Fifth, you should not label others. Do not say that this one is an old-timer and that one is not taking the new way. We must condemn all kinds of labeling. Sometimes we label others as Texans, Californians, New Englanders, or New Yorkers. This is not good. Learn never to label anyone.
Sixth, there should be no formality. This is not so easy. When we began the training in Taiwan, that was a time of experimentation. We tried many different ways of doing things, some of which had never been tried before in history, such as baptizing the believers in the bathtub. In our training we considered how we could baptize people immediately after visiting them and bringing them to the Lord. In Taipei today nearly every home has a bathtub because of today’s modern conveniences. Because of this, we could baptize them in the bathtub. However, when some of the trainees returned, they insisted that the newly saved must not be baptized in the meeting hall, but in their own home in a bathtub. As a result they made this a formality. Therefore, you should avoid having any formality.
Seventh, there should be no legality. After one or two terms of training in Taipei, some younger trainees returned to their locality and made what we were experimenting with in Taipei a legality. We were studying the fastest way to visit people. In Taipei there are a lot of high-rise buildings. On one story there may be seventy apartments. When we visited them, we would start from one door and keep moving to the left. Some trainees returned and taught people to always keep turning to the left in visiting people at their doors, so this became a legality.
Eighth, you should have no legality but to be burning in spirit (Rom. 12:11), fanning the God-given gift into flame (2 Tim. 1:6). You have the gift, but the gift within you is without a flame. You must fan it. You should not fan someone else’s gift, but your own gift, into flame. You need to be burning within, not burning without. It is wonderful when you are burning yet no one knows you are burning.
(Instruction and Exhortation to the Trainees, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)