«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　Job 2:3 …Have you considered My servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity…

　　John 11:25 Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life…

　　God’s intention was not to have a Job in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but a Job in the line of the tree of life (Gen. 2:9).

　　After God created Adam, He placed him in front of two trees—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil….God wanted Adam to eat of the tree of life. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, this tree would have entered into him and then would have grown within him. However, Adam ate instead of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree was thus sown into Adam and grew within him, and it has been growing in all of Adam’s descendants. At Job’s time the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was only two thousand years old, but now it is six thousand years old. Today the entire human race is a race constituted according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In every human society, regardless of the kind of ethics it has, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is growing. As long as this tree is growing among the human race, there will be no peace. (Life-study of Job, pp. 29-30)

　　Before we were regenerated, we were in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When we were regenerated, Christ planted Himself into us as the tree of life [cf. John 15:5; 11:25]. However, in our practical, daily living, are we in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or in the line of the tree of life? In our married life, for example, we may be in the line of the tree of knowledge, and by the way we talk with our spouse we may not only grow this tree but also water it and fertilize it. What, then, should we do? We need to remember Paul’s word in Galatians 2:20—”It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”—and turn from the tree of knowledge to the tree of life. If we do this, we will live Christ and grow Christ as the tree of life.

　　Job, like his friends, was halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, not knowing God’s economy, not realizing in an adequate way the purpose of God’s creating of man. He and his friends were devoid of the divine revelation and of the experience of the divine life. He had no idea that God had no intention to increase his perfection, uprightness, righteousness, and integrity. Rather, God’s intention was to strip all these human virtues which he had as his contentment, that he could seek and gain only God Himself. Neither his friends nor he were in the line of the tree of life as God ordained man to be.

　　In our daily living we should not be in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but should be in the realm of the life-giving Spirit. We should not do anything according to good and evil. Instead, we should do everything according to the Spirit by being one spirit with the Lord. For instance, we need to be one spirit with the Lord in our speaking. Before I speak for the Lord, I pray one simple prayer: “Lord, be one spirit with me that I may be one spirit with You. Lord, speak in my speaking and make my speaking Your speaking.” This is to live in the dispensing of the eternal economy of God. When we live and speak in this way, we enjoy the divine dispensing, and Christ increases within us. Christ grows in us and we grow in Christ.

　　Suppose there is a problem between you and your spouse. You should not do anything, for whatever you do will be in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You should simply pray-read Galatians 2:20…. Do not care for the problem or your anger—just care for Christ living in you. This should be our way in everything. (Life-study of Job, pp. 30, 40, 72)

　　Further Reading: CWWL, 1975-1976, vol. 1, “The Flesh and the Spirit,” ch. 2