Scripture Reading: Jude 19-21; Luke 9:51-56
Ⅰ
"These are those who make divisions, soulish, having no spirit. But you, beloved, building up yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God [the Father], awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ [the Son] unto eternal life [the totality of which is the New Jerusalem]"— Jude 19-21:
A
"The psyche [soul] is the center of the personal being, the 'I' of each individual. It is in each man bound to the spirit, man's higher part, and to the body, man's lower part; drawn upwards by the one, downwards by the other. He who gives himself up to the lower appetites is fleshly; he who by communion of his spirit with God's Spirit is employed in the higher aims of his being, is spiritual. He who rests midway, thinking only of self and self's interests, whether animal or intellectual, is the psychikos, the selfish man, the man in whom the spirit is sunk and degraded into subordination to the subordinate psyche [soul]" (Alford).
B
Having no spirit refers to the human spirit, not the Spirit of God:
１
The apostates are devoid of spirit; they "have not indeed ceased to have a spirit, as a part of their own tripartite nature [1 Thes. 5:23]: but they have ceased to possess it in any worthy sense: it is degraded beneath and under the power of the psyche [soul], the personal life, so as to have no real vitality of its own" (Alford).
２
They do not care for their spirit or use it; they do not contact God by their spirit in communion with the Spirit of God; neither do they live and walk in their spirit; they have been drawn downward by their flesh and have become fleshly, so that they have lost the consciousness of their conscience (2 Pet. 2:12; cf. Eph. 4:17-21) and have become like animals without reason (Jude 10).
C
The entire Blessed Trinity is employed and enjoyed by the believers in their exercising their spirit to pray in the Holy Spirit, keeping themselves in the love of God, and awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
D
Unto eternal life refers to the goal of becoming the New Jerusalem; unto means "to be" or "to become," and the totality of the eternal life is the New Jerusalem; thus, we exercise our spirit to enjoy the entire Blessed Trinity so that we may be blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ to become the holy city, the New Jerusalem—Eph. 1:3-5; Rev. 21:2.
Ⅱ
In Luke 9 James and John asked the Lord whether they should command fire to come down from heaven and consume the village of the Samaritans who had rejected Him (vv. 51-54), but the Lord rebuked James and John, saying, "You do not know of what kind of spirit you are. The Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives but to save them" (vv. 55-56):
A
The disciples were wrong in their spirit because their motive was one of hatred; the Lord's spirit is a spirit of saving men's lives, not destroying them.
B
Brother Watchman Nee said that a person should not only do the right thing but also do the right thing in the right way and in the right spirit.
C
For our conduct to be constructive and useful in building up the Body of Christ, we must be right in the thing that we do, right in our way, and right in our spirit; whenever we are about to do anything, we should ask ourselves what kind of spirit we have.
D
To deal with the spirit is not to deal with the spirit itself but to deal with the passage of the spirit—vv. 54-56; 1 Pet. 3:4:
１
The regenerated spirit, the innermost part of our being, is pure and undefiled; however, surrounding the spirit are the soul and the body, both of which have been mixed with the wicked elements of Satan and are thus filthy and corrupt.
２
Therefore, when the spirit comes forth and passes through the soul and body, it becomes contaminated by this filthiness and corruption; hence, when being manifested, the spirit bears certain filthiness, corruption, impurity, impropriety, and various other undesirable conditions.
３
We judge the characteristics of the spirit by the characteristics of the things that are attached to it; the kind of person we are produces the kind of characteristics our spirit carries; when our spirit is released, it expresses the tastes and colors of our very person; thus, the quality of a man determines the quality of his spirit.
４
The practical way to deal with the spirit is to condemn all the mixtures, to remove them by the power of the Holy Spirit, and to take the initiative to apply the cross and crucify the passages of the spirit, including our flesh, our self, our natural constitution, our purpose of heart, aim, intention, inclination, motive, etc.—Rom. 8:13.
５
God arranges all circumstances and things in our environment for the purpose of dealing with the self and destroying it; in this way, by the discipline of the Holy Spirit, the quality of our spirit is enhanced and purified—vv. 28-29.
６
If all the brothers and sisters have an excellent, sterling, pure, weighty, and noble spirit in its quality, they will mutually supply one another, and the church will be rich—cf. Dan. 5:12; 6:3.
E
A seeking saint should be poor in spirit and pure in heart—Matt. 5:3, 8; Isa. 66:2:
１
To be poor in spirit means that we are humble, acknowledging that we have nothing, know nothing, can do nothing, and are nothing; without Christ as the life-giving Spirit, we are nothing—cf. Gal. 6:3.
２
To be poor in spirit is to be emptied in our spirit, having nothing preoccupying us in the depth of our being; to be pure in heart is a matter of motive; it is to be single in purpose, to have the single goal of accomplishing God's will for God's glory—1 Cor. 10:31.
F
We must have a steadfast spirit—Psa. 51:10b:
１
A steadfast spirit is a spirit that is immovable, unshakable, standing constantly as something firm and steady—cf. 1 Cor. 15:58.
２
In his repentance and prayer for restoration, David prayed that the Lord would renew such a spirit within him.
３
We need a steadfast spirit, which is always firm, constant, immovable, and unshakable, so that we can never be tempted, seduced, or misled.
G
A repentant believer has a willing spirit: "Restore to me the gladness of Your salvation, / And sustain me with a willing spirit"—Psa. 51:12:
１
As a believer, we should always have a willing spirit for the things of the Lord and for the things of the church.
２
A willing spirit in the things of the Lord's interest depends upon the joy of salvation; when we have the joy of salvation, we spontaneously will have a willing spirit to go along with the Lord; what the Lord wants, what the Lord desires, what the Lord asks of us, we will have a willing spirit to answer, to obey.
３
When we have joy in God's Spirit, we will be happy to do whatever can please the Lord—Rom. 14:17.
H
In Psalm 51:17a David said that the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
１
A broken spirit is a spirit that repents, that feels very sorrowful for any sinfulness; in other words, a broken spirit is a real repenting spirit.
２
To be broken means to not be whole; it means that you do not consider yourself as being whole, perfect, and complete; when your spirit is repenting, your spirit is broken, contrite, and sorrowful.
I
We need to have a meek and quiet spirit:
１
First Peter 3:4 says that the hidden man of our heart is a meek and quiet spirit; Galatians 6:1 says that we need to restore a fallen brother in a spirit of meekness; in 1 Corinthians 4:21 Paul asked the Corinthians if they wanted him to come to them with a rod or in a spirit of meekness.
２
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"—Matt. 5:5:
ａ
To be meek means not to resist the world's opposition but to suffer it willingly; the world's way is to fight, to strive, and to defeat others to gain some possession, some inheritance.
ｂ
Regardless of the situation, we should be meek, not fighting against others; meekness means not fighting for ourselves.
J
God desires to dwell with people who have a contrite and lowly spirit—Isa. 57:15; 66:2; cf. Prov. 16:18-19:
１
If we are contrite and lowly in our spirit, we are broken in our spirit, and we can enjoy God's presence; God is then with us and even dwells with us.
２
"Thus says the high and exalted One, / Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: / I will dwell in the high and holy place, / And with the contrite and lowly of spirit, / To revive the spirit of the lowly / And to revive the heart of the contrite"—Isa. 57:15.
３
"Thus says Jehovah, / Heaven is My throne, / And the earth the footstool for My feet. / Where then is the house that you will build for Me, / And where is the place of My rest? / For all these things My hand has made, / And so all these things have come into being, declares Jehovah. / But to this kind of man will I look, to him who is poor / And of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word"—66:1-2.
４
The dwelling place that God desires to have is a group of people into whom He can enter, a group of people with a contrite and lowly spirit:
ａ
God intends to have a dwelling place in the universe that is the mingling of God and man, in which God is built into man and man is built into God, so that God and man, man and God, can be a mutual abode to each other (John 14:2, 20, 23; 15:4; 1 John 4:13); in the New Testament this dwelling place, this house, is the church, which is God's habitation in the believers' spirit (Eph. 2:22).
ｂ
The ultimate manifestation of this universal building, this universal house, is the New Jerusalem; in this city God is in man, taking man as His dwelling place, and man is in God, taking God as his habitation—Rev. 21:3, 22.