VIII. HAVING NO AMBITION
According to our experiences over the past years, ambition has been the source of all the problems in the church life. Ambition leads to power struggle. The source of ambition is Satan. His ambition is to rise above God and His authority. Satan was cast down and judged because of ambition. Today, you can see power struggles everywhere. You see it among your friends. Once you try to rise above others to have authority over others, you will create problems in the church life. We do not mean that there should not be authority in the church life. The foregoing lessons have already described the matter of authority in the church. The more life of God one has, the more authority he has. Authority does not come by struggling, back-biting, or arguing. It comes from God and it comes with the life of God. God is the source. Satan was created by God. How then can Satan rise above God? This is Satanic ambition without the capacity to exercise the proper authority. We must learn to submit.
The Lord humbled and emptied Himself to be a slave unto death. How about us? Paul said that we should let the mind of Christ be in us (Phil. 2:5). If we would do this, there will never be any Satanic ambition in us. Rather, we will always serve as a slave in the church life to build up the church.
Questions
- How does the “consciousness of life’’ deliver us from division?
- When you visit with the brothers and sisters can you discern the difference between fellowship and chit-chat? What is the difference? Can you quote from memory a verse from the Bible referring to fellowship? If so, quote it to the other students in the class.
- What is the difference between “power struggle’’ and authority? What is the source of each?
Quoted Portions
- Body of Christ (Lee/LSM), pp. 9-22.
Further References
- Life Study of Romans (Lee/LSM), pp. 295, 303-305, 320-325.
(Lesson Book, Level 5: The Church—The Vision and Building Up of the Church, Chapter 21, by Witness Lee)
