Matthew-039

 

Today, let us read the passage, Matthew 12:46-50.

These words of the Lord Jesus are of exceeding great importance for us to understand. We turn also to Luke 8:19-21 and see what is recorded there for us in the parallel passage:

A great crowd was surrounding the Lord Jesus at this time as he taught the Word of God, and his relatives could not get near to him. Notice the important parallel here, the one part illuminating the other: “Who is my brother and sister and mother?” It is “those who do the will of my Father.” What does “doing the will of my Father” mean here? It is to “hear the Word of God and do it.” By comparing Scripture with Scripture, the will of God and the Word of God are shown to be parallel to each other.

Then we turn to Luke 11:27-28:

You will notice that the passage (verses 24-26) previous to this has to do with exactly what we studied in Matthew 12:43-45, concerning the man whose life was empty and was then re-possessed by eight unclean spirits. Now Luke 11:28 concerns the will of God, and we need to understand by God’s grace more clearly: What is the will of God? How do we do the will of God? What is the importance of God’s will?

 

No human relationship is your passport into God’s kingdom

As we turn back to Matthew 12:46, the passage we are studying, we read that the Lord Jesus is teaching this great crowd, and his brothers and his mother are clamoring to talk to him when he has not yet finished his teaching. It is quite typical of relatives, isn’t it? They always think they have a right to barge in on you no matter what you are doing. Obviously, they neither seemed deterred at all by the fact that he was teaching God’s Word nor by this great crowd of people, who are eager to listen to God’s Word. They evidently were not prepared to wait until he had finished, and sent someone from the crowd to interrupt him while he was still teaching. Then, when the Lord Jesus was interrupted in his teaching, he gave this reply: “My brother, my sister and my mother are those who do the will of God, my Father in heaven.”

The point that every Christian must come to understand, is that blood relationships, physical, external relationships are of no signifi­cance in the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus is saying to the crowd, and to this man who brings the message, that a person does not have a special claim upon him because he happens to be his relative. In the kingdom, only one thing matters, and nothing else: God’s will. Clearly, his relatives had not yet understood the nature of the kingdom of God, and they thought that their physical relationship to him constituted a claim.

That is true in the kingdoms of this world. If I happen to be a brother or a relative of the President, or the Prime Minister, or the Chairman of some country, I do have a claim to his attention and to his presence. For example, if I happened to be the brother of President Jimmy Carter, then certainly, I could go to the White House while all the other people would have to queue outside and wait for the guide to take them around the premises of the White House. If I could prove that I am his brother, then that is all the evidence that is needed. No one would dare to stop me from going in to see my brother. If President Carter’s mother came along, certainly, no one would dare to keep her out from his presence. She has the right to his presence, and anyone attempting to prevent her would face serious consequences. In this world, these kinds of relationship defi­nitely hold, but not in the kingdom of God, but a physical relationship does not count for anything in the kingdom of God. The only thing that matters is the will of God; nothing else does. The Lord Jesus wants us to understand this.

Therefore, all this shows how much error there is in the teaching of our good friends, the Roman Catholics, who imagine that Mary has some kind of special status in the church because of her being the mother of Jesus. Now on that basis, she has no special status at all, certainly not in Scripture, and certainly not in the Lord’s teaching. If she deserves any honor at all, it’s not because of any physical relationship, as we shall see. In the kingdom of God, that does not count all that much. This doesn’t at all mean that the Lord Jesus doesn’t honor or love his mother. He certainly loves and honors her in human terms. But we are talking in terms of salvation and entering into God’s kingdom. You are not going to haul anyone into God’s kingdom, into God’s salvation because he happens to be your mother, or your brother, or your sister, or anyone else. That is no passport to salvation. That is the first important point we need to observe.

 

Salvation is only by a faith that does the will of God

What then is the will of God? Why is doing God’s will so important? First, let me establish that there is no way you are going to be saved unless you do God’s will. No one enters into salvation except through doing God’s will. I would like you to bear this in mind very clearly, because that is Scriptural teaching, not my teaching. And let nobody tell you differently. You are not going to be saved simply because you happen to be a good evangelical, Anglican, or Roman Catholic; or because you happen to go to the right church, or believe the right doctrines. These will absolutely not get you into the kingdom of God; they will get you nowhere at all with God. I don’t mean to say that if believing the right creed or doctrines isn’t going to save us, we can believe all the wrong doctrines. What I am saying is that believing the right doctrines in the Scriptural teaching is not enough to get you into the kingdom of God. That is only a beginning; you must still go on to do God’s will. The one thing that matters for salvation is doing God’s will.

The Lord Jesus made this very plain in Matthew 7:21. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of God.” Then who enters the kingdom of God if not the people who say, “Lord, Lord”? After all, the whole church is saying, “Lord, Lord”! The Lord Jesus says, “Only those who do the will of my Father in heaven, not because you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of God. Not even doing the mighty works – miracles, speaking in tongues, or casting out demons will get you into the kingdom of God.” Then how do you enter the kingdom of God? Jesus says, “By doing the will of my Father in heaven.” That is what he requires. Therefore, don’t think because you have some spiritual power, you can do some miracles, that is the guarantee that you can get to heaven. You are only going to get to heaven by doing God’s will. I hope this point really sinks clearly and deeply into your mind. If anyone else tells you anything different, you know that is not Scripture.

The Lord Jesus makes it very plain that the only way you enter the kingdom of God is through a faith that does God’s will. It is clear that without faith, you would not do God’s will, would you? But faith alone will not save you unless that faith results in doing God’s will. That’s the Lord Jesus’ teaching. Faith is not just believing that God’s will is good, but goes about doing it.

Certainly, we can go so far as to believe that Gods’ will is quite good. I often see Christians, who usually never do God’s will, always seek to know what is God’s will when they are in trouble. Presumably, they do understand that God’s will is good. Otherwise why should they seek it? They come asking, “How do I know God’s will”? Now I say to them, and I say to you plainly, if you want to know God’s will, don’t wait until the time of trouble to do it, because by that time, you will find it very hard to know what is God’s will. You begin with doing it now. And then as you go along, you will find it easy to know his will.

Immediately, I see that those who rush to God to know his will when they are in trouble, have the greatest difficulty in finding it out. They find that God doesn’t speak to them. Why? They only want to make use of God. Those who want to make use of God don’t understand what is doing God’s will. Certainly, when you are in trouble you need God. When you don’t know the right thing to do, surely, you want to know what is God’s will. Many people also rush to fortune tellers for that purpose. You can make use of fortune tellers – just put the money on the table and get your “guidance,” if you can call it that. You cannot use God in this way. You either consistently do his will, or when the time comes, you will have all kinds of trouble knowing what his will is, because you are just trying to make use of God. God is not going allow you to make use of him. He is not going to be subject to us, but we are to be subject to him.

Let us grasp this point very clearly because it concerns our salvation, our entering the kingdom of God. “Entering God’s kingdom” in the Lord Jesus’ words simply means “being saved” in Paul’s terms. “The kingdom of God” is God’s rule, God’s government. How can you enter into God’s kingdom if you are not willing to do his will, to be under his rule, his government?

 

Why is it so important to do God’s will so as to enter his kingdom?

Why is it so important to do God’s will so as to be in his kingdom? It’s because God only gives his Holy Spirit to those who do his will. We find that clearly stated for us in Acts 5:32. None of this depends on our guesswork: “God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey him.” If you are going to have the Holy Spirit, you have to obey God. Only those who have the Holy Spirit belong to Christ, which follows that only those who obey Christ belong to God. All this is very plain, and I would like to ask you right now if you consider yourself a Christian, whether you are truly obeying God’s will. What sort of a Christian are you? Are you the kind that just thinks that because you have the right doctrines you are going to get to heaven? Then I will have to disillusion you. You don’t get to heaven that way, not on Biblical teaching. You have to be prepared to say, “God, by your grace, I will do all your will.” If you have this commitment to do God’s will, then I can say you are on the path of salvation. You are the kind of person who can enter the kingdom of God, because you will receive the Spirit of God, you are willing to put away your will to do his will.

 

You do God’s will joyfully out of love and trust, that it is good for you

This leads us to further question: Why do we do God’s will? We can have double confidence in doing God’s will. On the one hand, because we know that God will never be wrong, and on the other hand, because we love him. I want to do God’s will because I trust his wisdom, his knowledge and his understanding, so that even if I may not understand why he asks me to do something, I will do it. Moreover, I do God’s will because I love him. Don’t we often do things that someone we love wants us to do, even if that person may be mistaken? Thanks be to God that it is never a danger when we do his will. Therefore, doing his will is not a burden to us, as the apostle John says in 1 John 5:3, “His commandments are not burdensome.” When you do something for someone you love, it’s not a burden but a delight. As we read in Hebrews 10:9, “Lo, I have come to do Thy will.” The true Christian is someone who does God’s will not because he has to, but because it’s a joy for him. It’s the only proper response to God whose love will not let us go.

Furthermore, I have confidence in the will of God because I know that it’s always good for me. This point is so important for us to grasp. It is surprising how many Christians don’t grasp this point clearly. When God tells us not do something, we feel deprived. That’s a mistake! This is the reason why Eve fell into sin when she was tempted by Satan. When God said, “Don’t eat of the fruit of this tree,” she thought that God was withholding something good from her, didn’t she not? If you think, “There must be something nice about this tree so God doesn’t let me eat it,” that is foolishness! That is the failure to understand that God’s will is always goodwill. Never think that when God says, “Don’t do a certain thing,” He is trying to withhold something good from you. He withholds nothing good from us. As we read in Psalm 84:11, “He withholds no good thing from those who love him.” He gives every good thing to us. Do you have that confidence? If not, it’s because you have not learned to know God well enough.

Look into God’s Word and you will find that everything God does is designed for our good. That sounds too much like a teacher talking to the students, or a parent speaking to a child, “Now that’s for your good,” and we don’t like to hear that. But what if it’s true? What else can God say to us than it’s for our good? Look into God’s will in the Scriptures, and you will find that everything he has willed, everything that he has done, is always entirely for our welfare. Have you ever noticed that? Is there one thing in Scripture that he has ever willed that is not for our welfare? Everything is the expression of his love to us. Even the smack that a parent gives to the child is motivated out of concern and love for the child. There is nothing that a parent does for the child which is not designed for the child’s good. Can you have that same confidence in the will of God? If you could, then you would delight to do his will, because his will is for your well-being.

 

God’s Word and God’s Holy Spirit help us to know God’s will

But how do I know God’s will that I may do it? As we compared the Scriptures at the beginning, we already saw that God’s will is revealed to us in his Word. And so much did the Lord Jesus delight to do God’s will that he says in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his purpose.” He is saying, “What is my food? What do I live on? Doing his will nourishes me.” That’s the quality of the Lord Jesus’ life. The Lord Jesus was determined to do only one thing: the will of God, which was his food.

In Matthew 4:4, when Satan tempted the Lord Jesus, he said to Satan, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” In other words, God’s Word is my food. I live by every word that comes from God’s mouth. When you compare it with John 4:34, you can see that God’s Word is identical to God’s will. Doing God’s will is doing his Word.

There is also something beautiful in John 7:37, where the Lord Jesus says, “If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” And then we read from verses 38-39 that he was speaking about the Holy Spirit. Do you see what we are getting at now? God’s Word is the bread, the food we eat (“Man does not live by bread alone but by God’s Word.”), and God’s Spirit is the water we drink. Now you can live without food for a little while, but you cannot live without water. In the same way, no Christian can live without the Spirit of God. I cannot live without the Holy Spirit. I cannot even talk about the will of God without the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit of God who enables me to live. The Spirit of God is my life to me. He is the living water which I receive through the Lord Jesus. If I am thirsty, I have no appetite. Have you ever tried eating when you are thirsty? Your mouth is dry, your throat is parched, and you cannot eat anything. After you have had a drink, you will begin to have an appetite. The Spirit of God works in us in the same way. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, you’ll begin to have a hunger for God’s Word. When I see people with a hunger for God’s Word, I begin to see the Spirit of God working in this person; I can see the change in his or her life.

We know God’s will both through his Word and his Spirit. On the one hand, it is the Holy Spirit that makes plain to me the meaning of God’s Word; on the other hand, it is God’s Word that teaches me to continue in my obedience to the Spirit. The Word of God and the Spirit of God always work together, enabling me to know God’s will, and do his will. So I need the food and the drink to do his will, and God has provided both. He doesn’t leave me wondering what is his will, and how do I do it. He only requires that we desire to know his will, and desire above all things to do it.

 

Desire to do God’s will, and you will know his will

People who have asked me about God’s guidance say, “How do I know God’s will?” I said, “Before you ask that question, you need to ask another question: Are you willing to do his will, whatever that will is? If you are not willing to do his will, there is no point asking what his will is.” Now this question is so important to us for this reason. Many people really want to find out what is God’s will so that they might decide whether or not they are going to do it. If you come to God with that attitude, you are wasting your time. God will give you no guidance at all.

God doesn’t submit his will to you for your inspection and approval. His will is not there for you to examine and then decide whether you are going to take it or leave it, like going into a supermarket to examine each product and decide, “I like this, so I’ll take it” or “I don’t want it.” You cannot treat God’s will in this kind of fashion. You have to come to God with unconditional commitment by saying, “God, whatever your will is, I will do it.” If you can honestly and sincerely say that, I guarantee you, you will never have trouble knowing what his will is. You may have to wait a little while, but you can be assured that you will definitely know his will at the proper time. I speak this as a testimony from my own experience. He has never left me in the dark about his will, because by his grace, I have one commitment: I will do his will whatever it is!

Can you have that commitment? If you have this commitment, you can be certain of knowing his will. You will never be in the dark. But if you come with a shopping attitude to say, “I want to find out what is God’s will first, and if he wants me to go to the North Pole, I’ll say, ‘Sorry God, the North Pole is not for me.’ If he asks, ‘What about the Congo?’ I’ll say, ‘Congo is too hot for me. Just keep me within the Temperate Zone, then I will do your will.’” If you come to God with that kind of attitude, you are wasting your time. God will tell you nothing, because he already knows that you will only do his will if it happens to be all right with your will. In the end, it is your will that is making all the decisions, and it’s not you submitting to God’s will, it’s God submitting to your will. You will not know his will. It is only if you come before him and say, “God, whether it’s Congo, the Arctic, the Temperate Zone, send me wherever you want.”

If I am looking for a pastorate, I don’t say, “God, I’ve been in Canada for the last two years, and I’ve been freezing to death in this part of the world. How about finding me a pastorate somewhere down in Florida or in California? There are many Chinese Christians there, and there are many other people who hunger for God’s Word. How about sending me to either place?” So I wait for God’s will, and I will wait and hear nothing from him. God is saying, “If you want to go to Florida, you don’t have to ask me. Just go. Do you want to go to California? Go ahead. Why are you asking me?” I can only come to him and say, “God, I will go wherever you want me to go, whether south to the Tropics, or north to the Arctic where I’ll freeze even more, I will go because I delight to do your will.” If I can honestly say that, he will give me his guidance. He will reveal his will to me. Of course, I might have the surprise of my life! It might just be Florida, but not until I have said, “Lord, truly, whatever your will is.” But it might just be the Arctic too, or rather, the Tropics. You must have the sincere willingness to follow God all the way.

We call Jesus, “Lord,” and then we do our own will, and we hope for salvation. That is “Christianity” today. Little wonder the Lord Jesus says to such people, “Why do you call me ‘Lord’, and do not do my Father’s will?” We want to have the best of both worlds. We want to have one foot in the kingdom of God, and the other foot in this world. We want to be just nicely balanced and well-established. That is called “the middle road.” God doesn’t play around in this way. You are either going to be totally committed to his will, or you just live by your own will and take the consequences. But don’t try both. It doesn’t work that way.

 

Doing God’s will involves a willingness of heart

You will say, “I understand that God’s will is for my good and the good of others. I may not enjoy it at that particular time, but in due time, I will see the wisdom of his purposes. Whatever his will is, it is good, therefore I’m prepared to do it unconditionally, by his grace.”

 

What is doing God’s will?

Now this raises the question: What is doing God’s will? Is doing God’s will for example, what many of the Pharisees and scribes thought? They thought doing God’s will is to look at every detail of the law for example, “You shall not work on the Sabbath day.” Therefore, what does doing God’s will in “not working on the Sabbath day mean”? Is cooking “work” or not? The Pharisees and scribes decided that cooking is “work.” Since when is cooking not “work”? Didn’t you find cooking hard work? You have to wash, peel, cook, and on a hot day, you feel you are roasting in the kitchen! If that’s not “work”, what is? Surely, it is “work.” So the Pharisees and the scribes make a decision of the law, doing God’s will means not cooking your vegetables and fish on Saturday, the Sabbath day, but the Friday night before the sun goes down. And so on and so forth.

Is walking “work” or not? In a sense, walking is “work”, and in another sense, it’s not “work.” The scribes sit down and begin to work it out, and by some astonishing decision they arrived at: you can walk 1,500 yards on the Sabbath day. Beyond that, it is “work,” and less than that, it’s not “work.” So, doing God’s will means walking less than 1,500 yards on the Sabbath day. What have we ended up with? Doing God’s will becomes living by a religious system. Is that what it is? So the kind of people who are going to enter the kingdom of God are those who walk less than 1,500 yards, and who don’t cook their dinners on the Sabbath day? In the eyes of the scribes, this was very practical, but in the eyes of others, it is quite ridiculous.

What are we getting at? I want to point out to you that, in the Lord Jesus’ teaching about doing God’s will, it’s most important for you to understand that we are not talking about external performances. Doing God’s will is first and foremost an attitude of the heart towards God. I can walk less than 1,500 yards on the Sabbath day, but is my heart really living in harmony with his will? Or does my not cooking on the Sabbath day prove that I really live in joyful submission to God? It proves nothing of the kind because all I have done is external observance. It does not express my heart at all.

Christians have made other laws. We may not drink; we may not smoke; we may not buy newspapers on Sunday; we may not wear mini-skirts; we may not this, that, and the other thing. We should turn up in church punctually, for communion, but if not for communion, at least for the service. We shall read our Bibles no less than ten minutes per day, and if you don’t do so, it shows that you are not a good Christian. Preferably, you will read it with your “Daily Bread”, or some other daily devotional book. You shall also do many other things. Doing or not doing all these is doing God’s will. Good Christians don’t go to cinemas or opera houses. Occasionally, you may go, assuming that the opera is a decent one. But if some scenes in it are less acceptable, no matter how classical it is, you shall not go! Definitely, no decent Christian goes to cinemas no matter what movie is being shown. So it’s all a question of we may or may not do certain things. What has happened to us? It seems to me that we have ended up much in the same way as the Pharisees and scribes. Our “Christianity” ends up in external performances again!

I’m not saying that it’s good to drink wine or smoke. I don’t smoke and I cannot stand the smell of smoke. But I’m saying has Christianity got to do with rules and regulations? Is doing God’s will a matter of not buying a Sunday newspaper? Many Christians seem to think so. Is that what the Lord Jesus teaches? When the Lord Jesus said, “This is my brother, my sister, and my mother,” who are these? They are people who do God’s will, people who don’t smoke, drink or go to the cinemas, and who do read their Bibles ten minutes a day. Is that Christianity?

You will say, “Yes, plus believe the Westminster Confession, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Nicene Creed. But if you believe in the doctrines, and you do smoke and drink, then you are not doing God’s will, and you are destined for hell.” Well, I’m afraid that that is what much of Christianity has boiled down to today. When you believe the right things, you don’t do certain things; and when you do certain other things, you will be saved.

Who has said a word about our hearts, the quality of life we live? That doesn’t matter anymore. In fact, to talk about “holiness” is to belong to a “holiness sect”, so holiness doesn’t matter. Or does holiness consist of not smoking and drinking? When I preached on Hebrews 12:14, “Strive for holiness, without which no man shall see God,” certain well-known preachers accused me of preaching holiness. I am not ashamed of preaching holiness. What was my wrongdoing?

When you examine the teaching of the Lord Jesus, what is doing God’s will? It is that your will harmonizes with God’s will. You harmonize with God in the innermost depth of your being. The inner harmony of God’s will with our will, and our will with God’s will, is spiritual union in the Bible. If you find within your heart, a sweet joyful submission and obedience to God’s will, you will begin to know the Lord Jesus’ teaching about what it is to be a Christian, because that comes from the innermost depth of your being. That has nothing to do with external observances. However, anyone who imagines doing God’s will is simply practicing external observances, that person has not begun to understand what the Lord Jesus is talking about here.

 

A danger: Spirituality declines into religiosity

The Lord Jesus is simply not concerned with these externals. Neither is the apostle Paul concerned with this kind of thing. Let me show you from the apostle Paul that the Lord Jesus taught this. I think absolutely no one, who has the slightest understanding of Scripture, would even begin to dispute. Paul, like the Lord Jesus, is greatly concerned about slipping away from spirituality to religiosity. I need to emphasize evermore clearly to you that there is a world of difference between being religious and being spiritual. They are not the same thing. If you don’t know the difference between the two, then you don’t know the difference between a true and a false Christian. I say this again: you must know what the difference is between being spiritual and being religious. Don’t think that you are spiritual because you are religious. Never make that mistake. The Pharisees thought that they are spiritual because they are religious; and because they are religious, they have guaranteed entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

I repeat, only one thing matters in the kingdom of God, and that is: doing God’s will. Psalm 40:8 says, “I delight to do thy will.” Where does your heart delight? That’s not external observances. Doing God’s will is our heart echoing with the heart of God; our minds corresponding to his mind; our soul, our life corresponding to his life. It is the deep inner harmony of our innermost being with God.

When the Galatians were moving away from the spiritual to the religious, Paul became deeply concerned. In fact, the whole letter of Galatians concerns only this point: the danger of moving away from the spiritual to the religious. We cannot go through the whole of Galatians today, but let me just give you a few instances of this. Please bear that in mind that the first sign of spiritual degeneration is the externalizing of religion.

For example, Paul says to the Galatian Christians in Galatians 4:10, “You observe days, and months, and seasons, and years.” You have externalized religion into outward observances. Is that serious? Exceedingly serious!

In verse 11, he says, “I am afraid I have labored over you in vain.” He says, “I have worked for your salvation and you are not going to be saved.”

And because of these things, he says in Galatians 5:4,

And this is what he says to them in Galatians 3:3,

He says to the Galatians, “Are you so foolish that having begun in the Spirit, having started out by being spiritual, you are going to end up in the flesh, in these external observances? Don’t you see that religion is simply of the flesh, external, human performances?” They have moved away from being spiritual to being religious. That’s the first step of decline, the first dangerous step to destruction.

Christians should be cautious, especially those who have been baptized recently. I saw the joy of your being filled with the fullness of God’s Spirit, but how quickly that can fade away, as soon as you take the next step down to becoming religious! That is so dangerous! The substance inside goes to the surface as outward performance, and the inside is empty once again. Do you see what we are talking about? How perfect is the Lord Jesus’ teaching on the house that became empty in Matthew 12:43-45! That person had made a moral reform. All the religion was on the outside. It was all trimming. All the inner substance moved out, and it was empty again inside. What did the Lord Jesus say? “The last state of that man is worse than the first.”

Doing God’s will is not a matter of outward performance. Becoming a Christian is not a matter of whether you don’t smoke or drink. Smoking is bad for you, and so is habitual drinking, especially in excessive quantities. If a person doesn’t smoke or drink, he may still not be a Christian. There are non-Christians who don’t smoke or drink, don’t go to cinemas, and don’t buy newspapers on a Sunday as well. That doesn’t give them entrance to the kingdom of God.

 

Wrong exegesis: the woman must cover her head

This danger is much greater than you might realize, and even relatively spiritual-minded people may fail to observe this point and fall. For this reason, I am going to make a little stop at 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, and make you an illustration from this point.

The apostle Paul is saying there is a hierarchy at which God is the head of Christ; Christ is the head of the man, the man is the head of the wife. He goes on to say that the women should cover their heads; the men should not cover their heads. How do we understand this?

When two sisters from Ontario came to the service, they promptly pulled out scarves and covered their heads. Now they do desire to do God’s will. You can certainly credit them, but they did this because there were two Bible teachers who told them that 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 says they shall cover their heads. So promptly, in all obedience to the will of God, they pulled out their scarves and covered their heads. I grant you that these two Bible teachers do love God, and they have a desire to do God’s will, but they fail to understand the important principle we have been talking about: the externalizing of doing God’s will.

In fact, one has to say that even our good brother, Watchman Nee, has gone astray on this point because, as you know, Watchman Nee and “the Little flock” required all women in their congregation to wear veils. Have you ever seen Chinese women wear veils? But he required that all women wear veils. Why did he make this require­ment? On the basis of this passage. Now Brother Nee has written many excellent things, and done much excellent work, but he has missed the principle here. First and foremost, if you could only see the principle that God’s will is never to be externalized, and the moment you externalize God’s will, you have taken the first fateful step downward; you would know what was the mistake of our Brother Nee, as well as these teachers in Ontario with whom I personally have no quarrel. So this is not a personal matter, but it’s important for me to speak God’s Word. What is the error? The error is: misunderstanding Scriptural teaching and expounding it incorrectly.

 

1. This passage applies only to married women

First, if they had looked carefully at this passage, they would have noticed that these words apply only to married women. Therefore, these dear girls, none of whom were married, should not be putting a scarf over their heads. If they had even bothered to look a little bit more carefully, they would have seen that it would not have applied to these girls who are not married, even if married women were required to cover their heads as a token of submission to their husbands. The word, “husband” appears immediately in verse 3: “The head of a wife (a married woman) is her husband.” Did our Brother Nee not see that when he expounded this, and required every woman in his church to cover their heads?

In fact, if Brother Nee had taken a little bit more trouble to investigate the background, he would have seen that in terms of Jewish practice—we don’t know much about Corinthian practice—the same was true. Only the married women covered their heads, and whether they did so as a token of submission to their husbands is very much in doubt. It was simply the style of the time. The great authorities writing on those times are not able to confirm to us that it was a sign of submission. It was only a sign of being married or not, just like whether you wear a ring or not. My wife’s wearing a ring is not proof of her submission to me. It is only proof that she is married. However, many married women and men don’t wear rings. So really, this kind of external observance proves nothing.

The whole purpose of the discussion here is not that every woman is subject to every man, but simply that the wife is subject to the husband. There is no Scriptural teaching that every woman is subject to every man, but there is teaching that the wife is subject to the husband, and this is the point here. Now this is such a basic point of exposition that one doesn’t understand how people who expound the Word of God, like these Bible teachers, and Brother Watchman Nee for example, could make such an elementary mistake.

 

2. Wives covered their heads only when they prayed or prophesied God’s Word

A second point to observe from this passage, from verses 4, 5 and 13, is that this covering of the head applies only to the times when married women prophesied of God’s Word or prayed. It refers specifically to the times of prophecy and prayer. Paul did not men­tion that they cover their heads the whole day. Verse 4 states: “any man who prays and prophesies,” and then verse 5, “but any woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.” Also in verse 13: “Judge for yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?” The subject is prayer. It has nothing to do with other things. Yet, obviously, this point was not clear to our sisters. So when we were praying, they did not cover their heads, but when they were sitting in the congrega­tion, neither praying nor prophesying, they covered their heads. When you study the Scripture, the Scripture is so clear. Prayer and prophecy are the times mentioned when married women covered their heads.

Why is covering of the head during prayer mentioned? What do you do in prayer? You are talking to God. Consider carefully, Paul is saying, “The married woman should cover her head when she is talking to God,” not when she is talking to men. Have you got this point very clear? And when she is prophesying, she is speaking from God. You are more conscious of God than of men when you prophesy, which is what you should be doing. Again, it has to do with your relationship to God. It should be plain that both prophecy and prayer have to do with your relationship to God, not to man. So it has nothing to do with whether or not you should cover your head during the preaching of the sermon. It is when the married women are prophesying and praying, not when others are praying for them, or prophesying to them. Isn’t that what the Word of God says very plainly? Observe clearly that covering the head has to do with their relationship to God.

 

3. Paul is not concerned with external religious observances

The third point here is this: consider carefully what we have just seen of Galatians for example, that Paul was not concerned with external observances; with food and drink, clothing, and dates, months, seasons and years; he is not concerned with these kinds of things, whereas the religious people are. One day is more holy than another day. On Fridays, you should eat fish and not meat. They are concerned with food and drink. Paul says in Romans 14:17, “The kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Righteousness, peace, and joy are inside. How do we read the Word of God with a veil on our face? Can’t we see what he is saying? He says, “I’m not going to tell you that being a Christian has anything to do with external observances. It has to do with righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit who dwells within you. You are his temple.”

Returning to 1 Corinthians 11, do you think that Paul forgot what he said before, and now suddenly decides that being a Christian has to do with whether you should wear a hat or not wear a hat? Does Paul say that the women should put on hats? And men should not, because if they put on a hat, they would dishonor their heads? In which case, every time I put on a hat when it is hot, I suddenly think of Paul’s words: “any man who puts a hat on his head dishonors his head,” I quickly take it off again, and roast in the sun. No, he isn’t talking about that. But which man would ever wear a hat inside a building anyway? Do you think that Paul means that all women should wear hats? I’m sure that Christian Dior, or the Paris fashion makers who design hats would be delighted at the news that from now on, all Christian women are going to wear hats. This would be just ideal, at least from their commercial point of view.

What is a “head covering”? You cannot deny that a hat is a head covering. Or should it be a scarf? Once you start externalizing religion, you fall into the dangers of casuistry. Casuistry is trying to define what is the will of God. If we are to cover our heads, the questions of casuistry are going to arise immediately. What ques­tions?

The first question is: What constitutes a head covering? How big does the head covering have to be in order to be a head covering? For example, if I put this piece of paper on my head, does that not constitute a head covering? It does cover my head, doesn’t it? Therefore, is this big enough to be a head covering? What about half this size? Could this also be a head covering? Or maybe a quarter of this size? How big is big enough to be a head covering? Then you fall right into the trap of the Pharisees and scribes. When you say, “walking is work,” then how far a walk is “work”? And they decide that 1,500 yards is far enough. What about 1,400 yards? No, that isn’t work. So someone has to fix a figure. Someone is going to decide how big a head covering is to be in order to be a head covering. Many of you have seen Jews wearing a head covering. How big is their head covering? It is only a small one, fixed with a hairpin at the back of their head. Is that big enough? Can we make it a little bit smaller? Why not? A little bit bigger? Why not? Immediately, you run into all kinds of problems.

Also, how thick should the head covering be? If covering my head is the sign of obedience, then clearly the bigger, thicker, the more conspicuous this covering, the more obvious my obedience to my husband. So if a wife wants to express her obedience to her husband, perhaps the best thing is to put on the biggest hat, or wrap the largest towel around your head, so that everyone can observe just how obedient you are to your husband, how obedient you are to God. Do you find that funny? That is exactly what the Jews did. That is why the Lord Jesus rebuked them, “You make broad your phylacteries. You have so externalized religion” (cf. Mt. 23:5). They tied broad leather straps around their garments, and tied a big box that contains God’s law on their forehead to show that they always remember the law of God. They tied this box around their hand in order to show that they always do God’s will, which in fact they seldom did. Anyway, as long as it is tied around the hand, that is what matters.

Once you start doing this, you fall right into the trap of religiosity, because you will have to start doing an awful lot of defining. And who is going to decide what is right? How big is the head covering? So ladies arrive in church with an enormous hat, with a bouquet on top of it that can shade them from the sun very effectively. If they sit in front with this enormous hat, you just can’t see what is going on in front. She has a head covering. She is doing God’s will. What are you accusing her of? Can you imagine a whole row of ladies with great big hats in the front seats? They will block out your view to see what is going on! The service is all by faith and not by sight! When we look at these things of casuistry, we realize that we have not begun to understand the apostle Paul at all.

Furthermore, in verse 15, Paul says that the woman already has a head covering in the form of her hair: “A woman has long hair as her pride, for hair is given to her for a covering.” If she already has a head covering, isn’t that enough? Is Paul arguing that since she has a covering, she needs another covering? If so, how many coverings should we have before it is sufficient? Exactly what are we trying to say?

 

4. “To cover the head” is a symbol, representing a wife’s submission

Finally, when you look carefully and strictly from the point of expounding 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, you will notice that the noun, “covering,” which I have been using constantly, and the word, “veil”, which is a form of covering, does not occur in the passage. The noun, “covering” or “veil” in the Greek, does not occur one single time! I checked through back and forth and could find no noun, no word that refers to a covering, or to a hat, or to a veil. It’s surprising that there is not a single noun!

The word, “veil” in fact, is used by Paul, but not in this passage. It occurs only in 2 Corinthians 3:13-16, where he speaks about Moses, who had a veil upon his face to hide the fading glory. That is the only place that he uses the word, “veil” four times. But in this passage, the word, “veil” in the original, doesn’t occur one single time. Nowhere! There’s no word for veil; there’s no word for covering; there’s no word for hat; nothing!

What is there then? There is only the verb, “to cover.” And this is sometimes translated in the English by a noun, “wearing a veil” or “wearing a covering.” The word, “covering” in the Greek doesn’t occur anywhere, only the verb, “to cover”. He doesn’t use the Greek word “veil” or “covering” at all.

The only occasion in verse 10, when he could have used the noun for a head covering, he uses the word, “authority” instead:

If you have an RSV Bible, you will see in the margin, the Greek word he uses is exousia, which means authority. The word exousia never means a veil or a head covering of any shape or form. I have checked that in the most authoritative dictionary there is, Liddell and Scott, which is over 2,000 pages thick. The word, exousia—which means “authority”— under no circumstances whatsoever means a veil or a head covering of any sort.

Do you understand the point of all this exegesis? It simply is that Paul is not concerned with a “thing,” a noun, but with a verb, the action, and he is concerned with the action, to subject to authority. Can you understand that? He is not concerned with what you put on your head, but with what you do. He is concerned about the kind of person you are going to be – a person who covers the head, who is subject to authority. In this case, covering the head is in picture language, which depicts being subject to authority. The wife is subject to the husband’s authority. So Paul says in verse 10, “That is why a woman ought to have a veil (a sign of submission to her husband’s authority) on her head, because of the angels.”

Paul’s whole argument is this: As a shaven woman would be unbe­coming or disgraceful in man’s eyes, so a woman who is not subject to her husband from the heart, is disgraceful in God’s eyes. A woman who is shaven would look very odd. Have you seen a woman walking around bald-headed? It would be very disgraceful.

This point is in fact, stated explicitly by Peter: “a meek obedient spirit is very precious in God’s sight” (cf. 1 Pet. 3:3-4). Notice the words, “in God’s sight”; he isn’t concerned with man’s sight here. Now you understand why when Paul spoke about the covering, he kept speaking about it in terms of a relationship to God, in prayer or in prophesying from God. It has to do with the woman’s relationship to God, not the woman’s relationship to man.

Do you think that Paul, of all people who understands spirituality so well, really thought that true obedience has to do with what you put on your head? Could anyone be quite as superficial as that? Do you think what a woman puts on her head expresses her true behavior towards her husband in the slightest bit? Of course not! Whatever you put on your head would express nothing at all in terms of what your heart is towards your husband. Obedience can never be a matter of outward performance; it has to be from the heart.

If you go to a Catholic church, you will see that Roman Catholic women all wear veils, and black hats because they are thinking that they are also following this passage. So Protestants and Catholics alike, make the same kind of mistake of externalizing true faith in God. Do you think that the Catholic woman who puts a hat on her head, and a veil on her face is truly obedient to her husband? Perhaps you will find out when you go to her home, but you will not find out by seeing her hat, or seeing how thick her veil is. That will prove absolutely nothing. Maybe when she gets home, she will be pulling her husband’s hair, but when she goes to church, she has her hat on the head. It is ludicrous to imagine that what you put on your head has anything to do with obedience at all, and even more ridiculous to suppose that that is what Paul wants to say.

Yet, people of the stature of Watchman Nee and others, could make this kind of mistake humbles us, doesn’t it? It causes us to be very watchful, and it shows you how far wrong you can go if you miss one spiritual principle. This is the reason why those who are in training are being trained in understanding the spiritual principles as well as in exegesis. When you don’t understand spiritual principles, you will make this kind of mistake.

And so I used this illustration from 1 Corinthians 11 to show you that the Scriptural principle of doing God’s will has nothing to do with external observances at all. It has to do with an attitude of the heart in which our heart harmonizes with God’s heart.

 

The cost of obedience to do God’s will: Offending the family

Finally, observe the cost of obedience. In Matthew 12:49-50, don’t you think that what the Lord Jesus said would offend his brothers and his mother when they heard what he said, “Who is my mother, and brother, and sister, but he who does the will of God?” So in a sense, he is disclaiming their claim upon him. Wouldn’t they feel offended? But that is the cost of doing God’s will. You have to speak the truth even though it is offensive, even though it may be misunderstood, even though people will reject what you say.

I am sure the relatives didn’t like to hear at all: “You have no claim on me, only those who do the will of God have a claim on me.” But when you speak God’s Word, you will speak the truth, and you will speak the truth whether people like it or not. You will speak the truth, because only by speaking the truth will you help them come to the realization of the truth and so be saved. I am sure the Lord Jesus must have offended his brothers, and probably also his mother when he said that at the time. But notice how wonderfully his brothers came to God. His brother, James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem at a later time. The Word of God may be uncomfortable to listen to at that time, but it accomplishes its purpose.

To sum up, we do notice this: Only one thing matters in the kingdom of God, and that is to do God’s will. And I have been at pains to expound to you that doing God’s will is not a matter of external observances of not doing and doing certain things, but it is an inward attitude of heart towards God, and when you have the right attitude of heart, you will do the right things. It’s not just to know God’s will, but most importantly, to do his will.

 

The lesson Mary learns: she must do God’s will continuously

One closing word regarding Mary, the mother of Jesus. We learn another lesson: Mary is honored, and we will honor Mary, not because she is Jesus’ mother by the flesh, but because Mary was one who did God’s will. Think about that precious passage in Luke 1:38 when God’s Spirit came upon Mary, and she conceived of the Holy Spirit, and brought forth the Lord Jesus: “Be it done to me, according to your word. Behold, I am your handmaid.” There is the obedience to do God’s will even at the cost of her reputation. She was going to be misunderstood. She would be accused by ignorant people, perhaps even accused of fornication, of adultery. But she said, “Be it done to me according to your will.” Mary was a person who obeyed God’s will.

But the lesson to us is this: you may be obedient to God’s will in one particular thing, but you may forget to be obedient in another. It was not very nice of Mary at this particular time to interrupt the Lord in his teaching. She had to be reminded that doing God’s will once was not sufficient. It is a continuing doing of God’s will. And we all have to remember that.

Those who were baptized a few weeks ago were doing God’s will. They were baptized in obedience to God, committing their lives totally to him, and we praise God for that obedience. But don’t sit back now and say, “You see, I was obedient to God. Now I’m okay for the rest of my life!” No, no, not so fast. Obedience to God is a continuing process. You have just begun; you are on the road now and must keep going. Mary had to learn that lesson too. She was wonderfully obedient to God once, but what was she doing now interrupting the Lord when he was preaching God’s Word, doing God’s work? She had to remember to keep on doing God’s will.

Therefore, we find the preciousness of so many lessons concerning the will of God. The Lord Jesus has said in these few verses every­thing that is important for us to know about God’s will. Did you ever know there are such riches in these few verses? Such is the abun­dance of riches in the teaching of the Lord Jesus that it springs forth like a river!

 

You will be saved only by doing God’s will

In conclusion, ask yourself again, and let me also ask myself: Are we truly obedient to God’s will? Do we now realize that this is the only thing that matters?