«　WEEK 2　DAY 4　»

　　Col. 2:8-9 Beware that no one carries you off as spoil through his philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world, and not according to Christ; for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

　　If we try to drop our culture without seeing that Christ is our life and our everything, we shall succeed only in exchanging one kind of culture for another. To be uncultured is also to have a culture. Those who are cultured have a culture, and those who are uncultured also have a culture, although of a very different kind. If we realize this, we shall see that it is of no avail simply to decide to drop our culture. Apart from Christ, whatever we are and whatever we do is related to culture in some way. Every human being has culture. The culture may be developed or undeveloped, high or low, but it is nonetheless a culture…. Throughout the thousands of years of history, every race and nationality has had its particular kind of culture. The crucial point here is that every kind of culture is versus Christ and that Christ is versus every kind of culture. Any culture, no matter what kind of culture it is, is versus Christ. Apart from Him, every human product and development is part of culture. (Life-study of Colossians, p. 330)

　　We should not endeavor to drop our culture without … a vision of Christ…. When Christ comes in, our culture must go. But we should not try to drop culture without Christ. Actually our concern is not with culture—it is for the experience of Christ. The point we are making is that since we have received Christ, we should not allow culture to become a substitute for Him. In Christ we have the liberty to set aside our culture in order to enlarge our capacity to enjoy the Lord. All the room within us must be given over to Christ. If our entire inward capacity is made available to Him, spontaneously the culture within us will be replaced by Christ. However, it is terrible to drop culture apart from Christ. But when Christ comes, we should tell the Lord that we want Him to possess and occupy all the ground within us.

　　Culture is a great frustration to the experience of Christ. In His recovery the Lord surely has come to visit us. What keeps us from enjoying Him is not mainly sin or worldliness; it is culture. Unconsciously and subconsciously, we are frustrated by culture from the experience of Christ. Many saints have been desiring for years to experience more of Christ. However, their experience of Him has not expanded. The factor that limits the expansion of the enjoyment of Christ is culture. Spontaneously the culture within us keeps us from the real experience of Christ. In the meetings we may declare that Christ is our life and that the church life is glorious. But when we return home after the meetings, we automatically live according to our culture, not according to Christ. The governing principle of our life at home is not Christ; it is our culture. In the meetings all of us may be the same as we share in the same praises and aspirations, but outside the meetings we are different in our cultural concepts and behavior. We may do certain things or refrain from doing those things according to the influence of culture. Hence, our living is regulated and governed not by Christ, but by culture. Those with a Chinese background live according to Chinese culture, and the Americans live according to American culture.

　　We need to pray, “Lord Jesus, I want to be taken over, occupied, and possessed by You. I want to give You my full capacity and all the room in my being. Lord, I don’t want to be limited or frustrated in my experience of You. I want to enjoy You without limitation, restriction, or confinement. Lord, I want to have only You, not culture. I want to live by You, not by any kind of culture.” (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 306-307, 310-311)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “God’s New Testament Economy, ” ch. 27