PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Training Concerning A Normal Human Living

God's purpose is with humanity. Therefore, God created man with a human life and nature that are capable of receiving and being mingled with God's divine life and nature. Humanity can be mingled with divinity because we were created as vessels to contain God. When we believe in Jesus Christ the Spirit comes into us and transmits into us God's life and nature, thus sanctifying and uplifting our human life and nature.

Through regeneration, we Christians have received the divine life and nature (John 1:12-13; 3:16; 2 Peter 1:3-4); now we are meant to live as normal human beings energized and directed by that divine life and nature we received when we were born again. But to become proper containers to express God, we must have a properly trained humanity. Hence, we as parents need to train our children to live as proper human beings who were created by God and for God.

This issue of Parenthood seeks to apply principles of normal human living to the training of our children. We were created in the image of God with the capacity to express God in our humanity, but the subtle enemy of God has damaged us so that we do not know how to live a genuine human life. We often display the life of fallen humanity-contacting older ones without proper respect and dignity, being unwise in our speaking to others, relating to those of the opposite sex in an impure manner, and unfaithful in doing our duties. The divine life within us is the precious content (2 Corinthians 4:7); but the human container is essential. We parents must realize the urgent need to teach our children to conduct themselves with a proper attitude and in an atmosphere of honor and respect toward others, especially their elders. When they interact with others they may be unresponsive and cold, or even rude and belligerent. They need to learn wisdom in the way they relate to people of all ages. We must teach them that, in contrast to the moral vacuum of our society, they live in purity and above reproach in the way they interrelate with those of the opposite sex. Finally, they must learn that in daily living and in the church life, we each must do our duty.

THE DIVINE STANDARD AND THE HUMAN LEVEL

At the end of chapter three [of his first epistle to Timothy,] Paul comes to the high point of God's economy. In 3:15 and 16 we see the divine standard. But in 5:1-16 Paul comes down to the human level. On the one hand, in the church life we must have the divine standard; on the other hand, we must care for matters on the human level. In 5:8, for example, Paul speaks of providing for our own relatives. All the instructions in this chapter are very human, normal, and ordinary. Nothing is special, miraculous, or supernatural. The whole book is written in the same principle. This is necessary for the church life.

In 1 Timothy Paul does not come to the human level directly. Rather, he comes to this level by giving instructions to Timothy. In 5:1-16 Paul tells Timothy how to deal with the saints of different ages. My burden in this message is to cover four points from 5:1-16.

LIVING A NORMAL HUMAN LIFE

First, all the instructions given here are presented in a very human way. We should never think that if we reach God's standard, we no longer need to be human. Some believers have been influenced by the false teaching that Christians should be like angels, that it is no longer necessary for them to lead a normal human life. Many monks and priests in Catholicism have a living that is abnormal. Furthermore, the requirement that priests and nuns not be married not only is contrary to humanity, but has its source in demons. According to Paul's word in 4:1-3, forbidding others to marry is a demonic teaching.

We all need to learn to be human. In fact, the more spiritual we are, the more human we shall be. If we would live Christ, we must learn to be human in a genuine way. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was very human.

To damage humanity is to ruin both the means and the channel created by God for His economy. The reason demons and fallen angels forbid marriage and command people to abstain from foods is that their intention is to destroy mankind. Thus, we in the church must be human and follow the standards of normal human living. Some have falsely accused us of not being human. We utterly repudiate these allegations. In the church life we definitely emphasize the proper humanity. I can testify that I myself live in a normal human way. If you examine my living, you will find me to be very human. I am not a "saint" or an angel; I am simply a human being. Furthermore, I encourage all the elders to be human. The elders should not help the saints in their locality to be like angels. We appreciate the angels, but we do not want to imitate them. Instead, we prefer to be human.

We should be human Christians. On the one hand, we have the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4); on the other hand, we are normal human beings. The fact that we have the divine nature with the divine life does not mean that we shall ever be deified. Rather, we are to live a genuinely human life by the divine life and nature. In this way we shall be able to live the highest human life, a life like that of the Lord Jesus. When He was on earth, He lived a human life by means of the divine life and the divine nature. The Lord's human living was by the divine life. Our human living should be the same. Thus, we all must learn to be human.

In 5:1-16 we see that Paul instructed his young coworker Timothy to contact the saints in a human way. Verse 1 says, "Do not upbraid an elderly man, but entreat him as a father." To entreat an elderly man as a father is surely to behave in a very human manner. In relation to brothers who are a generation older than they, the younger brothers should deal with them as fathers.

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