Sit, Walk, Stand: The Process of Christian Maturity
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Authors: Watchman Nee
Tags: #Christianity, #God, #Grace, #Love
Sit, Walk, Stand
Published by CLC Publications
U.S.A.
P.O. Box 1449, Fort Washington, PA 19034
GREAT BRITAIN
51 The Dean, Alresford, Hants, SO24 9BJ
ISBN 13 (trade paper): 978-0-87508-973-7
ISBN 13 (e-book): 978-1-61958-027-5
© 1957 by Angus I. Kinnear. Previously published in 1957 by Gospel Literature Service, Bombay India.
American edition published 1977 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, IL 60188, by permission of Kingsway Publications Ltd., Eastbourne, Sussex, England.
Trade Paper Edition © 2009 by CLC Ministries International with permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Sit, Walk, Stand Study Guide
Copyright © 2009 by CLC Ministries International
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Scripture quotations are from the
American Standard Version
, 1901.
Italicized words in Scripture quotes are the emphasis of the author.
This edition 2012
Contents
C
OMPILED from the spoken ministry of Mr. Watchman Nee (Nee To-sheng) of Foochow and first published in Bombay,
Sit, Walk, Stand
continues to stir the hearts of readers with its arousing message. Although through successive editions the book has been slightly expanded, all the source material dates from a single period—the spacious days of evangelistic witness in China just prior to the Japanese war, when the author and his fellow Christians enjoyed a liberty in the service of God that is rare today. A message which expresses at once their triumphant assurance in the finished work of Christ and their humble sense of the high qualities called for in His servants has a fresh relevance for us now, when Christian work everywhere is on trial. May God give us grace not only to heed its challenge, but to find ways, while there is time, of applying its lessons in our own sphere of opportunity.
Angus I. Kinnear
London, 1962
I
f the life of a Christian is to be pleasing to God, it must be properly adjusted to Him in all things. Too often we place the emphasis in our own lives upon the application of this principle to some single detail of our behavior or of our work for Him. Often we fail therefore to appreciate either the extent of the adjustment called for or, at times even, the point from which it should begin.
But God measures everything, from start to finish, by the perfections of His Son. Scripture clearly affirms that it is God’s good pleasure “to sum up all things in Christ, . . . in whom also we were made a heritage” (Eph. 1:9–11). It is my earnest prayer that, in the discussion that follows, our eyes may be opened afresh to see that it is only by placing our entire emphasis
there
that we can hope to realize the divine purpose for us, which is that “we should be unto the praise of his glory” (1:12).
We shall take as a background to our thoughts the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.
Like so many of the apostle’s letters, this epistle falls naturally into two sections: a doctrinal and a practical. The doctrinal section (Eph. 1–3) is concerned mainly with the great facts of the redemption which God has wrought for us in Christ. The practical section (Eph. 4–6) then goes on to present us with the demands, in terms of Christian conduct and zeal, that God is making upon us in the light of that redemption. The two halves are closely related, but it will be seen that the emphasis in each is different.
Then, further, the second and more obviously practical half of the letter may again conveniently be subdivided according to its subject matter into a first long section from verses 4:1 to 6:9 and a second, much shorter section from verse 6:10 to the end. The first part deals with our life in the midst of the world; the second with our conflict with the devil.
Thus, we have, in all, three subdivisions of the epistle to the Ephesians, setting forth the believer’s position in Christ (1:1–3:21), his life in the world (4:1–6:9) and his attitude to the Enemy (6:10–24). We may summarize as follows:
E
PHESIANS
A. Doctrinal (Chapters 1 to 3)
1. Our Position in Christ (1:1–3:21)
B. Practical (Chapters 4 to 6)
2. Our Life in the World (4:1–6:9)
3. Our Attitude to the Enemy (6:10–24)
Of all Paul’s epistles, it is in Ephesians that we find the highest spiritual truths concerning the Christian life. The letter abounds with spiritual riches, and yet at the same time it is intensely practical. The first half of the letter reveals our life in Christ to be one of union with Him in the highest heavens. The second half shows us in very practical terms how such a heavenly life is to be lived by us down here on the earth. We do not here propose to study the letter in detail. We shall, however, touch on a few principles lying at its heart. For this purpose we shall select one keyword in each of the above three sections to express what we believe to be its central or governing idea.
In the first section of the letter, we note the word “sit” (2:6), which is the key to that section and the secret of a true Christian experience. God has made us to sit with Christ in the heavenly places, and every Christian must begin his spiritual life from that place of rest. In the second part we select the word “walk” (4:1) as expressive of our life in the world, which is its subject. We are challenged there to display in our Christian walk conduct that is in keeping with our high calling. And finally, in the third part we find the key to our attitude toward the Enemy contained in the one word “stand” (6:11), expressive of our place of triumph at the end. Thus, we have:
K
EY
W
ORDS
I
N
E
PHESIANS
1. Our Position in Christ—“S
IT
” (2:6)
2. Our Life in the World—“W
ALK
” (4:1)
3. Our Attitude to the Enemy—“S
TAND
” (6:11)
The life of the believer always presents these three aspects—to God, to man and to the Satanic powers. To be useful in God’s hand, a man must be properly adjusted with respect to all three: his position, his life and his warfare. He falls short of God’s requirements if he underestimates the importance of any one of them, for each is a sphere in which God would express “the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (1:6).
We will take, then, these three words—“Sit,” “Walk,” “Stand”—as guides to the teaching of the epistle and as the text for its present message to our hearts. We shall find it most instructive to note both the order and the connection in which they come.
THE GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph.1:17–21).
“And raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: . . . for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory” (2:6–9).
G
od . . . made him to sit . . . and made us to sit with him.” Let us first consider the implications of this word “sit.” As we have said, it reveals the secret of a heavenly life. Christianity does not begin with walking; it begins with sitting. The Christian era began with Christ, of whom we are told that, when He had made purification of sins, He “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). With equal truth we can say that the individual Christian life begins with a
man “in Christ”—that is to say, when by faith we see ourselves seated together with Him in the heavens.
Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order. Our natural reason says, If we do not walk, how can we ever reach the goal? What can we attain without effort? How can we ever get anywhere if we do not move?
But Christianity is a queer business! If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing; if we seek to attain something, we miss everything. For Christianity begins not with a big do, but with a big done. Thus, Ephesians opens with the statement that God
has
“blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (1:3), and we are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us—not to set out to try and attain it for ourselves.
Walking implies effort, whereas God says that we are saved, not by works, but “by grace . . . through faith” (2:8). We constantly speak of being “saved through faith,” but what do we mean by it? We mean this: that we are saved by reposing in the Lord Jesus. We did nothing whatever to save ourselves; we simply laid upon Him the burden of our sin-sick souls. We began our Christian life by depending not upon our own doing, but upon what He had done. Until a man does this, he is no Christian. For to say, “I can do nothing to save myself; but by His grace God
has done
everything for me in Christ,” is to take the first step in the life of faith.
The Christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus. There is no limit to the grace God is willing to bestow upon us. He will give us everything, but we can receive none of it except as we rest in Him. “Sitting” is an attitude of rest. Something has been finished, work stops and we sit. It is paradoxical, but true, that we only advance in the Christian life as we learn first of all to sit down.
