HIDDEN OR PROMINENT
Saints of God, do not covet fame. We should be hidden in God. Those pursuing a great name are most likely wounded by Satan. Those who are hidden in the Lord’s hand, how secure and peaceful they are!
It is abnormal for a saint to seek worldly glories. Those who love the Lord do not wish to be great in this world. Among the saints in the church of God, however, many still crave for a high position and to be called Rabbi. The crisis with the saints is not in the world but in the church!
How wise is the Lord! He told us to call each other only brother and to use no other title. It is regrettable that many, even among the brothers, want to be a great brother! If we have not allowed the Holy Spirit to work the Spirit of the cross in us, we cannot avoid a wicked heart to pursue a name.
Many consider that the world is in the world, without realizing that the world is also in the church and in the hearts of the saints! Unless one is truly dead to the world, it is hard to rid oneself of this kind of heart. Only those saints who have truly died with the Lord on the cross can be dead to the world in the church and in their hearts.
To not go after vainglory is a matter of the heart. If the Lord wants to put us in a prominent position, we should be willing and not shrink from it. Regrettably, the fame we secure comes from our own seeking. In our heart we covet a great name. If we are willing to rest in God’s hand, seeking only His pleasure, not caring for other people’s envying or rejecting, and considering wherever He puts us as the best position for us, we are in the position the Lord wants us to be.
To be hidden is not to be withdrawn. To be really hidden is not to be hidden with the hope of getting a name. To be hidden is not to hide somewhere physically but to have our inward being rest in God’s bosom.
HEART OR POLICY
This present age is a commercial age. Whatever we deal with is a matter of politics. How pitiful that even believers are influenced by this! We should know the difference between sincerity and politics. There is a heaven-to-earth difference between loving people with a sincere heart and loving people politically.
To love others with a sincere heart is to have a love that issues from the heart. To love politically is to have a love from the mind. To love in sincerity is an expression of genuineness. To love politically is an outward act with much reluctance. Sincere love is very spontaneous, in which the inward agrees with the outward. Political love is performed, and the inward does not correspond to what is outward.
The acts of fleshly Christians are for the most part politically motivated. Their conduct is not spontaneous, and there is no spontaneous outflow of their real feeling. Rather, they act because they are afraid of people’s criticism or are desirous of others’ praise. Take the case of brotherly love. Their expression in loving the brothers comes not from their real love, but through fear that others would criticize their spirituality if they do not do this. Alas! The love of many is heartless and false. May the Lord save us from this.
Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 really penetrate our mind and thought. Even an act as great as giving our body to be burned can be done without love! This kind of love is not of a sincere heart, but is political. This is why the apostle said, "I profit nothing" (v. 3).
Political love is outward, in which the mouth and the heart do not agree. There is merely an outward shell. Within the shell, there is no gracious work of God. This self-deceit and deceiving of others is but the plot of Satan.
At any rate, this kind of love is the playing of politics. Playing of politics cannot last long. After a while the true inward condition will be exposed! This kind of performance and reluctant love will not be any help whatsoever to us spiritually.
Brothers, we should rely on the Lord’s cross and do away with all malice that we may have in our hearts, "Love one another from a pure heart fervently" (1 Pet. 1:22; 4:8). "Little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and truthfulness" (1 John 3:18).
(Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 07: The Christian (5), Chapter 23, by Watchman Nee)
