彼前二21 你们蒙召原是为此，因基督也为你们受过苦，给你们留下榜样，叫你们跟随祂的脚踪行。

　　加二20　　上 我已经与基督同钉十字架；现在活着的，不再是我，乃是基督在我里面活着。

　　四19　 我的孩子们，我为你们再受生产之苦，直等到基督成形在你们里面。

　　种树主要的有两种方法：一个方法是撒种。我们若把桃树的种子撒下去，就会长出一棵桃树。第二个方法是把桃树的枝子种到地里。这枝子也会长出一棵桃树。……圣经……告诉我们，神把自己当作生命的种子种到我们灵里，为要长出一棵树，这棵树就是生命树的缩影。在创世记二章九节，生命树只有一棵；但是今天，生命树长在我们众人里面，叫我们每一个人都成为一棵小小的生命树。作为小小的生命树，我们需要长大。我们这些在基督里的信徒，借着神把自己作为生命的种子种到我们里面，都已得了重生。从那一天起，一棵生命树就长出来了（李文集一九九三年第二册，五五二页）。

　　1 Pet. 2:21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in His steps.

　　Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…

　　4:19 My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.

　　There are two main ways to grow trees. One way is to sow a seed. If we sow the seed of a peach, a peach tree will grow up. The second way is to plant the sapling of a peach tree into the earth. This sapling will grow to be a peach tree…The Bible tells us that God has sown Himself into our spirit as the life seed to grow a tree, a miniature of the tree of life. The tree of life was unique in Genesis 2:9, but today the tree of life grows in all of us, causing each of us to be a small tree of life. As small trees of life, we need to grow. We, the believers in Christ, have all been regenerated by God sowing Himself into us as the life seed. From that day a life tree came out. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Organic Union in God’s Relationship with Man,” p. 420)

　　我们必须作撒种者和栽种者，把基督撒种并栽种到许多虚空的罪人里。今天许多罪人没有基督。……如果我们有些亲爱的朋友还不是在基督里的信徒，或只在名义上是基督里的信徒，在实际上却不是，这样的朋友里面可能会觉得虚空，觉得他们活在这个地上是空洞的，是虚空的虚空。如果他们向神祷告说，“主耶稣啊，我不愿意再虚空下去。我要得着你，我要接受你！”他们立刻就被基督这一粒种子或基督这一根枝子所充满。有时候，他们很蒙福，因为他们接受基督到他们里面，不仅是一粒小的种子，而是一根大的枝子。这会叫他们觉得里面充满了基督。他们就会很喜乐，告诉别人说，他们不再虚空了，现在他们里面有个东西，就是基督（李文集一九九三年第二册，五五二至五五三页）。

　　〔彼前二章二十一节“榜样”一辞〕原文的直译是，给学生临摹习字的字帖、范本。……榜样的原文就是指……教人写字用的范本。主耶稣已把祂的生活摆在我们面前，作我们临摹的范本，叫我们跟随祂的脚踪行。……然而，神的用意不是要我们试着靠自己的努力来效法祂。我们从经历中知道，努力效法基督是不灵的。我们不能效法祂。我们所需要的不是效法，乃是复制。……在外面，基督是我们的榜样；在里面，基督是我们的人位，活在我们里面，成形在我们里面，并安家在我们里面。借着这过程，我们成为原作的复制品，就是作我们榜样之基督的复制品。

　　祂是字帖，是用来制造许多摹本的原作。我们需要经历那包含神圣生命之丰富的过程，借此成为基督的复制品，基督的摹本。完成这过程，我们就成为基督的复制品。当三一神从信徒里面彰显出来的时候，就指明这样的信徒成了基督这榜样的复制品。那彰显经过过程之三一神的生活方式，乃是基督的复制品。……作为信徒的榜样，基督乃是原版，用来制造祂自己的复制品。要领会基督是我们的榜样，我们需要经历。我们从经历中知道，我们天天享受基督的时候，就是在经过属灵复制的过程，使我们成为基督活的摹本（新约总论第三册，七七至七八页）。

　　参读：新约总论，第五十六、二百零二篇；神人的生活，第十四篇。

　　We need to be sowers and planters, sowing and planting Christ into many vacant sinners. Today there are many sinners who do not have Christ… If we have some dear friends who are still not believers in Christ or are believers in Christ in name but not in reality, these kinds of friends may have a feeling of emptiness within them. They may feel that their living on this earth is empty and is vanity of vanities. If they would pray, “Lord Jesus, I do not want to be empty anymore. I want to take You; I want to receive You,” immediately they would be filled by Christ as either a seed or a plant. Sometimes they will be blessed to receive Christ not only as a small seed but as a large plant planted into their being. This will cause them to feel that they are filled with Christ. They will be happy and will tell others that they are no longer empty, but they now have something within them, that is, Christ. (CWWL, 1993, vol. 2, “The Organic Union in God’s Relationship with Man,” pp. 420-421)

　　Literally, the Greek word [for model in 1 Peter 2:21] means a writing-copy, an underwriting for students to use in tracing letters as they learn to draw them…The Greek word for model is the word that denotes… a master copy used in the teaching of writing. The Lord Jesus has set His life before us as an underwriting for us to copy by tracing and following His steps. It is not God’s intention, however, that we try to imitate Christ by our own effort. We know from experience that trying to imitate Christ does not work. We are not able to imitate Him. What we need is not imitation, but reproduction…Outwardly Christ is our model, and inwardly He is our person, living in us, being formed in us, and making His home in us. Through this process we become a reproduction of the original, a reproduction of Christ as our model.

　　He is a writing-copy, an original to be used for making many copies. We need to become Christ’s reproduction, copies of Christ, by experiencing a process that involves the riches of the divine life. When this process is completed, we shall become a reproduction of Christ. When anyone observes the expression of the Triune God from within a believer, this indicates that such a believer has become a reproduction of Christ, the model. The manner of life that expresses the processed Triune God is a reproduction of Christ. As a model to the believers, Christ is the original used for making a reproduction of Himself. In order to understand Christ as our model, we need experience. From experience we know that as we enjoy Christ day by day, we are undergoing the process of spiritual reproduction to make us living copies of Christ. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 600-601)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 56, 302; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “The God-man Living,” ch. 14