Lesson 8

Cherishing and Nourishing

Scripture Reading: John 15:16; 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2; Acts 5:42; Matt. 24:45-47; John 11:25; 5:19, 30

I. We need to cherish and nourish the new ones that they may remain—John 15:16; 21:15; 1 Thes. 2:7; 1 Pet. 2:2; Acts 5:42:

A. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7 Paul says, “We were gentle in your midst, as a nursing mother would cherish her own children”:

1. In this verse Paul uses the word cherish; cherishing includes nourishing, but it indicates more tender care than mere nourishing; to cherish is to do everything in order to meet the young one’s need—v. 7.

2. After we baptize someone, we must immediately consider ourselves as gentle, nursing mothers; even Paul, the great apostle, became such a nursing mother—v. 7.

3. Whenever a mother comes to cherish or nourish her little babe, she is always very gentle; to cherish and nourish the new ones, we have to be fine and gentle—v. 7; cf. 2 Cor. 10:1; 1 Tim. 3:3; 2 Tim. 2:24; Titus 3:2:

a. Some brothers are very eager and intense; their way of speaking may be too strong or rough; this may intimidate or somewhat frighten the young ones—2 Cor. 10:1.

b. Others are like preachers, theological school graduates, always presenting one portion from the Bible after another to instruct them; their gesture would give people the feeling that they are proud and would cool down the new ones—v. 1.

c. To contact people in a way that will make them happy requires much learning; actually, this kind of learning is endless; we must know how to take care of people in a way that their hearts would be open to us—1 Tim. 3:3.

B. To nourish and cherish the new ones is not accomplished in one or two days; it is a daily, continual work that requires a long period of time—1 Pet. 2:2; Acts 5:42.

II. We need to cherish people in the humanity of Jesus—Matt. 9:10; Luke 7:34:

A. To cherish people is to make them happy, to comfort them, to make them feel that you are pleasant to them, easy to be contacted in everything and in every way—Matt. 9:10; Luke 7:34:

1. To cherish people is to make them happy and to make them feel pleasant and comfortable—Matt. 9:10.

2. We must have a pleasant countenance when we contact people; we should be happy and rejoicing—cf. Prov. 15:13.

3. We should not contact anyone with a cheerless countenance; we must give people the impression that we are genuinely happy and pleasant; otherwise, we will not be able to cherish them, to make them happy—Matt. 9:10.

B. The humanity of Jesus is His human life in resurrection—John 11:25; 5:19, 30:

1. The main vision of Jesus in the four Gospels, especially in the synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—is that He lived a life that was human but in resurrection:

a. Jesus was not a man living a natural life; He always put His humanity aside.

b. Apparently, He was a Nazarene, a natural Galilean; He was in that flesh; but His living was in a humanity in resurrection—vv. 19, 30.

c. His cherishing others to charm and attract them was not in His natural humanity but in His humanity in resurrection—vv. 19, 30.

2. When we go out to contact people, we must be persons living a human life in resurrection—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10:

a. Some people are charming, attractive, and cherishing in their natural humanity by birth; those who are charming in their natural humanity, however, are not real—v. 10.

b. To cherish people in our natural humanity is not genuine; this is why we must cherish people in the humanity of Jesus—Matt. 9:10.

c. When we contact people, we should not put on a mask; this is hypocrisy; instead, we should be persons who are crucified in ourselves and resurrected in Christ; then we will live in the same way that Jesus lived—Gal. 2:20.

d. If we live such a life today, a life in humanity by resurrection, everyone will realize that there is something different about us; we will be sweet, charming, and attractive, without deception or hypocrisy—Phil. 3:10.

C. We should cherish people, not by our natural man but by our regenerated man that has been conformed to the death of Christ—Eph. 4:22-24; Rom. 12:2.

D. We need to see the model of Jesus in cherishing people in His humanity—Matt. 4:12-17; 5:1-12; 14:14-21; 15:32-38; 19:13-15; Luke 4:16-22; 7:34; 19:1-10; John 1:45-51; 4:1-14; 8:3-11, 24, 34-36.

III. We need to nourish people in the divinity of Christ—Matt. 24:45-47:

A. To nourish people is to feed them, to give them something to eat—v. 45-47:

1. We do not nourish people when we speak to them about marriage, courtship, politics, the world situation, or education—Eph. 3:16-17; 4:15, 21.

2. To nourish people is to feed them with the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry in three stages—Eph. 5:29; John 21:15-17.

3. When we speak to people about Christ, we should not speak to them in an incomprehensible way, in a kind of language that they do not understand; we have to find a way to present the all-inclusive Christ to everyone—Eph. 5:29.

4. In order to nourish people with Christ, we first have to seek Christ, experience Christ, gain Christ, enjoy Christ, and participate in Christ—Phil. 2:12-13; 3:7-14.

B. We need to learn how to nourish people to continue our cherishing of people—Eph. 5:29; Rev. 1:12-13:

1. Cherishing without nourishing is in vain—Eph. 5:29; Rev. 1:12-13.

2. When a mother wants to feed her child, she will first make the child happy by cherishing him; but without nourishing him, her cherishing is meaningless; after cherishing the child, the mother nourishes him with food.

3. This is the way that Christ as the Head takes care of His Body, the church—Eph. 5:29; Rev. 1:12-13.

C. Our nourishing people is by the divine and mystical life in resurrection—John 5:19, 30; 6:57; Gal. 2:20:

1. We must realize that the sevenfold intensified life-giving Spirit only honors things in resurrection—1 Cor. 15:58; 3:12.

2. Our contact with people should not be in the old creation but in resurrection; it is only in this way that we can cherish and nourish people with Christ, the all-inclusive One—John 5:19, 30.

Excerpts from the Ministry:

THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

BEING HIS HUMAN LIFE IN RESURRECTION

When we go out to contact people, we must be persons living a human life in resurrection. In John 11:25 the Lord told Martha, “I am the resurrection.” Martha complained to the Lord that if He had come sooner, her brother would not have died. But the Lord revealed that resurrection is not a matter of time but a matter of His person, because He is the resurrection.

The main vision of Jesus in the four Gospels, especially in the synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—is that He lived a life that was human but in resurrection. Jesus was not a man living a natural life. He always put His humanity aside. He was in His humanity, yet He did not live a life of His humanity. Every day while He was on the earth, Jesus was in the flesh, but that flesh was in resurrection. Apparently, He was a Nazarene, a natural Galilean. He was in that flesh. But His living was in a humanity in resurrection.

When Nathanael came to Jesus, Jesus said something to him in resurrection: “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you” (John 1:48). He saw Nathanael under that tree far away because of His divinity with the divine ability, but that divine ability was in His humanity. Divinity is resurrection. Resurrection is a divine person, God. Only God is the resurrection that can stand against death, overcome death, enter into death, have a tour of death, and come out of death.

The One who created Adam came to be a man and lived a human life in resurrection. He denied His natural humanity. He never did anything out of Himself (5:19, 30). He did everything in Himself but not of Himself. We also should not do anything in our natural life but in Christ’s resurrection life. Jesus was living and walking on this earth in His flesh, but He rejected this flesh. He rejected His natural life.

When Jesus was twelve years old, His parents took Him to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of the Passover. When they were returning from Jerusalem, they did not find Him, so they went back to search for Him. When they found Him in the temple, His mother said to Him, “Child, why have You treated us like this? Behold, Your father and I, being greatly distressed, have been seeking You.” He responded, “Why is it that you were seeking Me? Did you not know that I must be in the things of My Father?” (Luke 2:48-49). In His humanity He was the son of His parents, but in His divinity He was the Son of God the Father. This shows that He rejected His natural life. He was living as a young boy in His divinity. In other words, He was not living by His natural man, born of Mary; He was living by His life in resurrection. His cherishing others to charm and attract them was not in His natural humanity but in His humanity in resurrection.

Some people are charming, attractive, and cherishing in their natural humanity by birth. When such a person walks into a room, the atmosphere changes. A charming person must be very warm, not cold. Those who are charming in their natural humanity, however, are not real. Actually, they are performers, like actors in a theater. When you get close to a charming man, you will find out that he actually is not that charming. He was born with a mask. When the mask is taken away, he is different. To cherish people in our natural humanity is not genuine. This is why we must cherish people in the humanity of Jesus. The Lord’s charming and cherishing are not natural but are by His resurrection life in humanity.

THE HUMANITY OF THE NEW MAN

OF THE BELIEVERS IN GOD’S NEW CREATION

BEING ALSO IN RESURRECTION

The humanity of the new man of the believers in God’s new creation is also in resurrection (Eph. 4:23-24). In the new creation we are exactly the same as Jesus. We were reborn, regenerated, not with Adam’s life but with Christ’s life. Ephesians 2 says that we were once dead in offenses and sins, but God made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together with Him (vv. 1, 5-6). The crucified Christ was quickened, made alive, and we were made alive with Him. After this, resurrection follows. We were made alive with Him, and then we were resurrected with Him. Regeneration first makes us alive and then raises us up from the dead. Actually, regeneration itself is resurrection. Regeneration made us God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). This is the main stress in the New Testament.

Some deny that Christ resurrected with His humanity, but this teaching is wrong. He became the resurrected Christ with a resurrected humanity. Even while He was walking on this earth before He was resurrected, He was living in resurrection. Whatever He did was in His resurrected humanity, not the natural humanity. We can see this kind of living with the apostle Paul. He says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith” (Gal. 2:20). Paul says that he no longer lived, but then he says, “I live.” The “I” who now lives is a new “I” in resurrection. In other words, it is no longer I who live, Christ lives in me, yet I still live. Now I live a life that is not the natural life. My natural life has been crucified and resurrected. Now the life that I live is in resurrection.

Regeneration is resurrection, but do we live like a regenerated, resurrected, person? Do we live in resurrection or in our natural life? We have to admit that most of our daily living still remains in the natural life, not in resurrection. To be in resurrection means to be in Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the consummated Spirit. God, the Divine Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is resurrection.

Living a Life in Resurrection

God did not create Adam in resurrection but in the natural realm. God’s placing Adam in front of the tree of life indicates that Adam needed another life. This life is Christ. The New Testament shows that Christ is the real tree of life (John 15:1; 14:6; Rev. 2:7). Eventually, in the New Testament age, many of the descendants of Adam partook of the tree of life. This is the life of God, the life of Christ, the life of resurrection. Today we should live a life in this resurrection.

In Philippians 3:10 Paul says that he desired to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. In order to experience Christ as the resurrection, we must always deny our self. Our self is a sinful self, but Christ’s self was not sinful. Even though His self was not sinful, He still rejected Himself. He said, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself,” and, “The word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 14:10, 24). This shows that the Lord Jesus lived by another source in resurrection. This is very deep and very touching. Especially in these last few years, nearly every day I have been under a strong light. Under this light I am checked within by the Lord: “Is this from yourself or from another person? Is this from your natural life or from the life of Christ?” This life is the Triune God Himself, who is resurrection.

When we contact people, we should not put on a mask. This is hypocrisy. Instead, we should be persons who are crucified in ourselves and resurrected in Christ. Then we will live in the same way that Jesus lived. We will be genuinely charming without any masks. Any kind of humility that comes from our natural life is false and ugly. It is performed with a mask. Both our pride and our humility should be crossed out. Then we do not live by our self. Instead, we live in our humanity by another life, by Christ who indwells us. He is living and real because He is the resurrection. We have such a One living in us.

Our Humanity Being the Crucified and Resurrected Humanity

We should not teach people to be humble, because this does not work. To teach people to be humble is to teach them to wear a mask. Paul’s teaching is real. His teaching breaks our mask. In our teaching on character, we have shared that we need to be genuine, exact, and strict. But this is possible only for a resurrected person. In human history there was only one person, Jesus the Nazarene, who was genuine, exact, and strict. He did not perform, but He lived in a spontaneous and genuine way. As members of the vital groups, we must be such persons. Then we will cherish people. When we contact people, they will be touched by us because we are living in resurrection. Then our humanity is not the original humanity but the crucified and resurrected humanity.

Before Jesus was crucified and resurrected, He lived a life in resurrection. Jesus was in resurrection before He was resurrected. He was a person living a human life in resurrection, not by Himself but by another source, that is, His Father. Thus, He could say that when He spoke, that was the Father working within Him (v. 10). He was one with the Father. If we live such a life today, a life in humanity by resurrection, everyone will realize that there is something different about us. We will be sweet, charming, and attractive, without deception or hypocrisy.

In order to be vital as members of the vital groups, we must be such persons. When we visit people, we must have the Lord’s presence. His presence is the charming factor, and that presence comes from the cross plus resurrection. We must be a person on the cross and in resurrection. Then we will have the real presence of the Triune God with us, and that presence is resurrection.

How can we be vital? We may say that we have to pray much. This is right, but we need to see that the real prayer is by a person crucified in resurrection. If we are not a person crucified in resurrection, we cannot pray much. The genuine prayer means crucifixion plus resurrection. Crucifixion plus resurrection means everything to us Christians. If we are such persons, right away the Triune God is with us, and His presence goes with us wherever we go. When the divine presence is with us, people will not be able to explain or designate this, but they will sense that we are different, and they will be attracted to the Lord.

We can experience this only by being crucified and resurrected. This is stressed by Paul in Philippians 3:10. In order to know Christ, we have to know the power of His resurrection to be conformed to His death. His death should be a mold to which we are conformed. By experiencing Christ in this way, resurrection will be our portion, and we will have His presence. This presence is the Triune God as resurrection experienced by us in our being crucified and conformed to the death of Christ.

THE FIRST WAY TO CONTACT PEOPLE

The first way of the members of the vital group to contact people is by cherishing them. Because we live by our natural life, our visitation is fruitless.

To Cherish People

To cherish people is to make them happy, to comfort them, to make them feel that you are pleasant to them, easy to be contacted in everything and in every way. Our contact with people must be so genuine. Genuineness can be produced only by the cross plus resurrection. Only a crossed-out, resurrected person can be genuine in everything.

Not by Our Natural Man but by Our Regenerated Man

We should cherish people, not by our natural man but by our regenerated man that has been conformed to the death of Christ. We have two men within us. Ephesians 4:22-24 reveals that we must put off the old man and put on the new man by being renewed in the spirit of our mind. The mingled spirit must invade, take over, occupy, and saturate our mind with divinity; then our mind becomes a renewed mind. Romans 12:2 says that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. That renewing is to put off the old man and put on the new man. We must be a new man living not by our natural man but by our regenerated man with God Himself. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 10, pp. 142-147)

LEARNING HOW TO NOURISH PEOPLE

The members of the vital groups have to learn how to nourish people to continue their cherishing of people. Cherishing without nourishing is in vain. When a mother wants to feed a naughty child, she will first make him happy by cherishing him. But without nourishing him, her cherishing is meaningless. After cherishing the child, the mother nourishes him with food. This is the way that Christ as the Head takes care of His Body, the church. He nourishes us after cherishing us.

Revelation 1 shows how Christ cares for the churches. Revelation is a book of signs. A sign is a symbol with spiritual significance. The first sign in Revelation shows Christ in His humanity as the High Priest, and the last sign is the New Jerusalem. As the Son of Man, Christ as the High Priest is taking care of all the churches as lampstands (1:12-13). On the one hand, He is cherishing the churches in His humanity; on the other hand, He is nourishing the churches in His divinity. The members of the vital groups have to learn these two things. When we visit people, invite them to our home, or contact them before and after the meetings, we must be one with Christ to cherish and nourish them.

THE MEANING OF CHERISHING AND NOURISHING PEOPLE

To cherish people is to make them happy and to make them feel pleasant and comfortable. We must have a pleasant countenance when we contact people. We should be happy and rejoicing. We should not contact anyone with a cheerless countenance. We must give people the impression that we are genuinely happy and pleasant. Otherwise, we will not be able to cherish them, to make them happy.

Then we should go on to nourish them. We do not nourish people when we speak to them about marriage, courtship, politics, the world situation, or education. To nourish people is to feed them with the all-inclusive Christ in His full ministry in three stages. When we speak to people about Christ, we should not speak to them in an incomprehensible way, in a kind of language that they do not understand. We have to find a way to present the all-inclusive Christ to everyone. If a person wants people to eat beef, he must find a way to cook it to make them desire to eat it. Similarly, we have to “cook” the all-inclusive Christ. There are many different ways to cook the same thing. I have been cooking Christ in this country for over thirty-three years with about three thousand messages.

OUR GAINING AND EXPERIENCING CHRIST

In order to nourish people with Christ, we first have to seek Christ, experience Christ, gain Christ, enjoy Christ, and participate in Christ. In Philippians, especially in chapters 2 and 3, Paul uses different expressions and utterances to portray how he was seeking and pursuing Christ in order to gain Christ. He says that we should do all things without murmurings and reasonings. The sisters who are seeking Christ should learn not to murmur, and the brothers should learn not to reason. If you murmur and reason, you will offend the indwelling Christ, who is the embodiment of the Triune God, because this God is working in you so that you may work out your salvation (2:12-14). Our salvation is our gaining and experiencing Christ. To gain Christ is to work out our own daily organic salvation. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” ch. 11, pp. 152-153)

References and Further Reading:

1. The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 3, “The Exercise and Practice of the God-ordained Way,” ch. 13.

2. The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 2, “The Church Life in the Lord’s Recovery Today,” ch. 3.

3. The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1989, vol. 1, “The Practical and Organic Building Up of the Church,” ch. 6.

4. The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 5, “The Vital Groups,” chs. 9-11.