THE RICHES OF LIFE BEING BROUGHT FORTH BY THE REGULATING OF THE LAW OF LIFE
As we have seen, a law is the spontaneous, automatic, regulating power of a life, which constantly regulates in order to bring forth all the riches of that life. The more the law regulates, the more the riches of the life are brought forth. If we keep a seed on a table, it has no chance to grow. This means there is no opportunity for the law of this life to regulate. However, if we put this little seed into the earth and water it, it will have much opportunity to grow, and the very law within this life will have the opportunity to regulate. The more the law regulates, the more the riches, the contents, of the life will be brought forth. Whether or not life grows absolutely depends on the regulating of its law. When the law regulates, the life grows; when the law does not regulate, the life does not grow.
Every life works by the regulation of its law. The same is true with the divine life within us. Romans 8:2 says that the law of the Spirit of life has freed us. The regulating of the law of the divine life sets us free from the law of sin and of death. With every life there is a law to bring forth all the riches of that life by its regulation. With the divine life within us, there is the need for the regulating of the divine law. If we stop the regulating of the law, we stop the work, the growing, of life.
There is no need to try to do good. We need to forget about all the old laws—the outward law of God in doctrine, the law of good, and the law of sin—and live by the third life, the divine life. With this divine life there is the strongest law, but it needs the opportunity. A seed has a life within it and a law in its life, but if we keep this seed in our pocket, it will have no opportunity to work. A seed needs a certain circumstance, environment, and opportunity. To put a seed into the earth and water it gives it the opportunity it needs. As Christians, there is no need to try to do good, but there is the need to give the opportunity to the law of the divine life. We have the responsibility of giving the opportunity, the spiritual environment, to the law of the divine life. If we do not give the divine law of the divine life the opportunity to regulate, it can do nothing.
LOVING THE LORD AND STOPPING OUR DOING
What is the way to give this divine law the proper opportunity and environment? We Christians, the chosen and redeemed persons, are called to love the Lord. If we love the Lord, the Lord as life within us has the opportunity to work. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23 clearly tells us that, in our whole human being, the heart is the earth into which the seed of life has been sown. There is the need of our heart as the earth. The parable of the sower speaks of four different kinds of hearts, only one of which is the good earth. Whether or not the Lord as life within us can grow depends very much on the condition of our heart.
What is the condition of our heart? In 1938 I was working for the Lord in Beijing, the old capital of China. In those days I met a sister who truly loved the Lord very much, but her heart was not the good earth for the Lord. The more she loved the Lord, the more the law of life could not work within her. This was because she did not know the proper way to love the Lord. She thought that since she loved the Lord, she needed to do many things for the Lord. Therefore, she gave up her family, her husband, and her children, and from early in the morning to late at night she worked for the Lord. Sometimes when she came to the meeting, she was so tired from working that she fell asleep. It was hard for anyone to help her because she thought that she loved the Lord the most. From a certain point of view she did love the Lord the most, but she loved the Lord in a wrong way.
In order to let the Lord grow in us and let the divine law work within us, we must love the Lord, but we must also stop ourselves from trying to do anything. The more we love the Lord, the more we want to do something for the Lord. However, the more we love the Lord, the more we need to stop ourselves. This is not easy. When we do not love the Lord, we do not care about the work of the Lord, and we do not do anything for the Lord. But when we love the Lord, we do, work, and act much for the Lord.
The problem with many Christians is that they simply do not love the Lord; their heart does not come to the Lord, so nothing in them follows. However, once we love the Lord, our heart comes, and everything else follows. When some brothers do not love the Lord, they give up the work, the service, and the concerns of the Lord, and they have nothing to do with the church, but when they love the Lord, their heart comes to the church and many things follow, including opinions, activities, and other matters. This is the reason why in the Scriptures we often see the Lord stirring up the heart of His saints to love Him, on the one hand, and turning away many other things, on the other hand. The Lord simply desires to have our heart, so He rejects everything else. He may say to us, “Simply come with your heart. Never come with anything else.”
(Basic Principles of the Experience of Life, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
