# Witness Lee

Witness Lee (Chinese: 李常受; pinyin: Lǐ Chángshòu; 1905 – June 9, 1997) was a Chinese Christian preacher and hymnist belonging to the Christian group known as the local churches (or Local Church) in Taiwan and the United States.

## Quotes

* "Each human being is a totality of the human life."
          - The Vital Groups, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-1-57593-815-8
* "Patience is not passivity; it is aggressiveness without anxiety."
          - Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9
* "To be slow is to miss a present opportunity, whereas to be patient is to anticipate a coming opportunity."
          - Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9
* "Whether a matter is great or small, its importance and weight depend on whose hands it is in."
          - Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9
* "Faults invariably exist among the good, and merit among faults."
          - Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9
* "Never neglect your daily living, for it builds up your habits."
          - Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9
* "Being slow means not acting when there is time to act, whereas being stable means allowing time to do its work."
          - Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9
* "The highest morality is one in which divinity is added to our humanity. This is the divine attributes of God expressed in the created virtues of man."
          - The Glorious Vision and the Way of the Cross, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-479-0
* "Holiness is the manner of this life that enjoys the divine nature to the uttermost."
          - God's New Testament Economy, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-199-7
* "God is embodied and expressed in Christ (John 1:1, 14; 1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9), and Christ is realized and experienced as the Spirit (John 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:10; Phil. 1:19). The Spirit is the very constituent of the church which is the Body of Christ, His fullness (Eph. 1:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:12). Now the Body of Christ is expressed in all the local churches, for the local churches are the expressions of the universal church (1:11-12). The local churches are the expression of the Body, the Body is the realization of Christ as the life-giving Spirit, and Christ is the embodiment of God."
          - Life-Study of Revelation, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-7363-0657-7
* "The second generation did not pass through as much as the first generation did, but they received the benefit of what the first generation experienced."
          - Life-study of Numbers - p. 368, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-7363-0039-1
* "The more spiritual we become, the more normal and human we will be."
          - Life-study of Ezekiel - p. 52, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-7363-0755-9
* "Efforts at self-vindication are a sign of their selfcondemnation."
          - Life-study of Titus - p. 50, of Witness Lee - BY Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-87083-155-0
* "Some have criticized Paul for not trying to reform the social system. We realize, however, that Paul used the worst social system as an opportunity to charge the believers to live a Jesusly human life in the midst of it. If the saints could live such a human life in the worst social system imaginable, then we should be able to live such a life in any kind of circumstances today. (...) by the divine life we can have the highest human living even in the worst social system!"
          - Life-Study of 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon, Chapter 24, Section 1, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, http://www.ministrybooks.org
* "Money is not in the realm of God. Money is outside the kingdom of God; it is in the world of Satan. Therefore, money is unrighteous both in position and existence. Actually, as far as God is concerned, money should not exist. In this universe there should not be such a thing as money. If we love money, we love something that should not exist."
          - Life-Study of Luke, Chapter 36 Section 2, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-7363-1202-1
* "If we are short of grace and lack the wisdom to handle a particular situation, we may need to be silent. But we must never be political."
          - Life-Study of Galatians, message 6, section 1, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-7363-0961-6
* "Religion is to do something for God, to worship God, yet without [God]. Now I would add something more to this definition of religion. When we say something is religion, we also mean that you have more than one way to live in your human living. In one of the ways for living, you don't apply the spiritual teachings to your life. You live a life without God. You just live it by yourself.... As long as you make a spiritual thing only a section of your daily living and not your whole daily living, that is a performance. That is religion."
          - Perfecting Training, Chapter 54, Section 1, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-87083-518-1
* "All religions lead to hypocrisy. Nowhere is hypocrisy more prevailing than in religion. Religion is a field, a realm, for hypocrisy to prevail."
          - Life-Study of Luke, Chapter 29, Section 2, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-7363-1202-1
* "Religion is much used by the usurper to keep God’s chosen people under his oppression."
          - Life-Study of Luke, Chapter 31, Section 2, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-7363-1202-1
* "Human religion is always like this: it begins by serving God and it ends by killing people."
          - Life-Study of Genesis, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-7363-0836-9

## External links

Encyclopedic article on Witness Lee on Wikipedia