The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, volume 3, contains messages given by Brother Witness Lee from April 18 through September 18, 1988. In the first few days of April Brother Lee visited San Jose, California, for two days, and in the second week of April he flew to Taipei, Taiwan, and remained there until early June. He returned to Anaheim, California, and remained there through the third week of July. In the remaining days of July he visited a number of cities in the California Bay Area, including Berkeley, Hayward, San Jose, Los Altos, and San Francisco. In early August he visited Spokane, Washington, and at the end of August he visited Seattle, Washington. In the last few days of August he visited Alhambra, California, and in September he traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia. The contents of this volume are divided into seventeen sections, as follows: 1. Two messages given in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 18 and 25. These messages are included in this volume under the title The Proper Learning and Desire for the Practice of the New Way. 2. A message given in Taipei, Taiwan, on April 27. This message is included in this volume under the title The Reason for Changing the System and the Practice of the New Way. 3. Three messages given in Anaheim, California, on July 8 and 9. These messages were previously published in a book entitled A Timely Word and are included in this volume under the same title. Chapters 2 and 3 were included as chapters 4 and 5 in Elders' Training, Book 9: The Eldership and the God-ordained Way (1) and also appear in The Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1986, volume 3, in a section with the same title. 4. Three messages given in Berkeley, California, on July 22 through 24. These messages were previously published in a book entitled Our Urgent Need--Spirit and Life and are included in this volume under the same title. 5. Seven messages given in Berkeley and Hayward, California, on July 22 through 25. These messages are included in this volume under the title The Local Churches and the Body of Christ. 6. A message given in San Francisco, California, on July 30. This message was previously published in a booklet entitled Treasuring the Teenage Years for the Lord and is included in this volume under the same title. 7. Four messages given in San Jose and San Francisco, California, on July 26 through 31. These messages were translated from Chinese and are included in this volume under the title The Apostles' Relationship with the Churches and Their Perfecting of the Saints. 8. A message given in San Jose, California, on July 27. This message is included in this volume under the title The Need for Revival in the Lord's Recovery through Prayer. 9. Six messages given in Los Altos, San Jose, and San Francisco, California, on July 27 through 31. These messages are included in this volume under the title Building Up the Body in Oneness. Two of the messages were combined into one chapter. 10. Eleven messages given in Spokane, Washington, on August 5 through 7. They are included in this volume under the title Being Perfected to Build Up the Body of Christ. 11. A message given in Seattle, Washington, on August 18. This message is included in this volume under the title Being Trained in Our Character, Our Experience of Life, Our Knowledge of the Truth, and Our Skill of Shepherding to Gain People for the Building Up of the Body of Christ. 12. Five messages given in Seattle, Washington, on August 18 through 21. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Body of Christ and are included in this volume under the same title. 13. Two messages given in Alhambra, California, on August 27 and 28. These messages were translated from Chinese and are included in this volume under the title The Salvation of the Lamb and the Dove. 14. Three messages given in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 2 through 5. They are included in this volume under the title Caring for the Church according to the New Way in the Organic Union with the Lord. 15. Five messages given in Cleveland, Ohio, on September 2 through 5. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Organism of the Triune God in the Organic Union of His Divine Trinity and are included in this volume under the same title. 16. Two messages given in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 16 and 18. They are included in this volume under the title Cooperating with the Lord to Carry Out the Scriptural Way of Meeting and Serving for the Building Up of the Body of Christ. 17. Four messages given in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 16 through 18. These messages were previously published in a book entitled The Building Up of the Body of Christ and are included in this volume under the same title.

At the time of regeneration, all believers receive the divine life and are begotten as children of God. Yet, this life most grow and it does so by regulation unto maturity and function. This regulation comes from revelation and issues in obedience. This word is crucial for our progress and training in the divine life for our maturity and function in our living and service to God.

When God created man, He placed him before two trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. In warning man to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God indicated His desire for man to eat of the tree of life, signifying that man should receive God as his life supply. Witness Lee unveils in The Tree of Life that God is not looking for well-behaved Christians; He is looking for those who will experience and enjoy Christ as the reality of the tree of life.

This book traces "the New Testament service in the Gospel of Matthew from its beginning with the conceiving of Christ of the Holy Spirit, to finding Christ by following the heavenly living star, on to testifying of Christ in a living way, and then to the matter of following Christ. Finally, [it considers] the matter of life and the matter of work in the New Testament service according to the parables of the ten virgins and of the talents. In all these aspects, it is a governing principle in our service in the church life that the New Testament service is a service of coordination in every step to fulfill the Lord's purpose."

Two things are the key to the real experience of [the divine] life: our flesh and our spirit. On the negative side, we have to know the flesh. On the positive side, we have to experience our human spirit, which has been mingled with the divine Spirit (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17).

In the Lord’s recovery during the past five hundred years the church’s knowledge of the Lord and His truth has been continually progressing. This monumental and classical work by Brother Witness Lee builds upon and is a further development of all that the Lord has revealed to His church in the past centuries. It is filled with the revelation concerning the processed Triune God, the living Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the experience of life, and the definition and practice of the church. In this set Brother Lee has kept three basic principles that should rule and govern every believer in their interpretation, development, and expounding of the truths contained in the Scriptures. The first principle is that of the Triune God dispensing Himself into His chosen and redeemed people; the second principle is that we should interpret, develop, and expound the truths contained in the Bible with Christ for the church; and the third governing principle is Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. No other study or exposition of the New Testament conveys the life nourishment or ushers the reader into the divine revelation of God’s holy Word according to His New Testament economy as this one does.

"The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, shows us that God is our enjoyment. God also has His fullness (Eph. 3:19b). He is full for us to enjoy. His fullness is the expression of the riches of Christ, and the reality of Christ is in the Spirit. We know this by the revelation of the Word. The riches of Christ are revealed in the Word. Furthermore, we can realize God as our enjoyment in our spirit (John 4:24)."