As those saved by the Lord and brought by Him into the proper church life, we need to have a walk that is worthy of His calling.
For this, we firstly need to be diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3). We already have the oneness – we have received the oneness of the Spirit at the time we were regenerated and the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit came into our spirit.
Now we need to be diligent to strive and struggle to keep the oneness of the Spirit in all lowliness, that is, not setting up a higher standard for the others but in lowliness loving the weaker ones, the younger ones, and the backsliding ones.
We need to realize that the church is a home to care for the believers in love, a school to edify and teach the believers unto the building up of the Body, and a hospital where the Lord heals us by loving us to the uttermost.
In the church life we need to not only be constituted with the truth and be filled with the divine riches but also love one another with the love that the Lord imparted into our heart through His Spirit.
Also, for the church life as the reality of the one new man we must sacrifice ourselves to be meek in our attitude. The most practical ways for us to keep the oneness of the Spirit is for us to be in all lowliness and meekness loving one another and caring for one another.
Being meek implies being mild, being gentle, and being unselfish. In our natural man we are wild, rough, and self-centered, but in the humanity of Jesus in our spirit we can be meek as the Lord Jesus was meek.
He called us to come to Him and learn from Him for He is meek and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:29). He didn’t fight for His rights; He didn’t make excuses for Himself, and He was meek in front of those who persecuted Him.
This One now lives in us, and in our living in the church life as the reality of the one new man we need to sacrifice ourselves regardless of how we are treated, and deny our self in order to be mild, gentle, and fine.
The church life is a corporate meal offering; as such, it is a cake made of fine flour, and here nothing rough is allowed. We need to lose (get rid of) our temper by exercising our spirit to deny our self and be meek as the Lord was in order to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
Being Aware of our Temper and Losing our Temper for the Church Life
Being meek in keeping the oneness of the Spirit is a prerequisite for us to realize the church life in a practical way in the reality of the one new man.
The Greek word for “meek” implies mildness, gentleness, and unselfishness. This is not about being political, nice, and gentleman-like when we are with the saints; this has to do with our temper.
In the church life our temper is being exposed. The temper is a mark of those who refuse to deny the self. The temper is not the sickness; it is a symptom of the real issue which is the self. Once the self is dealt with, the temper is gone. The way to deal with the self is to deal with its various forms by prayer.
According to our disposition and temper, we may be subjective: we may think too much of what others do and say, and many things happen in our mind and not in the real life. Subjectivity is the greatest expression of the self, but when a man’s subjectivity is broken, he is freed from the self.
According to our temper, we may be proud: we may ignorant of our own self yet think more highly of ourselves than of others. We need to have our self dealt with so that we may not desire others to exalt us but rather think of others higher than of ourselves.
According to our temper, we may love ourselves, paying more attention to what we like and what we want, insisting to get the best treatment and things. Or we may love food, money, or material things. The root of the temper is the self, and our temper – when expressed – causes much damage in the church life.
We need to deny the self in its various forms through much prayer so that we may have the transformed human virtue of meekness enriched with the divine attribute.
May we be those who do not refuse the discipline of the Holy Spirit when it comes, and may we not complain or be angry when we face adversity. May we learn to be satisfied with God’s arrangement, and may we care not just for our own things but also for others’ affairs, praying for them and caring for them in the Lord.
In the church life our attitude matters a lot, and our attitude comes out from our temper; we need to deal with the self by adequate and thorough prayer, and we will have a meek attitude toward the saints, not expressing our temper but allowing the divine attribute saturate our human virtue of meekness for the church life.
Oh Lord Jesus, our temper! Lord Jesus, our love for the self. Lord, our pride! Oh Lord, our love for material things! Lord, our subjectivity. We bring all the issues and manifestations of our temper to You. Keep us praying to You, calling on Your name as our temper is being exposed. Lord, for the sake of the church life, we want to cooperate with You to deal with our temper so that we may have a meek attitude toward all the saints for the church life as a living in the Body of Christ!
We Must Sacrifice Ourselves to be Meek in our Attitude for the Church Life
In our attitude in the church life we need to be meek. We need to sacrifice ourselves to be meek in our attitude for the church life. In our motive we must love everyone in lowliness regardless of a standard, and in our attitude we need to be mild, gentle, and unselfish.
No one is like this by nature; we all need to be dealt with and broken by the Lord. Our attitude comes out of what we are: if we are selfish, our attitude will be hard and harsh; if we are proud, our attitude will be one of superiority toward others; but if we are unselfish and meek, we will be mild and gentle toward others in a genuine way.
We all need to have this kind of attitude in the church life. Many times the problems in the church life come not from big mistakes but from a wrong, careless, cold, and harsh attitude.
If we are careless in our attitude and are cold or harsh toward others, the enemy can come in to use this attitude to fire a flaming dart into other’s mind (Eph. 6:16). If someone greets us warmly but we don’t reply but just nod, being careless of our reaction and attitude, the other may think that we have a problem with him, and Satan can use this to create some trouble.
This doesn’t mean that we should be always smiling and nice to others in a natural way, no matter how we feel and what we go through. Rather, we need to come to the Lord, open to Him, and let Him deal with our attitude, so that when we meet others and speak or don’t speak anything, Christ would be expressed.
The church life is the meal offering made of fine flour and oil (see Lev. 2:1-5; 1 Cor. 10:17). Anything that is rough, course, and not grounded to fine flour cannot be in the fine meal offering.
On the one hand we shouldn’t be political and nice in a natural way toward others; on the other hand, we should exercise to always enjoy the Lord and deal with our attitude, coming to Him to be made meek and lowly in heart as He is (Matt. 11:29).
Toward others our attitude is most important; we may speak the highest truth with the exercise of our spirit, but if our attitude is wrong, there will be misunderstandings and troubles. If we are careless in our attitude, Satan can use this to bring in misunderstandings and offenses.
Satan as the subtle one is among us and he’s ready and even eager to use our careless attitude when doing or saying anything in the church life so that he may cause trouble.
We need to come to the Lord again and again concerning our attitude, seeking to be careful in our attitude and always be meek, mild, gentle, nice, and no excuses. Otherwise, we will have a wrong attitude, and this wrong attitude will be an advantage taken by the enemy to attack us and others in the church.
May the Lord have a way in us and through us, making us those who are willing to sacrifice themselves and not insist on their own rights but are mild and gentle in their attitude, those always careful concerning our attitude toward the saints to be meek and unselfish.
Oh, may Christ, the Meek One, be lived out through us for the church life!
Lord Jesus, we come to You, the One meek and lowly in heart. We give ourselves to You, Lord, to be dealt with by You and even to be broken in our temper. Lord, You know how we are and what our attitude is. Save us from being careless in our attitude in the church life. Save us from generating misunderstandings and offenses because of our attitude toward the saints. Lord, make us the same as You are, meek and lowly in heart. Make us those who sacrifice themselves to be meek in their attitude for the church life as a living in the Body of Christ!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Vital Factors for the Recovery of the Church Life (ch. 6), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Vision, Practice, and Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, week 6 / msg 6, Crucial Experiences in the Practice of the Church Life (3) How to Realize the Church Life in a Practical Way in the Reality of the One New Man (you can buy this morning revival book here).
- Picture credit for Matt. 11:29 and more spiritual quotes on this topic via, Christian Pictures Blog.
- Hymns on this topic:
# O who like Thee so humbly bore / The scorn, the scoffs of men, before? / So meek, so lowly, yet so high, / So glorious in humility? (Hymns #88)
# Like Thee in strength, in meekness, love, / In life in ev’ry phase; / From glory into glory changed, / Till we behold Thy face. (Hymns #153)
# But you, O man of God, flee these things, / And pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, / Love, endurance, meekness. / Fight the good fight of the faith; / Lay hold on the eternal life, to which you were called. (Scripture Song)
About aGodMan
“In order to have the church life, we need to learn that it is something very fine, not rough. According to the type, the church is a cake made of fine flour (Lev. 2:1-5; 1 Cor. 10:17). Anything coarse or rough does not fit the church life. I do not mean that we need to be nice in a worldly or religious way. Rather, we must have a fine expression toward the brothers and the sisters, behaving and conducting ourselves in a fine way. Our attitude is the most important item. If we will trust in the Lord for a proper attitude, we will be saved, delivered, and kept away from many misunderstandings. Almost all the misunderstandings come out of careless attitudes. Satan always utilizes careless attitudes to attack the church. This is why we must be careful with others, not for their sake only but even more because of the subtle one. The subtle one is here among us, so we need to be careful. We must not have carelessness in our attitude that can be taken advantage of and used for an attack by the enemy.
Meekness is a matter of an unselfish attitude that is mild and gentle, never argues for oneself, and never makes an excuse for oneself….Therefore, we must be careful in our attitude and always be meek, mild, gentle, nice, and without excuses. Otherwise, we will have a wrong attitude, and this wrong attitude will be an advantage taken by the enemy in order to attack us. This is not a small matter. It is very serious.” (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 1, pp. 180-181)