Weekly Pursuit—Week of June 2, 2024

If we do not exercise the proper discipline over ourselves, we can never be overcomers. The Lord Jesus was not a loose person. Once, He fed five thousand people, not including the women and children, with just five loaves and two fish. If we had been there, we would have been excited. In our excitement we might have neglected all the leftovers. But the Lord Jesus told the disciples to gather all the leftovers (John 6:12). That shows the Lord’s strictness.

When He saw the five thousand, He told His disciples to have them sit down in groups of about fifty each (v. 10; Luke 9:14). Then He took the loaves and fish and fed them. To be seated is to be regulated. Without certain regulations there would have been no way to feed the five thousand. All of them were very hungry and wanted to eat. If they rushed all at once to get the food, some people could have been trampled. When the Lord asked the disciples to have them sit down, this regulated them. When the disciples were going to distribute the food, they had a proper way with a good order. This shows that the Lord Jesus was very fine and detailed in His humanity.

We can also see the Lord’s fine humanity when He resurrected. When Peter entered the Lord’s tomb on the day of resurrection, he saw “the handkerchief which had been over His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in one place apart” (John 20:7). If we had been resurrected, we may have said, “Praise God! I am released! Hallelujah!” Then we would have thrown off our handkerchief and would have left everything in a mess in the tomb. But this is not what the Lord did. When the disciples came to His tomb, they saw the evidence that He had been resurrected. All the things left in the tomb were a testimony to the Lord’s resurrection. If these things had not been left there in a good order, it would have been difficult for Peter and John to believe (v. 8) that the Lord had not been taken away by someone but had risen by Himself. If the Lord had been taken away, nothing would have been left in a good order. This again shows us the Lord’s fine humanity. Our character needs to be transformed with this uplifted humanity. The Lord was almighty and infinite, but He never became loose. He was very fine and detailed, even in taking care of small things. We need to run the Christian racecourse in this way. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1993, vol. 2, “The Training and Practice of the Vital Groups”, ch. 4,  pp. 307-308)