By TC Lo (盧天賜) on January 12, 2012
[生命] 影响 [生命]
In the context of evangelism and church living, there is a famous aphorism “Life influences Life.” But what does it really mean?
Let me first quote from a book (Ref. 1) in which the author quotes another book penned by Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College. In Kreeft’s book “Three Philosophies of Life” in a subsection titled “Rules for Talking Back,” he writes the following:
Three things must go right with any argument:
1) The terms must be unambiguous.
2) The premises must be true.
3) The argument must be logical.
There word “Life” in the phrase “Life influences Life” appears twice. They can’t mean the same thing. So, let me call the first one “Life-A”, and the second one “Life-B”, just for the sake of clear communication.
To follow the first rule, let me make a clear statement: The Life-A must refer to either the life of Christ Himself or the regenerated lives of Christ’s followers. Why?
Jesus said, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.” So by Jesus’ assertion, it is reasonable to say that Christ is Life-A. In a equally important but lesser degree, Life-A can also be referred to as the born-again life of Christians. If our lives are influenced by Christ, we can influence other lives the way He influences us. This other lives, Life-B, can be either Christians or unbelievers. Quite clear, if Life-A does not refer to Christ or Christians, the phrase “Life influences Life” has no meaning in the framework of Christianity. Do Christians want to be influenced by atheists rather than Christ if Life-A is not what I just defined? (Note)
Now, What about Life-B?
• If Life-B refers to non-Christians, “Life influences Life” refers to evangelism—the Great Commission. When a wounded soldier saw Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War, he said, “I see Christ in you.” Similar remark could be made for Mother Teresa decades later.
• If Life-B refers Christians, “Life influences Life” refers to Church living. Believers are to edify one another, build up one another, and unite with one another in Christ, encourage one another to good work. There are numerous “each other” and “one another” phrases in Paul’s epistles.
There is yet another aspect: If Christ is the living Word of God, the Bible is the written Word of God. It is the God’s Word in two manifestations. There is no ambiguity in this assertion because Apostle John already clarified that “Jesus is the Word (道).” If Life-A refers to the Bible as just explained, it follows that Bible’s reader, Life-B, ought to be influenced by the Word of God. By “Bible’s reader” I am talking about the “first hand” influence, so we are not to read the Bible for other people as a way to influence other’s lives. We read the Bible for ourselves as an effective way to be influenced by God.
Jesus is the author of the concept “Life influences Life”. From Ref.1 page 9, it says:
In John 13 we witness Jesus tenderly washing his disciples’ feet, knowing that only hours later he would be betrayed by one and abandoned by the others of His own disciples on his way to the cross. Jesus said to them:
1) Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:14-15)
This unique parallel construction of linking identical phrases is found four times in the writings of John, who is identifies as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Other three examples are:
2) Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6)
3) This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (1 John 3:16)
4) Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:11)
It seems particularly significant, then, that we first hear this phrase from Jesus immediately upon washing his disciples’ feet, because Jesus is essentially mirroring—by both his words and his actions—what a servant-teacher is.
So this “Jesus did it first so we must be influenced by Him by doing likewise” is the core of “Life influences Life.”
Ref 1. “The Pastor As An Apologist” by Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler; pp.9 and 31.
Note: Sadly, in today’s postmodern time in America, the “Life-influences-Life” is sometimes wrong headed. Christians (Life-B) have been influenced by different kinds of Life-A: The New Age spirituality, secularism, moral relativism, and the obsession with human potential. It is because Christians do not understand what the Life-A ought to be when it comes to the meaning of “Life-influences-Life.”
