Be Thou Supreme
Hymn: “Be Thou Supreme”
“Be Thou Supreme.” This is not because we have come to realize our own emptiness and having no other choice, reluctantly allow the Lord to be Lord. Neither is it because we have failed to accomplish the desires arising from our own lusts and therefore have no choice but to let Him take charge. On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the Jews that this Jesus, whom they had crucified, had already been exalted by God. Peter declared, “God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (cf. Acts 2:33, 36). Colossians 1:18 says, “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” The fact of His supremacy cannot be changed by anyone, nor can anyone or anything be compared with Him. This fact is absolute. Whether you agree or disagree, whether you accept it or reject it, whether you are able to experience it or not, He is supreme; He is Lord; He is Christ. He is unique; He is the only One. He is not merely the greatest among many great persons, things, or matters. His supremacy proceeds from His absolute uniqueness and exclusiveness. He is the one Lord and the only Christ. His position is beyond all comparison, and no person, matter, or thing can change this fact. We may then ask, since this is already an established and unchangeable fact, why do we still sing, “Be Thou Supreme”? It is because this prayer, “Be Thou Supreme,” has everything to do with us—with the very persons that we are.
What relationship does His supremacy have with us as persons? His supremacy is an eternal and unchanging fact. However, when this fact is to become a reality in our own lives, it encounters a fundamental problem within man, and that problem is sin. This sin is not merely a matter of the wrong things we have done. More fundamentally, it is that we are unwilling to let God be Lord and instead desire to be supreme ourselves. In Romans 7, Paul speaks of “sin that dwelleth in me.” How, then, does this sin manifest itself within man? If we return to the original fall of man, we can see an extremely fundamental problem: man was no longer content to let God be Lord, but wanted to be like God and take charge of himself. In the Garden of Eden, man's sin was his desire to be as great as God. Man's sin was that he did not want God, but wanted to be like God. This was Satan's temptation to man: “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). We believe this was also what Eve desired in her heart. Thus, her own lust coincided perfectly with Satan's proposal. This is the very sin that now dwells within man.
The greatest problem between God and us is ourselves—the self that seeks to dominate, that is proud and self-exalting. Without the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, we are unwilling to acknowledge this. We think, “I have resources and experience. What is wrong with making decisions about my life according to my resources and experience? I make preparations for the future because, as the saying goes, if a man fails to plan ahead, he will soon face troubles. What is wrong with that? I feel financially constrained, and my circumstances are unfavorable, so I make appropriate adjustments to my life according to the situation before me. As another saying goes, if the mountain will not move, find another road; if the road will not change, then I must change myself. I cannot control my circumstances or environment, so I learn to adapt. This is the way of survival; this is the wisdom of life. What could possibly be wrong with that?” All these responses sound reasonable. Almost everyone lives this way, including most Christians. But have we noticed that, in the midst of all these things, there is one most important and crucial question: “Who is supreme—God or I?” This is precisely how the hymn begins: “Be Thou Supreme.”
Because we have been deceived by our own lusts, the immediate necessities of life have blinded the eyes of our hearts. We think that our lives are full of problems, and because we believe we have the ability to solve them, we attempt to deal with them ourselves. The result is problem upon problem and confusion upon confusion. But if we have light from God, we will see that, in all matters concerning our existence and daily living, there is really only one fundamental question: Who is supreme?
From the very beginning of His creation of man, God established the proper relationship between Himself and man. In the Garden of Eden, God was supreme. He was the one God, the only One. His position was never a matter for debate until Eve entertained the serpent's proposal and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From that moment, man began to desire to be like God and to take charge of himself. Thank the Lord, as we gather here today to break bread in remembrance of Him, we see that God, according to His unchanging purpose and unceasing love, has come through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to restore the original relationship that ought to exist between God and man, and between man and God. The greatest obstacle to this restoration is the self. Therefore, the first stanza of the hymn tells us that through the cross of Christ, we die to ourselves—to the self that desires to be supreme—and live wholly unto the Lord. (The Chinese rendering, “to live wholly for Thee,” should more accurately express the meaning, “to live wholly unto Thee.”)
If we look at our lives from this perspective, many of the Lord's words will become clear to us. Without this perspective, we may feel that the Bible speaks of far too many things. As far as we ourselves are concerned, there is the problem of sin, the problem of conscience, the problem of the world, and the problem of Satan. Then there is the problem of our old man—and what a troublesome old man he is! Within all this, there is also the self, the natural man, the soul, and the flesh. If we do not have a vision from God, then when we begin to study these matters, in our attempt to grasp the truths of the Bible, these truths, after passing through us, become doctrines, words, and empty forms. Everything seems to be related to the Bible and to God, yet we have failed to touch the very center of the whole problem. What is the center of the whole problem? It is this: “Who is supreme?” If we have such a vision, then in our daily lives, and in every circumstance the Lord has measured out to us, we will naturally ask: Who is supreme? Who is Lord? If this fundamental question of “who is supreme” has not been settled, then even if many brothers and sisters come to help us, including those who have gone before us in the Lord, their exhortations and fellowship will have difficulty producing any real effect in us. Others can help us know the Lord, but they cannot magnify the Lord in our place. If He is Lord, if He is supreme, then when we look again at our lives, everything becomes very clear.
So who is it that contends with God for supremacy? It is the self—it is we ourselves. We often attribute our failures to Satan without realizing that many of Satan's temptations are effective in us precisely because there is still a self within us that desires to be supreme. If we can truly magnify the Lord and no longer allow the self to occupy His place, Satan will lose his opportunity to gain an advantage over us. If we exalt the Lord's name every day and acknowledge His supremacy, Satan will have no foothold or beachhead in us. If there are still certain matters, certain people, or certain hopes of ours that we can place alongside the Lord, compare with Him, or regard as being on the same level as Him, we will find ourselves living under pressure and anxiety. “Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god” (Ps. 16:4). We must acknowledge that in far too many matters we have placed ourselves above the Lord and have taken charge of our own lives. This has brought about many problems.
In the chorus of the hymn we see that the first issue in our relationship with the Lord concerns His living word to us. The words He speaks to us are spirit and life. However, when we desire to be supreme and seek to take control of His word, that very word which is spirit and life becomes doctrines, words, and empty forms. We place ourselves above the word. We interpret it and take possession of it, rather than placing ourselves under it. We are no longer in the position of saying, “Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth” (1 Sam. 3:9–10). Mary first said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38). Then she said, “My soul doth magnify the Lord” (Luke 1:46). We see that Mary's magnifying of the Lord was not merely praise from her lips; it was also her obedience to His word. The word comes not only to reveal God, but also to expose our condition. It not only reveals God's intention to us, but also lays bare where we really stand and what we are thinking. If the Lord's word is not living and powerful to us, and does not accomplish its purpose of revelation and enlightenment, then God's word will naturally become doctrines, words, and empty forms in us. At most, we may receive it with joy when we hear it and be moved for a moment, but it will bear no fruit.
The first issue between God and us is the matter of our food—what gives us life and what sustains our life. The Lord said, “He that eateth me, even he shall live by me” (John 6:57). What do we eat? The Lord also said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” When we put these two verses together, we see that the Lord's words are spirit and life. By receiving His living word, we come into contact with the Lord Himself, receive Him as our life supply, and live because of Him. The first matter in which the Lord must be supreme is what we eat. What exactly are we feeding upon? If, in the Lord's word, we cannot receive the Lord Himself and acknowledge His supremacy, then it is still we ourselves who are supreme.
Recently, we have often reminded the brothers and sisters that when it comes to the Lord's word, we are not to manufacture something to say or compose a message of our own. Rather, we are to learn to speak what the Lord has given us. Only when we have a genuine inward sense, a real seeing, or even some experience should we learn to express it. “For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:45). If a person is truly filled with joy in his heart, he does not need to seek an elaborate way to express it. Others can see from his expression that he is full of joy. But if a person has no joy in his heart, yet tries to explain joy, define joy, or even preach joy, you will find that his smile is forced. His smile does not come from within; it is a performance. He may be able to tell you how many degrees the corners of the mouth should rise to produce a genuine smile. He may even use big data to analyze which kind of smile is the most beautiful and attractive. Yet there is no genuine joy in his heart. Because he knows that he ought to rejoice always, smiling becomes for him a matter of doctrines, words, and empty forms. What he says outwardly may be correct, and what he attempts to demonstrate may also be correct, but he does not have the Lord's living and genuine life within him as his inward content and reality.
The hymn first tells us that if the Lord's word—the word upon which we depend for our existence, the word through which we feed upon Him and live because of Him—has become doctrines, words, and empty forms, this indicates that we are still exalting ourselves and living by ourselves. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Therefore, the first test of who is supreme concerns what we eat, what gives us life, and what we are actually living by.
We need to pay attention to our relationship with the Lord's word. Is He supreme in His word, so that He is still speaking to us? Is He the living Lord? Is He the one and only One to whom we must listen and in whom we must believe? Why do we so often listen to one person and then another? It reveals that we ourselves are supreme. We have made ourselves the judges. We decide, “This person speaks well; that person does not. This one is right; that one is wrong.” But on what basis do we make these judgments? Do we judge according to our own lusts, according to our own preferences, or according to what everyone else is saying and doing?
Recently, we have repeatedly reminded the brothers and sisters to be especially careful about one thing. In the church, we teach our children to love others as themselves and to love their neighbors as themselves. Yet in our actual education and upbringing of our children, we may unconsciously instill in them the world's ideas of competition and comparison. We teach them to love others, while at the same time making them feel that they must surpass everyone else in everything and must not fall behind at the starting line. How can these two entirely different principles of life be brought together? Think about it. If you were that child, how would you deal with a life in which one thing is taught but something entirely different is practiced? This is the confusion we bring upon our children when we make our judgments according to what everyone else is saying and doing. In receiving the Lord's word, we should not compromise His word merely to accommodate ourselves. We need to acknowledge the Lord's supremacy, allow His word to enlighten us and deal with us, and let the Lord Himself accomplish the work He desires to do in us.
The second issue concerning “Who is supreme?” relates to our relationships with one another. Here the hymn writer brings up “human gatherings” and “worldly love” and contrasts them with the Lord's supremacy, His uniqueness, and His being the only One. The church should not be filled with human relationships and worldly ways of dealing with people, nor merely with human kindness and good intentions. A “human gathering” is an assembly organized by man, centered upon man, and intended to meet human needs. The hymn writer came from an Anglican background. The expression “human gatherings” was introduced in a later revision of the hymn. Originally, the writer used the term “Anglican Church,” referring to the Church of England. In the writer's eyes, even such a vast organization, supported by the British Empire upon which the sun was said never to set, could not be compared with the Lord Jesus. Likewise, the original expression was “human love,” which was later changed to “worldly love.” In other words, no matter how abundant the resources of this earth may be, how well organized and efficient political institutions may be, or how touching human love may appear, none of these can be placed alongside the Lord or compared with Him.
The church is the gathering, in the Lord's name, of those who have been regenerated and called by Him. Because they have fellowship with the Lord in His life, they also live because of Him. This is the unique and highest relationship among the brothers and sisters in the church. We do not have a direct relationship with one another; our relationship with the brothers and sisters is an indirect one. Why do we say it is indirect? Because we come from Him and live because of Him. We have the Lord, and He is the Head of the Body. It is only under His headship that we have a relationship with one another. Without Christ as the Head, there can be no genuine relationship of life among the members of the Body of Christ. This does not mean that we do not need fellowship, mutual love, or care for one another. Rather, all our fellowship, love, and care must be through Christ the Head. They all come from Him and exist under His headship. If we attempt to establish relationships with one another apart from the headship of Christ, those relationships become social relationships, or even relationships of the flesh. They are not genuine relationships among the members of the Body of Christ. That is not the church. Therefore, in all our fellowship, interactions, and relationships with the brothers and sisters, He must be supreme. He is unique; He is the only One. No person, matter, or thing can be compared with Him as the Head.
In reading the Lord's word and having fellowship with Him through His word, He must be supreme. Likewise, in our relationships and interactions with the brothers and sisters, He must also be supreme. We must examine our relationships with the brothers and sisters in the light of the judgment seat of Christ. Are our views of the brothers and sisters our own views, or are they the Lord's views? Are our feelings toward them our own feelings, or are they the Lord's feelings? Even our love for the brothers and sisters—is it our own love, or is it the Lord's love? I believe that after we have been regenerated and have spent some time in the church life, these things will eventually be exposed. Have you ever loved a brother or a sister so much that you became terribly angry with that person? You felt, “I have treated you so well, and yet you dare to speak about me like that!” Then you know that your love was your own natural love, don't you? If that love were the Lord's love, if it came from Him, it would be like the relationship between the left hand and the right hand. The left hand loves the right hand, and after loving it, simply forgets about it. Isn't that so? If Christ is the Head and we acknowledge His supremacy, this is how it should naturally be. Why do you love that brother or sister? Because Christ, the Head, loves that person, and therefore you also love that person. It becomes something entirely natural. May the Lord open our eyes to see that “human gatherings and worldly love” cannot be compared with Him.
“Be Thou Supreme” first concerns our relationship with the Lord's word. Second, it is manifested in our relationships with the brothers and sisters. What is the greatest obstacle in both matters? It is the self, which must die through the cross. When we die to ourselves and have a proper relationship with the Lord in these two matters, we can then begin to experience what is expressed in the following stanzas of the hymn.
The first thing we need to experience is the filling of our entire being. Brothers and sisters, if you can come to the morning watch every day and come before the Lord together with the brothers and sisters to be filled with Him, this will be a tremendous deliverance for every one of us. Of course, if you are able to live before the Lord and be filled with Him on your own, that is exceedingly wonderful. When the Lord fills us, so that “there is not one part untouched by the Lord, not one part unmoved by Him,” what a blessed condition that is! As for myself, joining the brothers and sisters in the morning watch has been a tremendous preservation and blessing. However, if you cannot come to the morning watch every day, then at the very least, whenever you come to the Lord's Table meeting, you should open yourself and allow the Lord's love to fill you once again. Do not come without being filled with the Lord. If we merely attend a meeting without being filled with Him, then all our coming and going will have been in vain.
Many times, we are like a bottle. What prevents a bottle from being filled? It is our self. Why can nothing be poured into the bottle? Either it is not open because its cap is still on, or it is already full. When God created us, He intended that our mind, emotion, and will—all the faculties of our heart—should be filled with Him. If we truly open ourselves and He does not fill us, then He would be unfaithful and would have failed to keep His word. But the problem is certainly not on God's side. God is faithful. The problem is not with the Lord; it is with us. We have not opened ourselves completely. Our openness is conditional. It is not an openness that acknowledges the Lord's supremacy, and such an openness is not genuine. If we come with our own thoughts, assumptions, and expectations, God cannot accomplish in us the work He desires to do. However, if we can open ourselves completely to Him and sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts, acknowledging His supremacy, then He will surely fill our entire being according to His promise.
If He is supreme, yet we are unwilling to allow Him to fill our entire being, have we ever considered what the consequences will be? He is the one and only way through whom we can come to the Father. His name is the only name by which we can be saved. If we eat Him, we shall live because of Him. If He cannot be supreme in us, what do you think the consequences will be? Why are our lives so confused and disorderly? It is because we are filled with Him far too infrequently. Not only that, our capacity to be filled is also far too small. Our problem is not merely that we have a veil or a lid covering us, preventing us from being open. Our problem is also that our hearts are often already filled and occupied with all kinds of lusts.
I once saw a crystal wineglass displayed in a cabinet. It was beautifully made. But the glass was solid. It was indeed shaped like a crystal wineglass, yet its interior was completely solid, with only a very shallow indentation at the top. It simply stood there on display. Brothers and sisters, we are often like that crystal glass. Outwardly, we look very beautiful, but inwardly, we are solid, with no room at all to contain anything. God created us to be vessels to contain Him, so that He Himself could fill us. Yet our inward being is so often occupied by our own thoughts, preferences, plans, and lusts that the Lord has very little place in us. Outwardly, everything may look fine, but inwardly, there is no richness of the Lord's life. It is not that the Lord is unwilling to fill us; it is that we have left no room for Him.
Brothers and sisters, as we come before the bread and the cup, we need to consider: Is Christ supreme, or am I supreme? What about all the faculties of my heart—my thoughts, my affections, my choices, and my judgments? Are they what they are because the Lord Jesus is supreme and has filled me, or because I myself am supreme and filled with my own lusts?
Why do we need to be filled? Because if He cannot fill us, He cannot change us. His life will have no way to transform us. We cannot continually speak about being saturated while our entire being has never been filled with the Lord. The prerequisite for saturation is first to be filled; the prerequisite for transformation is also first to be filled. We need first to open ourselves to the Lord and allow Him to fill us. Furthermore, we should not be filled with Him merely occasionally. Rather, we need to live continually in His fullness, allowing His life to saturate and transform us without ceasing, so that we may gradually manifest His beauty. Therefore, in the third stanza of the hymn, in the context of our entire being being filled with the Lord, the writer expresses a longing—to be transformed unto completeness. We desire not only that, when filled with the Lord, our thoughts would be like His thoughts and our preferences like His preferences. Even more, we long that “through this veil (our weak flesh), Thy beauty may be manifested.” When that beauty appears, “Be Thou Supreme” will no longer be merely a slogan, a wish, or a prayer. When others can see the beauty of Christ manifested through a person, “Be Thou Supreme” has become something real and visible in that person. It is not only seen by others but also bears a testimony that convinces them, and God is thereby glorified.
Sometimes we are puzzled. Why is it that a Christian may attend meetings week after week—one week, two weeks, three weeks, coming to the meetings every week—yet hardly anything of the Lord enters into him, much less fills his entire being? What is the result of attending meetings in such a way? There is no change. That person has not been transformed. When situations arise, he still responds according to his natural disposition. His heart is turned aside toward evil, and he has lost the simplicity and purity that are in Christ. His heart and ears remain uncircumcised. His heart is not filled with the Lord, while his ears remain open to the world.
He raises his children in exactly the same way as the people of the world. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it is with him. He continually thinks that his children need to broaden their horizons, develop ambitions to go far in the world, and make sure they do not fall behind at the starting line. Yet he fails to see that the problems within his own inner world have not been resolved, nor have the problems within his children's inner world. And still he wants his children to go out and broaden their horizons! Even as parents, we do not clearly understand God's purpose in creating man, yet we make arrangements for our children and send them out to broaden their horizons. We always think that our children must not be so limited in knowledge and experience. But we have been deceived by sin and by our own lusts, so that we cannot see that what our children truly need is this: “Be Thou Supreme.”
I know a brother who grew up in the church from childhood, yet he learned far more than many people of his own age. We should not always assume that children who grow up in the church know only how to say “Amen.” This brother said that whenever he was filled with the Lord, he became full of interest in the universe and the world God had created. His interests extended from astronomy to geography; from mathematics, physics, and chemistry to the natural sciences; from biology and medicine to the humanities and the development of human nature; from the social sciences and human relationships to the acquisition and distribution of resources, economics, and trade; and from art, music, and literature to drama, novels, and poetry. He was interested in learning about all these things. On one occasion, this brother was having a conversation with a believer who had graduated with a degree in Chinese literature. The believer spoke about his studies, and the brother also shared something of his own learning. Eventually, the believer asked, “Brother, that's interesting. What did you study? How is it that you know so much about Chinese literature?” Brothers and sisters, this example shows us that if we truly allow the Lord to be Lord, to fill us, and to transform us, we will not become narrow-minded because we believe in Him. On the contrary, because we are joined to this rich and infinite Lord, our vision, our capacity of heart, and our understanding of God's creation will continually be enlarged. Although we still live within the limitations of time and space, through Him we are able to know and experience the riches that belong to eternity.
To let the Lord be supreme is not to suffer a loss. However, when we are among people in the world or among our colleagues, if we say that we are willing to let our colleagues take precedence over us, then we have to listen to them, and we may feel that we are suffering a loss. We think, “I have a higher degree than you. My salary is higher than yours. My job title is higher than yours. In every respect, my qualifications are better than yours. Why should I learn from you?” There was once a brother who encountered exactly this situation. He almost could not get through it; he almost could not swallow his pride. Later, however, he had an inward sense, and he obeyed that inward sense. He acknowledged the Lord's supremacy and humbled himself to learn from the other person. In such a situation, outwardly it appeared that the brother was lowering himself to learn from someone else. But inwardly, it was the Lord's life teaching him, and he was acknowledging the Lord's supremacy. Someone else knows how to use a certain tool, while you do not. No matter how highly educated you are, your education is of no use in that situation. Because you acknowledge the Lord's supremacy, you follow the leading of His life and learn from that person. “Be Thou Supreme” is not a loss. It is to gain the Lord Himself and to experience Christ as life.
Sometimes, we do not take the Lord's life as our life. Yet because of some practical necessity, we grit our teeth, endure the situation, and reluctantly learn from someone else. But inwardly, we are thinking, “Once I have learned the skills you possess, I will use those skills to surpass you in the future.” This is the sinful thinking of man. Outwardly, both people may appear to be learning, but there is a great difference between one kind of learning and another. “Be Thou Supreme” is not like that. After we have learned from someone, when we later encounter another person who does not know how to do it, we will naturally teach that person. “Those who have are for those who do not have, and those who came earlier are for those who come later.” This is life. This is the Lord's life. This is what it means to say, “Be Thou Supreme.”
Therefore, we need to live a life of being filled with the Lord every day. When the Lord works within us, on the one hand, He reveals Himself to us in our spirit; on the other hand, He also enlightens us, enabling us to see how the natural thoughts, emotions, and will in our soul are contrary to His intention. Through such enlightenment and dealings, His life continually transforms us, gradually conforming us to His image. Eventually, the beauty of Christ can be manifested through us, though we are weak and limited human beings. We say, “Be Thou Supreme,” because we have seen His works and have also come to know His ways. Our hearts truly desire to say to the Lord, “Be Thou Supreme!” We willingly cease to live unto ourselves. We no longer determine the course of our lives according to our own preferences and desires, but gladly become the Lord's bondservants and obey His will. From man's perspective, this may appear to be a loss of freedom. But in reality, when we are no longer under the bondage of the self and our own lusts, and instead allow the Lord to reign in us, we obtain true freedom. This is a pathway full of glorious hope. We know that when God created us, He had already determined the value and meaning of our existence: that we should live only to express Him and bear witness to Him. Although we are merely created beings, through receiving Christ as our life, we are able to live according to God's eternal purpose, gradually being conformed in life to the image of His Son, expressing Him and bearing witness to Him. This is the meaning of the Christian life. “Be Thou Supreme! O Lord Jesus!”