Watchman Nee / Witness Lee — Anthropology
b5 — Basic Elements of Christian Life, Volume 3
Trichotomy: Spirit, Soul, and Body (Eph. 3:16)
Lee establishes trichotomy as a fact of creation and as the framework for Paul’s prayer in Eph. 3:14-19:
“We know that God has created man with three parts—the spirit, the soul, and the body. If I were to ask, ‘According to your own understanding, which part is the strongest?’ I believe that everyone who is honest would say that the soul is the strongest, because the soul is the very self. The soul also is of three parts—the mind, the emotion, and the will.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 30
The inner man — the human spirit — is by contrast very weak:
“We are very strong in the mind, and our spirit is very, very weak. It is easy to prove this. If we were to have a time of discussion, everyone would talk, because our minds are so strong and active. But if someone says, ‘Let us pray,’ everyone will be silent. Immediately the room will become as silent as a cemetery. The reason for our silence is that we are weak in the inner man—that is, we are weak in the spirit.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 30
Interpretation: Lee uses trichotomy not as an abstract dogma but as an explanation of experiential reality: the soul dominates, the spirit is weakened. Eph. 3:16 — “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (KJV) — is therefore a central prayer: the spirit must be strengthened.
The Human Spirit as Receiving Organ: the Light-Bulb Filament Metaphor
Lee explains the creational purpose of the human spirit through a concrete metaphor:
“The human spirit is just like the element of a light bulb. Without the element in the bulb, the bulb cannot receive electricity. The bulb must have the element within to be the recipient or the receiver of the electricity, and it is also that same element which enables the bulb to express the electricity.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 25
This leads Lee to an anthropological conclusion about the purpose of the human spirit:
“We are the containers made by God; therefore, He purposely created a spirit within us in order to receive Him, to keep Him, and to express Him. God in Christ as the Holy Spirit spreads Himself outward from our spirit to all the parts of our being.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 25
Interpretation: The human spirit is not an independent entity but a God-designed receiving organ. God does not work from the outside inward, but from the human spirit outward — conscience, mind, emotion, will, and eventually the whole being are saturated from the spirit.
The Soul as the “Self”: Mind, Emotion, and Will
Lee characterizes the soul as the actual self of man and names its tripartite composition:
“The soul is the very self. The soul also is of three parts—the mind, the emotion, and the will. Now of the three parts of the soul, which is the strongest? I think we all would agree that the strongest part is the mind.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 30
The overpowering mind stands in tension with the weak spirit:
“Our mind has been overdeveloped, yet we still continue to develop it. When any cell of the body is overdeveloped, it becomes a cancer, which brings in death.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 30
Interpretation: Lee’s anthropology contains a hierarchical functional tension: the soul (and its strongest part, the mind) dominates, while the spirit — the actual meeting-place with God — is weakened. This is not the creational ideal but the actual condition of the unregenerate or insufficiently exercised person.
The Heart as Gateway of the Spirit: Conscience, Mind, Emotion, and Will
Lee carefully distinguishes the heart from the spirit and describes its functional composition:
“The heart is composed of all the parts of the soul and one of the parts of the spirit, the conscience. Therefore, the heart includes the mind, emotion, and will, plus the conscience.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 27-28
And the relation of the heart to the spirit:
“The mind and the conscience are the two main parts of the heart. And since the heart surrounds the spirit, it is the very gateway of the spirit.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 31
Christ dwells in the spirit but seeks to make His home in the heart (Eph. 3:17):
“Christ is now in our spirit, but He is seeking to make His home in our heart. Then we will be filled unto all the fullness of God.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 28
Interpretation: Lee introduces a fourfold heart-structure (mind + emotion + will + conscience) that surrounds the spirit but is not identical to it. The conscience is the only part of the spirit that is included in the heart. The heart functions as the gateway: when the heart is opened through repentance and confession, Christ can penetrate from the spirit into the heart.
The Conscience as Part of the Spirit: Repentance and Confession
Lee explicitly connects the conscience to the spirit rather than the soul, and describes its activation:
“In order to exercise our spirit to pray, we must repent. The word repentance in Greek means ‘to turn the mind.’ When we repent by turning our mind away from other things to the Lord, our conscience will be exercised to bear witness where we are wrong and concerning what we specifically need to confess. By repentance we turn our mind to the Lord, and by confession we exercise our conscience.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 30-31
The effect on the whole person:
“When we repent and confess in this way, our emotion will follow with love to the Lord, and our will then will choose to seek the Lord. This means that the whole heart is exercised and opened so that the spirit is free to receive more of Christ.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 31
Interpretation: The sequence is: (1) mind turns toward God (repentance), (2) conscience is exercised through confession, (3) emotion and will follow — (4) the whole heart opens to the spirit. This is Lee’s practical anthropology: the strengthening of the inner man proceeds through the opening of the heart, not through direct spiritual force.
The Spreading of God from the Spirit through the Whole Being
Lee describes the direction of God’s working in man as from the spirit outward, not from outside inward:
“God does not work from the outside, in an inward direction into man, but from man’s spirit He spreads Himself outward in order to permeate and saturate all of man’s inward parts. He will saturate the conscience, the mind, the emotion, the will, and eventually our whole being.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 25
And the eschatological dimension of bodily redemption:
“When God came into our spirit, we received the birth of life; and by His spreading from our spirit through our whole being, we will obtain the growth of life to full maturity. Even the body will be transfigured at the time of the full sonship.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 2, p. 25
Interpretation: The body is not the endpoint but the last part to be reached. Salvation begins in the spirit, proceeds through the heart/soul, and ends with the glorification of the body. This is a three-stage anthropology consistent with b2 and b3 (The Economy of God and BXL1).
The Life-Principle vs. the Right-and-Wrong Principle: the Inner Life as the Standard
In chapter 1, Lee presents an anthropological axiom about the nature of Christian living, based on the two trees in Gen. 2:
“Christianity is not a matter of asking whether something is right or wrong. Christianity is a matter of checking with the life inside us whenever we do something. What does the new life which God has given us tell us inwardly about this matter?”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 1, p. 11
The norm is not external but internal:
“Whatever increases the inner life is right, and whatever decreases the inner life is wrong. No one should determine whether a matter is right or wrong by some outward standard.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 1, p. 16
And the connection to the inner organ:
“The standard for Christian living is no longer the law, nor is it the prophets. The standard for Christian living is now Christ Himself; it is the indwelling Christ within us. Therefore, it is not a question of whether we are right or wrong but of whether or not the divine life in us agrees with something.”
— Basic Elements of Christian Life, Vol. 3, ch. 1, p. 17
Interpretation: Lee’s ‘life-principle’ is a functional-anthropological claim: the human spirit — as the organ that has received the life of God — is the direct norm for living and action. This builds on b3 (BXL1, ch. 4-5) where Lee described the spirit as the organ for contact with God. In BXL3, Nee develops this as an alternative to both legalism and moral self-assessment.