Language of Judah

Ne 13:23In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab;
Ne 13:24And as for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod; and none of them could speak the language of Judah, but they spoke the language of the respective peoples.
Ne 13:25And I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair; and I made them swear by God, saying, You shall not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

When the chosen people of God under captivity for seventy years returned back to Jerusalem their being was just like that of the Babylonians. Except for the fact that they were the children of Isreal, all their inward constitutions and outward behavior were Babylonians. The degradation was to the extent that they even forgot their own language, the language of Judah. What is this language of Judah in today's Christian life? It is the spiritual "culture" we live out in church life today. The practice of the church life is the language of Judah that we speak. This is how we communicate with one another and this is also how we define the truth the Lord has revealed to us. Perhaps, this is also the way we fellowship and go on in our Christian life for the church life. The following is an excerpt from Br. Witness Lee's ministry concerning the new language, the language of Judah.

In the new language of the Lord’s recovery,…incarnation means that God brought Himself into man, mingled His divinity with humanity, and made God and man one entity. This is the new language. To understand that God became a man is easy, but it is more difficult to understand that God brought Himself into man and mingled His divinity with humanity. The mingling of divinity and humanity is the highest interpretation of incarnation. If our understanding of incarnation does not reach this height, we do not know it well…Incarnation means that God mingles Himself with man, making Himself one entity with man. This is deeper than saying that God became a man. 

There are many examples like this of the new language. The highest definition of regeneration is that God has regenerated His people with His divine life, grafting His divine life with the human life to have one living (Rom. 11:17). To be renewed
is to have our mind changed to be Christ’s mind (1 Cor. 2:16; Phil. 2:5). Christ’s mind with the mingled spirit penetrates our mind, making our spirit the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23)…Our spirit is the center of our being, and our soul, the main part of which is our mind, surrounds our spirit. In regeneration the Spirit comes into our spirit to be one with our spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). From that time on, the Spirit, who is mingled with our spirit as one, is waiting for the opportunity to spread into our mind, that is, into our soul. This is renewing according to the new language. 

We all must learn to pick up this new language in the Lord’s recovery…The Lord’s recovery is a new culture. I hope that all the saints will enter into the new vocabulary, the new language and utterance, of this new culture. (CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 4, pp. 38-39)

I was very much touched when I came across this portion of the ministry. On the one hand, it was a reminder of what kind of church life I have been living, and on the other hand, it was a warning not to forget my spiritual mother tongue, the language of Judah. This language also includes the culture we have been living out in the church life, which I emphasize again and again; the daily morning revival, the daily Bible reading, the daily personal prayer life, and the corporate prayer life of the church or the family. It also includes the shepherding of the saints and new ones, the preaching of the gospel, and participation in training, conferences, and blending meetings. All these comprise the language of Judah.

One Lord's day, I shared the burden on the need to speak the language of Judah to all the saints. We should not and must not forget this spiritual language. This is our lingua franca of the church life. This language must be spoken among ourselves and also be taught to all the children of God. This speaking-living of the language of Judah will enable us to grow in life, blend with one another, and build up with one another for the building up of the Body of  Christ. It is also this language that will prepare the Bride of Christ and bring the Lord Jesus back for the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose.

May we always speak the language of Judah and teach others as well.