For us to take the way of the truth is to purify our soul by obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love for the Lord and for the brothers; we need to cooperate with the Lord to receive His light, be enlightened, and be purified in our soul by the truth. Amen!
May we be those who take the way of the truth in the church life today so that we may consummate God’s divine economy; may we be absolute for the way of the truth.
What is the way of the truth and how can we take this way today?
The way of the truth is the path of the Christian life according to the truth; it is the path of the Christian life according to the divine reality as contained in the New Testament.
This way is also designated by other titles such as the straight way, the way of peace, the way of righteousness, the way of salvation, the way of God, the way of the Lord, and the Way.
When others want to slander us who take the way of the truth, they call it the way of heresy.
How can we take the way of the truth today? How can we be absolute for the truth, not compromising the truth, and not lowering the truth according to our feeling or experience?
We need to come to the Lord in His word; we need to open our heart and spirit to Him, and we need to let Him infuse us with the divine reality contained and conveyed through His word.
All the divine facts are contained in the Bible as the Word of God; this book both contains and conveys the divine facts, and for us to gain the divine reality, we need the divine light to shine on the Word.
When the light shines upon the facts in the Word, we know the truth; the truth is not mere doctrines but a divine and heavenly television, a live televising of the divine facts into our being.
When we have such experiences day by day, the divine reality is constituted into our being.
As we enjoy the truth in such a living way, we open our being to the Lord to also experience Christ; the experience of Christ and the learning of the truth go together.
We all need to be full of life and strong in the truth in the church life in the Lord’s recovery; both brothers and sisters, both young and old, we need to remain in the truth, walk in the truth, and be constituted with the truth.
When we take the way of the truth and are absolute for the way of the truth, we are on the Way, experiencing God’s full salvation in God’s New Testament economy.
On the way of the truth, we purify our souls through the sanctification of the truth unto unfeigned love; when we obey the truth by saying Amen to God’s word both in our reading and in our daily living, we are purified in our soul.
May this be our daily experience for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
To Take the Way of the Truth is to Purify our Souls by Obedience to the Truth, which is God’s Word of Reality
Taking the way of the truth is being purified in our souls by obedience to the truth; this truth is the sanctifying truth, which is God’s word of reality (1 Pet. 1:22; John 17:17).
God will not come in to purify our souls for us; rather, we need to do this by our obedience to the truth we have heard and received.
As we live the Christian life in this world, our soul gets contaminated, impure, and defiled.
It is possible that our soul has some contamination, some defilement that was picked up by our living in this age.
Therefore, we need the washing of the water in the Word; we need to be renewed in our mind by allowing the Word to operate in us and by our obedience to the truth.
How can we purify our souls? It is by our obedience to the truth, by our saying Amen to the Lord’s word.
Our soul is composed of our mind, emotion, and will, which are also parts of our heart; for us to have our soul purified is to have our mind, emotion, and will be purified from any defilement or contamination (Acts 15:9; James 4:8).
This means that our emotion, mind, and will are delivered from all things other than God and fixed on Him as our unique goal and object.
Simply by living in the world today, by our going to work or school, by our travelling or communicating with other people, and even by our going to do some shopping, our soul is made impure.
As we browse social media, listen to the news, speak to others around us, and live in this world, we get defiled by the world and by sin.
Even more, many times even our service to God can be something that is not under the shining of the divine light; we may serve God out of our zeal and good intentions but not in the mingled spirit.
This is the reason that, even though we experience this or that, we don’t have joy in the church life, for the divine things are not so real to us as they used to be.
Because we don’t receive the divine light as we touch the Word, even though we may have some enjoyment and do some service for the Lord as we live in the church life, we don’t receive light and we don’t have the Lord’s joy.
The result is that we may do some things for the Lord and we may have some enjoyment and inspiration in the Word, but the divine reality is not brought into us, and we are not brought into the light.
How can we be enlightened by the Lord in His word so that we may purify our souls by obedience to the truth?
First of all, we have to want the light; we need to ask the Lord to shine on us through His word, and we need to simply open our being to Him.
When He shines on us through His word, we just need to open to the light; we shouldn’t run or hide from the light but open our being for the Lord’s shining.
We shouldn’t think that, as the Lord shines on us, He will touch our family life, our career, where we live, our children, etc; we shouldn’t be afraid of His light but rather, turn our heart to Him and ask Him to take the veil away.
As He shines on us and we open to Him, we need to stop our activities and our doing, and simply let Him shine on us and expose to remove anything that is not according to Him.
Sometimes we are so busy and active that we don’t ever stop; when the Lord shines, we should simply stop our doing and our being, and let Him shine on us.
If we don’t learn to stop before the Lord even in our work for Him, though we may continue serving Him, we remain the same year after year, and there’s no inner change in our being.
As the Lord shines on us, we should not dispute with the light but rather, say Amen to His word.
As we do this, as we say Amen to His inner speaking and shining, we will live in the light; our living in the light needs to be continual, day by day.
May we read and pray the Word of God, ask Him to shine on us, and say amen to His shining; may we simply say Amen to His inner shining as He reminds us of the word we have read and enjoyed so that the divine reality would be wrought into us.
When we say Amen to the Lord’s shining within us, we purify our souls by our obedience to the truth.
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You to purify our soul by our obedience to the truth. We open our being to You, dear Lord; shine on us through Your word to infuse the divine reality into our being. Amen, Lord, sanctify us in our disposition so that we may live a holy life in God’s holy nature today. May our mind, emotion, and will be purified from any kind of defilement and contamination. Shine on us through Your Word; we need the divine light to shine on us as we read Your Word. We just open our being to the light; we stop ourselves with our activities, and we simply let You shine on us. Amen, Lord, expose any defilement and contamination and purify our soul. We say Amen to Your shining; we say Amen to Your word! Keep us walking and living in the light, not disputing with the light but allowing You to shine in us and through us!
The Purification of our Soul by our Obedience to the Truth issues in Loving the Lord and having Unfeigned Brotherly Love
According to 1 Pet. 1:22, the purification of our souls by obedience to the truth issues in unfeigned brotherly love.
When we allow the Lord to shine on us and we purify our soul by our obedience to the truth, we concentrate our whole being on the Lord to love Him and to love the brothers.
The purifying of our souls by obedience to the truth causes our entire being to be focused on God so that we may love Him with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind and strength (Mark. 12:30).
As we love the Lord, we will also love those whom He loves; we will love fervently from our heart the brothers, and our love is unfeigned.
This word, unfeigned, means that we don’t pretend, we are not hypocritical; to feign love is to pretend to love.
Sometimes people put on a mask, pretending to be someone they are not, simply to not make others unhappy, to please them, or to cause them to have a higher appreciation for them.
To feign is to put on a mask or disguise how we really feel; outwardly we may show that we’re happy and kind, but inwardly we do not feel this way. Oh, Lord!
As we live in the church life, we may have the feeling that we should be kind and pleasant to others, and we should not offend them; therefore, many times we may feign love or kindness. Oh, Lord!
Our soul needs to be purified by our obedience to the truth; when we cooperate with the Lord to purify our soul by saying Amen to His word, we will love the Lord and focus on Him, and we will love the brothers with unfeigned love.
If we incline our ear to gossip or evil-speaking concerning the saints or the church life, we may still love the brothers, but that love will be feigned, for our soul is contaminated and defiled. Oh, Lord.
May we be saved from putting on a mask; may we be delivered from feigning love or kindness.
We may even live in the brothers’ house and we may listen to some negative speaking; if we don’t deal with it by being in the Word of God in a living way and saying Amen to his word, we may feign love, but inwardly we are defiled and contaminated.
If we decide to obey the truth by saying Amen to God’s word, any contamination and defilement is removed, and our soul is purified; we will then focus on the Lord and love Him, and we will also love the brothers with unfeigned love.
If we are exposed by the Lord that we love others with feigned love, we need to come to Him in His word and allow Him to expose and remove any contamination and defilement.
We need to gird up the loins of our mind, concentrate our emotion, and make a strong decision to obey the truth by saying Amen to God’s word, and we will love the Lord and love the brothers with unfeigned love.
We need to keep short accounts with the Lord; every time we feel there is something negative, some defilement, or some contamination, when we feel we are polluted, we need to come to the Lord in His word with the exercise of our spirit to purify our soul by our obedience to the truth.
When we do this, we will love the Lord and the brothers with unfeigned love; both our mind, emotion, will, and conscience will testify that we love others, and our love will be from our whole heart.
Such a purifying of our souls issues in unfeigned brotherly love, that is, in loving from the heart fervently those whom God loves (1 John 5:1).
Lord Jesus, we want to purify our soul by obedience to the truth so that our whole being would be concentrated on God to love Him with all our heart! Amen, Lord, purify our soul and remove any defilement, contamination, and pollution by Your inward shining through Your Word. We say Amen to Your Word; we say Amen to Your shining. We want to cooperate with You to purify our soul by obedience to the truth so that we may love the Lord and have an unfeigned brotherly love. Save us from feining our love for the Lord and for the brothers. Purify our soul, dear Lord, so that we may have an unfeigned brotherly love, fervently loving those whom God loves!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 2 Peter, pp. 118-120 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing the Truth, being Absolute for the Truth, and Proclaiming the Truth in this Present Evil Age (2021 Memorial Day Weekend Conference), week 3, Being Constituted with the Truth and Being Absolute for the Way of the Truth and the Propagation of the Truth for the Consummation of the Divine Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Break through my nature, mighty, heavenly love, / Clear every avenue of thought and brain, / Flood my affections, purify my will, / Let nothing but Thine own pure life remain. (Hymns #431)
– Oh, purify us, Lord, by speaking in our heart; / Thy living, spoken word this washing will impart. / Increase Thy speaking, Lord, and cleanse our every part. / Oh, purify us, Lord, we pray. (Hymns #1135)
– Now in all the churches flowing, / Brotherly love. / Light and life and love bestowing, / Brotherly love. / In the oneness all believing, / Fellowship with all receiving, / Nevermore the Spirit grieving, / Brotherly love. (Hymns #1277)
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