Sit, Walk, Stand: The Process of Christian Maturity

Sit, Walk, Stand: The Process of Christian Maturity Read Online Free PDF

Book: Sit, Walk, Stand: The Process of Christian Maturity Read Online Free PDF
Author: Watchman Nee
Tags: love, Christianity, God, Grace
tremendous demands by His repeated use of the words “Ye have heard that it was said . . . but I say unto you. . . .” (Matt. 5). But since already, over many centuries, men had sought to attain to the first standard and had failed, how could the Lord dare to raise the standard higher still? He could do so only because He believed in His own life. He is not afraid of making the most exacting demands upon Himself. Indeed, we may well find comfort in reading the laws of the Kingdom as set forth in Matthew chapters 5 to 7, for they show what utter confidence the Lord has in His own life made available to His children . These three chapters set forth the divine taxation of the divine life. The greatness of His demands upon us only shows how confident He is that the resources He has put within us are fully enough to meet them. God does not command what He will not perform; but we must throw ourselves back on Him for the performance.
    Does some difficult situation confront us? Is it a problem of right or wrong, good or evil? We do not need to look for wisdom. We need no longer apply to the tree of knowledge. We have Christ, and He is made unto us wisdom from God. The law of the Spirit of lifein Christ Jesus continually communicates to us His standards of right and wrong, and with them the attitude of spirit with which the difficult situation should be met.
    More and more things will turn up to hurt our Christian sense of righteousness and to test what our reactions are going to be. We need to learn the principle of the cross—that our standard is not now the old, but the new man, “that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Eph. 4:24). “Lord, I’ve got no rights to defend. Everything I have is through Thy grace, and everything is in Thee!” I knew of an old Japanese Christian woman who was disturbed by a thief who had broken into her house. In her simple but practical faith in the Lord, she cooked the man a meal—then offered him her keys. He was shamed by her action, and God spoke to him. Through her testimony that man is a brother in Christ today.
    Too many Christians have all the doctrine, but live lives that are a contradiction of it. They know all about chapters 1 to 3 of Ephesians, but they do not put chapters 4 to 6 into practice. It were better to have no doctrine than to be a contradiction. Has God commanded something? Then throw yourself back on God for the means to do what He has commanded. May the Lord teach us that the whole principle of the Christian life is that we go beyond what is right to do that which is well-pleasing to Him.
Redeeming the Time
    But there remains something further to be added to the above on the subject of our Christian walk. The word “walk” has, as must already be obvious, a further meaning. It suggests first conduct or behavior, but it also contains in it the idea of progress. To “walk” is to “proceed,” to “follow on,” and we want to consider briefly now this further matter of our progress toward a goal.
    “Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (5:15–17).
    You will notice that in the above verses there is an association between the idea of time and the difference between wisdom and foolishness. “Walk . . . as wise; redeeming the time . . . . Be ye not foolish.” This is important. I want now to remind you of two other passages in which these things are similarly brought together.
            Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins . . . . Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For the foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them . . . . But at midnight there is a cry, Behold, the bridegroom! Come ye forth to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said . . . Our lamps are going out . . . . And
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