«　WEEK 1　DAY 4　»

　　John 10:10 …I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.

　　Rev. 22:1-2 And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life…

　　The principle of the tree of life and the principle of the tree of knowledge of good and evil are realized throughout the whole Bible. All the negative things in the Bible are on the line of the tree of knowledge, and all the positive things are on the line of the tree of life. I call the first line the line of knowledge and the second line, the line of life. If we follow these two lines, they carry us through the entire Scripture.

　　Man was induced to eat of the tree of knowledge. As a result, man fell. The descendants of fallen man did not depend upon God at all. They relied upon their knowledge… Strictly speaking, the line of life began with Adam, who was fallen and redeemed, and continued through Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so many Israelites. On this line of life we have the tent of Noah, the tent of Abraham, the tabernacle, and the temple. The line of knowledge began with Cain and continued through all the ungodly people. On the line of knowledge we have the city of Enoch, Babel, Sodom, the treasure cities of Pharaoh, and Babylon, which captured the things on the line of life. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 172)

　　We find the same two lines in the New Testament. Although the Old Testament and the law were originally on the line of life, the Jewish religionists treated them as mere knowledge and put them on the line of knowledge… When the Lord Jesus came, the religious leaders were altogether on the line of knowledge. Only the Lord Jesus Himself was on the line of life. Then He brought His disciples to the line of life. On the day of Pentecost, His disciples put many other people on the line of life. Thus, at that time, there was the Jewish religion on the line of knowledge and the church on the line of life. However, not long afterward, the church was degraded, falling from the living Christ to dead scriptural knowledge, and became Christianity. The church was on the line of life, but Christianity was on the line of knowledge… The overcomers among the Christians through all the centuries never have shifted from the line of life to the line of knowledge. They will remain on the line of life until the end when it ultimately issues in the New Jerusalem. The great Babylon and all things apart from God will be swept away by the stream of fire (Dan. 7:10) into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10, 14-15; 21:8). All the positive things in the Bible throughout the ages will be carried on by the river of the water of life (Rev. 22:1) into the New Jerusalem… At the end of the book of Revelation we find the harvest of the seed of the tree of knowledge and of the tree of life.

　　In many of the Christian books we are given ways and methods of doing things… For example, regarding the matter of being crucified with Christ we are told by the books to reckon ourselves dead. If we make this merely a way or a method, it belongs to the tree of knowledge… Knowledge or religion means to be good and to do good, to worship God or to work for God without having the living presence of God. Anything good done for God without His presence is religion. A certain thing may be both life and knowledge to us. If we experience the presence of the living God while doing it, it is life. However, if we do it without God’s presence, it is simply dead knowledge. No way or method can help us. We need the living God.

　　Life is God Himself… The principle of life is to be dependent on God for everything. If you depend on God, everything is life. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 173, 176-177)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 56, “Two Principles of Living,” pp. 418-432; CWWL, 1950-1951, vol. 3, “The Path of Our Growth in Life,” ch. 1; CWWN, vol. 8, pp. 25-35