Fellowship - Dealing with Self

Now we come to see the matter of dealing with self. This experience is very closely related to dealing with the flesh. This is an important experience in the stage of the cross.

1. SELF IS THE SOUL LIFE WITH THE EMPHASIS ON HUMAN THOUGHTS AND HUMAN OPINIONS.
   • Read Matthew 16:21-25
     • In verse 22 Peter had an opinion, and he voiced it to the Lord.
     • Therefore, the Lord in verse 23 rebuked him, saying that he minded not the things of God, but those of men. The things of God are the will of God, or the cross. The things of men are to pity one's self and to not receive the cross. What the Lord desired was the will of God, but what Peter cared about was the human thought. Therefore in verse 24 the Lord asked the disciples to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow Him.
     • When the Lord asked the disciples to receive the cross, this meant that they should receive the mind of God or the will of God. Therefore, the Lord was asking the disciples here to put aside their own thought and receive the cross, which is the will of God.
     • From this we see that self has much to do with human thought. Yet self is not human thought, and human thought is not self itself. Therefore in verse 25 the Lord goes on to say that whoever would save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose his life for the Lord's sake shall find it. This indicates that the soul life is self itself.
     • In this passage the word of the Lord follows step by step. In verse 22 Peter admonished the Lord to pity Himself; in verse 23 the Lord pointed out that this is human thought or human opinion; in verse 24 the Lord traced this to the root by saying that this opinion is self. Therefore we need to forsake and deny it. Then in verse 25 the Lord goes to the root of self by showing us that the very self is the soul life. If the soul life is being put to death, which means that self is being denied, there will be no more human opinion. In this passage, verse 23 speaks about the opinion, verse 24 about self, and verse 25 about the soul life. Each verse mentions one matter, step by step, very clearly.
   • In John 5:30 the Lord Jesus said, "I can do nothing from Myself; as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me."
     • Here "Myself" and "My own will" equal the same thing.
     • The Lord's judgment here indicates that what He thinks and evaluates do not come from Himself or His own will. This equates to His denying His own human thoughts and opinions.
   • In Job 38:2 Jehovah says to Job, "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
     • Job responds in 42:3, 6 "You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know… Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
     • The book of Job from chapters 3 through 37 are mostly records of human words and opinions. Once Job realizes this himself, even though he believed himself to be righteous, he repents.
     • Today, just as in Job's day, many difficulties have come into the church not due to sinfulness and worldliness, but because of the Self which is full of ideas, opinions, viewpoints, and methods. This tends to be the root cause of so many divisions.
     • Martin Luther said that within him there is a greater pope then the one in Rome---himself. In the church, if Self is not broken, every person is a pope, and everyone will become a division.
   • In the New Testament, there is still another person who represents Self. It is Martha. Each time she is mentioned in the Gospels, she is always talking and giving her opinion. (See John 11:5-40)
     • Martha firstly accuses the Lord of not coming soon enough to save Lazarus.
     • When Jesus tells Martha her brother will rise again, she responds, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day."
     • When Jesus asks Martha to believe that He is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes into Him will live, Martha responds by saying, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, He who comes into the world."
     • Then she goes to her sister, Mary, and says, "The Teacher is here and is calling you."
     • When Jesus requested that the stone of the tomb be removed, Martha responded, "Lord, by now he smells, for it is the fourth day that he is there." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?"
2. THE DIFFERENTIATION OF SEVEN ITEMS: THE OLD MAN, THE 'I', THE FLESH, THE TEMPER, THE SELF, AND THE NATURAL CONSTITUTION
   • The Old Man refers to the created, fallen man.
   • The 'I' is the title of the Old Man.
   • The Soul-life is the life of the Old Man
   • The Flesh is the living out of the Old Man.
   • The Temper is man's natural disposition, especially one's irritability, anger and bad temperament.
   • The Self is the Soul-life expressed in human ideas and opinions.
   • The Natural Constitution is our natural ability, capability and wit.
3. DEALING WITH THE SELF - The objective fact in dealing with Self, just as in dealing with the Flesh, rests in Christ; that is, our Old Man has been crucified with Him. This is because Self is part of the expression of the Old Man.
   • Seeing that the Old Man has been crucified with Christ is a revelation from God. (Romans 6:6)
   • The first step in our dealing with Self subjectively is to see that our opinions are one of the expressions of the Old Man.
   • We next must apply the crucifixion of Christ through the Holy Spirit to our opinions. This is how we subjectively deal with the Self. This is what the Lord meant in Matthew 16 to deny the Self and bear the cross.
     • The bearing of the cross is not a matter of suffering, but of being put to death, not of standing on the ground of suffering, but of standing in the place of death.
     • To bear the cross means to bear the death of Christ on us and allow the death of Christ to work on us continually in order to put our self to death.
4. DEALING WITH SELF IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
   • Although we understand that our Old Man has been crucified, and that our opinions are the expression of the Self, we must live in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit for this to be real to us.
   • If we do not live in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit and yet try to deal with Self, our strenuous efforts will be like those of the Buddhists, Hindus, and Chinese moralists. It will not be a genuine spiritual experience of God in Christ. Only the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of reality.
   • Only as we live in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit do we get the real seeing and the real dealing.
5. SATAN'S CONNECTION TO THE BODY, THE SELF AND ITS OPINIONS
   • Hidden in the self of man is Satan. Not only is Satan directly involved with the sin in our body (Romans 7:14-24), He gives good opinions to the Self contrary to God's will (Matt. 16:21-25).
   • On the one hand, Satan stirs up the lust of the members of the body, and on the other hand arouses the opinions in our mind. He works on both parts at the same time. When Satan comes to tempt us, He first causes man to have an opinion in his soul; then he causes the body to sin. (Gen 3:1-1-7, 13-14)
   • Ephesians 2:2-3 shows us that Satan has a two-fold operation. He works in man so that he would live in the lusts of his flesh, doing the desires of the flesh, but also according to what is in man's mind. When Satan works in our flesh, it results in the lust of our flesh, which is sin; when he works in our mind, the result is our opinion, or Self.
   • We need to put to death all our opinions through the cross. Thus, we deny ourselves in a practical way. We can deny thoroughly the place of Satan in us, overthrowing every stronghold he may have within our thoughts. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
6. DEALING WITH THE SELF IS NOT A MATTER OF MAGNANIMITY
   • The definition of magnanimous in the dictionary is (1) showing or suggesting a lofty and courageous spirit; (2) showing or suggesting nobility of feeling and generosity of mind.
   • The magnanimous person, when associating with others, never causes trouble by expressing his or her opinions. They endeavor to maintain peace with others; thus, in everything they seem to be very courteous and never quarrelsome. In all mattes, however, they have their own opinions and ideas. To their feeling, the opinion of others is never as good as theirs. However, if others do not accept their opinion, they can restrain themselves from expressing it; they would never force others to accept it. They would even go to the extent, outwardly, of going along with the opinion of others and following others' way of doing things. In this way there is no disharmony with others.
   • A magnanimous person develops his magnanimity by human effort; therefore, the more magnanimous he is, the stronger and grosser is the Self. A magnanimous person does not abandon the Self; rather, he accumulates the Self, until one day when this one opens his mouth many pent up opinions spring forth. Such a person is like Job. He feels that he is the father of the orphans, the eyes of the blind, the feet of the lame, always helping others and bearing with others. This proves that this one's Self is wholly sealed and that such a person has never decreased the Self at all.
   • The attitude of being tolerant will afford more growth to our opinion. We must see that we have already been crucified with the Lord on the cross; then whenever opinion and self are being expressed, we should apply the killing of the cross through the power of the Holy Spirit to put to death this opinion and self. It is only when we repeatedly apply this death that our self gradually decreases and the life of Christ gradually grows within us.
   • Quarreling exposes the corruption of man; thus when the Holy Spirit enlightens man, he will fall before God. It is difficult for those magnanimous people who never quarrel to be enlightened. It is hard for the Holy Sprit to touch them or shine upon them. Those who always swallow their opinion are those who always seek the Lord's light for others. Actually they themselves need light the most.
   • In dealing with the Self, we must see that as long as we live and grow in ourselves, Christ will have no way to live or grow. It is not that you bear the cross when you have an opinion during the meeting, and then after the meeting you throw off the cross. We should always be crucified on the cross and always bear the cross. The meaning of bearing the cross is simply to not depart from the cross.