Weekly Pursuit—Week of May 26, 2024

[1 Corinthians 9] Verse 24 says, “Do you not know that those who run on a racecourse all run, but one receives the prize? Run in this way, that you may lay hold.” Paul was like an Olympic athlete running in a race. He used the running on a racecourse to illustrate how he preached. He did not preach in a loose way but in an Olympic way, a very strict way. A person who competes in the Olympics must train and exercise in a very strict way. We must be the same in the gospel.

Paul says that we should run in such a way that we may receive the prize. We should remember that there is a reward as an incentive to our preaching. But we cannot preach the gospel loosely. We must endeavor to run in a strict way. If we consider this and compare ourselves to Paul, we have to admit that we are greatly lacking. We should not take the practice of the vital groups for the sake of the gospel in a light and loose way. If we are loose, there is no possibility for us to gain anything. The Lord has been speaking to us week after week and year after year, but many of us have not received the full benefit of His speaking. This is due to our looseness.

We should not do anything in a loose way. If we arrange the chairs, we should arrange them strictly. If we are ushering, we should oversee the place to which we are ushering people. We should make sure that everything is in order and is clean, neat, and attractive. We should also learn to eat our meals in a strict way. When we leave our table, we should place the chair under the table in its proper position. Our bedrooms, our work place, and everything related to us should be in a proper order. If we are loose and messy persons, we will preach the gospel in the same way. We may talk about preaching the gospel, but how do we preach? We may preach in a loose way without any endeavoring or desperation.

In 1953 I conducted a training in Taipei with one hundred twenty saints. This was the first training I had after coming out of mainland China. The first thing I touched in that training was the character of the trainees. I put out thirty items of a proper character that can make a person useful to the Lord (see the book entitled Character). The first three items are genuineness, exactness, and strictness. To be genuine, exact, and strict is for running the Christian race to win the prize. A race on a racecourse has its regulations. We have to get ourselves exercised. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and Practice of the Vital Groups”, ch. 4,  pp. 306-307)