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Originally Posted by OBW
You have put words to something that was rummaging around inside of me...
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Amen, dear brother OBW. Amen and Amen. It seems that our Lord has been working on this matter of obedience in both of us. Your testimony is a big encouragement to me and I thank you for sharing it.
You are absolutely right about the book of James. When Witness Lee did his hatchet job on James in 1995, that should have been a major signal to all those remaining in the LRC that WL and LSM had run off the rails. But, as you say, it is not just the book of James which stresses obedience. In certain portions, Jesus, Paul, Peter and John all stress obedience too.
Jesus definitely said much more about how we are to live than what we are to believe. From my amateur study of Church History, it appears that the Council of Nicaea was the turning point. Up until Nicaea, a Christian was known by how he lived. After Nicaea, Christians became known more and more by what they believed. Witness Lee and the LRC have certainly not reversed that trend.
Here is an interesting point. New Testament scholars like to try to point to different "flavors" of theology seen in the various NT authors. So they talk about "Pauline theology" or "Peterine theology" or "Johannine theology". Interestingly, they have never come up with a term for the theology of Jesus. There is no such thing as "Jesusine theology", because Jesus was much, much, more concerned with our living than with fine points of belief and doctrine. Jesus was NOT a theologian! Neither were the apostles for that matter, but Jesus was even less so.
You actually did me a big favor, brother OBW, and I have never thanked you. About a year and a half ago, I posted a list on the Bereans showing all the authors I had read since leaving the LRC. (If I remember correctly, good ol' Bilbodog was accusing me of being solely for Stephen Kaung, and I was showing that I partook of many, many, other ministries besides Stephen Kaung.) I listed around 91 authors. You pointed out that my list was almost exclusively "Inner Life" teachers and Plymouth Brethren teachers. I have to admit, at first I was very offended by that, as I was priding myself on how "widely read" I was. Over time, however, I realized that you were right and I began to see how narrow I had been. I then began to actively seek out the writings of other "branches" of Christian thought besides "Inner Life" and "Plymouth Brethren". I found so many marvelous examples of Christian practice that were utterly unknown to Watchman Nee, Witness Lee, and the Blended Brothers. I discovered some incredibly irenic, peace-loving, self-sacrificing, faithful-unto-death branches of Christianity. The obedience, the faith, and the love shown by these Christian groups was incredible. I am so glad that I went beyond those ministers and those groups normally associated with "The Lord's Recovery". Witness Lee, Living Stream Ministry, and the LRC do not have any kind of monopoly on what is pleasing to God's heart - far from it.
Here is a great quote from one of the pre-Nicene "Church Fathers" named Marcus Minucius Felix written approximately 200 A.D.:
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"We don't speak great things - we live them!"
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AMEN!