WITNESS LEE QUOTES

Chapter Six
THE COINHERENCE OF THE TRIUNE GOD AND HIS BELIEVERS

I. THE TRIUNE GOD IS IN US

EPHESIANS 4:
6 One God and Father of all, Who is ³over all and through all and in all.

6³ The thought of the Trinity is implied even here. “Over all” mainly refers to the Father, “through all” to the Son, and “in all” to the Spirit. The Triune God eventually enters into us all by reaching us as the Spirit.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 938)

2 CORINTHIANS 13:
5 Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves; or do you not recognize yourselves that ³Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?

5³ As long as a believer realizes that Jesus Christ is in him, he is qualified, approved, as a genuine member of Christ.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 871)

GALATIANS 2:
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but ²Christ lives in me;

20² I have died in Christ through His death, but now He lives in me through His resurrection. His living in me is entirely by His being the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b).

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 885)

COLOSSIANS 1:
27 To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

JOHN 14:
17 Even the ¹Spirit of reality, Whom the world can­not receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.

17¹ The Spirit’s indwelling promised here is revealed here for the first time. It is fulfilled and fully developed in the Epistles. See 1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:9, 11.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 481)

ROMANS 8:
9 But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in­deed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him.
10 And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is life because of right­eousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from among the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who indwells you.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?

1 CORINTHIANS 6:
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the ¹Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

19¹ The Holy Spirit is in our spirit (Rom. 8:16), and our spirit is within our body. Hence, our body becomes a temple, a dwelling place, of the Holy Spirit.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 753)

THE FATHER, SON, AND SPIRIT ARE ALL IN US

1. The Father is in us. Ephesians 4:6 says: “God and Father of all…is in you all” (King James Version).

2. The Son is in us. Colossians 1:27 says: “Christ in you.” Also, in John 14:20, the Lord says, “I in you.”

3. The Spirit is also in us. John 14:17 says: “The Spirit of truth…shall be in you.” Therefore, the Bible clearly states that the Father is in us, the Son is in us, and the Spirit also is in us. Our experience tells us that these are not three in us, but just one. The Father is in the Son to be in us, and the Son who is in us is the Spirit. The Spirit in us is the Son in us, and the Father is in the Son to be in us. Therefore, as long as we have the Spirit, we have the Son and the Father too. 1 John 2:23 says: “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that confesseth the Son hath the Father also.” Romans 8:9-10 further reveals that the Spirit of Christ in us is Christ Himself in us. Therefore, when man has the Spirit, he also has the Son; and when man has the Son, he also has the Father. The Father is in the Son,, and the Son is the Spirit who comes into us for us to have and enjoy as such a Triune God. In word there are three, but in experience there is only one. It is really a mystery!

(Witness Lee, Triune God, 31-32)

THE FATHER DWELLING IN US WITH THE SON BY THE SPIRIT

The consummation of the dispensing of the Father is that the Father abides in us with the Son by the Spirit (John 14:23; 1 John 3:24; 4:13). The Father can never abide in us just by Himself. He abides in us with the Son and by the Spirit. When One comes, we have all Three. This is the Father in the Son by the Spirit. We all need a vision to see this! God’s economy is to reveal Himself as the Father with the Son by the Spirit as a living Person. This divine Person has become a gift to you. This divine gift can never be exhausted. He is in you, He is abiding in you, He is dwelling in you to be your life, your life supply, and your everything.

You do not need any religious teaching. Life does not need any teaching. There is no need to educate a peach tree so that it will not bring forth bananas. As the peach tree grows it will bring forth peaches, not bananas. The Gospel of John does not teach us how to behave ourselves. In this Gospel we are charged first to believe in Him, and then to love Him. The Lord Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him” (John 14:23). This is to dwell in us to be our life.

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 111)

Regardless of how many life-messages you have studied and how many conferences you have attended, I am afraid that, unconsciously, you have a natural religious thought still remaining in you. You still want to improve yourself, to do better, to adjust yourself, to correct yourself. This is the leaven we have inherited from our background. My burden is to unload you from all this leaven. May the Lord enlighten your inner man that you may see He does not want to correct you. He wants to regenerate you. He wants to transform you. He wants to live in you as your life, as your life supply, and as your everything.

First, the Father comes with the Son, and then He abides in you with the Son by the Spirit. When He abides in you, the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—abide in you to be your life, your life supply, and your everything. You don't need to adjust yourself. You don't need to improve yourself. You need the Father abiding in you with the Son by the Spirit. Hallelujah! We have the Father, and we have the Son and the Spirit. We have the Triune God abiding in us! May we all see such a vision. This is the Father’s dispensing.

All the points covered in this message—the source, the sending, the coming with the Son, the living and working in the Son, the giving of all that the Father has to the Son, the giving the Son to us, and the dwelling in us with the Son by the Spirit—are for the dispensing of the Father Himself into our being. Hallelujah! We have such a dispensing within us. The Father abides in us with the Son by the Spirit.

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 111-112)

THE SON ABIDING IN US AS THE SPIRIT WITH THE FATHER

Finally, the Son is abiding in us as the Spirit with the Father. In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said that the Father and He would come to the lover of Him and make their abode with him. This means that the Father and the Son come together to abide in the believers. By the foregoing verses, verses 16-20, we can see that the Son would ask the Father to give them another Comforter, the Spirit of reality. When this Spirit of reality would come, He would not only be with the believers, but also in the believers. Eventually the Lord indicated in verse 18 that the coming One, the Spirit of reality, is actually just Himself. Finally, He said in verse 20, in that day, the day of resurrection, they would know that He was in the Father, and they were in Him, and He was in them. Not only would the Spirit of reality be in them, but even He would be in them. This indicates that He and the Spirit are actually one. Then in chapter seventeen in His prayer to the Father, the Lord Jesus said twice, “I in them” (vv. 23, 26). What is all this? All this is God the Father dispensing Himself into us through God the Son and in God the Son and by God the Spirit. So the entire Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is now abiding in us to be one with us. Now in the divine life and in the divine nature He is making us His expression. As genuine Christians we should live a life that lives the Triune God. This is not a life that, has anything to do with religion or that expresses ethics. It is a life that purely lives the Triune God and expresses Him. This is the dispensing of the Triune God into us to produce many children of God and many brothers of Christ, so that the Father may have a house, that Christ may have a Body, and that the Spirit may have an organism to express the Triune God. It has nothing to do with religion, with human ethics, or with man’s natural concept and philosophy. It is altogether the dispensing of the Triune God into us for His expression.

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 129-130)

THE SPIRIT TO ABIDE WITH THE SON AND THE FATHER IN THE BELIEVERS

The Spirit abides with the Son and the Father in the believers (John 14:17, 23; Rom. 8:9-11). In Romans 8:9-11 three divine titles are used interchangeably: the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, and Christ. This indicates that Christ is the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of God. These three divine titles are used inter­changeably to describe the dispensing of the Trinity into our three parts to mingle Himself fully with our being. The Trinity is mingled with our three parts. This is really wonderful! This is the abiding of the Triune God in His ultimate consummation, which is the life-giving Spirit.

Why must we spend so much time on this? It is because the leavened truth still remains in our concept. This leavening element is universally common among Chris­tians. Christians have a subconscious understanding that the Three of the Trinity are divided and separated. They think that today they have only the Holy Spirit in them; they don't have the Father, and they don't have the Son. This is why in our study of the holy Word concerning the Trinity we have picked up point after point which give us a clear view that first, the Son comes in the Father’s name, and the Spirit is sent in the Son’s name and second, that the Son comes with the Father, and the Spirit comes with the Father and the Son. These two points prove that the Triune God is uniquely one. Although the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, are distinct, they are one, inseparable, indivisible, and undivided. When you have one, you have all Three.

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 133-134)

But the Father never comes first. The one who comes first is always the Spirit. When you have the Spirit, the Son is with you; when you have the Son, you also have the Father. First John 2:23 says, “He who confesses the Son has the Father also.” So when you have the Son, you have both the Son and the Father. Because the Son comes as the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), He is the pneumatic Christ.

This is what the New Testament calls eternal life (1 John 5:20). Eternal life is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, who come to us in the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. This Triune God is the reality of eternal life. When we Christians say that we should grow in life, we mean that we should grow with the element and essence of the Triune God. When we say life, we mean the Triune God. We don't mean something apart from the Triune God. Life in our Christian experience is just the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Life is the Triune God, and this life is within us. What a wonder! What a blessing! The Triune God is within us as our life.

Before the death and resurrection of Christ, the Spirit was not yet (John 7:39), because Christ had not completed the process which He had to go through. He had been incarnated, but He had not yet passed through death and entered into resurrection. One day He went into death, passed through death, and entered into resurrection, and then He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). John 7:39 says that the Spirit was not yet. That means that the process for the Spirit of God to be the life-giving Spirit was not completed, because Jesus was not yet glorified, that is, He had not yet gone through death into resurrection. But after He went through death and entered into resurrection, He was glorified, and the process for the bringing forth of the life-giving Spirit was completed.

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 134)

After His resurrection He disclosed the title of the Trinity clearly to the disciples. In Matthew 28:19, after His resurrection and in His resurrection, He came back to His disciples and charged them to disciple the nations and baptize the believing ones into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Not until He had passed through all the necessary processes was the divine Trinity, as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, clearly revealed in the Scriptures. After and in His resurrection, man can be baptized into the fully processed Trinity that he may have an organic union with the dispensing Triune God. Now we, the believing and baptized people, are one with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We participate in the Triune God and enjoy His dispensing of Himself into us.

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 135)

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II. WE ARE IN THE TRIUNE GOD

MATTHEW 28:
19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, ³bap­tizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

19³ Baptism is to bring the repentant people out of their old state into a new one, by terminating their old life and germinating them with the new life of Christ that they may become the kingdom people. John the Baptist’s recommending ministry began with the prelim­inary baptism by water only. Now, after the heavenly King accom­plished His ministry on earth, passed through the process of death and resurrection, and became the life-giving Spirit, He charged His dis­ciples to baptize the discipled people into the Triune God. This bap­tism has two aspects: the visible aspect by water, and the invisible aspect by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:44-48). The visible aspect is the expression, the testimony, of the invisible aspect; whereas the in­visible aspect is the reality of the visible aspect. Without the invisible aspect by the Spirit, the visible aspect by water is vain; and without the visible aspect by water, the invisible aspect by the Spirit is abstract and impractical. Both are needed. Not long after the Lord charged the dis­ciples with this baptism, He baptized them and the entire church in the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13) on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5; 2:4) and in the house of Cornelius (Acts 11:15-17). Then, based upon this, the dis­ciples baptized the new converts (Acts 2:38), not only visibly into water, but also invisibly into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3-4), into Christ Himself (Gal. 3:27), into the Triune God (28:19), and into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13). The water, signifying the death of Christ with His burial, may be considered as a tomb to terminate the baptized ones' old history. Since the death of Christ is included in Christ, and since Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God, and the Triune God is eventually one with the Body of Christ; so to baptize new believers into the death of Christ, into Christ Himself, into the Triune God, and into the Body of Christ, is to do just one thing: on the nega­tive side to terminate their old life, and on the positive side to germi­nate them with new life, the eternal life of the Triune God, for the Body of Christ. Hence, the baptism ordained by the Lord here is to baptize people out of their life into the Body life for the kingdom of the heavens.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 181-182)

JOHN 14:
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, that ⁴where I am you also may be.
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?
20 In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

3⁴ The Lord is in the Father (vv. 10-11). He wanted His disciples also to be in the Father, as is revealed in 17:21. Through His death and resurrection He brought His disciples into Himself. Since He is in the Father, so they are also in the Father by being in Him. Hence, where He is, the disciples are also.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 479)

JOHN 17:
21 That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

ROMANS 8:
1 There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:
30 But ²of him you are in Christ Jesus, Who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption;

30² What we believers, as the new creation, are and have in Christ is of God, not of ourselves. It is God Who has put us in Christ, trans­ferring us from Adam into Christ. It is God Who has made Christ wisdom to us.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 731)

1 CORINTHIANS 12:
13 For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

13¹ As the Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism and in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ, so we should all, regardless of our races, nationalities, and social ranks, be this one Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. It is in this one Spirit that we were all baptized into this one living Body to express Christ.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 785)

13⁵ To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and be lost in Him; to drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and have our being saturated with Him. By these two procedures we are mingled with the Spirit. To be baptized in the Spirit is the initiation of the mingling and is once for all. To drink the Spirit is the continuation and accomplishment of the mingling and is perpetual, forever.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 786)

2 CORINTHIANS 5:
17 So that if anyone is ²in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.

17² To be in Christ is to be one with Him in life and in nature. This is of God through our faith in Christ (1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:26-28).

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 841)

GALATIANS 3:
27 For as many as were baptized ¹into Christ have put on Christ.

27¹ To believe is to believe into Christ (John 3:16), and to be baptized is to be baptized also into Christ. By both faith and baptism, we have been immersed into Christ, having thus put on Christ and become identified with Christ.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 893)

1 JOHN 5:
20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true; and we are ⁶in Him who is true, ⁷in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

20⁶ We not only know the true God; we are also in Him. We not only have the knowledge of Him; we are in an organic union with Him. We are one with Him organically.

20⁷ To be in the true God is to be in His Son Jesus Christ. Since Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the very embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), to be in Him is to be in the true God. This indicates that Jesus Christ the Son of God is the true God.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 1294)

The ministry of Christ is the main ministry in the New Testament to dispense God into us. It is clearly of two parts: the first part is for Him to come to us, and the second part is for Him to go back to God. This is a two-way traffic, a traffic both coming and going. He came to bring God to us, and He went back to God to bring us into God. By this coming and going God has dispensed Himself into our being. The Lord Jesus' coming began from His incarnation and ended with His crucifixion. From His incarnation to His death was the first part of the Lord’s ministry. The second part of His ministry began from His resurrection and has no ending, so it will last for eternity.

(Witness Lee, Divine Trinity, 53)

THE PLACE AND THE WAY

The place where the Lord is actually is not a place; it is a person. In John 14:4 the Lord said, “And you know where I go, and you know the way.” Thomas replied that they did not know where the Lord was going, and he asked how they could know the way (John 14:5). Then the Lord said to him, “I am the way” (John 14:6). This indicates that the way is a person, Christ Himself. The Lord also said to Thomas, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” This reveals that the place is the Father. Therefore, the way is a person and the place is also a person. Not many Christians have seen this. The way is the Son; and the destination, the place to which the way leads, is the Father.

Although the Son is the way, He can be the way only through crucifixion and resurrection. An uncrucified Christ could not be the way. As a whole, the New Testament reveals that Christ died on the cross and rose from among the dead to become the way for us to enter into the Father. By Him as our way we can be in the Father, just as He is in the Father.

(Witness Lee, Truth Messages 75)

GOD’S INTENTION

Many Christians think that the place spoken of in John 14:3 is the heavenly mansion. But if we consider this verse in its context, we shall see that this place is the Father, not the heavenly mansion. We were born in Adam, not in the Father. However, it is a basic concept in the New Testa­ment that God’s intention is to put us into Himself through the death and resurrection of Christ. The fact that Christ’s death and resurrection have opened the new and living way for us to enter into the presence of God is revealed in Hebrews 10. To enter into God’s presence is to enter into God, for the Holy of Holies is actually God Himself.

When the Lord Jesus was speaking to His disciples the night before He was crucified, His disciples had not yet been brought into the Father, although they had been fol­lowing the Lord for three and a half years. At that time, only the Lord Himself was in the Father. However, the Lord told the disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them and to cut the way into that place so that they could be in the Father where He was. The highest defini­tion of God’s salvation is that to be saved is to be brought by God into Himself. When we repented to God and believed in the Lord Jesus, we were brought into God the Father, although we might not have realized this at the time. According to the context of John 14, this is God’s highest intention. Through the crucified and resurrected Christ, God has brought us into Himself.

(Witness Lee, Truth Messages 77-78)

“WHERE I AM YOU ALSO MAY BE”

In verse 3 the Lord said that He would receive us to Himself that “where I am you also may be.” Where is the Lord? Is He in heaven? No, He is in the Father. The Lord wants His disciples also to be in the Father (vv. 17, 21). Since the Lord is in the Father, He will also bring us into the Father. By being in the Lord, we, the disciples, are also in the Father. The Lord was in the Father. Through His death and resurrection the Lord has brought us into Him­self. By being in Him we are also in the Father because He is in the Father. Where He is, there we are also. This was made possible through the Lord’s death and resurrection. Before His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus was in the Father, but the disciples were not. After His death and resurrection all the disciples got into the Father, just as the Lord was and is in the Father. At that time the Lord could say, “Where I am you also may be.”

“THE WAY” BEING THE SON HIMSELF

The way for us to get into God is the Lord Himself. Since the way is a living Person, so the place to which the Lord brings us must also be a living Person, God the Father Himself. The Lord Himself is the living way to bring man into God the Father, the living place. Like us, the disciples thought that both the place and the way were places, not persons. Notwithstanding, the Lord said to them, “I am the way.”

In verse 6 the Lord did not say, “No one comes to heaven but by Me.” No, He said, “No one comes to the Father but by Me.” The Lord’s intention is not to bring us into heaven but into God, into the Father. The Lord is not the way to bring the believers into heaven but to bring them into the Father.

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 365)

“TO THE FATHER”

The Father, the living Person, is the destination, and the Son, the living Person, is the way. Neither the way nor the destination is a place. The way is the Son and the destination is the Father. Through the Son we get into the Father. Both the way and the destination are living Per­sons. Through the Son’s death and resurrection we have all come into the Father. Now the Son is in the Father, and we also are in the Father because we are in the Son.

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 366)

IN CHRIST

First Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, Who became wisdom to us from God: both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” God has put us into Christ, and now we are in Him. Formerly, we were in Adam, but we have been transferred out of Adam and into Christ. This was not an outward transfer; it was an inward transfer of life. In life we have been trans­ferred from one realm into another, from Adam into Christ. Now we all can declare, “Hallelujah, I am in Christ! How happy I am to be in Christ!”

Being in Christ is a tremendous matter. Far from being a mere doctrine, this is a marvelous fact. We are in Christ, and Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. He is the embodiment of the Triune God. How wonderful that we are in such a Person!

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 Corinthians, 127)

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III. LIVING IN THIS COINHERENCE

JOHN 15:
4 Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

1 JOHN 3:
24 And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and ²He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.

24² We abide in the Lord; then He abides in us. Our abiding in Him is a condition for His abiding in us (John 15:4). We enjoy His abiding in us by our abiding in Him.

(Witness Lee, Footnotes, 1281)

1 JOHN 4:
13 In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given us of His Spirit.
16 And we have known and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

EPHESIANS 4:
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.

ABIDING IN THE VINE AND LETTING THE VINE ABIDE IN THE BRANCHES

The fruit-bearing comes about as the branches abide in the vine and let the vine abide in the branches. In John 15 abiding is a crucial matter. Everything in this chapter depends upon the abiding. The real abiding depends upon a clear vision, a clear seeing, that you are a branch. Once you see that you are a branch, it will be difficult for you to stay away from the vine. You will want to remain in the vine. This remaining is the abiding. Do not try to abide, for the more you try, the more you will fall away. We need to pray, “Lord, show me clearly that I am one of the branches.” I believe that one day the Lord will show you. You will see that you are one of the branches and you will say, “Praise the Lord, I am one of the branches.” Then you will abide in Him.

As long as you abide in Him, He will abide in you. His abiding is us depends upon our abiding in Him. Our abiding is the condition of His abiding, but His abiding in us is not a condition of our abiding in Him. Nothing is conditional with Him, but with us, because we are so fluc­tuating, there is the need of a condition. If we do not abide in Him, there is no way for Him to abide in us. Although He does not change, we have many changes. We may abide in Him today and run away from Him tomorrow. There­fore, His abiding in us depends upon our abiding in Him. Our abiding in Him is the condition of His abiding in us. So the Lord says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” If we abide in Him, He will certainly abide in us. If we do not abide in Him, we fail to meet the condition of His abiding in us. His abiding depends upon our abiding. This mutual abiding will bring forth fruit.

(Witness Lee, LS of John, 403)

KNOWING THAT WE ABIDE IN HIM AND HE IN US

In 4:13 John says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given us of His Spirit.” The words “in this” mean in the fact that God has given us of His Spirit we know that we abide in Him and He in us. The Spirit whom God has given to dwell in us (James 4:5; Rom. 8:9, 11) is the witness in our spirit (Rom. 8:16) that we dwell in God and He in us. The abiding Spirit, that is, the indwelling Spirit, is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and God. By Him we are assured that we and God are one, abiding in one another, indwelling each other mutually. This is evidenced by our living, a living that habitually expresses His love.

In verse 13 John indicates that we may know that we abide in God. To abide in God is to dwell in Him, remaining in our fellowship with Him, that we may experience and enjoy His abiding in us. This is to practice our oneness with God according to the divine anointing (2:27) by a living that practices His righteousness and His love. It is all by the operation of the all-inclusive compound Spirit, who dwells in our spirit and who is the basic element of the divine anointing.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 John, 304-305)

ABIDING IN GOD

In 4:16 John says that he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. To abide in love is to live a life that loves others habitually with the love which is God Himself so that He may be expressed in us. To abide in God is to live a life which is God Himself as our inward content and outward expression so that we may be absolutely one with Him. God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. Thus, He may be one with us in a practical way.

In 4:16 we see that there is an organic union between us and God. This organic union is indicated by the word “in.” It is interesting that John does not say that God is love and that he who abides in God abides in love. Instead, he says that he who abides in love abides in God. To us, the former may seem more logical. But the latter is more practical and real. To say that we abide in God when we abide in love means that the very love in which we abide is God Himself This indicates that the love that we have toward others should be God Himself If we abide in the love which is God Himself, we then abide in God, and God abides in us.

(Witness Lee, LS of 1 John, 310)

NOT GRIEVING THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD

In verse 30 Paul says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” The word “and” at the beginning of this verse indicates that in addition to all the things men­tioned in verses 25 through 29, one crucial thing is needed, that is, that we should not grieve the Holy Spirit. To grieve the Holy Spirit is to displease Him. The Holy Spirit abides in us forever (John 14:16-17); He never leaves us. Hence, He is grieved when we do not walk according to Him (Rom. 8:4). If we have a life according to the prin­ciple of truth with grace for the details of our daily walk, we shall not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. However, if we do not live this way, the Spirit within us will be grieved. For the Holy Spirit to be grieved means that He is not happy with us. Often when we feel unhappy, that feeling of unhappiness is actually the feeling of the Holy Spirit. However, when He feels happy within us, we are happy also. A proper life according to truth and in grace will always make the Holy Spirit happy and give us the joy of the Spirit.

(Witness Lee, LS of Ephesians, 410-411)

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