UNDER THE BLOOD
Sometimes, however, we are quite foolish. Before we are enlightened in the church, we may not admit that we are wrong; we may not admit any kind of evil or corruption in ourselves. After we have become enlightened, however, we should never tell our failures to others. This is wrong. Rather, we must all apply the Lord’s blood. All of the past is under the blood. We should never take anything out from under the blood to show others, especially in the meetings. This is absolutely unhealthy and unprofitable, and it is not according to the Scriptures. On one hand we need to be exposed by the divine light, but on the other hand, after being exposed, we have the covering of the redeeming blood. God has no intention to shame us by exposing us before others. He only wants us to see how worthless and hopeless we are in our humanity so that we may learn to take His humanity. After seeing this, we have the covering, cleansing blood. The exposing of the divine light is always followed by the cleansing and covering blood. We should not talk about ourselves and our past anymore. Once it has been exposed, it is under the covering of the blood. Let us forget about all of our failures in the past, for God’s forgiving is His forgetting. Sometimes we try to remind God of the things that He has forgiven. But God simply does not have a memory for these things. Once He forgives, He forgets. Praise the Lord for His covering and cleansing blood!
THE PROPER HUMANITY FOR ALL AGES
All of the above-mentioned verses concern our daily walk. Paul instructed Titus to help the saints in all age groups. “Aged men are to be temperate, grave, of a sober mind, healthy in faith, in love, in endurance; aged women likewise are to be in demeanor as befits the sacred, not slanderers, nor enslaved by much wine, teachers of what is good, that they may train the young women to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their children, of a sober mind, chaste, workers at home, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. The younger men likewise exhort to be of a sober mind” (Titus 2:2-6).
I am so happy that Paul mentioned aged men and aged women, young men and young women. These are not the elders or deacons, but the brothers and sisters in the church. Without these verses, we might think that only the elders and deacons must have the proper humanity, and that it is not necessary for the others. But what Paul told the elders he also said to the brothers and sisters. In the last chapters, I stressed the fact that the young people are the key persons for the Lord’s recovery. But in this chapter we see how the older ones must go before. Paul does not charge the younger ones first, but the older ones. They are the ones who must take the lead in the matter of humanity.
We all know that the two books to Timothy and the one to Titus were written in the latter time of Paul’s ministry. Therefore, by the time of these three writings, Paul had more experience. What he wrote in these three books, therefore, was based more upon his experience. These books are quite different from Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and other books which were written in his earlier ministry. For example, in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul told the believers that it is better not to be married, especially for the sisters. But when he wrote 1 Timothy 5, his attitude had changed. In Timothy he said that all the young widows should be married. Why is this? Because after many years, Paul had more experience. In these three books he does not say much concerning doctrines. In these later books he simply stresses the proper humanity. In his other letters he never stressed the matter of humanity as much as he did in these three. If we would read 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus again with this attitude, we would see that the central and basic point of which Paul speaks is the matter of humanity. This is because he had learned from experience, that for the long run, the church life requires the proper humanity much more than other things.
(Christ as the Reality, Chapter 15, by Witness Lee)
