[Sons to Glory!]

Originally Posted by Trapped

Sorry, StG, I was too myopic in my response and didn't include a "granted" or an "I can see that xyz" anywhere. I'm very, very tired so if this doesn't quite make sense.....please have mercy and don't blast me.

If what Nee is trying to say by that first sentence is something like "the success of our Christian life is not determined by whether we do everything right" or "we are not justified by keeping right and wrong" or "the Christian life is not based on law-keeping" (I think you get the thrust of what I'm trying to say), then yes, I agree. If that's what he meant, again, he needs to work on his communication skills, but if I squint my eyes, I can grant that he may have meant that.

If I have to follow Nee's structure, I would edit the first sentence to say "Our Christian living is based on an inner life, which guides us to live in submission to His commands." Or something like that, my brain fails me at the moment. I know I'm emphasizing the commandments, and it's a little knee-jerk in response to Nee's wholesale tossing them aside, but they are a guide for us, to be sure.

Christian living is to know God and love God, and to love people. Christian living is not all inner and it's not all outer either. Nee and Lee sometimes liked to uplift one side of things and completely soak in oil and light on fire the other side of things.

I personally have always had trouble with vague spiritual language, and something like "live Christ" doesn't mean much to me. In other words, it's too ethereal. Too mystical. Too "what does that mean in actuality?" I can't chase after "living Christ". What I CAN do is talk to God, trust God, put the next minute/hour/day/week/month/year in God's hands, throw myself at the mercy of God, try to grasp who He is from what creation and the Bible speaks of Him, listen to His voice, etc......and in so doing, live in step with Him in my human life. And all this is done and is only possible through Christ. That I can grasp and try to do. But I can't go off and "live Christ" and have any idea what that looks like or entails (unless someone explains it to me in a way that turns the lightbulb in my head on and I come to understand what it means better than how I understand it now.)

For the record, I googled "what does it mean to "live Christ"". Note that I put "live Christ" in quotation marks so that specific two-word phrase would have to be present on any returned page. In other words, not the phrase "to live is Christ" but the phrase "live Christ". From the first two pages of results:
-some sites did not have the phrase on them, but had "to live is Christ" instead.
-some sites had "live Christ" but were just noting that that's the literal Greek...."for me to live Christ and to die gain". Not the usage we are dealing with.
-two sites were a personal blog that used the phrase but did not handle it the way Nee/Lee did.
-other sites had the phrase "live Christ-centered" or "live Christ-like" which is not what I was looking for.
-the sites that actually said "live Christ" were BfA, agodman.com, holdingtotruth.com, ministrybooks.org, and ministrysamples.org. In other words, all LC saints or LSM related sites.

(As an unrelated aside, in looking at the Greek for that verse, I think it's better rendered "For me, to live is Christ and to have died is gain." The verb forms for "to live" and "to die" are both infinitives, but are different tenses of infinitives. "To die" is a tense that indicate something that has happened, which I think is better said "to have died". Not related, but just something I noticed.)

You did really, very well for being tired! I appreciate all that you said and what you looked up.

One thing that came to me while reading your post was Hebrews 10:25 - "Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together . . ." This is one of those commandments that returns to me over and over. The NT is loaded with them, like love one another as you pointed out. All of them are nigh impossible to do on our own (in the flesh) apart from His life in us. And I think that's the point of the new covenant - we are not meant to live properly without His life, and we are shown repeatedly what folly it is to try and live the Christian life without Christ's life living in and through us!

Back to Hebrews 10:25 . . . I don't know completely where I'm going with this, but this is just one of those foundational verses to me. As members of His body, we were meant to gather and this one of those basic things in the Christian life. It's not just because we should (although it's true), but it's more like the branch will die if not attached to the vine. So whether I feel like it or not so much, I know I need to get with other believers. And when I do, and we sing, fellowship and pray, I feel recharged and encouraged - Jesus is there among us!

But you could also say that I wouldn't even have the awareness or sensation that I need to get with other believers, if His life wasn't operating in me. Therefore He is so wise to give us both - the outer requirement that only His life can supply us to do!