This morning, I want to set clearly before you a way to spiritual living. In simple terms, this way is just Jesus. We have seen that this Jesus is the embodiment of God. He passed through thirty-three and a half years of human living. In the end, He entered death, and He came out of death. In resurrection He became the life-giving Spirit. This is the Lord Jesus today. His Spirit is like the air which fills the earth; it is everywhere. As soon as a person repents, confesses his sins, believes, and calls “O Lord Jesus,’’ the Spirit of life enters into him, and he is saved and changed. Every one of us who have truly believed in the Lord experienced this story within. As to how we should live the spiritual living after this, we should do the same thing we did in our experience at the time of salvation; that is, we should call on the Lord and pray to Him.
Today, we know a little more than before. The Lord is living in us already. More or less, we have some experience. Particularly when we contact Him and call on Him when we wake up in the morning, we become different inside. We feel peaceful and calm. If we breathe a few more breaths, the breath of life will fill us, and anxiety and temper will be gone. Hence, we must not think that as soon as we are saved, everything is finished. If a saved person does not call on the Lord, he will be just like an unbeliever. Only when we call on the Lord will we have life, and only when there is life will there be the way. Without calling, we cannot have life; there will be death, and we will have no way to go on. I believe every saved person here can testify to the same thing. Nevertheless, I hope that you would take up this matter as a principle and would practice it every day and moment by moment. In this way, we will be able to enjoy God’s Spirit of life as the way for us to have a spiritual living.
God’s law consists mainly of the Ten Commandments. The first commandment says that we should have no God other than Jehovah. Everything that replaces the Lord is another god, and such a replacement is forbidden. The second commandment says that we must not make graven images for ourselves. Everything apart from God can become an image or idol. Examples of these things are money, education, and career. We can make idols out of these, and we can worship them. The third commandment is that we must not take the name of the Lord in vain. The fourth is that we must keep the Sabbath. For us today in the New Testament, we should keep the Lord’s Day. This day should be sanctified to the Lord. On this day we should come to His habitation, which is the church, to break the bread, to remember Him, to learn to serve Him, and to speak the Lord’s word. The fifth commandment is that we should honor our parents.
The Ten Commandments are divided into two sections. The first five were engraved on one tablet, whereas the last five were engraved on another. The fifth commandment is put together with the first four that have to do with God. This means that we should treat our parents in the same way that we should treat God, because God is the ultimate source of mankind. Furthermore, we have the sixth commandment, which says that we should not kill. This is to honor human life. The seventh commandment says that we should not commit adultery. This is to honor human morality. The eighth commandment says that we should not steal. This is to honor human rights. The ninth commandment says that we should not bear false witness against our neighbor. This sin is worse than the sin of lying. The tenth commandment says that we should not covet our neighbor’s wife, his house, or anything he has. This is to deal with the covetousness that is in man.
Romans 8:4 says, “That the righteous requirement of the law might by fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh, but according to spirit.’’ This spirit is the spirit of life, and to walk according to the spirit is to walk according to the Lord’s life within us. Within us there is surely another life, which is the Lord’s Spirit of life. He is the way for us to have a spiritual living. When we call on Him all the time and walk by Him, we will fulfill the righteous requirement of the law.
(God's Way in Life, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)