are related to Spirit and life; the words that the Lord speaks to us are spirit and are life (John 6:63).
When we come to the Lord’s word in a living way, with the exercise of our spirit, we enjoy Spirit and life, and we build up the church as the Body of Christ.
Objective doctrines are composed of letters, but the subjective truths are filled with spirit and life for us to enjoy and experience for the building up of the church.
May we realize that the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.
May we choose to exercise our spirit to enjoy the Lord in His word by spending much time with Him in the word to be infused with Him.
And may we cooperate with the Lord in our daily life to experience the subjective truths we have seen and enjoyed in the word of God.
When we have the subjective truths in our experience, we build up the church.
The church is not an organization that needs rules and regulations to work; the church is something of life, something organic, for the church is the Body of Christ.
As the Body of Christ, the church requires life, the experience and enjoyment of the divine life by all the members of the Body of Christ.
Therefore, we need to enjoy and experience the subjective truths in the Bible to receive and enjoy Spirit and life so that we may build up the church.
The church is not only a community of those who believe into the Lord Jesus, that He died for them and has been raised, and they confess their faith in Christ.
The church is much more than the community of people who are forgiven and cleansed of their sins, and who now believe in Jesus as their Savior.
The church is an entity in life and of life; the church is the manifestation of the divine life in man.
If we as believers in Christ do not possess the divine life, the life of God, which is Christ Himself (John 1:4; 11:25; 14:6), then we will be only a group of people who come together to establish or be an organization. Oh Lord Jesus!
If we remain in the objective truths, the church can never be produced.
But if we go on and exercise our spirit to enjoy, experience, and apply the subjective truths by faith, we will be filled with the Spirit and life, and the church as the body of Christ will be built up.
Lord Jesus, we want to dig deeper into Your word with the exercise of our spirit so that we may find, enjoy, and experience the subjective truths. Amen, Lord, we take You as our life and person. We want to live by eating You day by day. We breathe ourselves out and we breathe You in. We come to Your word to receive the breath of God so that we may be filled with God. Amen, Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to enjoy and experience You according to the subjective truths in the word of God. May Your words become Spirit and life to us, and may we remain in the enjoyment of God in Christ as the Spirit as life. We want to enjoy and experience You according to Your word for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, may there be an issue, a result, of our enjoyment and experience of the subjective truths – the church as the organic Body of Christ.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 3, pp. 57-83, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living and Serving According to God’s Economy Concerning the Church (2023 fall ITERO), week 3, entitled, The Full Knowledge of the Truth.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– Living in the subjective experience and truth in God’s economy, via, Affirmation and Critique.
– Growing up Into Him in All Things, via, Living to Him.
– The prayer and the subjective experience of Christ that we must have for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
– Drinking one Spirit, a portion from, The Subjective Truths in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
– Our need to know Christ subjectively, a portion from, The Centrality and Universality of Christ, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– 70 Aspects of Christ as Everything for Your Enjoyment, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– Objective and subjective faith, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
– The subjective God: the Trinity in Christian experience, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique. - Hymns on this topic:
– Objective and subjective Christ is to us, / In heaven He’s pleading objectively thus; / Subjectively now in His members He lives / And inwardly to them His being He gives. / In heaven He sits at the right hand of God, / Where as the High Priest He presented His blood; / Our Advocate, bearing our burdens above, / Our Surety, He careth for us in His love. (Hymns #536 stanzas 1-2)
– Not objectively to worship, / But to serve Him inwardly; / Not to preach a Christ objective, / But Himself subjectively. / Not just by the Scripture serving, / But in spirit and in life; / Not by flesh, but by the Spirit / Filling, freeing from all strife. (Hymns #908 stanza 4)
– It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ my hope may be; / It is not objective glory, / But ’tis Christ subjectively. / It is God’s intent and pleasure / That His Christ be all in me; / Nothing outwardly possessing, / But His Christ eternally. (Hymns #538 stanzas 5-6)
About aGodMan
![In My Father's house are many abodes; if [it were] not [so,] I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:2](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/In-My-Fathers-house-are-many-abodes-if-it-were-not-so-I-would-have-told-you.jpg?fit=178%2C100&ssl=1)
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 3, pp. 57-59
We need to have both the objective and the subjective truths in the Bible for the fulfilment of God’s eternal purpose.
In particular, we need to not only know the objective truths but even more, enjoy and experience the subjective truths as spirit and life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Amen!
Amen dear brother!
1 Objective and subjective Christ is to us,
In heaven He’s pleading objectively thus;
Subjectively now in His members He lives
And inwardly to them His being He gives.
2 In heaven He sits at the right hand of God,
Where as the High Priest He presented His blood;
Our Advocate, bearing our burdens above,
Our Surety, He careth for us in His love.
3 He now is the Spirit, our spirit within;
He’s there as our life, all things bringing with Him;
He’s there as our strength and our grace every hour,
Our Paraclete in us, sustaining with pow’r.
https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/536
thank the Lord for both the objective and subjective truth!
Hallelujah, our eyes have been opened in the Lord’s recovery to see not only the objective truth but also the subjective!
Dear brother, in coming to the full knowledge of the truth we need to know it in two aspects – objectively and subjectively.
Satan has blinded Christians from knowing the subjective aspect because he knows that this builds up the church as the Body of Christ.
While we need to know that God is the Creator, our Saviour, Lord and Master, in our subjective experience He is our Father, imparted as life into us.
Amen brother. Satan has blinded God’s people from seeing the truths in its subjective aspects.
As a result, God remains outside of them.
He is merely someone who died on the cross so that our sins may be forgiven and we can be cleansed.
Let us pursue the Lord as Spirit & Life. When we live by the Spirit & life, the church is spontaneously produced.
Without the exercise of our spirit, we’re merely a group of people who come together as an organisation.
Amen!
May we be those who want to enjoy and experience Christ as the reality of all positive things for the church!
Amen!
Lord, we need the experience subjective truths for the building up of the body of the church.
God as our father who life has been imparted into us
Aaaaameeen!
Yes Lord, we desire to experience the truths subjectively as Spirit and life for the building up of the church!
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
Col. 1:27, footnote 3 on “Christ”, Recovery Version Bible
Amen, The church is an entity in life and of life; the church is the manifestation of the divine life in man, Christ who is our life.
Ameeen!!!!
Yes dear Lord Jesus. We need both the objective truth and the subjective truth. The objective truth is the base of our subjective experience.
If we emphasize the objective side we may be rich in Bible knowledge but lacking in spiritual experience; consequently, we will fall into emptiness and death.
If we emphasize the subjective side and have an abundance of spiritual experience but lack Bible knowledge; consequently, we fall into instability and error, heresy and apostasy.
Our life without the Life-giving Spirit is nothing.
The eternal purpose of God is to dispense Himself in us and to make us His dwelling house or to build His church.
Therefore, to know Him as our Creator God objectively is one thing, but to share His life and nature – except the Godhead is His eternal economy, the subjective truth of God, which can be expressed intrinsically.
This is the subjective truth.