PREACHING THE GOSPEL IN THE WAY OF LIFE FOR THE INCREASE OF CHRIST
We are now in the process of the Lord’s recovery. I would ask you, honestly and humbly, to be patient with the building up. We have been tested by our gospel preaching as to where we are, and now we have to be built up. Do not take any concept from your background of Christianity. I say this humbly and honestly. We have been too influenced by that, and we are still under that influence. The proper outreach of the gospel is not a kind of movement, and it is not a kind of crusade. It is a life that is crucified, pruned, abiding in Christ, and being built up. This requires more time. Then we will see the prevailing preaching.
Do not expect, according to your old concept, that we are preparing to have a work of gospel preaching and that suddenly in one night the results will come. That is just a dream. For many years we have seen reports concerning the gospel with numbers in black and white, but where is the real result? Where are the people today? Where is the real fruit? Do we want to follow that way? In the Gospel of life the way to produce fruit, the way to have Christ increased, is the way of life.
I do not want to say too much about the churches in the Far East. We have seen, though, that they have no need for a crusade or gospel preaching movement. The saints in Taipei simply have a life for the gospel, and monthly and yearly a number of people are brought into the increase of Christ. This is because they have the building up. We need the patience to be built up, and this building up is revealed in all of the steps we have fellowshipped about. No doubt, we already have the divine birth, but what about the growth? What about drinking the Lord and feeding upon Him? And what about maturity and the building up? We have to humble ourselves and see the proper way.
Many things which we have seen in our background of Christianity are not accurate. They are more or less distracting. I beg you to learn the lesson to drop those things and come back to the Lord and to the way of life. Read the Gospel of John once again. In the first three Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—there is the commission for gospel preaching, seemingly in a way of activity. In the last Gospel, however, the Gospel of life, this commission is not mentioned in the way of activity but in the way of life. Without the way of life, we can bring people to Christ only in an outward way; we cannot see Christ increased. In order to have Christ increased with persons, we must live a crucified life, imparting Christ all the time, not merely bringing people to Christ, but imparting Christ to people, transforming people into the parts of the bride of Christ.
I look to the Lord that in these days we all may be helped by the Holy Spirit to see that the proper outreach of the gospel is the imparting of Christ to others. This requires our abiding in Him and our being pruned, purged, and broken, that is, our being crucified. Then something of Christ will grow out of and through all of us. Christ will be imparted into others. We will have the real increase, and this increase is the bride of Christ. This is the proper preaching of the gospel. This is the outreach of the gospel in the way of life.
(Preaching the Gospel in the Way of Life, Chapter 11, by Witness Lee)
